He gave gifts unto men (and women)

 

What is a pastor in a house that builds itself?

EH Broadbent in his book The Pilgrim Church 1933 indicates that this question has long been faced and addressed as early as moves around 800 AD onwards. Somehow since Frank Viola's book The Pagan Church with George Barna we have begun again questioning what a church is and how it functions. Jack Fortenberry whose book Corinthian Elders is available to download on the net , restates what Quakers have long known , and I think the Brethren really knew if they were honest.
God has winked at a lot, but today's world demands the glory of the latter house, a true City on a Hill.
This post is not new. St Paul wrote about these very things, but for 2000 years we have ignored them and what you see currently in the earth is the result.
Teaching on why pastors do not rule over  churches 

Jesus Christ is Head over His house.


He appoints in the Holy Spirit gifts to operate in His house
The ones anointed to speak Word in His house, to build His house are
first apostles, then prophets, then pastors , teachers and evangelists.
Nowhere in the New Testament does it talk about a priest, vicar, or solo pastor being head over his house.
There are pastors, there are teachers, there are apostles , prophets and evangelists.
These are some of the effects of disobeying the Lord Jesus Christ

1. If a Pastor is over a church

it creates a false model. While a natural family has a father and this is a pattern of the heavenly Father, the Church is not a human institution , but a supernatural one with Jesus Christ as the Head. The family of God learn the Kingdom by there being no Head but Jesus.

Jesus Himself modelled this. I do only what I see the Father doing. While my Father is working then I must work. Jesus modelled the Psalm 123 lifestyle. At the time there was only one Person on earth living this way and with the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

First in the upper room when Jesus breathed upon His disciples and they became new creations in Him……(And remember the exact thing happened before to Adam), then they were baptised in the Spirit along with all the others on the day of Pentecost.

All 11 including the new apostle stood with Peter as he opened the door to Jews and in fact everybody to the Kingdom.

All 12 went from house to house preaching teaching and breaking bread as pastors in this new Kingdom. To begin with until he was murdered, James was the administrative head of Jerusalem Church.

2.If a Pastor is over a church he may even defer to the Holy Spirit as Pentecostals and charismatics have done, but although this looks generous, it is not given to a pastor to head a church nor to defer. It’s not His Kingdom and Jesus shares His headship with nobody. Again a pastor is presenting a false model.
3. If a Pastor is over a church then the final authority in any matter rests with him or an eldership or board who rule by their minds. In renewed church settings people tend to pray before Board meetings but they are missing the whole point. Paul and Barnabas weren’t called to lay the foundations of most of Asia Minor by a board meeting, the Holy Spirit set them apart in a gathering of saints meeting in the Name of Jesus when Jesus Himself was in the midst. That is the difference.
4. If a Pastor is over a church then while his strong gifting is in human care, reassurance and encouragement, which is a true gift in God’s Body, it is not given to rule a church. The Church is ruled in the Presence of the Living God, where those who have already trained their senses in righteousness are recognised already for their ability to discern the spirit of good from the spirit of evil. Something of the mantle of God’s Presence is facilitated by them but by no means exclusive to them. They are called elders only because they are recognised as such for their authority in the Holy Spirit and that they have just gone ahead some in the things of God.
5.If a Pastor is over a church while he may defer to the saints exercising their gifts, he has already robbed the primary agendas of the Holy Spirit which is that nothing occurs until the Holy Spirit is released to give gifts and contributions as He chooses, in diverse forms, as He directs. This is Church . This is how saints learn psalm 123 living, and to intercept this is to slow down saints ability to walk properly outside of meetings, since meetings are usually the first place they are commanded to learn the new administration suitable to the summing up of the times. Ephesians 1.10
6. If a Pastor is over a church and paid by a tithe he is modelling Judaism and having a rabbi over a synagogue, which has nothing to do with the Kingdom of God since the Cross.
7.If a Pastor is over a church he is maintaining the idea of Levitical priesthood like Anglicans and Catholics and Lutherans do.
8. If a Pastor is over a church people are not receiving the male anointing of the Father. This is an anointed seed that comes under the supernatural gifting of the Spirit, and rests heavily upon evangelists to see people dynamited out of Genesis 3 into a definite receiving of Jesus Christ into their person. It rests heavily upon prophets to see the foundations of a community laid bare and lay a foundation of Christ in its place in a specific Christ Word over a locality, that may initially be difficult to understand but shines a beacon for the way ahead, and later people understand more of what that Word meant.
The male anointing upon an apostle establishes people in the Romans teachings, taking a congregation step by step round the Holy Spirit versions of the Jewish Feasts and the Gates of Jerusalem. Pastors and teachers under the male anointing , and divorced from a secular idea of rule and office, are now free to deliver their giftings under a male anointing to build up the saints in their faith and their behaviours, from within out, as the new Covenant grace gospel works.
9. If a Pastor is over a church the church doesn’t grow fast enough and by the times the testings come as they must, people are not sufficiently rooted and grounded, and they become bitter as at the waters of Meribah and Massah. When we receive the Word it is sweet like honey in the mouth , but much like the labour of childbirth at the end, at the point of realisation and manifestation, things can feel exceedingly bitter. Within 15 years most Moves of God dissipate through bad relationships within and bitter persecution from without. In America apparently 70% of pastors burn out.
God never called pastors to that position and He doesn't give grace to any of them to do His own job. He is the banner of Love over us.
He is our Good shepherd.
A shepherds human role is purely like Jesus , to get learners hitched up to Psalm 123 living , then withdraw. Nolonger do I call you servants but friends if you do what I say. Then Jesus disappeared.
10. If a Pastor is over a church, unless he personally has a strong evangelists anointing like Eric Chambers of Amersham Old Baptist Church, then evangelists get shot in the foot, there’s terrific jealousy and rivalry at their success, and up until now evangelists in the church function way more than they have to outside congregations. Like the shepherd in Song of Solomon as a Jesus figure, evangelists should be free to come and go, to gather sheep and not to have to worry all the time that their male Holy Spirit anointing and impartation is not completely undermined by pastors who are not even given the right to rule over flocks anyway in the Bible.

How Each joint can supply before they are ready

The Body, building itself up in love by that which every joint supplies, when working properly.....

What does supplies mean?

Well before we really have the anointing to impart Jesus full message by us....

Sometimes it means us flagging up things that are of God like....

Hey Santo Calarco is in Indonesia at the moment on location for God,

Or hey, do you know Pete Cabrera yet?

Or hey do you know Stuart MORRISSON yet?

Have you enjoyed Tony Madens blog yet?

Have you read Sylvia Pearce’s material yet?

Are you aware of Torben Sondergrund at the Last Great Reformation?

Have you met John Stevens in Bristol?

What about John Fina Livingstone in the States?

The New Creation is built differently

(Facebook Post today)

Yesterday’s revelation never got posted.
So maybe not everything gets to Facebook as it used to.
The Body is built by that which every joint supplies

Is a different way of working from the first creation

The first creation God formed and then we got into living from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and evil and purely moving things around by our five natural senses.

The new creation in Romans 10 starts by us “ supplying”
By believing in our heart by confessing with our lips and by it activating Gods salvation in us

( actually wasn’t so different with Abraham) his faith was accredited to him as righteousness

But this accounts for the crazy madcap way of training the 12 disciples

In university you study under professors and receive lots of knowledge and then this knowledge becomes your authority.

With Jesus, early on He sent them out proclaiming the Kingdom.
The Body is built by that which every joint supplies.
But I haven’t got anything Lord
Just like a pipe conveying water, we are instructed to begin by opening up our pipe and letting the Kingdom flow through from source.....

And by it somehow we grow, and the Kingdom is established in us too....

And accredited to us as righteousness

It accounts for the deluge in Acts 2.

How did the New Creation Church get established in one day....
Everybody was endued with power to begin speaking proclaiming , even if it wasn’t their own language.

That day the new Body was being joined from scratch by that which every joint supplies.

Amazing no?
Also helps you understand why the first two gates of Jerusalem are those two gates.

You become a sheep- the sheep gate

Then almost straight away you bring in more fish
The Fish Gate

Certainly was our experience. We barely knew anything but the four spiritual Laws verses, but we shared that didn’t we?

Fine Tuning - the Ephesians 4 challenge

In the natural world in our infrastructures and also as the Kingdom is being rolled out we are coming to Ephesians 4 as a workable chapter.

Why we need the baptism in the Spirit and fire? - A study by Chris Welch

The Anointing Oil for Priesthood
The gift of Christ includes the anointing that is now upon Him, and as he comes to be a resident inside you, guess where that anointing resides?
A description is in psalm 133...the priestly anointing oil.
This is the baptism in the Spirit that was first poured out on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2....
and as Jesus must reign until His enemies are made His footstool....then the anointing oil continues to flow ever since that day.
Baptism in the Spirit is only an option if you think it is. Nothing is forced on anybody....
but spiritually speaking, and here I speak in the same terms as the admonition to tell every man to repent....there is no spiritual option....but if we really don't want heaven and spiritual things nobody is there to force us....(apart from Catholics and the CIA)
but spiritually speaking the Holy Spirit and the baptism in the Spirit are no option....
Jesus whole work was to take the Jews first, out of the "outer courts " realms of their experience with God, and take them via the baptism in the Spirit into the "innercourts realm" of the heavenly Temple.
When the Jews weren't interested, apart from the first few thousands in the Jerusalem church, the gospel was thrown open to anybody in the gentile world who WAS interested.
They weren't expected to go through the hundreds and hundreds of years of life experience of Jews first, Jesus Christ included the Gentiles in the same experience straight away that He wanted to take the Jews into.
Christianity
The New Covenant
The new Covenant born again community
ONLY WORK in the realm of baptism in the Spirit and ofcourse new birth or John Chapter 3 spiritual rebirth.
There is no option. If you try to operate without the command to repent, be baptised and be filled to overflowing with the Spirit,you reproduce the Jewish synagogue idea of Rabbi and laity that all evangelical churches have.
Apart from a general experience of rebirth, there is nothing about an evangelical church that functions in the New Covenant.
They may have bought the early Mercedes Benz but it is still being pulled by a cart horse.
You NEED the Baptism in the Spirit to lead you into all Truth, and that includes the basic call to WALK the WAY, to LEARN THE TRUTH and to GET THE Life Jn 16.13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth.

CHURCH LIFE
You NEED the baptism in the Spirit to be able to run church. 1 Cor12
"Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. 6 There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. 7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." THERE IS NO COMMON GOOD without baptism in the Spirit. The NEEDS of the COMMON GOOD ARE SIMPLY NOT SERVED
You NEED the baptism in the Spirit to interpret what He has already Divinely caused to be written down. It was written in RUACH or breath of God, so it has to be translated from RUACH to be life to anybody.
1 Cor 2 Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,
And which have not entered the heart of man,
All that God has prepared for those who love Him.”
10 [d]For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. ..................
But [f]a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually [g]appraised.
Baptism in the Spirit takes us out of the realm of natural or carnal man and into the "covered are of the heavenly tabernacle" where there is no natural light or sunlight. WE NEED the Spirit's Illumination in this realm or we are stuffed!!! But we are NOT an OLD COVENANT CONGREGATION , we are learning to be led by the Spirit of God as ones born of the Spirit. See John Chapter 3

WE NEED THE BAPTISM IN THE SPIRIT to experience UNITY,
in ONE LORD, ONE FAITH, ONE BAPTISM. Psalm 133
Ephesians 4
Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

SET APART FOR MINISTRY
WE NEED THE BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT to know when people are ready for ministry
joints who are "working properly" Ephesians 4
Acts 13: 2 While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

WE NEED THE BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT for evangelism
Revelation 22:17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.
For Healing the sick, casting out demons, conducting spiritual warfare, for the miraculous gift of utterance in preaching, also for the gifts of word of wisdom and knowledge to help and deliver people completely unknown to us.

NOT BY MIGHT NOR BY POWER BUT BY MY SPIRIT SAYS THE LORD
Then the angel who was speaking with me returned and roused me, as a man who is awakened from his sleep. 2 He said to me, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold with its bowl on the top of it, and its seven lamps on it with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps which are on the top of it; 3 also two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on its left side.” 4 Then I said to the angel who was speaking with me saying, “What are these, my lord?” 5 So the angel who was speaking with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” And I said, “No, my lord.” 6 Then he [a]said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts. 7 ‘What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”’”
He is describing the middle area or first covered area of the heavenly Tabernacle, wherein is the candlestick.
This preeminently is the function of the LOCAL CHURCH
meeting in the Name of Jesus
and being accelerated into full growth as sons as the first disciples were, as described by the third area of the Temple the Holiest Place.

PREPARED FOR EPHESIANS 6 WARFARE
The whole first 5 chapters of Ephesians prepares for Ephesians 6
Warfare
To UNMASK the secondheavens, and the fallen principalities and powers there
to paralyse their usurped rulership over nations
to reclaim our rightful earth under the Lord and Creator Psalm 24
to say to all ancient curses and boundaries : Be lifted up ye Ancient Doors and Let the King of Glory Come In.

FINAL SUMMARY
THERE IS NO OPTION AT ALL ABOUT BAPTISM IN THE SPIRIT.
Without baptism in the Spirit....we see human and spiritual monstrosities such as all the denominations including Catholicism
We see UNPREPARED ministries
We see churches that remain in Old Covenant worship with one leader doing everything
We see Churches exercising no authority and effect over localities, nations and continents, but instead we see the power of the enemy's people grow stronger and usurp more and more territory and laws
we see very few people properly born again and filled with the Spirit and learning to function in the Melchizedek order under their Head King Jesus.

Churchplants - Maintaining and Sponsoring Pyramid Leaders in your locality!!!!!

This open letter (below) looks great in terms of current churches. In that context it's a great letter.
I mean, think in terms of a prisoner concentration camp curate, a man working in incredibly negative circumstances to bring people forth in faith.
But in Biblical terms it's a disaster........read it first

.

An Open Letter to Pastors (Hint: You’ll Want to Read This One)By Brian Dodd      Original here
I write this post with tears literally in my eyes. Charles Spurgeon once said, “Whenever God means to make a man great, He always breaks him in pieces first.”
As a member of INJOY Stewardship Solutions, I get to have personal one-on-one conversations with over 1,000 pastors each year. I have nothing but the utmost respect for those who stand in our pulpits each and every Sunday. There are several things I want to say to pastors as someone who sits in your church each week.
I respect your competence. You are smart and the world’s best communicators. You have a supernatural ability to take a passage of biblical text and pull out the truths that bring us comfort and guide us toward right living.
I respect your patience and kindness. You love us unconditionally in spite of our bad advise on how you should preach or lead the church.
I respect your bravery. You do not shy away from tough passages which are not well-received in a politically correct culture.
I respect your diligence. There are countless hard choices you are forced to constantly make.
I respect your preparation. Every seven days you give us a fresh word from God.
I respect your family. You live in a fishbowl and have to appear perfect.
I respect your generosity. You love people so much you are willing to earn far below the level of your education so we can know God.
I respect your compassion. Your knees are callused as a result of constantly praying for us.
I respect your commitment to Jesus and His mission. Because you love Him so much you answered the call to go into an incredibly unstable profession.
I respect your vision. You see those in your church as what they could be, not just what they currently are.
I respect you for being by my side. Every significant moment of my life—salvation, baptism, wedding, hospitals, baby dedications, funerals. You were there.
And I respect what no one sees. I respect the fact that you were broken to pieces by God. Personal Heartbreak. Sadness. Doubt. Disappointment. Devastation. Hurt Feelings. Sleepless Nights. Unspeakable Pain. You don’t talk about this part of your journey much. But one of the main reasons God uses you so effectively is you have been broken to pieces for His glory and our benefit and did not quit. You will finish this race.
And for this I say “Thank You.” And I and countless others will thank you every day for eternity because you were willing to pay a personal price others did not. And because you paid that price, I and others I love met Jesus.
You may not think anyone notices the price you paid. But this is not true. You are loved and respected. And I just want to say one more time to you and your spouse, “Thank You.”

==============
Chris Welch This open letter looks great in terms of current churches. In that context it's a great letter.
I mean, think in terms of a prisoner concentration camp curate, a man working in incredibly negative circumstances to bring people forth in faith.
But in Biblical terms it's a disaster.......

In terms of the simple gospel obeying Jesus commands
Go into all the world and and preach the Kingdom of God saying
Repent be baptised (totally Greek =dunking) and be likewise dunked totally in the Holy Spirit
so you now have a normal congregation in Jesus terms
where all know Jesus from the least to the greatest, where the New Covenant is beginning to be written with a grace pen circumcisong the human heart, where no one grabs his or her neighbour saying know the Lord for they all know Him as we did when we were birthed into the Jesus Move knowing nothing in the 70s, except for some awful Methodist behaviour in my case which I had to hurriedly ditch in the nearest waste bin.
In Biblical terms where there are elders, and only there because they have been round the Throne a tad longer....until the others learn....because the local church is hothousing them them through 1 Corinthians 12-14 behaviour and Ephesians 4 behaviours.
No in real Christianity terms, the sort we were in nearly 50 years ago this letter is a complete disaster. It describes pyramid behaviour at its worst and doesn't have any Biblical backing whatsoever. Maybe Old Testament Rabbi in a synagogue type backing, but it is nothing to do with what Jesus was building on earth in the gospels nor from heaven in Acts and the letters.
SO NO......THIS MUST BE EXPRESSED IN THE STRONGEST POSSIBLE WAY. IT IS NOW 2016 AND THE WESTERN CHURCH IS IN OPEN REBELLION WITH HER HEAD, ONLY A TAD WARMER THAN THE CATHOLIC WING.
Brokenness is not a PRIZE of specialness....it's what happens when a person actually does what is on the tinlid and comes into the Kingdom properly in a local church that lives in Galatians 2.20 from GROUND ZERO.

Pricking the Bloated Independent Self

Before Yes I am by Norman Grubb and others of his books, prophets were kind of stuck nonplussed.

We kept getting ourselves into scrapes but didn't really understand why. Certainly to everyone else who relate in quite a detached slightly formal, or may be just pally way, prophets were a complete enigma and consequently got themselves labelled as socially unstable.  Particularly in jolly hockeysticks or should that be golfsticks ? England.

Yet some of us had already observed that not infrequently Jesus caused the same problems, but that gets brushed under the carpet....since He is after all the Son of God and presumably can be forgiven....being perfect and all!!!

I brought this kind of thing up again yesterday in a comment on John Castleman's Timeline.

John Castleman
Yesterday at 16:21 ·
The chapter in my book i'm currently working on is titled 'The Art of Overlooking' since as Proverbs 19:11 reads, ‘It’s to one’s glory to overlook an offense’.
And He mercifully gives us plenty to 'overlook' along the Way, lots of gory on the road to glory. It's a loooooooooooooooooooooooooong chapter.

Chris Welch: I would say this is a huge and current topic. Daniel Yordy won't even talk to me now.....And I don't know if you realise....spiritually we are virtually twins. So we'd better get this issue sorted. People people love talking about honouring each other. I would.guess this would be the chainmail permanently attached to Cindi Estep and Leonard Fredette. Prophets see straight through crap and see only the real person underneath and tell them so. At the moment the whole.Body of Christ right across the whole earth is ripped in two over this one. Do we do a Bill Johnson and honour each other? Or do we.obey St Paul and speak the truth in love? Which in his case involved naming names so that we are still.reading about Hymenaus 2000 years later?






Ephesians 4 twice talks about speaking the truth in love verse 15 we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head,

and verse 25 25 Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. 26 Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not give the devil [s]an opportunity.

And in the middle of the two is the foundation....namely that the old self is being corrupted in accordance with lusts of deceit so put on the new self which is in the likeness of God.

What Norman Grubb has defined is that the independent self is a complete delusion. It is hooked into lusts of deceit....It REALLY EXISTS,,,but it's NOT the independent thing we thought it was. It is actually being engaged with Satan's spirit. There is no "human nature". We are either God going on in our "human clay vessels" or we are Satan going on.

"And you [a]were dead [b]in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the [c]course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, [d]indulging the desires of the flesh and of the [e]mind, and were by nature children of wrath,even as the rest."


Prophets are people with a balloon pricker.
They see evry man nolonger after the flesh....they see the authentic person, created in God. Now if some kind of bloated form is blobbing around outside of their authentic person, a prophet finds it quite normal to prick the fake even if it causes ructions.

Prophets cannot live with the false. They have no time for it. It quite puts them out of joint. They relate to everyone in truth and they kind of expect everyone else to do the same....which ofcourse they don't.

Jesus addressed the rich man, after he had regaled Jesus with all his keeping of the commandments....OK then....sell all you have and give it to the poor.

Is Jesus saying to everyone, every day, to sell all they have? NOPE. But He picked up the independent self clinging on for dear life to material possessions as its own god and He was immediately offended in the Spirit by the man and his self righteousness....so He launched in.

We all have people around us who do the equivalent and if we choose to walk in the Way of God then the Holy Spirit majors on it.

The function of walking in the Light is to have any last vestiges of independent self exposed as we can see in Ephesians 4 above.

As soon as someone has "removed the log" in his own eye.....come to that crashing awareness at the end of Romans 7 that there is no independent self....that any independence was really Satan as him or her.... SURE....as a thirdleveller they are going to be used to remove iddybiddy specks from their brother's inner seeing. The BIG JOB has been done by Christ on the Cross, including us into His death. We are never called upon to remove LOGS.
We can teach the Cross....but it was Christ who did the removal.

People I am brushing up with do not believe this is anything we do at all. Well you only have to read the story of Joseph as Prime Minister of Egypt, and how the Holy Spirit had him behave with his brothers to bring about a change of "seeing" in them.

Hopefully this post will get you thinking about how Proactive the Body of Christ is in bringing each of us unto glory....not by works....but by the power of Christ's own life manifested amongst us.

Working Properly

Ephesians 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore [a]it says,

“When He ascended on high,
He led captive a host of captives,
And He gave gifts to men.”

9 (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what [b]does it mean except that He also [c]had descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) 11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the [d]saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the [e]knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature [f]which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 14 [g]As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness [h]in deceitful scheming; 15 but [i]speaking the truth in love, [j]we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together [k]by what every joint supplies, according to the [l]proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

I realise, as I review my blog, that Christ has been writing Ephesians 4 in my bloodstream. Like when a jigsaw is being pieced together it is not always apparent what the whole picture will be. But if you analyse many of the posts in this blog they are nothing less than a rewording of  Paul's apostolic message:
What Christ won for us
Where He has positioned us
What the Body of Christ is
and  in this context....
GROWING UP FULLY INTO HIM or the full 3 stages of growth of this blog and also 1 John 2
BUT IN CORPORATE CONTEXT here in Ephesians 4.

And this describes the unique gifts the ascended Christ gives unto men to be able to form this supernatural thing called the CHURCH...but that this itself is only an interim stage...because the BODY carries on
building itself .....being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

So the strategy is this
We PREACH what is TRUE NOW of all of us in Christ
a bunch of individuals hears
then God rouses the churchbuilding gifts to move amongst these living stones
to mature them to a point where they know how to speak from the Spirit...in
other words to speak Christ to each other...that the whole church carries on building itself.

So if we come into an area, look for the Living Church we can tell what stage it has arrived at.
Jesus used the phrase a half built tower.
Well a half built tower would relate to 95% of all churches around today. they are still ONLY at the stage where one or two real ministries...or fake hireling ministries are speaking to a mass of stones....the stones themselves still relate as individual stones, and are not yet a Temple of the Living Lord, and there is no real sense yet that they are a Living Body yet, and moving as such.
Partly then, ministries who are themselves inadequately formed in God....
or partly through direct counterattack of the Enemy
or partly through the lack of hunger for righteousness and truth in the saints means that yet another half built tower is being laughed at by the world.

The purpose of this post is to examine the words "working properly". But first notice how Ephesians 4 continues in much the same vein as a lot of my blogposts....

17 So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding,

As many readers will know I have been using the phrase..."locked in their leftbrain" or "leftbrain locked".

The tiny bit of our brain that does step by step thinking, that lists things, that guages things according to rules and parameters, and human measurements....is mainly the left frontal vortex. We now have the use of information that comes to us direct through the Holy Spirit. This does not mean we deny the human information, but as in healing for example....our present condition is nolonger the final Word...because Isaiah 53 says all our sicknesses and disease was laid upon Him.

Twice in this chapter St Paul talks about speaking truth

verse 15....speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ

verse 25....Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. 26 Be angry, and yet do not sin;

So we have an important fulcrum here.

1. We've got Chapters 1 to 3 which describe the building materials that are ours
2. We've got the ministries whose gifting it is to KICKSTART the engine...
3. And we've got the whole Body who corporately share the process of Building everything in that we need to become complete....(which ofcourse as you look out now on  the Body of Christ is incredibly INCOMPLETE)

BUT GUESS WHAT THE FULCRUM IS?  Our willingness to deal with truth.
I will repeat that.

As good as all the other components are they all mean zilch
if we are NOT PREPARED to speak the truth in love
NOR HEAR TRUTH.

I am growing in the Lord, people think.
No one is arguing that you are not.
But this is the actual phrase in the Bible:
we are to GROW UP IN ALL ASPECTS INTO HIM.

In order to be the Church the Lord spoke about through Smith Wigglesworth we have to be a WORD and SPIRIT CHURCH.

Grow up in all aspects into Him.

God has quickened the subject of the 12 Gates of Jerusalem in Nehemiah and not surprisingly because we too are a church that is coming back out of Babylon. We are rebuilding the Gates and the last big door opening message on the gates that I heard anyone preach was Arthur Wallis to the Fountain Trust around 40 years ago. We can't ignore GATES. We are to be complete!!!

And we cannot be complete if we still have issues with speaking truth.

WHICH BRINGS ME TO THIS REAL WORLD EXAMPLE:

On Facebook God engineered that we had a thread of people all privately chatting in one continuous private message thread for 2 years. Unlike church even...all the members could see all the private messages. We know things about each other that maybe spouses do not even know.
Glorious glorious stuff was shared.

But you know what?
It began faltering when I started to speak the Truth.

It was simple truth.
it was things like...if we are in covenant (as all christians are with one another) how can we just up and leave

with ne'er a fairwell....or for no other good reason than what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12

If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason [l]any the less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. 19 If they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now there are many members, but one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”

Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. 26 Be angry, and yet do not sin;

Now the addition of Be angry but sin not....is already into territory that existing churches cannot handle. I thought it may be different among ourselves here...but no, it wasn't.

We are members of one another is a HUGE Statement.
We want everyone to be functioning right...not for moral reasons...but because in a real mystical sense we are ONE MACHINE  moving mightily in the heavenly places....so if one of your cogs is clogged up....actually in the Spirit that affects me. But at this stage in the growth of the Body people still seem to think parts of them are still under wraps . Ofcourse we are still individuals.....Ofcourse I am not going back into the territory of Emsworth Christian Church in the 1980s where we were for a time practically socialist or communist, having to ask permission to blow our noses....well I exaggerate.....a little....
No I absolutely get that...
But when the Spirit is moving on His Body and people are holding back for example in Acts 2 Ananias and Sapphyra were lying....and they died. They were FREE to do what they wanted. Everybody is free to do what they want....it's alwas the question of WHY you want to do what you want....and if it's not coming from the ONE LIFE in theUniverse....but it's something in addition to the life of God ...well yes...expect other participants in the same Life in the universe to question you.

WORKING PROPERLY
This is the point that prompted the post.
As Western Christians we speed read through Ephesians 1 to 3 going "nah nah nah nah nah"...yup got that...
we haven't ofcourse...it's just headknowledge...
then we come to something recognizable
in the English standard version it reads like this 4:16
from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

"Aha", we go.
Our brain goes click click click
I understand "working"
I understand "properly".

So from top left, if we are in a British Anglican or Methodist Church we learn to "do our bit for the church" by shaking a tin for charity donations to some charity that we favour or that our church leaders favour.

Or perhaps we are in an evangelical church, and we read in our new instruction book something that makes us think we have to put a sandwich board on us and march up and down the streets proclaiming how short time is.....which, by the way, it is....Everyone is free to do what they feel the Holy Spirit is telling them to do.
Last week, by way of the same subject, I felt I heard God say something which was quite a shock to me.
"You do realise that not everyone who purports to be an evangelical and goes out on the streets with signs and loud unempathising preaching is not always what it says on the tin?"  By that God was referring to the different methods the sons of Darkness use. Jesuits are taught to take on the appearance of any organisation and to copy the mannerisms perfectly. Witches are even brought up with pleasant religious "front alters" or "front personalities" and then placed in all kinds of churches.
So at least some of the most obnoxious preachers of damnation aren't christians at all....they are perfectly aware of the damage to Christ's Name they are doing in the high streets.

Or bottom left, perhaps we feel to be "working properly" we must be preaching. How many preachers know how to preach in the Holy Spirit as God gives them utterance. And how many do lots of uttering whether god is giving it to them or not.

Or how about this even more subtle situation bottom right?
The words come from a current email request from a network apostolic church this week. The writer won't have a clue that there is anything wrong in the words he used.
In reply to his email, IF I WAS TO REPLY would be....
and this tight chemistry with this leadership team? How mature are they? Do they yet know they are Christ in their form according to galatians 2:20. Are they experienced in delivering people from Satan and demonic strongholds? Are they aware of how much danger we are all in as Satan prepares his last onslaught against Jews Christians and Muslims....anybody in any way related to Abrahamic forms of Monotheistic believing?
What kind of gospel is this leadership team into? Grace plus works? Do they preach any further than Romans 1 to 5?
And what about the later phrase "helping to foster a church planting movement"?
What you mean do you know how to start a club which you are calling a church in a school hall or community hall with a musican band and a twolevel gospel about forgiveness from sin and the baptism in the Holy Spirit?  And this you describe as "church planting".   We would call that beginning christian clubs that meet on Sundays and have musicians on podiums.

NO NO NO.
This all comes from the western carnal mind that speed reads Ephesians 1 to 3 then gets to the bit about working properly and thinks in terms of a day job....except here it's a similar activity but you may or may not be paid for it.


Nope 4:16 is entirely in context.
And the context is birthing Christ and who you are now according to those three chapters  INSIDE YOU AS CONSCIOUSNESS, Then out of that consciousness everything you authentically ARE begins to work properly. And whatever you naturally are being moved and prompted by Christ's life within you, by His Spirit....is going to feed and upbuild other Christ members.

What must we be doing to do the works of Christ asked the disciples?  Believe ON Him who God has sent. And what this now means for believers is we believe IN HIS LIFE in us. We believe in the all sufficiency of that life IN US.  Or as proverbs 3 puts it....we acknowledge HIM in all our ways....and He makes straight our paths.

A better way to think of us "supplying" and "working properly" is to think in terms of Genesis 1. Our Father approached the problem of Darkness with Word alone. He said, "Let there be Light"
We are His kids. "Working properly"....whether by speaking or by actions in faith means addressing Darkness. Addressing Darkness in the world. Addressing darkness in each other by SPEAKING LIGHT...as we have utterance in the Spirit.

This whole post came out of an initial post that people responded well to last night on Facebook, made in conversation with Edie Chill and others....

Edie Chill
5 September at 14:59 ·


I know (in my intuitive knower, that place within where reason and logic are not allowed to go) that there is a "way" of living heretofore unknown to humanity. Could we possibly be the generation to taste it, or must I continue to be a dreaming fool?


Bill Fechtelkotter You're no fool. Yesterday, I started hearing a question and a phrase, "Are you ready to shine?" I answered, "Yes." And then, over and over, "It's time to shine." This unexpectedly brought tears to my eyes.

It's NOW Edie. The long wait is over. Our time as a caterpillar has expired, our wings have arrived! Haha

Edie Chill "This is bigger than "self-improvement," and whatever you're going to find in the "self-help" aisle. We are going to have to get past me-myself-and-I, and the idea that this is all about individual enhancement. The transformation we want is more than tidying up a messed up world. For the Spirit to work we have to be talking to one another. What is there to say? Turn within to the spirit of the depths. What is opening up through your deep feelings? What is that intuitive knowing and tacit understandings revealing to you? We have to talk to one another from that place! We must express it as naturally as we can in our own words. You have to become a little child to really do it - it's as simple as that, and as difficult as that.

Is this the same as reading another book about God and spirituality? No.
Is this the same as following our favorite spiritual teacher? No.
Is this the same as attending another conference or workshop? No.
Is this the same as embracing more progressive beliefs in your mind? No.
Is this the same as acquiring more knowledge? No.

It's not necessary to do any of the above in order to practice what I'm suggesting. And unless you practice what I'm suggesting, all of the above are meaningless.

Turn within to the spirit and source within you. We have to start talking to one another about what we experience there... not in a bunch of empty religious phraseology, but in our own words. Nothing is going to change unless we start doing this." Jim Palmer

Katie Woodside I am beginning to see the value in non resistance. There is a flow to this life and for me, it is time to relax! My "daily bread" for today (something that rises up within me) says to relax and enjoy the moment! Keep calm and enjoy the day!

Darryl Dement I know that 2nd Adam does not till the Ground, not sure how yet LOL, for now I tell myself that because I love maters so much it's a joy instead of a labor. That day of reaping where I have not sown may be a little way in the future Ha. But I can certainly grasp that concept.
5 September at 20:07 · Like



Tunji Ayoade Getting the hang of immortality is like toilet training
5 September at 21:32 · Like · 2



Chris Welch Nobody I have ever spoken to so far "has" the vision of the Body is joined by that which every joint supplies...in parenthesises...Paul adds "errr supplies when they are working properly."Before I get to that consider this.
Before the industrial revolution no one could imagine breaking down all aspects of the production of one item into a loop round a building or factory. Before that everybody built everything from start to finish.

Before corporation culture really got its act together nobody could have dreamed that one bunch of folk...be it 50,100,1000....all streamlined so that every one of their functions worked seamlessly to the end of a set of products or services....could be SO MUCH GREATER then the sum of all its parts. When you are dealing with a corporation and brand you are dealing with something with a force and momentum about it that can be both alarming and a real blessing....it's way beyond just a bunch of humans having coffee in a room!!!

Now anyone who knows me knows I will most often use the more negative effects of the industrialised world. But i want you to catch something. before these things really got up and running nobody could really imagine or dream that such things could happen.

Before this there was a smithy in a village with perhaps one or two master smiths and one or two apprentices for most things in an area that required making. To sit in a smithy and try to even imagine what we have now is virtually impossible.

So muse on that, then we'll move onto 1 Corinthians 12.
Up until now everybody thinks of this chapter in terms of Spiritfilled meetings....
But actually it's about "the administration God is raising up...suitable to the fulness of the times"......that the manifold wisdom of God might be made known NOW through the church to the principalities and powers.

See.....everything we have now....which is pretty darned impressive...ofcourse apart from the fact that everything has been co opted by the devil and freemasonry into a web or basket shape of interwoven "control" under the auspices of the hidden council of 300...using front organisation after front organisation to disguse the fact that Macdonalds and BASF are equally managed up top by the same few individuals,,,,,

but on the positive side....everything we have now is built using people who "aren't working properly"....well according to Paul's definition.

To work properly
each individual has to be experiencing being born again,
out of the shame dogging everybody since Genesis 3
rooted and grounded in the grace of Christ
each one knowing the veil is rent and that we all have a completely clear relationship with our Father through Jesus Christ our Brother
that we have all moved way beyond leftbrain locked systems of the world
into the whole of our being now switched back on again in Christ by the Spirit....
both our authentic natural giftings, and those more freaky supernatural ones God chooses to ping out of us......

Nobody anywhere has any real clue of what the Body living in this state 24 hours a day ....sharing the living Christ in all forms at all levels would be like....
But try this...
The blessings of business are shared. Even those weak among us are strong in Christ. People are always giving. There's no reserve about popping in and out of houses...nobody has anything to hide....and if they still have stuff....someone somewhere will feel to impart something.
people with big houses wont be like at present...
vast vacant lots of grass and courtyards...with 2 or 3 people rattling around all this space....big rooms will be filled with loads of people happy to see one another...and actually....mostly laughing.

A lot of us have had downpayments of this stuff....

But do you realise that at present if Christ gets shared...only about 2 or 3 minutes of one leader's preaching may really carry any anointing that does anything in the Spirit. So people have driven all that way to be together....and very little actual Christ stuff has happened.
But a gathering of "properlyworking" Christ conscious ones, all giving as the Spirit shows.....well we can't really imagine it...
~Cos if we think of brickies building a house...there's usually only one two or three building a layer all round....

The Christ building....each brick that gets put in place starts building other bricks...it's all hugely exponential.
But your average vicar/pastor/priest....actually blocks Jesus Christ...
so what should be a house building itself...
resembles the speed of a slowly dripping tap in one tiny corner of the kitchen.

Can you see how different our existence on earth should be...we are like in that smithy at the moment.....nobody can imagine what an Earth of "properly working joints" would even look like!
5 September at 22:55 · Edited · Like · 5



Tim Kraft Powerful post Chris Welch!
Yesterday at 10:57 · Like



Edie Chill I agree Tim. Til we ALL come to the measure of the stature of Christ. In the beginning we were without form and void, now Christ is being formed IN US and all the parts are being fitly joined together.
Yesterday at 14:36 · Like · 3



Chris Welch One of the reasons "we don't work" very well....and here I talk of many on Facebook....and I refer to being sidelined in the greater field of things....is precisely because "we are starting to work properly".

You see, yes, many Christians believe in Christ, but as Darren Hufford points out....in their daily lives they are practical atheists....and they dovetail perfectly into the world system of shame based relating....and pyramids of fear and control....much disguised ofcourse as I said earlier.
But if we are of Christ Himself we come up from underneath.
Jesus used to formalise this by saying....don't go straight to the high table....in case you get put on one of the lower tables....let yourself be discovered and you will rise to where you really should be...but it will be based on reality and not on the world's odd systems of family caste and false hype.
In the end you have to make a covenant with reality and not with sham and figleaves. This has enormous implications in how we live all of life.
23 hrs · Edited · Like · 2



Edie Chill Chris, What I hear you saying is......................Rest..............&..............Allow

Kim Black Chris Welch, That is beautiful.

No matter what we see, Christ has already won. Yes, make a covenant with reality now. As you say, doing so will have enormous implications in how you live all of life beginning right now.
3 hrs · Unlike · 1



Chris Welch Kim it's a funny old game this Body building lark.
You see there SIMPLY IS NO COPYRIIGHT ON Deep calls to DEEP
or Psalm 19.....their words go out but none is heard audibly....etc
Day to day pours forth speech....

Now as it happens generally speaking the things revealed DO BELONG to the People of God....

and God does nothing without first telling the prophets...

But hey....if the prophets aren't listening as Rick Joyner doesn't seem to be....certainly as far as thirdlevel Christianity goes anyway....or the covert plans of the enemy....

well there's no copyright...
so God just speaks to the next ragamuffin bunch who are listening.

That's why we must never be like the disciples and say...hey....such and such are not with us and they are saying God's stuff....go right in there Jesus and stop them....

But ofcourse He says the opposite....no one who is not against Me will not be for Me....

So that shows you how nebulous the building is organisationally...
The Body is literally jouned by that which every joint supplies....now where that joint is currently may not be orthodox.

We see God's heart when He announces to the angels
"Hey the sons of the Kingdom aren't interested in the wedding feast invitations....go out therefore into the highways byways fields and gutters or underpasses....AND COMPEL THEM TO COME IN

so all of a sudden Fred the dropout is feeling compelling messages from the Sky via Psalm 19.....the day is dripping with speech....and it can't be the alcohol because he finished the bottle ages ago!!!!
3 hrs · Like · 2



Chris Welch By the way Kim...thx for asking
3 hrs · Like · 1



Kim Black Chris Welch, Ragamuffin bunch. Lol. I'm feelin' that.
3 hrs · Like



Edie Chill Chris......................You have a great way to express truth!
2 hrs · Like

***********************************
So finally to get a better context for "working properly" read these three chapters at one sitting, then if you like them download the Mirror version of the letters of the new testament done by Francois DuToit and now available as a book or on Kindle on Amazon.

LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS
CHAPTER 1
1:1 Paul, employed by the delightful resolve of God and commissioned to represent Jesus
Christ to the saints in Ephesus; also to every believer in Christ Jesus.
1:2 I greet you with the grace and peace that proceed from God the Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ.
1:3 Let’s celebrate God! He has lavished every blessing heaven has upon us in Christ!
1:4 He associated us in Christ before the fall of the world! Jesus is God's mind made up
about us! He always knew in his love that he would present us again face to face before him
in blameless innocence. (The implications of the fall are completely cancelled out, katabalo -
“to fall away, to put in a lower place,” instead of themelios - “foundation” see 2:20 - Thus
translated “the fall of the world” instead of “the foundation of the world.” God found us in
Christ before he lost us in Adam!)
1:5 He is the architect of our design; his heart dream realized our coming of age in Christ.
(Adoption here is not what it means in our Western society, it is a coming of age, like the
typical Jewish Barmitsva. See Gal.4:1-6 “…and to seal our sonship the spirit of his son echoes
Abba Father in our hearts.”. Greek, huiothesia).
1:6 His grace-plan is to be celebrated: he greatly endeared us and highly favored us in
Christ; his love for his Son is his love for us.
1:7 Since we are (fully represented) in him, his blood is the ransom that secures our
redemption. His forgiving us our sins measures the wealth of his grace.
1:8 This grace shown towards us communicates a wisdom and discernment of our worth
that completely surpasses any definition.
1:9 The secret is out! His cherished love-dream now unfolds in front of our very eyes.
1:10 In the economy (oikonomia) of the fullness of time, everything culminates in Christ; all
that is in heaven and all that is on earth is reconciled in him. (Phillips, “All human history
shall be consummated in Christ, everything that exists in heaven or earth shall find its
perfection and fulfillment in him.” Knox, “All that is in heaven, all that is on earth, summed
up in him!”)
- 114 -
1:11 This is how we fit into God's picture, Christ is the measure of our portion, we are in
him; invented and defined in him. God's blueprint intention is on exhibition in us, everything
he accomplishes is inspired by the energy and intent of his affection. (See Romans 8:29 “He
engineered us from the start to fit the mould of sonship and likeness according to the exact
blueprint of his design. We see the original and intended shape of our lives preserved in his
Son; he is the firstborn from the same womb that reveals our genesis. He confirms that we
are the invention of God.”)
1:12 It was our initial privilege (as Jews) to cherish the Messianic hope; our lives in Christ
were destined to promote the celebration of his glorious plan with man (doxa, intention,
opinion.).
1:13 Now you (Gentiles) also have discovered yourselves to be equally included in him
having witnessed the unveiled logic of God. (The Word of truth, alethea, from a + lanthano,
not hidden) What exciting news! Your salvation is publicly announced. Consistent with the
promise of God, the Holy Spirit gives guarantee to the fact of your faith, like the stamp of a
signet ring that certifies a document. You are in him!
1:14 The Holy Spirit is our tangible link (title deed) to the inheritance that was ransomed
and preserved for us. God's glorious plan for man is the theme of our celebration.
(Guarantee, or earnest, arabon a Hebrew word, to braid, two parties intertwine by giving
something as surety and pledge. The pledge represents the full transaction. The legal
document or title deed represents the complete value of the transaction. Like a wedding ring
represents the marriage.)
1:15 I am sure you can appreciate how the news of your faith and love greatly inspires me.
1:16 I am so happy for you; my thoughts and prayers are full of you.
1:17 I desire that you will draw directly from the source; that the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory ignites the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in you in the
unveiling of his Master Plan (his intent, doxa glory.) I desire that you know by revelation
what he has known about you all along!
1:18 I pray that your thoughts will be flooded with light and inspired insight; that you will
clearly picture his intent in identifying you in him so that you may know how precious you
are to him. The saints are his treasure and the glorious trophy of his portion! (We are God's
assets and the measure of his wealth!)
1:19 I pray that you will understand beyond all comparison the magnitude of his mighty
power towards us who believe. Faith reveals how enormously advantaged we are in Christ.
- 115 -
1:20 It is the same dynamic energy that he unleashed in Christ when he raised him from
the dead and forever established him in the power of his own right hand in the realm of the
heavens.
1:21 Infinitely above all the combined forces of rule, authority, dominion or governments;
he is ranked superior to any name that could ever be given to anyone of this age or any age
still to come in the eternal future.
1:22 I want you to see this: he subjected all these powers under his feet. He towers head
and shoulders above everything. He is the head,
1:23 the church (his redeemed image and likeness in man) is his body. The completeness of
his being that fills all in all resides in us! God cannot make himself more visible or exhibit
himself more accurately.
CHAPTER 2
2:1 Picture where God found us, we were in a death trap of an inferior lifestyle, constantly
living below the blueprint measure of our lives. (Sin, hamartia, ha + meros, without our
allotted portion)
2:2 We were all part of a common pattern, swept along under a powerful invisible
influence; a spirit- energy that adopted us as sons to its dictate through unbelief.
2:3 Throughout that time everyone of us were warped and corrupted in our conduct
snared in a jumble of forbidden lusts; driven by the desires of the senses, totally engaged in
an expression of life ruled by mind games; it was as if a twisted passion parented a universal
breed of people.
2:4 None of this could distract from the extravagant love of God; he continued to love us
with the exact same intensity.
2:5 This is how grace rescued us: sin left us dead towards God, like spiritual corpses; then
comes the resurrection of Christ; in that moment, he simultaneously co-quickened us
together with Christ. (Exactly as Hosea prophesied it 800 BC) While sin proved how dead we
then were, grace reveals how alive we now are. Even when we were dead in our trespasses,
he made us alive together with him, and raised us up together with him. (God saw us in
Christ in his death and resurrection before we saw ourselves there! Hosea 6:2 declares our
co-resurrection with Christ before anyone but God believed it!)
2:6 (As much as we were co-included in his death,) we are co-included in his resurrection.
- 116 -
We are also elevated in his ascension to be equally welcome in the throne room of the
heavenly realm where we are seated together with him in his executive authority. We are
fully represented in Christ Jesus.
2:7 (In a single triumphant act of righteousness God saved us from the guttermost to the
uttermost. Here we are now, revealed in Christ in the highest possible position of bliss! If
man's sad history could not distract from the extravagant love of God,) imagine how God is
now able for timeless perpetuity (the eternal future) to exhibit the trophy of the wealth of
his grace demonstrated in his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. Grace exhibits excessive
evidence of the success of the cross.
2:8 Your salvation is not a reward for good behaviour! It was a grace thing from start to
finish; you had no hand in it. Even the gift to believe simply reflects his faith! (You did not
invent faith; it was God's faith to begin with! It is from faith to faith, Rom 1:17 He is both the
source and conclusion of faith, Heb 12:2)
2:9 If this could be accomplished through any action of yours then there would be ground
for boasting.
2:10 We are engineered by his design; he moulded and manufactured us in Christ. We are
his workmanship, his poetry. (God finds inspired expression of Christ in us. Greek, poeima,)
We are fully fit to do good, equipped to give attractive evidence of his likeness in us in
everything we do. (God has done everything possible to find spontaneous and effortless
expression of his character in us in our everyday lifestyle. Greek, proetoimatso, God has
prepared a highway for us to lead us out like kings, just like it was in Oriental custom, where
people would go before a king to level the roads to make it possible for the king to journey
with ease and comfort. Isa 40:3-5)
2:11 Remember where you came from; (not only were you spiritually dead but) it wasn't
long ago when you were still classified as non-Jewish, judging on the surface you had
nothing that linked you to them. They sneered at you because you didn’t share their
distinguishing mark of circumcision, which was their claim to fame!
2:12 During that time you were distanced from the Messianic hope; you had nothing in
common with Israel; you felt foreign to the covenants of prophetic promise, living a life with
nothing to look forward to in a world where God seemed absent.
2:13 But now, wow! Everything has changed; you have discovered yourselves to be located
in Christ. What once seemed so distant is now so near; his blood reveals your redeemed
innocence and authentic value.
2:14 It is in him that we are one and at peace with everyone; he dissolved every definition
- 117 -
of division.
2:15 In his incarnation, he rendered the entire Jewish system of ceremonial laws and
regulations useless as a measure to justify human life and conduct. In that he died
humanity’s death all ground for tension and hostility was entirely removed. The peace he
proclaims reveals one new human race, created and defined in Christ, instead of two groups
of people separated by their ethnic identity and differences.
2:16 Both parties are fully represented and reconciled to God in one human body through
the cross. He reinstated the former harmony; all opposing elements were thus utterly
defeated.
2:17 On that basis he made his public appearance, proclaiming the good news of peace to
universal mankind; both those who felt left out in the cold, (as far as the promises and
covenants were concerned,) as well as to those who were near all along, (because of their
Jewish identity.)
2:18 Because of Christ both Jew and Gentile now enjoy equal access to the Father in one
Spirit.
2:19 The conclusion is clear, you are no longer frowned upon as a foreigner; you are where
you belong and part of an intimate family where no-one is suspicious or inferior.
2:20 Your lives now give visible definition to the spiritual structure, having been built into it
by God upon the foundation that the prophets and apostles proclaimed. The first evidence
of this building was Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. (He is the first visible
testimony to the restored image and likeness of God in human form.)
2:21 In him everyone of us are like living Lego blocks fitted together of the same fabric
(conversation), giving ever increasing articulation to a mobile sanctuary intertwined in the
Lord.
2:22 In him you are co-constructed together as God's permanent spiritual residence. You
are God’s address!
CHAPTER 3
3:1 My ministry is not measured by the size of my cell, I am confined by his grace; Christ
Jesus is the prison keeper; you are why I am here. (Grace measures my ministry; this cell
cannot hide my message from you!)
- 118 -
3:2 (I may be hidden away in a prison, but my ministry is not.) It is common knowledge that
I have been entrusted with a message that reveals how included you Gentiles are in the
grace gift of God.
3:3 You must have heard how this mystery was revealed to me, in a dramatic disclosure
that broke the silence of a long kept secret. I have previously written briefly about this.
3:4 In reading these words you will perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ. (Insight,
understanding, sunesis, a joining together like two streams)
3:5 In no previous generation has there been a more comprehensive and detailed
understanding (of the full consequence of grace) as it has now been uncovered in the Spirit
to his ambassadors who brought the prophetic promise into full view! Mankind (the sons of
men) may now realise that the prophetic word is fulfilled in them! Everything the prophets
saw is now declared! Both the prophets (who saw this in advance) and the apostles (who
now proclaim this) are sanctioned in Christ.
3:6 The essence of what I see reveals the fact that the multitude of humanity are joint
participants in the same inheritance (together with Israel), we are all part of one and the
same body in Christ. The Good news is that God's promise is equally relevant and applicable
to all.
3:7 This Gospel defines my ministry; I am supercharged by the gift of his grace!
3:8 I am the lowest ranked saint by far. (My claim to fame emphasizes the fact that grace is
a gift and certainly not a reward for good behavior.) His grace alone qualifies me to declare
this unexplored treasure of Christ in the nations.
3:9 The mandate of my message is to make all men see. The unveiling of this eternal secret
is to bring into public view an association that has always been hidden in God; Jesus Christ is
the blueprint of creation.
3:10 Every invisible authority and government in the arena of the heavenlies is now
confronted with the display of the wisdom of God. The church acts like a prism that
disperses the varied magnitude of God in human form.
3:11 Jesus Christ our Boss and Owner gives definition to God’s timeless pre-determined
thought ( pro-thesis ).
3:12 His faith in us gives our lives integrity. We echo and articulate the original
conversation publicly. (In him we express ourselves freely and openly) He is our platform to a
global audience.
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3:13 You have no reason to feel embarrassed or responsible because of what I am
suffering; rather feel honoured!
3:14 Overwhelmed by what grace communicates, I bow my knees in awe before the Father.
3:15 Every family in heaven and on earth originate in him; he remains the authentic and
original identity of every nation.
3:16 I desire for you to realise what the Father has given you from his own limitless
resources, so that you may be dynamically reinforced in your inner being by the Spirit of
God.
3:17 This will impact your faith with capacity to fully grasp the reality of the indwelling
Christ. You are rooted and founded in Love. Love is your invisible inner source just like the
root system of a tree and the foundation of a building. (The dimension of your inner person
exceeds any other measure that could possibly define you. “The Holy Spirit becomes to me
what he was to Jesus, the very life of my personality” - Andrew Murray).
3:18 This is your reservoir of super human strength which causes you as saints to
collectively grasp (come to terms with, make one’s own, empowered to comprehend) the
limitless extent of his love in breadth, in length, in height (rank), and the extremities of its
depths. (See John 1:12)
3:19 I desire for you to become intimately acquainted with the love of Christ on the
deepest possible level; far beyond the reach of a mere academic, intellectual grasp. Within
the scope of this equation God finds the ultimate expression of himself in you (so that you
may be filled with all the fullness of God).
3:20 We celebrate him who super charges us powerfully from within. Our biggest request
or most amazing dream cannot match the extravagant proportion of his thoughts towards
us.
3:21 He owns the applause displayed in the church (his redeemed image and likeness),
confirmed in Christ Jesus. The encore continues throughout every generation, not only of
this age but also of the countless ages to come. Amen!