What If Deliverance Never Comes? by Fred Pruitt

From Fred's Blog
(Someone wrote about a family member, who has known and believed, “Not I but Christ,” for some time, but has had a continuing serious bout with alcoholism at the same time. The question, paraphrased, was, “How can Christ be his life and Gal 2:20 be true for him and yet he cannot quit drinking and is bound by sin?)

Thank you for writing and sharing your life a little with me. I think we're all touched one way or another by alcoholism, drug addictions, etc. So I understand and am very familiar with your heart in this matter. Let’s just say it is close to me.

Interestingly, (just from my perspective), you are the second person in the immediate past who has written me about not being able to overcome something habitual, even though they had been to the Lord with it, believed, etc., but still could not escape. It is a very very common problem.

And I see by your history that you’ve run the gamut of “solutions.” Medical world, psych world, rehab world, Christian world, it looks like you’ve left no stone unturned. I'm not mentioning these past attempts at treatment of the problem as if they are wrong. People are helped medically, psychologically, and through rehab programs all the time. You mentioned the many times he's been “prayed over” and “anointed with oil,” words of faith, etc., among believers, and we do not discount that in any way. There are numerous testimonies of people being “instantly delivered” from things like that, and I have seen it myself. It is a fact that through all those ways, people are helped to escape substance abuse problems and many other things. But when you run down the list of the things tried during these years, it almost reminds me of the woman with the issue of blood, who had spent all her living on physicians but none had been able to heal her. Jesus was not slamming doctors (though they were pretty primitive back in those days!), but just noting her situation. She'd tried everything and nothing had worked. So without slamming any of those methods, we just note that none of them had “worked” for him.

And then after all that, you ask, “if Christ lives in and through him, why can’t he stop drinking?” And then your final comment, “but I don't understand how we as Christians who believe Gal. 2:20 with all their hearts can be bound by sin.”

Fair question! Especially since it is the Lord Who has made the promises! It seems to me, since we “have believed” His Word -- that whatever we ask we shall have, said in various ways throughout the gospels -- then as the Promise-receivers, we have something of a “right,” (maybe that’s part of coming “boldly” before the Throne of Grace), to question these things and desire to know “why” it seems like the opposite, that we do NOT have that for which we have asked, even though He has promised over and over that we would. Does God not keep His Promises?

It is easiest to take the low road, that it is something about us. After all, the normal thinking goes, if Christ truly were living this life, then we could do _______, or we would NOT do ____________ (fill in the blank). So we “let God off the hook” regarding unfulfilled promises (as it appears to us), by taking any failure on ourselves, that it’s me, not He. We admit to things like, “I must not have enough faith,” or, “I don’t want it enough,” or, “I must want it for selfish reasons,” and a whole host of other excuses for “God not coming through.”

First, let’s start here with this statement/question of yours: “I don't understand how we as Christians who believe Gal. 2:20 with all their hearts can be bound by sin.”

The immediate answer to that is that Christ cannot be bound by sin. And since He has come into the temple of our selves, and He and we have declared Him Lord of Lords and King of Kings in whatever way that has happened – since he grafted us into God’s Vine and we as branches on that True Vine – since in His death and burial He fulfilled the law of sacrifice as the “Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29) – since in His death and deliverance from the accumulated sins of all mankind from the beginning to the end, we also died to sin/Satan and died to the law (Rom 6 & 7) – since when He rose by the Spirit of the Father, we rose with Him into newness of Life by the same Spirit (Rom 6:4) – since we know that the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set ME free from the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:2) – since we know that in Jesus Christ we are made one “person” with God (1 Cor 6:17) – since we know all that is true, then how can we say he is bound by sin? Christ has taken sin (Satan) out of him, and replaced sin with Himself, Who is righteousness, and he is the vessel of Christ Whose light shines out of darkness.

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Cor 5:21).

Also,

By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins;

but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD,

waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET.

For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying,

"THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM

AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD:

I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEART,

AND ON THEIR MIND I WILL WRITE THEM,"

He then says,

"AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS

I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE."

Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

(Heb 10:10-18 NASB).

So then we toss out the issue of “bound by sin,” because it is not the truth. He is NOT bound by sin, because the Lamb of God has taken it away. But then, what about the evidence of our eyes, ears and mind, when he binges and gets into trouble on all fronts? What IS the truth? Do we bow to the devil who is teasing us and him with his taunts: “See, you’re not really dead to sin. Look at you. You are not committed to Christ. I’ve still got control over you!”?

Do we take that? Or do we declare that snake a liar because he speaks lies? He is the ultimate “spin doctor.” The “facts” of his problems are in plain evidence. There is no disputation of that. As the defense attorneys say in TV courtrooms, “We’ll stipulate to that, your Honor. Yes, those events occurred, and yes, it was my client who was a perpetrator, and he really did binge for a month and he really did drink all that alcohol, and the problems his behaviors have created are serious and real.”

Where do we go from there? I think first we have to see through the veil to who he really is.

Who is he? Since we know he is in Christ, then he is the righteousness of God in bodily form. He is a temple of the Holy Spirit by Whom he has fellowship with the Father and the Son. He is a chosen vessel of mercy. He is “His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Eph 2:10). He is the “elect” of God, as the Lord has declared. (Col 3:12; Is 42:1; Rom 8:33; 1 Thes 1:4; 1 Pet 1:1,2). That is the truth about him.

Or do we agree with those who observe and judge others' lives, when beholding others on their crosses, or in dire circumstances which to their minds must be the result of sin (as Job’s three friends took so much time to tell Job), and say, “There is no help for him in God.” (Ps 3:2)? (That is not just saying God will not help him. It is denying who he is in Christ, as the continual “accuser of the brethren,” he never lets up. “If he's the son of God, let's see him come down from the cross!” (Matt 27:40).

The accusing and condemning voices seem to proliferate day by day. “You are a sinner. You have no self-control, you don’t care what God says, if you really were who you say you are you could overcome this problem.”

On and on the voices accuse.

But as we referred to above, Romans 8:33, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?” And also Romans 14:4, “Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.”

So that is where we MUST* plant our feet. There is only one battle, and only one victory. It is the battle of faith. And the battle of faith is an inner struggle, in which the outcome has nothing to do with the outer appearances even though instigated by them, and yet it may drastically affect or change those appearances. No matter what some may say, the “appearances” are not the point or ultimate goal.

The victory is inner, because true reality is inner, what we call “the invisible.” We who are in Christ are well-schooled in living after the “invisible,” for who of us has ever seen the Object of our deepest affection, the Ultimate Hope and Anchor of our souls? And yet we believe and stake our whole lives on something we have never seen, nor have we any clear empirical evidence by which we may prove our “belief,” and thus we “appear” as fools in the world. Still, not seeing, we believe!

And that is what you are left with, and in truth all you have ever had from the beginning until now. The “invisible.” But of course I do not mean an invisible “nothing,” but rather the Living God Who is over all, “above all, through all and in you all.” There is no place where He is not, “above all, through all and in you all.” (Eph 4:6).

Here is the work and end of the Accuser:

“And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.” (Rev 12:10,11).

Now when he says, “I heard a loud voice … in heaven,” it is we, we who have been transported into the inner sanctuary, the throne of All Power, the Throne that decrees the only decrees that are decreed; it is we who hear this voice in that place. The voice announces that NOW IS come salvation, strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ. It is here, now, in the inmost place of all, so says the “loud voice.” Let's understand what it means by “loud voice.” It is a voice that demands to be HEARD! “Listen up,” it is saying. This is true in you! But that is not all.

How did they overcome him, who had continuously accused them before God day and night? Was it by great feats and demonstrations of greater power? Were they able to point to themselves and claim any right of defense? Were they able to point to themselves and contend with the accuser line upon line, precept upon precept, debating him while trying to justify themselves by the law? No, they cannot, because he is a skilled solicitor, knowing every twist, turn and loophole in the law, and he uses the Holy Law of God as his weapon, and daily he brings railing accusations against them out of the law.

But the accusations are cast out with him into outer darkness, because that “handwriting of ordinances which was against us,” (Col 2:14), was nailed to His Cross, and the reply to any and all of his lying accusations are answered, nullified and cast out by the Blood of the Lamb, through which none of his lies can penetrate.

That is the heavenly reality, the inner truth in this current moment for all who are His. And let it sink in, that this “inner truth, is “The Truth.” It is not just some mind-game we play with ourselves and comfort ourselves with as a way to cope with distressing circumstances. It is THE TRUTH. All his accusations fall to the ground at the Blood of the Lamb and have no worth, but are just puffs of smoke.

And that “overcoming” is enacted in us by “the word of [our] testimony,” that is, our word of agreement, of faith, of receiving, that we have no answer to the accuser except the blood of the Lamb, by which we are forever cleansed and delivered. And that word of our testimony becomes our “overcoming,” as John also says, “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 Jn 5: 4,5).

And then it says, “and they loved not their lives unto the death,” which means they have freely recognized their position as “lambs of God,” that God might demonstrate His process of death and resurrection by “accounting us as sheep for the slaughter.” (Rom 8:36). That means that for those lambs, they recognize that they do not own themselves, but are bought with a price, and no longer serve themselves, but place their lives willingly on the altar of sacrifice for the benefit of the saints and the Lord's purposes, wherever that may lead.

As it is also true for us: “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you.” (2 Cor 4:10-12).

And that is what I am telling you, that, instead of seeing all the problems and the failures as evidence of his bondage to sin, which is Satan's lie, let us see and stand on the truth, that He is Christ in his human form, and testify from that place, both you and he, that you and he and Christ are one, and that even though it appears as if sin still reigns, it is instead the mighty power of intercession, whereby our lives are expended for the benefit of others in any way the Lord pleases.

Now of course, people are going to object with, “The Lord would not 'please' to manifest anyone as an alcoholic. The Lord would never do that.” But He put His own Son to death, and it says “it pleased the Lord to bruise Him,” (Isa 53:10), and He was made a curse and was “numbered among the trangressors.”

“Yes,” they may counter, “but the Lord went without sin, and certainly you cannot say that your 'intercession' is without sin!”

Show me the sin! Who here, with his will and heart, has turned against God and refuses to do His will?

Have they been acknowledged, the sins of the past? Of course they have!

Have they been provided for perfectly forever, so that there IS NO MORE NECCESITY for any further sacrifice for sin? If sin were still the issue, then what of this: “Having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, He SAT down …waiting until His enemies were made His footstool … For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified”? (Ref above). “One sacrifice for sins for all time?” YES!!

What about “willingness” as it regards “sin?” Has he said, “I want to sin.”? Of course not, he is in that place where he delights in the law of God after the inward man, though for a time he seems overcome and cannot escape. But all that is, is God's timing, nothing more, nothing less. “My times are in thy hand,” said the Psalmist! (Ps 31:15).

This is the part where Christ is seated in the place of authority over the entire universe, knowing, “All power in heaven and earth is given unto me,” (Matt 28:18), as established fact and truth which cannot be undone or resisted, and in that restful authority, He sits, “waiting” as the enemies, one by one, fall before Him and declare Him Lord of all – “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2:10).

It's all done, and we can testify that it is. The enemy is defeated. The Lord has delivered!

Now, what of the problem with alcohol? Am I saying to go on and just accept the fact that he is an alcoholic, and always will be? Exactly the opposite! It is not permanent, but is instead the means to God's end, which is of course means “Good” to him, as we need not restate Rom 8:28.

God's “end” for him is something he may confess for himself: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD. The LORD hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death.” (Ps 118:17-18). And we know this “chastening” is not something punitive, but rather how Jacob became Israel, and Joseph the dreamer became Joseph, Regent of Egypt, and deliverer of Israel.

And all of these, from start to finish, are the works of the only One Who says that “all things are worked after the counsel of His own will.” (Eph 1:11).

So let's see this new man, who is only the “new man,” despite the challenges and appearances of the flesh, trusting God to keep him as only God can do, and that whether the alcohol ever goes or does not go, nevertheless God will glorify Himself in, through, and as him, and he has that glory in himself even now!

Be not afraid, only believe!

(*If anyone who does not understand the difference between my usage of “the divine MUST,” and the “you should” of the law, it is simply the difference between our self-effort to “try” to do something to add to ourselves, and the inner unction of the Spirit which comes out as, “we MUST do this,” because we cannot help it. It is the “love drive” of the Spirit moving us.)

The Prayer that Birthed the Kingdom - Daniel Yordy

PDF Version for download

What is the kingdom of God?

The kingdom of God is the Father being Himself through us.

Christ as us is our own personal joy, but the kingdom is that which goes out from us to others. If our knowledge that Christ is living as us in this world were not complete, then we would imagine that we have to "fix" or "change" ourselves in some way and for some reason. That idea, then, creates all sorts of false images and always, immediately, pushes God into the background.

God being Himself and I being myself go hand in hand. That is not a formula for selfishness - indeed, we're talking about God - who is real and who is alive in us. And this God, who is real and alive in us, just being Himself, is Love.

Now, we have one example in all the universe of the Father being Himself in a visible way.

The Father cannot be Himself in heaven; angels do not make God visible. God presented Christ to the entire universe, both heaven and earth, as His express image.

The Lord Jesus was just being Himself; in full measure, God also, was just being Himself through Jesus. Thus Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is in your midst - among you." The things God did through Jesus were simply God being normal - what He really is at the core of His person.

The kingdom of God was God being Himself through Jesus; thus the kingdom of God was among them. If God, then, is in us, that same kingdom is "in the midst" of all those around us.

When God directed Adam to subdue the earth, God meant AFTER Adam would eat of the tree of life. Subduing the earth was to come by the rivers of living water flowing out of Adam's innermost being.

Since the kingdom of God is God being Himself through us, then the kingdom of God and the rivers of living water are two ways of saying the same thing. Also, to subdue the earth means to bring all things into the knowledge of God being Himself.

We must understand that God is invisible and unknowable, period. God is no more known or seen in all the heavens than He has been in all the earth. Angels long to know the God who created them, but they must wait for us to reveal Him.

The first moment in both heaven and earth that God began to be knowable and visible was the conception of the Lord Jesus Christ in Mary's womb.

We know God by seeing Jesus.

But of course, God does not limit Himself to one person and to one personality. God wants many sons just like Jesus. Thus the kingdom, really, is God just being Himself through many, all of whom are being themselves through Him.

God gave us Jesus as an example of who we are. When we see Him as He is, that is, as the one through whom God was being Himself in a mutual relationship of joy and honor, then we KNOW that we are just like Him. God is Himself through us in the same mutual relationship of joy and honor.

This is why what Paul said is so important. "We do not know Him according to the flesh."

Jesus was a person, that is, He had a particular personality, ways of doing things, personal likes and dislikes. As individual persons, we are different from Jesus. But God is in us as we are, just as He was in Jesus as Jesus' own personality. Jesus was 100% comfortable with Himself. 

Now, before continuing, I want to bring in the one verse in the New Testament that seems to counteract the statement I just made.

Who, in the days of His flesh, when He (Jesus) had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him (God) who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. Hebrews 5:7-9

This verse, taught by the ministry under which I lived for many years, was the most powerful theological concept that separated me from God. If Jesus had to line Himself up with an implacable God through "strong crying and tears," then how much more must I?

Paul said that we do not know Him "according to the flesh." That means, we do not know Him out from a separate-from-God mentality nor do we see Jesus as one who lived and walked in any way separate from the Father.

I bring in this that has been the most horrific of verses in my Christian experience because God says it and it seems to be pressing against my statement that Jesus was comfortable with Himself. And when I say "horrific," I mean only when it is used as a "how-to" verse, that is, "how to become like Jesus" through a similar "strong crying and tears." That use of this verse is an extraordinary miss-use of God, of Christ, and of salvation.

God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. All things that Jesus did, He did as our Head, carrying us inside Himself through what we ourselves cannot do. Those who seek to "obey" Him in outward form do not know Him, that this very One is our life. They are trying to follow the path of atonement on their own and not inside of Him.

If Jesus prayed with strong crying and tears, then He was just being Himself. And I am INSIDE of Him.

*****

Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life (the life of the age to come) to as many as You have given Him. And this is the life of the age to come, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was (before the age, this period of time, began). John 17:1-5

Jesus' words confirm something I said earlier, that knowing God and authority over all flesh are the same thing. God being Himself through us and rivers of living water subduing the earth are the same thing.

When Jesus said, "Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You," He was speaking of us for we are His glory. It is here, in this personal exchange with the Father, that Jesus begins to include us inside Himself.

Then Jesus prays for His disciples around Him at that time. He states: "I pray for them.  I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept . . ."

"I do not pray for the world," is one of the most extraordinary things Jesus ever said. We must understand that the atonement is not "for the world." It is for all men, yes, but in no way for the world. We must have the distinction clear in order to see the kingdom birthed through us. But Jesus goes on to say that while He was physically present - on the outside of His disciples - He had "kept them."

Then Jesus speaks the atonement: Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

To be sanctified is to be swallowed up by the being, the essence, the person of God.

Finally, Jesus speaks the Kingdom.

"I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;  that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

"Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them."

First, Jesus specifically includes you and me inside the creative power of His words.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/benegizer/808459254/

But let's back up. What is happening here? Jesus is the Word God speaks. When God said, "Let there be light," that was Jesus, the Word God speaks, issuing forth from a Father who cannot be known, making Him visible. Making God visible - light - and creating all things in both heaven and earth are the same thing. Jesus is the creation of the universe. When God speaks through Christ the ages are formed and all things spring into existence.

Now, in these words, Jesus is speaking into existence an alternate universe, another dimension - the kingdom of God. Heaven, as it is right now, is part of the first creation. Everyone who is "in heaven" remains inside the first creation. Only those who are in Christ are found in the second creation, which is not a creation at all, but rather, a birthing.

But let's focus on this reality. Just as God speaking Christ: "Let there be light," resulted in the creation of all things that exist, so these same words here are speaking into being an entire universe of reality and existence - the kingdom of God.

Paul says this in 2 Corinthians 4: For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And he says this in Colossians 1: Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love . . .

Paul is saying the same thing; that, just as God created all things that exist by speaking, so He does the same thing again - here - in these words of Jesus in John 17.

Let's begin with the absolute blasphemy of Jesus' words.

The Jews did not name God. Their word for God was not Yahweh, it was YHWH, breath, and unspeakable. Thus Moses said, "Hear, Oh Israel, the Lord your God is ONE.

That they all may be ONE, as (here is that Greek word again - it means "just as") - as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be ONE in Us.

Jesus defines exactly what He means as He speaks this word that births a new creation: "That they (you and me, we are right inside His words and the breath coming out of His mouth) ALL may be ONE."

If we do not understand the blasphemy of Jesus' words, we will imagine He was just talking about something of the present creation, something limited by our limitation, maybe "just getting along." We will imagine that He is giving us an ideal, something to hope for, though we cannot ever really know what it means, not until after we "go to heaven," which is, in itself, just a further part of this same original creation.

Forgive me if I sound like a broken record, but this misconception so fills the minds of almost all Christians that I must speak against it continually. Christians imagine that heaven is the new creation and that earth is the old creation. They do not get this idea from the Bible; they get it from the gross unbelief that fills Christianity. Heaven - the place where our loved ones live who have lost their physical bodies - is as much a part of the old creation as is the earth. God says, in Hebrews 12, that He will shatter (future tense) heaven as well as earth. Heaven is passing away.

Before we continue with the words of Jesus through which God birthed the new creation, let me say this. I am convinced that the birthing of that kingdom is a three-step process. I am convinced this is the teaching of the New Testament.

John said in Revelation 11: "Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, "Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come . . ." This voice speaks right after these words: Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth . . . And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne.

Jesus said in Luke 13: "Go, tell that fox, (Herod) 'Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.'

"Today" meant Jesus' time on this earth, "tomorrow" meant the age of the church, and "the third day" means the transition between two ages in which you and I are caught. Another way to understand "today and tomorrow" is as the 2,000 years of the church age, specifically, from AD 29 to AD 2029. (I am not setting a "date," we know that whatever time the Father has set, Jesus altered that time by His words, "the time will be shortened.")

This kingdom, spoken into being by Jesus' words in John 17 is in gestation in the womb of the church. That kingdom has been conceived; it has not yet been born. Revelation 12:5 is the birthing of that kingdom into open and full reality - the new creation consisting of a newly created physical realm and a newly created spiritual realm as inter-related together as the old creation heaven and earth, only more so.

The three steps of the kingdom are first, the conception, second, the gestation, and third, the birthing. The time of the birthing is upon us.

I do not believe that anyone who is right now in heaven is in the full and open experience of that new creation. It has not yet been brought forth in its reality; it has not yet been birthed.

The kingdom of God, in the present hour, is a fetus. Yet, as members of that "fetus," you and I call forth those things that "be not" as though they are. Thus the kingdom is in our mouth and in our heart.

What is the kingdom of God?

The kingdom of God is the Father being Himself through us. The kingdom of God requires physical bodies. The physical body is the temple of the living God.

That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us.

God is One. God is person inside of person. In the same way that the person of the Father was inside the Man, Christ Jesus, in that exact way the person of the Father is inside of you and me AS Christ Jesus. God does not erase us, He fills us. God does not replace us, He inhabits us. God fills every particle of our being, spirit, soul, and body. God carries every particle of who and what we are inside Himself.

The act of seeing any part of yourself as separate in any possible way from the revelation of the Father is to place yourself outside of the kingdom - outside of God. Outside of, separate from, the Father is death. All who imagine that they must "get themselves" into the Spirit are dead.

Our faith, the audacity of our faith, really is the dividing line. But even that faith is not "ours," it is the faith of the One who loves us and gave Himself for us. When I say "mine," I mean His; when I say "His," I mean mine. It matters not which one I say, for they are both the same.

I am one.

I am one with God, and I am one with you. Yet that oneness is the oneness of God, that is, a oneness that never violates any individual person's integrity or respect, but at all times highly honors each individual person in every particle of their being.

This oneness is filled with the power of God, that is, with the dynamism of the One who always takes into Himself all that opposes Him, carrying even His enemies inside Himself, stumbling and falling inside the limitations of their weakness, He carries them into death - and into life, and then ascends on high, and we in Him.

Next, Jesus says, "That the world may believe that You sent Me." Let me tell you something, the world, right now, does not believe that God sent Jesus.

Key in, now, to what Jesus says next. He repeats Himself. (By the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established.) Jesus speaks the conception of the kingdom a second time.

And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one.

We possess the glory of God; we are His glory. The purpose of glory is that we might be one. In case we missed it the first time - exactly like God is one. What does that mean? "I in them, and You in Me." Person inside of person: man as God revealed. It's not clear yet? Let's make it as clear as we can. "That they may be made perfect in one."

Do you see what I mean by blasphemy? Jesus' words are open and unrestrained blasphemy. And until we know that they are, we cannot know the kingdom being birthed out of those words.

Jesus was killed because He blasphemed. "I and the Father are One." We are just like Him.

Then Jesus repeats the effect of the kingdom a second time, only He adds another dimension. "That the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me."

We must understand what these words are. These are universe-creating words.

Then come the words of the atonement. By these words, Jesus took you and me into Himself, carrying us inside Himself through that dark passage between the cherubs to the tree of life.

"Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me."

"I desire." "Father, this is what I want."

What do you want?

The kingdom is birthed out of desire. There is no compulsion here, no command, "Thou shalt eat."

Spirit of God, open up to us the passion, the intense fury, the depths of determination, the crazed wildness, the dauntless energy, the sheer grit, the ecstatic fervor, the storm of fire inside these two words: "I desire."

This desire is infinite, it is HOLY, it is God Himself. God is desire.

What do you want?

We know exactly what Jesus wants; He told the Father what He wants. "That they also whom You gave Me . . ." That's you and me. Any idea that it might not be me vanished from my being 34 years ago. I have not thought such a nonsensical idea since, not on the inside of me. I belong to Jesus.

". . . May be with Me WHERE I AM."

"In that day you shall know that I AM IN THE FATHER, and YOU in Me and I in YOU."

Jesus, even here, sets the birthing of the kingdom as the opposite of the world.

"The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me." 

Then Jesus' final kingdom-birthing words are, to us, the most precious.

"That the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them."

"AND I IN THEM."

It is impossible for us to spend too much time plummeting the depths of these four words. At no point do we ever draw a line and say, "Well, it means this much, but no more." To limit God here is to place upon ourselves the waiting of an entire age before we also may enter in.

The whole of Christianity demands an addition to these words.

PARTLY.

The choice is ours. God never says, "Partly." Nowhere in the New Testament do you find the word "Partly" added to any element of the revelation of Jesus Christ and salvation in us or as us or through us. "Partly" is moral relativism.

"And I in them" is absolute. It is eternal, it is infinite, and it is complete. It is all in all.

I am complete inside the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is complete in me.

What does this mean? It means that God is doing His thing, being who and what He is inside of, as, and through, every particle of my being all the time.

I am the kingdom of God. I am God being Himself through me.

Now, I do not "see" this outwardly, nor feel it outwardly. Thus I am not caught in the arrogance of one who makes claims for himself. I speak by faith; I speak in the absolute certainty that in my blindness, in my ignorance, in my present condition that feels very much like "lostness," the only thing I can know is what God says.

"And I in them."

Here I will hold even unto death.

Yet God is being Himself through me. That means that everything I am and everything I do and everything I go through is God reconciling the world to Himself.

"That the world may know" - not just God, but the sending of God into human flesh.

Yes, Jesus wept on His knees in the garden, some 30 minutes after He spoke the kingdom of God into existence. Jesus was a real man, just like you and me. He felt as limited by His humanity as you and I do. Yet He knew that He was acting as the Head of the body, that the entire body of Christ was kneeling before God. As the Head said, "Father, not My will, but Thine be done," so all the body spoke inside of Him. Jesus was not weeping for Himself nor for His own death.

And neither do we.

We are His heart, the expression of His passion.

Our lives in their entirety, in everything we are and in everything we go through, moment by moment, is for His bride, His precious woman, caught, now in her hour of trial.

The Love of God in all of its fullness and expression is in us.

God is just being Himself through us.

Contending With The Oath of God by Daniel Yordy

January 2, 2011
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"For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, "Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you." And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us." Hebrews 6:13-18

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"Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him.

And He said, "Let Me go, for the day breaks." But he said, "I will not let You go unless You bless me!" So He said to him, "What is your name?" He said, "Jacob." And He said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel: for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed."

Then Jacob asked, saying, "Tell me Your name, I pray." And He said, "Why is it that you ask about My name?" And He blessed him there. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: "For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." Genesis 32

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"So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." Then he said, "Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering." So the two of them went together.

"Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" So he said, "Here I am." And He said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me."

"Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, "In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided."

"Then the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: "By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son- blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice." Genesis 22

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This is the final letter of my series on the Unveiling of Jesus Christ. It's not that I will depart the topic, everything in the heavens is focused on that reality right now. But I must complete the series. This letter is a topic I am hardly capable of addressing. It is the most holy and profound I have attempted to write about. The passages from Genesis that I include above are two of the most profound and holy scenes in all the Bible.

If you do not understand the truth I am sharing, that's fine, I hardly understand it myself. Yet it is from the throne of God and essential to the revelation of Christ our life. Simply hold it before the Lord that He might reveal its meaning as pertains personally to you in its time. This is what I have done with this particular word for 30 years, knowing that it was the critical truth of the birthing of the age to come.

Let me start where the writer of Hebrews ends this passage - the hope set before us.

God is very clear in the New Testament on exactly what this hope is. It has two parts. Paul says that the hope is the redemption of the physical body, that our present mortal body be swallowed up in life, that mortal must put on immortality and corruptible must put on incorruptibility. Paul said clearly that we do not have this thing, yet, that we hope and groan for the transformation of our body into life. At the same time, John said that our hope is that we are just like Him, conformed to His image.

The word of the gospel is that we are just like Him; the demonstration of the power of the gospel is the transformation of our physical body - the defeat of death. The gospel is both. Truth and power. Heavenly reality and earthly demonstration.

Our hope is that we are filled with all the fullness of God. Our hope is that rivers of living water flow out of us. Our hope is that all authority in heaven and earth is given to us to see the word God speaks triumph in visible reality in all things upon this earth. Our hope is the defeat of death. Our hope is the throne of God.

The writer of Hebrews says that we lay hold of this hope. Paul says that we lay hold of eternal life. That word is "to seize." Paul says in Philippians that we seize hold of that for which God seized hold of us. More than that, Hebrews says that we are fleeing for refuge, giving the clear picture of the Matrix, the world of deceit and vanity ruled by demons and operating under all the meaning of the curse. We break out of all that is less than all that God speaks, all that falls short of His glory.

More than that, the mechanism by which the truth of God becomes full reality through us in this earth, Hebrews shows, is the oath of God. Yet that oath of God does not sit there requiring us to be passive believers, "Someday God will make it all work out."

No. God says, "Prove me."

Of all the words I have ever heard preached from the throne of God, one that has gripped my heart with tensile strength is found in these words. "I will not let You go until You bless me."

"I will not let You go."

God swore an oath that He would fulfill His word in us in this earth. All that He speaks. To God, His Word was not enough. He wanted to give us more than His Word. How could there be more than God's Word? I have no idea, yet God thought it vital that He increase the power of His Word by committing Himself to a binding oath sworn against His own person.

Do you see how terrible the substitute of the serpent is, in turning this oath into nothing more than "the certainty of heaven after you die," when the New Covenant says no such thing, but speaks of something entirely different?

Jacob wrestled with God. He seized hold of God Himself and would not let Him go, even though God told him to let go. Jacob refused. "I will not let You go."

"I will not let you go!"

God, You're Word was not strong enough for You. God, you added an Oath spoken against Yourself, a binding unmovable Oath, that this thing is real in me. I will not let You go until You prove all the You say in my body of flesh.

"By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son - blessing I will bless you . . ."

And so we come to the heart of the matter. We come to the moment of transformation, the point at which the ring is cast into the fire, the moment that the accuser is cast down and the Kingdom of God comes through us in all power.

The unveiling of Jesus Christ. The apocalypse. The removal of the cover that hides the great and mighty work God has wrought in birthing His Heart inside of us.

Genesis 22 is the final passage from death into life, from in-part into all-fullness.

I read the words of this passage again and see that which is so holy and profound in every phrase, yet I cannot articulate with clarity how it applies to us right now. You might think, "Well, Yordy, how can you point us to truth that you cannot show?"

And I would agree with you.

Except.

"I will not let You go."

God cut the covenant with Christ upon the cross. That covenant was sealed by Christ with His blood and by God with His oath. When you and I were baptized in water, we entered into the terms of that covenant between the Father and the Son. It is not baptism that saves us, but rather the covenant that baptism signifies.

"That you might be filled with all the fullness of God."

"He that believes in me, out of his belly flow rivers of living water."

"He who overcomes sits with me in My throne, as I overcame and sit with My Father in His throne."

"For this mortal must put on immortality, and this corruptible must put on incorruptibility."

These are just some of the terms of that covenant. I tell you, we have no idea the extent of what these things mean in their literal and immediate application inside the gospel of Christ.

"Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God . . . that you may prove . . . the will of God."

Prove the will of God. That is the culmination of the gospel according to Paul. Prove the will of God in these bodies of mortal flesh.

"I will not let You go until You bless me."

Contend with God concerning His oath. He swore against Himself in a binding oath that He would fulfill all that He speaks in us in this life in this age on this earth. His Word cannot return to Him until it has accomplished all the purpose for which it was sent. Contend with Him concerning His oath. Seize hold of Him and do not let Him go.

"Be filled with all the fullness of God" was spoken into this earth. It cannot return to the Father until it is fulfilled. Contend with God concerning His oath.

"For this mortal must put on immortality" was spoken by God into this earth. That word cannot return to the Father until it is fulfilled. Contend with God concerning His oath.

Without faith it is impossible to please God.

And He said, "Let Me go, for the day breaks." But he said, "I will not let You go unless You bless me!"

"By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son."

Seize hold of God, grab Him by the middle and wrestle with Him, contend with Him concerning His oath and do not let go. Do we understand that Jacob won his struggle with God. God said, "You have wrestled with God and have prevailed." Jacob outwrestled God! And God gave him a new name. God transformed him through weakness. Jacob prevailed.

But Jacob was just a foreshadowing of us now upon whom the ends of the ages have come. We wrestle with God concerning His oath, sworn in the midst of Jesus' bloody body hanging upon the cross. "I will do this thing."

"Let God be true and every man a liar."

God says things in the New Covenant, many, many things, that I do not see fulfilled with my eyes. Job says in chapter 19:

25 For I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth;

26 And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
That in my flesh I shall see God,

27 Whom I shall see for myself,
And my eyes shall behold, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!

I will see my Redeemer with my own eyes in this body of flesh!

"Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh." 2 Corinthians 4:10-11

"But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." Romans 8:11

I refuse to spiritualize this word in any way. To spiritualize it is to make the word of God of no effect. It is to settle for meaningless drivel, for fakery and pretending, for Christianity without power. I will not settle for anything less than all that God speaks fulfilled in all meaning in my mortal body, in my dying flesh.

God says that the greatest power in the universe is right now giving incorruptible, immortal life to my dying body. Do I feel it? No. Do I see it? No.

Contend with God concerning His Word. He has sworn an oath against Himself to fulfill all that He speaks in us. God does not play games. He is looking for a people will take Him seriously, who will regard what He says, who will tremble at His word.

To regard the word God speaks is to wrestle with Him, to seize hold of Him and not let Him go until He fulfills all that He speaks inside of us.

The Word of God is entirely dependent upon the seed of the woman, faith, before it can bring forth all the life that is in it. No faith, no fulfillment.

Faith wrestles with God. Faith does not let Him go. Faith contends with God over all that God speaks, no matter how impossible it sounds. Faith does not quit until we see God in our flesh, until our own eyes behold, and not the eyes of another.

Now, in saying all this, please don't think I'm talking about some sort of human striving, some religious performance, some grunting effort of ours. I am not. I see an experience with God, an entwining, so deep and holy, an act of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who is our life.

Now, picture the scene with Abraham and Isaac, the last moment right before God speaks. Isaac, at least in his thirties, lies on a pile of branches maybe four feet off the ground. He is bound with ropes. Next to him stands his father, Abraham, with a knife raised up in the air above his son, poised to plunge. Isaac does not resist, the presence of God is upon him in a bubble of peace he has never known before.

Picture that image in your mind and keep it.

"And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, "Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready." And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!'" Revelation 19:6-9

"Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me." John 6:53-57

These three things are the same. They look different, yes, but they are speaking directly to the same moment of passage from in-part to in-fullness.

This is not an 'idea' I am presenting to you, but a holy reality that we hold before the Lord. We don't understand what it means, but we know that Abraham offering the word God spoke to him, the deepest treasure of his heart, back to God, at that same point of the fulfillment of God's determination in the earth is found the marriage supper of the Lamb, and the partaking of all the fullness of the life of Christ.

"A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."

Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?" Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me." John 14:19-23

More than once I have concluded a series with this word. It concludes all that I have to share.

The Father and the Son come to us, they reveal themselves personally and intimately to us as private individuals, and they make their home in us.

The intimacy and reality of the Son with me, inside of me, is greater to me now than I have ever known. Walking with the knowing certainty of the person of Jesus always with us is to walk in what the world would call "insanity."

I expect that the Lord Jesus will appear to me visibly, any day now, and to many of you as well, just as He appeared here and there after His resurrection. He is alive, you know. The time of His appearing is now. Yet, though we may not now see Him visibly, we rejoice in full expectation in all that His appearing in us means.

The time is now. The GRACE that IS to come is now, unfolding, revealing, glorifying Christ in us.

God always leads us to celebrate with all joy, dancing, and celebration the victory of God in us, though we do not see it. Yet we will see it with our eyes.

Victory over physical death, victory over sin, victory over the beast, in this world, in this life, in this age, in us now. We will see it with our own eyes.

Yet whether we see Him or whether we don't, to walk as if He is visible beside us is to walk in that which is always true.

But the Father? The Father taking up residence inside of me? This is something we have not known. We have known the Spirit of God, for it is He who has lived in us since we were born again. And the Spirit of God, present with us, makes us more and more aware of the reality of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our life.

But the Father? We have not known the Father inside of us.
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Chris Welch:

Now, in this context, revisit this Revelation 3:20 (1st of 3 in post) 2008 prophecy I was given in the Havant Conference