Neither Condemned nor Intimidated
GOD WANTS TO ESTABLISH A NEW NATURE, NOT REFINE AND DISCIPLINE THE HUMAN NATURE.
The word says that our old man has been crucified with Christ, but as long as we have a human body, we still have two natures, the flesh and the spirit. It is only when we learn how to walk in the Spirit, that it becomes impossible to fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Do you feel sometimes as if you are in over your head in your walk with God, that sometimes your actions don’t quite measure up to the faith you know is in your heart? You see, the problem we face is that we forget that God wants to establish a new nature, not refine and discipline the old.
As you go along in your walk, you must cope with the fact that there are two different natures in you. To be fleshly-minded is death because that is the condemned nature. It is not subject to the law of God and neither indeed can it be (Romans 8:6–7). But if you walk in the Spirit you are not under the Law (Galatians 5:18). What comes out of the old nature is very much under the Law. What comes out of the new nature is spiritual and no one can judge it (I Corinthians 2:14–15).
People can become very, very religious and still be just refining the old nature. They go to church and play the piano, or sing, or preach, and say, “These are good works.” But the question is, were those works born out of a discipline of the old nature or did they come forth because of the anointing flowing from the new nature? There is a difference between “dead works” and “living works”; and you can’t tell the difference until you see the nature from which they spring.
GOD LOOKS AT THE NATURE RATHER THAN AT THE INDIVIDUAL ACTIONS
That is why Hebrews speaks of living works and dead works (Hebrews 6:1; 9:14; 10:24). You can’t tell the difference until you see the spirit that’s behind them or the nature within the person that’s behind them. God is more concerned in looking at the nature that is behind the thing. God looks at the nature rather than at the individual actions. There is no way to calibrate and say how bad or how good a thing is. Instead you should ask, “Where did it come from? What originated it? What nature sponsored it?”
Let’s not judge people’s actions but let’s try to discern the nature that is prevalent or expressed in them. That is our concern.
I am leading to something that will help you. I don’t want you to judge or condemn yourself according to your stumbling’s. I want you to constantly look for that new nature to take over. If something comes up from the old nature, crucify it, RECKON IT DEAD
DON’T BE LEAF INSPECTORS, GET TO THE ROOT
People look around and think, “Oh, look at this—how the carnal tree is growing leaves!”—and they go out and pick off all the leaves. That is foolish, because what you need to do is get down to the root of the tree of carnality—the old nature—and destroy that, because those leaves will grow back again.
If that old tree is a healthy tree with a root right down into sin it is going to produce the same fruit again, the same leaves. Don’t say, “I’m going to do better. Let’s pull the old fruit off and hang a lot of nice beautiful apples on the tree.” That is not making it fruitful either. You have to make the tree good and its fruit good, or let the tree be evil and its fruit evil (Matthew 7:16–20; 12:33). This is what God is trying to teach us right now.
God is saying , “Don’t make such a big deal over actions like other generations in the past have. Don’t judge actions. Don’t be leaf inspectors always trying to produce good fruit on the old tree. Get to the root of it. Don’t exonerate yourself or defend yourself. Just get to the root.” That is all God is asking.
You will have less self-condemnation when you look at the nature producing an action. If it is the old nature, lay the axe of faith to the root. Don’t wipe yourself out over the fact that a few of those leaves are growing. And don’t spend all of your time running around trying to pull off the leaves. Spend your time cultivating the new nature. The new nature is the only thing that pleases God anyway.
GETTING DOWN TO CAUSE AND EFFECT: THE NATURE AND ITS EXPRESSION
God doesn’t say, “I’m going to come and look at you and see what kind of a carnal Christian you are. If you are a carnal Christian and you have a lot of leaves, I will condemn you; but if you are a diligent, religious little carnal Christian, and you have pulled all the leaves off, then I won’t condemn you.” God is not going to look at the leaves!
He is going to look at the root. And if the root is carnal, He is going to say, “This one can’t move on in God.” But if you get His nature growing in you, I think He balances it out, saying, “Look what I am doing in that life. Much of this is dead because I am doing the work of the cross in this one. Much is coming alive to God; this one is growing in grace and in knowledge” (II Peter 3:18). And He encourages you.
You can make an unbeliever out of yourself because of an isolated incident—an upcropping of the old nature. Instead, you really should look at the fact that you have been walking with God and there is a lot of good fruit in your life. Just say, “I want to get at the root of the old. I don’t have to have this cropping up all the time. I’m going to be clean and I’m going to be holy before the Lord.” In other words, you are getting down to cause and effect: the nature and its expression.
THINK DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SIN:THINK OF SIN AS A NATURE
I’ve noticed this about the persecution—the devil is such a religious spirit that he will find one flaw, or one thing that can be misinterpreted, and forget about all of the other things and condemn a person over it. Jesus was a friend of sinners (Luke 7:34). The common people heard Him gladly (Mark 12:37, KJV). Harlots came repenting and crying at His feet, washing the dust of the road from His dirty feet. And the Pharisees came in saying, “If He was a prophet He would know what kind of a woman that was; He would be able to discern that” (Luke 7:37–39). See how they would pick at something?
I want this generation to think differently about sin. I don’t want you to think about the actions of the sin nature and the balances people use to weigh them. I want you to think of sin as a nature. I want you to think of righteousness as a nature. Both are states of being.
Our Evaluation Of Actions Must Be By The Spirit
Our evaluation of actions must be by the Spirit. God may anoint you to be an instrument of judgment; but if He has not, then you’d better not judge lest you be judged (Matthew 7:1). But a prophet can come on the scene like Elijah and say, “If I’m a man of God, let fire devour these fifty” (II Kings 1:10). If an action comes from a wrong spirit and a wrong nature, it is wickedness. God says, “You have usurped My Lordship over you” But if an action comes from an obedience to God out of the new nature He has created, it is entirely a different picture.
Our concern should not be about what we are doing. We have to be concerned about what is behind what we are doing! The new nature reveals the Lord; the old nature only reveals itself! When you get into this level you realize how wrong it is to become part of something God is not totally in. We don’t join a religious movement; we become the fullness of Christ in the earth.
The Point Is To Become A New Creature In God
You have to get this thing moving in your spirit. People say, “I dropped out.” You don’t drop in and drop out. You are either after this new nature or you are not! It is not a matter of getting discouraged with yourself. It is not a matter of how you did this or that wrong. Did you do wrong because suddenly somebody came and transplanted a bad nature in you? David said, “In sin did my mother conceive me; I was born and shapen in iniquity” (Psalm 51:5).
We were condemned already, dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). Jesus didn’t come into the world to condemn the world (John 3:17)—it was already condemned. The point is to become a new creature in God. And if we have a new nature, then let’s think of it accordingly and get away from being a slave to phony religious judgments on actions and thoughts and ideas.
If an action is wrong it is because it came from the wrong nature. Get down to the root of it and say, “Christ died for me and I am crucified with Christ. The life I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. I’m not going to live any other life but the life of God in me (Galatians 2:20). I am a new creature” (II Corinthians 5:17). Once you grasp this concept, you will be surprised at how easy it is to be an overcomer.
This gives you your Bible. It opens your Bible up to you. Read Colossians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians: all of these books are built around the fact that it is the new nature. Read I Corinthians, first and second chapters; all of that is something that is coming alive. Read Romans 8. You look at it differently when you look at it this way—this is basic foundational teaching. It will change your whole attitude the rest of your life. And don’t ever slip back into the other.
“We Claim Our Deliverance From A Spirit Of Fear”
I want a deliverance from a fear of the people, intimidation. I want to be free to move in what God wants me to move in for you.
How shall we claim a deliverance from a spirit of fear? Let’s go back to the Scriptures. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and a disciplined mind—or a sound mind (II Timothy 1:7). Let’s forget about the spirit of intimidation, and let’s go to the positive side. We will get into that and we will know our authority; we will know the power, the love, the disciplined mind.
You will be just as afraid as you will let your mind accept. You will have just as much fear as you lack love—because perfect love casts out fear (I John 4:18). Let’s get on the positive side and just wipe the other one out.
The Love That Casts Out All Fear
How many of you have the fear of man and worry about people’s opinions? Lord, we are all going to tune into and draw you love into our hearts. As we believe for our brothers and sisters, we are going to believe for ourselves also. This spirit of fear is not going to be a problem because we are going to cast it out by the power, the love that casts out all fear, the disciplined mind that refuses to see anything else except the greatness of God, the commissions of God, the love of God, and sets about with a real faith and anointing to do the will of God. We want more than not to be afraid; we want to be bold! We want to be filled with the Spirit of God in a boldness, and this we take in the name of the Lord.
This Spirit Of Fear Is A Tormenting Spirit
This spirit of fear is a tormenting spirit, because it accuses you and wipes you out. After a while, the least little slight or hit, and you are wiped out. That intimidation is there. And you are afraid to minister good, positive, loving words that God gives you, or you are just afraid that you will not be able to do it, or you will miss it. How do we get free from that? Love casts out that fear! You tune into God’s love, so that you can feel that flowing toward the individual you want to minister to. You have a disciplined mind that says, “I am a chosen vessel of the Lord to do this thing that God says, to speak His Word, and I have the power, the love, and the disciplined mind! This is the end of fear. Fear cannot survive in this climate.”
Filled With Boldness And The Holy Spirit
Fill us with the Spirit of the Lord, like it says in the New Testament, that they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the Word with boldness (Acts 4:31). They were filled with boldness and the Holy Spirit. That boldness has to be a spiritual impartation to the new nature that just kicks out the fear of the old nature. I want that too. I want it!
You Kids Have To Be Bolder In Your Ministering To Me
One thing you have to do: you kids have to be bolder in your ministering to me. I have little kids come up now and say, “Brother Lee, I’m not afraid of you anymore.” Just out of the clear blue sky they say that. In the past they loved, but that love had a fear that restrained them. And it was not just out of a sense of honoring somebody; it was a definite restraint. I want that thing broken.
I don’t want to intimidate you because if I intimidate you, it means that I am afraid of you myself. I don’t want any fear of you; I don’t want you to have any fear of me.
There is so much misunderstanding and misinterpretation of one another, because fear distorts your judgment. You don’t see what the other person is in truth and what they are trying to do for you, because the distortion is there. You don’t trust it. Your fear makes you mistrust. Fear is the opposite of faith, isn’t it? We ought to bless one another, because if nothing else was ever done, the world would change by just doing this one thing.
I wonder if this isn’t going to be a new way of ministry. You start in and minister to one, but before you are through, the whole Body is getting it. This personal ministry started out ministering over individuals, but the last three of four ministries have been over everybody. Everybody gets it. It is a different style. It is going to be impossible to segregate an individual without the blessing resting on and enriching everybody.
I see something coming; we are breaking through into something. This is a breakthrough of ministry; it is a breakthrough of appropriation. None of us will ever have the fear of man on us again! Is that too big to claim? That is what we are claiming. Never again!
Of What Do We Repent?
“Repent, for the Kingdom is at Hand”
Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 3:1–2.
“And the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Matthew 3:10.
I’ve been meditating upon the way the New Testament opens with the message of the Kingdom. It comes with John the Baptist saying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And while it is recorded in all four gospels, the ministry of repentance which John the Baptist preached is probably little understood by us today. While he was specific about certain things that should be repented of, yet the repentance that is needed is voiced this way: “Now is the axe laid to the root of the tree.”
This will lead us, of course, to understand: Of what do we repent? There probably isn’t anything more futile or more time-consuming, that takes more energy and accomplishes so little, than the constant repentance of the evidences and actions of failure. That is like going out and stripping the leaves off the carnal tree of our flesh. The trees are well-fed and they will grow the leaves back again. But now this we understand—the axe is laid to the root of the tree.
Why do we repent?
Because living in the Kingdom is far more fulfilling than, living in this world, and all the pleasures of it.
God Is Looking At The Natures More Than The Actions
Satan seems to be engaged in the process of condemning us, or causing us to condemn ourselves. And we know that he is called, in Revelation 12:9–10, “the accuser of the brethren.” He accuses you of all the things that are a result of a nature that you have by heredity, of a weakness that is in your flesh—something of the Adamic nature that has been carried on down through the hundreds of generations until it has reached you. And every time you find yourself caught in that nature, then you begin to repent of the acts. Yet, in a sense, that is a futile thing to do. Or, if you don’t repent of the “leaves,” at least you are condemned for them in your own mind.
Consequently you never have a sense of having righteousness, because you don’t really have a sense of having the fleshly nature either. You don’t know what the new nature is going to be like or what you have of it, because there is not an awareness that God is looking on natures that are at war within us more than He is looking at the actions that we commit. This may be difficult for you to understand.
The Old Nature Is Condemned Already
We can condemn a man’s actions and wholly judge him to hell over a few mistakes that he might make, and yet we may overlook the fact that God was working a beautiful, wonderful new nature in him. We don’t balance the two natures at all. We don’t weigh years of God bringing forth a new nature against a few actions that we see of the old nature. Thus the actions become the basis of our condemnation. That all happens because Satan is inspiring it. Satan is always highlighting your actions. I think what we should really do is repent of the sin nature.
Condemnation does not come because each day God looks down upon you and says, “You missed it here. You missed it there. You stumbled a little here. You didn’t do what you should have. You procrastinated. You withdrew a little bit.” The little things that we do become the basis by which self-condemnation begins to really take hold of us. So we condemn ourselves because of our actions when we really should know that the old nature was condemned already.
It’s not that as we come to the age of accountability then suddenly we are condemned because we do this or that. When a young person begins to sin, it is because he already has a sin nature in him. And that sinful, Adamic nature is condemned already. In sin did our mothers conceive us; we were born and shapen in iniquity (Psalm 51:5, KJV). We were dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). Condemnation does not result from actions day by day. Condemnation already rests upon the old nature (John 3:17–18, KJV). It is there permanently (Romans 8:5–9).
We Repent Of The Old Nature
It is for this reason that we must help people not to be wiped out over every little individual incident. That’s the whole picture. Something happened when you were tired and hadn’t been looking to the Lord the way you should have, and you reacted with the old nature.
Is that going to wipe out all of the years of walking with God and the sacrifice and the work of the cross? God forbid.
Let’s just say, “The ugly thing came to the surface.” Thank God for it. We repent of the nature that was buried well below the surface. We don’t want it buried anymore. And we will interpret actions as but the symptoms, the leaves, the superficial signs of the deep root that must be dealt with.
That root we look for, and that we perpetually condemn.
Sin And Righteousness Are Natures
For this reason we see that sin is more a nature and righteousness is more a nature—neither one of them is just actions or acts.
The word sin means no inheritance, the result of the nature of fallen Adam
I am not taking away from the fact that sin is committed in acts, but I am emphasizing that those acts are an expression of what is a root and a nature in the life.
If we understand this, then we’re going to be more free from the wipeouts. Every time certain ones lose their temper, hopefully no longer than a minute (and they may be under a lot of stress, a lot of pressure, a lot of battle), they begin to condemn themselves. They shouldn’t.
They should rejoice that they are so much in the battle—that they are mature enough that they are coming into sonship that they are allowed to be in the battle, because God has done so much for them.
Being Hit Is Not A Sin
When you get wounded, bleed a little and then get up and go on. But don’t condemn yourself because of the fact that momentarily in the battle you got hit pretty hard. Being hit is not a sin, but the sin in your nature may open the door to your being hit. The old nature can open you up to be hit, but being hit is not a sin.
This also has to be understood in our mind: your actions can be an expression of righteousness, but not necessarily so. Actions can also be an expression of a religious nature or a disciplined life and still fall short of being an expression of the divine nature. The issue isn’t just what you do. The issue is the spirit and nature that prompts what you do.
Of What Shall We Repent?
And now to conclude this. Of what shall we repent? Shall we repent because of the weakness of the flesh and its inability to perform the will of God? I would say, “Yes, we repent that we have not broken out of the flesh nature into God.” But if we follow the trail of repenting for every word, every act, everything for which Satan would condemn us, then we will continually search out for actions that are wrong and try to deal with those, without realizing that all we are doing is cutting off leaves. We are not getting to the root.
What is righteousness? With what shall we glorify God? Shall we glorify Him by our works? At best they will be dead works if they are not wrought in God. But if they are a result of a new nature, then they are the righteousness of God come forth. “The Kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17).
If we see this, then we rejoice more in what we see coming forth within us, what we are becoming, rather than in what we are doing. And what we are doing is to be identified as right or wrong based upon whether it is a living work or a dead work. If it is a dead work, it can be very religious, but if it is a living work, it is wrought by the anointing of God through our new nature—and that is the true righteousness of God. So it all comes back to this focus: Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33). It doesn’t say, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and be on a real witch-hunt to condemn everything that you see wrong.” You seek His Kingdom and His righteousness.
Do We Produce Dead Works Or Living Works?
Are we going to tie apples to the tree and say, “Behold how fruitful it is”? Or do we grow them by drawing a life flow from God? Do we produce dead works or do we produce living works?
This Word on repentance is important. Many of us continually repent of the acts and the expressions of the flesh when we should repent of the basic nature of the flesh that prompts these acts and expressions in our life. Do we trim the branches or do we put an axe to the root? This meditation should lead us to the difference between self-condemnation and dead works that are ineffective, and the true repentance and righteousness that brings us into the living works of God and brings the Kingdom of God forth. The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink—it isn’t in the actions—but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. If you do these things you’re going to be acceptable before God.
For the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. Romans 14:17–18.
The Third Generation Speaks Up
I’ve Been Feeling So Free Since You Began Ministering Back To Me
This third generation is fantastic—I am determining to open up to what you’re giving me; it’s so good! I’ve been feeling so free since you began ministering back to me the freedom we’ve ministered to you in the Word. I need that. You’re my answer. You may not know that yet; it may not have dawned on you, but you have the faith to do it.
I know the second generation is open to this. I was talking to some of the second generation brothers, telling them about this, and they said, “We’re open to whatever God is doing. We’re ready to see the third generation come in and take over.” But I said, “It isn’t that simple. It’s not a matter of the third generation taking over; it’s a matter of the second and third generation relating to where they’re coming from, what they need, what their conditioning is and get out of it.”
The Third Generation Is Anointed By God To Bring This Deliverance
Over and over it has to be reiterated until you know that the third generation is anointed by God to bring this deliverance. One thing about the third generation that it must learn: the anointing of the Lord is upon it to carry on the communication, the openness, and the oneness.
The third generation has to learn how to enter into judgment; they’re going to be the key.
Are We Driven Or Are We Led?
Romans 8 says that as many as are led by the Spirit, they are the sons of God. I got to thinking about this. We must be getting close to sonship because the issue now is: Are we driven, or are we led? Mature sons are led by the Spirit; immature sons are often driven by ambition and unspiritual motivations. The driven are not really mature; they’re frustrated. Sometimes they’re driven to attain spectacular and praiseworthy goals. Look at all the people today in the religious world, who are driven to be something, to be a name. But the mature are led and desire only to please God.
When you get right down to the various groups of God’s people, you find those who are withdrawing, those who are stubborn and not moving anyplace, those who are crawling along at a slow creep, those who are driven, and then those who are led—finally we get to the place of those who lead. This becomes a gauge of how mature people are.
I just realized how much I’ve lost a lot of my drive, but I have a greater desire to be led by the Lord. There’s an intense desire just to be led by the Lord. The Word had come to me, “You’re going to create those who will turn and liberate you.” Marilyn remembered that Word today and we realized how true it is. This last week I have been creating something that was setting me free. The Word is coming to pass!
Now You’re Creating Me!
You prophesied, John, in South Gate a long time ago that the Lord would fill the seats in Grace Chapel. Your faith created every one of us from the womb. I believe that, because your faith is the Lord’s faith and it created us.
Now you create me!
We don’t care who gets to the finish line first; that’s not what we’re concerned about. We are just concerned about the breakthroughs. There is such a beautiful spirit coming from the second generation. God is dealing with them about the third generation and they are really putting their faith behind it. You kids will break through and really do it.
Three Generations Blending Together In A Triad Of Power
Here’s a strange thing about the first, second, and third generations. When you look at Israel when they went in to take Canaan, you see that the youngest of all were Caleb and Joshua, who were really of the first generation. There weren’t very many of them left, though!
It must be that God turns the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers (Malachi 4:5–6).
He takes away the normal intimidation and the gulf that exists between the generations. There can’t be any gap; God is closing that up.
There are distinctions and differences in what God has done and what He has to do in each generation, but there cannot be in our mind a distinction as far as the will of God is concerned. He’s blending all three generations together in a triad of power that will be most effective.
“We Want To Be Led”
The key is that we have three generations and not one of them leads, but we’re all led.
The second generation could think that the third generation is going to come in and lead, but the third generation does not want that. We want to be led. That’s all we want. We don’t want to make a wrong move. That’s where our hearts are.
It’s so good to see the third generation really free! The spirit of intimidation has left you.
“We Are All Resting In Your Heart”
The third generation begins to rest in our heart . They do not feel separated or intimidated anymore; they feel as if they are in our heart.
We’re living in each other’s hearts; we’re drawing from each other and feeling so close to one another. We feel so responsible for the lives of those under us; we’re carrying them both.
All this time I’ve felt so responsible for you. Now I feel there’s someone being responsible for me! This is ministering to me. We must be careful, though.
We’ve got to see that the second generation, when it was liberated, became bondservants. That was the big emphasis.
But this third generation is becoming free and God is saying now, “You’re My friends, if you do what I command you” (John 15:4).
So this is shifting from the bondservants, into a liberation as friends. Then both groups can turn and liberate each other. The distinction is just not that much; we’re going to minister the same thing to each other.
This is our joy, though—we’re heading toward the time when there is not going to be any first, second, or third generation; instead, they all will be one.
Right now, though, the ministry of the third generation has to come on so strong because it is not just a third generation product; it is the creation of God that goes back and liberates.
Just think what has been created by the Spirit of the Lord, what has been brought forth in this third generation! Now I find myself laboring intently, just struggling, just travailing to be open to the greatness of the ministry that the third generation can bring to me.
We’re Learning To Live In The Victory
We’re learning how to live in the victory and how to minister it to others. We’ve known each other after the battle, but now we need to get to know each other in victory. We can break through and really touch you—and there will be a release to those who have been with you.
They need it more than anybody, because the people who were close to me absorbed so much of the battle that a lot of them are almost casualties.
Spiritually some of them did almost die, because that’s what the nephilim assault does—it keeps you in a place of being unable to function in the Lord so that you can repent, be cleansed and renewed.
Buddies
Here’s a story My spiritual grandfather told, he had a friend who had been a chaplain during World War II and had been through much of the heavy battle. While he was in the army, he developed a great sense of comradeship that stayed with him even after he got home.
One day, while he was driving down the street, he saw a policeman pull over a man in uniform. The chaplain screeched his car to a halt and went over there and was ready to whip four cops at once. He wasn’t going to take that.
He said, “You’re not going to touch a buddy of mine!” He started in and really went after them. In his heart he had a buddy; he didn’t even know him, but he was a buddy.
That’s what God grew us up in the spirit to be: buddies. When we see the battle come against somebody, we’re ready to fight.
More Than Loyalty—Love
We are learning how to grow and develop in the love of God. When we came into a higher level in God, we had to stand together and fight, because the dragon came to swallow us up.
There is a price to pay to follow on to know the Lord.
Many are becoming apostate (somebody who renounces a belief or allegiance) because they don’t want to follow the word anymore.
That Joshua and Caleb spirit we walk in is being conveyed now to the next generation, but with a lot more of the wisdom of God in it. We’re learning how to move more in love than just loyalty, because you can be loyal without any depth of love. We need to appropriate that love that just makes us stand together.
That’s why we’re looking back and seeing those who went through so much with us, and have now become apostate and we’re saying, “They were good, loyal people, but now we’ve got to have enough love to pull them into this next level.”
You Were Born To Function At The Threshold Of A New Level Of The Kingdom
Do you remember the vision of December 13, 1972? God showed my spiritual grandfather that He would bring forth a people wherein there would be no major splits for seven years. The walk would be divided between those who wanted to stay in the walk level and those who wanted to go on into a new level of the Kingdom, but it would still be one. That happened!
At the end of those seven years, December 13, 1979, there would be a new threshold of the Kingdom. The people began to move into the Kingdom from that day on. Isn’t that amazing! We’ve seen breakthrough after breakthrough into Kingdom teaching and Kingdom revelation. People said, “Well, the Living Word has changed. It’s different.” You’d better believe it is! It’s moving into something that the world has never seen before. The principles we’ve been taught are having a new, fresh application.
This third generation was born to function at the threshold of this new level of the Kingdom! I don’t think you realize the full significance yet of what you are anointed right now to do. Do you sense this?
It’s imperative that you of this third generation come and bless and be a release, because you are the first generation to come on the scene without animosity or vindictiveness, without judgment. You can move into the realm of spirit.
GOD HAS TO BRING JUDGMENT IN THE EARTH
When we are perfected in the love of God, He will entrust to us the ministry of Judgment.
You can’t do it on a human level, though. The Word says, “Judge not, lest you be judged” (Matthew 7:1). When you do it on a human level it becomes a very vicious sin.
But when you move up into the level of the Spirit, you will recognize that the prophecies of Isaiah said of the remnant that the slain of the Lord at their feet would be multitudes (Isaiah 66:16).
God has to bring judgments in the earth. This has been voiced again and again: we’ve got to find the key by which judgment is actually loosed into the Body so that those who have sinned and have become apostate will be judged.
Judgement begins first at the house of God, and then from the house of God.
There’s some state of spirit, some level in God that will turn loose the judgments of God in the earth again. It has to be. The Holy Spirit has to have the function where He convicts the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment (John 16:8).
JUDGMENT MUST BE ONE OF THE BIG FUNCTIONS OF THE SPIRIT FILLED REMNANT THAT BREAKS THROUGH TO SONSHIP IN THE END TIME
The futility of the world is locked into a positioning that seems to be beyond what you can budge. It has to be that we hit it. But we are turning the tide so that the intercession that has come in the last few years will not be counted pointless or fruitless.
You will watch it happen. All of it is like a big avalanche building up, ready to slide down in judgment. I’ve got to believe that. If I didn’t believe that, I’d have to give up totally! I’m believing every Word that has come from the Lord to my heart since I came into a walk with God!
“It’s Not A Vengeance Thing; It’s A Peace Because You’re Following God”
This picture of being led by Christ is becoming so real. In Romans 2, God says that He can’t bring His wrath on the earth because there are still things in us so that we would have to be judged also. That’s why this spiritual nature is such a key. If we can walk in that, then we can be led by Christ as the Captain and get into the judgments. It’s not a vengeance thing; it’s a peace because you’re following God. We’re all resting in one another’s hearts and even though we feel the battle, we feel so one. And it feels so good!
Finally, we’re reaching the days of effectiveness. We’re walking in it. We’re witnessing so much that God is doing and I wonder if you really believe it. I wonder if you believe, “We’re here.” I don’t care how you’ve screwed up things, what you’ve done to yourself, what you haven’t even been able to do or what you don’t even understand yet. You can take the impartation and you can turn around and give it to me, and I marvel at it. I wonder at it.
Impartation Is Not Limited By Your Youth Or Experience
That impartation is not limited by your youth or by your experience or anything else. It’s coming through as great or greater than anything that has ever happened before. I’ve never experienced in thirty years the impartation and level of ministry that has been coming from the third generation.
This is not going to end here; it’s going to continue. I will not accept anything else, and don’t you accept anything else! Help my faith; strengthen my faith, because I’m going to believe that what we’ve broken through to here is just the beginning of something that will reach the whole world.
This is the beginning of a new level of the Kingdom. We should live with anticipation every day. We could actually redeem the time and cut the time short; but even if it takes another year before it breaks over the whole world, look what’s going to happen.
“We’re Feeling Such A Thing Of Destiny”
We’re feeling such a thing of destiny. Now is the fulfillment of what God brought us here for.
You can see how God has kept His hand on you. It doesn’t make any difference what you went through; you’re here. There’s no condemnation, just a glorious thanksgiving, “I’m here. Look, I made it.”
Do you remember how you used to prophesy to the unknown faces? You used to talk to them. You’d preach as if they were there!
I’d had a vision of that—a great crowd of people, little and big, and they had no faces. God said, “These are the ones. You don’t know who they are yet. You haven’t seen them.” I’d prophesy to them. It was God’s way of letting me love you, but I never knew what you were going to look like!
This Is The Time
One of the reasons that things haven’t been resolved yet is that God has ordained that I get my credentials as a prophet and apostle of God through the sufferings and persecutions that I’ve had to undergo.
As it says in Daniel, for a little season the great prince will seem to prevail, but then judgment will be given to the saints of the Most High and they will possess the Kingdom (Daniel 7:21–22). But this is the time for us to go in and take the Kingdom.
A Way Of Shepherding That’s Beyond Communication
There has been a way of shepherding that’s beyond communication. That’s why I’ve been slow to try to answer messages. You have to tune in to where the needs really are.
Long before some people come into the Kingdom, there has been the contact with someone who has really been walking with God; I have reached in to help them. Often when you see those who are new, you see something that is very familiar and beautiful in their spirits, as though you’ve known them before. You know you’ve been a part of interceding for them, even if you’re not conscious of it.
I think we’re going to be surprised at what we’ve done without being aware of it. This is the time that we’ll be aware of many things we are doing. This third generation is just beginning to move into the mystical realm where you will bless and create and bring forth. You will travail and see established in the earth the judgments of God.
THE SPIRITUAL LEVEL THAT IS MYSTICAL AND PRACTICAL
This spiritual level that is almost mystical in its nature will be mingled with another level which is very, very practical.
The world will be impressed by the simplicity of the inventions and creative ventures that you undertake. Almost everything starts with complexity, but when you come down to the revelation of the Lord, it’s really very simple.
I don’t think we realize that what seems to be just a passing thought sometimes is really a leading from God. God speaks to us through spontaneous thoughts.
We receive creative ideas, creative thoughts, that we have failed to recognize that they were from our Heavenly Father.
You need to say, “I didn’t think of that person for no reason. Maybe God wants me to exercise faith for them.”
One thing about this is that you don’t develop into sure ways of ministering if you ignore the little hunches and leading’s when they come. Give attention to them and it isn’t long until they get clearer. If you keep listening for the signals, you will get them.
What do you do about those who come against you? All you can do with that is say, “Lord, reduce that down to a minimum.” Commit it into the hands of the Lord and walk away from it.
“We Rest In His Heart And He Rests In Our Hearts”
Lord, we thank You for everything You’ve brought so far and we love You for it. We love You for what You’re doing, for our becoming a vessel of your Word. We want more of it, Lord. We want to be led, Father. We want more.
We turn our hearts to our Heavenly Father, and we bless him. We bless him with our love; we bless him with all our strength. We rest in his heart as He rests in our hearts.
There is a flow of life coming forth now, that is bringing forth the Living Word of God; it’s bringing forth our destiny. It’s a momentum that can never be stopped. As the life of God flows through us in an ever-increasing way a door is being opened that can never be closed. We are coming into a living oneness with the Lord, that we literally become the will of God in the earth.
As we come into that oneness with the Lord, then we begin relating to each other in that oneness, and the army of the Lord is formed. We begin to see eye to eye in Zion, and we don’t break ranks. Where on member of the body is lacking, we minister forth to meet that need. The life-force that you need, will be found in the members that are being fitly formed together. The whole Body will begin functioning and the life of the Body will flow forth to one another. We have the faith to see that it happens, in the name of the Lord!
Three Generations Were Cast Into The Fire—But A Fourth Generation Comes Forth
God is showing me something very clearly. On the plains of Dura—where they made the big image and at the sound of the music everyone would have to bow down—the three Hebrew children were cast into the fiery furnace. They walked through the fire, and their bonds were loosed in the flames. The king said, “I threw in three, but there is a fourth like unto the Son of God” (Daniel 3:19–25). The Lord is speaking to my heart that the first three generations have reached a time where they have to go through the fire, and they have; but the fourth generation that comes forth, which is all three and what they produce, will be the Son of God walking in the earth.
The Lord will be in all of us speaking to every one of that second generation, not to rebuke them for what they’ve done, but to give them the Word that has been real to us, to tell them, “John has need of you, and of your faith and prayers for him.” That was the calling they had. This will be one more opportunity for them to see, “This was the Word of God over them. They were raised up for this one thing, that John has need of them, need of their love and prayers. Maybe that’s why I’ve come to this place.” It’s the crisis decision that they make.
We were not raised up for ourselves. Every one of us was raised up to bring forth another. That’s the whole ministry of the sheep in Matthew 25:31–46. You visit the Christ; you feed Him, go to Him in prison, clothe Him, and … Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matthew 25:40, KJV.
You are in My Heart
Open Your Hearts to Abide in Each Other; Be One With Each Other
Paul wrote to the Corinthians: I do not speak to condemn you; for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together. II Corinthians 7:3. This message will be one of the most important that I have ever given in my whole life. It is not a truth that springs forth as some new, startling discovery, for I think I have known it and practiced it the greater part of my life.
If we would try to understand the basic truth of this message, before we read the related Scriptures, it could be voiced thus: We know that Christ was born the Son of the living God, incarnate in one flesh—Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the Son of God.
And in the course of time, He showed that “in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). What is not understood is that when Christ accomplished our redemption and ascended to the Father, He universalized Himself until He dwells now, not in the flesh of one person, Jesus the Nazarene, but He dwells in your flesh and in mine.
Even a little child understands what it means to be told, “Let Jesus come into your heart.” Jesus thus dwells in all of us who have opened our hearts to Him, and that opens the door for our salvation and for our identity, too, as sons of God.
What we have failed to understand is that Christ’s teaching is saying, “Just as I am universalized and able to dwell and abide in each of you, so I want you to open your hearts to abide in each other—to be thus one with each other.”
“In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” John 14:20. 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.” John 14:23. “That they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me. And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me.” John 17:21–23.
“You Are In My Heart, And I Am In Your Heart”
Just before the crucifixion Jesus told the disciples, “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 14:18–20.
We are talking about a dwelling within each other. That is why Paul told the Corinthians, “I have you in my heart.” That is what this message is all about: “You are in my heart, and I am in your heart.”
This is the mystical, spiritual basis of the oneness that God really wants. Our oneness is not an organizational thing. We are one organism, one living thing before God.
As the love of God begins to be perfected in us, we are going to be able to tune into the heart of our brother or sister, and because we have developed the beginning of an eternal relationship with them, and we truly love them, we will know what they are thinking, what they are feeling and the reason why! How is this possible, because we live in their heart.
The Same Oneness Which Exists In The Holy, Triune Nature Of God Must Exist In The Nature Of The Body Of Christ
Continuing on into the seventeenth chapter of John, we see what Christ was really saying about all of these things. He prayed to the Father: “I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.” John 17:20–21.
This means that the same oneness which exists in the holy, triune nature of God must exist in the nature of the Body of Christ.
We do not argue about the separate persons-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—so much as we contend for the oneness of their being.
And if you cannot understand that the Father and the Son are one, how are you going to understand that they want us to be one in the Father and the Son? It is the same kind of oneness.
We Will Be Perfected In One
Jesus continued: “And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one.” Just as the Father and the Son are one, so we are to be one with that same oneness. “I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me.” John 17:22–23.
What a fantastic thing this oneness is! We will never reach maturity or perfection as long as we are independent from this oneness. We will be perfected in one.
No conflict has ever come against what we call “the walk” which was not based upon the war against this oneness.
“Place and position” as it existed in old order became the issue in this time of walking with God. What do we do about all of this? It will be very clear as we go on to read the rest of these verses.
“Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me; for Thou didst love Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, although the world has not known Thee, yet I have known Thee; and these have known that Thou didst send Me; and I have made Thy name known to them, and will make it known; that the love wherewith Thou didst love Me may be in them, and I in them.” John 17:24–26.
How Do We Bring This Oneness To Pass?
We must comprehend this oneness. It is a spiritual, mystical thing. You might say, “That all sounds good in theory, but how do we really bring it to pass?”
We have the answer to that question in II Corinthians chapters 6 and 7. In these Scriptures we find the most beautiful and simple picture we have of oneness.
Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians, our heart is opened wide.
Out of the things Paul had said came the openness of his heart to them. Then he made a very startling statement:
You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections. Now in a like exchange (he was saying, “Now fair is fair; let’s do this thing both ways”)—I speak as to children—open wide to us also. II Corinthians 6:11–13.
Let’s Be One Together Before The Lord
Paul was speaking for the apostolic company when he said, “We open wide to you. Our hearts are open. Now you open wide to us also, in a like exchange.” Then he went on to speak about the separation from any wrong bonds that they might have (II Corinthians 6:14–18).
In plain words, Paul was saying, “Come on, let’s open our hearts to each other, and let’s not have any bonds with unbelievers. Let’s not be yoked together with those who are not going to believe the Word of God. Let’s be one together before the Lord.”
We Will Never Be What God Wants Us To Be Until We Attain To This Oneness
In chapter 7, verse 1, he continued: Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Then here is the bottom line in verses 2–3: Make room for us in your hearts; we wronged no one, we corrupted no one, we took advantage of no one. I do not speak to condemn you; for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together.
I think we are afraid sometimes to cross this threshold and really be one. We are afraid that we will relinquish some individuality, some distinctiveness of personality or quality that makes us who we are; and we do not realize that we will never be the wonderful thing that God wants us to be until we attain to this marvelous oneness.
Paul said, “You are not restrained by us. You have restrained yourselves. You have put up walls.
We are open in our hearts to you; now you open up too. You take us into your hearts as we take you into our hearts.”
The Sheep Must Carry The Shepherds In Their Hearts, Too
I think the reason the ministries sometimes suffer a great deal of spiritual battle is that they are carrying the people in their hearts; but the people have not always opened their hearts to the leaders whom God has appointed to speak the Word of the Lord to them. The sheep must carry the shepherds in their hearts, too.
Open Your Hearts; It Is That Simple
Are you thinking, “I can’t believe it is that simple”?
When the Word comes, “Listen, little children, open your hearts to Jesus,” and they open their hearts to Him, do you believe that Jesus does come into their hearts?
Then don’t you believe that we can reach this place where, as sons of God, one son can say to another, “Open your heart to me”? And you say, “Yes, come into my heart, brother, come into my heart, sister; and let me come into your heart, too.”
Just as Jesus comes into your heart, so He says, “I just want to be one with you, and I want you all to be one with each other and one with Me and one with the Father.”
We Have Been Afraid To Cross This Threshold To Be One
Does this mean that we could have a oneness service where everyone would say, “Come into my heart, brother,” and it would work? Absolutely.
We have never reduced it down to that simple faith and action which God could bless. We have been afraid to cross this threshold to be one. But now we have crossed it more than we know.
Even now, aren’t you touched with the feeling of one another’s infirmities, even as Christ, our High Priest, is touched by your infirmities? (Hebrews 4:15.) Don’t you find that principle working in you already?
The Warfare Of Deception Against Our Being One
We are in a great warfare, but we had better understand what this warfare is all about. We had better know that behind it is the warfare of deception against our being one.
Take Down Your Walls To God And To Each Other
One of the first things we learned many years ago in the Bless-In services was to take down our walls to God and take down our walls to each other. We were saying, just as Paul said in II Corinthians, “Open up to us. We entreat you, open your heart. Our heart is open to you, and you are in our hearts to live and to die together.”
This Oneness Is A Step Toward Immunity
The warfare that we know is going to be changed. We are going to be less vulnerable in these spiritual assaults that come in an age-end.
This oneness is a step toward the immunity that God wants to give the Body of Christ, His remnant in the end time. One target is harder to hit than many targets. And when we become one in Christ, the devil has to go through Jesus Christ to get to us, because we are all one together. It is when we are divided that we are sitting ducks; we are open to assault.
Our maturity and our immunity are all tied together with our becoming one in the Lord Jesus Christ.
A Kingdom Greeting Card: Be One In Me, And I Will Be One In You
Could we send a new Kingdom greeting card to one another and say, “I open my heart to you. You open your heart to me. Come in and be one in me, and I will be one in you.”
Satan Can Divide Only Those Who Refuse To Be One
One more passage that we must consider, because it reveals the negative side of this picture, is I John 2:18–19: Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen; from this we know that it is the last hour.
If this Scripture means what it says, then already there are antichrists coming up out of the Body. John wrote of these antichrists, They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us … It was their divisiveness which caused them to leave.
It was the deceptive device of Satan to divide, but he could do that only with those who refused to be one. They went out from us, because if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us. That is a difficult but important passage for us.
This divisive and deceptive spirit which has come against us in this end time is inevitable. It is inevitable that we go through this, because we could not have hit this level, which demands the oneness of the Kingdom, without those who refused to be one defecting and rebelling against it.
The Antichrist Spirit Are Those Who Refuse To Be One In Christ
The antichrist and the antichrist spirit are those who may profess to be Christians and who may have had experiences which were very significant spiritually, and yet the bottom line is that they refuse to be one in Christ.
If The Doors Seem Shut, Find The Key And Open Them
This Word on oneness has been coming for some time. Those of you who have been reading my messages “Relate and Communicate” was a whole series of messages. The messages on position, and how detrimental it is to our oneness, have also been coming.
And every time we preached those Words, we were waving a red flag at the beast and the whore who rides on the beast (Revelation 17:3–6). The enemy was infuriated because behind all of this teaching was the oneness God wanted: “… that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.” John 17:21. Let’s move into this oneness. Open your heart to each other. If the doors seem shut, find the key and open them.
There Will Be Mutual Communion If We Learn That Jesus Wants A Oneness With Us
The last cry to the churches is recorded in the third chapter of Revelation: Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. Revelation 3:20, KJV.
There will be mutual communion if we learn that Jesus wants to come into a fellowship and a oneness with us that is greater than we have ever seen.
This is the message which ends the messages to the seven churches, and I wonder if it is not really the end-time message which opens the door to the Kingdom: “Open your heart to Me.”
We Must End Forever The Building Of Walls Against Each Other
It becomes so important that we strive to be open to the Christ in each other. We must end forever the building of walls against each other or closing the door on one another.
Offenses will come but let me tell you again as I have told you many times: If you are going to love and you want to be one, it is better that you should be wounded while trying to attain that oneness than to build walls and sit behind them and say, “I am not wounded anymore by my brother. I am not offended by him anymore because I have shut him out.” Don’t do that. Tune into each other and tune out that division and deception which the enemy tries to bring.
Are We Still Afraid Of This Oneness?
Why are we still afraid of this oneness? Is there something in the Adamic nature that wants self-preservation? By that we mean self-preservation—the preservation of the self-life, the preservation of its ambitions, its distinctness, the fact that it can stand high in the world or excel.
Is the spirit of competition so great that we cannot overcome it? Or can we become so one that each one seeks not his own welfare but his brothers and sisters? Can we put our brothers and sisters ahead of ourselves?
Why are you being offended by what your brother or sister says, or does? It is because you are not filled and overflowing with the divine love of God, that puts the kingdom of God (the family of God) first place in your life. SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD!
What are we afraid of? Even if we gained everything in maintaining distinctions and separateness between us, we would still have this preeminent thing: we would have become a fantastic, successful, independent Christian who is not worth anything in the Kingdom of God.
Do More Than Just Open The Door; Take The Door Off The Hinges
The removing of domination and ambition can take place when we are not afraid to cross this threshold and throw away the key and say, “The door is open.” In fact, do more than just open the door; take the door off the hinges and say, “From now on my heart is really open.”
IF YOU LOSE YOUR LIFE FOR HIS SAKE YOU WILL REALLY FIND IT
The word life is soul in the Greek.
It means the lordship of your soul over your spirit. You are hanging onto things your flesh desires, and you will lose your soul’s ability to fulfill the lust of the flesh, the hard way, through pain and suffering, because you do not willingly submit our soul to the Lordship of Jesus over your spirit.
There is such a warfare against you. And the greatest lie Satan can tell you is this: “You are going to lose out; you’re going to waste your whole life.” If you lose your life for His sake you will really find it (Matthew 10:39–40).
IN THIS ONENESS THERE WILL NOT BE ANY DISTINCTNESS OF PERSONALITY
The distinctness (clearly different and separate from others) of personality resides in our soul, as our soul is transformed, then our personality becomes a blessing to every member of the body of Christ.
Our personalities (souls) reflect character defects that are incompatible with the Lord.
When we are transformed by the renewing of our mind (soul), then our personality is transformed, it will become a unique quality and expression of the Lord, in us.
Jesus relinquished his individuality on the cross when He said it is finished!
He ascended to the right hand of the Father, and poured out His Spirit upon the church, and became the head of a many member body.
Christ is a many member body- 1 Corinthians 12:12
12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
In oneness we become a unique expression of the personality of Jesus Christ. We all complement (something that completes or perfects someone else) one another.
In this oneness we lose our individuality.
What I mean by this is that the flesh- is that union of soul and body that act’s independently of the Lord and is now rendered powerless. We all flow together in a oneness of spirit, expressed through our souls.
Our soul is our unique individuality, and when it is transformed it becomes an expression of Jesus Christ in us.
If you have seen me you have seen the Father. Yet the Father is expressing Himself in a unique way through each of us.
You can get this message (what I am trying to say) if you will open your heart not only to the Word, but open your heart to me, “Then you will know that the Lord is speaking this word through me to you.”
I love you. Open your heart to me and to the Word and to the Christ who speaks this Word to you through me. I open my heart to you, and I know that your heart will open up to me.”
Immediately there will not be any awareness of distance, time, or distinctness of personality between us.
We are going to flow as one before God, and, as John 17:23 says, we are going to be made perfect in one, perfected in that oneness. That is the way we will reach maturity and become the sons of God; and that is what Romans 8 is all about.
Judgment Will Be Based Upon The Attitude Of The Christian World In Their Division From Those In Whom Christ Is One
Christ gave a parable in Matthew 25 about how He is identified with His brethren. When He gathered the people in, He said to the goats, “… ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.’ ” Matthew 25:41. That is how much the refusing to recognize the Christ was identified with the antichrist spirit and the judgments at that time. We know when this is to happen; the parable begins by saying, “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory …” Matthew 25:31. This is to happen when the Kingdom is to be established in all nations.
Matthew 25:41–45: “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ Then they themselves also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ ”
We must understand that judgment will be based upon the attitude of the so-called Christian world in their total rejection and division from those in whom Christ is one. Jesus finished this parable by saying, “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Matthew 25:46.
There Is No Other Plan Of God Except That We Will All Be Made One In Christ
We should begin to search the Word to see how drastic, how definite are the decisions and the judgments of God against this division and refusal of oneness. There is no other plan of God except that we will all be made one in Christ Jesus the Lord. God was in Christ redeeming the world unto Himself (II Corinthians 5:18–20), and we must see that God’s whole purpose is to bring all of us back into one Spirit with Himself.
The Spirit Of Antichrist And Of The False Prophets Should Be Identified: It Had To Originate Within The Body
I would like to read I John chapter 4, because the spirit of antichrist and the spirit of the false prophets should be identified so that we understand the real scriptural basis of it.
Verse 1: Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
This is talking not so much about the people out in the world, some demonic religion that comes up; but rather it is talking about false prophets that come out of the Body.
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. Verse 2.
The issue is not that He came in the flesh the first time, but that He is coming forth in the flesh of His many-membered Body now.
And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; and this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. You are from God, little children, and have overcome them. Verses 3–4a.
“You have overcome them” is an important statement, because the first verse speaks about the false prophets and then the third verse speaks about the spirit of antichrist and says, “You have overcome them.” Whom have you overcome? Those who went out from us because they were not all of us. Thus we see that the spirit of antichrist had to originate within the Body.
We Are Abiding In Christ Because He Has Given Us Of His Spirit
Once we identify this spirit of antichrist and get in our mind the truth that this spirit is going to be in those who have withdrawn from the Body, then we can go on to understand verse 13: By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
That is so important—to know that we are abiding in Him because He has given us of His Spirit. We know the difference between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error, first by the fact that the spirit of truth is not received by the world or understood by the world, while the spirit of error is received; and second, we know because we abide in Him as identified by the Spirit that we have.
Let The Lord Be Your Permanent Abiding, Resting Place
Verse 15: Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
I John 4 brings us right back to this thing of oneness. Several verses, including verses 13, 15, and 16, keep using the word “abide,” speaking about living in God, and God in us.
Tracing that word “abide” in the Greek, we see that it is the word meno, which means “to remain” or “to continue in.”
The Lord is saying, “Stay in Me in that oneness; live in Me; continue in Me; let Me be your permanent residing place.” It comes back to the Word that has been coming: We open our heart and we live in each other.
Jesus is saying, “Open the door and we will abide together. We will live together. We will remain always in this oneness that we are going to attain together.”
More Than Living, It Is A Remaining In God
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. I John 4:15–16.
John talks so much about this word “abiding,” living in
God, remaining, continuing. More than living, it is a remaining in Him. And that word is repeated in John 15 a great deal where Jesus spoke about abiding in the vine (John 15:4–6).
The Most Important Thing We Can Do Is To Learn How To Be One And Live In One Another
We read also in I John 4:17: By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.
We manifest Christ in the earth. He is in us. As He is now in heaven, so are we in this world. There is no difference.
This is the identification of the spirit that is in the false prophets—the spirit of error—as opposed to the spirit that is in us, which is the spirit of oneness with God.
We cannot get away from the fact that the most important thing we can do is to learn how to relate, communicate, and be one and open the door to live in one another.
We Will Not Make It Into The Kingdom Without This Oneness
We are going to enter into the Kingdom as one; we will not make it as individuals who are divided from each other. All that happens when people withdraw and refuse to walk as one is that they seal their own rejection from the Kingdom. We will not make it into the Kingdom without this oneness. To be divided from the Body is to be excluded from the Kingdom level that is coming now.
Don’t Lock Your Door
You are in My Heart
Paul said to the Corinthians, “You’re not restrained in us; you’re restrained in yourself. I entreat you in a like exchange, be open to us like we’re open to you” (II Corinthians 6:11–13). He was saying, “I’m so open to you, and you are in my heart to live and to die in my heart” (II Corinthians 7:3). This is just excellent, but who is really understanding that this is a very practical thing?
Do you remember the Bless-Ins, in which we used to take down our walls to open our spirits to the Lord, and then take down our walls to each other? This is one of the keys to the openness, and that openness leads to oneness. You can’t be one with each other until you open the door.
It takes a lot of faith for us to really realize that we’re not going to have walls up to each other anymore.
He Wants Us To Have The Same Care One For Another
When you look back at the devastation, what was the real issue? The real issue was that we’d had several years of teaching on oneness and how to relate and communicate, and people backed away from it because that teaching destroyed position. It destroyed the various levels that people had assumed. It destroyed the distinctiveness where one personality was higher and more forceful than another. Now that that is destroyed, you realize how that it was the antichrist spirit. Organization has to have position; an organism does not.
I Corinthians 12:21–25: And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; and those members of the body, which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our unseemly members come to have more abundant seemliness, whereas our seemly members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, that there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.
God wants that oneness. He doesn’t want one guy to be a big shot and another one not to be. God will turn around and bless the one that seems to lack, and bring him up so that there’s no division. He wants the Body to be very equal. He wants us to have the same care one for another.
Distinctions Of Function Do Not Bring A Distinction Of Position
Somebody will say, “Then we shouldn’t have any foremen in the work, and we shouldn’t have anyone with authority to shepherd or to lead.” No, we are only eliminating position, not authority. Authority can be a designation that is relevant to your own particular anointing. If you’re a hand, you have the authority to be a hand. There’s an authority and a functioning that you have under God that only you can do. The distinctness, then, is in the varieties of ministry, and in the designations of authority. That’s what makes us different one from another. You’ve got to have all the different members of the Body. When you realize this in your heart, you realize that the distinctions of function do not bring a distinction of position, because God sees to it that we’re all level.
Just as a little child would pray, “Lord Jesus, come into my heart,” so we’ll say, “Dear brother, come into my heart.” We’ll have the same faith that this marvelous, wonderful thing that God has done in our brother is going to dwell in us, and we’re going to dwell in him.
We may stand on the threshold of oneness and not realize how much in our old nature we fight being one. It’s a struggle towards self-preservation. We don’t want that oneness, really, and yet our spirit cries for it.
There’s A Difference Between Conformity And Oneness
In John 17:20–23 Christ was saying, “I’m going to open the door now for all of them to be one with the Father, and one with Me. As the Father and I are one, so they’ll be one.” There’s no difference in that oneness; it’s all the same quality of oneness. If you begin to see this, then you get away from that which criticizes one another on the basis of some distinction that doesn’t make any difference.
I don’t care how different we are in personality; we’re not out to obliterate personality and make you all like little mechanical men who all wind up and walk the same. You are not on an assembly line to create conformity in your being. You are under the dealings of God to create oneness in the Body. There’s a difference between conformity and oneness.
I’m Coming Into Your Heart; You’re Coming Into My Heart
The Lord spoke to me that we are going to have meetings where we hear this Word, and then make definite exercises to fulfill it.
When people don’t know how to reach one another, tell them, “Just stand up and look at each other, and melt in love toward the other person.” Immediately they will hit the same vibration. It’s a strange thing how love will tune you into each other. I believe we are going to be able to look at each other and just melt in that love of God flowing through us. We’ll say, “Brother, I’m coming into your heart; you’re coming into my heart.” Just melt into each other. You’ll have such a lack of suspicion of one another and such a lack of self-condemnation of yourself.
You Can’t Have A Revelation Of Christ And Not Of One Another
The greatest thing we’re finding is that we have revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ who is coming to us to teach us how to walk with God. If we say we have that, and we don’t have a revelation of what the Lord Jesus Christ is doing in our brother or sister, then I think we’re a bunch of hypocrites. You can’t have a revelation of God, of Christ, and not of one another.
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. I John 5:1, KJV.
We open our hearts to this oneness, and it is going to have to be very practical. We’re going to begin to think oneness.
The Opposite Of This Oneness Is The Antichrist Spirit
The opposite of this oneness is the antichrist spirit. If you reject the whole thing that Christ has done for twenty-five years in bringing the Body into oneness—if you reject that, and reject everybody who wants to be one with you, can you tell me that isn’t the spirit of antichrist? That’s the whole theme of John’s first epistle!
Those with an antichrist nature don’t want to confess that Jesus Christ has come in your flesh (I John 4:3). They don’t want to minister to the Christ in you that is naked or hungry or needs to be visited in prison and set free (Matthew 25:42–43). They want to keep you in a restraint.
We can be one! We can open our spirits up to one another! I think we’re going to have to have some very serious services in which we do this.
“Come Into My Heart”—It’s Very Personal
We’ve talked about oneness, but you’ve never had it hit you like this where you say, “I’m going to open my heart. Come into my heart. I want to come into your heart.” It’s a different thing. It’s very mystical. It is very close, very personal. It has to be very, very spiritual. It is going to be just as holy, just as sanctified, as when we invited Jesus Christ into our hearts. That’s the oneness of the Kingdom.
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. Revelation 3:20, KJV. It’s that oneness; it’s that fellowship.
Instead of confronting a brother for where he’s wrong, where he’s got a wall, why don’t you go, and with such love knock his wall down? Open his door.
There’s a oneness that is coming, and we’re going to open our hearts to it; we’re not going to be exclusive.
Here are some proverbs on this oneness:
Your open door is better protection than your walls, because you’re going to hide in each other.
It’s better to hide in our brother’s heart than in a fortress.
To hide in a brother is to hide in God. (Can you see that’s where the immunity is going to come?)
Our openness rejects rejection.
Our openness is childlike but defined. We are open to Christ in our brother, but not to Satan’s deception, intimidation, suppression, rejection, condemnation, division, vindictive reactions and persecutions.
In my heart you are not going to be enthroned, nor are you going to be my footstool.
I’ll not worship you, nor will I dominate you, but I will be one with you.
Open Up And Let The Lord Minister To That Side Of Your Life That Can’t Seem To Be Touched
This step exposes the hidden areas of your life that you just hold back. It’s been acceptable, but not now. I think God is requiring us to open up and not try to deal, in ourselves, with the areas that we can’t seem to overcome. These “untouchable” areas seem so horrible to us that we hide them; and the truth is, you don’t have to.
It isn’t that you have to “expose” anything; you just have to open up and let the lord minister to that side of your life that can’t seem to be touched. It’s like none of us are ministering enough of the Lord to each other. We’re too involved with ourselves and with the battle. The Lord is saying, “When are you going to open up and minister Me to each other?” We’re not only hiding from each other, but we’re not giving to each other. We’re not letting the Lord flow through the Body and in our own lives.
We’re Learning How To Receive One Another
Two or three weeks ago, this step seemed to be an impossibility, but now the door is open. It’s not only easy—it’s winsome. It’s desirable. It’s the thing you want to do.
God is going to knock the door down on these people who thought that ministry was just giving, giving, giving. You have to have a lot of faith to receive back, to open the door to others. I think that’s what happened to me. That was the greatest miracle of all, that all of this was working in a fantastic way, only to have it come back to my own heart—it was tremendous. We’re finally getting to the place where we’re learning how to receive one another.
Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians, our heart is opened wide. You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections. Now in a like exchange—I speak as to children—open wide to us also. II Corinthians 6:11–13.
I do not speak to condemn you; for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together. II Corinthians 7:3.
The Key Of This Step Is Love: God, Baptize Me In It!
God is giving us faith that we enter in; and if our brother doesn’t open up to us, we’ll bang the door down. We’ll kick the door down and say, “Look, you’re going to be open to me; and I’m going to love you, and you’re going to love me.” We’re going to call for this exchange back and forth. We are literally pulling the Lord into our lives in a greater way.
There’s no question about it: the key of this step is love. We’ve reached this level; and if you want to know, “What do I pray for?” just pray, “God, fill me with love. Baptize me in it. Soak me overnight in it.” God is going to open this door: Follow after love; yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy. I Corinthians 14:1, ASV. The real objective we were after all the time was not to be able to prophesy a little bit, but to prophesy with such love that we could reach into one another’s hearts and create in the other person.
In This Oneness, God Is Giving Us A New Level Of Immunity And Defense
In this oneness, God is giving us a new level of immunity and defense we’ve not had before—and it’s very practical. I’m going to crawl into your heart. I’m going to rest there.
I’m going to hide there. When the days of the Kingdom come, a man shall be for a hiding place (Isaiah 32:2, KJV). When you are being assaulted by the enemy, you need a place to hide. The Lord wants to be our refuge, so why shouldn’t we be one another’s refuge? The Lord is touched by the feeling of our infirmities (Hebrews 4:15, KJV). Since He’s in our heart and we’re in His heart, why shouldn’t we be in one another’s hearts?
I don’t know how many messages I’ve preached where the Spirit of the Lord keeps pointing right back to the basis of judgment that is described in Matthew 25. In the days when the Lord comes in His glory, all the nations will be gathered before Him; and this is the way they will be judged, especially the Christian world: “Okay. Did you feed Me? No, you didn’t feed Me. You didn’t visit Me. You talked against Me. You persecuted Me.” The goats will say, “Lord, we didn’t do that to You.” But the Lord will answer, “Inasmuch as you did it to the least of these, you did it to Me, because I was in that one” (Matthew 25:31, 41–45).
We’re Going To Unlock The Door To Each Other
God can give us a key that will unlock that door in our brother’s heart. We’re going to unlock the door to each other.
Paul said, Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them that are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling … Romans 16:17, ASV. That divisive spirit is the greatest deception that has ever come. You ought to say, “I don’t care what it looks like. I don’t care what anybody says or does—I refuse to be divided from my brother. I’m going to be one with him. I’m going to love him, and by the grace of God I’m going to see that he loves me. I’m going to draw from him and he’s going to draw from me, and it’s going to work.
I’m so glad for the devastation that I went through because I would never have been able to receive the blessing from that third generation on Maui if I hadn’t. It was the only way “in” for me. This was the greatest thing that God was doing to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers (Malachi 4:6).
This Is A Rest In The Lord—An Awareness That We Are One Another’s Defense
When this flow starts flowing through the Body as it really should, you’re going to be surprised at the growth, the maturity, the immunity, the defenses that you will have, the way that you will protect one another and tune in to each other. It’s good!
We’ve been in it—from the beginning that was the Word—but now we’ve hit a level of practical application and reality, and we’re getting it. This is the end of numbness! When this release comes upon you, it’s not an emotion, but it’s a peace. It’s a rest in the Lord. You’re not in there sparring all the time. It’s an awareness that we are one another’s walls; we are one another’s defense.
We’re going to have it. I just loose you into that flow that God has for you. This thing is real! Every one of you is going to experience it.
Do You Really Want To Take Your Walls Down? Do You Want To Reach One Another?
Do you really want to take your walls down? Do you really want your brother to take his walls down? Do you want to reach one another? Do you want to love one another? Are you sorry that you’re an island? Do you want to be just one whole heritage of the Lord that He’s moving in, that He’s living in, that He’s speaking through? This is where it is!
We’re going to create one another in the will of God. We’re going to draw from one another. This oneness is going to work, because we will make it work. It will work because we believe it. In the Body we have diamonds in the rough; and if you don’t understand them, you will withdraw from them. Instead, you have to be one with them and help them and get the flow going back and forth.
You’re going to help loose me. I’m going to start laying my battle on you, so I can battle for you. Who’s going to carry your battle if I don’t? Who is going to carry mine if you don’t?
If You Want The Lord To Meet You, He Is Right Here
If you want the Lord to meet you, He is right here. And if you have a need and you want the Lord to meet you, go find anybody and say, “I have to have something. Give it to me. I want you, the Christ in you, to give it to me.” It’s just that simple. In the past, the flow has stopped when we haven’t been aggressive to go have the Lord minister to us.
You can say, “There’s nothing wrong between us,” but there’s nothing right between you until you see one another as one in Christ. You’re in Him and you’re in one another. This is going to work. This is requiring a bit more love, and a lot less independence, less isolation, less withdrawal—less of all of the things that have wiped us out.
Put the axe to the root of that old nature! (Luke 3:9.) Get into that new nature! Get into Christ! Bring Him into your heart. Just say, “Oh, let the Lord come forth in me! Let the Lord come forth in my sisters and brothers! And let me come forth to minister to them the Christ that’s coming forth in me too!”
He Grants Us To Be One With Him, And That Opens The Door For Us To Be One With Each Other
Nobody is cutting anybody off. The devil is trying to divide us, but God is trying to unite us. As long as division can be worked by Satan, we won’t open up to each other. There will be some reason, some excuse, and it will seem so reasonable—forget it! It doesn’t make any difference how reasonable division seems—it’s a deception. Oneness is God’s revelation in creation. It’s His impartation. He grants us to be one with Him, and that opens the door for us to be one with each other.
You know, it’s a crazy thing that people everywhere are just waiting for somebody to come along who doesn’t have any walls, so that they can take theirs down! People don’t like to live behind walls. I don’t want to live behind walls. I don’t want you to be walled off from me. I want you to talk to me. I want you to relate to me. I want you to minister to me. I want you to do it!
I’m not going to allow any separation between us! No walls, no canyon between us! I reach to you. I’ll always touch you. You’re going to touch me.
“Come Into My Heart, Little Brother”
Everyone is going to get into it. Nothing that God has given you today will diminish. It’s not going to be just a momentary experience. Instead, it will be a whole state which God has created of oneness between you and me and it’s going to spread.
Turn and bless each other. Just say one thing: “You’re in my heart. Come into my heart. Come into my heart, little brother. Come into my heart, little sister.” Turn. Do it. Reach in.
It took a long time for us to learn to be divided. It took a long time for us to learn how to put up walls. It took six thousand years of human history to help people be isolated from each other. Now, in one week, God has given the key for us to really walk and be one.
Swallowed Up into One
At the Beginning, the Church Lived With An Awareness Of Their Oneness
There isn’t anything Satan is fighting harder than this oneness, and I’ll tell you why: as long as the Body can be divided, Satan is pleased.
Go back to what the Church was at the beginning.
They were all of one heart. The whole Church began when they were all in one accord, in one place (Acts 2:1, KJV).
They lived with an awareness of their oneness—and that awareness is just now being restored to the Church. We’re right in the middle of this. The key to the Kingdom is going to be the oneness. Without becoming one, we’re not going to get into the Kingdom.
To Be Separate, To Dominate, Is The Spirit Of Antichrist
I want to call your attention to the people who divide themselves. All of them are wanting to be separate, to be individuals. They want to dominate people or have a position over them, not be one with them. All of these attitudes are responses of the old self, saying, “I’m going to be different from my brother.” That is the spirit of antichrist: “They went out from us, because they were not all of us” (I John 2:18–19).
In Matthew 25:31–46 you can see the basis of God’s judgments in the parable of the sheep and the goats. The sheep are those who see Christ in their brother. Even if they don’t understand it, or are unaware of what they are doing, they minister to one another. But the goats are ones who do not do that. When He gathers His Kingdom in, the big issue is, “Do you really believe the Word? Do you believe that the blood of Jesus Christ makes you one with your brother?” If you believe it, then you won’t be separated from him and you will be open to everything that he has for you.
Paul: “I Have You In My Heart”
For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me. For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:7–8.
Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ; so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. Philippians 1:27.
You’re Going To Learn To Open Your Hearts To Each Other
This thing will work if we open up our hearts to each other. You don’t dare lock one another out; but more than that, you have to open up your hearts to each other. It’s a matter of enlarging your heart (II Corinthians 6:11–13).
Don’t lock each other out. Don’t fail to love each other, because this is what the Kingdom is all about. We’ve had the most marvelous teaching that the world has ever heard, but it isn’t going to mean a thing if people don’t open their hearts to each other.
I’m going to learn how to do what they did in the old Westerns. I’m going to shoot the locks off your door so that your heart will be open. You’re not going to lock anybody out! You’re going to learn to open your hearts to each other. You’ve got to do it.
You Are Nested In Our Hearts
One of the greatest defenses that an independent person has is to look at other people and criticize them, in order to excuse the fact that they won’t love them.
Are you looking for an excuse not to love somebody around you? When you see your brothers or sisters need, do you judge them? You should say, “That brother or sister is having a real battle. I just take them right into my heart; I’m going to pray for them” Like Paul said, “You are nested in our hearts, and you will remain there; whether we live or die, it will be together” (II Corinthians 7:3b, Amplified Version).
The Oneness Terrifies Satan
In no way alarmed by your opponents—which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God. Philippians 1:28. Whenever you are not afraid of the enemy, but you are standing as one, hiding each other, living in one another, defending one another, that is an evident token of the destruction of the enemy (Philippians 1:28, KJV). This is what terrifies Satan. The minute that two or three of you are one, that’s the thing that brings him down, because that brings the oneness of Christ into the Body.
How Can You Love God And Hate Your Brother?
He that is begotten of God loves him that is begotten of God (I John 5:1, KJV). What does that really mean? I can’t love the Lord and not love you as the son the Lord is bringing forth, and you can’t love the Lord and not love me as a son. How can you love God and hate your brother? (I John 4:20.)
How will you differ from each other? Only in one respect: by virtue of the grace of God or a gift that God gives in His grace to you. You can’t all preach; you’re not all the tongue. You can’t all be the prophets; you’re not all ears (I Corinthians 12:29). But each one of you is going to have a distinct function (I Corinthians 12:7–12). There will be an authority for you to function that is commensurate with whatever God calls you to do.
There Will Be No Oneness Until Position Is Destroyed Carefully
There will be no oneness until position is destroyed carefully. In a home, for instance, we have tried to establish divine order by saying, “This is divine order. The husband is the head, and the wife is to be submissive to her husband” (Ephesians 5:22–24). Now is that divine order? No. You’re only talking about authority; you’re not talking about love and oneness. Much of the teaching went haywire right on this point. The man felt that he had to suppress his wife in order to be sure that she was submissive. And the woman began to manipulate so she could show that she was not suppressed; yet she gave a lip service to submission. That was wrong too. What was Paul trying to say? “Husbands, love your wives, just like Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her” (Ephesians 5:25). That’s not a selfish thing; that’s not lording a position over anybody. That is sacrificial love. Then Paul instructed the wife to reverence her husband (Ephesians 5:33). It goes beyond loving him—she is to reverence him.
No One Can Say, “I Have No Need Of You”
The abuse of authority occurs when authority is used to establish position, and that was never its function. Authority should be used to bring forth the richness of Christ’s love and mercy into a situation.
Anarchy is not the answer either, not when the Lord has established governments and a divine order. “Well, then who is the greatest?” The one who is the servant of all (Mark 10:44). “Who’s the most important?” How can you say? No one can say, “I have no need of you” (I Corinthians 12:21). Can you begin to see why we open up our hearts to each other?
In these past few days, I’ve found that others have been carrying the battle for me; and I have been freer than I have been for quite some time. I used to carry quite a bit of the battle, but now the sons are carrying the battle and they are carrying me. And as a result, I’m forging ahead.
One Message: The Body Is Coming Together In One
God doesn’t intend for us to run this race with weights on (Hebrews 12:1). He wants us loosed. One of the weights that we sometimes carry is that we carry others but they don’t carry us. Paul faced that with the Corinthians.
Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians, our heart is opened wide. You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections. Now in a like exchange—I speak as to children—open wide to us also. II Corinthians 6:11–13.
Way back at the beginning there was one message: the Body is coming together in one. The Father wants to be one in you, and the Son wants to be one in you, just as the Father and the Son and the Spirit are one.
“That They May All Be One”
“That they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.” John 17:21.
What is God trying to do? Reduce it down from many to one. The Scriptures say that God is one (Deuteronomy 6:4). “What about the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit? Don’t you believe in that?” Yes, I do; but you’ve got to decide what you’re going to emphasize: the distinct personalities of God or the oneness of God. My emphasis is on His oneness, now and forevermore.
The purposes of God are accomplished when you are a true worshiper, worshiping in the Spirit with your brother and one in the Lord with him. Once you have done this, then Satan has thoroughly, completely lost the battle.
We’re Not Going To Walk As Individuals Anymore!
Satan has tried to throw every kind of deception and division that he can at us; for if we make this hurdle, we’ve made it. This will end the battle. This will give you immunity. You’ll be hiding in the Lord. I’ve told you over and over that warfare is not to be our way of life. We’re going to come into the place where we’re appropriating Christ’s life and letting it flow through the Body. We’re not going to walk as individuals anymore! We’re going to be one Body, one Kingdom before the Lord.
I think that this will be the healing of the Body. I think that the division has made it look as though the Body were sick, when Satan was actually throwing everything of division he could at it. But this healing and oneness is going to turn the whole thing around.
The name of the game is, “We’re one!” You’re not concerned about where each one measures up as an individual; instead you’re concerned about how the Body is going to make increase of itself in love, through that which every joint supplies (Ephesians 4:16). Every one of you is going to contribute to it. You’re going to make one another; you’re going to produce one another, create one another, and bring forth the perfection in one another!
You’re Going To Live In My Heart! I’m Going To Live In Your Heart!
You’re not going to be separate from me! We’re going to live in each other! You’re going to live in my heart! I’m going to live in your heart!
When your brother lays hands on you, he’s healing you; whether he knows it or not, he’s creating you. What you can’t do for yourself, your brother will do for you; and you will do for him what he can’t do for himself.
The Body Is Going To Create Itself In Love
There will be no Kingdom without impartation! It is not a matter of discipline or personal faith; rather, it is a matter of impartation. It goes beyond the faith the individual has to seek God and get an answer; it gets into a flow that creates. The Body is going to create itself in love. We are co-creators with God in our oneness with Him. So when I lay hands on you, you can almost say what you want and you’ll get it.
We are participating in something that we don’t even understand yet, but I know it’s there. That’s what you have to believe. The minute that you reach into this, you’re healed. There is a oneness with the Body, and there’s nothing wrong; you’re the salvation, the deliverance, the arm of strength, the refuge, the high tower to one another. You become the channel to one another of everything that God is.
You Be My Fortress; I’ll Be Yours!
You be my fortress; I’ll be yours! In God we appropriate that for each other. Isn’t He our fortress? Isn’t He our high tower? Our shield? Our buckler? (Psalm 18:2, KJV.) Isn’t He all of that? We believe that, and by faith we appropriate it and become that to each other! Christ in me is a fortress for you.
We live in each other. Way back in the beginning, the Lord said that He was going to give me a place in Hawaii. And I think that this is the real fulfillment of it. From now on I’m a resident in the hearts of a lot of Hawaiians. I live there.