“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (NIV, 1 Corinthians 3:11, italicized mine)

BROKEN FOUNDATION

Born out of fatherlessness, fear, and wounds, the “foundation” of the empty way of life handed down through the generations in recited creeds and statements of faith, and practiced in traditions, are a patchwork of man-made beliefs at odds with themselves and one another.

They’re man’s attempt to understand and perceive through the natural senses what can only be understood and experienced in intimacy with Christ.

They’re a system of beliefs made from the earthly elements of this world, unconnected to bedrock, Jesus Christ.

They’re empty, barren, lifeless – redirecting desire for intimacy with Christ to a system of beliefs and rituals.

Their cracked and broken ways have become more obvious in the last days as Christ labors to prepare a bride.

Creeds, statements of faith, and many traditions are the natural fruit of wounds and brokenness grasping at the divine in the only way “they” know to gain identity and destiny.

It is not the creeds we profess, the beliefs we espouse, or the traditions we practice, that give recognition to Christ, “the peaceable fruit of righteousness,” but relationship, intimacy, and connection with the eternal one.

It is he, and he alone who gives you and me our true identity and promised destiny.

Creeds, statements of faith, and traditions don’t move the heart of God to seek us.

Maybe, they are better understood when seen from the perspective of God; who searches us out, not because of what we believe, state as our faith, or practice as a ritual, but because of his great love and care in who we are and who we can become in him.

It is his love for his creation, to heal our wounds and brokenness, and his intense desire for fellowship, drawing him to you and me.

His offer is intimacy, to know him deeply, and he, us.

To share his heart and life with those he “redeemed” in being made perfect, becoming our Savior; our living, breathing, sacrifice; the Messiah in flesh and blood, presented to Israel for over three years (Hebrews 5:7-10).

And then, going to the uttermost, confirming and testifying to what he said, and who he was, by “purchasing,” spilling the New Testament in his blood (his life, Matthew 26:28, John 6:53-63), for those who would seek forgiveness for killing their King.

It is love and intimacy drawing Christ to you and me.

And it is love and intimacy he desires in return.

It is by grace through faith we are changed from glory to glory, by the “water,” “Spirit,” and by his “blood.”

This is what makes us whole and holy in the revelation of the Word of God in our hearts and minds by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

The patchwork of foundational beliefs in creeds and traditions handed down through the centuries will not change you from glory to glory, but, instead hinder you in understanding the principles of Christ and the plan to be made in his likeness through the journey he pioneered.

Creeds, statements of faith, and traditions will not buy you anything in this late hour of church history.

Their value has always been at odds with their asking price of false security and separation from the eternal one.

And now, even more than ever, they are at odds with the King of glory who is laboring to birth deep intimacy in those who desire to go through the “open door” of Philadelphia.

They hinder intimacy and connection with Christ just as they would for anyone who longs to be loved, and love, in the care and intimacy of their Savior.

When people are in love their eyes, words, and countenance tell the story of their love for one another better than anything else.

Love is not defined by man-made recitals and practices, as the Song of Songs clearly portrays describing the love of Christ for his bride, and she for him:

“You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.

How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much more pleasing is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume more than any spice!

Your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb, my bride; milk and honey are under your tongue. The fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain.

Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits… You are a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon.”

And she responds, “Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread everywhere. Let my beloved come into his garden and taste its choice fruits.” (NIV, Song of Songs 4:9 – 16, italicized mine)

Jesus desires to taste our choice fruits and multiply them, not only advancing the kingdom of God in us, but in others.

The journey begins with the birthing of Christ in you and me – the lavish love and care of God in healing our wounds and brokenness, becoming vessels for the master’s use. 

The structures of man-made creeds and traditions, built some 1700 years ago, have in part withstood two major shakings of God – the Reformation and Pentecostal revivals.

But there’s a greater shaking, now, and coming, that will collapse their power once and for all as the winds and waves of revival usher many into the deep waters of God’s Spirit of grace and truth.

And many will have a new foundation built, one standing upon the Rock of Ages.

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In the fullness of time, Christ, “…born of a woman, born under the law…” “…fully human in every way…” came to put sin to death. (NIV, Galatians 4:4; Hebrews 2:17)

The Holy Spirit’s divine conception brought “…the grace that was to come…” – “…the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace…” that is, the means, to put sin to death “…once for all.” (NIV, 1 Peter 1:10, Romans 4:16, and Romans 6:10)

Christ stood in the stead of mankind, who could never offer themselves to be made perfect by God, being conceived into sin generation after generation by fallen men and women.

The divine conception provided the means – the grace of God – by which Christ put to death the enmity in his flesh passed to him from his human ancestry. (Ephesians 2:14 – 15, see an interlinear)

And in his death to sin (being made perfect before his ministry, fathered by God, becoming the source of our salvation, Hebrews 5:7-10), he:

• “…entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.” (NIV, Hebrews 9:12),
• offered himself by his own blood – his life “…unblemished to God…” by the Holy Spirit; putting to death the enmity in his flesh; cleansing his generations and, those who would be grafted “into” him – the tree of life restored for mankind (NIV, Hebrews 9:14),
• “…was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many…” (NIV, Hebrews 9:28),
• made us holy by the “…sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all…” (NIV, Hebrews 10:10),
• was seated at the right hand of the Father, having passed through the heavens (Hebrews 4:14); given all authority and power on heaven and earth; a name above every other name; having “…offered for all time one sacrifice for sins…” (NIV, Hebrews 10:12),
• “For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (NIV, Hebrews 10:14)

 

All of these references speak of the sacrifice of Christ by his own blood – the most intimate and emotional expression possible to describe the offering of the entirety of his life to God in putting to death generational transgressions and iniquities passed to him from his human ancestry.

These references do not speak of Calvary, but of his perfection.

God did not need the help of lawless men and women in making and offering a pure and holy sacrifice for the sins of mankind.

Christ was more than sufficient for that; in putting sin to death, being made perfect, he destroyed the barrier between his flesh and the law, making one new man out of the two.

If the Old Testament language is imposed on the New Testament, a newer and better covenant, then the heart of the New Testament, to heal and restore, not to kill, beginning with Christ first, the firstborn, is missed, and Calvary becomes the dominant theme, instead of Christ’s perfection, becoming the source of our salvation.

His perfection, becoming the living, walking, New Testament in flesh and blood, was accomplished before he entered ministry.

The one new man out of the two was not Jews and Gentiles, as many believe Paul was teaching in Ephesians, but Christ.

It was the free will offering of Christ, giving himself wholly to God, putting to death the enmity in his flesh, bringing an end to the free passage of sin from generation to generation, redeeming once and for all what man lost at the fall.

And in that offering, the sacrifice of his own blood to God, “his life,” to the uttermost, the first and only to do the will of God from the heart, completely, without sin – he opened the door for you and me to bring sin to death for our generations.

To deny the completed sacrificial Christ – the living, breathing, lamb of God – the atonement for sin in flesh and blood, having been perfected before ministry – would be to deny the signs, wonders, and miracles the Messiah accomplished for over three years in trying to win the hearts of Israel for a new and better covenant.

And, more importantly, it would be to deny the Scripture separating his journey to perfection, becoming the atoning sacrifice for our sins, before ministry, and his execution at Calvary, the rejection of who he had become, not who he would become.

Christ was the foreknowledge, predetermined plan of God, to make the perfect sacrifice for mankind’s sin – through the collision of generational sins passed to him through his humanity, with the grace of God conceived in his conception.

Christ brought generational sins to death, stripping them of their place, power, authority, and hold on his generations, without sin, becoming our Savior.

It was Christ’s perfection, the atoning sacrifice for our sins, the New Testament in flesh and blood, “the lamb of God John the Baptist saw three years earlier,” that drove his adversaries to kill him.

Calvary was the work of unrepentant lawless men and women, killing the perfect one, the Messiah, their Savior, having already atoned for their sins before he was presented to John for baptism.

Christ was the perfect sacrifice, and had been made perfect before he entered ministry, that’s why he was hated and rejected by those who could not stand to behold the beauty of God, his forgiveness, in the midst of their own sins.

His perfection provided forgiveness for those who would later repent for their lawless acts in killing their Messiah. (Matthew 26:28).

Jesus established a new language, a new way of understanding the kingdom of God from spiritual truths, not the old ways of the written letter, but the new ways of the letter written on the heart and mind.

Jesus said truth and life was in his blood, elevating them from the natural to the spiritual.

So, men and women would see and hear with the eyes and ears of their heart as a new creation, and not from the eyes and ears of their fallen nature.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ, triumphed, by grace through faith, in putting to death generational sin passed to him from his human ancestry, becoming the source of salvation; ushering in the New Testament in his blood “the living, breathing, Messiah, presented to Israel for over three years.”

IMPORTANT

God used the cruelty of man to his fellow man – the Roman crucifixion, “justice” meted by sinful man in a fallen world, designed to kill and destroy the gift of life – as a contrast to God’s way, the righteous way to mete justice for the sin of mankind, through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That by grace through faith, fathered by God, by the restraining power of the Holy Spirit, Christ put sin to death, utterly dependent upon God for healing and restoration, being made perfect before his ministry to Israel, the pioneer and finisher of our salvation.

And that process, the crucifixion of the enmity in his flesh – destroying the barrier between the flesh and the law – raised from mortality to immortality “newness of life,” is the pioneering work Christ patterned for his sons and daughters under the new and better covenant.

The Roman crucifixion was a mockery of justice, sinful men putting sinful men to death through the terror of torture, cruelty not fit to be called “humanity.”

The cross of Christ – the cross of the wilderness journey being made complete, fathered by God, becoming the atoning sacrifice for our sins (Hebrews 5:7-10), brought justice to generational sins – their death!

And in dying to sin, Christ the firstborn of the new creation, was raised from mortality to immortality “resurrection life,” and for those who follow in the footsteps of his journey.

Calvary, sinful man’s way of dealing with sin, is a sharp contrast to God’s righteous way, the cross of Christ, healing and restoring men and women from the power and slavery of sin.

The cross of Christ takes the life out of sin, not the life out of the sinner.

The cross of Christ brings sin to death, not the sinner.

Under the New Covenant, terms and phrases like cross, sacrifice, blood, crucifixion, are used to describe putting sin to death, and not the putting to death of the sinner, or in Christ’s case, they’re used to describe putting to death generational sin passed to him from his human ancestry.

Creeds and traditions fail to separate Christ’s perfection from Calvary, making the two one.

And in doing so, carryforward Old Testament language and concepts into the New Testament, nullifying the New Covenant’s power to heal and restore sinful men and women by confusing the work of grace in Christ with “killing” instead of “healing.”

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Contrary to what seems natural, staying put or taking what seems like the safe route, the safest place to be is on the front lines with Jesus.

Though the enemy be all around and about, if you’re with him, you’re in the safest place you could possibly be (Psalm 91).

Anything less than the position he’s called you to fill, be it on the ground, in the air, special operations, medic, support, etc., will subject you to warfare beyond your ability to defend, if your outside what he’s called you to be.

And he’s called every man and woman to be safely tucked away in him, where he assigns our provisions, and, our boundaries (Psalms 16 and 23).

He’s the only one who knows the enemy’s assault plans and our weaknesses – how to keep us safely in his care and love – leading the way “before” and watching and protecting the way “behind,” Psalm 139 verse 5.

This is not the age to be timid in Christ.

But to seek the Lord while he may be found, gaining Christ, transforming whole heartedness and holiness, advancing the kingdom of God in our lives, and in the lives of others.

The corporate body of Christ is nearing the end of the time God has allotted for what may be called the age of the Gentiles.

The Millennial reign of Christ is approaching.

It is likely some alive today will transition into the age to come – Heaven and the Millennium – as part of the bride.

And others also into the age to come, but through the “time of trials” unlike any in human history.

Human history, in relationship to God’s redemptive plan of salvation, is littered with the downfall of world kingdoms – Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.

And the seventh and final world kingdom, the Antichrist kingdom, will not only meet its’ own downfall, but it, and all the residue of the others, will become extinct.

Some say there’s nothing new under the sun, all things continue as they have with our fathers – accusations against God and his holy Word.

The bleached remains of past kingdoms and kings testify otherwise.

And one day soon, there will be another headstone in the cemetery of kingdoms for those in the Millennium to look back upon and see the certainty of God’s fulfilling Word.

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“He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed – the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.” (NIV, Romans 4:17)

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” (NIV, Romans 1:20, italicized mine)

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (NIV, 2 Corinthians 4:18)

“By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” (NIV, Hebrews 11:3)

THE CHRISTIAN PILGRIMMAGE – MIRACULOUS CHANGE

John 12:24 – 26

“‘Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Whoever serves me must follow me…’” (NIV, John 12:24 – 26, italicized mine)

Note

The actual Greek word for “many seeds” in verse 24 is “fruit.”

Jesus is not referring to a greater or more plentiful harvest of grain.

But to the miracle working power of God to take the “seed of grain” and make a completely new creation from it – the “fruits” of the summer harvest, spiritually speaking.

The fruits of the summer harvest (fruits, nuts, olives), the most sought after and anticipated harvest, can only come about from a truly “new creation;” one birthed by grace through faith in repentance and forgiveness, the fruits of righteousness.

It can only come about by transformation – the grain of barley and wheat transformed into a new nature so it can be grafted into the tree of life, i.e., born again and Pentecostal Christians transformed into fruit bearing trees of life.

Jesus is making the analogy between Israel’s agricultural year celebrated in three main harvests – the barley harvest, i.e., Passover, the wheat harvest, i.e., Pentecost, and the summer harvest of fruits, nuts, and olives, i.e., Tabernacles.

He’s comparing them to the Christian pilgrimage from beginning to end.

And he’s emphasizing the great prize of the agricultural year – the late spring and summer harvest of fruits, nuts, and olives – the third and final harvest.

It was the most fragrant, luxuriant, delightful, tastiest, and I might add the most nutritious, of the three harvests.

It also provided great variety, each fruit, nut, and olive having its own unique and distinct flavor and taste.

Jesus is using the natural so we can picture the spiritual, and the tremendous change and rewards of transformation in the summer harvest of Tabernacles from those who complete the journey in Christ.

Jesus is not saying there’s a caste system in Christianity.

But he is saying there’s a journey, being born again, baptized in his Spirit, and then the long journey of being made a new creation.

A truly transformed man and woman, grafted into the tree of life, the Lord Jesus Christ, harvesting the abundant and rewarding fruit of the Spirit (Romans 8:10 – 11, Galatians 5:22 – 24).

Jesus is saying, “The grain harvest will only produce more grains.

But, if the grain dies from reproducing its kind, i.e., if you allow the Holy Spirit to bring death to sin in your lives, the fertile ground of cleansed and healed areas will be grafted into me, the tree of life.

You’ll be transformed from a “grain” bearing Christian to a “fruit” bearing Christian through the long journey of the spring rains and summer heat.

The Spirit of God will transform your nature into my glorious nature through repentance and forgiveness for you and your generations by the deep work of grace in the revelation of me in your life.”

Only the Holy Spirit can take the grain areas in you and me, those areas justified by Christ’s atoning work, and transform them, by power of God, from producing more grain, to the glorious fruit of the Spirit.

This is a marvelous truth about the creative power of God, the dramatic change God can produce in the life of you and me.

To take our grain producing Christianity, the grain we produce year after year, from just keeping us alive in Christ, into a bountiful and abundant fruit bearing tree.

One filled to overflow, with the abundance and variety of God’s provisions, a source of life and fruit to advance the kingdom in others.

Only the Philadelphia church age offers the promise to take our “grain producing” and transform you and me into fruit bearing trees – bearing the mark of Christ, the mark of the Father, and the mark of the body of Christ.

Most of us have been taught grain producing is transformative, and wonder why it’s such a struggle to produce the fruit of righteousness, all the while the only seeds planted in our soil are grain.

And many of us have been taught God does not want to do much; so “we” stay planted in the fields of grain, content to produce barley and wheat harvests year after year.

But God greatly desires something much deeper and richer for you and me.

He desires to transform our nature, from reproducing in-kind (grain harvests year after year), to a totally new nature, one that can be “grafted” into the tree of life, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then, having a new nature, a new creation, new wine in new wineskins, you and I can produce a harvest of fruits, nuts, and olives through the long growing season of the late spring rains and summer heat.

Of course, I’m referring to the precious fruit of the Spirit that can only be birthed out of the new creation.

The good news of the Gospel is not just about being saved, fulfilling the feast of Passover, symbolized by the barley harvest, or baptized in the Spirit, fulfilling the feast of Pentecost, symbolized by the wheat harvest.

But a completely new nature, transformed into the nature of Christ, Tabernacles, symbolized by the summer harvest of fruits, nuts, and olives.

The promised deep work of grace to come, Tabernacles, brings an end to the reproduction of the “law of sin and death” in our members.

It destroys the barriers between the flesh and the law, so we can fulfill the law, which is spiritual, in our body, soul, and spirit (Romans 8:10-11, 1 Thessalonians 5:23).

THE PROMISED GRACE

The promised grace to come, the Christian pilgrimage, is symbolized by Israel’s agricultural growing season celebrated by the three main feasts, and their parts:

1. Passover, i.e., the Sabbath, Passover and Unleavened Bread, and, Offering of the First Fruits of the Land,
2. Pentecost, and,
3. Tabernacles, i.e., Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and, the Feast of Booths (Leviticus 23).

 

The grain harvests of barley and wheat symbolize the start of our Christian pilgrimage; the entrance into the kingdom of God and the teaching we receive in the early years of our journey.

When we enter the kingdom of God through the born-again experience our old nature is principally left intact.

Though many of us experience dramatic change when we’re “born again,” nonetheless, the deep and hidden areas of sin rooted in wounds and brokenness from our generations and otherwise, are left largely untouched.

Our hearts and minds can only handle so much change over so much time.

It takes time to understand what makes us tick; the structures of sin, wounds and brokenness; how they operate through agreements, vows, curses, beliefs, etc., and how the Spirit of God brings cleansing, healing, and restoration.

It takes time, a long time, for the Lord to do the hundreds of things he needs to do, to bring us to a place where he can perform the deep work of grace in our lives, for it to remain, grow, and prosper in him.

Upon Us

Today, the body of Christ is in the season of the “summer harvest,” and many are not aware transformation is needed to produce the final and third crop.

That without transformation, only grain can be produced.

That the feast of Tabernacles is here, now, present – the Philadelphia church age – the long growing season of “transformation and maturing” the “fruits,” of righteousness, reserved by the Lord for the last days.

The age of Sardis was the “season” of the new birth and the return of Pentecost, the New Covenant released from the stranglehold of the dark ages, fulfilling the Old Covenant feasts of Passover and Pentecost once again.

But those seasons have passed.

Today we’re in the season of Tabernacles, the season of promised miraculous transformation; changing our “grainy” natures into the nature of Christ, the fruits of the Spirit, through the revelation of Christ by grace (1 Peter 1:13).

The coming harvest and celebration of Tabernacles – when God completes the maturing of his bride – will attract the greatest ingathering of souls in the history of the New Covenant.

So much so, the impact is likened to a death wound to the Antichrist system.

It will come at a time when men and women are facing hardships on many fronts as sin comes to another time of fullness.

But, for those in Christ, those seeking the deep things of Christ, the promise of being fathered, cleansed and restored, a truly new creation, awaits those who seek the open door of Philadelphia.

It’s amazing what God prepared in types and shadows over four millenniums through Israel and others as “pictures” foretelling and prefiguring the journey and story of Christ, and those in Christ.

Israel was driven to killing their Messiah, because they could not explain his origin, how he came to be, fathered by God.

Christ was the first of the new creation; grafted into the tree of life, his Father; eating and feeding upon what they could not understand with their minds nor comprehend with their hearts.

They refused to let their sinful nature be transformed by the miracle working power of God, content to produce the same harvests year after year of the sinful nature.

Though saved, those who are born again, risk missing the greatest harvest of all, the harvest of the summer fruits, in the time of the summer fruits, if they forsake the call of the Spirit in this hour to be transformed by the power of God.

The hour of transformation is upon the Church, and many are partaking of the fruits of this season, but there are still many, for whatever reasons, still in the Outer Court or Holy Place, when the Spirit is calling them into the adventure and journey of Christ in the Most Holy Place.

Important

The law of the Spirit of life is ordained and designed to help the grain in us die, to be transformed into seed producing fruit, nuts, and olives – the peaceable fruits of righteousness.

Barley and wheat cannot be transformed and made alive in Spirit “the summer harvest,” without the miraculous work of God bringing death to sin, grafting you and me into the tree of life.

Simply, wheat and barley, though saved, and nutritious, cannot be grafted into the tree of life without a miracle transformation, and only Tabernacles is provided by God to bring that transformation about.

Christ

Christ was a different tree, producing different fruit, in an orchard full of dead trees producing bad fruit.

Christ was transformed, made perfect, mortality taking on immortality, walking in resurrection life, by a power they thought they knew, but had long forgotten.

They could see the fruits of the summer harvest in him, the first one to fulfill the feast of Tabernacles, the only one to fulfill it perfectly.

But they could not see how he was made; which drove them to kill him.

Because he did not come from the same tree as they, though he be from the same stock of humanity, tracing his human ancestry back to Adam.

Fully Human

Christ was fully human (Hebrews 2:17), born under the law by a woman (Romans 1:3, Galatians 4:4), tempted like everybody else (Hebrews 4:15), having enmity in his flesh like everyone (Ephesians 2:14-15, see an interlinear).

But, unlike everybody else, he was conceived in “grace” by the Holy Spirit, “starting life in grace;” predisposed to live life in grace, and not sin.

He started life like Adam before the fall (Romans 5:14, 1 Corinthians 15:42 – 49), unmarred by personal sin, unlike everybody else born of woman.

Yet, he was born with enmity in his flesh (generational transgressions and iniquities passed to him through his human ancestry).

And thus, the setting for the conflict of the ages, grace versus the law of sin, and we know which one won.

Christ at no time embraced the cravings of the enmity in his flesh, giving no place for lust to be conceived in his members – grace victorious and triumphant over the cravings within (James 1).

Fathered by God, he put generational transgressions and iniquities to death in his ancestral line (Isaiah 53:5), and, on behalf of all mankind.

Note The literal Hebrew in Isaiah 53:5 is “he and us” are restored.

He was made complete, perfect, becoming our Lord and Savior (Romans 6:10, Hebrews 5:7-10) – the atoning sacrifice for mankind’s sin.

An atonement fulfilling the feast of Tabernacles, so deep, complete, perfect, without sin (Hebrews 4:15), destroying the barrier between the flesh and the law (Ephesians 2:14-16, see an interlinear); the only way it can be described is as a blood sacrifice, the most intimate and emotional words possible for the giving of one’s life to God.

The story of being “born and becoming” King, Lord, Savior, Prophet and High Priest, an indestructible life (Hebrews 7:16) – is what God presented to Israel, their Messiah in flesh and blood, and what they rejected – a new and better covenant, fulfilled from the heart.

Note

1 Corinthians 15 is not about resurrection after physical death, but resurrection of the body this side of heaven, when sin is put to death, the new creation God designed for Adam Christ fulfilled, newness of life, Romans 6 and 8:10 – 11, 2 Corinthians 5, etc.

Having wounds and brokenness of his generations passed to him (Christ), inheriting their enmity of the flesh, transgressions and iniquities, (Ephesians 2:14 – 15, see in interlinear, and Isaiah 53:5), he was born to put sin to death once and for all, by the sacrifice of his own life to God.

The sacrifice “to God” – doing the will of God “from the heart.”

God ordained Christ to be a “living blood sacrifice,” not a “dead blood sacrifice,” (John 6:53 and Hebrews).

If we miss his story, we miss the heart of the Gospel – to put sin to death by the cross – the restraining power of the Holy Spirit to bring the works of the law to death.

This is the redemptive plan of God Christ pioneered for us by putting generational sin to death in his human ancestry.

Atonement did not come by way of the acts of lawless men, but the ordained plan and foreknowledge of God to bring an end to generational sin through the atoning sacrifice of Christ doing the will of God from the heart.

Again, the foreordained and foreknowledge of God was “Christ,” the firstborn of the new creation, to put sin to death once for all by the atoning sacrifice of himself to God, not the acts of lawless men nailing him to the cross (see literal Greek for Acts 2:23).

Christ was a living, breathing, walking sacrifice – the tree of life restored among the trees of death.

He was the New Covenant in flesh and blood offered to Israel for over three years; announcing and proclaiming the redemptive plan of God “accomplished in him” through signs, wonders, miracles, prophecy, teaching, and preaching.

Christ was born with the call to put sin to death once for all (Romans 5:18 – 19, and Hebrews 5:7 – 10, 7:27, 9:1 – 10:18) by the sacrifice of his life to God, a better and New Covenant, not the killing of his body, an abhorrent practice God condemned.

It’s the Covenant the Jews found repulsive, preferring a “dead” blood sacrifice, something unrepentant sin could see with the natural eye.

Which Christ provided as a last resort, choosing to be killed instead of killing, (though he could have chosen the later and not sinned), the sign of Jonah.

It was one last attempt to bring some to forgiveness (Matthew 26:28, John 6:51), because they refused to receive the love of the truth without seeing proof in the natural.

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You cannot be fully human and not have wounds and brokenness passed to you from your ancestry.

It would violate the laws God established in creation and at the fall, in-kind produces in-kind.

It is also opposed to the clear teaching of Scripture – the process of redemption in the promised grace to come starting with Christ first, the firstborn and first fruit.

And through his “new creation” journey, beginning at a young age, by grace through faith “the promised grace to come,” the Father led him step-by-step through the process of bringing death to sin to his generations, uprooting in Christ every plant his Father did not plant (Matthew 15:13).

It was accomplished by repentance and forgiveness, the miracle working power of grace to cleanse and heal wounds and brokenness, removing the barriers of sin to the law being fulfilled righteously by grace.

And that process, just like ours, requires the wounding and piercing of deeply rooted and hidden transgressions and iniquities for cleansing and healing.

Christ, by grace through faith, was transformed into the exact representation and likeness of the Father, and we, by grace through faith, are transformed into the likeness of Christ through his atoning mediation.

How is this accomplished?

It is accomplished by the “cross” of the promised grace to come (1 Peter 1:10 – 13).

The restraining power of the Holy Spirit bringing us face to face with wounds and brokenness (the conviction of transgressions and iniquities) and the great abyss between us and our ability to heal ourselves apart from God.

In the revelation of sin, and our utter dependence on God, grace comes to our rescue in the revelation of Christ to our wounds and brokenness.

He comes not in condemnation, but in like suffering; having already faced generational sins, he knows the power of sin and what it takes to cleanse and heal our wounds and sins from all ungodliness.

He comes to our wounds and brokenness by grace through faith to cleanse, heal, and restore the members of our body to the likeness the Father, the likeness the Father created in him.

It is Christ’s compassionate love and power coming to you and me in the age of Philadelphia, the feast of Tabernacles, to change us from the inside out, into his glorious nature in the adventure and wilderness of Christ.

Faced with wounds and brokenness beyond our ability to restore, anchored in sin, revealed by grace in the revelation of Christ, the Holy Spirit places his sons and daughters in a place of utter dependence upon him for rescue and redemption.

This is the deep work of grace God is doing today in those who seek him with all their heart.

Christ was the first to bear the cross in utter dependence upon God for healing and restoration.

He completed his journey perfectly, the pioneer and perfecter of the faith.

This is the cross of Christ pictured throughout the New Testament in Romans, Galatians, particularly Chapters 2 and 3, Ephesians Chapter 2, Philippians Chapter 2, throughout Hebrews, much of 1 Peter, and throughout the Bible.

The cross in these references, other than those referring to Calvary and killing, is the personal cross we must bear in putting sin to death.

None of us are exempt from the cross of Christ; to put sin to death, made alive in spirit, to walk in newness of life.

We are all called to follow him into Tabernacles, but many are unaware of the vision and calling of God to go deeper.

The Scripture is clear, Christ pioneered the process of being made complete, apprehending completeness without sin, made perfect, becoming our Savior, (Hebrews 5:7-10).

It’s a beautiful story of redemption, buying back that which Adam and Eve sold to Satan.

Christ redeemed what mankind lost, showcasing his redemption and the offer of redemption for over three years to Israel.

Israel refused and rejected the offer of redemption, but Christ did not refuse and reject them, giving them one last sign.

Israel refused the free will offering of “redemption,” so Christ went a step further, “purchasing,” those who reject him by offering them forgiveness in a death he was not required to do, having already atoned for sin in his perfection.

He is the first and only one to put the enmity in his flesh to death (Romans 6:10, Ephesians 2:14-16, see an interlinear) perfectly, without sinning, mortality becoming immortality, resurrection life (Hebrews 7:16), fulfilling all the law and the prophets spoke of him, the promised grace to come in flesh and blood.

And he was not about to ruin his testimony of resurrection life, healing and salvation, by taking up arms to kill those he had just spent over 3 years trying to save, choosing death, his own, instead of theirs, knowing some would come to forgiveness in the days and years to come.

Christ, the firstborn, first fruit, forerunner, pioneer, last Adam, of the new creation, today, to 21^st century Christians, is offering the journey of being made whole and holy to those who desire the deep things of God.

Let’s not be among those who don’t answer the knock at the door; instead, let’s be among those who seek the “open door” into the promised land of deep grace in the revelation of Christ. (Revelation 3, the age of Philadelphia).

Only the Philadelphia church age offers the open door into the deep well of grace, the opportunity to put sin to death, grafted into the tree of life “Christ,” receiving the name of God, Christ’s new name, and the bridal promise of new Jerusalem.

TREADING ON SNAKES AND SCORPIONS

John 3:14 – 15

“‘Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.’” (NIV, John 3:14 – 15)

It is, to say the least, contrary to Scripture, to take this passage literally and symbolically of Christ’s crucifixion at the hands of Rome.

That he would talk about being killed as being “lifted up” – implying, as many interpret, for mankind to be saved they will either need “to see or know” he was hung on a pole – literally crucified.

That Jesus would diminish the sin of murder, and the consequences of taking another’s life, as likened to being “lifted up.”

This is what man-made creeds and traditions produce over centuries.

That he who loved life, giving his life completely to the Father, having put generational transgressions and iniquities to death, raised to walk in “eternal life,” saving and healing others for over three years, would so minimize the act of killing a human being.

It is out of accord, context, and tenor of Scripture; implying God has to physically have his Son killed to save mankind.

And not in accord with other passages about Calvary, by Christ, and by others.

And out of context with what Christ said about those who were planning his demise, and what the Apostles said later about those who killed Christ.

Does the Scripture teach Christ was punished for our sins, or, that sins were punished, being put to death by grace through faith – see my next post.

Was it Christ’s physical death that brought salvation, or Christ’s death to sin?

Life or Death?

Creeds and traditions and the songs birthed from them, make Christ all about death.

That he comes to earth with one purpose in mind, to be killed, so mankind can be saved.

That the only way God can bring salvation to you and me is by the murder of his beloved Son at the hands of lawless men!

In distinct and sharp contrast to creeds and traditions, the Scripture presents a different story – the deliberate plan and foreknowledge of God in Christ, to put sin to death, not Christ.

That Christ came with one purpose in mind: to put generational transgressions and iniquities to death, the law of sin, “the enmity in his flesh,” handed down to him through his humanity, by the cross – the restraining power of the Holy Spirit.

Christ destroyed the barriers of sin passed to him from his human ancestry by grace through faith “the promised grace to come in flesh and blood.”

He made it possible to fulfill the law in his flesh, the firstborn of the new creation, gaining freedom from the defilement of the works of the law.

And in overcoming and putting sin to death in the temple of his body, being made perfect, cleansed, healed and restored completely to the likeness of the Father, fathered by God, he became the Christ God presented to Israel for over three years.

The restraining power of the Holy Spirit in Christ “the promised grace to come,” cleansed and healed Christ of generational agreements, vows, lies, bitterroot expectancies, curses, traumas, and every other form of sin and their fruit passed in seed form from generation to generation.

It was very complicated, taking years, for God to accomplish what he did in Christ, making him into his exact image and representation:

• Uprooting secret and hidden generational sins,
• Cleansing and healing the defilement from them,
• Creating the new nature – renewing the heart and mind and spirit – new wine in new wineskins,
• Relearning – learning faith by grace, obedience, being “made” one with the Father.

 

We read it in Scripture, talk about it as a process, and experience a measure ourselves, in our healing journey.

But, oh, the little truly understood absent sharing in the sufferings of Christ – the sufferings of putting sin to death.

Every priest in the making must offer something.

There is a discomfort – suffering – an “undoing” required to be made new from the inside out.

Isaiah called it “wounding, piercing, crushing,” i.e., making known the secret places of hidden sin, the restraining power of the Holy Spirit by grace through faith bringing them to death through cleansing and healing, being made alive by the Spirit to walk in new life!

Christ was made perfect, the Word made flesh, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth from the inside out, perfectly, completely, without sin.

And the life he apprehended in being made complete, eternal life, an indestructible priesthood, was fervent, life giving, and one he cherished beyond what you and I can imagine or think, we being born into sin.

He cherished life, doing everything possible to win Israel’s heart to the Father and usher in the Millennium.

He was salvation in flesh and blood, the blood sacrifice, the New Covenant, having the name above every other name, all authority, eternal life, there was no need for him to have to do anything else.

He fulfilled the law in wholeness and holiness, the fullness of God dwelling in him.

The Scripture presents a different Christ, a different Gospel, than the one presented in creeds and traditions, one focused on life, while creeds and traditions focus on death.

The Scripture is Clear, None Need Err

As I noted, likening the serpent and the pole to Calvary is out of context and tenor with other clear passages about Calvary, for example, the passage about the Temple of his body being “destroyed.”

Jesus said it is the enemy who comes to “‘…steal and kill and destroy…’” (NIV, John 10:10, italicized mine.)

Strong and harsh words are used in reference to Calvary for those who planned it and carried it out.

The influence of creeds and traditions – reaching out and taking every imaginable Scripture and pointing it to Calvary has corrupted the meaning of death in Scripture, and the meaning of life – demeaning Christ to someone who wanted to be killed.

Instead of someone who loved life, did everything possible to stay alive, win souls, and heal men and women.

The influence of creeds and traditions cast aside the clear Scriptural distinction of putting sin to death, the Heart of the Gospel, and killing someone.

They confuse the wrath of God against sin, putting sin to death in Christ, versus putting Christ to death, making God complicit in murder.

It’s a corruption of the Heart of the Gospel, to bring an end to sin, not by killing Christ, but by Christ killing sin.

Creeds and traditions have defiled Christ, who he became and what he brought, the redemption and pioneering work of the promised grace to come.

His comments about the Temple being destroyed, and the devil comes to destroy, are obviously at odds with his comment about being lifted up, i.e., sinful men and women embracing humility in the presence of the holy one who destroyed the enmity in his flesh, being made perfect.

Every other instance of Christ referring to the growing opposition and the desire to kill him includes words like kill, flog, the sign of Jonah, and in two parables, and the woes, near the end of his ministry, words like “murder.”

Christ did everything possible short of fleeing Israel, even hoping to dig around the tree another year (the parable of the barren fig tree) to spend more time with Israel, to avoid being killed.

Why would the Messiah in flesh and blood – the New Covenant walking in their midst, the tree of life planted again in the land of Covenant – desiring to usher in his Millennial reign, proclaim, for the Gospel to be effective and go out, he has to be lifted up and hung on a pole?

This is what the absence of deep intimacy and communion with the Lord has done to the understanding of Scripture, the plan of God, and most importantly, the heart of Christ and the Father.

Jesus said yeast would defile the dough and it has for almost 1700 years.

These are the conclusions drawn from creeds and traditions focused on Calvary, and not the journey of Christ being made perfect.

It’s tragic, beyond tragic;  creeds and traditions have had such a stranglehold on Christians for centuries about God and Christ, their Savior; barricading them from the deep truths of the faith Christ labored so hard to establish.

The deep truths of the faith to usher God’s sons and daughters into the journey Christ pioneered and patterned in the new creation.

If those who harmonize the four Gospels are correct, it is likely these words (about being lifted up, etc.) were spoken by Christ before the beginning of his first Galilean ministry – before strong opposition started to grow against him.

Whenever Christ talked about their plan to kill him, he referred to flogging, killing, spitting, the sign of Jonah, giving his flesh for the world (John 6:51), the shedding of his blood (Matthew 26:28), not about being lifted up and showcased as an invitation to the Gospel by being nailed to a cross.

The contradiction between creeds and traditions and the Scripture could not be any greater.

Calvary was anything but a showcasing of an invitation to the Gospel.

Jesus did not need to be brutalized, nailed to a pole, to have people flock to him and repent of their sins.

On the contrary, that’s what got him killed.

Because people were flocking to him, “lifting him up in their hearts,” finding God through him, repenting of their sins, returning to God.

Jesus did not need fallen man’s help to bring salvation to mankind.

Jesus was salvation in flesh and blood, alive and intact, whole and holy, freely giving life and health wherever he went.

John 12, Briefly

In John 12, when Jesus talked about being “lifted up,” near the end of his ministry, in reference to the “sign” he was going to give (the sign of Jonah, raised from the dead), he was referring to the position of the sinner’s heart in relationship to him, and the forgiveness to come through repentance.

He was not talking about being lifted up on a cross above the earth, but lifted up in the hearts and minds of fallen men and women through repentance out of a broken spirit and contrite heart.

The humbling of the fallen nature before him, who is life eternal.

The first glorification of Christ produced the New Covenant in flesh and blood to Israel for over three years, the Messiah, made perfect, the source of salvation.

The second glorification of Christ (John 12) would raise him from physical death, a death Christ endured to confirm and testify who he became, who they were called to become, and, the great abyss between him and they.

That the great abyss can only be bridged to him through their repentance and his forgiveness.

That even if it cost him his physical life (John 12:27, see an interlinear), he would not deviate from the Gospel to save and heal, the New Testament in his blood, eternal life in him, holding true to himself to the very end.

He came to this hour (John 12:27), because of who he was; not because of who he would become, be, or need to do for us to be saved.

Lifted Up

When Jesus talks about being lifted up, he’s referring to the position of the heart in relationship to him – heart transformation.

It’s putting away sin to be made new in spirit; Christ glorified in our thoughts, words, and actions, the making of the new man and woman in the Lord Jesus Christ.

He’s saying, when you humble yourselves before me, your Savior, the one who makes it possible for you to have relationship with the Father, and allow me access to your hearts, I’ll be lifted up and begin to graft you into me, life.

The Gospel is about life, putting sin to death, made alive in spirit, not about putting people to death.

Romans (and the rest of the New Testament) teaches Christ’s death to sin (not physical death), brought justification; and he, being raised to newness of life, from mortality to immortality, resurrection life, is what brings life to you and me.

This is opposite to what creeds and traditions teach.

Nothing changed at Calvary other than Israel given the sign of Jonah, one last outreach of Christ to God’s people.

It is Christ’s perfection, destroying the barriers between the flesh and the law, putting generational sin to death, that brings justification, and his life in God, life to you and me (Romans 5:10).

Death to sin only produces one thing, death to sin.

It takes the Spirit of God, by grace through faith to plant new seeds in the soil of our heart for new life in Christ, made alive by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:10 – 11).

Christ displayed the life of God for over three years.

And because they chose the “death” of the law, they put Christ to death rejecting the life of the New Covenant.

But Christ gave them another chance, the actual spilling of his blood, to show their sins, testifying and confirming who he said he was.

The conclusion of creeds salvation came by Christ’s physical death – his murder, that he was not sufficient in and of himself to save and heal, is in open opposition to the clear teaching of Scripture.

That his putting sin to death by the cross, the one he pioneered by grace through faith, the promised grace to come, fathered by God, is not sufficient for salvation, is contrary and opposed to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

These beliefs are contrary to the grace of God and the words of Christ he laboriously communicated over three years of ministry.

Fallen man prefers death to life, it’s written on his nature, and has allowed that to become part of the doctrines of the Church “lifted up” above Scripture.

It’s the same fight in the New as in the Old, the elevation of creeds and traditions above Christ.

Christ had to contend with it, and we do as well. It cost him his life.

Church teachings are centered on Calvary; the brutalization of Christ as the atoning work of an angry God punishing our sins on the man Christ Jesus.

When the Scripture clearly teaches God’s wrath is against sin, and it was satisfied in Christ, the man who put sin to death by his own blood (life) once and for all – sin brought to death by the wounding and piercing of transgressions and iniquities passed to Christ from his human ancestry.

Cleansed and healed in wholeness and holiness; the firstborn, first fruit, pioneer, last Adam, and author of the faith.

Christ did not need the help of sinful man to usher in salvation!

Christ was not suicidal, nor did he seek to be murdered, but did everything possible to give life, heal bodies, and win the hearts of men and women in offering forgiveness, teaching repentance and humility.

A Final Though About What He Meant

 John 3:14

This applies to men and women of all ages, and, particularly to those who find themselves in the last days.

“Just like Israel of old, in the wilderness season of your journey – the journey I pioneered and completed for me, and for you – you’ll experience the bite of sin, as you, fathered by God, bring it to death, by my grace and your faith in me.

You’ll feel the bite, ‘the effects and pain of sin;’ but do not fear; my grace will not only keep and sustain you in my care and love, but lift you into my presence as you permit me to free and cleanse you from sin and its effects.

I will heal and restore you in wholeness and holiness, just as I was healed and restored by my father, becoming your atoning sacrifice through my perfection.

You can have no other story to wholeness and holiness except the one I pioneered.

Just as I overcame the serpent in my wilderness journey for my generations and for me, crushing his head, through years of being fathered by God, learning obedience, I will crush the head of the serpent in your life as you submit to me.

I was made Victorious, Beloved Son, and you are my beloved Sons in me.

In those moments where sin is made known to you, and you feel “shaken” in the unveiling of the secret and hidden things of your heart, Remember, it is my grace at work in you bringing an end to your bondage and slavery.

As you humble yourselves, I will respond, it is my promise, I cannot deny my Word.

You must remember, this is a work of “grace,” the promised grace to come in Me; you cannot accomplish without me.

I am the only one who can break the power of sin in your life, cleanse and heal your wounds and brokenness, change you into my likeness.

I am the only one who can create that which appears, from that which does not appear.

I am the only one who can graft you into me, eternal life, to bear the peaceable fruit of righteousness.

When you look at me, my peace will sustain you; because my father’s grace in me, in the wilderness time of my journey, provided the “perfect” sacrifice for your sins.

I brought sin to death by grace through faith, and will bring sin to death in your life as you keep your eyes on me.

Just as the restraining power of the Holy Spirit in my life, my cross, placed me in complete dependence upon God for cleansing and healing from generational transgressions and iniquities, so to the work of grace by the Holy Spirit in you.

In your wilderness season, you’ll face wounds and brokenness far beyond your ability to cleanse and heal; their defeat will bear the fruit of intimacy between you and me as we war and share sufferings in overcoming the separating power of sin.

The transforming and creative work I do in you will bear fruit in their seasons; fruit to feed my other sons and daughters what they need to advance the kingdom in their lives, and in the lives of those I send their way.

When you lift me up, the promised grace to come, you see not only who I am, eternal life, but the story of transformation and sanctification I pioneered for me and you.

Keep your eyes on me and allow the Holy Spirit to continue the deep work of grace in your life and you will gain me, life eternal.”

MOVING BEYOND SPOILED BREAD

YEAST KNEADED THROUGHOUT THE DOUGH

Matthew 13:33

Commentators and translators struggle in their attempt to explain and translate a number of critical Scriptures about Christ and his humanity.

Of course, most are not aware of Christ’s journey, being made complete, before his ministry, because it’s absent from creeds, traditions, and statements of belief – everything having been pointed to Calvary.

Creeds came to fruition in the third and fourth church ages (Pergamum and Thyatira), through various teachings and councils (fourth and fifth centuries AD), just like Christ prophesied in Matthew 13 in the third and fourth parables (mustard seed and yeast).

(The tares are planted (2^nd parable); the mustard seed grows into institutionalized Christianity, the birds of the air (darkness) nesting in the tree (3^rd parable); yeast, a type of false teaching, spread throughout the Church (4^th parable).)

All but burying the knowledge of Christ’s personal journey and story; making him a “model,” instead of a man formed in the “fires of baptism” by the Holy Spirit over decades.

As I’ve repeated throughout my site, commentators and translators did the best they could with what they had in the seasons of light they were graced to live in.

Creeds and traditions do not stop the Lord, thank God!

As the glory cloud moves forward through the generations, and, especially, as the light from the Millennium begins to break dawn, the Lord accelerates the unfolding of greater and greater light as he labors to prepare those seeking him in the last days.

This is truly a remarkable season we find ourselves in today; leaving Passover and Pentecost, the Sardis church age, entering deeply into Tabernacles, the Philadelphia church age, the last stop before the Millennium.

(Laodicea, the lukewarm church, is concurrent with Philadelphia.)

He’s preparing many in the deep waters of his Spirit for intimacy with him, and, for the great harvest of souls to come in the latter and final rains of the Gospel age.

The old ways of understanding and moving in the Spirit will be insufficient to stay surfaced and navigate through the coming “winds” of darkness as the Spirit of God moves deeper and deeper in the hearts of men and women.

If there was ever a season to awaken and seek the deep things of Christ, pursue his righteousness for cleansing and restoration, now is the time.

Today, the Spirit of God is stirring the hearts of men and women to move toward him in greater and greater measure.

All is not well deep within many; the Lord desiring to heal and restore as many as will come in the closing age of the Church.

There’s an unparalleled cacophony of voices today, beckoning God’s sons and daughters to go this way or that way.

It will only increase in the days ahead as the body of Christ scrambles more and more to make sense of the discord in and out of Christianity.

The author of Hebrews warned his readers to go beyond the rudimentary principles of Christ; and if anytime that applies, certainly, it would apply in the last days; the time of the greatest harvest, the greatest work of grace, concurrent with the Great Apostasy.

And apostasy does not come from the unsaved, but the saved.

Let’s not be numbered among those who give up in the last hours of the battle, but, finish the race strong in Christ – by the deep work of grace in your life and mine.

Isaiah said, “but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (NIV, Isaiah 40:31)

He also said, “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD himself, is the Rock eternal.” (NIV, Isaiah 26:3 – 4)

The word for hope in verse 31 has the sense of being “bound,” “binding,” to the Lord.

In other words, being so connected with him nothing is able to shake you out of his hand.

Because you’re a part of him, and he’s a part of you; “you know him,” and “he knows you” in intimacy, care, and love.

The depth of a relationship like this cannot come about through our own decisions and strength.

But only through the intense transforming power of grace in the inner man and woman; rescuing and redeeming you and me from  deeply anchored sin in our wounds and brokenness.

Commentators, translators, and creeds and traditions, and all the beliefs that have been sprouted from all of that, cannot be the source of our relationship with Christ.

Only a deep and intimate relationship with Christ will sustain and advance the kingdom of God in you and me through the course of life and the deeper waves of God’s Spirit to come.

There comes a time in the Christian’s pilgrimage where the empty way of life handed down from those who’ve gone before, Christian and non-Christian, must be laid aside so Christ can build again the deep things of the faith in the hearts of his sons and daughters.

Commentaries, translations, creeds and traditions, will not take you into the deep things of Christ.

Only Christ can come to you and reveal the deep things of his Spirit, 1 Peter 1:13.

There comes a time when we need Jesus to step into our lives and begin the deep, profound, work of transforming grace he said he would do.

Without that, virgins cannot become brides, and those born to be brides, will miss their calling and all the treasures now in resurrection life, and, in the life to come in ruling and reigning with Christ.

The age of Philadelphia, is the age of being fathered by God, the laying down of the empty way of life handed down, led by Christ into the deep waters of his Spirit.

Jesus prophesied in the second, third, and fourth parables of Matthew 13, and also in the corresponding church ages, false teachings would come to the body of Christ and be so woven into the fabric of Christianity it would be like yeast kneaded in dough.

(Paul’s fourth letter to the churches, Galatians; Christ’s fourth parable of Matthew 13; and the fourth church age of Revelation are the “highpoints” of the decline.)

This is not about blaming, accusing, or despising in any way those who’ve gone before revealing the Word of God as best they could; laboring with all their heart and strength in the light they had the opportunity to receive.

I can’t imagine what this world would look like, if there had not been the tens of thousands of men and women who’ve gone before into uncharted waters, with little provisions, doing the best they could in revealing God’s Word.

Nonetheless, false teachings spread throughout the fabric of Christianity in the ages Jesus said it would, and is being dismantled as Jesus said it would in the ages (Sardis, completed, and Philadelphia, now) he reserved for that purpose.

PROPHECY FULFILLED

We have six millenniums of Christian and non-Christian biblical history behind us; plus, the details of the overarching principles the Church operates by established during the last two millenniums.

And also, a good history of the moves of God over the last 500 years.

From my understanding of Scripture, we live in the most blessed time God’s covenant children have ever had.

Because we’re in Philadelphia; the greatest corporate and individual promises made in Scripture, outside, of course, of being born again, coming to a saving knowledge of Christ.

We have at our fingertips access to almost everything available in print regarding Christ and the plan of salvation.

We have every translation possible and much in the way of Greek and Hebrew manuscripts, and layer upon layer of writings and commentaries on the Word of God.

No other generation has had access to the depth and breathe of the knowledge of Scripture than 21^st century Christians, at least in well developed countries.

It is staggering to think just 100 years ago people labored through stacks and stacks of records and books, and, today, with the move of the mouse, we have almost instantaneous access.

Jesus said, “…From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” (NIV, Luke 12:48)

Certainly today, Christian and non-Christian have been given much.

And I haven’t mentioned the hundreds of para church ministries bringing healing and restoration resources to the body of Christ around the world through means unimaginable just a few decades ago.

Where God’s sons and daughters can connect instantly and intimately through the internet – unheard of, and a tremendous tool the Lord is using to bring healing and restoration to those seeking him.

The vastness of Christian writings and opportunities stand at the ready for much of the inhabitants of this earth.

And today Jesus is using that, in the age of Philadelphia, to take those who want the deep things of God into the abundance of his Word and Spirit through revelation he can bestow quickly, uniquely, and specifically.

It behooves you and me to take advantage of every opportunity as best we can in the “day” of great light.

To hold to the belief all things will continue just as they have with our forefathers, denies history, prophecy, Scripture, the signs of the times, and the parched skeletons of kingdoms littering the landscape of the world.

The Empty Way of Life Handed down from Our Forefathers

Below are a couple of brief examples on how creeds have significantly impacted commentaries and translations.

Some of this is a repeat for you who’ve been following my posts.

You’ll see the ramifications a minor change here or there, or addition or rearrangement of words, can have on the meaning of a passage.

Creeds and traditions are weighty and powerful.

They have the power of death.

Christ, the firstborn of the New Covenant, experienced the power and wrath of tradition in fullness at Calvary; unrepentant sin, buried under layers of tradition.

They’re used to fill what some believe to be “gaps” in Scripture, or to rephrase the original Greek rendering to better harmonize with the overarching doctrines of the Church established in the fourth and fifth centuries.

Make no mistake about it, creeds and traditions are the filter for commentaries, translations, and the vast majority of preaching taught through mainline Christianity today.

If we remove from the Scriptures the story of Christ, his need for healing and restoration, denying the clear meaning of many Scriptures in the language of the New Covenant, a better covenant, pointing almost everything pertaining to Christ to Calvary, in accord with the teaching of the creeds, then we,

• rob him of the glory of his journey – denying the baptismal fire of the Holy Spirit he endured and persevered over years, being made perfect, becoming the source of salvation for mankind (Hebrews 5:7 – 10) – the man who was born to save and be king, had to be “made” the Savior, and “made” the King,
• make Calvary, the acts of lawless men, and prophecy about their actions, more important than Christ – elevating the knowledge of what people will do in the future as a “script,” instead of what will happen if they continue to choose darkness over light,
• shift the atonement from occurring at the completion of his perfection, as it says in Hebrews 5, to Calvary,
• emasculate him to one who “models” Christianity,
• make him, contrary to Scripture, one who cannot relate to our battle with the enmity in our flesh, the suffering from generational transgressions and inequities, who can only relate to us in temptations from outside the body,
• make God complicit in the killing of Christ – even planning through foreknowledge his sacrifice contrary to the clear teaching of Scripture, interpreting the wrath of God as against Christ, instead of sin,
• place salvation in the hands of the lawless mob, and not Christ, who the Scripture says was made perfect, becoming the source of salvation, and that occurring before his ministry – entering ministry having all authority and power, seated in heavenly places with his father, having a name above every other name,
• create endless conflicts in Scriptures, opposing Scripture to Scripture, to the ridiculous, where those who kill Christ are called murderers, and yet, we are taught it was God’s foreordained plan for Christ to be murdered,
• turning prophecy, which is future news today, into a script, Christ had to follow; yet, all the while, he did everything possible to convert hearts and usher in the Millennium then and there,
• must force many Scriptures to mean what they do not say, violate the principles of hermeneutics, creating another gospel, ignoring Christ’s teaching of a new language, and a better covenant,
• demean the New Covenant by inaugurating it by a practice God abhors –the killing of the firstborn, making it a worse covenant than the Old; killing the Messiah who was sent by God hoping they would respect his Son and embrace his message (Matthew 21:33 – 22:14),
• elevate creeds and traditions above Scripture, having authority over Scripture where it is clear there is conflict,
• dishonor the Lord Jesus Christ and our heavenly Father, as having a salvation “birthed” by the killing of the Messiah, which God abhors; creating salvation centered in the wounds and brokenness of what men and women think about God, instead of the righteous and holy love of God for men and women,
• point the fulfillment of salvation through the repetition of acts committed under the Old Covenant, but not with an animal, but with a human being,
• apply words literally instead of understanding the symbolism they represent, the picture they’re meant to convey, in putting sin to death, and not a person,
  • phrases like – wounding and piercing, blood sacrifice, suffering, crushing, crucifying the flesh, dying to sin, nailed to the cross, offering oneself, raised from the dead to walk in newness of life, etc.,
  • as if the only way God could bring about salvation is by brutalizing a human body,
  • interpreting the New Covenant in the language and operations of the Old Covenant, fueled by creeds and traditions, forsaking the revelation of God to understand it, and the deeper work of grace to heal and restore mankind into the image of the Father, in Christ,
• and, importantly, rob the intimacy and connection of his story from our story, creating a wedge between his desire to know us, and we him.

 

Short Note Regarding Galatians 3:13

See my last post regarding Galatians 3 verse 13, which most point to Calvary.

The subject matter of Galatians is putting sin to death, not by the works of the flesh, but by the cross of Christ, the cross he pioneered in his personal life – bringing to death, “the enmity in his flesh,” transgressions and iniquities passed to him from his human ancestry.

There are many reasons why verse 13 is not about Calvary, again, see the preceding post.

In short, verse 13, in some of the most vivid and emotional terms possible, is a picture of utter dependence on the grace of God, in bringing to death the curse of sin passed from generation to generation through faith, contrary to every natural sinful trait we inherit to protect, provide, and save ourselves.

That transformation is costly, and Christ paid a costly price in overcoming sin in his generations to pioneer and lay the foundation for our own transformation journey.

The Roman cross is not the cross to transformation, but to death.

The cross of Christ pictured in Galatians 3 verse 13 is the cross of bringing to death sin once and for all, the atoning sacrifice of his life, so complete, so pure, doing the will of God from the heart, before his ministry, it’s likened to a “blood” sacrifice.

It is nothing but tragic what has been done to the Scriptures because of the overarching power of the creeds.

The Holy Spirit conception “virgin birth” did not eradicate “the enmity in his flesh” at his conception; instead, placing him in a position of grace like Adam before the fall, the ability to choose righteousness and not sin automatically like mankind.

Jesus is the last Adam, see Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15, overcoming and redeeming what Adam lost and beyond, completing the race perfectly, atoning for our sins (Hebrews 5:7-10).

Also see my earlier posts in this series regarding blood and sacrifice, how blood represents the most intimate expression possible to convey the giving of one’s life to the fulfillment of the call of God, and not the literal spilling of one’s blood.

The literal spilling of his blood was his last attempt to reach the hearts of Israel; exposing their unrepentant sins against his righteousness – disclosing outwardly what they failed to perceive inwardly.

When Jesus spoke about the literal shedding of his blood, Matthew 26, he said the New Testament was “in his blood,” it was being shed for forgiveness.

Not because Calvary was ordained as the place of atonement, as if Christ “lacked,” needing help from lawless men to save and heal, he showed for over three years throughout his ministry that was not the case.

But it was his last stop in ministry, rejecting their rejection of him, giving them another opportunity to repent of their unrepentant natures, going the extra mile, extending grace even to extent of his physical life.

SNAPSHOT OF JOHN 12:27-12:33

Jesus kept true to his “hour” of showing – the revelation of Christ to the nation of Israel over three years – and chose not to tarnish his ministry by taking up arms against those he came to save.

He could have done so and not sinned, but chose otherwise.

At Calvary, the final revelation of Christ to the nation of Israel took place, revealing outwardly, in the most vivid way possible, what he had already apprehended inwardly, they failed to perceive and receive.

Here’s what Jesus is saying in these verses (27-33):

“The Father presented me to you and Israel to destroy the headship of Satan over your lives and the nation.

I’ve provided salvation and healing for over three years.

I’ve done everything possible to win the hearts of Israel short of violating your will.

I’ve done everything the Father has asked me to do in demonstrating the atoning work of grace, the New Covenant, in me for you.

And yet you demand further proof.

Because I know there are many of you who will come to me once the depth of sin is exposed and made known in your lives, I will give you one last sign, the sign of Jonah.

It has come down to your rejection of me, the salvation I’ve offered you, and not only your rejection, but your plan and intention to kill me.

I will not deny the sacrificial atonement I have already made for you, my perfection, the Father in me, what God has accomplished in me, by changing course in the last “hour,” and become someone I am not, and take up arms to kill those who I’ve been sent to save.

I will hold true to my final “hour” even in the face of your murderous plots.

I will use your rejection of me, the death you will inflict upon me, to “cast out” your slavery to Satan’s headship; “out of” the secret and hidden places of your thoughts and heart and into the revelation of my light.

I will give you one last sign, the sign of Jonah, to testify and confirm who I am, exposing your unrepentant sins, “fathered in you by the king of this world.”

And reveal my righteousness, being glorified “again” “raised,” by my father, God.

My death at your hands will drag unrepentant sin and Satan’s headship over you out of the darkness and into the light of God.

Your sinful acts will expose Satan’s headship leading you to kill an innocent and righteous man who sought only your well-being.

The headship and authority of Satan over you will be cast out when you come to repentance, and receive my forgiveness, which led to my death.

My death was the result of your thoughts and actions, to your Messiah, who offered you eternal life, and the head of nations for over three years.”

Note

It is not until the bride is raptured and the Tribulation begins until Satan is finally cast out of Heaven forever, Revelation 12.

Mankind’s agreements with him keep him in Heaven and mankind in prison.

The rapture of the bride will bring that to an end, as it will complete Christ’s mission for a bride and Satan will be proved a liar once and for all.

In a future post I will explain the difference between Christ redeeming you and me by his blood, becoming the atoning sacrifice, the Messiah, the New Testament in flesh and blood, presented to Israel for over three years, and, purchasing mankind (shedding) his blood, extending his grace to the uttermost, over and beyond, exceedingly abundant!

The Absence of Revelation in the Knowledge of Christ Leads to Great Error

Replacing the knowledge of Christ’s personal journey* with creeds wrapping the story of salvation in the events of Calvary, left no home for the multitude of Scripture’s describing the pioneering work of grace in him.

* Terms and phrases like: dying to sin, raised from the dead to walk in new life, firstborn, first fruit, pioneer, forerunner, suffering, sacrifice of his blood, (not the shedding of his blood), wounded, pierced, crushed, perfected.

And terms and phrases like: the Word made flesh, emptying himself, death by the cross (the cross of putting sin to death, not the Roman cross), obedience unto death, and others, other than those clearly referring to Calvary, which describe or say he was killed.

This has led to a lot of Scriptures being forced to mean something they don’t, ignoring the principles of hermeneutics Christ taught about in the language of the New Covenant – applying literal Old Testament definitions strictly to New Testament language meant to symbolize inward transformation.

Which has led to translators adding or filling in the “gaps” never intended to be added upon or filled in, in translating New Testament Greek to English.

If you haven’t, you may want to read the earlier posts in this series on the language of the New Covenant taught by Christ.

Christ went to great labor and effort to stretch men and women’s hearts from seeing and hearing in the natural, to learning how to see and hear with the eyes and ears of the heart.

When Jesus said the yeast would be kneaded throughout the dough (false teachings threaded throughout the body of Christ), he meant what he said, impacting every area of the Gospel message and the knowledge of Christ.

Creeds have become so powerful and entrenched in Christian thought and beliefs they’ve taken on a life and authority in and of themselves, above Scripture.

What’s happened is tragic.

It hinders men and women from understanding the journey of Christ, and the deep work of grace God wants to accomplish in them in the closing seasons of the Gospel dispensation through the “open door” of the Philadelphia church age.

Of course, God works around men and women’s creeds and traditions.

But it takes a lot of effort, is more complicated, and longer, because of the barricades that must be broken through and torn down, in order to gain entry and apprehend the deep truths of the faith.

Instead of us being taught the plan of God is to make us into the likeness of Christ, through the same journey Christ pioneered, by the same grace and faith received and exercised by Christ, creeds and traditions flip the story.

They make the New Covenant worse than the Old Covenant, by making God, and the plan of salvation, about wrath against man, instead of wrath against sin, the unrepentant sin that put Christ on the cross, killing him.

Creeds and traditions initiate men and women into the New Covenant through “lawlessness,” instead of the truth.

God initiated Christ by the work of grace, fathered by God, making him perfect, the source of salvation.

And we in Christ, are initiated into the same journey, to apprehend as much as available in the remaining years of our life.

Beauty Lost in the Garden and Restored in the Wilderness in Christ

The theme of creation from the beginning was to make men and women into the likeness (fullness) of God.

It takes time, a journey, a story, for this to be accomplished.

Adam and Eve fell sometime after they began their journey.

They were not created perfect, contrary to common teaching, else there would’ve been no need to warn them about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

It takes journey and story for the heart and mind to be “made” perfect.

Christ completed the journey perfectly.

He completed the journey over decades, fathered by God, in the wilderness under the shadow of his father’s wing (figuratively speaking).

Creeds by their very nature, because they are “man made,” bring God down to man’s level, making God in the image of sinful men and women, so much so, we deem him involved in the planning of Christ’s death.

It’s a deeply rooted accusation against God in fallen men and women blaming him subtly for the state man finds himself in his sins.

God’s heart at Calvary was for Christ to continue to save and heal, not to take up arms and fight, to finish his story never harming a soul – revealing their sin in the light of his righteousness.

Christ’s decision to let his blood be shed gave the people of Israel another 40 years to come to forgiveness, many he knew who would’ve been killed, had he taken up arms (and he could’ve done so righteously), to take the kingdom by force.

More on His Perfection

Creeds and traditions make salvation about Calvary, a drama, a story, crediting the actions of lawless men in initiating and launching the New Covenant.

Whereas the Scripture teaches Christ ushered in the New Covenant in him through his perfection, the sacrifice of his life to God, before his ministry.

When Christ entered ministry, he was then and there, the Messiah, the New Testament in flesh and blood for them to believe and receive through the many wonders and miracles he did.

Creeds and traditions rob Christ of the glory of his perfection and what it brought to Israel for over three years.

They make Jesus less than who he was, as if he was insufficient to forgive and heal when he spent over three years forgiving sins, healing and raising the dead.

Ephesians Chapter 2 verses 14 and 15 in the Greek clearly states Christ had enmity in his flesh.

This verse, and the many verses describing Christ’s personal battle putting sin to death – transgressions and iniquities passed to him from his human ancestry – cannot be ignored or suggested it is somehow or in some way about Calvary.

Christ was fully King, Lord, High Priest, Savior, Prophet – the Messiah in flesh and blood, the fullness of God’s Word made flesh in the man Christ Jesus – when he entered ministry.

The belief Christ was born essentially perfect, just needing to grow up and mature, having no need for healing and restoration, is clearly opposed to Scripture.

A person can have enmity in their flesh and not sin; sin is the result of embracing the hostility in our flesh to the law of God, i.e., “agreeing, judging, conceiving,” in thought, word, or deed – as the Scripture says in James 1.

The Scripture teaches Christ was fully human, and if he did not put sin to death, by grace through faith, it would eventually ensnare him, destroying the last hope of mankind for redemption of what Adam and Eve sold in the garden so long ago.

The Gospel is not a fairy tale nor was it a script for Jesus.

Jesus was “tempted,” in every way just like you and me, and, believe it or not, he could have sinned, bringing an end to the plan of salvation through him.

His perfection before ministry was absolutely necessary for the plan of salvation to go forth.

It occurred before his ministry; his time of being fathered, made perfect, the source of salvation.

He put sin to death once for all, freely bringing salvation to mankind by the grace and truth of God in him.

It’s who he was that got him killed, not who he would become.

When Christ tells us to overcome like he did, he’s not only referring to outward temptations, but also to the deep temptations from within; left unhealed and unrestored, capture the heart and mind in darkness.

That’s the story of the Gospel – overcoming and putting sin to death, fathered by God, for the abundant life God intended for men and women.

He knows intimately the difficulties and struggles we go through battling sin, and how to overcome sin, and be made alive in spirit.

After all, he’s the pioneer of salvation by grace through faith – he did it all, setting the standard for you and me, and his standard is anchored in grace and care beyond what we could imagine or think.

It’s all about Jesus and will always be just about him!

He did not need help from lawless men and women to bring us salvation.

You do not have to sin – embrace generational sin – for it to become a battle that needs to be overcome and cleansed.

More on that later.

The struggle by commentators and translators with these issues is not new and will continue until the Lord takes us home and ushers in the Millennium.

Thankfully, the Lord is revealing his personal story in more detail in this hour of history to prepare for the large harvest of souls to come.

The need to have some deeply prepared to help clean and restore the large catch of “fish” to come.

The Power of the Birds of the Air, Nesting in the Tree

Jesus and the Apostles faced traditions having great power over the Jews for over a millennium.

Not much different than what Martin Luther faced in the 1500s, nor what the Pentecostals faced in the early 1900s.

In closing this section, many conclude (or simply bypass), the Scriptures can’t mean Christ had hostility in his flesh, that he needed to die to sin – that they must mean something we don’t understand.

Because, everybody knows, from creeds and traditions, Christ was sinless, exempt from deep wounds and brokenness, “enmity in the flesh of him” – transgressions and iniquities, passed from generation to generation.

That somehow Christ was the exception to those born under the law, of a woman, as Paul describes in Galatians 4.

But those beliefs systems, and that’s what they are, man – made systems, are contrary to Scriptures over and over again throughout the New Testament.

If we remove this from his story, then the Gospel is robbed of its teeth and meat, “emasculated,” requiring a lot of Christ at Calvary, but not much of us.

If we remove his story of healing and redemption from the Scriptures, then there’s no pioneer of the faith, no firstborn, no first fruit, no forerunner, who completed the race perfectly doing the will of God from the heart.

And we have no one who shares in our suffering and a pattern for you and me.

“He’s Jesus”

The creeds give no quarter to Christ being anything less than essentially perfect, from birth on.

That Jesus did not have enmity in his flesh, and the need to die to sin (Romans 6:10, etc.), in order to walk in newness of life, the new creation, the firstborn – redeeming what Adam lost – simply, because “He’s Jesus.”

And “Jesus,” as defined by creeds and traditions, means he’s other than fully human.

Therefore, commentators and others interpret the Scriptures about Christ and the enmity in his flesh in every way other than what it says.

That Jesus could not possibly have had to deal with internal lust, because, “He’s Jesus,” and Jesus would not, have had to battle, lust from within.

But James teaches you can have lust and not sin, when it is not embraced.

Jesus is not an exception to the generational rules and laws birthed in creation, and in the fall from grace by Adam and Eve.

IMPORTANT

Otherwise, there would have been no need for him to come from human seed – needing healing and restoration, and divine seed – to bring healing and restoration, as the pioneer and pattern to come.

The humanity birthed the “need” in him, and the divinity of conception by grace birthed the “means to meet the need, healing and restoration.”

When we are born from above, we begin the process he completed perfectly; the intervention of grace and truth to uproot the law of sin in our lives.

The first Adam came from the divine and was made fully human.

The second Adam, Christ, also came from the divine, and from human lineage, to redeem what Adam lost by putting to death sin, to walk in newness of life.

The, “He’s Jesus” teaching, a model, born exempt from having to put to death the enmity in his flesh, strips the New Testament of its’ heart, and the sharing of the sufferings of Christ with us in our battle with sin.

It strips the Scripture of what it means to overcome, be a pioneer, the firstborn of the new creation, and what it’s like to be healed and restored in the likeness of God.

Example, 1 Peter 3:18, Second Sentence

Commentators don’t know what to do with this Scripture because “…made alive in the Spirit” (NIV, 1 Peter 3:18) does not fit what is understood as resurrection from physical death.

It doesn’t make any sense in relationship to someone who has physically died (you can check for yourself, see Biblehub.com, commentaries).

Again, this is not to point fingers or criticize; we operate out of the revelation of the Lord in the season he brings about through the moving of his Spirit.

This Scripture is talking about being raised from mortality to immortality, resurrection life, this side of heaven – walking in newness of life like it says of Christ in Romans, Ephesians, Philippians, Hebrews, and elsewhere.

It’s about his journey in being made perfect; suffering wounding and piercing (cleansing and healing) of generational transgressions and iniquities, bringing them to death (Isaiah 53:5, Romans 6:10, Hebrews 5:7-10).

Enoch, Elijah, and Moses, are examples of those who prefigured and foretold resurrection life this side of heaven to come in the Messiah.

They were types, of Christ, pointing to the Messiah to come, who would redeem and restore men and women from sin, made perfect, entering eternal life this side of heaven, the tree of life restored in the wilderness of this world.

And Israel had an opportunity to eat its fruit for over three years.

Commentators attempt to explain the many scriptures about death, sacrifice, cross, blood, etc., all under the banner of Calvary has forced square pegs into round holes, or making no comment at all.

And there’s Scriptures, too many to mention, that have changes here and there to make it appear Christ did not live by grace and operate by faith.

I’ve shared in previous posts the Scriptures in Roman and Galatians that talk about the faith “of” Christ in the Greek, changed to the faith “in” in translations.

That he was somehow exempt of the operation of faith in his life.

And then there’s Scriptures where small changes change the entire context of the Scripture from the original Greek.

Acts 2:23

Like Acts 2:23, making it appear it was God’s deliberate plan to hand Christ over to lawless men.

When the deliberate plan and foreknowledge of God was the coming of the grace to come in Christ, the Messiah, to give us a Savior – God’s plan and foreknowledge, not the premeditated murder of his Son.

And other changes to the Greek in translation – where Calvary had to happen “the way it did” because that’s what God planned (Matthew 26:54).

No wonder there’s an apostasy in the last days, because the path to healing and restoration is hidden in the season when it’s needed the most.

CHRIST, THE PROMISED GRACE TO COME

This series is about Christ’s journey before ministry not many know about.

I’ve talked enough about creeds and traditions for you to know why.

But why does it matter anyway?

Because it matters greatly – it gives meaning and substance to the deep work of grace in your life and mine when Christ ushers us into it.

Without the knowledge and understanding of his personal journey, misunderstanding and confusion will reign over yours and mine.

Christ’s personal journey before ministry was where he was made perfect, becoming the source of our salvation (Romans 6:10, Hebrews 5:7 – 10).

If this post is your first exposure to this series I recommend starting from the beginning.

If you believe every time Jesus and death are mentioned it refers to Calvary, or Jesus and references to:

“raised from the dead,” “suffering,” “putting sin to death to walk in newness of life,” “wounded and pierced,” “suffering for our transgressions and iniquities,” “sacrificed,” “offering his own blood (as opposed to actually shedding his blood),” “emptying himself,” “made alive in spirit,” “death on a cross,” “learning obedience,” “hung on the cross,” “resurrection,” etc.,

refer to Calvary, then I invite you to read this series and see what these phrases mean in the language of the New Testament, and the distinct and separate story in the Scripture of Christ’s journey before his ministry.

If one believes the descriptions by different authors refer to different ways of killing Christ at Calvary, then the heart of the Gospel is missed – to put sin to death, not people, and certainly not Christ.

The Scripture is about gaining life, not death, Christ the first fruit of the new creation.

Creeds and traditions have as the New Covenant’s central theme “physical death,” life coming through physical death, namely Christ’s.

But that’s not what the Scripture teaches.

On the contrary, it is the death to sin – Christ putting sin to death – that justifies you and me, and his life, that brings life to you and me.

His death to sin is the atoning death for us, a death we could never accomplish absent being “in him.”

IMPORTANT

HIS ANCESTRAL HUMANITY BROUGHT THE NEED TO DIE TO SIN; HIS DIVINE CONCEPTION THE MEANS TO BRING DEATH TO SIN.

It took a virgin birth, conceived by the Holy Spirit to bypass the automatic tendency to sin, to place Christ in the position of Adam before the fall.

It is the death of sin, by grace through faith in the restoring power of the Holy Spirit, the miracle of transformation, that brings newness of life to you and me, first begun in Christ.

For Christ, made perfect, mortality changed to immortality, an indestructible new life, resurrection life, the apprehension of the fullness of God.

Death to sin produces life in God, the promised grace to come, a better covenant.

The promised grace to come was a good promise, to Christ first, and then to us.

It was lawless men who rejected grace, their hearts coming to fullness “unrepentant,” Christ having already atoned for sin in being made perfect.

The atonement for sin occurred in Christ’s perfection, healed and restored in the perfect likeness of the Father; the only one to fulfill the will of God from the heart perfectly, destroying the barrier between the law and his flesh.

This occurred before Christ’s ministry, so he could face the devil, and minister healing and forgiveness for over 3 years, and, choose not to fight and kill those intent on killing him at Calvary, offering forgiveness instead!

You do not call those who kill you murderers, if that’s what you were born to have happen to you.

Instead of murders, you would thank them for fulfilling God’s plan for your life and theirs!

You would take a short cut to Calvary and get it over with earlier, if that was the purpose of your existence, salvation coming through “death instead of life.”

There would be no purpose in laboring, trying to win hearts for years, instead, expose their sin immediately, on purpose, to be killed, and usher in salvation.

Jesus said divided kingdoms will not survive, and that would include the kingdom of God if it followed or did what creeds and traditions teach.

The Power of Agreement, Creeds and Traditions

Creeds and traditions have locked and thrown away the key to the personal story of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Without Christ’s personal story – his “perfection before” his presentation to John – there’d be no:

• baptism at the Jordan with the Spirit descending on him like a dove,
• victory in the wilderness – he’d be overwhelmed by the assaults of the evil one,
• three years of ministry full of signs, wonder, and miracles – he’d lack the authority and power over nature and other wonders and miracles, and,
• Calvary without resistance – he’d be without the foundation of grace and truth to withstand the horrors of martyrdom, having unhealed and unrestored areas finally make him vulnerable beyond his ability to cope.

 

It is out of Christ’s personal story, journey, fathered by God, being made perfect, the firstborn and first fruit of the new creation, that everything else flows from.

Jesus doesn’t just appear on the scene at age 30 and face the devil for 40 days in the wilderness without having been perfected, made perfect, a transformed person and seasoned warrior.

How else could he be our pioneer, forerunner, the last Adam, firstborn, first fruit, fully human, tested in all points just like you and me?

Calvary was the result of Israel’s rejection of the New Testament in Christ, not the ushering in of the New Testament, but the rejection of the New Testament Jesus said was in his blood – his life (Matthew 26:28)!

Calvary was the rejection of the New Testament publicly displayed in the nation of Israel for over three years – the tree of life in their midst.

Christ’s personal journey ushered in the New Covenant and him into ministry, and ultimately, the Gospel to the world.

Israel missed their opportunity to be the head of nations.

Commentators and translators, just like all of us, have been subject to the great overbearing weight of creeds and traditions established in the early part of the dark ages.

They defined Christ and God in human terms; institutionalized Christian thought and belief, legislating “identity” in the absence of deep and personal intimacy with Christ.

The overarching theme of creeds and traditions for 1700 years is Christ died for our sins at Calvary, was punished on our behalf, murdered, opening the door for salvation under the New Covenant.

God purposely delivered Christ into the hands of lawless men to be our atoning sacrifice; our salvation is based in part on the work of evil; the killing of God’s Son brought life to you and me.

That a person needed to be physically killed to bring salvation, and not sin, like the Scripture teaches.

That the commandment God made for mankind, not to kill, did not apply to his only perfect Son, but was the sole purpose for his existence, to be murdered.

These beliefs are as far from the truth as the east is from the west, or, as far from the truth as the righteousness of God from complicity with evil.

You do not call people murders if they are doing your will!

The Scripture teaches Jesus died to sin, and, in his death to sin, he was made alive in Spirit, to walk in new life (Romans 6:10, Hebrews 5:7 – 10, 1 Peter 3:18).

The theme of the New Testament is life; life from a kernel of wheat, death to sin, producing the miracle of the peaceable fruit of righteousness.

The Fruit of the Fallen Nature – The Need to See with the Natural Eye

Mankind wants the dramatic, something he can feel, see, touch, and handle in the natural realm, sound familiar?

In contrast, the Scripture desires doing the will of God from the heart, by grace through faith – that’s what pleases the heart of God; what Christ pioneered in destroying the barriers between his flesh and the law.

In bringing to death the enmity in his flesh, the atoning sacrifice redeeming his generations and those who would choose him, he was made perfect, the pioneer and author of salvation.

Christ authored and established a new language for interpreting the New Covenant; the many expressions and terms he used in speaking about himself, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of darkness, his atoning sacrifice, and the work of grace to come to those who would choose him.

Christ defined his flesh and blood in reference to spiritual life and truth because he was the walking New Testament in flesh and blood.

But when rejection came, and his time was coming to an end, because he knew they would kill him, he talked about his blood being spilled or shed, and his flesh being given for the life of the world.

His flesh and blood had already been sanctified, he was the Messiah, the perfect one, willing to lay down his life “again,” be glorified “again,” (John 12) and not take up arms to kill those he had spent so long trying to save.

Many of the terms I’ve referred to in this post about Christ, like suffering, death to sin, raised from the dead to new life, wounded, pierced, crucified on the cross, blood sacrifice, etc., refer to Christ putting sin to death, not Calvary, unless his killing is specifically mentioned.

Again, because he was perfect, he was hated by the leaders of Israel, and put to death because he was the Messiah, and not put to death so he could atone for their sins, having already done so in his perfection.

1 Corinthians 15:3 Briefly

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:3, Jesus died “for” our sins (NIV).

Is Paul in a light and reflective way, speaking softly about the killing of Christ at Calvary, like you would eat a meal, go to sleep, tend the sheep – the fulfillment of a prophetic script devoid of the hideousness of being murdered?

Or is he painting a much broader picture of Christ; from the beginning of his journey to the end of his journey – a lifelong journey culminating in being physically raised from the dead?

I believe it is the latter.

Because, except for the first portion of 1 Corinthians 15, the rest of the chapter is devoted to the story of Christ putting sin to death, his perfection, raised from the dead to walk in new life, changed from mortality to immortality, an indestructible priesthood, the source of salvation, presented to Israel at the river Jordan.

The Greek word for “for” is not the normal preposition for, but over and above, exceedingly abundant.

It’s a very broad and expansive word.

It encompasses Christ’s entire life, from birth, to his perfection, his ministry, and ultimately Calvary, where he shed his blood to confirm and testify who he was, and to confirm and testify of the unrepentant sin in their hearts that would lead them to kill an innocent and righteous man.

He had to go to the utter extreme of showing his righteousness, and their transgressions and iniquities, to have any chance of some finding forgiveness before the axe would be laid to the root of the tree.

When Calvary is mentioned specifically in Scripture it is with a lot of emotion using terms such as killing, murder, betrayal, and the like, see my previous post giving a list of Scripture’s specifically talking about Calvary.

1 Corinthians 15:3 captures the entirety of Christ’s life – setting his face like flint to apprehend healing and restoration in being made perfect, to overcome Satan’s assaults in the wilderness, to minister healing and salvation for over three years, and to face death, the shedding of his own blood, because of their unbelief.

Israel, refusing the redemption of Christ’s free will offering – the better covenant presented to them in flesh and blood – left Christ with only two choices, kill or be killed.

And, allowing himself to be killed, he went beyond “redemption” – buying back what was lost (which he had already accomplished in his perfection, becoming the source of salvation) – to “purchasing” those who would otherwise turn away from him, with his own blood.

More to come on redemption versus purchasing in later posts.

The sacrifice of his life in being made perfect, before his ministry, “redeemed” his generations and those who would come into him through the new birth (justified).

At Calvary, he “purchased” those who would otherwise turn away by shedding his own blood, for the spiritually blind and deaf to see and hear so they can receive forgiveness.

Even Isaiah 53, so often quoted as referring to Calvary, is split between Christ’s personal journey, verses four through six, and Calvary, verses seven through nine.

Note: The word for death in verse nine is stated by many to be plural, “deaths.”

And in verse five, it says in the Hebrew, “he and us are healed.”

Creeds and traditions have made the Gospel a message of events; a system of facts for the natural mind; the killing of a man at a specific point in time.

And not the heart of the Gospel, the Gospel Christ pioneered, healing and restoration from generational transgressions and iniquities by the power of the Holy Spirit, fathered by God, in overcoming and putting sin to death.

Some final comments in this section.

Calvary was the outward revealing of who they were and who Christ was, testifying and confirming everything he said about sin, where it would lead, and everything he said about himself, their Savior, King, Lord, High Priest, Prophet.

That he came to save and not condemn.

At Calvary, Christ was already the atonement; yet he was willing to die physically to demonstrate publicly everything he said about himself; in a broad manner Christ’s entire life from beginning to end was one “act” of dying for others sins, made possible through his atonement at his perfection before ministry.

His perfection, the long journey of healing and restoration before ministry, was his “sacrificial blood atonement,” – “the giving of his life to God,” doing the will of God from the heart, putting sin to death, ushered him into resurrection life, “eternal life,” becoming our Savior.

He was born to save and heal, to be King and Lord, and being made perfect, he apprehended what God apprehended him for (Hebrews 5:7-10).

His ministry was the demonstration of the “…Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,” announcing in flesh and blood “him,” the New Covenant, Hebrews 2:3. (NIV, Isaiah 9:6 bold and italicized mine)

And Calvary, the unveiling “revealing” of Christ’s inward righteousness, and their inward hidden and unrepentant sins, was allowed by Christ to lead sinful men and women to repentance and forgiveness.

The atonement the Father accomplished in Christ’s perfection overflowed “a well of living water” and “a tree of life – giving fruit” into the land of Israel for over three years.

Creeds and traditions make salvation, Christ’s atoning work, as occurring at a specific point in time at Calvary requiring the help of lawless men and women.

In contrast, Scripture teaches: Christ died to sin (Romans 6:10, Galatians 3:13 (symbolic of dying to sin, Christ’s personal cross) Ephesians 2:14-15, see an interlinear, Hebrews 5:7-10, 1 Peter 2:24 and 3:18, (again symbolic of dying to sin, Christ’s personal cross) and out of his death to sin, he was transformed and sanctified from his generations, raised to walk in new life.

And in his life, he brought salvation to you and me.

His death to sin brought justification, and his raising to walk in new life brought not only life to him, but to you and me (Romans 5:10).

Christ’s death to sin justifies us, but it is his life that saves us!

This is really important to understand, it is Christ’s life that brings salvation; the eternal life he apprehended is what brought life to those he encountered in his three years of laboring to heal and save Israel, and, it is his life today that brings salvation!

“For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (NIV, Romans 5:10)

Important: The death Paul is referring to is his “death to sin,” expanded upon in Chapter 6, and not Calvary.

Remember, the Bible is not a book of facts and figures, but, a love letter from God through Christ to us to bring you and me into intimacy and dependence in relationship with the Father and the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 15:3 is the overarching umbrella of the New Covenant, not specific as to his perfection per se, the completion of his atonement, or Calvary, the rejection of the atonement, but to his Person.

The New Testament is a life story of Christ, first and foremost about who he became, and then out of that, what he did to testify and confirm the work of God in him as the way of life for us to seek.

Calvary was one last sign, the sign of Jonah.

Calvary was a continuation of the revelation of Christ as the Lamb of God, the Messiah in flesh and blood, yearning for God’s wayward children to come to him.

He gave them the natural sign they demanded, because they had eyes that could not see, and ears that could not hear.

1 Corinthians Chapter 15 is one of the most complete descriptions by Paul, along with the books of Hebrews and Romans, and sections of his other letters, of the journey of Christ being made perfect: mortality taking on immortality, the last Adam made perfect, the first fruit, raised from the dead to walk in newness of life.

And shortly after Paul goes into what is the most important teaching his listeners need to hear, the putting to death of sin in their lives so they can walk in newness of life like Christ, the details beginning in verse 12 through the rest of the chapter.

1 Corinthians 15 is the journey of Christ being made perfect, the first fruit of the new creation, raised from mortality to immortality, from corruptible to incorruptible, an indestructible life (Hebrews 7:16), destroying the barrier of sin between the law and the flesh (Ephesians 2:14 – 16 see an interlinear).

And by the way, an indestructible life, does not preclude protection from those who are set to kill you, unless you call for angelic help.

And that life, the New Covenant life, the new creation in Christ, the perfect man having a name above every other name, all authority and power in heaven and earth, was presented to John at the river Jordan for water baptism, and, as a gift to Israel for over three years.

Finally, when the Apostles refer to Calvary, strong language is used, see Acts 2:23, 2:36, 3:13, 3:15, 4:10, 5:30, 7:52, 10:39, 13:28, 1 Corinthians 2:8, 1 Thessalonians 2:15.

It’s not mentioned in the New Testament just as a passing reference, because Calvary is the place of the needless murder of the Messiah, not a point of theology about salvation!

Sold As Slaves to Sin

Sin mastered Adam and Eve and their descendants, making men and women in the likeness of the evil one.

Someone had to buy back what Adam and Eve lost, not only redeeming what they and their offspring lost, but complete the race they failed to complete – being made into the likeness of God.

And to do this, the kingdom of darkness would have to be overthrown, in order to redeem what was lost and complete the race to the finish line.

Important

Someone had to put sin to death, to be tempted in all points just like Adam and Eve, and their generations, and not yield to sin, to overcome and destroy its’ power, by the cross of grace and faith, in obedience to God.

And further, pick up the baton they dropped, completing the race to the finish line, so others could enter the race.

And in order for others to enter the race, someone had to complete the race perfectly, without sin, for others to be “justified,” “permitted,” to enter the race.

And Christ was that someone, who completed the race perfectly, atoning for mankind’s sin, healed and restored, redeeming body, soul, and spirit lost to Satan in the fall, by the sacrifice of his own blood “his life,” in its entirety to God.

And in being made perfect, sinless, he offered a fresh starting point for all those who wanted to join and complete the race their ancestors were unable to finish.

Christ put sin to death in his generations, completing the race perfectly, emptying himself of all his rights and privileges in service to his father, doing his father’s will from the heart, perfectly, offering his own “blood” – life – in sacrifice to God.

His offering was so complete, so intimate, so without restraint and whole, no other expression could be used to explain it other than a “blood sacrifice,” the total giving of oneself to God.

The New Covenant is not about killing, but about offering our lives to God.

Christ’s offering was so complete – the entirety of his life – it was deemed a blood sacrifice by Christ’s own words in John 6.

Christ, having overthrown the kingdom of sin, completing the race Adam and Eve failed to complete, received a name above every other name, and was seated in heavenly authority at the right hand of God in his perfection.

And it is out of his perfection, he ministered signs, wonders, and miracles for over three years to Israel.

Christ pioneered the journey for you and me to follow – to share intimately his personal cross – the cross of putting sin to death, made alive in spirit, to walk in newness of life.

The Calvary centered Gospel makes it all about an event, and facts, and people’s actions and reactions.

It is something the natural mind can see and understand in light of Old Covenant practices, where Israel’s sin was atoned for by the actual shedding of animal blood.

It’s “natural” for the natural mind to take the picture presented in the Old Covenant and apply it to Christ at Calvary.

And that’s one reason, knowing man’s tendency, Jesus spent so much time explaining spiritual truths about death, blood, flesh, sacrifice, cross, etc., and the importance of hearing his voice and receiving revelation from the Father.

He did this to draw hearts and minds out of the Old Covenant and the curse of “works,” into the New Covenant of grace, faith, and truth in the revelation of the Spirit.

The teaching Christ was a human sacrifice by the Father at Calvary is a continuation of the Old Covenant disguised as something New; violating every principal and commandment in God’s Word about the preciousness of life, the killing of humans, adopting the practice of pagans in offering their sons to the fire, a divided kingdom, among others, and most importantly, it is not what the Scripture teaches.

No, God did not start the New Covenant by the killing of his Son.

But started the New Covenant in Christ, through Christ’s putting sin to death in his generations; grace, truth, and faith, by the power of the Holy Spirit, put sin to death, not the brutalization of Christ’s body.

And from being made perfect through suffering, healed and restored, he became the pioneer and author of the promised grace to come, our Savior.

The Process of Putting Sin to Death, Briefly

There’s a night and day difference between what the Scripture teaches, and the teaching from creeds and traditions.

For one, the Scripture teaches the wrath of God is against sin, and not against the sinner.

That Christ did indeed suffer for our sins, our transgressions and iniquities, but it was in being made perfect, putting sin to death for his generations by grace through faith, not by brutalizing his flesh at Calvary.

The process of being made perfect is a long journey.

It includes a whole host of things God uses in cleansing and healing our body, soul, and spirit.

At times, fasting is involved in order to access the deep and hidden things of the heart.

At times, intense spiritual warfare is involved.

At times, God intervenes quickly creating and restoring areas of our body, soul, and spirit to its original design, repairing what was wounded and broken.

At other times, to cleanse and heal an area, the Lord will request one to deny themselves certain rights and privileges in order to gain access to deeply rooted wounds and brokenness.

And, at times, one experiences discomfort in the uprooting of deeply rooted transgressions and iniquities, through fasting, denial of certain rights, etc.

All the while restrained by the Holy Spirit from trying to heal oneself, completely dependent upon God to bring healing to the deep wounds and brokenness bubbling up from within.

This was the journey Christ pioneered; the one we’re asked to seek to share with him – the sufferings of bringing down the structures of our own fallen nature by grace through faith in the revelation of Christ (1 Peter 1:13).

Salvation is not as simple as we are led to believe, creeds and traditions placing all the burden on Christ at Calvary, requiring much of him, and little of us.

As opposed to Calvary, Christ’s perfection makes it about a journey, a long journey, fathered by God, cleansed, healed, and restored from generational transgressions and iniquities, by wounding and piercing the structures of sin passed down through the generations.

Bringing death to the structures that breed sin, destroying the barrier of sin preventing the flesh from fulfilling the law of God, by grace through faith.

Christ pioneered repentance and forgiveness for his generations, destroying the claim of sin to reproduce itself and come to fruition in his life, bringing an end to the prosperity of sin in wounds and brokenness for him, and those found in him.

Through the centuries the story of the Gospel transitioned from the saving power of Christ, the Christ who walked the shores of Galilee, seeing an early death by the hands of lawless men, into the Gospel of punishing Christ for the sin of mankind.

I’m not talking about dying to sin “dying to sin on our behalf,” which the Scriptures teach, but punished for sins at Calvary to appease an angry God.

The Gospel transitioned from being the good news; bringing the hope of healing and restoration through repentance and forgiveness of sin, to the brutalization of Christ as the punishment of our sins, leaving men and women unhealed and unrestored.

Christ’s ministry was about healing and restoration, and where needed, the conviction of sin to bring repentance and forgiveness.

Creeds and Traditions Preach “Another” Gospel

Creeds and traditions have made the Gospel into an “event,” a specific time, instead of a journey of being made whole and holy, the pioneering journey of Christ.

And by hiding the journey of Christ behind and out of sight of Calvary, we’ve diminished him and the journey he took, being self – blinded to the need to follow in his footsteps and be cleansed, healed, and restored.

In the absence of going deeply into the journey of Christ before ministry, like Christ before his ministry, Christendom emphasizes schooling and training in the theology and practices of the Gospel.

Forsaking the deep work of the Spirit needed within, which can only be accomplished in intimacy with Christ.

A hard yoke and heavy burden are placed on Christians through the “over teaching and emphasis” decisions bring, as opposed to the easy yoke and light burden Christ offers in transformation.

Which can only be accomplished in journey with him; initiated and chosen by him; for a deep work of the Spirit in the inner man and in the inner woman.

Putting deeply rooted transgressions and iniquities to death requires the personal care and touch of the Lord in grace only he can bring about through the body of Christ on a one-on-one basis.

In many ways the Gospel has turned into a spectator relationship, with minimal participation by the members of Christ’s body.

Instead of a life and death struggle with sin.

The Christian Gospel is characterized and eulogized based upon the acts of Christ and the acts of others, and not “who Jesus became,” the New Testament Savior in flesh and blood.

The New Covenant is about who we become, and how, out of who we become, the life of God flows toward others.

Creeds and traditions, and the endless writings of Christianity over the centuries, make it about what Christ did, either in ministry, or at Calvary, and what others did in relationship to Christ.

The actions of Christ have come to represent him, instead of who he became:

• made perfect, becoming the source of our salvation,
• the Word made flesh – the Word of God (as it says in Hebrews) promised to be written on the heart and mind of God’s sons and daughters, Christ the firstborn, first fruit, forerunner, and pioneer, fulfilling the law of God from the heart in his flesh, becoming the first of the new creation.

 

The story of the Gospel has become the story of Calvary, and not the story of Christ.

The Gospel of Calvary is something we can see, feel, handle, and touch, appealing to our natural senses and sensuality.

In sharp contrast, the Gospel of Christ, the living Christ, New Testament in flesh and blood, is the tangible substance, manifest presence of Jesus we can feel, touch, sense, and hear, as John describes in 1 John, in intimacy and union with Christ.

The perfected Son of God in relationship with you, the same relationship he offered in person to Israel for over 3 years.

Christ’s story, hidden for centuries in the shadows of Calvary, is becoming more visible in the light of the last days, as Christ equips and prepares his bride for the days to come.

The Heart of the New Testament

The New Testament is first and foremost about life in God, made alive in spirit, having put to death sin by grace through faith, the cross of Christ, transforming and healing our body, soul, and spirit.

So, we can love God with all of our heart, all our soul, and all our spirit.

We cannot love God, ourselves, and our neighbor, with a whole heart and holy love having deep wounds and brokenness.

There is only one path to Christ – the path of the cross Christ pioneered and paved for you and me.

Jesus pioneered the path of being made whole and holy by grace through faith producing the peaceable fruit of righteousness in his life to love God and others in wholeness and holiness.

The yeast kneaded throughout the dough, the fourth parable of Christ in Matthew 13 – the dark ages – came to pass as Christ prophesied in the fourth church age, the church of Thyatira, stretching over 1000 years.

The dark ages turned salvation upside down, inside out, making the act of killing salvation through the profession of recited statements of faith and prayers, in the absence of intimacy with Christ.

Christ’s ministry of healing and salvation came to be viewed as something in preparation for and anticipating Calvary – pointing to Calvary – instead of Calvary the rejection of life in God.

The Gospel became servant to a story of what lawless men and women did to Christ at the hands of Rome, killing their Messiah, as if Christ was not sufficient in and of himself to atone for their sins.

It is less intimate and threatening to the natural man to point to Calvary as the place of atonement, instead of the mysterious and deep journey of grace Christ experienced in dying to generational sin, being made perfect, the pioneer and author of salvation.

The natural man wants a Christ who is untouched by the deep wounds and brokenness of generational sin, making it all about Calvary, the outward brutalization of the body, instead of the deep repentance and forgiveness necessary in the inner man and inner woman to bring sin to death in their personal lives.

Calvary is salvation at a distance, impersonal, something we don’t have to share in, whereas deep healing and restoration required much of Christ and requires much of us.

Calvary makes the salvation road easier to transcend; whereas deep healing and restoration pioneered and authored by Christ makes the salvation road more challenging and discomforting to the natural man and woman.

God did not create a plan of redemption of Christ dependent upon the actions and reactions of sinful men and women.

On the contrary, it was a plan based upon the perfection of his Son, by grace through faith, fathered by God, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

It’s all about Jesus, and it will always be about Jesus.

Again, God did not need sinful men and women to bring salvation to pass for you and me, Christ is more than sufficient.

Christ’s Prophetic Words

Jesus said false teaching would come into the church and it did.

The seven parables of Christ in Matthew 13 are some of the most profound and prophetic words of Scripture in the New Testament, along with the church ages, and Paul’s letters to the churches.

This may startle some of you, but Jesus was complete, perfected, King, Lord, Savior, High Priest, Prophet, the Lamb of God, the atoning sacrifice, the Son of God, the Son of Man, King of Kings, Prince of Peace, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Wonderful Counselor, before he was presented to John at the Jordan.

He did not need to die at Calvary for us to be saved, he already had the New Testament in his blood (Matthew 26:28).

His 40 days in the wilderness was a test, his ministry an outflow, and Calvary one last opportunity to testify and confirm his love for Israel.

He said to the unrepentant, he would give only one sign, the sign of Jonah.

God labored for four millenniums to bring everything together to usher the New Covenant in Christ through Israel into the world.

God knew in advance Israel would reject his Son, but it did not stop him from presenting Christ to them anymore than it stops him from presenting Christ to us now, knowing in advance many will apostatize in the last days.

God knew in advance when he created man some would reject him, but he did so anyway; to share his creation and give his love to those who would come to him.

God knew in advance Adam and Eve would fall, but it didn’t stop him from creating them and offering them the choice of choosing to obey, or choosing to listen to the evil one.

Man’s rejection of God, and what God does, does not deter God from continuing to do everything possible to win the hearts and minds of his creation.

There’s coming a great outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit in the last days, so much so, it will actually “wound” the Antichrist system, and yet, just like in days of old, some will come in, and some will choose otherwise.

God’s love for men and women is not dependent on how we will react to him; he offers himself again and again hoping his goodness reveals our need for care and love only he can provide.

Knowing the future does not stop God from offering grace and love to those who may choose to reject him.

The prophecies of Christ’s rejection revealed the revelation of unrepentant sin in the heart of men and women opposed to the New Covenant in Christ, having nothing to do with Christ, but everything to do with the revelation of sin.

God had a plan in place even in the face of rejection, opportunities for another chance, then and now and in the future.

And Calvary provided the people of Israel an opportunity for another chance.

In the absence of his willingness to die an unrighteous death he could have righteously rejected their demand for his head, calling angels to his rescue and their destruction.

And his father would’ve supported him in that endeavor.

There was not a foreordained or deliberate plan by God for Christ to be killed at Calvary.

On the contrary, everything was set in place for Israel to receive their Messiah and usher in the kingdom of God, the Millennium, to the nations through Israel.

UNPRECEDENTED FULLNESS

I hope this series is stirring your heart for more of the Lord, it has mine.

Every time I sit down to write I receive more from the Lord.

He’s building something that will stand the test of time and help many in the days ahead.

There’s much more, way much more, yet to apprehend in the treasures he has for those who press on for the high calling of Christ in their life.

This is not about theology, or knowing more than anybody else, it’s all about Jesus, and intimacy with him, being healed and restored by grace through faith in the promised grace to come.

The Lord is preparing many now to rule and reign with him, not only in the coming moves of God, but in Heaven during the Tribulation, and, of course, during the Millennium where he will need untold tens of thousands to help spread the knowledge of God in healing and restoration throughout the nations.

Over the years many of us have had glimpses of a deeper relationship with the Lord, but then, by and by, it seems to just seep away.

But today, the Lord is bringing many into a deep place of grace, a place of no return, where you’re ushered into a journey with Jesus that continues to grow, expand, and deepen.

A journey into a permanent place of authority and position in him.

One the ancients desired to look into, few have traveled, and where only Christ can open and lead the way.

It’s a deep work of grace none should miss – the promise reserved for the age of Philadelphia in the last days.

An unprecedented release of intimacy with Christ made available by the Spirit of God to those who desire the deep things of his grace – being made whole and holy – prepared as a bride for her husband.

Jesus is bringing the promises of the Scripture – and there are three unprecedented promises to the Church of Philadelphia – to fullness in the last days, just as he prophesied to the Apostle John he would do.

Philadelphia has the most profound and rich promises of Scripture; other than the coming of Christ and his triumphant victory over the enmity in his flesh – redeeming those who choose him.

He’s doing what he promised in his Word!

He’s here now laboring in the Church to cleanse and heal as many as will come to him in the closing age of the Gospel dispensation.

The release of grace in the revelation of Christ brings you and me to increasing fullness in position and authority as his healing and restorative work moves forward and deeper in our lives.

Another fullness is also coming, one none of us want to see, but will be prepared to see and stand in the day of its visitation.

An unprecedented evil is coming, building now, so pervasive and binding it is vividly described as a Dragon, lion, bear, and leopard in Revelation Chapters 12 and 13.

And also vividly described by Daniel as a world kingdom at the time of Christ (in part, the Roman Empire, legs of iron) and, at the end of the Gospel dispensation (in fullness, the seventh world kingdom, Antichrist, feet of partly iron and clay):

“…there before me was a fourth beast – terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left.” (NIV, Daniel 7:7)

Every transition period in history is preceded by a new work of God.

And the transition from the age of the Gospel, the last two millenniums, to the true Millennium, where the enemy is bound for 1000 years and the Gospel reigns supreme on the earth through Christ, is no exception.

In fact, the transition from this age to the next is preceded by an unprecedented move of God, an unprecedented darkness over the earth, and an unprecedented transition period called the Tribulation.

History has not seen anything like what’s coming.

Unprecedented fullness happened in their day with the likes of Noah, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Elijah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Christ, the Apostles, Luther (“Sardis”), and Seymour and Parham (Pentecost, completing “Sardis”).

And it’s happening now (Tabernacles, “Philadelphia”), intimacy with Christ “being known by him,” cleansing, healing, and restoration.

And just like ages past, God is preparing a people group to testify of his care and love in the midst of unparalleled richness in Christ, and, darkness unlike anything man has faced in the past.

TABERNACLES

Tabernacles is not something one can initiate or choose.

It’s something Jesus wants for every one of his sons and daughters, but there’s a certain amount of desire and preparation that need to be done in the cultivation of the heart before the Lord can usher one through the open door of Philadelphia.

The Lord lingers long in giving men and women time to prepare, but as we see in Scripture, no matter how long he lingers, there will be those who fail to prepare, and miss the journey to meet the Lord to be prepared as a bride.

In the coming days, it will not be sufficient just to know “about” him, or to know his “presence,” but absolutely necessary to know him personally, deeply, and intimately, as much of him as time permits. (Matthew 22:14, Revelation 3:8, 1 Timothy 3:9, Galatians 4:19, 2 Corinthians 3:18, 1 Peter 1:13, etc.)

Tabernacles is the means by which grace is bestowed on you and me to bring us into the knowledge of the Lord in intimacy and care beyond what one could ask or think.

Tabernacles is the means by which grace is released to cleanse, heal, and restore God’s sons and daughters into brides, for the Son he perfected two millenniums ago.

It’s the time to count all things lost for the glory and excellency of knowing Christ, sharing in his sufferings, being made whole and holy, cleansed and healed from wounds and brokenness and the sins rooted so deeply in them.

This is the season for your heart to cry out (if you don’t have it within you, then ask the Lord to help you get there) – “Lord, do whatever you need to do, to get me to the place where my heart belongs to you, and yours belongs to me.”

“I want all you have for me; I don’t want to live in worldly contentment and complacency any longer.”

“Lord, help me discern what you desire to accomplish in me, and help me cooperate with you in the advancement of your kingdom in my life, and in the lives of others.”

Jesus will not force himself on anyone.

The heart was designed to be cultivated, grow, and mature, not to be exerted upon by force and slavery – that’s what the enemy does, and what Christ came to destroy.

He desires, just like you and me, a mutually beneficial and rewarding relationship born out of interaction and intimacy – the sharing of story, journey, and life experiences.

He’s given the great expanse of Scripture and its exhortations and admonishments to seek him as the starting place for pursuing him.

He’s made his Word to inspire and cultivate our hearts toward the pursuit of desire and passion for him.

And there’s nothing like discovering there’s more of God, more to apprehend, more to receive, that excites and stirs the heart to seek Christ beyond just the contentment of knowing about him, or knowing his presence, to truly knowing him, and him you – that’s the key.

He wants to know us, and us him; to share in like stories and journeys; being made one not only in knowledge, and heart, but in being made whole and holy.

Now, more than ever, is the need to set aside time to seek him with all your heart, for the fulfillment of his plans for your life – those unknown, spontaneous, and unplanned life experiences he has waiting just for you.

Out of those experiences he initiates in your life, will come wholeness and holiness; the peaceable fruit of righteousness; a fragrant offering to him and to those he sends your way in their time of need.

THOSE VULTURES

Jesus left no stone unturned in making it clear if we lose our lives for his sake, we gain Christ.

He said things many of us scratch our heads about, wondering, what does he mean, things like, where there’s a body, the vultures (eagles) gather (Matthew 24:28 and Luke 17:37).

This little verse is jam packed with symbolism, truth, and the mystery of the Gospel – the mystery of the new creation (putting sin to death, made alive in spirit), partakers of the divine nature. (Romans 6, 2 Corinthians 3:18, 2 Peter 1:4)

Christ communicates in the verses preceding 28 and 37 if we do not know him, and know him intimately, we’ll be led astray, never coming to the knowledge of the truth, Christ in us, the hope of glory.

Jesus is not to be found in the wilderness of this world, nor in the inner rooms, nor in any other place, but only to be found where “he is,” in the wilderness of his Spirit.

And where “he is,” you’ll find the old man, the carnal nature, being put to death, and the new man and woman being raised (transformed and sanctified) to walk in newness of life by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And where you see the eagles gathered, you’ll know the presence and breath of God is there to take the new creation in Christ, cleansed and healed of the flesh’s wounds and brokenness, aloft on the wings of the Spirit.

We can’t soar in heavenly places with Christ carrying the great weight and burden of deeply rooted transgressions and iniquities – a hard yoke and heavy burden.

How can two walk – together, or soar together, unless they be in agreement?

In short, the carcass represents the old man put to death by grace through faith (repentance and forgiveness) through the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

The eagles represent spiritual life “imparted,” the new creation in Christ.

The face of an eagle is one of the attributes of the living creatures, the bride of Christ.

In concluding, Jesus is saying,

“In the last days, with so much turmoil, the only safe place to be found is to be found in me.

And you can find me where you see the remains of the old man of my sons and daughters put to death by the atoning work of my blood sacrifice.

And where you find the remains of the fallen nature, having been crucified and castoff, you’ll find the newly released saints of God, the new creation, walking in resurrection life, on the wings of my Spirit, like eagles.

As death is brought to sin, life is brought to the new creation.”

(Note: The Greek word for vultures is eagle.)

Remember, “but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (NIV, Isaiah 40:31)

This is what Tabernacles is all about; the final segment of our long journey – cleansing, healing, and restoration into the fullness and stature of Christ.

THE SACRIFICE OF A BROKEN HEART IS NOT DESPISED

If you haven’t cried out to the Lord for the feast of Tabernacles in Philadelphia, it’s not too late.

Jesus needs to hear you want the adventure and journey he pioneered for every son and daughter of God. (Hebrews 2:10 and 6:20)

He wants the knock on the door of your heart answered with a “welcome and come in,” trusting he will work on your behalf to bring about what’s eternally best for you – and it will be beyond what you can imagine or think.

“The blessing of the LORD brings wealth, without painful toil for it.” (NIV, Proverbs 10:22)

And it may bring wealth in the natural, but the deep wealth we’re all after, whether we know it or not, is the “wealth” of Christ – the treasurer of Christ – deep within our soul and spirit.

And if you’re not ready to say welcome and come in when Jesus knocks, then you could ask him to create greater desire in your heart for him, desire equal to his for you.

After all, isn’t that what brings two lovers together, mutual desire?

Deep, true, and intimate love has to spring from both hearts, hearts passionate to be together through thick and thin.

A love so binding it frustrates the enemy even to see it.

You can never give more to Jesus than what he gives you back.

Let him know you do not want to leave this life until he knows you and you know him (Matthew 25:12 and 7:21 – 27).

None of us in our right mind want to be numbered with the foolish, sleepy, drunken (with the cares of this life), those who apostatize, and those of the household of Laodicea.

The warnings in Scripture are not just there to fill space.

They mean what they say, and the last thing Christ wants is his sons and daughters to be found “wanting,” when he’s held out his heart to them all the days of their life.

We go to great lengths and expense to build an earthly kingdom for us and our families, embracing all the blessings God has given in this earthly domain.

Now it’s time for you who haven’t, to make yourselves available to Christ for the building of the kingdom in your life.

I believe Jesus would say to many in the 21^st century,

“I want your focus, heart, energy, and effort turned from the kingdom you’ve made for yourself and turned toward me, so I can multiply you beyond measure, in unimaginable ways.

I’m here to advance the kingdom of God in you and in others I will send your way.

There’s only so much time; and some of you will run out of time for the work of grace I desire for you if you turn to me later rather than sooner.

I’m not here to take away what you have or who you are, but to cleanse and heal your wounds and brokenness, for your true identity to come forth in me.

You will be rewarded beyond your wildest expectations.

I ask you to join with me in redeeming what has been lost and stolen from you and your generations, just as I redeemed what was lost and stolen from my generations.

If you permit me, I will reveal my nature in you by grace in the deep areas of your heart and mind, restoring you to the design and likeness my father had in mind for you and yours from the beginning.”

If your heart is indifferent, you can ask him to do whatever is necessary to bring awareness to you of your deep need for him.

You can ask him to leave no stone unturned in bringing awareness to you of your desperate need for intimacy and connection with him.

Heaven is not the place to find out how desperate we are for Jesus.

Jesus said the kingdom of heaven has come, here, now, not later.

The emphasis of the New Testament is for the here and now, not later.

The pioneering work of Christ brought the kingdom of heaven to our earthly temples of clay, to raise you and me, like Christ, to walk in newness of life this side of heaven’s shores.

He destroyed the barrier between the flesh and the law in his life (Ephesians 2:14 – 15, see an interlinear), and his covenant promise is to do it in our life – to be raised from the dead to walk in newness of life, just like him (Romans 6).

Christ brought the kingdom of heaven to earth through his atoning work, fulfilling the covenant promises which spoke of his coming.

And those covenant promises, fulfilled in him, are promised to be fulfilled in you and me.

The kingdom of heaven will be made known again, in great revival, in the last days, a foretaste of the greater “rain” of the kingdom of heaven to come during the millennial reign of Christ.

Heaven is not the place where we’re transformed from glory to glory into his likeness.

Heaven is not the place where we’re commanded to die to sin to walk in newness of life.

This is the time to be made new, to put the old man to death, to be made alive in spirit, to walk in newness of life – the Scriptures are written for our life here on earth, not for our life in the kingdom to come!

There are few things as misunderstood as the teaching we just live out our born – again lives and when we enter heaven Jesus makes everything new.

This could not be farther from the truth.

If that’s the case, then most of the New Testament is irrelevant and has no meaning for this life, which we know is not the case.

This is one of the tragic effects of the creeds, pointing most everything about Christ to Calvary, requiring much of him, and little of us.

Instead of his pioneering journey he completed for himself and patterned for us – putting transgressions and iniquities to death, raised to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:10, Hebrews 5:7 – 10).

The underlying beliefs of creeds and traditions are subtle.

And may result in great loss to many in the last days.

Because they will keep many from the deep truths of the faith necessary to receiving the sustaining life of Christ in the time of great darkness.

The underlying theme of creeds and traditions is repentance and forgiveness through “decisions;” not deep transformation and sanctification accomplished by the revelation of Christ in grace, the deep work of the Spirit, fathered by God.

They teach we have no responsibility to seek the kingdom of God after being born again, to put the old man to death “Christ’s life birthed in you and me,” – baptized with the baptism Christ was baptized (Romans 6, Romans 8:10 – 11).

Yes, salvation is by grace, but salvation is a long journey.

And in this season of church history, the Spirit of Christ is calling his sons and daughters into deep grace, transformation, the cleansing and healing of our body, soul, and spirit, into his likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18, 7:1, 1 Thessalonians 5:23, 1 Peter 1:13).

The Scripture says, “…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” (NIV, Philippians 2:12 – 13)

There are eternal differences in the “seating of heaven” greatly determined by the heart of Christ developed in this life.

The purpose of the New Covenant is to prepare us for heaven, not just to get us to heaven.

It is normal in the state of human affairs to be out of touch with how deep our cravings are for sinful desires, and the rescue and remedy only Christ can bring.

Being born again and spirit filled does not cure the deep wounds and brokenness in our inner man and woman.

On the contrary, if anything, our new relationship with Christ will bring discomfort to the generational structures of sin operating within us.

And hopefully, the discomfort will move us to seek Christ even more for healing and restoration, and not do the opposite, and turn away from him.

Becoming born – again is designed to make us aware of the great doctor in heaven who stands ready to come and rescue, and remedy, the deep toll our sinful nature and actions have caused us, others, and the Lord himself.

The purpose of the born – again experience and the baptism of the Holy Spirit is to move us deeper in Christ, equipped and healed to advance the kingdom of God.

And to become equipped and healed requires the feast of Tabernacles.

Tabernacles is the feast – the journey, fathered by God – the Lord designed to bring us into care and intimacy with him, sonship, through cleansing and healing of the barriers between us and him.

It is easy to be out of touch with one’s deep wounds and brokenness because of the “fall” all around us, and the continual subtle and not so subtle assaults of sensuality and pleasure through every medium imaginable.

But, and, this is a great but, Jesus is here to lift you out of the “easy,” the easy way of living in the world, to the profound movement of his Holy Spirit in your heart and in your life if you’ll but ask and invite him.

In this late hour of the Gospel dispensation, he’s calling for those who want the adventure of a lifetime to seek to know him.

We have six millenniums of the plan of God in our rearview mirror, proving, without a doubt, the truth of his creative plan and the certainty of his promises.

And that includes the promise to prepare a bride for the Son in the closing seasons of the Gospel dispensation – the greatest opportunity for the body of Christ over the last two millenniums.

No other church age has the promises of Philadelphia.

We don’t want to be known by the true Millennial’s as those who missed their day of the Lord’s visitation, by rejecting the deep work of grace offered by Christ in Philadelphia, like the Jews of old who rejected Christ in their day.

David said:

“My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” (NIV, Psalm 51:17)

The deep work of Tabernacles, the age of Philadelphia, is not something we can just choose, like going to the grocery store and buying something off the shelf, and just walk through the “open door” of Philadelphia.

No, only Christ can lead one through the open door of grace in the revelation of his nature.

To go into the wilderness without him would be utter folly and disaster.

He’s the only one who knows the path specifically designed for your care, rescue, and remedy in the deeply wounded and broken areas of your life.

Under the Old Covenant, most had access to the Outer Court, only the priests had access to the Holy Place, and only by the invitation of God the High Priest could access the Most Holy Place.

In the New Testament, the Gospel is made available to all, fulfilling the Old Covenant feast of Passover, the born – again experience, symbolized as the Outer Court in the Old.

Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, symbolized in the Old as the Holy Place, is available to all as well.

And Tabernacles, the final major feast in the Old Covenant, symbolized by the Most Holy Place, is fulfilled in the New Covenant in the long journey of the revelation of Christ by grace (1 Peter 1:13).

Jesus is looking for those who want everything he has to offer.

If we ask and seek him, he’ll leave no stone unturned to bring the rewards of his redemption to you and me.

It’s the cry of Paul’s letters to the churches to apprehend what Christ has apprehended us for.

And it is the cry of the Spirit today, to make way for the coming of the Lord, (Matthew 25:6).

The Harvest and Celebration of Tabernacles Is Close

There’s an urgency of the Spirit to prepare and make way for the Lord unlike any time in previous generations.

In this late hour of church history, Jesus desires our relationship with him to be well beyond one based on conversion and baptism.

Those were suitable for an earlier time but will be insufficient in the days ahead.

Even in the early church, the author of Hebrews urged God’s sons and daughters to journey beyond the rudimentary principles of Christ, and seize the prize, Christ himself.

That can only be accomplished if we let Jesus pursue us, and that includes the deep things within you and me needing his care and love.

The body of Christ is in desperate need for intimacy with Christ well beyond what is commonly offered in Christian circles on a daily basis.

Barley (Passover, born again), and wheat (Pentecost), will only take one so far.

We need to complete the full harvest of God for our lives, as much of the “summer harvest” he can accomplish in the remaining years of our lives.

We’ve got to have the fruit, nuts, and olives of Tabernacles to complete the journey, and not just for ourselves.

The Lord desires the fragrance and taste of Tabernacles for him, and for those he sends our way.

Tabernacles was the special harvest, the most precious and eagerly sought and anticipated as the celebration of another growing season came to an end.

And so it is, in the fulfillment of the Gospel, Philadelphia being the most precious and final harvest in the Gospel dispensation.

Jesus wants relationship with you and me beyond the most blessed couple in the natural we’ve ever known!

One not limited by the carnality of the sinful nature, but bound together by the writing of the law of God – the goodness of God and not the lies of the enemy – on the fleshly tables of our heart and mind.

Where our hearts are consumed with the love and purposes of God.

For, unless we learn to receive the love and care of Christ, and truly love ourselves, we will be limited in what we can offer others in Christ.

When we learn how to give out of our overflow, and not out of “ourselves,” we’ll be on the path to honoring and loving ourselves as Christ does.

And to honoring and loving others righteously.

This is the hour for overflowing capacity “the bounty of his Spirit” to be built in you and me.

The greater the weight of glory, the deeper the foundation.

You cannot have major flaws in the foundation, cracks in the concrete, unstable ground, etc., and expect the building to sustain great weight and stress.

For the great weight of glory coming, just like in the days of old, vessels will need to be carefully cultivated and prepared to carry the weight of Christ to come.

Knitted Together with Christ

Jesus desires intimacy with you and me where he can speak or show up at any moment, or through any person, and feel welcomed and at home day or night.

And I might add, that includes the early hours of the morning when he can access our heart and mind uncluttered from the events of the day to come.

He desires to share the intimacies of his pioneering journey with us, to make you and me deeply and truly vessels of his love and grace.

And this can only come about as he reveals the deep truths of his Word and the revelation of his nature by grace through the Spirit of God.

And for that to happen, we must be taken on a journey of healing and restoration.

Christ desires to establish a union so tightly knitted together it will attract others to the goodness and love of God.

Where all it takes is a look from his eyes or the nod of his head, and you know what he means.

A relationship in intimacy so deep and compelling you know each other’s body language, where we’ve been trained and disciplined to respond to the slightest touch of his Spirit or the whisper of his voice.

Where relationship with him is not second nature, but, your nature (2 Peter 1:4).

Because, your welfare is at stake, and you’re foremost in Christ’s mind, to keep you safe, secure, and in the love and protection of God.

It’s critically important to know Christ intimately, to stay within the boundaries he’s established (Psalm 16), and not take paths into harm’s way.

He desires his sons and daughters not to just know “about” him, or his “presence,” but to know “him,” personally, intimately, and uniquely.

These are the promises so clearly written in Scripture, yet, so few, comparatively speaking, have traveled this high in the mountains with Jesus.

If Christ is going to live inside you and me, binding us to him, a father to the fatherlessness, then certainly we will come to know his heart and thoughts, and the plans and purposes of God for us individually and uniquely.

The veil separating us from the Most Holy Place has been opened, making the way available for those who seek and allow Christ to prepare them.

Christ desires his sons and daughters to know his heart, to feel what he feels, to see what he sees in advancing the kingdom in them and others.

He longs for us to be made new from the inside out, to share his story – cleansed, healed, and restored – the promise of an easy yoke and light burden.

Creeds and traditions have done much to dissuade God’s sons and daughters from seeking the riches and treasures of Christ by making him unapproachable and unattainable, outside of the cloak of religion and good works.

Creeds and traditions have created a huge barrier to the understanding of the knowledge and person of Christ, who he is, and most importantly, who he became.

Many wonder how the religious leaders at the time of Christ could miss their Savior – the New Testament in flesh and blood walking in their presence.

How could anyone in their right mind miss the Messiah, surrounded by hundreds of testimonies of those Christ saved and healed.

And yet, tragically, we find a great number of Christians in the last days will fall victim to the same apostasy, forsaking the move of the Holy Spirit.

And just like some at the time of Christ, many in the last days will witness the transition of the age of the Gospel to its ultimate fulfillment, the Millennial reign of Christ.

And some will enter as brides, and others as guests.

Ministers Beware

There are some Christians in leadership positions, who’ve been fighting so many things for so long, abhorred at the spread and growth of darkness, the mere thought or mention of God doing new things brings an element of suspicion and skepticism.

Creeds and traditions are powerful foes, as I’ve written about, and any suggestion or thought there might be something wrong with them can trigger defensiveness and vigilance far beyond rational thought and measures.

Some who’ve been in the fight so long will find it hard to receive something new from the Lord, so entrenched in preserving the Old, barring an intervening and profound move of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

And ministers are especially susceptible to this; having ministered and taught for so long, they’ve forgotten how to be taught and cared for in the deep things of the Spirit Christ is revealing in grace today.

The cloak of ministry can keep one who’s been on the front lines of battle from the deep things of God, unless, by the grace of God, they remember how it all began in their life in the first place, entering the kingdom of God like a child.

If there’s any time we need to be like a child, curious about all things in Christ, teachable, persuadable, given to listening rather than teaching and lecturing, or exhorting and admonishing, now is the time.

Jesus cannot bring down the structures of sin in our lives if we hold to the Old and are fearful of the New.

He’s looking for those who will humble themselves in contriteness of heart and brokenness of spirit to be cleansed and healed, made complete, for the Masters use.

No matter how long one has been in ministry, or what has been accomplished, there’s deep things inside in need of the resurrection power of Christ.

IMPORTANT

For many well taught and seasoned ministers, anything different from what they’ve held dear to their heart, especially the pillars of Christendom in creeds, has got to have something wrong with it, because it did not come through them or those they know and esteem.

And that’s the tricky part, the humility, of each new move of God, it comes not from the people we expect, not in a way we expect, and not at a time we expect.

What I’m sharing with you right now is critically important for you who are well taught and seasoned veterans of ministry.

New moves of God do not come through the people we expect, in a way we expect, and at a time we expect.

The Lord is not after the things we can see with our natural eyes, discern with our natural mind, but the heart, the desires and passions for him.

He’ll come in ways, and bring people across our path, at unexpected times and in unexpected ways, to create divine appointments for us with him and others.

It’s easy to dismiss something new and stick with the old, because that’s been part of our nature, whether saved or unsaved, whether minister or non-minister.

The pressure, both naturally and spiritually, to continue in the path of the Old, and see the future through old binoculars, is intense, deeply rooted, and ingrained in the passing of the baton through the generations.

Some commercials lead us to believe the knowledge of our ancestors is critical to our identity and destiny.

That certainly plays a significant part in the passing of the fallen nature from generation to generation, but in Christ, a new generational line is established.

He’s the firstborn, first fruit, last Adam, forerunner, and pioneer and finisher of our ancestral heritage in the New Covenant.

In the New Covenant, he not only passes attributes of himself in the new birth and Pentecostal experience, but comes to dwell in our inner man and woman in the cleansing and healing of our wounds and brokenness.

Tabernacles is the fulfillment of Christ coming and making his abode in the temple we call our body, soul, and spirit.

Jesus established a new humanity, a new generational line, a new path, a new father, and a new history, to be grafted into and lived out.

Christ redeemed his generations all the way back to Adam, establishing a new generation beginning with him, one that would bear the fruit of life, grace, and truth to those grafted into him.

That though we carry forward talents and personalities from our ancestral line, our new Father, in Christ, creates a “new creation” to glorify him, to glorify Christ, and to glorify the humanity within made new.

We will always be “born of a woman” in the New Covenant, speaking of our humanity and the body of Christ, but it is the Father who gives us identity and destiny, restoring what was lost and beyond.

Transition in Motion Once Again

Each successive move of God offers more of the Lord as time marches forward in the grand design to complete men and women into the likeness of Christ.

Today, the body of Christ stands on the threshold of another deep and unfolding move of God as the age of the Gentiles comes to fullness.

A fullness to birth many into different camps; some into the deep waters of Christ; some watching from the sidelines; and others consumed by this life.

Fullness is coming, it cannot be stopped, and we will either find ourselves in one camp or the other.

The law of sin is powerful and cannot be overturned by anything man can do.

But the law of the spirit of grace is even more powerful, able to overturn and unseat sin to the uttermost when given the opportunity through repentance and forgiveness by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The birth pangs of fullness are all around, some are “pregnant” with Christ, some with the world, and many, many, in the valley of decision, Christian and non-Christian, undecided who to give their all.

Nonetheless, like ages past, God is doing a hidden work, to be revealed for a short season, when everything has been made ready by him.

It is the deep work of grace in the heart and spirit of men and women setting in motion the calendar of God, and not world events.

World events do not set in motion the plan and purposes of God, but are a reaction to what God is doing by the Spirit in his sons and daughters.

There are moves and counter moves by the enemy to thwart the plan and purposes of God, but in the long journey, his efforts will be futile, as Christ will accomplish the ministry of Christ in the time allotted by the Father.

Godly transformation, healing and restoration toward Christ likeness, requires much in the way of time and care, whereas, sin, and all its manifestations, seem to come to fruition much sooner.

It’s because we were born into sin and live in a fallen kingdom having at its disposal the vast resources of this world to stifle godly ambitions, overflowing the world with sensuality at every corner, and every form of pleasure.

But, it is within this environment, God calls those lost in sin, and those in him, into the deep things of the Spirit.

God is no respecter of persons, and calls all, in the early hours, and in the late hours, to come to him while the day is still light.

It’s a time-consuming and painstaking work that seems to linger and be long in coming.

And yet, when the Lord has everything in place, the foundation built, and the framing completed, he can move quickly to complete the ministry he set out to do from the very beginning.

It says in Romans the Lord will do a quick work in the last days.

Whereas Passover and Pentecost took centuries and decades, Tabernacles will be an even quicker work, because the time is short, the need is desperate, and darkness more threatening than ever.

In Revelation 12 we find a woman with a child in her womb (symbolic of the body of Christ and, within her, the “making” of the wise into brides) before a fully grown and mature Dragon – a picture of the present building and coming last day Antichrist kingdom.

The Dragon is fully grown, ready to destroy anything between it and its objectives.

By the way, you’ll notice he’s not concerned about the woman, but about the child in the womb, because the child, the bride of Christ in the making, will be a threat to his kingdom.

Today, we see all around us evidence of the global Antichrist system in the making – cultivating and nurturing hearts of men and women toward darkness on a scale, depth, and speed, unprecedented in history.

The resources of the world –  the wealthy, influential, and government, religion, and media, are working together, knowingly and unknowingly, to bring about a culture and society opposed to Christ.

It’s been happening for a long time and it will accelerate in the years ahead.

But this is not stopping God from working in the midst, behind-the-scenes, doing a hidden work, preparing sons and daughters for intimacy and union with him.

The age of Philadelphia is here, and it will get richer and deeper in the coming days, until the child in the womb is born, matured, and ushered into ministry unlike anything in recent history. (Revelation 3 and 12)

And the age of Laodicea is here, building and growing, weaving its’ web tighter around those caught in indecision and lukewarm-ness; wrestling with the world on one side, the Scriptures on the other, looking to the world for answers all the while Christ is knocking on the door of their heart.

World events do not determine the coming of God’s revivals and work of grace.

But rather, the readiness of his sons and daughters to bring the revelation of Christ in grace and love to those outside the safety of Christ, and to those in Christ, idly sitting on the sidelines.

It’s not too late to seek Christ for the deep things of God.

God is doing everything possible, short of violating people’s wills, to bring the revelation of Christ in grace to the wounded and broken areas of their lives.

No matter what is going on in the world, Christ is working to stir and inspire the hearts of men and women to seek intimacy with him through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

We’re living in unprecedented times, not because of the pandemic, or because of world events, but because of the deep work of grace promised to those in the last days in the prophetic revelation to the Church of Philadelphia, which has the greatest promises to any church age and to any age since the creation.

MAKING SOMETHING FROM WHAT CANNOT BE SEEN IN THE NATURAL

“He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed – the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.” (NIV, Romans 4:17)

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” (NIV, Romans 1:20)

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (NIV, 2 Corinthians 4:18)

“By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” (NIV, Hebrews 11:3)

Note

When the Scripture says we understand these things by faith, it’s not talking about mindlessness and emptiness, to believe something having no foundation or grounds for belief – that would be foolishness.

Jesus warns against foolish thinking; even saying it will become more rampant as the clock draws down at the end of the age.

The Bible is filled with layers and layers of proof of God’s workmanship beginning with creation itself; the multitude of types and shadows birthed throughout history from the creation account and day of rest.

The Bible confirms within itself, through multiple layers spanning centuries and authors, and history, its’ veracity, accuracy, and prophetic trust.

Jesus reached back to the creation in Matthew 13 about the hidden things.

If man had devised the creation story, it would be filled with complexity, a story men and women could mentally master and reason through, aligning with our own thoughts.

Our ability to create story has limits, boundaries; because our ability to create and imagine is limited to our own story, the confines of humanity and mortality.

God, who the Scripture says is passed finding out, eternal spirit, is not limited by flesh and blood in what he can do, think, or create.

God’s story of creation goes beyond what we can imagine or think, introducing concepts and perspectives outside of man’s ability to master or reason through.

The “creation account” is not only the account of this creation, but it also sets in motion the plan of God to rescue and redeem mankind over seven periods of time.

The creation account symbolically prefigures and foretells God’s plan of salvation, making men and women into the likeness of Christ, over six periods of time.

We know this as a fact, and not as a speculation.

Because we can look in the rearview mirror and see the journey of mankind, foretold in the creation account, come to pass over the last six millenniums of Biblical and non-Biblical history.

I know of at least six “broad layers” (for example, layers surpassing prophecies like the seventy weeks of Daniel), confirming and reconfirming accounts, proving the authenticity, accuracy, and prophetic trust of Scripture:

(1) There’s the creation account stretching through the Millennial reign of Christ,

(2) actual Bible history over the last six millenniums (from Adam to present day) that mirrors in segment and time the creation account,

(3) the coming of Christ foretold in creation (the creation of the sun, moon, and stars on the fourth day), the birth of David at the beginning of the fourth day and the coming of Christ at the end of the fourth day,

(4) the first six church ages and the last day revival represented and symbolized in the seven parables of Matthew 13,

(5) the seven church ages symbolized in Paul’s nine letters to the churches as placed in the Bible; letters eight and nine, Thessalonians, being on the threshold and in the Tribulation, and,

(6) the seven church ages of Revelation, presently in the Philadelphia (feast of Tabernacles) and Laodicea ages (those who miss the bride).

New Life

Much of what is taught and preached of Christ today is about what Jesus did and said, making “decisions” for Christ, i.e., “learning about him” to be like him.

But that’s not how transformation comes about – partaking of the divine nature.

There’s an underlying thread of humanism in much of what is being taught and preached today.

That, it’s within our own power to transform our natures into his glorious nature.

That, through our decisions we’re able to apprehend Christ and be made a new creation.

This is another Gospel, and not the teaching of Scripture.

It is very subtle, creeping and threading its way through Christendom over decades and decades of humanistic thinking founded in evolution, the power of choice – the purported untapped power within us to change and transform our own lives through measures we initiate and choose.

It is very subtle, creeping into all aspects of our society and culture; the power of mankind to be all they can be from the power that “lies” within.

It’s like trying to plant a good tree next to a bad tree, doing everything possible to produce a bountiful harvest of good fruit, to cover the smell, discoloration, and rottenness of the bad fruit from the bad tree.

That’s one extreme, to leave the bad intact, hoping the good will cover the bad.

The other extreme is to walk and live in condemnation, doing everything possible in one’s own efforts to destroy the bad fruit, but never able to get to its’ source, because condemnation is focused on the fruit, not on the roots.

When condemnation is at the helm, no matter how much repentance is made, the tree will continue to bear bad fruit because grace has not been allowed to uproot the tree.

Conventional inner healing provides the means to pick low hanging bad fruit and access some of their root systems, providing a measure of transformation.

But it takes the deep work of the Spirit of grace in the revelation of Christ, initiated and chosen by the Lord, to access deeply rooted sins and iniquities.

There are deeper levels of transformation and sanctification well beyond the wounds and brokenness displayed in low hanging bad fruit.

Passover, the barley harvest, fulfilled as the born – again experience, which leads naturally to Pentecost, the wheat harvest, fulfilled as the baptism of the Spirit, do not naturally lead into Tabernacles, the summer harvest of the fruit of the Spirit.

Tabernacles in the New Testament (symbolically represented in Old Testament by the summer harvest of fruit, nuts, and olives, entirely different from the previous two crops, barley and wheat) is the season of deep and intense transformation, from the old nature, into the nature of Christ, initiated and chosen by the Lord.

Transformation, the “making” of sons and daughters into Christ likeness, is not something we have the power to choose or decide, but can only be apprehended by the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit in the revelation of Christ by grace (1 Peter 1:13).

Only the revelation of Christ by grace to our wounds and brokenness and the power of sin over them, can bring cleansing and healing in newness of life.

A new nature the natural eye cannot perceive or understand.

Only a complete transformation from barley and wheat production, to fruits, nuts, and olives, can produce the harvest of Tabernacles.

The law of creation is “in – kind” can only produce “in – kind.”

The seed of wheat produces wheat, the seed of barley produces barley, and the seeds of fruits, nuts, and olives produces their kind.

Barley Christians are transformed into wheat Christians by the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

And wheat Christians are transformed into the summer harvest by the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead and brought newness of life to him.

The Gospel is about making something that is not!

It’s about raising the dead, those outside of Christ, dead in sin, and those in Christ, carrying the weight of sin in their members, to walk in newness of life.

It’s about new wine in new wineskins.

It’s about creating life, a new nature, eternal life, where mortality and the law of sin prevailed.

It’s about God making something new in the spiritual, i.e., barley and wheat Christians into the precious summer harvest of fruits, nuts, and olives, the impossible made possible by the hidden and invisible work of the power of God.

We need the harvest of wheat and barley, but oh, the joy when the specialty harvest of the summer crops come.

It requires the intervention of the Lord in intimacy and intensity – an ushering into a deep place of grace in the revelation of Christ – for barley and wheat to be transformed into tree producing fruit.

It’s a huge leap spiritually speaking, one requiring preparation; like the parable of the wise and foolish virgins – the wise prepared to make the journey to Tabernacles.

The “open door” into Tabernacles (Revelation 3, Philadelphia church age), begins the process of receiving a new nature – “grace” – and a new seed – “truth.”

You cannot go through the door of Tabernacles without an overabundant bestowing of grace by Christ followed by an unfolding revelation of truth.

Grace and truth in the barley and wheat stage is a sustaining stage.

But grace and truth in the summer harvest, is an ever increasing unveiling and transformative stage.

Matthew 13

We even see the separation of the grains, and their harvest, and the summer harvest, in the seven parables of Christ of Matthew 13, prophetically symbolizing the six church ages and the great ingathering yet to come.

The first four parables of Matthew 13 concern grains, and speak of the first four church ages of the seven ages of Revelation Chapter 3.

The last church age of the first four, is the darkest – yeast mixed throughout the dough (symbolized by the fourth parable of Matthew 13; Paul’s fourth letter to the churches, Galatians; and Thyatira of Revelation 3) – false teaching so entrenched and pervasive it produces sinful children (Revelation 3:23).

We know from history the fourth parable of Christ, etc., refers to what is commonly called the dark ages, the 1200 years preceding the Reformation.

The fifth parable begins the process of transitioning out of darkness into the knowledge of the treasure of Christ, and the sixth, the deepest yet, what we commonly call the pearl of great price.

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The fifth parable of Matthew 13 is likened to Paul’s fifth letter, Ephesians, salvation by grace, and, the fifth church age, Sardis, the age of coming into the light of salvation and Pentecost.

The sixth parable of Matthew 13 is likened to Paul’s sixth letter, Philippians, the day of Christ, the deep work of grace Christ pioneered, giving him a name above every other name, and, the sixth church age, Philadelphia, the greatest promises with new names for those in the journey of Christ.

The “treasure” of the fifth parable, and the “pearl” of the sixth are not fruits, nuts, and olives, but the transformation from grains to another nature takes place in both instances.

There is a distinct and unique difference between the ingredients and products of the first four parables, and the “harvest” of the next two.

To the Jews of Old, and the Christians of New, the harvest of fruits, nuts, and olives are “treasures and pearls” compared to the grain harvests.

The grains gave way to the knowledge of a better treasure, and then the treasure to an even greater harvest, the pearl, one that requires everything.

And Tabernacles, the deep work of grace in the revelation of Christ, is not accomplished without great effort by the Lord and you in working out your salvation.

And it was not accomplished in Christ’s life without great effort by him in the long journey of being made perfect, becoming the eternal source of salvation.

And it will not be accomplished in us by Christ without great effort on his part to walk us through the adventure he pioneered by his grace and care.

Scripture (through Christ and other authors) use different metaphors, symbolism, etc., to convey unchanging truths.

The summer harvest, unlike the spring harvest of barley and wheat, is a truly new creation harvest from another nature – a special work of God producing a harvest of unique and exquisite flavors, fragrance, and uses, not only in sustaining life, but in enhancing it with the magnificence and variety of the kingdom of God.

The summer harvest, unlike the grain harvests, symbolizes the manifold grace and love of God in gifts, talents, and operations of the Spirit.

Important

Tabernacles is the transformation of the natural man brought into the kingdom of God through the born-again and spirit filled experiences.

Without Tabernacles, our Christian pilgrimage is incomplete.

We’re in the kingdom, but have not yet been made full participants of the kingdom, and all it has to offer this side of heaven.

Tabernacles takes God’s sons and daughters beyond the entrance of Passover, and the awareness of Pentecost, deeply into the territory he inhabits, taking possession of the great expanse of kingdom he redeemed and purchased with his own blood.

Tabernacles is the only way we can become truly known, and knowing him and his sufferings – the sufferings in redeeming body, soul and spirit in being made whole and holy.

Romans 8:10 – 11 is an excellent picture of the transformation journey beyond the born-again experience.

Transformation takes the born-again Christian – having a body doomed to die but a spirit graced to live – through a process of healing and restoring the inner man and woman to walk in newness of life.

Enoch, Moses, Elijah, Christ, Paul and Peter are examples of those who complete the race, resurrection life, this side of heaven.

That’s the promise of the age of Philadelphia, the fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles, the transformation from glory to glory even into his likeness.

The rapture is the result of those coming to completion; completing the race God had specifically and uniquely for them.

Transformation takes something which is not, and makes it something different, by grace through faith, fathered by God, in the power of his Holy Spirit.

Tabernacles is where transformation begins in earnest, deeply, intensely, and spontaneously as led by the Lord over a long journey.

It’s not an overnight experience, but an ushering into a place of deep grace that takes years to unfold the promised provisions.

Transformation, the journey, is the suffering of Christ, the cross of Christ, the crucifixion of the flesh, learning obedience – wounding and piercing transgressions and iniquities for cleansing and healing.

There are many Scriptures which refer to the “coming,” “appearing,” “revealing,” “judging,” of the Lord to cleanse and heal his sons and daughters.

But some choose, for whatever reasons, not to respond to his knock on the door of their heart to complete the race in fullness.

Jesus desires every son and daughter to be brought into the deep things of God, and yet we see, in the last days, an apostasy, and the lukewarm of Laodicea.

Here are some Scriptures about the Lord coming to cleanse and heal his sons and daughters over and above being born again and spirit filled:

Matthew 24:38 – 41; Luke 13:8; John 21:18 (this is not about Peter being martyred as so commonly taught, see Part 5 in my, A Peculiar People, series), and

1 Corinthians 4:5, 1 Corinthians 15:20 – 23; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Galatians 4:19; Philippians 1:6, 10, and 2:16; Colossians 3:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; 1 Timothy 6:14; Hebrews 9:28; 1 Peter 1:13; 2 Timothy 4:1.

Again, these and many other Scriptures are not referring to the second coming of Christ, but Christ coming to his sons and daughters to cleanse, heal, and restore – to bring justice to sin and life to his children.

Even in Isaiah (57:1 – 2) the Scripture speaks of those the Lord takes in death, and others, take no notice.

This is not referring to physical death.

It represents those the Lord takes aside for the deep work of grace, preparing them for his dwelling place, e.g., – Noah, Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, etc.

This is the sudden coming of the Lord to cleanse his temple, the ushering into deep grace, the completion of the race promised and reserved in Philadelphia.

In Conclusion

There’s a night and day difference between:

• the first four days of creation and the next two – a progressive revelation of life in days five and six, followed by a day of rest, match the Old Covenant, the coming of Christ to divide the Old from the New, and the spread of the Gospel over the last two millenniums, followed by his millennial rule,
• the first four church ages, which descend to the depths of Thyatira, requiring Christ’s personal intervention, and the next two, the Reformation and Pentecost returned (Sardis), and Tabernacles returned (Philadelphia), a progressive deepening work in the revelation of Christ to his body,
• the first four of Paul’s letters to the churches, which descend to the depths of Galatians, going back to the law to be made perfect, and the next two, Ephesians and Philippians, symbolizing the return of salvation by grace and Pentecost in the age of Sardis (Ephesians), and the return of Tabernacles (Philippians), the day of Christ, completing the race he pioneered,
• and the first four parables of Matthew 13 which descend from tares to institutionalized Christianity (the parable of the mustard seed), to the depths of yeast being kneaded throughout the dough (false teaching, the dark ages, the age of the church of Thyatira), and the next two, the “treasure” and “pearl,” a progressive revelation of deepening intimacy.

I’ve shared at a broad level how the Scripture is self-contained; confirmed and testified within itself through creation, history, parables, church ages, and Paul’s letters to the churches of the plan of redemption and transformation.

We are presently experiencing the grace of the Philippian church age.

Colossians and Laodicea are comparable transitional periods for those who do not desire to go through the open door of Philadelphia.

In 1 and 2 Thessalonians we see the Church in the last days (symbolically, following Paul’s letters) under great stress, the bride caught away, the apostasy, the unveiling of the Antichrist system, and saints in the Tribulation.

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The heart of the Gospel, particularly Tabernacles, is to move us from loving the things of Jesus, to loving him.

When we’re born again, we enter the kingdom of God enthralled with the wonder of it, God, his Spirit, and the Word.

Then we spend years learning about the Kingdom, the man they call the Christ, and all the wonderful things he did.

And we are endlessly taught about him, many even coming to recognize his presence, but in time, we lose interest, and Jesus becomes more of a figurehead, having some of our affections but not the wholeness of our heart and life.

Our life becomes more centered around Christian activities and responsibilities than intimacy and relationship with him.

The Lord knows that, and puts a plan in place where we will seek him for the deeper life – intimacy and connection with him.

As we begin to seek him for greater intimacy, he helps cultivate desire and inspiration – to prepare us for the deep waters of his Spirit.

Hopefully, we respond to his wooing, giving him access to the deep wells in us needing his care and love.

And out of his care and love, comes deep passion and love for him, a love we could never have outside of intimacy and connection with him.

It’s all about Jesus and always will be. We cannot love God with all of our heart, mind, and spirit, on our own.

It can only come about through his healing and restoration.

There’s a cultivation and a turning from sleepiness to awareness, to awaken our deep need for him.

We naturally choose Christian activities in the absence of being taught about the deeper life, and the importance of permitting him to prepare and cultivate our hearts for him.

No matter how gifted, talented, anointed in spiritual matters we believe we are, there’s no substitute for deep intimacy and connection with Christ.

David was anointed king as a young man, yet, he spent the next decades being “made” a king, to “serve” as a king; one of the greatest “types,” of Christ, in the Old Testament, outside of Moses, and Elijah, to a lesser extent.

It is not until Tabernacles our house truly begins to be put in order, the deep things of the inner nature; old furniture replaced with new, the foundation rebuilt, and major remodeling.

The results, your love for the things of God transitions to Christ himself; instead of loving the story of Christ, you fall in love with Christ, and his body, in growing and maturing into a pure and holy love for one another.

We cannot truly learn to love one another with a pure heart fervently without suffering the “suffering,” he pioneered in putting the enmity of the flesh to death, raised to walk in newness of life.

There are no shortcuts for fulfilling the command to be made new from the inside out.

It will only occur in a measure in Passover and Pentecost; fullness and completeness can only come in Tabernacles, the most anticipated and sought harvest of the extravagance of God in what he offers and brings to pass.

Blessings, Drake

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