This message is about the interpenetration of God and man—what Pentecost is really supposed to mean.
When you Spirit-filled believers prophesy, you can manifest a great deal of zeal, and the words are tremendous; there is a flow. But we want to do more—make bones rattle and armies of the Lord stand up (Ezekiel 37:1–10). This is what we dare to take a step into. But we are not going to make it by backing off timidly; we are going to make it by doing just what we are doing now.
We are learning to draw more of the Lord, to penetrate into Him even more, and then to focus in faith even more.
Whether one person is full of zeal and another is more calm in his approach when he prophesies does not make one bit of difference. Every man moves according to the zeal and the anointing of the Lord that is upon him; zeal is not the issue. The thing we have to see is that to prophesy to someone, first you penetrate into the Spirit and then you penetrate into that person’s spirit.
We are not prophesying just to reveal facts to people. We are prophesying to impart to them from the Lord. The Words of the Lord are not just truths that are unadorned by any thing living. Jesus said, “My Words are Spirit and they are life” (John 6:63). And likewise the words that we speak are to be Spirit and life imparted to the people.
We have prophecy; but now we are going to deepen it.
The levels into which we travel in the days to come will require that. If you let a man go down deep into the ocean without any proper equipment, such as a diving bell, it would not be long before the pressures of the water crushed and killed him. Do you understand why? He does not have built up within him the force and the pressure to withstand the force that is coming against him from the outside. Likewise, we are facing pressures in the days to come; and we had better learn to have a depth in the Spirit and to prophesy in a greater depth, because the days are changing almost faster than we are appropriating new depths in the Lord. We must make haste to get into deeper levels in God.
The days of tribulation, the days of judgment, are directly on us. And you will find that even though the zeal of the Lord is upon you, it will not be enough if you do not get into that penetration into God, until He becomes your fortress, He becomes your strength (II Samuel 22:2–4; Psalm 18:2; Jeremiah 16:19); and you are abiding in the Lord and the Lord is abiding in you. Then you will ask what you wish and it will be done, because the force that you are turning loose in the very words that you speak will be almost beyond what we can describe.
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.” John 15:4, 7.
This is one of the greatest truths of the Feast of Pentecost. We are going to move on all the way to appropriate a deeper level in the Lord than we have had, to prophesy until men are blessed—until we stand up and speak the Word of the Lord and people cannot help but feel the power, feel the impact of it, as we speak that Word and the anointing of the Lord sweeps over them (I Corinthians 14:24–25). This is the thing we are striving for. We have moved to a level that is good; and it demands that we go on to a deeper level. Therefore, when you prophesy, concentrate on the focus of the Word so that it penetrates and imparts a power which people can lay hold of. And when you listen, do not listen just for the ideas and thoughts; but draw the Spirit.
You must have ears to hear what the Spirit is speaking (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). Anyone can put thoughts and ideas together, so that there is an element of comprehension on a human level; but we want an element of appropriation on a divine level. Do you understand the difference in this? Appropriate the Word and say, “Lord, I am going to have this. It is going to go deeper and deeper.”
Prophesy the Word of the Lord. Let it come. This is a time of taking new territory. Keep moving as you have been. So do not hesitate—sing your songs, and praise the Lord, and rejoice in the Lord, and prophesy, all the time drawing from the Lord.
We learned a great deal in the Blessing Services—how to keep our spirit open to the Lord and to one another. That is what we are after; we should ever keep that goal before us. Otherwise, we can accept with almost a finality any particular step or point in our spiritual development and just start circling around that one little area, staying right there. Always be mindful (as we read in Ezekiel chapter 37:1–14) that the army of the Lord will be raised up through prophesying the Word of the Lord. Remember from Revelation chapter 19 that the spirit of prophecy was so great upon this man whom John met, that John fell down at his feet and was ready to worship him. John sensed Christ speaking through that man; he thought it was his Lord speaking. But the man said, “Don’t do it; I am of your brethren.”
“The testimony of Jesus, this testimony that Jesus is bringing through me, is the real spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:9–10).
We want to come to the day in which we are the mouthpiece of Christ speaking to the world. We want to speak the Word of the Lord. We do not want to speak about it; we do not want even too shallow a level of prophecy; instead, we want to come to the place where we are speaking the Word of Christ speaking the Word of the Lord. Always keep that goal before you. We are striving, striving with everything that is within us, to be yielded channels. This means a oneness with the Lord; and it means a real flow out by the Holy Spirit that is going to come forth, a declaration of what God has to say—not about what God has to say, but speaking the Word of the Lord. This is what we desire above everything else.
One good stride into this would make the difference between people finding it hard to get their deliverance and finding a great deal of liberation and deliverance. Go speak the Word of the Lord to them. It would be a matter of walking up to those newly resurrected Lazaruses and loosing them and letting them go—unwrapping their grave clothes and saying, “Let them go free” (John 11:43–44).
It is going to make the difference between not quite having it and really having the level of deliverance we read about in the Scriptures. And this is what I am declaring war on. We are not going to have a great lofty doctrine and the actual appropriation very little. We are not going to talk cream and have skim milk on the table. We are going to talk the truth and exalt it with nothing less than all of our hearts; but we are also going to walk in it all! We are going to appropriate it; we are going to have it in the name of the Lord.
We are not going to have a reasonable facsimile of the level of prophecy that was prophesied to come in the end time (Revelation 10:11; 11:3–6). We are going to prophesy until men cannot stand against the wisdom of God in it. That is the way it was in the days of Stephen, and Philip, and those early seven deacons. People could not stand to listen to them because of the Word of the Lord, the wisdom of God that was in them (Acts 6:10; 7:54, 57). They were full of wisdom, full of the Spirit, full of faith (Acts 6:3, 5, 8).
They had so penetrated into God, and God had so penetrated into them, that the oneness of it was such that men could no longer bear it—they could not stand it. That is what we must have. And that is what we are striving for. We are on our way to realize it.
“But select from among you, brethren, seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task.”
And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.
And yet they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. Acts 6:3, 8, 10.
Years ago, most of God’s people would not have been able to accept this. But we are more ready for it now, ready for a deeper walk in God than we have had. You say, “Well, I don’t know how to do it.” Many things will be laid before you which will lead you into a new level of appropriation, into a new level of ministering out in the name of the Lord. You can do it. Most of us are not even walking now in all that we know to walk in. And so it is no wonder that we have not penetrated through this wall. We have come right up to it; we have approached it time and time again. Each time we make a little more progress. This time we are going to move right into it.
If we do not understand what we are and what God is doing with us, it is because we do not understand the Lord. We often cease trying to understand ourselves and our relationship to God, because we do not really comprehend the Lord Himself. You cannot understand what the Father wants to bring forth in this generation until you can understand His relationship to His Son, and the relationship that He has opened up between His Son and us, and the fact that the gift of the Holy Spirit which came during the Feast of Pentecost was one of the greatest things that ever happened in all of God’s great plan of redemption. Even the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross and all that He did would have been of little effect, had it not been for the Spirit that deals with men’s hearts and makes real to them that provision and brings them into it.
“But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you no longer behold Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said, that He takes of Mine, and will disclose it to you.” John 16:7–15.
The plan of God would have been frustrated long ago if it had not been for the coming of the Holy Spirit to lead men into all the truth, to take the provision that Christ had made for them and bring men into it.
We should be concerned about this; therefore, the best thing we can do is go back and read about the Feast of Pentecost from the very beginning and get some of the mystical pictures that are in the Old Testament about it. Then we will turn to the New Testament and see what happened on the day of Pentecost and what the promises were that the Lord had made concerning it.
Let us read from Leviticus chapter 23. Notice in this chapter both the Feast of Unleavened Bread, or the Feast of Passover, and the Feast of Pentecost; so study carefully the directives that are given here:
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them, ‘When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. Now on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb one year old without defect for a burnt offering to the Lord. Its grain offering shall then be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire to the Lord for a soothing aroma, with its libation, a fourth of a hin of wine. Until this same day, until you have brought in the offering of your God, you shall eat neither bread nor roasted grain nor new growth. It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.’ ” The first thing to happen was that the very firstfruits of the harvest—the sheaf—was to be given to the Lord.
“ ‘You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete sabbaths. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the Lord. You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread for a wave offering, made of two-tenths of a bushel; they shall be of a fine flour, baked with leaven as first fruits to the Lord.’ ” This is so often spoken of during the directions about Pentecost. Pentecost was to be a feast of firstfruits.
“ ‘Along with the bread, you shall present seven one year old male lambs without defect, and a bull of the herd, and two rams; they are to be a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their libations, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord. You shall also offer one male goat for a sin offering and two male lambs one year old for a sacrifice of peace offerings. The priest shall then wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering with two lambs before the Lord; they are to be holy to the Lord for the priest. On this same day you shall make a proclamation as well; you are to have a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work. It is to be a perpetual statute in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.’ ” Leviticus 23:9–21.
Jesus said, “Except a grain of wheat fall to the ground and die, it abideth alone” (John 12:24). And, of course, we know that at the time of the crucifixion and the resurrection, Christ came forth the firstfruits of them that had slept (I Corinthians 15:20). He was the first one. His body did not see corruption, and His soul did not remain in Sheol (Acts 2:25–36; Psalm 16:10; Acts 13:35). In effect, He was like the first sheaf of the harvest, waved before the Father. Then came seven times seven weeks, or forty-nine days—seven being the perfect number, and seven times seven speaking of that thing coming forth in perfection—plus one which made fifty. Fifty is seven times seven plus one, and it is also ten times five. Ten is the number of perfect, divine judgment, and five is the number of grace in action. Both are involved. Seven is God’s number; but add one to it, making eight, and you have the number of Christ. The mathematical structure of the word “Christ” is 888. So you can see how the number eight enters into the picture here, too.
The Feast of Pentecost, then, was to occur fifty days after Passover, at which time the people were to bring two loaves of bread taken from all of the grain of the harvest. This bread was baked in beautiful loaves. This was not just a provision which was waved before the Father, raw grains still in the sheaf; this was the fine flour, ground and perfected, the beautiful bread presented to the Lord. It was two loaves—not one, but two. The first offering was one sheaf, because that was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. But two is the mystical number in the Scriptures of Christ in a many-membered Body. Always Christ in His Body is presented in that manner. Therefore, on the Day of Atonement there were two sacrifices.
The high priest confessed the sins of the people over one goat and sent it into the wilderness (Leviticus 16:7–10, 20–22). The other goat was killed and the blood was offered in sacrifice (Leviticus 16:15–19). This is because the Day of Atonement is not speaking only about an individual experience, as people have thought; it is speaking about the Lord taking away the sins of His people through the administration and the judgments wrought through the great Christ-Body that comes forth in the end time, the instrument of judgment. Thus we begin to see why it is two.
Now come on a little further. The Feast of Pentecost was speaking about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit coming. When the day of Pentecost “was being fulfilled,” as the Greek text reads, there came all of this manifestation (Acts 2:1–4). On that one set day, the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled; the Spirit fell upon them. What actually happened there was that men witnessed the Holy Spirit waving the two loaves of bread, the firstfruits to come forth out of all the earth. The firstfruits were coming forth out of all the earth. On that day, thousands were born into Christ. If you remember, a hundred and twenty spoke the languages of all of those Jews visiting from every nation on the face of the earth. They were gathered there and were listening to the Word of the Lord come forth in their own tongue, all through the lips of Galileans, Acts 2:5–12 says. They marveled, “Are not all of these Galileans?” Yet, in spite of the fact that the disciples were restricted to being Galileans, they were able to speak any language by the Spirit of the Lord. They could speak the Word of the Lord to the people, and the people were hearing. They repented after hearing the preaching of Peter, and they were converted by the thousands (Acts 2:40–41).
We should grasp this in our minds. That second chapter of Acts is probably familiar to most of you. The Spirit came like a mighty rushing wind, and cloven tongues of fire came and sat on each of the disciples; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1–4). It is interesting that in the book of Acts, only Acts 1:5 speaks in terms of being “baptized” in the Spirit; and later Peter quotes John the Baptist, who had said, “You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire by Christ when He comes.”
“And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ ” Acts 11:16.
“As for me, I baptize you in water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not even fit to remove His sandals; He Himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Matthew 3:11.
John answered and said to them all, “As for me, I baptize you with water; but He who is mightier than I is coming, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He Himself will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire.” Luke 3:16.
Most of the other references to the Holy Spirit in the New Testament however refer to the fullness of the Spirit (Acts 4:31; 6:3, 5; 7:55; Ephesians 3:19–20; 5:18).
But that first experience on the day of Pentecost was fantastic—the Baptism of fire, the anointing, the fullness, everything that came.
With that in mind, make careful note of the following statements: The Feast of Pentecost as it finally was fulfilled was speaking of the Holy Spirit coming to help us become all that Christ provided for us to be. The Feast of Pentecost spoke of the Holy Spirit coming to help us appropriate all that Christ had provided for us and promised us. The Feast of Pentecost came to give us the Holy Spirit to enable us to do all that Christ would or willed to do through us.
The contrast between what the disciples were before the day of Pentecost and what they were afterwards is simply amazing. It was as though God had actually bypassed all the frailties of those men. They probably still had them, but never again is there any emphasis whatsoever upon the frailties of the men. You can point to one reference in the book of Galatians where Peter was rebuked by Paul (Galatians 2:11–14); and in Acts you can read how Barnabas and Paul got into an argument over John Mark (Acts 15:37–40). But generally speaking, you do not find any of that inconsistent, shallow living which was in the disciples right up to the hour of the crucifixion.
The Holy Spirit had effected something which was almost unbelievable. In the pattern of fifty days from the Passover, fifty days after the sacrificial provision of God, came the first manifestation of the reality of that provision to the whole world. Pentecost, then, became a manifestation, fifty days afterward, of what Christ had really accomplished on the cross. And the disciples could go forth and preach the cross because they could say, “Look what has happened to us.” It had been the price of redemption. It had been the price of provision such as the world had never seen for God to infiltrate into the lives of men, and for them to penetrate into the life of God, and for that oneness to come.
I would like to use a terminology that you are not familiar with, because that may be the only way to learn this truth. We can say over and over again, “Oh, we are one—one in the Lord, one in the Spirit, walking in unity of the Spirit,” and so forth. We have used those terms, yet we do not even understand them. We do not understand what oneness in spirit could mean, so how are we going to define the terms? In the first place, how can you say that you are one? Are you one? Are you really one? Wives and husbands, are you one? (Ephesians 5:28–31.) The Body of Christ, are they really one? (I Corinthians 12:12.) Are you really one with Christ? (I Corinthians 6:17.) What do you mean, “One with Christ”? What do you mean by saying that the Body is one? I think we had better define it and use some other synonymous word.
The Holy Spirit came to bring a oneness to the Church, and no more was there to be any jealousy or striving among them. What did the Holy Spirit do on that day which effected that oneness and caused that great efficiency to come forth? The people looked at the disciples and marveled; they took note of them that they had been with Jesus (Acts 2:7; 4:13). These were ignorant and unlearned men, but people could not but marvel at their wisdom. God’s wisdom had penetrated the frail thinking of men who only a few days before had been arguing over who was going to be the greatest (Luke 9:46). They had been with the Lord all those years, and yet they simply did not know; they did not appreciate it. Then suddenly, the whole Kingdom was moving by revelation and the wisdom of God.
How did men get into God that way?! How did God get into men that way?! How did the disciples become one before the Father? That is what we are going to dwell on here. We are going to read from the Gospel of John. John chapters 14 through 17 should be read almost to the point of being memorized by anyone who wants to understand what God is really doing today. Those chapters will not explain it in terms you are already familiar with, such as Body ministry, foundational ministries, restoration, and so forth. Those terms do not occur there at all. However, you will read a great deal about the oneness.
People have argued that there is only one in the Godhead and that is Jesus—Jesus is the Father; Jesus is the Holy Spirit. There are also those who have written a great deal about the restoration, who say, “This idea of the Trinity is a Babylonian doctrine; it came out of Babylon.” I have seen many books on Babylon which state that we inherited the idea of the Trinity through the Roman Catholic Church, and that they got it from ancient Babylon. These books then proceed to say that God is just one. But I do not believe that they really know how to deal with the issue.
To really understand the nature of God, you must realize that He is a triune God. You cannot read chapters 14 through 17 of John but what you see an interrelationship on the basis of individual persons: “I will pray to the Father, and the Father will send the Spirit” (John 14:16–17). “I am going to the Father so that the Spirit will come” (John 16:7). “Father, I pray that they can all be one just as You and I are one, that they and I can be one” (John 17:21–22). You cannot pray for that kind of unity and oneness unless you begin with individuality.
You also have to begin with distinctive individuals, or you cannot pray or believe for them to come into oneness. If they are all one in the first place, then you cannot pray for them to become one. There has to be an understanding that the Bible is not some hodgepodge of confusion, but that it is actually conveying truth to those who can have the wisdom in the Spirit to see it. And we are going to read what the Holy Spirit was to do in His coming. This is what the Feast of Pentecost spoke about—the fact that the Holy Spirit was to come and what He was to do.
We should skip this term “one” and use another word. Let’s use the word “interpenetration” instead of saying, “We are going to become one,” because in the realm of spirit there is such a thing as a man being able to reach into another person’s spirit.
I doubt that I have ever blessed anyone but what someone with the necessary perception and discernment can see some of my spirit on that person. And oftentimes that element of my own spirit will manifest itself in ways the person talks, ways he worships, things he does. The qualities in my spirit have penetrated into him. They are not just resting upon him; they have penetrated into him.
You cannot have a contact with God but what something of God has penetrated you. And you cannot understand anything at all about what this is if you are saying, “Oh, I’m just trying to serve Jesus.” I’m not. I am trying to penetrate into Christ and see Christ penetrate into me until Christ shall dwell in my heart by faith.
… that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God. Ephesians 3:16–19.
You say, “Isn’t He there?”
Yes, He is there.
“Isn’t the Holy Spirit there?”
Yes, He is there. But I want to be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:19).
The oneness is not a thing that simply is or is not. It can exist to varying degrees. And if you can understand it, the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost to men who already had the Spirit. Jesus had said, “He is with you and He shall be in you” (John 14:17).
But they had more than the Holy Spirit with them; to some degree they had the Spirit in them. They had prophesied; they had baptized; they had taught; they had worked miracles (Mark 6:7, 12–13; Luke 10:1, 17–21).
It was not just because something was hovering over them; the Spirit of God was somewhat in them already. And also there are many passages in the Old Testament that tell how men were filled with the Spirit (Exodus 31:2–5; Numbers 27:18; Micah 3:8; Daniel 4:8–9).
What happened on the day of Pentecost? Was it a matter of degree? I do not think it was a matter of complete newness. The Old Testament tells about men being filled with the Spirit. But never had men been so filled with God, and never had men moved into God so much. The interpenetration of God and man comes about by the Holy Spirit; He inspires our learning how to get into the depth of God, and seeing Him dwell in us in greater measure.
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus. Ephesians 3:20–21a, KJV.
We need to go into more of the Word in order to really feel this. We are not going to read all the verses in these chapters in John, but we are going to emphasize the references to the Holy Spirit and to this interpenetralon that the Holy Spirit is to effect in men’s lives. Understand that these chapters cover one of the most significant times of teaching that ever came in the teachings of Christ, because this was the last session with His disciples before He went to the cross. The truths of greatest emphasis were to be given there, and even then He said, “I have more to tell you about this, but I can’t tell you now. When the Spirit comes, He will lead you into all the truth” (John 16:12–13). Even beyond the teaching in these chapters the Holy Spirit was to reveal to them a greater depth of truth, and I doubt if we have done any more here than just touch the surface of them.
Let us start at John 14:9: Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?” Verses 9–10a.
Jesus was not declaring that there is only one person—just the Father, and that He is the Father. He was declaring that the Father and the Son had interpenetrated each other so deeply that we could not look at one, or have a revelation of one, without having revelation of the other (John 14:6–14). The time will come when men will not be able to took at us without having a revelation of Christ. We will have this treasure in earthen vessels, that men will see within us the glory in the face of Christ.
For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves. II Corinthians 4:6–7.
This is the truth—we must penetrate into God to the depth where men no longer will see us at all, but they will see the Christ into whom we have penetrated, the Christ who has penetrated into us (John 17:20–23; II Corinthians 3:18).
You say, “Oh, we have to live in Christ.” Yes, and do you really know what it is for Christ to live in you? He has to be more than just someone you have accepted superficially, someone you have accepted as your Savior. It means that to the depths of your being, to your very responses, your subconscious mind, your desires, in your body which is the temple of the Holy Ghost—in the mind, in the spirit, in the soul—Christ has penetrated until He has invaded every part of you (Ephesians 2:19–22; Romans 8:9–11; Colossians 1:27–29). And that is what you must understand. You could argue, “Well, if I don’t believe that Christ is in me, then I am not even a Christian.” He is in you. But the measure you have possessed of Him is not enough. And the measure that He has possessed you is not enough. Both of those areas are not complete. Do you understand this?
“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; otherwise believe on account of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.” John 14:10–12.
He went on to explain why: He was going to send the Holy Spirit. The “greater works than these” will have to be understood. Does this mean that we will have greater ability than Christ had to perform miracles? No, His ability was all power, all authority in heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18–19). He made all things, even us, and it is His power and provision and authority that we would be moving in.
For in Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him. Colossians 1:16–19.
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. Ephesians 1:18–23, KJV.
Christ’s ability in us will perform what is necessary (II Corinthians 3:4–6; Ephesians 2:8–10), and the needs will be greater than what Christ faced when He was here. And because the needs are greater, the answers will be greater (Daniel 11:32b). The works, therefore, are classified as greater because God will be doing greater things—because the hour is come in which it is necessary for the whole earth to see the glory of Christ in the Body, the fullness of Christ in the Body! These greater works we are going to do.
“And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” John 14:13.
Christ was dedicated to the Father being glorified in Him—there was that interpenetration. And the Father was committing all things to the Son. He had penetrated into the Son into a oneness until, as Colossians 2:9 says, “In Christ all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily.” John 3:34 tells us that He was given the Spirit without measure. Understand that it was a penetration of the Father and the Spirit into the Son until He moved in that fullness. And in Ephesians 3:19, He commands us to do the same thing: He tells us to be filled with all the fullness of God.
A great thing that has set back the cause of God up to this point has been, for over seventy years, the shallow approach to the fullness of the Holy Spirit which was made by the Pentecostal movement. It has done greater damage than anyone can understand for them to speak in tongues now and then for their own mutual blessing, and thereby feel that they had accomplished what God wanted to do in the Holy Spirit. There was little hunger to go on. They had prayed through, and they were through. They seemed to have little understanding, or vision, of what the Holy Spirit was given to do. They made no real penetration into the presence of God through it. No great worship came out of it. A lot of praise came out now and then, which often became some stereotyped form. They developed ruts and rituals of preaching which never seemed to really move into God as it should, and never reached the depths of teaching and learning that we needed.
The great tragedy has been the shallow approach of the Pentecostal movement. I ought to know; I was raised in it. I thank God for what is coming in this present walk with God. And God has shown us that the kindest thing He ever did to us was to get us out of those ruts we were in, and to bring us to the place where, for the first time, we can really believe in the fullness of God and believe in our coming forth into that fullness in the name of the Lord. Now, follow on carefully.
“If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper.” John 14:14–16a.
“Helper” is a good translation. Parakletos, a Greek word, occurs in John’s writings here and also in I John, where it is translated “Advocate.” And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. I John 2:1b. The King James Version uses the word “Comforter” in John 14:16, and “Advocate” in I John 2:1, but it also just means “Helper.” It means “one who is called alongside to help”; or it could be termed “an intercessor.”
“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 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. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will behold Me no more; but you will behold Me; because I live, you shall live also. In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” John 14:16–20.
There is that interpenetration, where distinct individuals merge in an interpenetration of their spirits. Do you understand this? We are using the term “interpenetration”—until you penetrate one another. Isn’t that what the Body of Christ comes to mean? You begin to realize that you are penetrating into one another’s spirits. This is why the things that are in some of you grate on one another so much at times; it is because your defenses are down.
What God is really after is to bring us into a oneness, a penetration of one another, until I am not even looking out for myself, but I am looking out for my brother. I have penetrated into his life, into his being, into his spirit; and he has penetrated into mine. And that can only be because he is in me, and I am in him, and we are in Christ just as He is in the Father.
This is what Pentecost was all about. Never again was there jealousy among those apostles, among that hundred and twenty. They laid their lives down for one another. Because He laid His life down for us, we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (I John 3:16). It is very simple: we are all one; we love each other that way. That interpenetration of spirit was so great that after the day of Pentecost, people sold the properties they had, brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet so that there would be plenty of food for everyone to eat in times of persecution (Acts 4:32–37). Even before the persecution started they had all things in common (Acts 2:44–45). Nobody said that anything was his own, because they had lost the remoteness of individuality.
The Communists have said, “That was Communism.” It was not Communism. Communism does not cause people to penetrate one another’s spirit. They “penetrate” one another, but not with the Spirit; they do it with swords and bullets and propaganda, wiping out whole segments of population. But this interpenetration of spirit is another thing. Those disciples had reached a place where there was such a oneness because they had penetrated into one another’s lives so much. Isn’t that beautiful?
That is why the sin of Ananias and Sapphira in lying to the apostles became such a great sin against the Holy Spirit—lying to the Spirit (Acts 5:1–11). It was so great a sin because they had come to the place where all of them had penetrated into the Spirit and so much of the Spirit had penetrated into them; and so to lie to one another was to lie to the Holy Spirit. It was deadly. And the judgment against it was great; just as the judgments that we will be under, when we reach the new plane of walking in this, will be a lot greater than we have known.
With greater endowment, with greater penetration into God, will come greater accountability before the Lord. To whom much is given much will be required (Luke 12:48). We dare not walk selfishly again. We dare not do anything less than pursue wholly after the Lord our God, and after this oneness of Spirit with one another.
So far this is simple, plain teaching; but can you see how this is going to affect the way you prophesy to one another? You cannot see this truth and prophesy remote from oneness with God. You are going to have to be one with Him—then prophesy. The effectiveness of the gifts, of the ministries, everything, depends upon this. You cannot be remote from one another, having enmity in your heart toward one another, and then prophesy effectively—or expect to worship. You cannot worship with a remoteness: “Well, I’m here worshiping away, singing in the Spirit, and the Lord is somewhere; He is listening.” There has to be an awareness of Him, a reaching into Him—reaching into the Lord, and the Lord reaching into you. That is what the worship and the ministry is all about. This is the level to reach for.
We have not heard it this way before, have we? This a new way of expressing or even thinking concerning our walk with God. And yet, isn’t it in accord with everything we have received?
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper” (or a Paraclete, One to stand alongside), “that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive…”
“In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him” (see this—“disclose Myself to him”). Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us, and not to the world?” 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.” Do you see this thing of going deeper and deeper into one another? That is the picture we get from this.
“He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. These things I have spoken to you, while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” John 14:15–17, 20–26. We see that deep interworking back and forth.
John chapter 15 also deals with the same thing-penetrating into the Lord and the Lord penetrating into us. Verse 4: “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” The effectiveness of your prophesying is dependent upon the measure in which you reach into the Lord and you live in the Lord. That determines the effectiveness. “Unless you abide in Me you cannot bear any fruit.” “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you. By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit.” Verses 7–8a.
Verse 26 of John 15 again picks up the theme of the Holy Spirit: “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of Me.” Here it shows again the mighty moving of the Holy Spirit upon them.
John 16:7: “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.”
Can you tell me that there is no triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Jesus said, “I have to go to the Father. It is to your advantage that I go, because if I don’t go, the Holy Spirit won’t come. But if I go, the Father will send the Holy Spirit in My name.” If you can read these verses and wind up with anything but the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I would like to have it shown. But on the other hand, if you want to hold on to viewing them as distinct, after the old traditional idea of the Trinity, you could still be missing the truth. We must see that it has been the eternal purpose of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit to so dwell in that oneness that the revelation of the Word comes forth: The Lord thy God is one God (Deuteronomy 6:4; Mark 12:29). One God! They are so interpenetrated.
You say, “I don’t understand that. You have just built up the distinction here, and now you tear it down.” That’s right; that is exactly what I have done. I have built it up so that it can be torn down completely. It is just the same with us.
We stand as individuals—God made us so—so that we can lose our individuality and by one Spirit all be baptized into one Body.
If this is what God has done from ages and eternities past, and it is what He is doing in us, then we say, “The Lord God is one God, and the Body of Christ is one with many members” (Mark 12:29).
For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. I Corinthians 12:12–14.
Blessed be the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Are you beginning to understand a little more? These chapters are not teaching the distinction of the Godhead; they are teaching the oneness of it. Jesus was saying, “The Father and I are one. You and I are one. You are one.”
“And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you no longer behold Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.” John 16:8–11.
I am glad for that. You ask, “If Satan has been judged, then why all the battle?” Because you have not fully entered into Him who is the victor. Everything lies in your entering into Him who is the victor. You cannot see anything but perfect victory in Jesus Christ, and you will have nothing short of perfect victory when you are interpenetrating into Christ and His fullness; for according to every promise, every declaration, every Word, it is a completed, full and complete provision.
Our striving for appropriation in prayer is not a matter of trying to persuade God to do it. He has already given you everything through His Son (II Peter 1:3). He has committed it all in His Son. His Son accomplished it all. And He said, “Now you can have it.”
“But I don’t have it.”
Then move into Christ where you are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). It is all in Him.
We are hearing it expressed a little differently, and doesn’t it make more sense than when we heard it before?
Jesus said, “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak.” John 16:12–13a.
Here a distinction of persons is clearly mentioned in the Godhead: the Holy Spirit is listening to hear what the Father says, what the Son desires. He is listening very carefully; when He came to talk to the early disciples, He said, “I will call to remembrance everything Jesus said to you” (John 14:26). Whatever He hears the Father say, that the Son says (John 14:10). And the Spirit listens, and He hears, and He comes and speaks whatever He hears; but He does not move on His own initiative. What He hears, that is what He speaks (John 16:12–13).
In effect, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have ceased to be distinct, because such oneness cannot even exist within one individual. God is more one than any individual is. There is not one of you who does not have such opposite, distinct phases of your one individual personality that you may be like a dozen different people; and yet you are just one. But the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are far more one than any of you are. God is one God—completely one. Can you understand this? And we are going to be one in the same way. We are going to come to the place where we love each other that way, and penetrate into one another’s lives that way. By the Holy Spirit, we are going to reach into God and we are going to reach into one another, and as one we are going to worship the Lord Jesus Christ.
“But whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said, that He (the Holy Spirit) takes of Mine, and will disclose it to you.” John 16:13b–15.
That is the divine “Pass It On.” The Father gave it to the Son, and the Son says, “Blessed Spirit, You make it real to them. You disclose it. You manifest it to them.”
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. Know them! They are freely given to us. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. John 1:16, KJV.
Lord, lead us into this interpenetration. We can do this. This is the kind of teaching that starts out like a doctrine, but let it become the most positive, practical opening up of our understanding of how to enter more fully into this oneness with You, Lord.
It is going to depend upon what you do. You are going to get out of your ruts of thinking about yourself as an individual, and you are going to begin to think of yourself as part of the Body of Christ. You are going to stop thinking of yourself as an individual with all of his problems, and you are going to start thinking of yourself as incorporated, interpenetrated into the Christ. As the Body is not one member, but many, so also is Christ (I Corinthians 12:12, 14). Christ is so penetrated in us that never again will He be just God in the flesh of the one lowly Nazarene. He will never be limited to that again, because He has also already penetrated into the lives of millions of people who will bear His own nature throughout all eternity, as He bears their humanity throughout all eternity, touched by the feeling of their infirmities (Hebrews 4:15). He has penetrated into you.
We have to see that, and start thinking that way, and start worshiping that way, because we are getting ready to move as the Body of Christ. We are not going to move and prophesy as several hundred people on fire for God with gifts of the Spirit. That is not the way we are going to move. We are going to move as the Body of Christ; and when one prophesies, all will shake their heads, “My, that’s just what I was getting ready to say.” We are going to have the mind of Christ. We are going to speak the Words of the Lord.
Stop thinking of yourself as an individual, no matter how great the anointing has been upon you, because that anointing will be grieved and it will be quenched if it does not lead you into a penetration into the spirits of your brothers and sisters, and they into you. Your walls have to come down. The distinctions have to be broken. The individuality as it rises up in the Spirit is given to you in power so that you have the force in God to penetrate one another’s lives, to reach into God, to open the door for God to reach into you. Such great promises are made to us that we all are to be partakers of the divine nature.
Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. II Peter 1:3–4.
We are going to worship that way. We are going to sing that way—not to see who can be the loudest, but to see how much we can just blend to become a harmonious unit before God that is pleasing to Him.
We are not going to think as many individuals; we are going to think as one Body in Christ. You say, “Well, that’s not practical.” Nothing else is going to be practical until this oneness is. And our reaching in to worship the Lord must be there.
This is what the Feast of Pentecost is all about. This is what God is revealing in Pentecost. This leads us to appropriate all of the fullness of God. This leads us out of the limitations that we have as individuals, into the fullness and completeness that we have in Christ as one Body. There is no other way into the fullness of God.
Lord, seal this to us; bind this Word to our spirits. Give us understanding hearts. Let not the truth escape us; but let it be written on our hearts. Lord, we embrace this. We repent of our individuality. We repent of the walls that we put up. We repent of our wrong personal responses.
We have responded after the ways of men. We have fought like men and not as the sons of God walking in oneness. We are not going to be that way anymore. We have worshiped as though He were afar off instead of seeing the merger and the interpenetration of God with our spirit, and our spirit with the Lord, and reaching into it. This we are going to change right now.
Seal this truth to your heart. Take this to yourself in the name of the Lord, even to a willingness to bear one another’s infirmities (Romans 15:1). Come to the place where if one member is honored, we all rejoice. When one member suffers, we all suffer (I Corinthians 12:26). Everything is for the glory of Christ Jesus the Lord, and Him alone! (Colossians 3:17.) Reach into it now in the name of the Holy Spirit, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the name of the Father.
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. Colossians 3:15–17.
This seems mystical, but things of the spirit are mystical. Let me touch on this principle of interpenetration just a little more. What happened to Judas the night in which the Lord was betrayed? Something got hold of him in his covetousness, and we read, “Satan entered into his heart” (Luke 22:3–6; John 13:27). And he went out and betrayed the Lord. Did this mean that he was possessed? When we use the term “possessed,” what do we really mean? We mean that Satan or demons are penetrating into certain areas of a person’s being. A demon can enter an ear, and you have a deaf spirit. A demon can enter into certain parts of the brain and you have that epilepsy which threw the boy into the fire (Matthew 17:15, 18); it did not necessarily mean that he was possessed in other areas. Just certain areas apparently can be penetrated by the demon power which seems to possess it, until men would shriek out, not of their own wisdom, and say, “We know who Thou art, the Christ of God” (Luke 4:34, 41, KJV). Those demons had penetrated the mind, the consciousness, the thinking, the vocal cords, the expression of an individual.
If those damnable demons can do that, how much more can we be filled with the Holy Spirit of God until it will not be us who speak in this hour; it will be the Spirit of God in us, that we will prophesy the Words of the Lord. We will speak the Words of the Lord. This was the key of power of the early Church. They were not professionals. They were not supermen. They were just men who had penetrated into God, and God into them, and they were one.
How can we reach into the fullness of God and not begin to participate in His attributes? The minute that we accept Him, accept His Son and the Word that He has spoken, we enter into His eternity—eternal life (John 3:14–16). We begin to participate in the attributes of God the minute that we begin to reach into Him, and He begins to reach into us (Galatians 5:22–23). Why can’t it continue? Why can’t it grow? It can. It should. He must increase; we must decrease (John 3:30). That is the way. He is taking over. It is more and more of the Lord and less and less of us, until astonishing things will be done, but all to the glory of God. All to the praise of God.
Our oneness with the Lord and with one another is a spiritual oneness that penetrates our hearts and spirits.
The key to using God or God using us is to be one with Him.
God’s provision and promises are unlimited in their fulfillment when we abide in Him, and He in us, and we live in one another’s heart.
The Holy Spirit is to be to us an infusion of God, a fullness of God in us.
The will of God is fulfilled in our lives after we are filled with Him.
We will never be made perfect until we are made perfect in one.
Can we see our Lord Jesus Christ without seeing the Father? Can we see each other and not see Christ?
Limitation or Interpenetration?
Christ is in me, and I in Him; we are in Christ and in one another just as Christ is in the Father.
By one Spirit we have been baptized into one Body, and made to partake of one Spirit.