An Eternal Perspective...God's POV

I had a great deal of difficulty writing this article. I can see it, but putting it into words is another matter altogether. So I apologize in advance if this is a little choppy...

By now, if you've been reading the articles on this blog, you know that you are One Spirit with the Lord [1 Corinthians 6:17]...all three persons of the Trinity dwell within you. [John 14, 2 Corinthians 4;7]

You also know that you were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world [Ephesians 1:4], that His works were finished before the foundation of the world [Hebrews 4:3] and He was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world [Revelations 13:8]

Finally, you know, from Do Not Let Your Heart Be Troubled 2 that you are not your mind. Since we have already proved this in detail, suffice it to say that you are not your mind. You are a spirit, you live in a body and you have a mind.

We have also proved from the Word, in several articles on this blog, that your spirit was crucified with Christ, buried with Him in baptism, raised up together with Him in heavenly places [Ephesians 2, Colossians 2]

The Indwelling God
Our understanding of the indwelling Trinity is severely crippled by the tiny box we keep our mainstream denominational God in. We see Him as a type of holy hitchhiker...in there, but not really doing too much. We're speak to the Father, or Jesus, somewhere up there, in some vague place we call Heaven, not realizing that They dwell within us!

And the Holy Spirit...we view Him with a wary eye, as though He is somehow separate. We're not really sure what His role is, but we definitely don't want Him breaking out in tongues or prophecies in the supermarket. We're afraid He'll do something weird...

What we fail to realize is that this is GOD inside—God and no other, and He IS Father, Son and Holy Spirit in all three expressions. In John 14, Jesus explains that He, The Father and The Helper would all come and make Their abode, or dwelling, with us.

Mighty God, Yahweh, Eternal Father, Wonderful Counselor, Son of God, Lamb of God, Prince of Peace, Helper, Comforter, Spirit of Truth...God in all Three Persons, the Holy Trinity, dwelling in unity within flesh and blood bodies. WE HAVE THIS TREASURE IN EARTHEN VESSELS!! [2 Corinthians 4:7]

The One Who created the universe, Who split the Red Sea...the very One Who died as a sacrifice for all.

And I've got more news for you...He is the only Spirit in you! If you have confessed with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believed in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, the Bible clearly teaches that the old you died and that you have been reborn. And that reborn spirit is One with the Lord!

What's really mind-blowing is that we are also in Him. 'But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, Who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption...' [1 Corinthians 1:30] Ephesians 2:5, 6 says we have been made alive with Him, raised up with Him, and seated with Him in heavenly places, IN Christ Jesus!

So not only is the God Who created all things living within us, we're living in Him! Paul said it like this: '...for in Him we live and move and exist...' [Acts 17:28]

Are We There Yet?
Psalm 84:5 says 'How blessed is the man whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.' Hebrews 12 tells us that we have already come to Mt. Zion, to the Heavenly Jerusalem...and Ephesians 2:6 says we're seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

So we can see that, in the Spirit, we are in two places at the same time...here, in earthen vessels, and seated in Christ Jesus, in Heaven! When we die, we just leave here. We're already there...with all our Christian brothers and sisters, dead or alive, right now! [That should be a great comfort to those whose loved ones have gone on.] We're in Christ, and Christ is in us now.

Here's where Quantum Physics [QP] comes in. If you've read anything on this blog, you know that QP theorizes about different states, or levels of existence, often referred to as the multiverse. QP is essentially discovering what the Bible has stated all along! There is more than one plane of existence, more than meets the eye.

The Old One
Albert Einstein referred to God as The Old One. He seemed to understand the eternal perspective...of course, he was one of the fathers of modern Physics. Eternity was on his mind.

Where am I going with all of this? The Old One—the Ancient of Days—lives, in all 3 persons, in you, and you live in Him! In John 14:10, Jesus tells us plainly that He and the Father are One...and we've already seen that we've been made One Spirit with the Lord!

Do the math. Remember the transitive property? If a = b and b = c, then a = c. If Jesus is one with the Father and we are one with Jesus, then we must be one with the Father!

In John 14:20,21 Jesus said "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word [that's us]; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that you sent Me."

That's pretty clear. We are One with the Trinity! He has given us all things richly to enjoy...why? Because all things belong to Him, and we're part of Him. We belong to Him, we are one with Him! With The Old One Who is the Alpha and the Omega!

But What Does This Really Mean To Us Now?
Well, for one thing, when Jesus instructs us to speak to things and they will obey, He means it. Why? Because things must obey Him, and we're one with Him! All things were created for and by Him [Colossians 1:16]...the same all things that belong to us now! Why? Because we're one with Him, His joint or fellow heirs! [Romans 8:17]

And when He says we have authority over all the power of the enemy [Luke 10:19], He means it. Why? Because He has authority over all the power of the enemy, and we're one with Him.

ONE WITH HIM!!

Let me say that again, for the hard-of-believing...ONE WITH HIM!!

The Name of Jesus
A small digression here...the Name of Jesus is not some rabbit's foot or lucky incantation we stick on the end of prayers to increase the odds that they might come true! The Name of Jesus is the Name above all names [Ephesians 1:21, Philippians 2:9] and it belongs to us because we are One with Him! When we pray in His Name, we're praying in the Name He has given us because we're one with Him.

Some have likened the Name of Jesus to power of attorney...using His name and His authority with His permission. Others have likened it to the taking of a covenant name, much like a wife takes her husband's name [or used to...] and uses it with full authority in the affairs of life.

I believe these analogies are true but incomplete. I think it's much more than that. We are told to use the most powerful Name in the Universe because it's our Name, too! He's the Head and we're the Body...same Name, same authority.

In Blessed With Abraham The Believer, we see that Jesus is the monogenes, or only begotten Son, of the Father. But how can this be if we are also reborn as sons and daughters of God?

Technically, He's still monogenes, just spread out a lot, poured into a lot of temples. [1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19] We are One with Him!!

The God POV [Point of View]
So, if you're full of God, and you are, what is it that could frighten you? Or defeat you?

What stronghold is it that you cannot pull down? What enemy dares to come against you? When God, speaking through Isaiah, said "No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; and every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn" [Isaiah 54:17] He meant it.

Why don't we walk in greater victory then? Because we don't know who we are in Christ, we don't understand that it is our calling to administer the kingdom, to reign in life. [Ephesians 1:10, Romans 5:17] It almost seems as though religion's goal has been to cripple us rather than build us up.

Think about it this way. Even if we are able to grasp the reality that all three Persons of the Trinity live within us, we still interpret that from a human point of view.

We think "Great, God is living in me, I'm One Spirit with Him" but still regard Him as somehow separate, even though the Word teaches that we are not. He's kinda in there, somewhere, between the heart and lungs, doing something, we're not really sure what.

We make faith confessions because we see from the Word that they should work...and we fervently hope that they do. We know that all things belong to us in the Spirit, but are desperately trying to get it to work 'down here.'

It's Time...
It's time to start thinking from His Point of View [POV]...through His eyes, from within us! Instead of thinking of the God within, think from the God within! Here is the limitless God of Gods, the Mighty God, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, peering out from behind my eyes!

In this flesh body, there is only One Spirit, and that's the Spirit of God! Jesus said that He and The Father and The Spirit would come and make Our abode with us. [John 14...read the whole chapter, in fact, read from 14 straight through to the end of chapter 17!]

What is His POV from inside us? Probably, and I'm just speculating here, "Why am I being limited? Why can I not be WHO I AM, The Blesser? Why am I kept from manifesting every blessing to Myself—this child of Mine in particular in whom I AM dwelling, as well as to others?"

His point of view is LOVE!

When we make faith confessions, from our POV, it's sort of 'gee-I-really-hope-this-works' coupled with the fear that it might not. Or at least that's how it's been for me—I can't speak for you.

But from His POV, when His limitless Spirit speaks—the Spirit that creates and upholds all things by the Word of His Power [Hebrews 1]—it is finished!

Remember...God cannot lie. [Numbers 23:19] It's not that He's just really, really good and doesn't lie...He cannot lie! Why not? Because whatever He says comes to pass! Even if it started out as a lie, by the time He finished saying it, it would be true. If there was no dog standing there, and He said "DOG" by the time word came out of His mouth, there would be a dog there!

That's why nothing is impossible for us...because there's nothing impossible for Him! That's why He can do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the POWER that works within us! If we will just stop limiting Him to little pre-determined boxes! All means all!

What Limits The Indwelling Trinity?
What limits the Godhead? Our un-renewed minds, full of doubt and unbelief. Hebrews 3:19 tells us that Israel could not enter the Promised Land because of unbelief.

There's also the issue of residual sin in the flesh. Paul describes in perfectly at the end of Romans 7. He describes the war that wages between his reborn spirit, One with the Lord, and his mind and flesh. In v. 24 he cries 'Wretched man that I am!'

But, praise God, he follows it with Romans 8:1,2! 'Therefore there is NOW no condemnation for those who are IN Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you FREE from the law of sin and death.'

And on down to v. 11...'But if the Spirit of Him Who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He Who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you.' In other words, the Indwelling God will give life to that mortal body...no condemnation, not now, not ever. Hallelujah!

The Works of Jesus
If we truly understood these truths, we would understand why Jesus told us that we would do the same works He did, and greater works, because He was going to the Father! [John 14:12] When He spoke to sickness, or the dead, or demons, they responded mighty quick...because they knew Who He was!

I've got news for you, my friend...they know who you are, too! That's the reason for all of the deception, pressure and persecution. They all know the Word has multiplied...and multiplied, and multiplied, and multiplied! As He is, so also are we in this world! [1 John 4:17]

What sickness, or failure, or tragedy, or death, or financial hardship, can stand before you? Give it some thought...meditate on these spiritual realities.

And reign in life!

Hallelujah!

Complete

I was reading Colossians 2:9,10 today...

'For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete...'

Great verse, wonderful revelation. But my eye caught the notation for the word complete—the literal meaning of it is full. Full! Not complete as a man or woman, which is how this verse is usually interpreted, but full! Full of what?

Well, it seems obvious now that that phrase refers to v.9...we are full of what He is full of, once we are in Him. And He is filled up with all the fullness of Deity!

Sounds a lot like Ephesians 3:19:

'...and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.'

This fullness of God within us surpasses knowledge! In other words, you're not going to be able to wrap your brain around...it must be spiritually perceived and accepted as fact by faith. Your mind will fight it, bolstered by 2000 years of religion, telling you that you're nothing. Yes, you were nothing, now you're One Spirit with the Lord! Hallelujah!

Jesus told us this Himself in John 14:16-23...He, His Father and the Holy Spirit would come to live in us once our spirits die with Him and are reborn. Just who do you think that reborn Spirit is? It's all of God! All the time, in us!

Praise the Lord!

A Great Tip...

Don't bet on the the nags.

No, no, that's not the tip...

This is the tip. If you are wondering what the will of God is for your life...is it His will for me to be healed, to be prosperous, to be victorious, or does He want me to have cancer or kill my baby to teach me something...remember these things:

'For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord gives grace and glory; no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.' [Psalm 84:11]

'Every good thing given and every perfect gift is FROM ABOVE, coming down from the Father of lights, with Whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.' [James 1:17]

"The thief come s ONLY to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." [John 10:10] 

And most importantly...
You are filled with God. The Possessor of Heaven and Earth lives inside you. You are One Spirit with the Lord. Everything that He has, you have, because you are One with Him. [Too many references, read past articles that explain this...they are full of scriptural proof.]

I can tell you this: He's not broke, or sick, or powerless. AND NEITHER ARE YOU!

That's the tip. Know Who God really is and know who you really are.

Visual Aid
Think of it like a giant blackboard, with a line drawn down the middle. On one side you have bad stuff, on the other, good stuff, according to John 10:10.

If it's on the bad stuff side—anything that kills, steals or destroys—it's not God, period. Yes, He can bring you out of it and turn it to good for you, but He is not the Author of bad stuff. Not since Jesus took all of the punishment for sin. Now we just get all the good stuff.

Consider 2 Corinthians 1:20...'For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes.' So throw away the book titled Sometimes the Answer is No. If you've been a Christian for more than 5 minutes, I guarantee you've got that book somewhere, or a tape of the sermon.

Consider also Galatians 3:13, 14: 'Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us...'

Got it? All blessings, no curse, all the time. I bet you've got an obnoxious radio station where you live that screams 'All oldies, all the time!' It's like that for us. The Holy Spirit and the Word are screaming ALL BLESSINGS, ALL THE TIME! Psalm 32:7 says that we are surrounded by songs [or shouts] of deliverance!

If it's on the good side—abundant life—it's God. Period. Nothing is too good for you, because nothing is too good for God, and you are One Spirit with the Lord. [1 Corinthians 6:17]

'...seeing that His divine power has granted to us EVERYTHING pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him Who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the DIVINE NATURE, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.' [2 Peter 1:3,4]

That's it. It'll clear up just about any question you have, right quick.

Blessed With Abraham The Believer

Galatians 3 says we're blessed with Abraham The Believer. [Galatians 3:9]

What a great title! God has given him the name The Believer because he believed what God said over what the circumstances were screaming. "You're old! She's old! Never going to happen, my friend..."

Of course, it did take him awhile to come around and, like us, he screwed it up royally before finally getting it right.

Can I Get That For You?

Imagine trudging toward your hotel with heavy bags, when, to your delight, a hotel employee comes towards you and asks "Can I get that for you?"

To which you reply, gratefully, "Thanks so much! Here you go!" and hand over the heavy bags.

What just happened? The hotel employee bore your bags...and guess what? You don't have them anymore!

Of course, you could say "No" and keep them...pull a muscle, develop a hernia, etc. Then you'd be bearing the bags. You can choose to carry them if you want.

Do Not Let Your Heart Be Troubled 2

As we saw in my earlier post, Do Not Let Your Heart Be Troubled, fear is a spirit that attacks from the outside...it is not coming from within!

And fear is insidious...let down your guard, start enjoying your freedom, and wham! You get blindsided!

When this happens, remember this: fear attacks the mind, and you are not your mind. You are a spirit, you have a mind, wherein lives your will, your thoughts, your emotions...and you live in a clay vessel we call a body.

And the Spirit within is all God, all the time.

Be the Ball...

Remember the '80s catchphrase 'Be the ball?' This was the advice given to those having trouble connecting with the ball in golf, baseball or tennis...and it quickly became a parody for all self-help techniques.

The idea behind it was that we can choose who we are and what we can do...that the state of being always precedes circumstance.

Do Not Let Your Heart Be Troubled

After Judas left the Passover table to betray Him, Jesus instructed His disciples about the days and years to come.

In John 14-17, we see Him telling them all the things they they will need to know during this intense time, and in doing so, He has encapsulated the most important things for us as well. He tells us about the indwelling Trinity—He, the Father and the Comforter would come and live within us. He tells us that anything we ask will be granted by the Father. He gives us His glory, and explains the importance of abiding in Him. He reiterates the assurance of answered prayer, as if He knew that one would be the hardest for us to really believe.

Never Let...

He starts off by telling them "Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God believe also in Me."

The Greek word me is the one translated as 'do not let' or, in the KJV 'Let not' is translated 33 times in the NT as 'never.' If we read the verse that way, it is "Never [let] your heart be troubled..."

Never is one of those absolute words. No gray shades about it, never means never, not ever, no chance, period. What is He saying? In the words of David Crosby, don't give in an inch to fear. Don't let it start, don't let it grow, don't let it hang around.

A Spirit of Fear
We've seen in earlier posts that fear is a spirit. Job describes it perfectly...

"Now a word was brought to me stealthily, and my ear received a whisper of it. Amid disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, dread came upon me, and trembling, and made all my bones shake.

"Then a spirit passed by my face; the hair of my flesh bristled up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance; a form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice..." [Job 4:12-16]

Of course, then, the spirit of fear goes on to tempt Job with lies about God.

It's interesting to notice that this spirit is not coming from within but from without. 2 Timothy 1:7 tells us 'For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.' The KJV translates the Greek word dielia as fear...the NT Greek Lexicon translates it as timidity, fearfulness, cowardice.

Romans 8:15 calls it a spirit of slavery...

The Spirit given to us is the very Spirit of God...we are one Spirit with the Lord! [2 Corinthians 6:17] And we see that it is a Spirit of 1) power, 2) love and 3) discipline. Colossians 1:11 says that we are strengthened with all power...ALL POWER! Not just a little power, not just natural power, but ALL POWER!

If we experience any kind of fear—timidity, fearfulness, cowardice, any kind of anxiety or worry—we know that 1) it's not from God our Father and 2) it's not coming from within us but is the result of an external spirit of fear.

Don't Leave Yet...
Okay, I can hear the wacko alarms going off out there, but bear with me. Everything I've written so far is directly from the Word. And evil spirits are a Bible fact.

But there's good news! In Luke 10:19 Jesus told His disciples "Behold [look], I have given [past tense] you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you."

Authority over ALL the POWER of the ENEMY! And they weren't even reborn yet...we've got God inside and have been strengthened with ALL POWER! In John 17:20, Jesus prayed for them and all who would believe in Him through their word...He didn't give them one thing and us another! We have the authority in His Name—not as a talisman, or lucky coin, or rabbit's foot—we are ONE with Him, and wear His Name as His Body in the earth! We have authority because He has authority, and we wear and use His Name as a wife wears and uses the name of her husband...well, used to, in the olden days.

Control Yourself...
Jesus knew that the Holy Spirit was a Spirit of power, love and discipline. He knew what the fruits of the Spirit were, '...love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control...'

So when He tell us to NEVER let our hearts be troubled, He knew that we would be capable of doing it. The disciples really didn't get it—when the soldiers took Jesus, they ran off and hid. Peter was the only one with enough nerve to go after Him...but he succumbed to fear, too. After Jesus died, some of the disciples went back to fishing! In the couple of days He was buried!

They didn't get it, just like we don't get it. Modern psychology has us so twisted in our thinking that we don't think we can control our emotions...we're not supposed to suppress them, that would be denial!

Live in Denial
I'm here to tell you, go ahead...live in denial! Deny the spirit of fear any place in your life. Deny it's every attempt to dominate you. Deny, or forbid, it to come near you.

Jesus has give us the keys of the kingdom. Whatever we bind, or forbid, on earth shall have been bound, or forbidden, in Heaven! And whatever we loose, or allow, shall have been allowed in Heaven. That's past tense spiritually—in Heaven, and present tense naturally—on earth...a quantum verse!

Forbid fear to exist in your life. Live in full blown denial...the denial of fear's right to exist anywhere near you. Don't allow it to start, don't allow it to grow, don't allow it to stay.

But How...
I asked the Lord, "That's great, but how exactly do I do that?"

Immediately James 3 came to mind...the NT treatise on the tongue. [The Old Testament treatise is, of course, the Book of Proverbs—read it through and write down all the verses pertaining to the mouth]

James 3:2 says '...If anyone does not stumble in what he says he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.' And he compares the tongue to the bit in a horse's mouth and the rudder of a great ship. The word 'perfect' is the Greek word teleios, meaning brought to its end, finished; wanting nothing necessary to completeness, that which is perfect. Kinda reminds you of shalom, doesn't it?

It doesn't really mean perfect, as we think of it...without blemish or error. It really means soteria—the Greek word for salvation—complete wholeness, redemption from all earthly ills.

I understood exactly what He was saying...you deny fear just like you got saved. Believe in your heart and say it with your mouth. '...for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.' [Romans 10:10] Believing in the heart results in a spiritual state—righteousness, or right-standing with God; and confessing with the mouth brings it to pass in our lives—soteria!

So the 'how' is the same 'how' we access all spiritual blessing with...faith. Believe it and speak it, just as Jesus instructed in Mark 11:22,23.

'And Jesus answered saying to them, "Have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him."'

Oh yeah...right. Faith. The way things really work in the universe...I get it...[cut to Jesus with His hand on His forehead, shaking His head, saying 'how many times do I have to tell these morons the same thing?' (my personal interpretation of Matthew 17:17)]

Renew your mind so you can be transformed...changed! Changed to prove or demonstrate the will of God in your life—that which is GOOD and ACCEPTABLE and PERFECT! [Romans 12:1,2]

Take up the sword in your mouth. Deny fear it's right to dominate you. Do what Jesus told us to do in Matthew 10:8 and Mark 16:17,...cast it out!

Then believe that what you said happened and praise the Lord!

Job...The Bottom Line

Everybody knows about Job, Christians and non-Christians alike.

Christians can't figure him out and are afraid that God might do the same to them. Non-Christians point to him as the example of why not to trust God. But everyone's heard of him, and his name is synonymous for someone who's life is in the dumper.

God's Good Will 3

Romans 8:36,36 are often misunderstood verses. Most of us have heard sermons preached based on these verses, explaining why if is God's will for us to suffer.

Why no one bothers to read v. 37 is beyond me...

'But in ALL THESE THINGS [referring to v. 35,46] we OVERWHELMINGLY CONQUER through Him Who loved us.'

That's pretty plain...it is God's will for us to CONQUER, not only in a glorious afterlife, but right here, right now. And it's not a barely-get-by kind of victory...it's the overwhelmingly kind!

Resurrected!

It is Easter, and our thoughts turn toward Calvary once more.

As you meditate on the wonder of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus, consider this: the Word clearly teaches that we were crucified with Him!

What!?!
Paul states in Galatians 2:20 that "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me."