The title of this study is ONE. ONE, which is: The Crucified Life; you In Me and I In you; The Vine and Branch Relationship. This is another aspect of The Cross. The First aspect of The Cross that we are familiar with, deals with the putting away of the Old Man and the coming forth of the New Man, the New Creation. We know how The Cross deals with Adam and the Old Creation. We have Adam on one side of The Cross (pre-Cross), and then we have Christ only, Who remains because of The Cross. This is from the Old Creation to the New Creation. We understand that, how that the Old Man is put away. The aspect we will discuss is a different aspect of The Cross.
I have a couple of different scriptures in different places, so I might be reading some scriptures twice, but that is alright. There must be a maturity in the Relationship we have with Christ and His Cross, with Christ and Him Crucified. The depth of The Cross grows in our understanding of Him. Our knowledge of The Cross grows in our understanding of The Finished Work of The Cross.
This next diagram is just a different way of seeing it all. It helps me. This is the first stage of the diagram that we will be dealing with throughout this study. This is the way I am made to understand it more clearly. This is ONE-The Crucified Life, Living by The Life of Another, you In Me and I In you.
First of all, this is The Life that Jesus Lived while He was on the earth, when He was manifest in the flesh. This is The Life that He had with The Father. Jesus lived The Crucified Life with The Father. We will go into the verses in a little bit. Jesus said, "Do you not know that I am In My Father, and My Father In Me?" (Jn 10:38). Also, "The works that I do; they are not Mine; they are My Father's" (Jn 14:10). "The Words I speak are not Mine; they are My Father's" (Jn 3:34; 14:10). "I judge no man after the flesh, I judge according to what I hear" (Jn 5:30; 8:15). And His hearing was from right up here - In The Father, this is where He judged from. From the Father's judgment. So He judged from up here, from being / abiding, In The Father.
This is the same relationship that we have: us In Jesus. Jesus says, "Abide In Me, and I In you, and you will bring forth fruit." You will bear fruit, and that fruit is not us. I like the different colors in the diagram. They clearly show the vessel and The Treasure In the vessel. This is Jesus and The Father as ONE - living the Crucified Life. And it is also the believer and Jesus as ONE - living The Crucified Life. It is because of The Finished Work of The Cross that we have been brought In to this relationship of ONE - The Crucified Life. And this is The Fellowship of The Father and of His Son that it talks about in John, John who knew this. We have been..., we have literally been brought In to this relationship. Now whether we are awake to it, and walking in, and partaking of this reality, is not our first and foremost concern. This is what we have been brought In to. Whether we are walking in it or not, we ARE in this relationship. And this is why He just wants to awaken us unto The Truth. There is a verse in First John that says, "If we abide In Him, we should also walk as He walked" (1Jn 2:6). And this is the walk that He had, ONE - The Crucified Life.
Alright, first scripture, John chapter ten verse thirty through thirty-eight (Jn 10:30-38).
Here He (Jesus) is just letting everybody know that these works are not His works, they are The Father's works. And it is as though Jesus said, "If you do not take My word for it, believe the works because they are not Mine; they are My Father's." Also, Jesus said, "Because I said, 'I am the Son of God.' " And, see, this is the relationship of The Father and The Son. And Jesus is The Son of God. And because of His Life in us, we are sons of God. We are not "The Son of God," we are sons of God because The Son of God lives in us. Do you know that the same relationship that He had, we now have? He placed us In Him, and He is In us. This is what He wrought at The Cross. So this is basically the relationship that Jesus had with The Father - ONE.
When Jesus was in the garden, He prayed the prayer to bring us In to this same relationship. And this prayer is found in John seventeen, verse eleven. Now in the verses we just read above (Jn 10:30-38), Jesus said, "Don't you believe that I and The Father are One?" "I am In My Father, and My Father In Me?" This is One. And in John seventeen, verse eleven where Jesus prayed, it says, "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" (Jn 17:11). This is before Jesus went to The Cross and brought us In. Brought us In Him, and provided The Way for His Life to be In us. He was praying for us to have the same relationship. And this is right before He went to The Cross. In John seventeen, verse twenty through twenty-four, it says:
This is glorious. When you are expressing Another Life, that is glorious. Beholding that glory, beholding the glory of The Lord, the beauty of The Lord - this is glorious. I think it was David who was talking about it in the Psalms. And it actually says, "One have I desired." Do you know that David saw this, and it is in the Psalms? I am not sure if we are going to touch on it in these other notes, but David saw it, and it is in the Psalms. In fact, it is right here. Let us look real quick, I think it is Psalm twenty-seven, yes. And it is verse four and five. And I know that the italics are added for clarification, but in this particular instance I do not think this word in verse four, "thing," should really even be there. So I am going to go ahead and read it.
And that is it right there. We are hid together with Christ In God. This is where we are hid. This is the rock that we are hid In. This is the cleft of the rock.
Now Jesus did pray that prayer, and at The Cross... this is the most awesome thing, He said: "It is finished!" Point blank, it is finished. Whether we are walking in it or not, it is more finished than us knowing that we are in this room. It is finished. And that is why it is so easy for The Father just to show us what is finished. He does not have to do something, to make something happen. He does not have to make something happen! All that is required is that our eyes be opened to see what IS. So on His part, it is no big deal; it is easy. It is easy because He is not making something happen. Jesus said, "it is finished!" That is where it happened. It was finished at The Cross. That is where everything happened, right there, what He said.
And I know you guys know these following verses, and these are awesome verses. Now remember that this is after The Death, The Burial, and The Resurrection, or shall we say: because of The Cross. Jesus has already died, Jesus has already been buried, and He has already been raised.
First Corinthians one, verse thirty says, "But of Him you are In Christ Jesus..." (1Cor 1:30). So that same prayer that He prayed in the garden, when He said, "It is finished," is answered. He answered that prayer at The Cross. At The Cross it was answered. And now we are In Him.
Ephesians two, verses four through six says, (4) "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, (5) even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), (6) and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places [here you go] In Christ Jesus," (Eph 2:4-6). So then, it is not just "one" of "us." He raised us, us, us. All of us. All of us. We all go In. It is not just one or two. Even when they came in to the land, basically Caleb and Joshua had every right to say, "Moses, we are the only ones who have believed, so we (us two) are going in." And they had every right to say that, but that is not the Spirit of The Lord. They saw the Lord, and in fact it says of Caleb and Joshua, that they had a different spirit. They had the Spirit of the Lord. They were not picking up anything but Christ. They were not tuned in to any other source, they were tuned in to Christ. And it was as though they said: "Well, it is all or none." It is all or none. We all go In, or we all do not go In. But praise God: We all go In! We all go In, because He raised "us up together."
In Colossians one, verse two... I love this. Here is Paul; he starts to talk to the Colossians, and of all the different ways that you could address a body of believers, here is how he addresses them: "To the saints and faithful brethren In Christ... " (Col 1:2). He could have just stopped right there. "To the saints and faithful brethren In Christ." Down here it does not matter where you are. That is irrelevant. Circumstance, time, situation, place..., first and foremost you are In Christ. Paul just starts the book out like that, and he goes on in verse four, it says... . Well we will go ahead and read verse three. (3) "'We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, (4) since we heard of your faith... ." [Now hold on right there. I read it as though a colon were behind the word faith, because he is about to describe the faith that they heard from them]. "Since we heard of your faith: In Christ Jesus... " (Col 1:3-4). That is the definition of the faith that they have. This is their faith: In Christ Jesus. It is as though they said, "Yes Paul, we ARE In Christ." I can see these guys getting this letter and just reading: "To the saints and faithful brethren In Christ! Yes, of course, that is where we are Paul!" "We are In Christ, it is of God we are In Christ Jesus." And in Acts Paul said, "For In Him we live and move and have our being..." (Acts 17:28). That is where we live, "That" referring to Christ. In Him: is where we live, move and have our being. This is, in reality, where we are. So I can see these guys saying, "Yes, we are In Christ." This is the faith that they have; this is the faith of The Son of God. Do you know? "I am In My Father, and The Father In Me." This is that faith that they have. Do you know? NOW, we are raised up, seated together in heavenly places, In Christ Jesus. And His Life IS In us. And we "be" where we are at. We are where we "be," because we "be" In Christ. So this is the faith that they have, It is: In Christ, "...Since we heard of your faith: In Christ Jesus, and of your love for all the saints" (Col 1:4).
Colossians chapter two, verses five through seven. (5) "For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order, [here we go again] and the steadfastness of your faith: In Christ" (Col 2:5). Here was the steadfastness of their faith. Here is where they were remaining. Here is where they were being steadfast. It is like, whatever is coming against me, whatever situation or circumstance that I am finding here on earth, This is where I am. I did not put me here; God The Father put me here. It is not of "me" that I am In Christ Jesus. It is of God that I am In Christ Jesus. And they were being steadfast - Here, being immovable - Here. They were not being moved by whatever they saw because: point blank, in the natural, this realm, this evidence will declare The Lie. It will declare that this is not yet finished - that it is not yet, or it does not yet appear. That is better put: that it does not yet appear finished. Everything, the majority of stuff down here in the sense realm is bad evidence. It would be judging unrighteously; it would be judging after the flesh, as opposed to after the spirit. But here, at The Cross, is where we find our evidence, the True Evidence. It is at The Cross that we find our evidence. I will later touch on that. Lord willing, I will touch on that. "...The steadfastness of your faith: In Christ. (6) As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk: In Him, (7) rooted and built up: In Him and established in the faith..." (Col 2:6-7). And that is it. What is the faith again? "... Of your faith: In Christ Jesus" (Col 1:4).
Regardless of what you see down here... . Somebody was talking about it the other day, how in Ephesians the first three chapters are devoted to sit. To sit means that it is finished. When it is finished, it is finished. And here it comes, Colossians three, verses one through four (Col 3:1-4). (1) "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above... .." Now listen to the way I am going to say this. "...Seek those things which are above, [and this is the definition for above] where Christ is sitting... ." And I know that they added commas and periods to help us out; I do not know if it is there in the original or not. But the definition for "things above" is: Where Christ is sitting. Now we can look at it with the example of the high priest. There is one chair. There is one chair in the whole place, and it is in the Most Holy place. And none of the priests sat on that chair, because every year they had to go back in all over again on the Day of Atonement. This that, this that, ...take care of the sins of the people, he comes out, everyone rejoices. But then it is like a bummer, because you know that it is going to happen all over again the very next year! "Their" work was never finished. Now once again, (1) "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting" (Col 3:1). Remember, Jesus said, "It is Finished!" And He sat down! He does not have to do anything else. That is it; It is Finished. Which is: "at the right hand of God" (Col 3:1). (2) "Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. (3) "For you died... ," and this is the reason why we can set our mind on things above. Because we died to all this around us that we can see with our natural eyes. Paul said in Galatians: "God forbid that I glory in anything except The Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." (3) "For you died unto the stuff of the earth and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (4) When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." And like I was saying in Psalm twenty-seven, when Christ appears by revelation, you will appear also, because you are In Him, in glory.
Now, Galatians, this is the relationship of The Father and The Son that Jesus had, and this is the relationship that He has brought us In to. It is of God that we are In Christ Jesus. Galatians one, fifteen through sixteen (Gal 1:15-16) says, (15) "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, (16) to reveal His Son In me... ." This is it right here. This is the progression, "...to reveal His Son In me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles... ."
Colossians one, twenty-seven..., I am sorry that I have you flipping back and forth, but it is good. Twenty-seven through twenty-eight: (27) "To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ In you, the hope of glory. (28) Him we preach..." (Col 1:27-28). Now, it is Christ In you, right back down here where He is In us as shown in Diagram (B): One-The Crucified Life.
And there is an order. First and foremost we must believe The Truth. This begins with us believing that Jesus died on The Cross, Jesus was buried, and only the Life and Nature of Christ came forth from the grave. So Jesus was raised, it is Christ. If you look up to the heavens, you are going to see Christ sitting at the right hand of God The Father, the right hand of The Power. This is what Jesus told the Pharisees. This is also what Paul delivered first of all to the Corinthians, that Christ died, He was buried, and that He rose again the Third Day according to the scriptures. The next, this must be established: we are In Christ. First and foremost, Christ is raised. And then we are In Christ, by the Life of Christ, because back to the first aspect of The Cross: when Christ died, all died. That is the judgment that is talked about in Second Corinthians. "...Because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died." So when Christ died, we all died. When Christ was buried, we all were buried. When Christ was raised, only one Life and Nature came forth from the grave, and that is the Life and Nature of The Lord Jesus Christ, the very Life and Nature that we now have. Our old life and nature... still dead, still buried. So then, we are In Christ. "For it is of God you are In Christ Jesus" (1Cor). And, "When it pleased The Father to reveal His Son In me..." (Gal). "Christ In heaven, you In Christ, and Christ In you," this is the order; and this order can be seen in a study by JW Luman entitled: "Great Salvation, an outline."
One benefit of this order is..., back to that first aspect of The Cross. When junk comes against us personally, this is the only way it is to be dealt with, which is: by The Cross. First and foremost, is it The Lord Jesus Christ? Was that Christ? These thoughts that I have, these feelings that I have, are they Christ? First and foremost He is the Measure, He is the True Measure. He is the True Weight, He is the True balance. He is the True Yardstick, Measuring Line, Plumbline. Everything else is a False weight, a false measure, a false Plumbline. So, first and foremost, is it The Lord Jesus Christ? Is it Christ? And then, if it is not Christ, then guess what? It is not me, for Christ is the Life of me. I have no other Life. And at that point we either believe The Truth and embrace The Truth, or go with The Lie, which is pretty bogus because in reality, it is: not I, but Christ.
So then, first and foremost, it must be Christ. First and foremost it must be Christ first. Christ is raised first, then we are In Christ, then Christ is In us. And then when all this other garbage comes up from the old, and wants to... whatever, you know. Well is that The Lord Jesus Christ? Because His is the only Life that was raised from the grave. His is the only Life and Nature that was raised from the grave. Now that right there cuts it to the root. The axe is laid instantly, 'No, that is not Christ.' And because it is not The Lord Jesus Christ, it is not me, because it is Christ who is The Life of me. That is not my life, Christ is my Life. So that is how the stuff of the old nature is to be dealt with.
Now we are going to go a little further with the diagram. This is the main diagram that we will be dealing with throughout this study. We abide In Christ, but these vessels are in the sense realm, in relation to living The Crucified Life on the earth. But we abide In Christ. Manifestation happens in the sense realm, it happens here, fruit happens here in regards to being on the earth. "Do you not believe the words that I say?" "The words are not My words, the works are not My works." His own very Life is the Life of The Father. So, we abide here In Christ. We abide In Christ where we are, it is: In Christ. And we bring forth fruit down here in the sense realm. That is where it happens.
The messenger of God abides In Christ, and speaks from here - In Him. Christ is his source. This one is being established right here in the faith - In Christ Jesus. He is being established right In here. So the messenger of God..., there are a lot of people who carry a message, but is it Life or is it death? If you speak In Son (In Christ), you speak the words of God, and they are Life. Jesus abode In The Father and said, "...The words that I speak to you are Spirit, and they are Life" (Jn 6:63). You will be abiding here - In Christ, and speaking from here, speaking Life. In Genesis twenty-two, verses eleven and fifteen (Gen 22:11, 15), there is a messenger of the LORD that is speaking to Abraham "From heaven," and "out of heaven." To speak from heaven (which is: In Christ) is to speak what God speaks. To speak from some other place is to speak from, and of the earth.
Ask yourself always, I am serious, ask yourself always when you hear things shared... . Paul first and foremost walked in this relationship. He was established in this relationship. The majority of the verses I have read came out of the Epistles of Paul. So he was established in this relationship. When he is praying for them to be established Here, rooted In Christ, established In Christ, established in the faith In Christ Jesus, it is because he himself had already been established in it. Therefore he could say: "It is not I, but Christ." In the same way Jesus could easily say: "It is not I, but The Father." It is the same basic relationship. He also said in First Corinthians: "I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him Crucified" (1Cor 2:2). This means that there was just a lot of stuff that Paul essentially said, 'so what?' to. And Jesus Himself said: "If you continue in My word / If you abide in My word...," and I know that there are a lot of good things in the scriptures. There are a lot of things that will improve on "YOU," and make "YOU" a better person etc... . Bring out the Old mirror of the law, and see your Old self, and then improve on it. Put some make-up on it and... LAW GYM: Where YOU work to look good. It is like joining a health club. So Paul's stance could be seen as: "I do not want that." "I want The Truth." "It is not I, but Christ." "This is The Truth, I have no other Life but The Lord Jesus Christ." "So I am determined not to know anything but The Truth." "I do not want to know The Lie." "Jesus said, 'It is Finished!' " Paul was brought into this reality, and his stance was: "This is all that I want to speak; this is all that I want to hear; this is all that I want you all to hear, because it is freedom, it truly is freedom." Thus, he said: "I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him Crucified" (1Cor 2:2).
At different times we end up talking with others, and in our hearing... . There is a scripture in Ephesians that talks about being "tossed by every wind of doctrine... ." We are to grow up into Him who is The Head, we are to grow up into that one New Man - Into Christ. One thing that should be happening in us automatically is that any time someone shares anything our thought should be: "Where is Christ in this?" and "Where is The Cross?" Because it also goes on to say in First Corinthians that The Cross is the power of God, and Christ is the power of God. And a lot of people feel, "Well power of this..." and "power of that... ." But the scriptures declare: Christ and Him Crucified IS THE POWER OF GOD. And if it is not The Truth of Christ and Him Crucified - The Finished Work, then there is NO POWER in it. Now there might be something really awesome that happened, but it has not changed your life. I have witnessed miracles, and The Lord has even done some through me, and my reaction was Whoa!!! And He has even done some for me. But do you know what? I was still the same. There was no power, it was only temporary because miracles, signs, and wonders are temporary. "And now abideth faith, hope, and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1Cor 13:13). And there is coming a time for each one of us, when the sustenance of all these things will just pass away, because they are temporal. Because it is all down here in the temporal realm, it is all in the temporal realm. Now, it will boost us / propel us a couple more steps. It will put a Band-Aid on us. Till we come here - In Christ. Till we all come. It is not bad, but it is there till we all come Here - In Christ. Till we all come; till we all come. And this is the power of God. This is the power of God that gets you rid of you - your "self," and makes you aware that you have Another Life that is to sustain you - a Life that we probably do not have any idea of the reality that we have In us. Do you know that we have the very Life and Nature of Jesus Christ In us?! Do you know that it is still: Not I, but Christ? And one thing that The Lord always shows me is: "Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down." Why? Because we have a Life In us that cannot be held down, it cannot be kept down, it cannot be kept in the grave. It is His Life, and it is continually His Life In us that goes forward, that cries out: "Abba, Father." That cries out: "You must come in to this relationship." "You must be made aware." "You must start engaging in this relationship." Why? Because you ARE in it. Simply because you are already in it. So, "you must... wake up."
Now, I am sharing this because we have Christ, and we have The Cross (Diagram D). This is how I saw this; it is really beautiful. And this is how we are to understand this Diagram. Galatians two, twenty, and it will give a really good definition of this. Here is the order: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth In me..." (Gal 2:20).
(1st) I am Crucified with Christ: It is because of The Cross. (2nd) Nevertheless I live: We live In Him, we move In Him, we have our being In Him. In Him we live, move, and have our being. It is of God you are In Christ Jesus. (3rd) Yet not I, but Christ liveth In me. And all this is because of The Finished Work of The Cross. We are In Christ because of The Cross, Christ is In us because we have believed into The Cross. It is all because of The Finished Work of The Cross. Even the reality that we are In Him is because of The Cross. And He can be In us because of The Cross. We have believed into The Truth. I am Crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live In Him, move in Him, and have my being In Him. Yet not I, but Christ who liveth In me.
So as I said before, I encourage you to search the scriptures to see whether the things you hear are True or not. There are a lot of different people that share a lot of different things. I am just sharing what The Lord has put on my heart that has gotten me more awake unto this reality which is: In Jesus. So I do encourage you to search the scriptures. Plus anyway, that is what Jesus said to those who believed. If we continue in His Word, we will know The Truth, and The Truth: shall - make - us - free. But not free from, free FOR. We have lived too much free from... . Forget the from, just live free for... expressing Him. Just live free for allowing that Life that IS In us to come forth. But it only happens as we abide In Him, because we have Life that will automatically come forth through us as we abide In Him, but probably not the way "we" think it should, or the way "we" want it to. The way we think is probably still our own carnal mind, the religious mind, the mind that says: "Well, The Lord does this...," or, "The Lord comes out this way... ." It is not about the way that "we" think His Life should come forth, but it is the way He desires to come forth. Now Jesus, when He walked on the earth, did not have to do anything to be who He was. He did not have to do anything to be Jesus. He was Jesus. And we as the Ark, the Ark of the Covenant that carried the very presence of God In it, carry the very Treasure inside. The Ark..., what did the Ark do? Nothing, you just place it in a room and guess what? All the idols just start falling down by themselves. The Ark did absolutely nothing but house and carry that which was In it, and allow that to come forth.
John fourteen, verses seven through eleven (Jn 14:7-11). Here Jesus is talking to Philip. And Jesus did indeed live the Crucified Life. He poured Himself out, it says in Philippians. He poured Himself out; He emptied Himself out. He made Himself of no reputation that Another might have reputation In Him and through Him. And that would be The Father. John the baptist said the same thing: "He must increase, but I decrease" (Jn 3:30). The order is: He is going to increase, and as He does, I will automatically decrease. It is an automatic. It is an automatic. So here in John fourteen, Jesus is talking to Philip. (7) " 'If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him. (8) Philip said to Him, 'Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.' (9) Jesus said, 'Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?" (Jn 14:7-9).
The more and more that we enter In, we wake up, to what IS. And it is The Lord waking us up. It is The Lord opening our eyes, the Spirit of Truth opening our eyes, Christ Himself being revealed. And the more we wake up to THIS..., the thing that is going to be coming out of our mouths is: "It is not I, but Christ." This is what Paul declared. Paul ended up established in this relationship and he just flat out said it: "It is not I, but Christ." This is what Jesus said: "If you have seen Me, you have seen The Father." The more we are established in this relationship..., then when others say: "Oh that was awesome!" or "...whatever!" "That was really The Lord, you are such an awesome sister / brother, whatever... ." If you have seen anything good, it is Christ. It is just Jesus In me. Do you know this? It is because we are established In here, and we know that Life has come forth and it is not us. It is the Life of Another. It is the Life of Another. It is the Life of Another. It is The Life of Jesus. And this is what Jesus was telling Philip. (9) "...He who has seen Me has seen the Father. (10) Do you not believe that I am In the Father, and the Father In Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own; but the Father who dwells In Me does the works. (11) Believe Me that I am In the Father and the Father In Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves" (Jn 14:9-11).
It is as though Jesus said: "If you do not believe Me, believe because of that which is coming forth from Me. Because everything that is being done is not I, but the Father." There was that one time in John chapter five (Jn 5) that Jesus, on the Sabbath day, said to a man, "Rise, take up your bed and walk," and The Father healed him. And all the Pharisees got upset, "Well You broke the Law... ." "I did not break the Law; I did not do that; I did not heal him." "My Father healed him, and you have to take that up with My Father." Jesus would not let anything take Him out of this relationship. He would not do anything to be separate, out of this relationship of ONE. He would not do anything to brake this union, He would not. He would not. He made Himself of no reputation. Jesus, He had..., He had, because He was God. He is God. When He was walking on the earth, He could heal anyone that He wanted to. He could bless anyone that He wanted to. He could do miracles, signs, and wonders. But do you know what? He did not. He had the ability and He had the Life, because He was God, to do everything that He did. But He never did a single thing. The Father did it. He laid down everything. He laid down His rights because He was and is the Son of God. He laid down those rights, that Another might Live through Him. That Another might express through Him. That Another... The Father, even The Father. He laid down those rights. He could have..., He could have..., He had the ability..., He had the Life in Him to do it. He had, of Himself He could do it. But He said: "I do nothing of Myself." "Of Myself I can do nothing, how I hear I judge... ." He laid..., as it says in Philippians, He emptied Himself that Another might Live through Him, and that being the Life of The Father.
Jesus lived the Crucified Life with His Father. Jesus could say: "It is not I, but The Father." Jesus had the power and ability to do something on His own / of Himself. But He did not step out of union and act apart from His Father. And this is ONE - The Crucified Life: I am In The Father, The Father In Me. Not I, but The Father.
We abide In Christ through the Finished Work of The Cross. And Christ is expressed because of the Finished Work of The Cross. So it is still The Cross. We are In Him because of The Cross, and He is In us because of The Cross. It is all because of The Finished Work of The Cross. He said: "It is finished!"
"He who says he abides In Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked" (1Jn 2:6). So when we are abiding In Him, we are automatically walking just as Jesus walked on the earth, when we abide In Him. We do not have to think about doing it, or try to do it, we are automatically in it. We are walking as He walked, just by abiding In Him. Whether we see a lot of things going on or not. That does not matter. As said earlier, the Ark did absolutely nothing except carry and house the Treasure within it, the very presence of God.
This is Philippians two, verse three through eight (Phil 2:3-8). And I will just read it out of the King James version. (3) "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves" (Phil 2:3). Here it is, "lowliness of mind," even Jesus. (5) "Let this mind be in you, which was also In Christ Jesus.... ." (7) "He did not consider Himself / He made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant... ." (8) "...He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of The Cross." (3) "...In lowliness of mind let each esteem OTHER better than themselves." This other is this other right here, esteeming this One. Jesus esteemed The Father as better than Himself. We esteem Christ as better than ourselves. Because when that happens, we abide In Him, and He In us. Basically speaking, the best thing I can do for anyone is to know The Lord Jesus Christ in THIS WAY. Because when I am knowing Christ, when I am abiding In Him, guess what I will be giving to others? Guess what I will be ministering to others? I will minister Life. I will minister Christ - that He might have the preeminence In us, where He is just everything, where we are knowing Him, where we are caught up In Him, where we are abiding In Him: esteeming Him better than ourselves, that we might present and give Him unto others, as opposed to giving our own selves. (4) "Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others" (Phil 2:4). Now, in and of ourselves, we are selfish to the core. It is "I," "I," "I." But because of The Cross... . And the more we come In to this reality... . The more The Lord opens our eyes..., this is the ONLY way that we are going to come In to this reality, it is if He opens our eyes. Now Paul said: "...When it pleased God [The Father] ...to reveal His Son In me..." (Gal 1:15-16). When it pleased The Father. "...That I might Preach Him (Christ - His Son)..." (Gal 1:16). Do you know that it Pleases The Father to reveal His Son In us? It Pleases The Father. He is the One who does it. We cannot make our selves do it, but we can be in the correct and right place, which is in the scriptures, that He might from there, begin the unveiling.
Now these two diagrams are for our understanding, to better comprehend what we manifest. Here we have Union or No Union, Abiding or No abiding. In the first diagram you are esteeming yourself, you are seeking your own; in the second you are esteeming OTHER better than selves. In the first you are seeking your own, but in the second you are seeking Christ Jesus.
In John fifteen, Jesus is going to talk a little bit about love. The Lord put this on my heart in this way just to show me: The best thing that I, and all of us can do for those around us, those we love, is to know Jesus in THIS way - Abiding In Him and Him In us. We must know Him in this way, so that it be Jesus, not ourselves, that we give others. Because ultimately, when it comes down to it: WE ALL NEED CHRIST. If we are giving ourselves to others..., you can sense it after a while, there is no Life. But if we are giving Christ to others... . This is the relationship we want to give to others. Do you know this? This is the relationship we want to be giving to others, because it will bring Life in to them. It will, and this is beautiful. This actually is beauty. This is a beautiful relationship right here. When you abide In Him and you are expressing this relationship to others, that is beautiful. "To behold the beauty of The Lord...," that is beautiful. And that is a beautiful relationship.
Now, back to John fifteen, verse twelve through thirteen (Jn 15:12-13). (12) "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. (13) Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends" (Jn 15:12-13). This is how Jesus loved us, He was ONE with The Father, and gave The Father expression, that we might know and see The Father through Him. This is how we ought to love one another: By being ONE with Jesus, and giving Jesus expression, that those with us, and those we come in contact with might know and see Jesus through us. Now if you love someone, you want to give them the very best you possibly can give. And that very best that you can possibly give is Jesus. Everything else is corruptible and fading away. Give the best to all - give Him.
When you are caught up in THIS relationship, when you are walking in this like Jesus walked when He walked on the earth, then nothing else matters. It does not matter in the sense that it is not preeminent. This is what matters: ONE - The Crucified Life. Just as Paul said, "I am determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him Crucified." Everything else is just going to put me into bondage and under the law, and say that I am still alive and start having to do something. When you are walking in THIS relationship, there are things happening on the earth, but they really have no influence on you. No influence in the sense that you are not affected or moved by them, you are not on a roller coaster ride. You are caught up In Him: who is a High Tower, who is your Strength, who is a Stronghold, and you can not be moved. Now remember that this is a different aspect of The Cross. When you are abiding In THIS, you are not caught up with the flesh, the devil, or the world. Because, this has nothing to do with the flesh, the devil, or the world. This has everything to do with the Life of Another - of Christ Himself. In that sense, this has nothing to do with us, whether we have been good or bad, or whether we are struggling with this or struggling with that. It has nothing to do with us... period. Because there is ONLY ONE WAY In Christ. And this is through The Cross. In Him we are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by the circumcision of Christ. In Him, you are circumcised - the cutting away of the flesh. This is one of the things that we deal with so much. It is either the flesh, the world, or the devil.
+The flesh: CRUCIFIED
(11) "In Him also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ" (Col 2:11).
+The world: CRUCIFIED
(14) "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal 6:14).
+The devil: CRUCIFIED
(14) "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; (15) And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb 2:14-15).
So here we see that The Cross deals with the flesh. The Cross deals with the world, and The Cross deals with the devil. As stated earlier, when you are caught up In this relationship, these things do not matter. You just leave them, you just let them go because you are so caught up with ONE - The Crucified Life. And this is the ONE that is needful.
As was stated earlier, we live In Christ, but we manifest..., everything is being made manifest in the sense realm / the natural realm. This is the natural realm down here. Jesus walked on the earth and manifested the Life of The Father in the natural realm. He lived In The Father and allowed the Life of The Father to be expressed in the natural realm. This is reality. Now, this pulpit is real [knock! knock! knock!]. But that which is seen was made from that which is not seen. So there is something greater than this "thing" that is real and that we can see with our natural eyes. And this which is greater is: REALITY. While recently in Colorado, I got to see a pulpit that was made out of glass. And it had an inscription that said: "Jesus is Lord, His Word is reality." Now , WHAT YOU CAN SEE IS REAL, BUT The Truth is simply this: Jesus Is Lord, and His Word Is REALITY. Brother / sister, do you want to know what REALITY is? His Word, what He declares is REALITY. All this other stuff, these things..., yes, they are real, but do you know what? They are passing away! Jesus said: "...My words will by no means pass away." "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away" (Mtt 24:35). Now that is reality.
+Christ is risen ........ This is REALITY
+We are In Him ....... This is REALITY
+He is In us .............. This is REALITY
+It is Finished .......... This is REALITY
Now in regards to abiding In Him and manifesting down here in the temporal realm, we are to remain In Him in spite of everything. Do not leave reality, being / abiding In Him. Do not leave. Be established here. Be seated here. Be established here. Set your mind on things above where Christ is sitting, where it is Finished. The evidence we see is at The Cross, because this is where He said: "It is finished!" (Jn 19:30). If we go by any other evidence, it is false evidence, and it will not hold up in God's court. He will say: "Throw it out!" He will say: "Throw it out! That is false evidence! Bring in the True evidence." And Jesus will come and show Himself: "Here I Am. It is Finished at The Cross." When we see Christ, when we see The Cross, we see that it IS Finished. So then:
Basically what I mean by this is: whether you see Life coming out of you or not: Do not leave reality. Do not leave abiding In Christ; do not leave ONE. Now we often say: "Well Jesus is not coming out of me right now... ." Or: "Well look what I just did... ." But Is The Cross still The Cross? Is it not still True? Is The Truth still The Truth? Is Jesus still Lord? Are you still In Him? Is His Life still In you? Is it not still Finished? Then nothing has changed! I do not care what you did; it does not matter; you have not changed The Truth!!! Now, you do repent over that..., you get that covered by the blood (1Jn 1:9), and then you say: "Thank you Jesus. I am not leaving The Cross. I am not letting go of The Truth. I am not going to believe the lie. I know I did that..., or I thought that..., or what ever, but that is not You Lord, and that is not The Truth. So forgive me for that, I am not letting go of Your Cross. I will not let go of The Cross. I will not let go of The Finished Work of The Cross, whereby you put to death the one that could do that. I will not... call You a liar. You are True, Your words are True, they are tried in the fire, and they are proven True. You are True." "God is not a man that He should lie" (Num 23:19).
Now then, a practical example: Take a real good look around you. Just take an observation. Take a good look. Where are you? You are in the classroom. Now, can you make yourself "be" In the classroom any more than what you already are? You are In the classroom. Now try to be where you are. Make yourself be where you are. It sounds silly does it not? Once you know where you are, it is not difficult to "be" where you are. We can not make ourselves to "be" more in the classroom than what we already are. We are in it; it is a done deal. But if we can not "see" where we are, if we were blind, then it would take some convincing. This is the way it is when we begin, by The Spirit of The Lord, to be awakened to the reality of where we are - In Christ. He, The Spirit of Truth, begins to declare unto us The Truth that we might be convinced / persuaded. The eyes of our understanding begin more and more to be opened to The Truth as it is In Jesus. It is a process of being established In The Truth. Once we have been established, then it is absolutely bogus for us to believe the lie, for we have, by what we have both "heard" and "seen," come to know The Truth (REALITY) by The Spirit of The Lord.
Now close your eyes. Where are you by what you have previously observed? Where are you? You are still in the classroom. But you do not presently see it. How do you know that you are in the classroom? Because you did see it. And now that your eyes are closed, or the lights have been momentarily turned "off", nothing has changed. You are still in the classroom. It is because you saw where you are, therefore nothing can shake you from that. This is the same way with The Lord. As He starts showing us this reality, the reality that we are In Christ; then, when it does not "appear," it does not matter. I do not care that if at this present moment I am aware of this reality or not. I know that I am In Christ Jesus, and that does not change. That does not change. Whether I am presently aware of this reality or not, whether I am aware of it or not, it does not change.
Turn with me to Luke eighteen, verse eighteen through nineteen (Lk 18:18-19). Do you remember how it was stated that Jesus was established in this relationship? Jesus was established In The Crucified Life, and nothing could bring Him out of that relationship. He would not, and could not, be moved from being In The Father. Luke eighteen, eighteen through nineteen says: (18) "Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, 'Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?' (19) So Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God' " (Lk 18:18-19).
"Good Teacher...," [Diagram (E)], here the rich young ruler is giving Him an identity apart from His Father. "Good teacher, good vessel...," what ever you want to call it from there. So Jesus, because He is living the Crucified Life with The Father [Diagram (F)], responds: "Why do you call Me good?" It is as though Jesus could say, "The One you see is The Father, do not try to make Me identify out of ONE. If you see anything good In Me, if you see any good, it is not I, but The Father. So do not call Me good. There is only One good, and that is God. And the One that you have been noticing and witnessing..., it is not I, but The Father, He is the One that is good." So in this sense Jesus was instructing / correcting, what ever you want to call it. He was trying to show this young man ONE - The Crucified Life. Now the ruler was talking to Jesus based on the relationship that he had [Diagram (E)]. Jesus was talking to him based on the relationship that Jesus had [Diagram (F)]. So in Diagram (E) we see: "Oh, well 'they' (the vessel) are a good teacher..., or 'they' are a good this..., or 'they' are a great whatever... ." "They" are? Are "they" really? The reality is, if anything good comes out of us... it is Christ! We have no other Life, but Christ. Now if you have seen any goodness from anyone of us, it is The Lord Jesus Christ. And it is only a result of us abiding In Him. Thanks be to God, because He is the One who causes us to abide In Him. It is by His grace. It is by The Finished Work of The Cross. And it is by Him opening our eyes to that reality so that we can "be" where we are, and not be moved from there.
In John ten, verse seventeen through eighteen (Jn 10:17-18). (17) "Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. (18) No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself, I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment I have received from My Father" (Jn 10:17-18). Now I know that this verse is specifically referring to the actual crucifixion, but I want you to see something right here. I want you to see something in regards to The Crucified Life.
We have our will to lay down our life for Another, that He (Christ) might be seen. And we have our will to take our lives again, where we are seen. The Father loves Jesus because He lays down His Life for ONE. And The Father loves us... . Why...? Because we are accepted In The Beloved. There is a big difference right there. I hope you caught that. The Father loves Jesus because He does lay down His Life for Another. He is well pleased with His Son. But He loves us..., because we are accepted In The Beloved. It is not because we lay down our lives for Christ, or we do not lay down our lives for Christ. He loves us because we are accepted In The Beloved. This is why He loves us. It has nothing to do with us. It has nothing to do with our performance or lack of performance, what we do or do not do. It is as if God The Father says: "This is Where I love, this is Who I love... so because I want you to be loved, I will place you Where I love." This is His place of His loving, right here In Christ Jesus. Everywhere else, you have to work to gain acceptance. But there is no acceptance apart from His Son. And even greater, He has placed us already In Him (In Christ). And this is where He loves.
So He loves us continually, at all times. It has nothing to do with us, but everything to do with Him. It is like a gift. The gift has everything to do with the giver. It has nothing to do with whether we did good, or we did not do good. It has nothing to do with our performance. It has nothing to do with our lack of performance. But it has everything to do with the giver. And this is Where He loves, and this is where He loves us - all the time. Nothing can change that -- not even us. Why? Because it is of God we are In Christ Jesus, and nothing can change that. Not even us!
Now remember, this is ONE - The Crucified Life, as Jesus said, "I In The Father, and The Father In Me." This must be established in each and every one of us, for we are sons of God. This must be established in each one of us individually, and this will be established in His Body also, that it might be manifest in The Church. This is not a "one person" thing. This is a "Body" thing. The Church: the expression of His Body, of which He is The Life. One thumb is not going to cut it. One pinkie is not going to cut it. Do you want to see Jesus manifest on the earth? Do you want to see a full, a whole expression of Jesus? Then it must be... "Till we all come." We must co-labor with God to get the whole Body walking in this reality. We must help get the whole Body abiding where they are: In Christ. We must labor to get the whole Body being built up, rooted in the faith - In Christ Jesus, to see the full Jesus, to see Jesus expressed / manifest here on the earth. We must be about our Father's Business.
Now Here In Christ, there is ONLY One Life and One Nature; and that Life and that Nature is Christ. There are no other lives nor are there other natures. It is just Him. In Him there is neither male nor female, bond nor free, Jew nor Gentile; it is Christ, all and In all. It is just Him. It is just Him, The Life and The Nature of Christ. We are In Him because of His Life. Now here in The Church, here we are members in particular, and we all have that same Life. As the Church, we manifest Christ in a greater sense.
One last scripture, Ephesians four, verse one (Eph 4:1). "I therefore, the prisoner IN the Lord... ." This is what it literally says: "In" the Lord. Paul knew where he was. Paul knew where he could never leave. Paul knew where he had been placed by The Father. Paul knew all this. "I therefore, the prisoner IN the Lord." It is as though you can hear Paul speaking from his understanding of this reality: "I can not leave, not even if I wanted to, for I am a prisoner." "Here, IN Christ, is where I am bound to stay the rest of my existence, nowhere else." And this is where we are in reality. Whether we are awake unto this reality or not, nothing can take us out of Christ. Nothing. Nothing, for it is of God you are In Christ Jesus. It is not of us, it was never of us, we just believe what IS. "I therefore, the prisoner IN the Lord."
And this is just my prayer for myself and everyone. And I think I will close with that. Lord Jesus, thank You Lord, for You. I thank You for everything that You have done, My God. Lord, we have done nothing, Lord. You have done everything, Lord. And I just ask that you open our eyes, Lord, to this reality, more, and more, and more. That we would be established, Lord, In You, Lord. Lord, that we would even see ourselves as Paul saw himself - A prisoner In You, Lord, where he could not leave, Lord, not even if he wanted to. He could not; he was In You, Lord, and he knew it, Lord. Lord, I ask that You would just awaken us in such a great measure, Lord, to this reality: Where we know that we are In You, Lord, and we cannot be shaken from that, Lord. Where nothing on earth, Lord, can shake us from this reality. Where nothing in the sense realm, Lord, can take us from this reality, Lord. And I just thank You, Lord for The Truth, Lord. I thank You, Lord that Your Word does not change, Lord. I just ask You, that You continue to open our eyes unto The Truth, Lord - that we might be made free to express it. In Jesus Name... Amen.