cause
as He is so are we in this world" (1 John 4:17).The Oneness of God & Man
"But in the last days it
shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be
established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills,
and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, come, and
let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob,
and he will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law
shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem"
(Micah 4:1-2).
These verses begin by stating that in the last
days something is going to come to pass concerning the house of the Lord. It
does not say in the next age, or after Jesus comes back, but it says in the
"LAST DAYS". We have been in the last days ever since the New
Testament was written (1 John 2:18). Most of the time it seems that we tend to
put everything of God off into the future, but we must begin to realize that
the last days began with the resurrection of Jesus from among the dead. We are
now in the last days and are beginning to awake out of our sleep as the glory
of the Lord is beginning to arise within us. "Let God arise and His
enemies be scattered" (Ps. 68:1). All of our enemies, no matter what
they are, will fall at our feet when God arises within us.
It has now been over 2000 years since Jesus came
forth from the grave or in God’s way of timing, two days. We are now entering the third day since
Jesus paid the price for sin. As you recall, it was on the third day that Jesus
came forth from the grave. We are
entering into the set time of the Lord when He is coming forth in His people.
This is the time of the manifestation of the Christ within His people. Acts 2:18 speaks of this,
“In the last days, God says, I
will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men
will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my
Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.”
We are living in a time when the Spirit of the
Lord is rising up within a people who have awaken as to who they really are.
This is what the Lord was talking about when He said that the mountain of the
house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains and people
shall flow unto it. It is very important that we know what the house of the Lord is? Many people think
that the house of the Lord is a temple or a building on the corner. The New
Testament teaches us that the believer is the temple of God.
"What? Know ye not that
your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of
God, and ye are not your own?" (1 Cor. 6:19).
"What agreement has the
temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God, as God has
said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God and they
shall be my people" (2 Cor. 6:16).
"In whom all the building
fitly framed together grows unto a holy temple in the Lord: in whom you also
are being built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit" (Eph.
2:21-22).
If you know that you are the house of the Lord, the temple
and habitation of God, then these verses are very important for you to receive
revelation on, because in the last days in which we are living, the mountain of
the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains. What this means in simple terms is that in
the last days, the house of the Lord, which is His dwelling place, His abiding
place, His habitation, His people, is going to be established in the highest
revelation of the knowledge of God ever known to man. God is going to reveal
His fullness in a people that will fulfill His purpose on the earth. God
commissioned man in the very beginning to take dominion over the earth and
subdue it.
"And God said, Let us make
man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish
of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the
earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth" (Gen.
1:26).
The Old Testament Tabernacle built by Moses was a
type and shadow of the real temple, which is God dwelling in His people. There has
been, and still is, somewhat of a veil over even the present day saints of God
when it comes to seeing the full reality of this heavenly vision. God wants to
fully reveal, live, and manifest Himself in His people. This is what Moses saw
and experienced when he was on the mountain. When he came down, his face shined
with the glory of God and he put a veil over his face signifying that the
people were veiled to the full reality of God manifesting in his people at that
time.
In the establishment of the New Testament
churches, the Apostle Paul was ministering this truth of Christ in you
everywhere he went. Soon after the first Apostles died, the Church fell into
religion and apostasy. Ever since, God has been recovering His people back to
His original design, intent, and purpose for them. He wants His people to come
to an understanding that He is not just a God way up on another planet
somewhere to worship. The revelation that God wants to bring to His end-time
people is that they themselves are a vessel or container, to contain all and
everything that God is. Ever since the Church fell in the Dark Ages, God has
been recovering His people, giving them more and more insight, knowledge, and
revelation of His Word. This was to bring us to the last days, when the
mountain of the Lord’s house would be established in the top of the mountain.
Whenever God talks about the last days and He
mentions His house, He is not talking about a temple built according to the Old
Testament pattern in Jerusalem. Today, the house of God, the temple of God, the
habitation of the Spirit, is you and me, not a temple made with human hands.
When God says that in the last days He is going to establish His house in the
top of the mountain, it is symbolic of a higher consciousness of God coming to
His people. When John saw visions in the book of The Revelation he was taken to
a great and high mountain, which simply means God opened his consciousness, his
awareness, his understanding, to be able to reveal to him deep spiritual truths
that could not be understood with the carnal, or natural mind. God uses
symbolic language so that it takes a spiritual mind to interpret spiritual
truths.
In the last days, the highest revelation and
knowledge of God is to be revealed to His people. That revelation is that we
are becoming by experience, day by day, and moment by moment, from one degree
of glory to another, the habitation and dwelling place of God. We are going to
come to such a realization, such a conscious awareness of God in us, that we
will begin to walk in the resurrection power of God. What is meant by a
conscious awareness of God?
When you were brought into this world you
gradually became conscious of who you are as an individual person. Your parents
taught you their concept of who you should be by their understanding of who
they are. If they are mistaken about who they are then that which you are
taught is a lie and not the truth. As a result, I become separated from God in
my understand because I have believed the lie that I am separated from
Him. My mind is carnal which simply
means (by implication) human nature (with its
frailties (physically or morally) and passions). With my carnal mind it is
impossible to understand the things of God because they have to be spiritually
discerned. Paul said in 1Cor. 2:14,
“The man without the
Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are
spiritually discerned.”
When we try to understand the things of God by our intellect we are subject to misunderstanding what they mean because we can only understand the surface meaning of what is said. In order to understand the real meaning they must be revealed to your understanding by His spirit that dwells, or lives, in you. Jesus said in John 14:15-17,
“If you love me, you will obey
what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another
Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept
him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives
with you and will be in you.”
If we are honest, we will admit that our natural
man is even at times hostile toward God. The consciousness that you have of
yourself, of your weaknesses, your ungodly habits, your inability to live
godly, your sins, this consciousness keeps you separated in your mind from the
life of God in your spirit, which is your true identity.
Those who are truly seeking God in these days are
going to be caught up into such an awareness, such a consciousness of the
Spirit of God within them, that the old man, that old personality that is
separated from God, is going to fall into the ground and die, and the New
Creation Man, the real you, is going to come alive in the reality of
being one with God. We are going to come into such an awareness of who God is
in us, and what we contain, that those habits and shortcomings and our
rebellions are going to just fall away. We are all in these days experiencing more
awareness of the Spirit of God within us, and this consciousness is going to
increase until the Spirit of God saturates and permeates every cell of this
body until death is swallowed up by life (Romans 8:11). But if the Spirit of
him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ
from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth
in you.
"And all mine are thine, and thine are mine;
and I am glorified in them"
(John 17:10).
"When He shall come to be glorified in His saints and to be
admired in all them that believe" (2 Thess. 1:10).
Jesus said, "I am glorified in them."
There is another verse in 1 John 3:2 that says,
"Now are we the sons of God, and it does not
yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when He appears we shall be like
Him for we shall see Him as He is."
We have
the concept that this means when we see Him come out of the heavens we’re going
to look at Him and then be changed to be like Him. This is a fallacy. Right now,
if He was to split the eastern sky and appear physically, you may see Him and
fall on your face in shame and not be like Him (1 John 2:28). You would be
exactly as you are now. However, when you really see Him as He is, God
manifested in the flesh, the appearing of the fullness of the Spirit of God in
you, then you will be like Him. To see Him as He is, is to be like Him.
Oh, how we need to understand that Jesus is coming
to be glorified, revealed and manifested in you and me. God today is building a
house, and that house is his people, and in the last days this house is going
to be fully revealing God manifested in the flesh, the One New Man of Ephesians
2:15, and the Perfect Man of Ephesians 4:13. When He appears, we shall be like
Him, because He is going to appear within His people. The seed of God is
growing within us and this seed is about to be harvested. The end-time harvest
speaks of maturity. You do not harvest a field until it is mature or ripe.
There are people on the earth today who are coming into maturity and will
manifest the glory of God such as has not been seen since the first manifested
son Jesus was on the earth. He was the first-born among many brethren (Romans
8:29).
Paul told the Ephesian church that Jesus was going
to present to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, but holy
and without blemish. Christ will come, not for a glorious Church, but
in a glorious Church. Jesus will not come to rule and reign on the earth
until He first is ruling and reigning within His people.
"I pray for them: I pray
not for the world, but for them whom you have given me; for they are yours, and
all mine are yours and all yours are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now
I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you.
Holy Father keep through your own name those whom you have given me, that they
may be one as we are one"
(John 17:9-11).
In these days, the highest revelation of God ever
known to man is being revealed to and in the Church. We are beginning to
realize our oneness with God. Jesus said in John 12:24,
"Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground
and dies it abides alone, but if it dies it brings forth much fruit. He that
loves his life will lose it but he that hates his life in this world shall keep
it unto eternal life."
When you as an individual are willing to fall into
the ground and die, you will begin to realize the oneness you have with God. We
must die to the carnal way of thinking, we must give up our beliefs of being a
mere human separated and alienated from the life of God that is within us.
According to the Word of God, we have within us the divine life and nature of
God, the same life that raised Jesus from among the dead, yet we live as mere
carnal men. We are beginning to have our minds renewed and unveiled to the
reality of the in-dwelling Spirit of God. When our limited human beliefs fall
into the ground and die, the resurrected mind of Christ begins to operate in us
and we find that we naturally walk in the power of the gospel. This is a
progressive operation that causes us to experience being transformed daily from
one degree of glory to another. We are finally beginning to experience that
"Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world." It is no
longer I that live, but Christ that lives within me.
How could Jesus, when He was on the earth living
in a human body, do what He did? How could He overrule nature? How could He
heal the sick and raise the dead? Because He knew who He was and where He came
from. He knew that He was one with His Father, God. He knew that the divine
life and nature of His Father flowed through His being. He was aware and
conscious of who He was, so He could heal the sick and raise the dead. Just as
sure as Jesus was aware of the divine life within Him, so we too can come to
know and experience that life that abides within us. The Apostle Paul told the
Ephesians that the Church is the fullness of Him who fills everything
everywhere with Himself. Within us dwells the fullness of God.
When His disciples said to Him to send the
multitudes away because they did not have enough food, Jesus said to them,
"You feed them." Why could they not feed the multitudes? Why can’t
we? Because we are self- conscious. We are fully aware of who we are. We know
from experience that we cannot curse a cancer and see it die. This person Gary
that is a natural person with a natural character cannot possibly heal the sick
or raise the dead. Why? Because the natural man receives not the things of the
Spirit of God, for they are spiritually discerned. If we have five loafs and
two fish, we cannot possibly feed a multitude. However, if Jesus was here, we
know He could do it, because He was fully aware and conscious of the fact that
He was God manifested in the flesh. He knew the full reality of being one with
God. Oneness means one, not many. "HEAR OH ISRAEL, THE LORD THY GOD IS
ONE LORD" (Dt. 6:4). One, not two. There is only one God, one Lord,
one faith, one baptism. This one Lord is to be revealed in His many-membered
body. There is one body and one divine life that flows through that body.
John said in 1 John 4:2-3,
"Every spirit that confesses not that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh is not of God, and every spirit that confesses that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God"
The word, ‘come’ means to be manifested. (Stronges
G2064) Every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ is, meaning now,
manifested in the flesh…….Don’t be afraid of the term "God manifested in
the flesh". The Apostle John said this is how you tell the spirit of
antichrist. (1 John 4:2-3). God today is still being manifested in the flesh.
Everything that Jesus is, everything that He accomplished, victory over sin,
the world, the flesh and the devil, is now deposited on the inside of our being.
The resurrected life of Jesus Christ is deposited on the inside of us. Oh, let
us seek God for a revelation of this reality, "Jesus Christ in you the
hope of Glory". The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead now
empowers us for His purpose, to reconcile all of creation back to Himself. The
Church is just beginning to come into the awareness of being the manifestation
of God in the flesh. Don’t be afraid of that. Paul told the Ephesian church
that "We are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh." This
is the great mystery of "Christ and the Church" (Eph.
5:30-32).
I am not a God and I will never be a God. We must
lose that false sense of self that keeps us separated in our consciousness from
God. What I am is simply a vessel, and as a vessel I express what I contain. If
I am full of lust, greed, bitterness and hate, then when you get around me I am
going to express whatever I contain. I am simply a container, and whatever I
receive in my daily life I will express when you are around me. Jesus said, "Out
of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Mt. 12:34). You will
express what you contain. You may try to hide it, but eventually it will be
revealed. I am nothing but a vessel made to contain and express God. If I serve
sin, if I am under the bondage of the law of sin and death, then that is what I
am going to express; I can’t help it, it is just natural for me to express what
I contain. I do not need to try to do it; it just comes naturally. I am nothing
but a container to express what I have received into myself.
That is what happened to man in the Fall. He
received a life that was alienated and separated from God. There were two trees
in the Garden, and man was created to eat from the tree of life and be filled with
and express the life of God. Instead, he partook of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, and received a false sense of a self-life that was separated
from God. He became separated in his mind and consciousness from God, and
therefore he could no longer fulfill God’s purpose for him. Man ended up in the
garden as a vessel containing the wrong life.
If I begin in my daily life to receive the Word of
God as the bread of life, if I begin to be filled up with love, joy, peace,
long suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, then when you are around me I
will express the attributes of the Spirit of God. When I begin to experience
even in the smallest way the Water of Life, the Bread of Life, the Fellowship
of Life, the Flowing of His Divine Life, I will begin to become consciously
aware of His Spirit within me, and less aware of that false sense of self that
keeps me separated in my mind from that life in my spirit. Flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Jesus said that if you will save your life
you will lose it, but if you lose your life you will truly find it (Mt. 16:25).
When you lose your limited personal sense of life, you will begin to experience
the abundant, flowing, unlimited life of God Himself. If you are willing to
give up that self-life, you are going to gain a life that knows no bounds or
limitations, a life that knows no pain, no sickness, no disease and even no
death. However, remember that this is a progressive revelation. Paul says that
we are changed from one degree of glory to another, day by day.
Jesus said in John 6:48-51, "I am the
bread of life that came down from heaven—that a man may eat thereof and not
die." You may say He was talking about spiritual death, but he was
not. He said, "Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and they are
dead." He was talking about physical death. He said your fathers ate
manna and are dead, but if you eat of the bread that comes down from heaven you
shall never die. I personally believe that there have been many men and women
down through the ages who have learned to properly eat of the bread of life and
have never died. We know of at least two men in the Bible who walked with God
and never died. If it happened to two, then it can happen to many. I believe
that those who are the overcomers in these days are going to learn how to eat
the bread of life.
We are
going to learn how to receive and assimilate the life of God into us and become
transformed into His likeness and image. We, God’s people, have fed on
doctrines and an intellectual belief that has divided and separated us from the
reality of living by the life of God that is within us. By learning how to
properly feast on Jesus as the bread of life, we will grow up into Him in all
things and become the One New Man of Ephesians 4. Jesus said also in John 6:57,
"As the living Father has sent me and I live by the Father, so he that
eats me shall live by me." If we are not living the same kind of life
that Jesus lived while He was on the earth, then we have missed the kernel of
the Gospel. We are not saved so that we can go to some far off place when we
die. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation and
deliverance from the bondage of sin and death.
If we learn to feast on the heavenly bread, we
will never die. We will become so conscious of the Spirit of God within us, we
will become so aware of who God is in us, that nothing of the Fall will be able
to touch us. 1 John 5:18 says, "We know that whosoever is born of God
sins not, but he that is begotten of God keeps himself, and that wicked one
touches him not." I believe this is a message for the end-time Church,
that if you eat of the bread that comes down from heaven you will never die.
The most important thing is to become consciously aware of the Spirit of God moving
within you, and to become less and less aware of that old man, that old person,
that self that is separated from God.
"I have given them thy
word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as
I am not of the world. I pray not that you should take them out of the world,
but that you should keep them from the evil. They are not of the world even as
I am not of the world. Sanctify them through the truth; thy word is truth"
(John 17:14-17).
Jesus prayed that we would not be taken out of the
world, but that we would be kept from the evil. He stated twice, "They
are not of the world even as I am not of the world." Are you of this
world? Jesus said His people are not of this world. We are not of this world.
We have in our being the uncreated, indestructible seed of God, and that seed
is beginning to grow, and the more that seed grows, the more consciously aware
we are of the life of God within us, and less aware of the carnal self life
that is separated from God. The natural man is only conscious of being born of
natural parents and having a natural life that cannot live a holy consecrated
life that conforms totally to the life of God. Even after having a salvation
experience, it may take quite some time before you begin to experience the life
of God being the overcoming one within you. The natural man is of the earth,
but the spiritual man is of heaven. As we have become a natural man through a
natural birth, we become a spiritual man through being born of the Spirit.
We are one with God, not according to the natural
birth, not in our carnal mind or nature, but in our spirit. This natural man
must put on the spiritual man. The Apostle Paul says it this way: "Put
off the old man and put on the new man which according to God is created in
righteousness and true holiness" (Col. 3:9-10). When we put on the new
man, we are no longer subjected to the carnal desires of the old man. We are no
longer of this world, but become one who lives in the kingdom of God, having
the life of God manifested through us. "Know you not that your bodies
are the temple of the Holy Spirit and that Christ in you is the hope of
glory?" (1 Cor. 3:16, Col. 1:27).
"Neither do I pray for
these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. That
they all may be one, as you Father are in me and I in you, that they also may
be one in us: that the world may believe that you have sent me" (John
17:20-21).
In these verses, Jesus prays that they all may be
one. Who are all of them? It was not only those whom he was talking to on that
day, but also us. All who would ever believe through their word, that all of us
would be one.
I want to use a phrase here that most Christians
would not use because cults use it all the time. We should not be afraid to use
something just because cults use it. After the New Age movement began to use
the rainbow, some Christians said that we should no longer have rainbows on our
cars because someone might think we are New Age. I am for using anything that
is of God, even if the devil himself was to use it. What Jesus was talking
about here, "That they all would be one, not only these here but all
those who would believe down through the ages, that they all would be one as
you Father are in me and I in you," (and here comes the phrase) is a
universal God consciousness.
Many are afraid of the phrase "God
consciousness". I have heard it said that if you are ever in a group that
talks about God consciousness, you need to get out of there because it’s a
cult. I would ask this question, which would you prefer to be, God conscious or
self conscious? Would you rather be conscious of your self, your weaknesses,
your failures, your inability to live godly, or would you rather be God
conscious? Wouldn’t you rather be aware of the Spirit of God in you to fulfill
and to meet all the righteous requirements of the law?
We should have such an awareness of God and such a
consciousness of God with every believer in the universe. The life of God in me
is the same life of God that is in every other believer. Paul says in Ephesians
4:13, "until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and the knowledge
of the Son of God; unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ."
Why do not most believers see angels, as they did
in the early days of the New Testament Church? Why are we not communicating
with angels and them with us? In the early days of the Church, it was common
for angels to communicate with the Saints, to enter prisons and lose them from
their bonds. Even in the Old Testament, God’s people communicated with the
angels. The early Church had more of a conscious awareness and an open
communication with the heavenly realm than we have today. The main reason we do
not have communication with heavenly beings is because of all the fear of being
deceived that has been taught in the Church. We are so afraid of being deceived
that we are not open to heavenly visitations.
We are entering into such an exciting time in the
Church in these days. Jesus said, "It is your Father’s good pleasure to
give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32). He also said, "Seek ye
first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be
added unto you" (Mt. 6:33). How do we begin to experience the kingdom
as a reality in our life? The kingdom of God is wherever God rules and reigns,
and we begin to experience it by becoming more and more consciously aware day
by day and even moment by moment of the Spirit of God filling us and being the
Lord over every area of our lives. He is everything to us and through us.
If I take thought for or become anxious for what I
need, I will cut off the supply of the Spirit. However, if I will simply enter
every day into that sweet fellowship with God, if I will become consciously
aware every day of the quickening power of His Spirit in my spirit, then that
contact with the Spirit of God within me supplies me with everything in the
natural that I need. Jesus said, "Take no thought for what you shall
eat or drink nor for your body what you shall put on" (Mt. 6:31).
Why did He say this? Because we must center everything that we are on seeking
the reality of God manifesting His life as us. We must get to know Him
intimately.
For years in the Church, we have talked about
being filled with the Spirit, yet we have experienced very little. When we are
truly filled with the Spirit of God, then we will live as Jesus lived while on
the earth.
"He that says he abides in
Him, ought himself also to walk, even as He walked" (1 John
2:6).
"Herein is our love made
perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because
as He is so are we in this world" (1 John 4:17).
When we are truly filled with the Spirit, we will be
so in love with humanity that anger expressed toward us will be absorbed with
no negative reaction. Do you not long for the day when we will be so full of
the love of God that we will not react in the natural man but in the Spiritual
man? We must learn to forgive as Jesus forgives.
"That they all may be one, as you Father are
in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe
that you have sent me" (John
17:21).
Just by this verse alone we can understand why the
world does not believe, why they laugh and criticize. We all claim to be
Christians and have Jesus living in us, yet we are so divided. Christ is not
divided, and when the Spirit of God begins to arise in you, you will not be
divisive either. The Church is divided because most have not experienced the
life of God flowing within them. Oh, how we need to have the veils removed from
our spiritual eyes that we might see! The Spirit of God in you is the same
Spirit of God in all believers. When that Spirit begins to grow, there are no
barriers of denomination, race, or anything else to divide us. We are all
one in Christ. There are two prayers that the Apostle Paul prays in the
book of Ephesians that we need to spend some time with every day until we begin
to experience them: Ephesians 1:17-23 and 3:14-21.
O Father, open our eyes that we may see that
revelation, that the eyes of our heart and understanding would be enlightened,
that we may know what is the hope of your calling, and what are the riches of
your inheritance in the saints and the power of your resurrection life coming
alive on the inside of us. O God, may my eyes be opened to your indwelling.
God, I ask not for many things, but I ask for an understanding of who you are
in me.
We can know that the same resurrection power that
raised Christ from the dead now dwells and operates within us. Romans 8:10
says, "That if the Spirit of Him who raised Christ from among the dead
now dwells in you, then He that raised Christ from the dead will also give life
to your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in you." We can become
so aware of the Spirit of God within our bodies that our bodies will know no
sin, disease, sickness or death.
In the last days it shall come to pass, that the
mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the
mountains. We should not be looking so much on the outward things that are
going on in the world, but look to the house of God, the tabernacle of the Most
High. Jesus said the kingdom of God comes not with observation, for the kingdom
of heaven is within you. In these days, it is more important what is happening
on the inside of us. The Spirit of God should be more and more a reality within
us every day. We should be growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord.
We Christians say we believe the Word, we confess
the Word, we stand on the Word, yet where is the reality of that? Do we really
believe and confess all the Word, or just what we want? Do we really believe
that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead now dwells within us? Do we
believe according to Romans 8 that "all the righteousness of the law
can be fulfilled in us who walk according to the Spirit"? God created
man so that He might have a vessel to contain and express Himself and to reveal
and manifest Himself in human vessels.
"And the glory which you have given to me I
have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one" (John
17:22).
How many times have you heard it said, "You
better be careful not to touch God’s glory"? God pours out His glory on
His sons. The glory of God is the revealing and the manifestation of God.
Wherever God is manifested or revealed, there is His glory. Hebrews tells us
that Jesus is the express image and the brightness of the glory of God. We have
the image and expression of God imprisoned within us. What is it that keeps the
water of life from flowing out of us? Why is not the fullness of God being
expressed in us? The thing that hinders the expression of God is self
consciousness. We are so conscious of the fact that we cannot do it. Jesus said, "The glory you have given to me I have given to them."
That makes us nothing in ourselves. We are simply containers. The shining of a
light bulb is the glory of the electricity. The light bulb in itself is
nothing. The electricity is the energy; the bulb is only the container but gets
to express the glory of the electricity.
Let us continue to seek God
until we awake fully in His likeness, and remember, "When He appears
we shall be like Him, for we shall see him as he is" (1 John
3:2).