KOG5 God Of the Cup by Daniel Yordy

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I have read nothing quite like it. AC Welch
© Daniel Yordy - 2012 - Our Path Home

Part 5. The God of the Cup 

I had imagined that my next letter in this series would be about "Many Sons," that is, the end result God intends from this Covenant He enters into with us. But God doesn't always show me what He wants me to write next, sometimes He surrounds my way with agony, and out of that agony comes the cry that is what He wanted me to write next. God was not finished with Gethsemane.  

Only, He didn't want me to write about Gethsemane; He wanted me to write from Gethsemane.  

Please bear with my frustration with God and my agony of soul.

~~~

If God reveals Himself to my neighbor BEFORE He reveals Himself to me, will I accuse my neighbor of heresy and deception and will I put my neighbor to death?

The greatest problem with God is that He is entirely out of control.

It is the vanity of man, including you and me, dear reader, to put God to death every time He does something or shows Himself to be something of which we do not approve.

We can't get at God Himself, of course, so we deal with an out-of-control God by endlessly re-writing the Bible and then by rebuking our neighbor when he reads or hears something from some verse we have already so painstakingly put in its place. Non-Christians are astonished when they see the endless, endless drivel pouring out of Christian minds and pens, in our ceaseless attempts to "explain" God.

To define God is to control Him. We demand a controlled God with no tolerance for any other kind of God.

God, of course, eggs this vanity on, having imposed it in the first place. (No, no, no, God would NEVER do such a thing! I am not deceived, everyone else is.)

I said once that God is "reckless." A "mature" Christian leader protested strongly - "No, God is not reckless." Meaning, "I have Him entirely under my control and if you will just listen to me, I will explain this God-on-my-Leash to you."

Now, everyone of us knows that God is out of control, reckless, and unexplainable. We know that when God should go up, He goes down; when He should go out, He comes in. When He should damn, He shows mercy; when He should show mercy, He destroys. When He should be sensible, He acts in extraordinarily bizarre and utterly unreasonable ways.

Okay, let's be honest, let's admit it - the worst thing about God is that He never does what He says, or so it seems to us. But we have lots of wonderful ways to explain a God who does not do what He says.

Jesus said, "Take no thought for tomorrow, what you shall eat or what you shall drink - God will take care of your needs." I've never met a Christian in Western culture who did not disagree with Jesus 100%. There are a few cultures who live that way and they are poverty-stricken as a result. "Get an education, get a job, earn some money, save your money, put up for retirement, buy insurance, store food for the winter, buy bulk quantities to save money," all of them taking thought for tomorrow, what we shall eat and what we shall drink. No one I have ever known would live like Jesus said. In fact, there is good and accurate argument that such a philosophy is the cause of poverty in this world.

Haitians must live for today only, they are not allowed to "lay up" for tomorrow. Should any Haitian accumulate sufficient to provide for tomorrow, his property will be seized by the government. It is for this reason alone, the complete non-existence of capital, that causes the people of Haiti to be desperately poor in spite of billions in aid that vanish into that stricken nation.

So was Jesus wrong? I have no doubt we think He was; we, of course, would never say such a thing; instead, we write books explaining how Jesus meant something quite different from what He said.

So what is the problem?

That's easy - God. God is an uncontrollable problem.

Here's what He says. "The first shall be last and the last first." "Many are called, but few are chosen." "God rewards those who diligently seek Him." "If you want to be the greatest in the Kingdom, here's how." "Many run, but only one wins the race." "If you overcome." "I will give to My two witnesses." "He is coming and His reward is in His hand." "Those who seek glory will win eternal life." "Leave out the outer court for it is not being measured at this time." "Take the little bit from him who did not produce an increase and give it to the one who did." "The stars differ from one another in glory." "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven."

I am writing this bit during the London Olympics. Man is very competitive. We watch the winners, but fail to remember the thousands and thousands of losers, all of whom gave their lives and long hours every day for years to fulfill the dream of their hearts, Olympic gold, but who failed, who came short, who did not measure up, and who will never ever see their dreams fulfilled.

The gospel is the most competitive arena in the universe.

MOST of Christian argument attempts to remove the competition built into the gospel to assure us that we are all winners. Although all of us argues for this belief, that all who receive Jesus will be happy in heaven forever, none of us buys into it for ourselves, not even a little bit.

Admit it. Your deepest desire is to be the greatest in the Kingdom of God. You want with all your heart for God to say, "Hey, look at this one, he really pulled it off, she pleased Me in every way." You want God to approve of you above all your fellows. You want, so very much, to hear, "Well done." And deep down inside, you "know" that all those who see things differently from you will most likely hear, "Depart from Me."

Now, someone who reads this may well say, quite loudly, "Not me, I trust in God, and that's enough for me."

It's so easy to prove that such a one is lying through his or her teeth. There's more than one way to prove it. One way would be to simply ask, "Please explain salvation to me." Very, very few would answer, "Although Jesus is salvation, I don't know Him very well, I am so ignorant. I don't see at all; I am blind. Do not ask me, I am so deceived about most everything."

You see, underneath that statement, "Not me, I am not pursuing glory, I don't want to be the greatest in the kingdom, I trust in God, and that's enough for me," underneath that statement is a very definite assertion that says this. "I know who God is, I can define Him. I know what salvation is, I can tell you. The way in which I understand reality is correct, I can see clearly."

Here's the game.

But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who "will render to each one according to his deeds": eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness - indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil . . . but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good . . . Romans 2:5-10

There it is. If you and I seek for glory, if we pursue honor, if we desire never ever to die, then God will reward us with this thing called "eternal life," whatever that is - IF we measure up. But if we don't seek our glory, if we don't hanker after honor before all, if we don't long for beating old age and death, then God claims we are, in fact, self-seeking. But self-seeking is not just a negative. The one who does not run this race for glory, is in fact, building up great "treasures" on the other side of things - WRATH.

Do you see what I mean? The desperate, desperate, desperate desire to explain why God does not mean what He says here? You're doing it right now, aren't you?

Here is how God sets up this turkey-shoot, this vanity, we seem to be caught in.

God gives only one definition of "eternal life." Even though almost all Christians try to give the term a definition God never ever gives, a definition that "eternal life" simply does NOT mean, still, all Christians know instinctively what the reward really is, and that certain knowledge drives our psychosis.

Here is the only definition given to the term "eternal life" in the Bible.

"To know God, and to know Jesus Christ whom God has sent."

The goal is to know this Guy who is patently unknowable. And the first one who really knows Him as He is wins. What do we win? Here it is:

. . . We know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 1 John 3:2

The prize of knowing God as He really is; the prize of seeing Jesus Christ whom God has sent, as He really is, is that we get to be just like Him - just like the King of Glory, just like the Lord of heaven and earth, just like the most glorious and exalted Being in the universe.

We get to sit in His throne.

So, either we are seeking for glory or we are building up treasures of destruction, one or the other. And both the Way to glory and the Prize itself is to KNOW God.

Do you see how desperately, desperately important it is to each of us to know God, to figure this Guy out, to win the prize, to make Him like us, approve of us, be pleased with us.

"Without faith it is impossible to please God." - "Oh you of little faith."

Even the Christian who says "I understand that God is a 'mystery' and that we will know what it all means in the sweet by and by," is so obviously blowing smoke. They think nothing of the sort; you probe just a bit and you will discover very quickly, and likely to your own pain, that the one who says "I 'know' that God is a mystery," has, by those very words, put God under control, and they will assure you that they see things as we are supposed to see them, and if we will just listen to their take on things, their explanations of "the mystery," then we, also, will understand. In fact, you can really get them going by saying, "Amen, brother, so good, never saw it that way before, you have really enlightened me, keep talking, please." They (and me as well, I do not exclude myself from vanity) will be more than happy to oblige.

God is NOT like winning the lottery. If you play the lottery, you could win millions, but if you don't buy or you don't win, life will continue as it is. If the lottery rules were like God's rules, then it would say, "Buy this one ticket for $1 and you could win millions, maybe, but if you don't buy the ticket, over and over, then you will certainly win losses and losses, greater and greater until you live in unending and utter ruin.

"If you seek for glory, you could win the throne, but only a few do. And if you don't seek for glory, you will win ever increasing destruction, and if your 'effort' to win the throne does not satisfy me, if you don't have enough 'faith,' whatever that is, then somebody else will win the little bit you happen to have." That's God's ticket.

Now listen, the whole reason why the words "That's not right, that's not what God means, God isn't like that," are going through your mind right now is that you know for a fact that you're in this high-stakes pitch for glory or dishonor, you know for a fact that "knowing" God is the race you must win. That's why you "know" what God is all about and can explain quite accurately what He does mean. The possibility that, after all these years of seeking to know Him, we might remain utterly blind and ignorant, is simply unthinkable; the stakes are just too high.

Here are several things Paul wrote to Timothy, several among many other similar things he said to Timothy.

Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you. - If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words . . . - But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life (knowing an unknowable God who hides Himself in clouds of darkness), to which you were also called . . . - You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.

Let me be frank and honest with you.

I want glory with everything that is in me. I want to be the greatest in the kingdom of God. I don't want to die, I want to live forever; I want to see all my dreams come to pass. I want God to put His hand on my shoulder and to say to all creation, "Hey ya'll, look here, this is Daniel, he blesses My socks off. He so pleases me. He overcomes every difficulty; he triumphs over every adversity; he has such incredible faith in Me. Right from the start, he zeroed in on knowing Me and all along, Daniel was more right about Who and What I am than all the rest of you who thought he was so wrong. From this moment on, Daniel represents Me, and I will move in mighty power through hm to accomplish whatever he desires."

More than that, I want to be the one that so gets God right, that so knows Him as He really is, that I am then given the greatest assignment on earth given to those who belong to Jesus. I want to be the one who says, "Thus saith the Lord," and God says, "Yup, that's right." I WANT Glory!

And you want the very same thing.

The race is to know God, the prize is to know God. Ignorance, "Well I just didn't know" is not an option because ignorance of God, lack of faith, is not a neutral, it is, rather, a heaping up of the opposite of blessing, which is the very Biblical word: CURSE.

So, saying "Well, I'm just little old humble me," is proven absolutely false in two ways. One, that very statement is an assertion of knowledge, and two, ignorance of God is not bliss, it is destruction. Paul said that "Well, I'm just little old humble me" IS self-seeking. The bold and audacious pursuit of glory is the only thing that pleases God.

Let me be more frank and honest with you.

I don't know God very well, I am so ignorant. I cannot see Him; I am blind. I have studied to know God for years and years, I have followed after to know the Lord all my adult life, and I remain deceived about most everything I think I know.

I get a bit of a handle on knowing God and He just doesn't stay put, He blows my "knowledge" of Him right out of the water. I light upon one thing He says, and think, "Wow, okay God, I believe this; I believe what You say." And then someone else hits me with the very opposite thing that God says over there, and I am left feeling like an absolute fool.

Let me give you here two VERY opposing verses.

But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:14-17

The "Holy Scriptures" is first, the Old Testament, although it certainly does reach out to include the New Testament yet to be compiled at this point. Paul wrote those words shortly before he was killed in AD 67.

Then, about 25 years later, John wrote this:

But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. John 5:38-40

The fascinating thing is that Paul's words to Timothy, penned at the end of Paul's life, are more in line with the gospel according to Matthew, Peter, and James than with his own gospel; whereas John's words, penned 25 years later, are much more in line with the gospel according to Paul.

Okay, let's be honest, no mealy-mouthed beating around the bush. These two passages cancel each other out. Either one is true or the other is true, but by all human logic, knowledge, and reasoning, both CANNOT be truth. One is the truth and the other is whatever the truth is not. Let's get it out, be honest, "God lied."

But we never ever say that, do we? Not at all. We have a much more clever device, we learned it from Adam and Eve - they started it. Here is what we do.

Now, remember, every man, woman, and child on this planet is absolutely committed to this race of knowing God. Everyone has Him figured out. Everyone is convinced he or she is correct. Listen to the atheists, they are obsessed, it seems, with explaining "God." They sure do know how things really are; they can see all things so much more clearly than anyone else. Everyone is certain; everyone is sure. 

It is normal for Christians to begin with Paul's words to Timothy, they make much more sense to the natural mind. "Yea, here's the trick to winning this race of knowing God, of figuring this Guy out. I will study the Holy Scriptures, as Paul said, because they can make me "wise" for salvation, and if I learn the Scriptures, then I'll have everything I need to be thoroughly equipped."

So you have at it, in obedience to what GOD SAYS! you devote years to this labor, knowing that both the race and the prize are to KNOW God, knowing that God says that learning the Scriptures is where you find all that you need.

Then, one day, someone says, "That's all a big waste of time, studying the Scriptures. Don't you know that Jesus said that you won't find "eternal life," that is, knowing God, in the Scriptures."

Huh?

So we play the Adam and Eve trick. We would NEVER call God a liar, so we call the other "Christian" who thinks he's beat us in this race to figure God out, a heretic. You are deceived! God, the problem isn't You, it's this other person!

Then God (who is REAL in spite of the vanity He has placed over us) opens our eyes and we SEE that Christ is indeed the Living Word, and that reading and studying "the Scriptures" for years has not caused us to know Him as we ought, as He really is.

The problem is, we don't slow down a bit. Yes, God opened our eyes for one moment, surprised us utterly that He was NOT under our definitive control, shaking us to our core. BUT WE SURVIVE! And we're off and running. We now have God figured out - IT'S NOT the Scriptures - and we draw a line right through Paul's words to Timothy. Only, we never call God a "liar," no, we go around and find other Christians who are busily engaged believing that what God says in 2 Timothy 3 is actually true, and call them heretics, telling them they are deceived, and if they'll just listen to us, we have God all figured out. God is finally under control!

Those who love a God who destroys His enemies, including all who disagree with their take on things, in hellfire forever can't stand a God who would show mercy and kindness to every single human being. Those who love a God who has never thought of torturing His creation in hopelessness, hate the very idea of a God who displays His wrath and brings judgment - and yes, say the big bad word, "destruction" on those who anger Him.

And everyone absolutely shudders at the thought of a God who would bring Satan into restored and tender submission to Jesus. Those who reject a God of hellfire, get rid of Satan as well. And those who love a God of hellfire, shudder with absolute horror at the utter blasphemy, the absolute Satanic deception, that the devil would bow in broken humility and weep, "Jesus, my Master and my God." (Even though this out-of-control God says that he will - we absolutely MUST explain why what God says just ain't so.)

God says, "KNOW Me!" And then, it seems to us, that He makes it absolutely impossible for us to do so.

But most Christians have God all figured out - "What He means," they cry, "is that we'll know Him AFTER we die and "go to" heaven!" The incredible thing is, God never says that, nor any such thing. But they sure know that's what He has to mean. Just ask them; they know!

~~~

I freely confess that I wrote the above five pages in a cynical frame of mind and in the pain of my own soul. I do not conclude, however, that these words are not of Him. Rather, I, as is normal for me, am brought up short before an implacable God who does not kowtow to anyone.

God is not under my control. He does not ask me for permission either to do what He chooses to do or to be who He is.

God IS - let every human being bow before Him in silence. Let every human being place their forehead upon the ground in silence before a Holy and a Mighty God.

If a God who is love chooses to order a spirit of delusion to take possession of a nation and then sends destruction upon that nation because they were stupid enough to believe the lie, He does not ask me for my permission.

If a God who is hatred of all arrogance and all haughty looks and all acts of cruelty and indifference, chooses to show incredible favor and goodness to the most despicable and violent human being I could name, He does not consider if I am okay with His actions or not.

There is a deep root of ON-your-face, silent, and willing submission before a God who never ever fits into my box, regardless of how deeply I know Him or how long I have walked in faithfulness before Him, that is the core and center of those alone through whom He will show Himself mighty.

That root of willing and silent submission is rare upon this planet and found in very, very few. It does not come over night. It is not obtained by revelation - no vision of Christ-our-life will ever impart it. It comes in the hard places, in loss and in darkness, this unbending, implacable, never budging statement: "I am God; you are not. Be silent before Me." It comes over years, over and over, time and again. It comes against all rebellion, all finagling, all arguing with God. It comes against all blaming of others, all finding fault. It comes against all self-exaltation, all pretense, all human plans and ideas.

It comes and it comes until it wins absolutely and forever or until we drive that Voice far, far away from us.

We are not the one's who speak. God speaks and we have two options: either we will tremble in silent harmony with that Word or it will shatter us.

He will be . . . a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. Isaiah 8:14 He is despised and rejected by men . . . and we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Isaiah 53:3

Whoever falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder. Luke 20:18

Jesus, the Word God is always speaking, is offensive to me and He is offensive to you. And He says, "Be silent before My holy temple and tremble before Me."

Those who say, "Wait a minute now, that's not my Daddy," can be blessed and happy forever in His good pleasure, and God will most certainly do what He wills with His own - He never asks me what I think He should do. But I cannot say what they say.

God is not under my control. I do not have Him figured out. I cannot define Him; I cannot explain Him. All I can possibly ever do is bow my head upon the ground in silence before Him.

To one He says, "Speak," to another He says, "Shut up." To one He says "Go here and go there," to another He says, "Sit down, you aren't going anywhere."

And He WILL do the very opposite of what you want, and He will ask you to bow in silence before His right to order His creation as He sees fit.

Indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to Him who formed it, "Why have You made me like this?" Romans 9:20

I have been trying to re-write a critical New Testament verse. It doesn't say what I want it to say - in fact, it seems to oppose the core and root of the things I teach. I thought I could study the Greek words and find a way to alter the text. That didn't happen. I tried to argue to myself that the writer of Hebrews, very likely Priscilla, a woman, just had it wrong, she didn't see the reality of Christ the way I do. I tried all that - but I find myself unable to silence God.

And being unable to silence God, to require of Him to stop saying things of which I do not approve, I am brought up against my only role of being, myself, silent before Him.

When God speaks, I tremble.

. . . Who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him 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

Gethsemane.

Now, I must confess, I don't do well with "obedience." If I hear a nudging, "do this," or "do that," something freezes up inside, something short circuits and I shut down. I don't do "voices." And I read many things in the New Testament that I fail to do, or that I act against, at times. 

But I cannot count the number of times over many, many years, that the word "NO!" "NO!" "NO!" has hammered against me in implacable slow motion, they are far too many. "NO!" never comes with explanation, it never provides a context, it never gives options, it never moves, it never quiets down, it never stops. When a "NO!" begins against me, it grows and grows and grows, against my crying, against my arguing, against my raging, until I fall in silence before Him and the only thing I can say is, "Yes, Lord."

I have never heard Him speak, "Do this or that great thing, for I am with you." I have never heard Him say, "Go here or go there in My name." "NO!" is the vast majority of what I have heard from God. 

There is nothing inside the word, "NO!" that I can expand on or give profound teaching upon. It carries no nuances, no development of thought. I cannot stand before the congregation and give testimony of the mighty power of God moving through the word, "NO!"

God orders all my steps; He hedges my way about with thorns. His "NO!" comes in so many forms. It comes as a quiet voice, though it never stays quiet long if I resist it. It comes in doors that slam shut, opportunities that go nowhere, jobs that turn into nightmares, relationships that become sour and I don't know how to fix them. His "NO!" has come against every hope, every dream, every desire I have ever known; it has removed all my strength and ability.

I say, "come against every hope, dream, and desire" over 36 years of adult life, but in a peculiar and difficult way. God has said, "NO!" until I give Him thanks for the loss of all things, but the desire increases and increases. The more He says, "NO!" in one way or another, the more my desire to see God do what He alone has placed in my heart grows, yet I can only remain silent before His implacable control and unceasing limitation of my life.

Don't think I have a demon; don't imagine that God would never do such a thing with someone who has actually given their life utterly to Him. God does what He wills with His own, and we give Him thanks.

I have watched God give the very thing I desire to another before my eyes in more ways and at more times than I can count or remember, all the while He Himself up-whelms desire with tears in my heart and then says, "NO! - Be silent before Me."

Do not ever imagine that the one God exalts is closer to His heart and will than the one whom He abases.

Do not ever think that the one whom God fills with mighty demonstrations of glory and power is nearer to His throne than the one whom God cripples and maims.

Yet that absolute line runs both ways. I must NEVER imagine that the one through whom He does mighty and glorious things, the one whom He exalts before His people is NOT closer to His heart and throne than I.

God does what He wills with His own and He asks no man's pleasure.

God is in His holy temple, let all the earth be silent before Him.

Let God be true and every man a liar . . . that You may be justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are judged - that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before Him. Romans 3

If God says "Wrath," He will be justified in His words. If God says, "Mercy," He will be justified in His words. If God says, "Nothing can separate you from My love," He is justified in His words. If God says, "I vomit you out of My mouth," He is justified in His words.

Be silent before Him; tremble when He speaks. And do not think to give Him answer or to say, "Nay" or "Yea," to the Almighty.

We have one answer, only, to offer to God in whatever it is that He speaks. Out of a quiet and simple heart, we say, "Look at me, God, I belong to You. Let it be to me according to what You say."  

I had no idea, when I wrote the first five pages of this letter in frustration and agony of soul, in a hurting and cynical mind, contending with a God who seems never to fulfill what He says in my life, and yet who never allows His word and His desire to dissipate from my heart, but causes it only to grow louder and deeper - yet always unfulfilled, that I would do anything other than to file these pages away quietly. Yet I see, now, that no other word could come next after Gethsemane than this word.

For the entire contention of this point is Gethsemane.

When Jesus cried, "TAKE THIS CUP AWAY FROM ME," He was wrestling with the same agony and frustration as I have expressed, only far, far more so.

This is the God who would be your life. Will He be God in you?

Will you drink His cup?

KOG2 The Prayer that Birthed the Kingdom - Daniel Yordy

The Kingdom of God series has just been published by Amazon as a book entitled "The Kingdom Rising". Here is your chance to read it for free, and if you like it to buy copies for your your friends. Daniel's other book "the Jesus Secret" has just come out too.

The PDF and audio versions are available here
I have read nothing quite like it. AC Welch

 © Daniel Yordy - 2012 - Our Path Home

Part 2  The Prayer that Birthed The Kingdom
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.

 Subduing the earth was to come by the rivers of living water flowing out of Adam's innermost being.

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.
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 itself 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 12: "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.