God's Two Greatest Mysteries

Part 6

This mystery is going to continue to hinder God's people until it is exposed. In Gen. 32, Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord and the angel asked him what his name was. Jacob answered, "My name is Jacob." You see, your name is a reflection of your nature.  The angel of the Lord was asking Jacob, "What is your nature?" Jacob said, "I am a surplanter, I am a deceiver, I am a phony, I am a hypocrite because that is what his name means." However, the angel of the Lord rebuked him and said that his name or his nature would no longer be Jacob. From this time on his name or his nature would be called Israel, because he had struggled with God and men and overcome both of them. The name 'Israel' means he will rule as God.

The Spirit of the Lord is sooner or later going to ask you the same question.  What is your nature?  What are you really like when you take your mask off?  Most Christians are self-righteous and especially Charismatic's who would answer the Father, "I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus." This answer is true as far as Satan or the world is concerned, but this is the Father of all spirits asking you this question. If you will humble yourselves and admit that, in and of yourselves, you are everything that Jacob was, except for the grace of God.

We must come to the end of ourselves and admit that we are nothing without Him. Then, and only then, will God speak a final deathblow to our carnal mind, our carnal nature, and fill us with His nature.  Then, and only then, will we be like Him. Then the prayer of Jesus will come true.  We will be one with Jesus and the Father and the eternal purpose of God will be accomplished.

II Chronicles 7:14 says,

"If My people who are called by My Name [Nature] will humble themselves, and pray and seek My Face [presence] and turn from THEIR WICKED WAYS, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

If God can just get you to say,  "I am the one who has opposed and exalted MYSELF above all that is called God. I am the one who has been setting on Your throne in Your temple.  I am the one who has restrained Your Spirit from filling Your temple.  Lord, I did not realize that I was the one all the time holding you back.  Please forgive me! Then He can begin to reveal to you His eternal plan that He has design especially for you.

In the day of Jacob's trouble the Church is going to meet Jesus face to face through a prophetic ministry. She is going to confess Her true colors and the Blind Ruler in the synagogue, the Carnal Mind, the Mystery of Iniquity, the Man of Sin, the Son of Perdition will be destroyed by the Brilliance of His coming.  Colossians 1:24-29 says,

"Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of His Body, which is the Church.  I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the Word of God in its fullness- the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints.  To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.  We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.  To this end I labor, struggling with all His energy, which so powerfully works in me."

The Mystery of Christ in you is the Christians hope for glory. When we receive the life of Christ and begin to experience His nature being manifested in our lives, hope begins to rise up within us. Hope that God will bring to pass that which He has promised when Jesus said that we would be like Him.

Even as God has poured His life out in us, the day is coming when we will pour out His life from within us to a lost and dying humanity. The Blessed Hope of the Christian is that when Jesus comes, we will be like Him. Not become like Him!!!

1 John 3:1-2 says:

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we would be called children of God!  And that is what we are!  The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.  Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known, But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."

My Blessed Hope is not that Jesus will come again, that is a fact, and you do not have to hope in a fact. The ultimate goal of the Christ nature in you is for that nature to permeate your spirit, soul, and body and to be visible through you so that the world may see that Jesus was truly from God and that God did send Him as a propitiation for their sins. The world can only see and understand through their five senses. They must see to believe. The purpose of the Holy Spirit in you is to mature you and to perfect you so that the world may see the life of Christ Jesus being manifested in you as a witness to them. II Cor. 5:17 says,

"Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

To be in Christ is not the same thing as Christ in you!! There is no one alive in which the old things have passed away to the extent that ALL THINGS are become new. The proof of this is that your body has not been renewed. Your spirit has become new and you have been given a deposit of His Spirit. Guaranteeing that there is coming a day when the full expression of the Christ in you will be manifest and you will be like Him.

I want to quote some scriptures to you in order for you to see what I mean.

I Timothy 6:12 says,

"Fight the good fight of faith.  Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses."

We are to take hold of eternal life. This is our responsibility!  We must allow this life of Christ to live in us.

Romans 1:17 says,

"For in the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith'."

Romans 2:7 says,

"To them, who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life."

II Timothy 1:8-11 says,

"So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me His prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life-not because of anything we have done but because of His Own Purpose and grace.  This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."

I Peter 1:3-5 says,

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time."

This full salvation will be manifest in the last days in which we are living. II Cor. 4:10-11 says,

"We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.  For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that His life may be revealed in our mortal body."

Romans 8:11 says,

"If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you."

Isaiah 25:6-9 says,

"On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine-the best of meats and the finest of wines.  On this mountain He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; He will swallow up death forever.  The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from ALL faces; He will remove the disgrace of His people from all the earth."  [ NIV ]

[ KJV ] says,

"And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto ALL people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.  And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over ALL people, and the veil that is spread over ALL nations.  He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off ALL faces; and the rebuke of His people shall He take away from off ALL the earth: for the Lord has spoken it."

I want you to see that again and again God tells us what He is going to do. I am here to tell you the good news that God has done ALL these things in Jesus Christ. We are patiently waiting for the Day when these things become a reality in our lives. We often quote Heb. 9:27 which says,

"And it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment."

I am here to tell you that Jesus has already met that appointment for us.  Romans 8:1 says,

"There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of Life set me free from the law of sin and DEATH."

I Cor. 15:50-58 says,

"I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit The Kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.  Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will ALL be changed--in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.  When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: `Death has been swallowed up in victory.'

`Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?'

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

The first man Adam was a living soul, and the last man Adam was a life giving Spirit. We are to have this Christ in us until we are in Christ. Flesh and blood cannot inherit this; Ishmael cannot inherit this; the beast nature cannot inherit this.

Here is another mystery that we have just read. This scripture tells me that not everyone is going to die. This change that we have been talking about starts in our spirits. As our understanding of the eternal mysteries of God is broaden it permeates our soul [ mind, will, emotions ] and when our mind is completely renewed it will manifest itself in our bodies and as a result our bodies will be changed and become like His.

In verse 52 it says, 'in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.'   The Greek word for 'moment' is Atomos and means uncut, that is, indivisible as atom of time.  The King James Bible was written in a time when the smallest thing they knew about was a moment.  The NIV writers used the word 'flash' which is a little closer.  But the word means Atom, which is the smallest division of atomic energy that we can have without a tremendous release of energy.

When mankind learned to split the atom we discovered perhaps the most powerful force available to the natural man.  Scientist will tell you today that they do not know what holds the nucleus of an atom together.  There is, however, a more powerful force in the universe which is the powerful Word of God which is what holds the atom together.

Hebrews 4:12 says,

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

There is coming a day in which God is going to release His powerful Word and it is going to split forever the First Adam from the Second Adam.  As result there is going to be the greatest release of energy that the world will ever experience.  It will be so powerful that not only will our bodies be changed but sin will be dealt with and death will be swallowed up in victory and even all of creation will be changed and come into the glory of the Son's of God.  This change is going to occur in our atoms or in our atomic structure. Our DNA!

In the phrase, 'at the last trumpet'; the word 'at' in the Greek is the preposition 'in'.  In other words, we are going to be changed in the last trumpet.  Rotherhams' translation says that they are going to be changed during the last trumpet.  Phillips translation says as the trumpet sounds.

All of creation is waiting for someone to break through that veil of flesh, break through that limitation of the carnal mind and manifest the Christ nature.  This is the hope of all creation.

Paul says in 2 Cor. 3:15-18,

"Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.  But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."

Also in 2 Cor. 4:3-4 says,

"And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.  The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."

We have already read in Isaiah 25:6-9 that God is going to remove the shroud, the sheet, the veil that has blinded the minds of all people and in that Day every eye shall behold Him and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. But even now those who are in Christ Jesus have that veil already taken away and we reflect His nature as a standard and as a witness in order that He might judge the world.

When anyone makes Jesus Lord of their life that veil is taken away and the Spirit begins to reveal the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ to that person.  The degree that you have made Jesus Lord of your life will determine the degree of the revelation of Him in your life. Let me say this another way.  Your understanding of the mysteries of the Word of God is an indication of the extent that you have made Jesus Lord of your life.  Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would take those things that were His and reveal them to us. 

We are being changed, or transformed into His likeness or nature with an ever increasing manifestation of His likeness. Paul said in Romans 12:1-2,

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.

This change will never begin to operate in you as long as your mind is blinded by the traditions of man.  This change begins in your spirit and flows into your soul by the renewing of your mind and finally into your body which will be changed.  This change comes from within and not from without.

So, then, the question we must all answer is, How willing are we to allow the Spirit of the Lord to renew our minds. If you deny the Holy Spirit and depend upon your carnal mind to understand the things of God you never will be able to understand the true meaning of God's Word. His Word has been recorded in spiritual terminology and only the Holy Spirit can reveal to you its true meaning.