" WHOM DO YOU SAY THAT I THE SON OF MAN AM?"
                                     by J W  LUMAN

	PART ONE

The issue at hand is an issue of tremendous importance, and it is 
one with which the Lord has been dealing in my heart for some time, 
and it just continues to grow. And it has to do of course, with our 
relationship with Christ. A relationship that I am convinced, very 
few, sometimes I think none, I really do - have even begun to 
comprehend from the Father's standpoint. You know friends, you and 
I - let's be real honest with ourselves. You see the Lord's Spirit 
has been saying, 'Just get honest before me.' We're not here to 
play church, have a meeting, sing a special, hear a sermon - JUST 
GET HONEST BEFORE ME. And that's been the theme in my heart. 
And it's been the Lord's mind that we set ourselves when we gather as 
if we were the only ones on the earth; that nobody else existed, so 
that we couldn't put God's dealings off on somebody else. The 
dealings of the Lord are for us, and that is the mind of the Lord 
every time there is a true meeting of the Church. I didn't say 
every time people go to church. I said every time there is a true 
meeting, a true gathering of the Church. The mind of God is that it 
should be with you as if you're the only ones in Christ, the only 
ones with whom the Lord is dealing, so that all of the dealings of 
the Lord are received of you. 

So, I want you and I to just get honest. I travel around the world 
to unite with those believers who have a heart to see Him and to 
spend time with them, looking into an open heaven. And allowing the 
Spirit of God to bring forth in us, and consequently in the earth, 
an increase of Christ. So along this line, most of us in 
considering our relationship with the Lord - most of our 
comprehension is not from the Father's standpoint. It's from the 
standpoint of sin. It's from the standpoint of who we used to be, 
or what we used to do, and now what we no longer do. I used to be a 
terrible person, and now I'm better. Not quite that simple, but 
that's how we comprehend salvation - on the basis of something that 
is passed; on the basis of something that was sin. Very few of us, 
and sometimes I think maybe none have begun to comprehend our 
relationship with Christ from the Father's standpoint - as the 
Father sees. 

Because I'm telling you now, the Father does not see a bunch of 
people out from sin. No more than He just saw Israel out from Egypt 
- He saw Israel in Canaan. The unfortunate thing was, Israel could 
never see themselves there. And because they could not see 
themselves there, it is called unbelief. Because they could not 
comprehend themselves there - they died. Now, that's not a "Bible 
story" - that's the Word of God, that's the Scripture. And it's so 
real that the writer of the Hebrews letter says, dear friends, if 
they who would not hear him  who spoke on earth; if they not 
believing received the just recompense of their reward ... And what 
did they receive? THEY DIED! They died not having received the 
promise. They died in the wilderness. How much more... How shall we 
escape if we neglect so great salvation?

And I can almost hear voices coming back to me, "Oh brother, we're 
saved, we're sanctified, we're this, we're that." I don't want to 
be harsh with you and say that has nothing to do with your 
salvation because it does. But salvation is not just wrapped up in 
your praying through one time. Salvation is not just wrapped up in 
what you call a "born-again" experience, or "tongue-talking" 
experience. Salvation is a people in full possession of Christ and 
Christ in full possession of a people. Salvation is not just the 
beginning of the journey, it is the end of the journey. Salvation 
was not accomplished when Israel got out of Egypt, and the problem 
was so many of them thought it was. They thought, 'Well now, we're 
out. That's it.' And it wasn't. Because the whole point was never 
to just get them out of Egypt. The whole point was to BRING THEM 
IN. Exodus 15:17 sets the whole thing; that's the key verse of the 
book of Exodus. " Thou shalt bring them in. Thou shalt plant them 
in the mountain of thine holiness, in the place that thou hast 
prepared for thyself to dwell in. In thy sanctuary, O Lord." The 
whole point was to bring a people in. 

And you  and I enter experientially - we enter that place by faith. 
Now faith is not some ambiguous something or other; faith is an 
understanding. Faith is a comprehension given of the Spirit of God. 
When you walk in faith that doesn't mean you walk not knowing; that 
means you walk knowing something. Paul says in Galatians, "After 
that faith is come..." Then there's definite things that we 
comprehend, that we know. After that faith is come. Now before 
faith is come - well, that's a different matter. I want you and I 
to just be honest in our hearts, because nobody is questioning 
whether we're born again or not; nobody is questioning whether 
we're Spirit-filled or not, that is baptized in the Holy Spirit. 
Nobody's questioning that. What the Spirit of God is calling into 
question is our comprehension of relationship with Christ. Friends, 
we live by our comprehension. We live by faith. Faith is spiritual 
comprehension. And that's what I want to set before you - OUR 
RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST. If you and I would comprehend that 
relationship it will literally transform your life.

Many of you are married, gone through a marriage. And when a young 
man and woman marry - now how many times do you have to get married 
to be married? Well, just once. But oh my, then comes relationship. 
You and I would have to be out of our minds to say that 
relationship was established in the ceremony of the wedding. You 
know better than that. Even if you had a long courtship, 
relationship in courtship and relationship in marriage is two 
different things. Courtship doesn't teach you marriage 
relationship. Not at all. Marriage has got to sooner or later cease 
to be a ceremony with you, an event, a pledge, a promise; yes, 
taking nothing away from it. But soon it's got to become more than 
that - it's got to develop into a relationship - or it dies. I mean 
if the contract is kept, the marriage is still dead unless 
relationship develops. It becomes nothing more than a legal 
formality and people live under it many times. And live a life of 
thirty or forty years - legal, but no relationship. What a pitiful 
way to live. Well, Christians are no better. 

We have a glorious experience with God, we're born-again. We make 
our pledges. We receive the promises. We go out thoroughly 
convinced and should be - if indeed a new birth has transpired, 
then it's real in heaven and registered in Christ. But relationship 
- relationship is where the life is, where the growth is. Look at 
all the changes it goes through - husband and wife, then soon, 
almost inevitably it is not husband and wife anymore, but it's 
mother and father. Don't tell me that's not a different 
relationship. And then it's grandfather and grandmother. It's the 
same two people, bound up in the same marriage union, but the 
relationship. You can't say the thing ends at the altar. It begins 
there. And now it's either going to grow and prosper and produce 
fruit, or it's going to be miserable and legal and dead, and 
carried on strictly as a formality. And I see so many Christians, 
I'm talking about Spirit-filled, Holy Ghost tongue-talking 
Christians comprehending nothing of relationship. It seems like the 
times we're closest to the Lord is the times we're in trouble and 
we decide we ought to spend some time praying. But after the 
problem is over and the crisis is gone, we're off and running 
again. And it shouldn't be that we just seek relationship when 
we're in trouble.

You can't tell me that's not 80% of Christians, and I'm being real 
kind there. That their relationship with the Lord is based around 
crisis, based around trouble. And if it's not that, it's based 
around something they want. And I'm telling you that that's not 
relationship at all. I don't care how much you love your children, 
you grow just a little bit weary if every time, you never see them 
until they want something. Or every time you hear from them, 
they're in trouble. I don't care how much you love them, you grow a 
little weary of that kind of "relationship". Every now and then I'm 
sure your heart just cries for something else.  A little fellowship 
would be nice. Amen. It's not just them coming over to Mom and 
Daddy's house for Sunday dinner and then leaving the dirty dishes 
and going home - that's not relationship. And the way we run church 
isn't either. We'll get into what it is, not just what it isn't 
because the Holy Spirit is ever seeking to bring the Lord's Body 
into relationship with the Lord. 

Why? Because that Body is purposed and designed of God to give full 
expression and manifestation of its Head. Not once in a while - 
continually and eternally. And I tell you, it will come to that 
point of faith, that point of comprehension, that point of 
spiritual reality - it will eliminate so many things that you and I 
battle and fuss and face with. It will eliminate so much of that. 
What we call salvation will become spiritual life instead of just 
Christianity. It will become spiritual life instead of just 
religion.

So turn with me in your Bible and let us lay this as a foundation. 
And we will build upon this foundation. Matthew 16:13 - Jesus asked 
a question of His disciples. He is testing their comprehension. 
Well you know and I know that when the Lord asked the question, He 
knew the answer. He only asks the question so that you and I can 
come to the answer. 'Where are you Adam?' You know good and well 
God knew where Adam was, but Adam had no idea where he was. And 
that's the whole point - God is trying to wake us up. God knows 
where you are - it's you and I who haven't got the foggiest idea 
where we are. We actually think we're sitting in a building on blue 
pews and blue carpet. And that's where we think we are - having 
church. But in the mind and heart and comprehension of the Father, 
we're seated in a far greater place than that. A far more eternal 
place. And if we really had that comprehension friends, we would 
fill this building with the evidence of that place!

And when you are walking in that comprehension, you bring the 
evidence of that place into wherever you are. I don't care where 
you are. If you're in the bathroom brushing your teeth, you bring 
the evidence of that place. Bringing us to that comprehension. So 
the Lord is testing some comprehension here, and here's the 
significant thing about this. Throughout the whole Bible, whenever 
the Lord tests our comprehension, it's not about things, it's about 
our comprehending of Himself! You and I in the natural comprehend 
many things, and I'm not telling you we ought to be dummies - we 
should know how to do things. But God is not impressed with my 
comprehension of computer circuits. His questioning will always be 
along the line - WHAT DO I COMPREHEND OF HIM? God's line of 
dealing with you and I is very much different than what many of us think. 
It's that way everywhere in the Scripture. Whenever the question is 
really coming from the Lord and it is concerning comprehension - 
how much we comprehend - IT IS ALWAYS IN REGARD TO HIMSELF. 

" When Jesus came to the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his 
disciples saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of Man am?" I 
don't know of any other time that He challenged them. He was 
challenged on His identity, but I don't know any other time that He 
really tested their comprehension on His identity other than here. 
Many challenged Him - you know, Who do you think that you are? By 
what authority do you do this? But here, He is inquiring - Who do 
men say that I the Son of Man am? There's a lot in this verse. Who 
do men say that I am? That's the question. But the whole question 
is after a certain point of reference. Not, who do men say that I 
the healer am? No - that's not it. Who do men say that I the savior 
am? No. Who do men say that I the Son of God am? No. Who do men 
say that I the SON OF MAN am? Friends, this is important. WHO DO 
MEN SAY THAT I THE SON OF MAN AM? Well, some say that you're 
Elijah and some say you're this or one of the other prophets. BUT WHOM 
DO YOU - let's take it a little deeper, the Lord says - WHO DO YOU SAY 
THAT I AM? Still with reference to the Son of Man - who do you say 
that I am?

Now this is the question that I want you and I to entertain in our 
hearts by the Holy Spirit. Because in this answer, you will find 
yourself. In this comprehension - Who is the Son of Man - who do 
you say that I the Son of Man am - in this answer, you and I will 
find ourselves. We will see ourselves in relation to Him. The Lord 
knows who He is. It's you and I He's seeking to give comprehension. 
You answer me a question, how would you like to have a body that 
had no comprehension of who you were? Now, you see that in certain 
ones who are stricken with certain diseases, the members of their 
bodies simply do not commune with their brain. I don't want to get 
gross or hateful, but you know as well as I do when that happens, 
that body becomes absolutely useless. It's still a body, but you 
sit there and look at that hand and it will not move for you. I've 
never been in that way, but how frustrating do you think that will 
be? If I wanted to do the simplest thing, as take this pen from one 
hand to another, and I was saying, "take this pen" - nothing. "Just 
move over there and give the right hand the pen" - nothing. 

Well dear heart, I'm telling you - we are either the Lord's Body in 
that same relationship or we're all sinners here. You are either 
His Body or you're not. How frustrated - that's why the Scriptures 
speak of not frustrating - how frustrated do you think the Holy 
Spirit is, how frustrating it is to have a Body that will not give 
you expression? It won't do it. It will give you homage once a 
week, twice a week, on special occasions several times, but will 
not give you expression. You know, until some terrible calamity 
comes along. It's never been so borne into my spirit as it has been 
these last few weeks and months. God is determined to have a people 
who are the expression of His Son. And He's moving according to 
that determination. And here's the whole point - you and I are 
either going to be or not going to be. 'Well, I'll just make heaven 
my home.' See, we don't even comprehend what heaven is. So again, 
no one is questioning our new birth, no indeed, this has only 
become serious because we are born again. This only becomes serious 
because we are the Body of the Lord. It only becomes serious 
because God has taken the initiative to make HIM to be head over 
all things to the Church, which is His Body, the fulness of Him. 
See, this is God's initiative, so the Lord seeks to bring us to His 
comprehension of the matter.

Who do you say that I am? And I just trust that you and I will let 
that question sink down into our souls. See, we're not really too 
used to doing that. Most of our thoughts are on ourselves. 'Well 
brother, just so I know my sins are forgiven and I'm on my way to 
glory land.' But the whole question is not about forgiveness of 
sins or glory land. THE WHOLE QUESTION IS WHO DO YOU THINK 
HE IS? The whole question is what is my comprehension of Him as the 
Son of Man. That's the question. He's not questioning virgin birth here. 
He didn't say, 'Now fellows, gather round here, I want to ask you a 
question. Do men really believe that I was born of a virgin?' Could 
He not have asked that? 'Well, do you really believe that I'm born 
of a virgin?' Because I've heard people define that as faith, as 
salvation. Oh, I believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. And you know 
my answer is - who doesn't? Or at least, who shouldn't? Sometimes I 
hear these things and think - what does that have to do with 
salvation or anything? We spend our time in Christianity arguing 
over endless things that's not even a question. We're trying to 
come up with answers to questions God doesn't even ask! Should we 
have a cross on the lawn of a courthouse? God doesn't care. Because 
if that's all the cross is - some emblem of Christianity, then burn 
the thing. If that's all it is - get rid of it, it isn't any good 
anyway. Who cares where you put it - on your lawn, the court house 
lawn or tacked on the front of the building. If that's all it is to 
you it doesn't make any difference. 

If the cross is not the reality of the death, burial and 
resurrection of Jesus, if it's just an emblem for Christianity, 
then just forget it. We raise all these questions in the Church, 
and God hasn't asked any of them. He's not concerned with them. And 
the very thing that God does ask we're dumb as doorknobs 
concerning. And He's asking now - WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I THE 
SON OF MAN AM? He's not saying do you believe I'm the Son of God. 
He's not saying do you believe I was born of a virgin. He's not saying do 
you believe you're saved. He's saying who do you think that I the 
Son of Man am? This is important because it is as the Son of Man 
that He relates to His Body. It's as the Son of Man that He has 
done away with one man and brought forth a totally New Man. It is 
as the Son of Man that He does that. He's asking you and I do we 
comprehend anything of the work and reality of the Son of Man?

Peter's answer finally was along these lines, " Thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the Living God." In other words, the Son of Man 
is Christ come in the flesh. But how much comprehension do you and 
I have of that today with regard to our relationship with Him? You 
say, well, what does that have to do with the Church? Now that's a 
good question because it has everything to do with the Church. 
Let's read a little further. The point is He brings this whole 
thing to bear upon the Church. Verse 18, " And I say unto thee, 
thou art Peter. Upon this rock will I build my church. Not only 
that,  I'll build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
against it." Upon this rock will I build my church.

Now the term "build" here has nothing to do in this translation 
with construct or construction. The word is translated "to edify, 
to strengthen, to bring to full stature." It has nothing to do with 
construction, but to edify, build it up, strengthen, mature, 
bringing it to full stature. Upon what rock? Upon this 
understanding, upon this God-given understanding, WHO THE SON OF 
MAN IS - Who I am as the Son of Man is the comprehension upon, up 
on which I will bring my church to full stature. I will build my 
Church. It is in this comprehension that I will build up my Church. 
In what comprehension? Who I am as the Son of Man. What is that 
comprehension? Peter looked at Him and he said, " Thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the Living God." Who is the Son of Man? HE IS 
THE SON OF GOD COME IN THE FLESH! Who is His Body but the 
Church! Where is He come? In the flesh! Paul says ye are bone of his 
bone, flesh of his flesh - His Body - One Spirit - One baptism, One Body.

Where is this comprehension? In the Church! Listen to me, this is 
not a suggestion. This is not one way He will do it - THIS IS THE 
ONLY WAY HE'LL DO IT! So if the Church is not in that 
comprehension, then it's weak, it's sickly. We think we're going to 
build it up with revival. No, you're not! We're going to build it 
up with prayer meetings - no, you're not! Those things should be 
results - not a means to an end. Prayer ought to be a result of a 
comprehension. We should pray with understanding, pray in 
knowledge. What I'm telling you is without a foundation, no 
building can stand, no building can prevail. Isn't it interesting 
today that the whole doctrine of the Church has come to be this - 
to stay out of hell. The doctrine of the Church should be to empty 
hell. " The gates of hell shall not prevail against..." That simply 
means not withstand, not keep you back. The word "hell" there is 
translated as "hades", translated by some as death. We're not 
talking about going and dealing with departed spirits here, but the 
very issues of hell, the very captives of Satan. But it's 
interesting to me that we're not as interested in emptying the 
thing as we are of just trying not to go there ourselves. 

But Jesus says there is a comprehension that will cause you to 
prevail against the gates of hell. "Gates" signify the portals, the 
stronghold, the prisons of the non-believing, or better the prison 
of the non-living. What should we do? Should we not bring people to 
life? Not to religion - to life! Not to an experience - to life! 
Not to doctrines and teachings - to life! Bring them to life! You 
see all of that is premised upon this foundation - a Church 
comprehending Christ as the Son of Man.

So, our comprehension. What is our comprehension of Him as the Son 
of Man? Isaiah 66, " Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne, 
the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you build unto 
me? Where is the place of my rest?" See, when the Lord questions 
comprehension, it's concerning Himself, and us. Where is the place 
of my rest? All the things that you and I are concerned about as 
Christians - how many of us are concerned about God's rest? We're 
concerned that God give us a home, God give us a car, God give us a 
bank account, God give us a job, God give us health. How many of us 
are concerned that God have a house? I mean, do we ever think that 
way? How is it with God's house? How is it with God's rest? I 
continue to challenge us. Whenever the Lord deals with us - testing 
our comprehension, it's along the lines of Himself. It almost makes 
you believe that He's the center of salvation, not us, doesn't it? 
I'm leading up to something, because we're going to come to see a 
Man who does not exist except for God's pleasure and God's purpose. 
You and I are going to have to find ourself in That Man. And if we 
do not find ourself in That Man, then there's no place for you and 
I.

" Where is the house you build unto me? Where is the place of my 
rest? All those things have my hands made." In other words, He's 
looking at all those things that they've done. Now remember, this 
is the last chapter, this is the conclusion of the whole prophecy 
of Isaiah, and God's getting heavy with it. Remember this whole 
thing started out with seeing the Lord high and lifted up and 
exalted in His temple. Now it's come down to - where is the house 
that you build unto me? Where is the place of my rest? I've looked 
at what you've done, I've seen what you've presented, and you've 
presented nothing that I haven't made. You've presented nothing 
that I haven't provided myself. What is it you've done? Where's the 
house that you've built for me? Nay - "Unto this man will I look." 
Then he starts a description of the character, the nature, the 
spirit of that man, and ends up describing the birthplace of that 
man before he gets through ten verses - THE ONE WHO IS BIRTHED 
IN ZION! But now I want to draw our attention to this point because 
this whole question is coming out from God. UNTO THIS MAN. The 
word "this" both in the Greek and in the Hebrew are tremendously 
important. It could be 'the, that' - we've taken them in our 
English language and they've become so ordinary. But what he's 
saying is UNTO THIS MAN - and no other. Unto THIS MAN  and not 
another. In the New Testament the word "the" - the faith, not just 
faith, the faith always describing the faith of the Son of God, so 
it's prefaced by the term "the" faith.

THIS MAN - not just unto a man will I look - No. God's not after a 
man. He's after THIS MAN! There's no way that I can try to tell you 
how strongly I feel about this. And I don't feel nearly as strong 
about it as the Spirit of God in me does. God is only going to have 
THIS MAN - not just a man. It seems like we think He's just going 
to take whatever we give Him. I don't want to sound ugly, but 
that's not true. God has a Man - a particular Man - THIS MAN - in 
His point of view. The word "look" means the gaze of the soul. I 
did a good deal of searching on the word "look" just to let it 
settle in me. And in many of the areas of search, the commentators 
would say, it is impossible that this would be an accidental 
glance, or a nonchalant glance, or an incidental glance. No - it is 
an intentional, intensive gaze. It is a purposeful look. Sometimes 
a wife looks at a husband that way; they used to call it "look 
daggers through you." Or sometimes you've done that to your 
children. It means you're looking at them so strong to burn a hole 
in the back of their head and they turn around. You didn't have to 
 say anything. You were intensively, intentionally gazing. You 
weren't looking at anyone else and no one else was in your mind. No 
sir, at that point you had great intention. You weren't just 
glancing around and happened to see your child among many. That's a 
natural definition. 

But the spiritual thing is that God looks at THIS MAN with 
intensive purpose. But it means something else too. "Look" relates 
to the word "vision". It not only means - "Unto THIS MAN will I 
look, He will look at nothing else. He looks at THIS MAN with 
intent and with purpose. THIS MAN is the vision of God. THIS MAN is 
not one of God's visions. THIS MAN is God's vision. Now listen, I 
have to explain this. With God, vision is not the ability to see. 
With God, vision is the thing that is seen. You and I say we have 
20-20 vision. We can have 20-20 vision and look around and just see 
nothing. But God doesn't call that vision. With God, vision is not 
the ability to see things; with God, vision is what you see. With 
God, until you and I see THIS MAN, we're blind. We have no vision. 
We can not see. 'Well, I see a lot of things.' NO - not according 
to God; not according to spiritual vision. We have to understand 
the word "vision" in the Old Testament is this word "marah" and it 
is two-fold. It means the act of seeing, but that has to be 
adjusted. It is not just the act of seeing, it is the appearing of 
the thing seen. So consequently, God's vision is not just His 
ability to see, but is actually fulfilled in what He sees. So what 
He sees is the vision of God. 

So with God, I say seeing, because that's another word ... THIS MAN 
is the seeing of God. He is the seeing of God. You and I see a lot 
of things. God sees One Man. After awhile, just by going through 
word definitions, you begin to get the point. God has His eye set 
on One Man, and everything of God is seen in that One Man, 
everything He wants to see. And everything He doesn't see in that 
One Man, He doesn't see - it's darkness with Him. He will not look 
upon it. God will not look upon it. What happened when the Lord 
Jesus became the epitome of the man, Adam - self, you and me? Adam 
did what? What did this man do? This humanity, Adam fell short of 
the glory of God, didn't he? We all come short of the glory of God. 
So we as humans, as born of a man and a woman, we're not THIS MAN - 
not by that birth. What happened when Christ at the cross took upon 
Him this man (Adam)? What happened? God couldn't look at him. God 
said I can't look at that. He blotted out the sun; the whole scene 
became dark and Christ cried out, 'My God, My God, why hast thou 
forsaken me?' God can't look at that. God can not set that as His 
view or as His vision. This gets serious!

Here is God's gaze. Here is God's look - at THIS NEW MAN. Here is 
God's intention. Here is God's plan and God's purpose - THIS MAN - 
and the whole point of it is most of us don't have any idea as to 
who THIS MAN is; not real God-given comprehension. And it's about 
THIS MAN that the Lord asked his disciples, "Who do you say that 
the Son of Man is? Do you know who that I am as the Son of Man? Do 
you have any comprehension of me as the Son of Man? Am I just a 
spiritual theory to you? Am I just a teaching to you? Am I just a 
religion to you? Am I just a belief to you? Am I a set of rules and 
regulations or even a set of spiritual truths? Who do you say that 
I, not the Son of God off somewhere never come - no, who do you say 
that I the Son of Man am? Here I am - feel my body. Here I am - 
reach your hand out and touch me, He tells them at times. Here I am 
- I'm not an apparition - I'm standing here in the midst of you. 
Now, who do you say that I as This One am?"

Peter says, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God." 
Jesus says, 'Well, this form didn't show you that. Flesh and blood 
didn't show you that. All you see when you look at this form, 
Peter, is one born of a virgin.' That's about all you and I know of 
Him - born of a virgin, babe in a manger. This flesh can not tell 
you that, Peter. The I AM - I'm jumping way ahead - THE TRUE I AM 
OF THIS MAN IS CHRIST, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD! He's the 
true I AM. J W Luman is not the I AM. God is not looking for a man. He's 
looking for THIS MAN. The Son of Man is a unique man all right. 
Sooner or later you and I are, by the Holy Spirit, going to come to 
the comprehension that it is Not I, it is Christ who lives in me. 
No, no, I am not Jesus Christ. I'm not even a little Jesus. But I 
tell you, I must come to find not only my life, but my whole 
identity and purpose in Jesus. You and I have got to come to such a 
comprehension of our nothingness and such an overwhelming 
comprehension of His allness - to finally come to comprehend that 
we as His Body are not for ourselves. We as His Body are only for 
Him - for knowing Him, for learning Him and for manifesting Him! 
The Body is for the Head. The Head is not for the Body. The Body is 
for the Head. The Body is for the Lord!

This Man is God's vision. This is The Man. Not that God has seen - 
it is The Man God is seeing - presently seeing, who He sees, who He 
looks at. So what does the Holy Spirit do? Well, He seeks to bring 
you and I, throughout the whole scripture to the Vision of God. 
What in the Old Testament, and in the New Testament as well, what 
truly determined ministry? Somebody wanted to be a preacher? No! 
They got saved and somebody gave them a Bible and told them to go 
preach? No! Well they went to Bible college and they were ordained? 
No - none of that! What determined ministry? VISION! If they had no 
vision, they had no ministry. Isaiah starts out with the vision of 
the Lord. Ezekiel starts out with the vision of the Lord. Jeremiah 
- the vision of the Lord. Daniel, Hosea, Micah, Amos - the vision 
of the Lord. And I'm telling you, HE ONLY HAS ONE VISION.

The Spirit of God has much to say about this. I'm only provoking 
thought now - no answers have been brought forth. Here is the Son 
of Man - THIS MAN is fulfilled in Christ for the purpose of giving 
only Christ His manifestation. But it is here in This Man that you 
and I have our association, our union with Him. It is here in This 
Man that we are joined to the Lord and no other place. We're not 
joined with Him any other place except as HIS BODY, and that's part 
of This Man. But you and I are still trying to find our identity in 
a man - in Adam.

I want to press on. You see, This Man is known by HIS FACE - you've 
got to see This Man's FACE before you can comprehend who He is. 
Folks, I'm not speaking about a man that you and I have nothing to 
do with. It is rightly finally come to be a MAN, but it's the 
house, it's the temple of God, it's the true Church and the Body of 
Christ, but finally in the end of the vision, it's a MAN. And a man 
is known by his face - mankind - by his face. Of yes, you might get 
so familiar with somebody that if they stick their hand around a 
corner, you'd say 'Oh, that's so-and-so.' But you can be fooled 
too. No - let me see your face. And the word "face" here in the 
Hebrew and in the Greek means 'the area of the eyes'. Let me look 
into your eyes. See, we're going to have to come to that. The only 
way you can know This Man, and consequently the only way you can 
comprehend yourself - I told you, the answer to this question 
brings us to a comprehending of ourselves. Because all of us are 
comprehending ourselves now, but we are comprehending ourselves, 
most of us, in Adam. And yet, we say we're saved, we're on our way 
to heaven - and yet we're comprehending ourselves in a man that is 
dead, cursed of God, enemy of God, slain, crucified, dead and done 
away. And yet we look there - to our nationalities, to our first 
birth, to our maleness, our femaleness, our Jewness, our Greekness, 
we look there for the real me, for the real you. You know this as 
well as I do. I'm telling you the truth. You and I look in the 
wrong face of the wrong man.

And until we see the face of This Man, we will never be able to 
come to the comprehension that the Lord is getting at - Who do you 
say that I as the Son of Man am? Yes, I am the Son of God, but who 
am I, the Son of God, as the Son of Man? Do you comprehend? Because 
it is in this comprehension that I will bring my Church to full 
stature. That tells me that if you and I are going to come anywhere 
near to full stature then it's got to be in the comprehension of 
This Man. But you're not going to comprehend Him looking at His 
Body. You and I can sit looking at each other until our eyeballs 
fall out. We compare ourselves among ourselves until there's nobody 
left but just me. But until we look at the face of This Man, we're 
not going to comprehend our relationship with Christ - we're not 
going to know This Man. And it's dangerous because we will 
substitute. The most dangerous thing is if I don't see His face I 
may call Him - me. And many do. Many of you are familiar with what 
we call the "Sonship" teaching. Where did most of that end up? With 
me, us, we - we're this, we're that. We look at This Man and give 
him a wrong name every time. Yes, we're involved in This Man, but 
the whole point of This Man is the manifesting of Christ, not a 
bunch of people trying to look like Him or be like Him or be Him. 
No - but those who are filled with the comprehension of Him - and 
knowing that no one lives but Him!

God will have His Son manifested in such a Man because God's vision 
is set upon that. And what God sees, and has seen, shall be seen. 
You can count on that! I don't know how many of us are going to die 
in the wilderness while that's taking place, however. I imagine 
everyone of those Israelites who died in the wilderness thought the 
vision of God died in the wilderness with them. But the vision of 
God didn't die off with all those reprobates. No sir, God saw a 
seed in Canaan, that was His vision - it was a type of This Man, 
and that's what He got. God gets what He sees! The thing that's in 
my heart, is that if He doesn't get that with you and I ... He gets 
that, He's got that with His Son, and He'll have it in a people who 
love to know His Son and come to know His Son and manifest His Son. 
God will have His vision in open manifestation - He will have it, 
because it's God's vision that we're involved with here. We're not 
involved with Brother Luman's vision - but God's vision we're 
involved with here. 

'Oh, the heavens opened and I saw the vision of God.' Oh, oh, man, 
you've seen too much now to turn back. Now it's God's vision. You 
and I have gotten excited and wanted to do something for God - and 
we've fallen on our face and the Lord has just picked us up. But 
it's different when we come to His Vision - then there's no 
trifling. When He begins to bring This Man into view, it's just 
This Man He's after. He's after This Man in you; He's after This 
Man in me. He's after you and I in This Man. He's after that. We're 
going to see how He brings this about and how He is bringing it 
about and shall and is now bringing it about.

God's vision - God's vision having its appearing in a people. 
Hallelujah to God! UNTO THIS MAN... not another, only This Man. 
Whose face? We'll get into that, because the question here is one 
of being deceived. When the Lord spoke in Matthew 24, what did He 
say? When they questioned Him concerning the coming of the Son of 
Man, what did He say? You'd have thought He'd begin to give them 
instruction on things, but the very first thing He said was "BE NOT 
DECEIVED. Many will come in my name." Not in Satan's name - in my 
name. Many will come and deceive many.

These people here in Adam are not deceived - they are dead! No, 
here's where we're in danger of being deceived - when we try, when 
This Man is not in clear view, we're in danger of receiving another 
man, giving him another name. That's where the danger is - the 
danger of self edification. Here's where many are deceived because 
only God can reveal This Man. "Peter, only my Father can show you 
that." This Man is not something I'm trying to conjure up. He's not 
my vision. He's God's vision. But the Lord is trying to bring you 
and I into His vision and it will make such a difference in your 
life, when your whole ministry is wrapped up in the vision of God. 
You know in reality, there is no true ministry except that ministry 
which is birthed in this vision. It's so in the Bible. VISION 
DETERMINES MINISTRY  - not determination, not want to - all those 
wonderful things. VISION determines ministry. Even with the Lord 
Jesus. He declared - I have no vision of my own. I have no will of 
my own. I say what I've been shown, I've come to do what I have 
seen - to finish the work - My Father's Vision. Except you and I 
come to this vision, our ministry is in the flesh - we don't know 
where to take the Church. It is only in this vision, in this 
comprehension that the Church can come to full stature, and no 
wonder so many ministries are trying to get it there some other 
way. Without a vision - it is THIS VISION - my people perish. And 
the ministry languishes, but worst of all, deception. Deceived - 
seeing his own face in the mirror - deceiveth himself and goeth his 
way. That's a man looking in the vision, that's a man looking in 
the mirror, but he sees the wrong face. 

God bring you and I to see the FACE of This Man. For it is in the 
face that we're transformed, transfigured. My God in heaven. It's 
not just a man - it's THIS MAN, wherein you and I are known of God, 
and where you and I must come to know God. THIS MAN!

	PART TWO

Our whole point in searching here is to come to realize the 
identity of That Man described in Isaiah 66 - "Unto this man will I 
look." The Man who is the end of God's vision - God's idea of 
mankind, Man as God intended him to be. Who is That Man? How does 
That Man come about? We understand That Man comes about as a result 
of the work of Christ. We want to look at the identity of That Man. 
We have entertained the question, "WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AS 
THE SON OF MAN AM?" The question then is the identity of the Son 
of Man and the relation of the Son of Man to the Son of God. Are they the 
same, are they separate? And also the Lord Jesus said it is upon 
this understanding that I will secure, build up my Church to the 
point that the gates of hell shall not prevail against my Church - 
My Church that stands in this comprehension of me. 

In Philippians 2 verse 5, " Let this mind be in you, which was also 
in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not 
robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, 
and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the 
likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled 
himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the 
cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a 
name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every 
knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and 
things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that 
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Now in Hebrews 2, dealing with that same realization, Hebrews 2:5, 
" For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to 
come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain place testified, 
saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of 
man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than 
the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set 
him over the works of thy hands; Thou hast put all things in 
subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection 
under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we 
see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was 
made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, 
crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should 
taste death for every man. For it became him, for whom are all 
things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto 
glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through 
sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are 
sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to 
call them brethren."

Now I want us to give attention, from Isaiah 66, "UNTO THIS MAN 
WILL I LOOK." There is a mankind, a creature, a creation upon whom 
or in whom God sees what He desires. He has purposed such a Man. He 
has declared such a Man. Not just a Man - THIS MAN - a particular 
kind of man. I want to bring the cross into this, because the view 
of God concerning This Man, that He desires, that Philippians and 
Hebrews speaks of, is fulfilled in the cross. UNTO THIS MAN - Which 
Man? You see a Man here - obedient unto death, but alive unto God. 
There was a time when I looked at the cross and all I saw was a 
suffering, dead Adam. And it is true that by the cross Adam died. 
But listen to me, it is not Adam that we see there on the cross - 
we see One bringing Adam to death. We see One bringing mankind to 
death, but the One that you and I see on the cross is the One that 
God from the beginning has seen. HE IS A SON OBEDIENT UNTO 
DEATH. " Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." He 
made Himself of no reputation. He took upon Himself the form of a man. 
He became that. He made Himself that. He became obedient unto 
death, even the death of the cross. "UNTO THIS MAN WILL I LOOK." 
God's view goes no farther than the cross. It is fulfilled. He sees 
The Man he's after. Adam has fallen. Adam has gone into sin. But 
This One here at the cross - this is not a man in sin, this is One 
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross - and yet without 
sin.

We see Him there at the cross obedient unto death, yet alive to 
God. You see Him there for sin, against sin, unto sin, yet without 
sin. Never has there been such a Man as The Man who came to the 
cross. He's not there because He sinned, and yet He's there for 
sin. He's there to die - not in sin, TO SIN. Hebrews 2 speaks about 
This Man. "BUT WE SEE JESUS." The Man it speaks about, the writer 
of the Hebrews says, somewhere back I remember one saying about 
This Man - why do you consider This Man or the Son of Man? You made 
him a little lower than angels, you crowned him with glory and 
honour, you set him over the work of your hands.  You put all 
things under him, yet we do not see all things under him. BUT WE 
SEE JESUS. What is he saying? He's saying that God's idea of a Man 
is fulfilled in Jesus. God has to look no farther than Jesus to see 
His idea of Man - One who is obedient unto death, even the death of 
the cross. So he looks no farther to see This Man. I want you to 
understand. To see This Man, that comes by death, burial and 
resurrection - This Man that is destined of God to stand in His own 
glory - where is This Man seen? God looks no farther than the cross 
to see This Man! There's a mystery here that you and I need to 
comprehend. So we see Him there - VICTORIOUS. Yes, He will die, but 
He will not die in sin, He will die for sin - sin's penalty paid; 
sin's power broken. Not only that, He will gather all of mankind 
into Himself, and as all of mankind, He will then die to sin. 

You see Him here - at the cross - the body of His death, comprising 
all mankind. By in the Resurrection, it is the BODY OF HIS LIFE. 
And it's not now all mankind, it is now ONE MANKIND - everything 
that God desires of Man. He is seeing This Man - obedient; This Man 
without sin: This Man victorious over sin; This Man bringing sin to 
a stopping place; this Man abolishing death; This Man dying once so 
death can not go beyond the cross. Why can't death go beyond the 
cross? Because it's fulfilled here in the cross! "In that he died, 
he died once. But in that he liveth, he liveth unto God" the 
Scriptures say. Why does sin have no more power over This Man that 
He brings forth? Because of This Man and the cross - because of His 
work! Because God sees His Man here - a Man not dead in sin, but a 
Man without sin, dying to sin, paying the penalty of sin, yet never 
sinning. But more than that, gathering up in Himself, this first 
man that falls short of the glory of God - and bringing him to 
death. Death to what? Death to sin! Paying the supreme penalty.

So He's victorious. Death can not pass this point. " In that he 
died once, he died unto sin. But in that he liveth, he liveth unto 
God." That's the reason death has no power over This Man. THIS MAN 
LIVES BY CHRIST! Death can not proceed beyond the cross because 
death, which is the penalty of sin is paid for fully, and not just 
paid for - borne - He bore it. There was a genuine death here - the 
body of His death. Now when we look at each other, what we see is 
the body of His death. What we can't see is the Body of His Life. 
And you'll never see that Body or comprehend That Body until God 
reveals the ever living Son in you. But when you see Him - you will 
see That Body. You will comprehend That Body. You will quit living 
as the first man, as the body of His death. The body of His death 
will have no more power over you. 

Folks, I see believer after believer claiming today, and they are 
the Body of the Lord, but without comprehension. I see believers 
enslaved to the body of His death - enslaved to humanity, to races, 
to creeds, to kinds, to lusts, to involvements - to the body of His 
death; trying to visualize this as His Body, rather than realizing 
that this vessel is a servant of His Body. It's only made alive in 
serving His Body. The only life it has is in serving His Body. His 
Body is for all natural purposes an invisible body. And yet it's 
real, and it is eternal and it has works. We must come to find our 
identity. We try to see ourselves in Christ, but God sees This Man 
here on the cross. And if we're ever going to find ourselves in 
This New Man - in Christ - we've got to find our being with the 
total of Him. We've got to identify with Him in His death before we 
can identify with Him in His life. You can't bring the body of His 
death over into the Body of His Life. It won't work.

The Lord was dealing with me once in this regard. "You do not have 
a body. You are a body." And I thought, what are you saying, Lord? 
I couldn't really understand. I said, well yes, I have a body, here 
it is. And the Lord finally caused me to understand that the body 
is not what I have, the Body is who I am. The Body of Christ is who 
we are - it's not what we have. What we have must come to serve who 
we are! When then will we know who we are? When we look in the face 
of This Man. You recognize This Man by His face. You recognize this 
man Adam, by his face. Whose face is Adam's face? J W is his face, 
Bruce is his face. When you look in the mirror you see his face. 
But there's another mirror talked about in the Bible, there's 
another glass. We look in it and we see not our natural face; if we 
do as the man in James who saw his natural face, he went his own 
way and deceived himself. But if we look deeply into that vision, 
if we stay there and we look beyond ourselves, WE SEE JESUS! That's 
what the writer of the Hebrews says - BUT WE SEE JESUS. We realize 
that Jesus is the culmination of This Man. Jesus is The Man spoken 
of here. Jesus is the identification of This Man spoken of. He is 
made a little lower than angels. Because HE suffered and died, He 
has received honour and glory and a name above every name. And hath 
brought many sons to glory! And therefore He is not ashamed to call 
them brethren. Why? Because they bear His name. BUT WE SEE JESUS!

Turn with me to John's gospel the sixth chapter, verse 38. "For I 
came down from heaven not to do my will but the will of him that 
sent me." Here He is - This Man. "To do the will of him that sent 
me. And this is the Father's will which has sent me. That of all 
which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it 
up at the last day." I'm interested now in you and I seeing who is 
raised up. I want us to see The Man that actually comes forth in 
the Resurrection - that's the One I'm interested in seeing. "That I 
should raise it up in the last day. And this is the will of him 
that hath sent me. (verse 40) That everyone which seeth the Son and 
believeth on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up 
at the last day." Notice verse 44. "No man can come to me except 
the Father who hath sent me draws him and I will raise him up at 
the last day." Verse 53, "Verily verily I say unto you, except you 
eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no 
life in you. Whosoever eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath 
eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh 
is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my 
flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. As the 
living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father, so he that 
eateth me, even he shall live by me."

Now you and I say that we come by His death, His burial, His 
resurrection. NO - that isn't right. The body of His death, all 
mankind, we do not come, we don't come in any shape, fashion or 
form. There's ONLY ONE that comes by His death, His burial, His 
resurrection, and that's HIM!! He comes by His death. What is His 
death? His death is dead to sin! There is Only One that is dead to 
sin - He is dead to sin. There is Only One that is alive unto God - 
He is alive unto God. There's Only One that is raised up by the 
glory of the Father - He is raised up by the glory of the Father! 
Herein is the mystery - it is not I who lives, it is Christ who 
lives in me! The mystery is hidden from the body of His death, it 
is hidden from this natural mind, this natural man. And it will 
remain hidden until God reveals the Living One, until God reveals 
the Only Son, until God reveals the real Son, until God reveals Him 
in you and me. And when God reveals His Son, then we in our inner 
man see the Body that we are. You can't feel it - you can feel the 
instrument that serves it. Paul says therefore yield your 
instruments, your members as instruments of righteousness. There is 
no righteousness in them - yield them unto righteousness. The 
righteousness of God is Christ in you!

This is the truth - it's not us. He comes by His death - it's His 
death. It is His death that worketh in me and it's His life that 
worketh in me. His death is against everything of this first 
creation. His death worketh in me - it worketh against everything 
of the first creation. But in that He liveth - He liveth in me, but 
He liveth unto the Father, working in me everything that the Father 
desires; everything that the Father wants and has purposed to have. 
Who is doing this? IT IS THE SON! So, we live by Him. Ephesians 2 
verse 4-7 tells us that we are "quickened together with him". The 
word 'together' there in the Greek means 'as one with' Him. 
"Raised, as one with Him, seated, as one with Him, in heavenly 
places in Christ Jesus." HIS BODY LIVES BY HIM! He doesn't live by 
His Body, His Body gives Him no life. He gives life to His Body. 
His Body lives and functions by Him. When you and I come to 
comprehend that, the bodies that we have will serve the Body that 
we are - and will serve it religiously. And everything connected to 
it will too.

We say that the Son of Man is us alive from the dead. NO - THE SON 
OF MAN IS CHRIST ALIVE FROM AMONG THE DEAD. The Son 
of Man is Christ alive from among the dead. The Son of Man is not 
Christ in my body. The Son of Man is CHRIST IN HIS OWN BODY. 
You say, what's the difference? The difference is my body's temporal, 
His Body is eternal. The temporal must come to serve the eternal. The 
body you have must serve the Body that you are, but the point is we 
spend all of our time looking in the face of the body we have, of the 
temporal.

Let's look at II Corinthians 4:16, "For which cause we faint not, 
but though our outward man (that's the body we have) perish, yet 
the inward man is renewed day by day (that's the Body we are). The 
body we have perishes. The Body we are abounds and is renewed. The 
one must come to serve the other, but that's not the way it is with 
most of us. We look into the face of the thing we serve - we do. 
Here is a mirror that is a mere reflection of God. That's all most 
people want their religion to be - a reflection, a resemblance. 
We've coined this term "to be like Jesus." God is not looking for 
look-alikes. He looks unto This Man who is Jesus - BUT WE SEE 
JESUS. Not we see "something like Jesus". No - WE SEE JESUS! The 
mirror that the Bible calls the glass - mirror, the term for that 
is vision. James says "looking into a glass." Paul says, " looking 
through a glass darkly." The vision - God's mirror does not give a 
reflection. According to Ezekiel, this mirror brings forth an 
appearing. There's a difference in a reflection and an appearing. 
As a Church we've tried to find ourself in the wrong mirror and 
we've just adjusted a gospel to being 'like Jesus' - doing the best 
you can, just a reflection of the Lord.

But God has designed A Man to be the appearing of the Lord. When 
will This Man become the appearing of the Lord? When will the Body 
of Christ become the appearing of the Head? When we look in His 
face and find our identity only in Him and not in Adam. But as long 
as we continue to look into the face of the first man...I don't 
care how religious we are, we're going to give expression to that 
first man. And that man (Adam) has already fallen short of the 
glory of God. This natural body represents nothing but the body of 
His death - it's the body He took to die, not the Body He took to 
live. Here at the cross He put off one body and He took up another 
body. And if you live by Him, then it is as that Body that He took 
up - not as that body that He put off. But the difference is the 
face. You can't live as His Body and look at Adam's face. Because 
the body is going to serve the head. And if we're looking at Adam's 
face, then we can still sing I love Jesus, but we're going to be 
motivated by something less than His Living Body. With Adam, the 
intentions are the best, but the excuse is always there. That 
pretty well labels most Christians today. 

I'm not trying to be critical, because I realize the body of His 
death can only do so much. It can in fact only show forth His 
death. We're trying to make it show forth His life. The only time 
you and I are going to show forth His life is when we turn to look 
Him in the face and come to realize the Body that we are. Then the 
body you have then will serve it. I guarantee you the body you have 
will become an instrument of righteousness instead of an excuse 
before God. We're going to serve whose head we honor. Paul brings 
this out in one of his epistles. He lists some problems and then he 
says here's the problem, NOT HOLDING THE HEAD FROM WHOM 
ALL THE BODY IS FITLY JOINED TOGETHER. Not holding the 
HEAD. That's the problem - not seeing His face.

So the Son of Man is not Christ in my body. I can't walk around and 
tell you I'm a little Jesus man. He doesn't have many bodies - He's 
got One Body made up of many members - but not many bodies - One 
Body. You and I will never comprehend that until we look in His 
face. So the Son of Man as He is taught in the scriptures is not JW 
acting like Jesus. No - The Son of Man is Christ having His 
expression - not in my body - in His Body. And my body yielding to 
it. Paul says, so then death worketh in us, but life in you. Paul 
says, the power of His resurrection - me being made conformable to 
His death - the body that I have must always be subject to His 
death. What is His death? Death to sin. Death to the world. Death 
to the first creation. Death to Adam. That death must always be 
evident in this body. Rather than this body serving Adam, the death 
of Adam must be evident in this body. When will this body show 
forth His death? When I come to realize that He, and He alone is my 
life! That He and He alone lives in me, and that I am part of 
another Body, and that this body must serve it, must submit to it. 
It will work that way, but it will never work with you and I in 
this natural body trying to be like Him by attainment. It hasn't 
worked in 2000 years - it won't work. 

So it is not Christ living among the dead, IT IS CHRIST RAISED FROM 
AMONG THE DEAD. "I will raise him up in the last day." What is the 
last day? This Man - here is the last day - the day that He brings 
forth. The last day is not 2015 or 1996, and yet all of that could 
come to realize the last day because the last day is the day of the 
Lord. It is the day in which He lives! It is the day in which He is 
the light of. And He says there is One to be raised up in the last 
day. So I say again, there's Only One that comes by way of His 
death, His burial, His resurrection - and that One is CHRIST 
HIMSELF!

Now what is our association here? How do we relate to This Man? 
When and how and where do we as His Body appear? When does who 
we are by Him become apparent? How does it become apparent? Where 
does it become apparent? II Corinthians 4:16, "For which cause we faint 
not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is 
renewed day by day. For our light affliction which is for a moment, 
worketh for us a far more and exceeding eternal weight of glory. 
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things 
which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but 
the things which are not seen are eternal." The first man is the 
body that is seen. This Man is the Body that is not seen. The first 
man is seen - it is visible. When the Lord took on that body, what 
did He do? He became visible. "He hath appeared once at the end of 
the age." That word 'appeared' means 'hath made visible." How did 
He become visible? In the body of His death. He took on a visible 
body, one that could be touched and handled, one that could be spit 
on. You're going to have a hard time spitting on This New Body. Oh, 
you may be able to spit in my face, but you're going to have a hard 
time spitting on That Body. You may injure me with an instrument, 
but you're going to have a hard time injuring That Body - you can't 
even find it. And yet That Body is far more real than this temporal 
body. When will we know that? When will we know that This Body is 
the real Body? When we see the face of This Man! We must realize 
the eternal Body we are! When we look into the face of the eternal 
Son of God and realize it is This Body we are. In that day you 
can't be touched. That's the day you can be thrown in prison and 
still be in heavenly places. That's the day you can be exiled on 
the Isle of Patmos and still be walking streets of gold.

But what we've got today is a bunch of mansey-pamsey religious, 
half-baked, immature Christians who are looking in the face of an 
Adamic creation - waiting to go to heaven. Waiting to die to go to 
heaven. Well, you're waiting 2000 years too long. That thing has 
already died. You and I in the face of Jesus must come to the death 
of it. Oh yes, likewise reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed, and 
alive unto God. How? Through This Man. It's only through This Man.

Here, in the old, the first man is the body of our appearing. I 
don't care how godly I may think I am, I come walk through that 
door in here, and JW appears. Here is the body of my appearing. 
Here is the body of my exaltation. The more spiritual I am, the 
more it is exalted. Here, in This Man, is the Body of His 
exaltation! This is where He is exalted. This is where He is lifted 
up. This is where He lives. He is not exalted in Adam trying to be 
like Him. He is exalted in Himself and of Himself, and for who He 
Himself is. He is exalted when He is revealed in His Own Body, 
which Body you are. But most of us in Christ, don't know the Body 
that we are, because you've got to look into the face of that Body. 
And we're looking into the face of the wrong body. We're looking 
into the face of the first man and trying to reckon him dead. You 
can't reckon this man dead while you're looking into his face. The 
first man will be reckoned dead when you look into the face of the 
One (Christ) who killed him, and yet lives forever more. Because 
when you look into the face of This Living Man, you do not see 
yourself. You are not there! We can reckon ourself to be dead and 
Christ to be alive because we are looking into the face of the One 
who lives. A realization will grip your heart and cause you to say 
as Paul said, "IT IS NOT I, IT IS CHRIST WHO LIVETH IN ME."

When we appear, He does not appear. And yet when He appears, when 
He is revealed, the Body that we are does appear. The question set 
before us now is, where do you see yourself? Are we seeing 
ourselves in our appearing - trying to be like Jesus? Or are we 
finding ourselves in His appearing and understanding "It is not I, 
but Christ." It's not me trying to be like Him - this is really 
Him! And I'm really His Body. And this tent must serve it in Truth. 
The Spirit is saying, 'Who is the Son of Man that I am? Who is This 
Son that I am?' Is he a dead man raised again? That was the first 
answer that came to Him. Well, some say that you're Elijah, 
Jeremiah, Moses... Do you realize every one of those were men who 
were dead. They would rather believe that God had raised up one of 
the prophets - now that would have been a miracle. They would have 
rather believed that than believe Him to be the Son of God. And 
today with you and I it's the same way. We're trying to believe 
that This New Creation is you and I brought back to life. We 
believe that the Resurrection is you and I brought back to life. No 
- THE RESURRECTION IS THE ONE WHO NEVER DIED IN THE 
FIRST PLACE - It's HIM- living in a Body that lives by Him, through 
Him, in Him, as One with Him - it's Him. 

And when you look in His face you'll see it. You'll say, Oh my God 
- it's Him! It isn't me, it's HIM! I tell you death is conquered 
for you there. It's all conquered because This Man conquered it all 
at the cross. There is none of it found here in Him. It is still 
found in you and I. That is it still motivates you and I because we 
are looking at the face of the body of His death. We need to look 
at the face of the Body of His life. Paul says we no longer know 
any man after the flesh, not even Jesus. No, no, it's just Jesus in 
the flesh we see. It is Jesus glorified. It is Jesus dead, buried, 
raised and ascended. It's the glorified Christ we see. 

Yes, He asked His disciples - John 6 - talking about eating His 
flesh and notice it's the flesh of the Son of Man. What man do we 
come to identify with This Man? We come to eat His flesh, drink His 
blood. If we do not we have no life in us. He's not in the body of 
His death. He's in the Body of His life. That's why you can kill my 
fleshly body and His Body goes right on - you haven't touched me as 
His Body at all. Verse 62. He says, 'Does this offend you? Does 
this shock you? Then He tells them this - 'What if you see Him in 
the heavens and have to identify with Him here? What are you going 
to do then? Because this is where you eat my flesh. This is where 
you drink my blood. What if you have to identify yourself with Him 
in heavenly places and come to realize ... Yes, WHO DO YOU SAY 
THAT THE SON OF MAN THAT I AM IS? A dead man raised again?
' He says "I'll build the Church upon this understanding."

Who do you and I think the Church is? A bunch of resurrected dead 
men? No sir - it's the Resurrection living in His Own Body! It's 
housed in tents temporarily, but that Body is eternal. And what and 
if God at a point in time determined by Him in the full expression 
of Christ transcends these bodies and transforms them to give 
expression of that glorious Body that they are. Well what if He 
does? That's in His hands, and that's in His time. But the Body 
that you are is here now, because He's here now.

You can try to make a dead man His Body if you want to and sit 
around waiting until you'll live forever and all that you're going 
to do is die in that realm. I understand the work of the Spirit in 
bringing forth a manifestation of Christ in the heaven and in the 
earth. I understand the transformation of even these mortal bodies. 
But that's like unto His Own glorious Body. YOU ARE THAT BODY 
NOW! To me the supreme act of this body serving That Body would 
be that this body be totally and completely transformed. But it is never 
going to be the other way around. It's not That Body serving this 
body (flesh). It's this natural body that's for the Body of Christ 
and for the serving of That Body. 

The SON OF MAN. Who do you say that I as the Son of Man am? Well, 
He says, I'll tell you right now I'm not a bunch of resurrected 
dead men. I am the Resurrection Himself and I live in my own Body. 
"He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit." I live in my own 
Body. And Paul says when you come to see that you will yield your 
instruments as servants of righteousness. When you come to see that 
you will mortify the deeds of your body and live as His Body! When 
you come to see that, this dead man will have no more dominion over 
you. I just hate to see so many living ones serving death and 
serving dead taskmasters. I just hate to see so many believers 
serving the body of His death. You don't have to! " Oh wretched man 
that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I 
thank God through Jesus Christ the Lord." And then it goes on to 
the great truth of that in Romans 8.

Now, He is known only by His face. Finding ourselves here in Him. 
Not ourselves after the flesh, but ourselves after Him. We're 
coming to see This Man. This Man has a Body. But it's His Body - 
not mine, not yours - it's His. For you and I to really comprehend 
that we've got to see His face. The whole scripture is outlined in 
that truth. II Corinthians 3:18, "But we all (this doesn't just 
mean Paul, me or you) with open face... That means the veil taken 
off of our hearts. Are you ready tonight for a face-to-face 
encounter? The scripture has said that no man can see God and live. 
But there is A MAN who can. There is A MAN who can see face-to-
face. You just have to understand who the face is. You and I 
approach the face of God through our face - the face of THIS MAN - 
THROUGH CHRIST. HE can see God and live because He lives by God. 
Now you and I are going to see a whole man - a Head and a Body - a 
face and a body. When you walk up naturally and look in a mirror, 
what do you do? First thing you look at is your face. And This Body 
must come to see its face before you and I who are the Body will 
ever realize who we are. Until that we'll be looking at the face of 
the first man - and we are deceived.

Working ourselves to death trying to make it work. "...with open 
face beholding as in a glass..." (the word glass is mirror). Here's 
the situation. In this mirror, in Adam, the Adam is many. I look 
and I see a reflection of many. You're seeing a reflection of 
yourself. You know that's what draws us to one another. We look in 
that mirror and if I don't see a reflection of myself I don't like 
it. And I don't want to have anything to do with you. I'm drawn to 
something in you that's like me. The more there is in you that's 
like me, the more I'm drawn to you. That's the reason you and me 
like some people and we don't like others, because it's a mirror 
we're looking in. I know we say we've got to know each other in 
Christ, but that's just a scripture to most of us. It's just a 
commandment to us and we're looking in this mirror trying to obey 
that and we can't do it. 

I used to have people come up to me and say, 'Brother Luman, I just 
love the Jesus in you.' And I know they mean well, but I've come to 
think, what are they seeing in me that is Jesus? That means that 
the minute they see something in me that is not Jesus, they're not 
going to love me at all. That's the way it is with us, folks. And 
what they see in me they think is Jesus is something that they 
agree with. They see themselves. Do you understand that's how idols 
are made? When the heathen make idols, they make idols that are 
semblances of something that they like about themselves. They make 
an idol of a lion because of its courage and they see courage there 
and they are worshipping the courage that is in them. They make 
idols that reflect something of themselves. They see something of 
themselves in an idol, in a tree, in a fish, in a flower. Well, 
when we become Christians, maybe we're not quite so obvious about 
it, but we're still looking in the wrong mirror. We're still 
looking in the mirror of humanity trying to be like Jesus. 

What I'm trying to tell you is that the body of humanity is the 
body of His death. All it can reflect is His death. It cannot 
reflect His life. The Body of His life is invisible and will remain 
invisible to you and I until we see Him - until God by His Spirit 
reveals That Son in you. THE SON IS IN YOU! That's why you are His 
Body. He is in you! You are joined with Him in Spirit. " He that is 
joined unto the Lord is one spirit." It is Christ in you. "If any 
man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his." But it is 
when you and I with the eyes of our understanding - not these eyes 
- the eyes of our inner man, is renewed day by day; when our soul 
comes face-to-face with Him; then we comprehend the Body that we 
are, and not until. And the gospel won't work for you until then. 
It will just be a hard old road and when we get quiet and serious 
we'll have to confess it's not working. We're not saying I'm not 
saved; we're not saying I don't love God, we're just saying it's 
not working. I'm not satisfied - we've got that longing to die and 
go be with Jesus. Because that's all that's left. No wonder that 
gospel has originated and has come about. But is there any more 
pitiful sight than to see a bunch of Christians sitting around just 
waiting to die and go be with Jesus? Isn't that pitiful? WE'RE THE 
BODY OF THE LIVING CHRIST! We need to have a comprehension 
of the life that we have now! There is a great contrast between spiritual 
reality here. Many of us think those who are dead in graves are 
closer to Jesus. Most of them are waiting to die so they can go be 
with Aunt Sally and Jesus. Very few of us have any comprehension of 
the eternal, living Christ and our being in Him - NOW! And that's a 
pitiful situation.

What happens when we are looking into That face? Well, we're 
changed - changed into the same image, not into another one. You 
have borne the image of the earthy, now you must bear the image of 
the heavenly. How do you do that? By looking into His face! What is 
this? "..even as by the spirit of the Lord." In the original it is 
translated - This is the work of the spirit. What is the work of 
the Spirit? Just that - bringing us to behold the face. Bringing 
us. Look at II Corinthians 4 verse 6 - "For God that commanded the 
light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our heart (in our 
inner man, hath shined. To give what?) to give the light of the 
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Where 
are you going to see this glory that changes you? Where are you 
going to see this reality that transforms you? YOU'RE GOING TO SEE 
IT IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST!

Now Exodus 33, verse 20. " And, he said, thou canst not see my 
face; for there shall no man see me and live. And the Lord said, 
Behold there is a place by me and thou shalt stand upon a rock; and 
it shall come to pass that while my glory passes by that I will put 
thee in the cleft of the rock; and I will cover you with my hand 
while I pass by; and I will take away my hand and thou shalt see my 
back parts, but my face shall not be seen." Do you remember Moses 
put a veil over his face that even the glory of the hinder parts 
was hidden because Israel could not stand to look to the end of 
that which is abolished? Isn't that what the scriptures say? What 
do you do when you look into His face? Notice it's This Man, now. 
What do you do? YOU LOOK TO THE END OF THAT WHICH IS 
ABOLISHED. You see This Man. This Man is the glory of God. This 
Man is the end of that which is abolished. Moses put a veil on his face 
so they could not see that passing glory. But we, in the face of Christ, 
the veil is done away and we behold the glory. And in the glory we 
look to the end of that which is done away. 

In Numbers 6, verse 25, "The Lord make his face shine upon thee and 
be gracious unto thee; The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee." 
Where is all scripture fulfilled? It's fulfilled in This Man! 
Here's where all of this is fulfilled. Deuteronomy 5:4 says, " The 
Lord talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of 
fire, and I stood between the Lord and you at that time to show you 
the word of the Lord; (Moses is speaking) for you were afraid by 
reason of the fire and went not up into the mount. He said 'I am 
the Lord your God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from 
the house of bondage." This was the message of the mount of the 
fading glory. This was the message of the glory that Moses 
represented and the people couldn't even look to the end of that. 
But THERE IS A GREATER MESSAGE! There is a greater word. There 
are greater works. There is a greater witness because Jesus said 'I go 
to my Father'. There's a greater witness than John. There is the 
greater word - THIS MAN - here's the greater truth. Here's the 
greater promise. We look into His face and the truth we see is not 
that we're gotten out of bondage. You see there's a greater 
message. The message there was he brought you out of the land of 
Egypt, out of the house of bondage. BUT THE MESSAGE IN CHRIST 
IS A NEW COVENANT. It hasn't got to do with where He's brought us 
from, but the reality is what He's brought us unto. A greater glory! A 
greater witness! A greater word! A greater promise!

Deuteronomy 31 verse 17 says, " Then my anger shall be kindled 
against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face 
from them (the hidden face of the Lord) They shall be devoured; and 
many evils and troubles shall befall them so that they will say in 
that day, 'Are not these evils coming upon us because our God is 
not among us?' And surely I will hide my face in that day for all 
the evils which they have wrought, in that they are turned unto 
other gods." Do you know where that was fulfilled? It was fulfilled 
at the CROSS, where darkness came upon the scene and God hid His 
face from that man. And in the body of His death He cried out, " My 
God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He suffered the whole 
fulfillment - a creation which God hides His face from, and will 
not allow this creation to behold His face. This took place at the 
cross! This first man can not see the face of God and live. God's 
face is hidden from this old man. But here in Christ, in This Man, 
we come to behold Him - and we behold Him face-to-face!

Let's get to the end of it. Revelation 6:16-17, " and said unto the 
mountains and the rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of 
him that sitteth on the throne, from the wrath of the Lamb; for the 
day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?"  This 
first man still hides from the face of Him. This first man still 
can't look in His face because it's in His face that you look to 
the end of that which is abolished. In the book of Revelation, who 
is it that stands up in the midst of this mankind, of this 
creation? Whose face are you really going to look at here? AND THE 
LAMB STOOD UP IN THE MIDST OF THE THRONE AS THOUGH 
HE WAS SLAIN! Who is that Lamb? THE SON WHO IS OBEDIENT 
UNTO DEATH, EVEN THE DEATH OF THE CROSS! The Son who is 
dead to sin but alive unto God. Who is That Son? HE IS THIS MAN! 
When you come to see Him face-to-face you are looking into the face 
of One who is dead unto sin. There's no excuse for This Man. That's the 
reason the first creation runs from His face, hides from His face and says 
I would rather that a rock fell on top of me, that a mountain fall on top 
of me - than to look into His face!

It's in His face that we lose our life and find His life! Who shall 
stand when He appears? Only those that stand in the knowledge of 
Him! We're not talking about some yonder day. We're talking about 
NOW! Revelation 20:11, "Then I saw a great white throne and him 
that sat upon it." That's the first thing we see when we're caught 
up. We're caught up. John says he was caught up, and what did he 
see? I saw a throne! And Him that sat upon it! We're coming to look 
at the face of One who sits upon the throne! What flees from before 
Him? All the dead flee from before Him! The heaven, the earth flees 
from before Him! What remains before Him? "And I John saw a new 
heaven and I saw a new earth and I saw Him who says, I make all 
things new." "I saw a great white throne and Him that sat on it 
from whose face the earth and heaven fled away and there was no 
place found for them." When you look into His face, there's no 
place found for anything but Him. HE OCCUPIES THE THRONE OF 
YOUR HEART! HE OCCUPIES THE THRONE OF HEAVEN! HE 
OCCUPIES THE THRONE OF YOUR SOUL!

Lastly, Revelation 22:4, " And they shall see his face and his name 
shall be in their foreheads." That is stamped, engraven in their 
very mind. They shall see His face and His name shall be in them. 
I'm telling you, we're come to a DEFINITION. You and I are about to 
get redefined IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST! AMEN.




	PART THREE


I want to continue with you now, beholding the face. Beholding the 
face of The Man. It is in beholding the face that you and I come to 
identity; we come to discover who This Man is. For years we've 
dealt with A New Man - A New Creation. We sing the song, 'I'm a new 
creation. I'm a brand new man.' We've gotten to where we sing that 
song, get up and leave service and go right out and have no more of 
a comprehension of what we've been singing about than the people 
down the street singing, 'I'll fly away Old glory.' And without the 
comprehension, I don't really see that there's much difference. 
Without comprehension, one is about as good as the other. And that 
concerns me with the Church - the segments of the Church that I 
deal with. That this realization of Christ is to so many just a new 
teaching or a teaching. You see we have the capacity to believe a 
thing without experiencing. We have the capacity to agree with it 
theologically - we search it out in the scriptures and we say, 
'yes, that's really what it says.' We get a few Greek and Hebrew 
definitions and we say, 'Well look here, that's really what that 
says.' And yet our comprehension of the thing doesn't change at 
all. We accept that we are in Christ as a teaching. It's a true 
teaching to us. But I've begun to realize that with very few is it 
an actuality, a reality, an experiential comprehension. In other 
words - they don't live a lot differently since they've come to 
believe that they're in Christ than they did when Christ was off 
somewhere and they were here, and He visited them upon occasion. 
As far as their life is concerned, it's not much different now. 
They're still Christians - but their life is no different. 

They still face the same situations with the same comprehension, 
still have the same excuses. Their life is still up one day and 
down the next day. God is still looking for the increase of Christ 
and not finding it in the earth. But we've come to a teaching, we 
now believe a teaching. And about all that we do when we come to 
that is separate ourself from other Spirit-filled Christians. For 
we now believe this and they believe that, so we've got us another 
teaching. Well, separation inevitably is going to come, but it 
should come as a result of lives being changed; as a result of 
people manifesting Christ - not just getting another teaching and 
going on the way they always were. But that's what's happening. We 
go to meetings, but lives are not changed. Not much of Christ is 
evident. And that really has come to bother me because I've seen 
that until a changed people that I see come forth, I can actually 
be a propagator of that, and worse than that, I've come to face the 
Lord that I am a propagator of that. To many people I represent a 
teaching that they believe, will support, and lay their lives down 
to, but in most cases, has not changed their lives, because it is 
just a teaching. 

By that I mean, in the volume of the scripture, and in the 
declaring of it as the Truth, they are convinced as a teaching - WE 
ARE SONS OF GOD, GOD IS OUR FATHER, WE'RE IN CHRIST. 
CHRIST IS IN US. But the revelation of Jesus Christ is still a song, it's 
still a sermon. To most even in this realm of teaching, the revelation of 
Jesus Christ is not an actuality. Most have not looked with the 
eyes of their understanding, the eyes of their soul - most have not 
yet looked into His face. Most, though we believe we're This Man, 
we believe we're This New Creation, we believe This New Creation 
constitutes what the Church truly is, the Body, we believe we're 
there, we believe we're seated there, we're convinced in the 
scriptures. But still most of us still look in the face of Adam for 
their crucial, motivational determined identity - they still look 
in the face of humanity. I look in my face, you look in your face - 
we still look in that face for our identity. And it doesn't make 
any difference what you believe as a teaching, and how much you 
believe it - it is your identity that motivates you. Your identity 
will determine your motivation even with regard to that teaching. 
It's who you know you are that is the bottom line of things for 
you. In decisions, in values, in motivations, the bottom line is 
who I know I am - my identity. Some of us will even forsake some of 
our teachings and we'll get guilty over it, or bend things, then 
you'll make it right. But you will not, because you can not, deny 
your identity. That's the determining factor in everything, and 
there's no way you can change that principle. Now what you can do 
is change identity! But the only way you can change identity is by 
beholding the face of The Man that we are - and you can't do that 
in the natural. 

It's natural to behold the face of Adam, it's easy, it's the thing 
to do. And we try to apply teachings, and we'll go along with those 
teachings on 'Sonship' and 'I'm in Christ' and 'I'm a disciple' and 
'God is my Father'. I'm not saying we're reprobates and hypocrites. 
We'll go along with it until there is a conflict of identity with 
that. And automatically identity will win out. It will be 'I'm a 
Son of God' until a situation, either a good one or a bad one, 
whether a crisis or an opportunity develops, that identity is the 
question here. Then most of the time it's just, 'Well brother, 
after all, I'm human!' But our teaching says we're Sons of God. 
Yeah, but. Or whether we either say that or not, it's the factor of 
male, female, black, white, race, nationality. But then it goes 
deeper than that. It's truly WHO I AM. And JW will be a Son of God 
and JW will believe he's a Son of God and JW believes God is his 
father - until the issue comes right down to JW.

What I'm telling you is what the scripture teaches. What Paul calls 
the renewing of the spirit of the mind. What Paul calls the 
revelation of Jesus Christ. What Paul calls the transformation of 
the heart. Until that takes place, we can believe it with 
everything that is in us to believe - but until our identity is 
changed ... Because what we're believing belongs to a new identity! 
Understanding that I'm a Son of God belongs to a new identity! It 
does not belong to the old, the first identity, and that old 
identity will not be able to fulfill it - they'll come to a 
crossroad every time. They'll come to cross purposes every time. It 
may be a decision, a value, a time of crisis, a person, a 
relationship, a place - it will come. 

It came to the Lord Jesus. And the Lord Jesus did not overcome ... 
this first Son of Man which is also the second Son of Man. Do you 
understand? The Lord Jesus the first Son of Man who is also the 
second Son of Man - He's in another body. This Lord Jesus is the 
first Son of Man in His first coming. He did not overcome by the 
letter of the law. He's out in the field. His disciples were 
picking corn. Here come the Pharisees. 'Wait a minute! This is the 
Sabbath. What are your disciples doing?' 'They're picking corn.' 
What did the Lord do? He didn't argue with them about the eighth 
day and the seventh day and get into a debate with them, get into 
the letter of the law. Do you know what He did? He said, "I'm THE 
LORD OF THE SABBATH." Identity did it for Him! I'm the Lord of the 
Sabbath. You look real closely here. When He was tempted after the 
baptism and He was driven out into the wilderness by the Holy 
Spirit - led there - tempted for 40 days and 40 nights. IDENTITY. 
He didn't get in an argument with the devil. He didn't even get in 
a scripture debate with the devil. If you look there real 
carefully, every case came down to identity - it came down to who 
He was. Not what He knew as things - WHO HE WAS!

And friends, this is what the test of real Sonship is all about. We 
think it's over what we know. No - the real test is going to come 
to you on the basis of who you are. And you and I know ourselves by 
the face that we look at every day. And we're either looking at our 
own face or by the Spirit of God we're beholding His face. 
Consequently if we are looking at our own face, we are trying to be 
the Lord's Body but it's got my face on it. When we come to behold 
His face, there is a transition. There's something about it - even 
in the natural - going to a mirror and looking at your face. Even 
when you're buying a pair of shoes, there's something about looking 
at your face that brings it all together for you. IT IS THE FACE. 

II Corinthians 3:18, " ...we all with open face beholding as in a 
glass the glory of the Lord..." The word 'face' in the Hebrew and 
Greek represent or signifies 'one's countenance'. If I want to see 
if you're happy or not I don't look at your hand. I look at your 
face. Isn't that true? Why is it then when we want to see the Lord 
we look at His hand, we look at His foot - we look at each other? 
Why when we want to see the will of God do we look at each other? 
No - WE LOOK AT HIS FACE. When I want to see holiness, I look at 
the face of This Man. Righteousness... When I want to see His 
countenance, I look at the face. Countenance is in the face.

The Bible clearly teaches that God is a spiritual being and ought 
not to be depicted by an image or any likeness whatever. Therefore 
there is no image or likeness of God in the inner most sanctuary. 
Only the Ark of the Covenant was there. And God spoke from above 
it. No man had seen the face of God. What gave light, what was seen 
in the Ark of the Covenant? THE GLORY OF GOD WAS SEEN! That's 
what Paul was bringing over here in II Corinthians 3:18. He's saying you 
have come to a place now where you can behold - looking into a 
vision with an open face. Now that means your face, your heart, the 
veil taken away. Beholding what? Beholding the glory of God! The 
Ark pointed to this. It was a figure of this. But here - This Man 
is the reality of what the Ark was just a figure of.

In the New Testament, the word 'face' is 'appearance, countenance, 
fashion, person, presence; the face so far as it is the organ of 
sight; by its movements, changes, the index of the inward feelings 
are made known; the appearance, the eye, the act of seeing.' The 
term 'face' as it is defined in the scriptures refers to that. What 
does all of this definition mean? It means that until you and I see 
His face, we haven't seen Him yet! It means that you and I can look 
at each other and we still haven't seen the Church, we still 
haven't seen the Body. I can look at me in a mirror - a saved 
person, born-again, but I still haven't seen the Lord. I still 
haven't seen the Lord's Body. And yet we think we have. Well we do 
constitute the Lord's Body, but you don't see that in the flesh. So 
we think we've seen the Lord's Body and we try to have a 
relationship - and we do have a friendship. But sooner or later, 
when identity becomes the issue, it will superabound over that 
relationship and over that fellowship that Christians have. It will 
get right down to me. I don't want to sound hard about this, but it 
will come down to who I know I am.

SEEING is in the face. Countenance is in the face. These Hebrew and 
Greek definitions say that the face gives evidence of the whole 
person. What I'm telling you is you and I can never know The Man we 
are until we look into the face of That Man. And what we as 
Christians are doing is saying we're the Body of One Man, but we're 
looking in the face of the other, and we're doing our best to make 
it work. We can talk about the laying down of our lives for one 
another, and some rise to that occasion. But laying down your life 
for one another is not an act of heroism at a certain split 
instance. The laying down of our lives is a manner of daily living 
- and that's much more difficult than the moment of heroism. That 
takes IDENTITY. There's a lot of things that you and I will rise to 
the occasion for. But the consistency of it is what counts. 

So the thing that we know about the Church most is that we kind of 
see it when we gather in a room. And it's either small or it's 
large. And that's how we number it - well, we've got a little 
church or we've got a big church. But you see when you look into 
His face, then that's not the measure any more. It's not a little 
or a big. No - the thing represents the FULNESS OF CHRIST, and all 
of a sudden it's totally different for you. It's measured in a 
totally different way for you. It doesn't make any difference then 
whether there's two or three or two or three thousand, because the 
thing is identified not in how many participate, but in the FACE OF 
HIM WHOSE BODY WE ARE! And we realize that Body is made up 
of saints of all ages, and that Body is made up of saints in heaven 
and earth, and that Body is measured only by the face of it - not 
by how many of us are in a room or a ball field at the time. There 
are many people today in ministry that are really built up by big 
crowds and really let down by small ones, because we measure 
everything that way. And there's a lot of people who don't like to 
be part of anything big - we like to keep it small. We measure 
things that way. But when we come to identify the whole thing in 
the face of Jesus - the measure changes. The measure is in the 
glory of Him! The measure of it is in the face of The Man! You 
measure a man, a woman, not by the stature of them. When the real 
measure comes, you measure them in their face. It's the countenance 
- that's where you measure the Man. That's the true measure of a 
Man.

It's their face. It's not really when it comes down to it what kind 
of clothes they have on. Those things are immediately noticeable, 
they have an immediate effect, but when it really gets down to it, 
the measure is something other than that. And not too many 
believers have really gotten down to it with the Lord. So we set 
each other up - for let downs. Because we sometimes begin to 
measure each other by our desires rather than by our understanding. 
I desire to do this; I want to do this. But do I have a 
comprehension to follow through with it? I want to be part of that 
glorious manifestation of Christ and yes, forsake everything for 
Him, and be caught up in the reality of Him. I want to do that. But 
is that going to come into conflict with the identity that I'm 
looking at every day? Because this first man is incapable of doing 
that. This first man is the body of His death, not the Body of His 
life. One day we'll come to realize this. We'll find ourself IN THE 
FACE OF JESUS CHRIST!

That's all I want to do. That's all I want for believers to do. I 
want us to find ourselves in the face of Jesus Christ. I have found 
myself in the face of Adam. I have found myself in the face of 
Brother Luman. I have found myself in the multitude of the sea of 
humanity. Now I want to find myself where I am - I want to find 
myself in the face of Jesus Christ. Because that's the only 
beholding - beholding with an open face - is the only place in the 
Word of God that mentions anything about there being a " changed 
into that same image."

We mentioned the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant had 
no imagery to it. Why? Because God is seen in His glory, so it had 
no imagery to it. What does the Ark of the Covenant represent? The 
Ark of the Covenant represents This Man. The term 'ark' means 'that 
which is fitly framed together.' The Ark must have been a real work 
of craftsmanship. Does that bring your mind right over into 
Ephesians? That in that foundation built up in Him we are fitly 
framed together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. And 
also it should take us to Solomon in 2 Chronicles the eighth 
chapter where it says "So Solomon finished the work." How did he do 
that? To the laying of the foundation thereof. And the Greek word 
means 'to the fitly framing together thereof'. And the third thing 
- to the perfecting thereof. What was he doing? It was a 
tabernacle. Who are you? THE TABERNACLE OF GOD!

What I'm telling you is the Ark of the Covenant represented This 
Man. Who does Ezekiel say This Man is? This is The Man that Ezekiel 
saw. Ezekiel saw the face of This Man. He saw the appearance - 
which means the face - of Him. We understand now what he saw. How 
did he identify That Man? BY HIS FACE! He starts out with " They 
four had the face of a man, the face of a lion, the face of an ox, 
finally of an eagle." But then he says that they four were One Man 
- they had the appearance - the face of a Man. The four faces gives 
a dimension to Christ - to His face. It's a four dimensional face, 
because the face represents who He is. And He has moved through 
being the ox and all these. But who is He? HE IS THE LIVING ONE! 
But because He's spoken of in a plurality there, we understand that 
He is Man, but He is a whole creation. We understand that He has 
wheels, but the wheels that He has is the movement of the Holy 
Spirit. It's the spirit of The Man that's in the wheels - the 
movement. So how does This Man move? This Man moves about by the 
Spirit of God. His movement is the Spirit of God! Those wheels were 
full of eyes, so it means This Man moves in understanding, in 
seeing. What a Man Ezekiel saw!

He looked at Him in the face. Here's the pitiful thing, friends. -
YOU AND I IN CHRIST REPRESENT THAT MAN. And most of us 
haven't seen Him yet! Ezekiel saw Him - he saw The Man you and I are 
in Christ, and yet most of us haven't seen His face yet. What did Ezekiel 
call This Man? He called Him the 'MARAH' of God. The mirror of God. 
That word 'marah' has two meanings in the Hebrew. First it means the act 
of seeing. What God is saying is until you see This Man you have 
not seen salvation, you have not seen righteousness, you have 
really not even seen my Kingdom. Until you see This Man, you are 
blind. This mirror is the act of seeing. It's a mirror, but it's 
God's mirror. Ezekiel did not say God gave me a vision. He said I 
saw the vision of God. I saw the mirror that God looks into when He 
wants to see the appearing of Himself. When you want to see 
yourself, where do you look? You go look in a mirror, and you look 
in your face! When God wants to see the appearing of Himself, what 
does He do? We're told He looks in a vision - the word 'marah' 
means the act of seeing.

The second thing it means is 'the appearance of the One seen.' Not 
a reflection. You and I go look in a natural mirror and we see a 
reflection. But God's mirror is not a piece of glass hanging on a 
wall. GOD'S MIRROR IS A LIVING CREATION! A creation He has 
created in His Own Son - it's a living creation for the appearing in the 
midst of it of a living God! "I will make my abode in the  midst of 
them. I will dwell in them." For what purpose? THAT HE MAY 
APPEAR IN HIS MIRROR!

But what does the word 'appear' indicate? What does 'marah' and 
'vision' indicate? One word gathers all of that up - FACE. So He 
does not see Himself in the Body of This Man - He sees Himself in 
the face of This Man!  That doesn't mean that the whole Body 
doesn't give expression of Him and doesn't express His glory. But 
when God comes to This Man to see Himself, He looks in the face of 
This Man! Who is the face of This Man? The face of This Man is 
CHRIST! The face of This Man is the Son of the Living God! You see, 
God looks at His Son to identify you and I! Wouldn't it be 
wonderful if you and I would do that? If we would come to the 
mirror, to the vision of God, if we would be lifted up from our 
earthly sight, our earthly seeing, and we would transcend into the 
heaven, into the Spirit - if we would behold? Wouldn't it be 
wonderful if you and I would come to know as we are known? How are 
you known? YOU ARE KNOWN IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST!

God looks in the face of this. In the end of Ezekiel 1 - behold the 
appearance, the face, like unto the glory of God. When you and I 
look into that same face we are changed. What's changed? Our 
understanding, our soul, the very spirit of our mind - not our 
brain - our soul, our identity. There is a transformation that 
takes place. Beholding our face, our soul takes on the very 
identity of That Face! No, I don't become the face. I become 
transformed in view of the face. I realize I am the Body of That 
face. And because I am, God is my Father and I am accepted of Him 
in the beloved!

Do you realize when James is talking about a double-minded man, you 
know what that translates to? A two-faced man! In the natural we'd 
get mad if somebody called us two-faced. But I'm telling you, most 
believers are two-faced. We have a face. This Man has a face. The 
face is Christ. But we're looking at the face of the flesh - we're 
two-faced. A two-faced man is unstable in all his ways. It doesn't 
mean he doesn't want to do good, it means he just can't do it. He 
can do it for a while until it's too much for him to do. One of the 
saddest things I realize in working with ministry, that it's just 
too much for them to do. And I've had to come down several pegs to 
establish any basis of relation with them at all. And I just 
understand that they're just not capable of this kind of 
responsibility or this kind of faithfulness. And rather than just 
being continually disappointed and frustrated, I just have to 
realize I can't fellowship with them on this basis. I'll have to 
leave that until the Lord deals with it. You just realize it's just 
too much for them. 

What God's expectation is for This Son is too much for the first 
man. It's too much for him. You can't do it except you come to see 
the face of This Son. All expectations are met in the face of This 
Son. Why? Because you come to see the Son that you are. If we would 
just see this. If we could just visualize the Body of Christ and 
the face of JW - and that's the problem. Get rid of that head - let 
the Headship of Christ come upon the Body of Christ - and that Body 
is capable of all expectations. But the issue is beholding the 
face. When are we transformed? When is there a transforming of the 
inner man? When we with open face behold the glory of the Lord! 
Where do we see that? In the glass. That's just a New Testament 
word for the 'marah', the mirror of God. What is the mirror of God? 
Essentially the mirror of God is This whole Man. But what is seen 
in the mirror of God? The face. So where does God look? God never 
looks at a man's foot. He always looks in the face. So the true 
mirror of God is the face! In other words, where does God see what 
He demands as Himself? In the foot? No, in the face! Where does God 
see the righteousness He demands? In the face. Then where do you 
and I have to look to see it? THE FACE!

What a joy it is to see He is the righteousness. But that's not 
letting me out of it, that's coming to realize a greater 
righteousness than I've ever been capable of realizing. At that 
point it's not left with me to do something, but there's a 
realization of who He is that so transforms me, that there is 
literally a changing of a life. The soul is transformed in its 
identity, in its thoughts, in its reasons, in its motivations. And 
when that takes place - a life is changed. That transcends 
teaching. That transcends trying to believe Christ is my life; 
trying to believe I'm in Him. Oh, beholding His face transcends the 
teaching and brings us into the reality. You know, I don't really 
know when the Church slipped from this view of Christ and created 
the 'theory of heaven' and put heaven as a Disneyland in the sky 
somewhere. But the natural man did that because they stopped 
looking in His face. Then all the questions we deal with - what 
will happen, what will take place, how it will be. I'm telling you, 
all of that takes place when you look in His face - the reality. 
I'm telling you it's more reality than you and I can bear. 

I believe that it is the comprehending of that reality that will 
bring about whatever change the scriptures speak of concerning this 
mortal body. I don't believe this mortal body will be able to 
manifest that full reality. But you see that's not preaching that 
this thing is going to live forever - it shall be changed. And 
reality is what changes it. The reality continues. The reality is 
there now. What I'm telling you is when you look into the face of 
Jesus Christ, the reality that you see there transcends all 
teachings about heaven, all teachings about Sonship. You  see in 
His face whose Body you are, who your life is. What a glorious 
thing it is. 

See in our western marriages we've got the bride covered, veiled. 
And we raise the veil to see the bride. But that is not the way it 
is in the eastern religions and as it is typed in Christ in the 
veil - the veil is raised so the bride can see the groom! What have 
we done to this? It's so messed up that it's never going to get 
right except by the revelation of Jesus Christ! The veil is raised. 
It's not Him seeing us - My God WE BEHOLD! The whole reality 
should be that when the veil is raised that bride sees her identity - sees 
her new name, sees her everything! That's what that groom should 
be. Now I know there's a lot of sorry men and a lot of sorry women, 
but I'm speaking as it should be, as the truth of it really is. She 
should behold her whole identity, her whole future, her whole 
everything - in the face of her beloved! And that man should behold 
his very body, yes, flesh of his flesh, in her. 

The veil, you see, is not lifted so He can see her, but so she can 
see Him - FACE-TO-FACE. That's what you and I are missing here. 
That's why you and I as His bride, as His wife, the Church, as His 
Body, that's what we're missing here. The veil is keeping us from 
seeing Him, and in Him we see ourselves; we realize who and what we 
are - by looking into His face. And we'll never know it until we do 
look into His face, because of the veil. What does the veil hide on 
the bride? It hides her face. It doesn't hide her body. It hides 
her face. When the veil is lifted she sees her face. Who does she 
see? THE BRIDEGROOM BECOMES HER FACE! The bridegroom 
becomes the mirror she looks into and sees herself. So what does she 
do? She takes HIS NAME! Now I know we've made a bunch of legal 
jargon out of that, but I'm telling you the reality of it. HIS NAME. 
What did we read in our last lesson? 
  
Revelation 22:4, "They shall see his face, and his name shall be in 
their forehead." The book of Revelation is declaring the reality of 
Christ, not some future event. It's declaring a present reality. 
That's not a book that's going to take place in 2030 - it is 
reality. When is His name written in you? WHEN YOU SEE HIS FACE! 
When His name is written in you - what does that mean? To me that 
means NEW IDENTITY. That means my name is not JW any more. Be 
careful now. I'm not telling you 'I am the Head.' But the Body will 
have no other identity other than that which the Head gives to it. 
The Bride does not become the groom. She just sees herself in His 
face and takes His name and is as His Body. And what is she for? 
She's for giving Him expression and for giving Him fruit. Let's get 
right down to it. She is for the producing of the seed of His 
loins. I mean the spiritual reality of this is what it's all about. 

What are we for except for the INCREASE OF HIM! The increase of 
Him - bringing Him expression in the earth. When will we do that? When 
will the Church quit being like a western wedding? When we see His 
face! Now some have made a teaching of this - the Bride, but the 
Bride is a relationship that you realize beholding the face of 
Jesus! We've made a teaching out of it - just to puff ourselves up. 
You see we can go off on the Bride. But remember, until THERE IS A 
BRIDEGROOM, THERE IS NO BRIDE! And the Bride is for the 
Bridegroom, not the other way around. And furthermore, the beauty 
of the Bride is the Bridegroom. You look at it in the Bible. I'll show you 
the Bride. "And he took me to a great mountain." And behold he begins 
to describe the city and the description of the city is the 
description of CHRIST. Every foundation, every stone in it is a 
precious stone and that's who He is - the precious stone who is the 
foundation. Everything there is an outshining of Him. Who is in the 
midst of it, but Him! Who is the light of it, but Him! It has no 
beauty and it has no appearance, but Him! Take Him out of it, and 
it is a dark city. 

This idea that He's off making us a beautiful city for Himself - 
No, He's making the city beautiful with Himself. He's the beauty of 
the city! The Bride is a relationship that we encounter in His 
face. His wife, bringing forth the fruit of His loins is a 
relationship we encounter in His face. But if we're trying to do 
that without looking at the face, then we are harlots. Now those 
are hard words, but that's what it amounts to. Because you're going 
to bring forth fruit of the one whose face you see. 

Now - the Ark of the Covenant. We said it had no form of its own 
that resembled God. The Ark of the Covenant then represented This 
Man who is the mirror of God. What is the one thing that is 
necessary to seeing a reflection, or an appearing in a mirror? The 
one thing necessary is light. You can have the mirror standing 
there and you standing there and the room can be dark - and you 
can't see a thing. Light is necessary. What was necessary in the 
type, in the shadow? The Ark of the Covenant sat in the Holy of 
Holies, which was probably the darkest place on the face of the 
earth, because it was constructed and covered in a way that all 
natural light was shut out. It was a dark place. You could go in 
there and not see the Ark of the Covenant. When could you behold 
the Ark of the Covenant? See that wasn't up to you - that was up to 
God. The only time the Ark of the Covenant could be seen was when 
the glory of God was in the midst of it - the light.

Where does the light come? The light comes IN THE FACE. In the book 
of II Corinthians 4:6, " For God who hath commanded the light..." 
This is not referring to creation. This is referring to what Paul 
is talking about - the Ark of the Covenant, the temple of God, the 
veil that was upon Moses' heart. "... commanded the light to shine 
out of darkness..." That's right in the Holy of Holies God did 
this. "... hath shined in our hearts..." Where does that all take 
place now? In us, in our soul, within us. "... hath shined to give 
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus 
Christ." What I'm telling us is until God reveals His Son, This Man 
is dark. There's no sight here, there's no light here. God can't 
see Himself there and you and I can't see ourself here. Nobody can 
see here until the Son is revealed. He is the light of this thing. 
And the light is in His face. No wonder the Apostle said, " walk in 
the light as He is in the light." Here's where we walk in the 
light. In other words, looking Him in the face. 

You can't see this mirror. God can't see into this mirror until the 
Son appears. The Father reveals the Son. Who is the Son? THE LIGHT! 
Who is Christ? Christ is the light! The light of what? Well, the 
light of everything, but primarily the light of God's mirror. Where 
does that light shine? In His countenance, in His face. So what 
does the Bible say? " If your eye be single, the whole body is 
filled with light." The eye is translated as the instrument of 
seeing. If your eye be single, that is if your face be single, if 
you're looking into one face, if you're beholding one face, the 
whole body is full of light. But if not, the whole body is full of 
darkness. 

God revealing the face. But how does that happen? The veil is taken 
off of our hearts and we behold Him face-to-face. Him who is in us. 
The veil is removed. The veil is this first man. The veil is 
removed and we look and we behold our face. We're looking in His 
face. Do you know where our view meets God's view? What is God 
doing? God is beholding Himself. Where? In the face. God is light 
and God beholds Himself in light. So when the Son is revealed, the 
Father sees Himself. The Father says, "UNTO THIS MAN WILL I LOOK." 
This is The Man God sees, God beholds. God's vision. He looks into 
the face of Jesus Christ and He beholds Himself there. When does 
our view meet God's view? When we look into the face of Jesus 
Christ! We see God in the face of Jesus Christ and God sees us in 
the face of Jesus Christ! Jesus is the mediator. He stands between. 
But He doesn't stand between to keep apart. He stands between to 
make One. "Oh Father, that they may know that they are one even as 
we are one." "In that day you will comprehend I'm in my Father, you 
are in me and I'm in you." See, He's the great mediator. In His 
face we see God; in His face God sees us.

Turn to Hebrews 9, because I tell you before this appearing that 
we're talking about here, this Son of Man, before He has an 
appearing in the earth, He has an appearing before the Father. 
Verse 24, " For Christ is not entered into the holy places made 
with hands." Look at chapter 9 verse 11, " But Christ being made a 
High Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect 
tabernacle..." Now you realize that greater and more perfect 
tabernacle is HIS OWN BODY. So He is come. How? In His Own 
Body! He is come in a greater tabernacle, not made with hands, that 
is to say not of this building. The Greek word for 'building' is 
'creation'. That is to say not of this creation. No - it's a New 
Creation in Christ Jesus! But who is it for? It's for Him, the High 
Priest. He is come. Well, we know He is in us and we are in Him. 
Bring that right over to verse 24 then. " For Christ is not entered 
into the holy places made with hands, which are figures of the 
true. He is entered into heaven itself. (For what reason?) Now to 
appear in the presence... (you can write there "face" because 
that's the Greek translation of that word.) Now to appear in the 
face of God for us. " TO APPEAR IN THE FACE OF GOD FOR US. 
That means He has a face-to-face confrontation with the Lord. What is 
the writer here trying to tell us has happened? He has suffered and 
become obedient unto death, He has done away with one creation. He 
has brought many sons unto glory. Who is He going to present those 
sons to? He's going to present those sons to the Father. But how is 
He going to do that? He's going to present them AS HIMSELF! Hebrews 
the second chapter says for this cause, " But we see Jesus... 
having become a little lower, for the suffering of death, that he 
might bring forth many sons unto glory. ... realizing that he that 
sanctifieth (Christ) and they that are sanctified (us) are all of 
One." Consequently He is not ashamed to stand in the midst of them 
and call them brethren. 

Look what He's saying. He is presenting something to the Father. 
What is He presenting? He's presenting Himself but He's presenting 
Himself in His Body, in His Holy Sanctuary, in His Tabernacle, that 
is not made with hands. He is presenting Himself. He is appearing 
in the face of God for us. That doesn't mean that we're not there, 
it means that He's appearing for His Body. It's His face that's 
being seen. THE FATHER IS LOOKING AT HIS FACE AND 
ACCEPTING HIS BODY! The Father is looking at His Face and 
accepting what He brings as a gift to the Father. No wonder the writer 
says, " Ye are accepted in the beloved." But when does God accept us? 
When He looks at us? No - WHEN HE LOOKS INTO THE FACE OF 
HIS SON - and He calls the whole ONE SON. He looks into the face 
and He accepts the Body, and He calls the whole thing - This is My 
Son in whom I am well pleased!

He appears FOR US! God looks to His mirror and His Son appears for 
us. And God looks into the face of His Son and says, 'I accept the 
offering. I accept the Body.' I'll tell you something that will 
fortify that for you - Ephesians 5:27, speaking of the Church 
there, speaking of the husband and the wife. It talks about Him 
washing with the washing of the water of the Word. That's the 
renewing of the spirit of our mind. What is He doing? The King 
James version says, " That he might present it to himself, not 
having spot or wrinkle or any such thing." The better Greek 
translation, the literal Greek is this, " That he might present it 
AS HIMSELF. " How else does He present His Body? And that makes 
sense. See when you comprehend something it makes sense. When 
you're seeing Him as separate from the Church then it would be "to 
himself." But you see, His presentation is to the Father. And the 
better translation of that phrase "to himself" is "as one with 
himself, as one's own self, as himself." What else could He present 
to the Father? HE PRESENTS US AS HIMSELF! The Father sees the 
face and He receives it as Himself!

The true reality of that is not exalting, it is humbling. If God 
receives us as the Son, we best be looking in the face of the Son. 
Now that puts us on wonderful ground, but that puts us on awesome 
ground. WHAT GOD CALLS SON, GOD DEALS WITH AS SON! God 
doesn't deal with us here in Christ as the first man. He's already dealt with 
the first man. We can plead our case all we want to. God says I've 
already made that judgment. I've already dealt with that man. I 
can't deal with you as that man. I don't care about your excuses. I 
don't care about your reasons. I've already dealt with you as that 
man.  I DEAL WITH YOU NOW IN THE FACE OF MY SON. That's
 how I see you. That's where I accept you. That's where I deal with you. 
That's a glorious ground, but it's an awesome ground. And it brings 
us into some responsibility. And the only way we can stand there is 
by beholding the same face God sees. As we behold that face, we are 
changed into that same image from glory to glory. This is a 
progressive work of the Holy Spirit. And I trust that this has 
begun in our hearts. 

The true question in salvation is not whether I'm going to heaven 
or not. the true question is will God get glory? The end of this 
whole trip is God getting glory. Is God getting glory? The purpose 
of This Man is for the glory of God; that God have expression, that 
God have manifestation, that God behold Himself and that God bring 
us to the same view, that we be changed and become an expression of 
the very face that God beholds so that God gets glory. That's what 
it is all about!

	
	PART FOUR


The faith by which we are truly gathered up is the FAITH OF THE SON 
OF GOD. The scriptures say in Ephesians 4, " 'til we all come in 
the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a 
perfect man." That is a Man full grown, complete. That's The Man 
we're talking about. A Man whose measure is by the measure of the 
fulness of the stature, and the Greek term there for 'stature' is 
not speaking of size, but 'age.' Coming to maturity, coming to full 
age. But the coming there is in faith. I used to say 'til we all 
come to the faith of the Son of God, but that's not what the 
scripture says. That coming, that is dealt with there is not a 
coming to faith, but a coming in faith. There's a difference. 
You've got to come to faith first, but you come to His faith 
individually - God revealing His Son in you. And then our coming 
together, our coming as one is in faith. That's important. When is 
our coming, a coming together? Now there's a lot in the scripture 
we need to search in this. We are quickened together, raised 
together, seated together. 

But Ephesians 2:10 says there is an administration for the 
gathering together. The word 'together' means 'as one.' When is it 
then, scripturally, that our coming is a scriptural coming; that 
our gathering is a scriptural gathering? When is it, that we come 
together or we gather together as one? Well, you say, when we come 
in a building. No, not at all. You see all over this world, people 
come to what they call a "church"; they go to a building. They 
would fight you tooth and toenail if you would suggest that this is 
not a true coming, not a true gathering; that this is a bunch of 
individuals sitting in a building. They are probably there because 
they agree on something. Kind of like a person voting a certain way 
because he's a Republican or a Democrat. It doesn't make much 
difference who's running - if he's a Republican I'll vote for him. 
That's pretty silly, but that's the way most of us think. Well I 
come here because I'm a Baptist or a Pentecostal. Or we believe 
this or we believe that - some doctrinal point and we gather around 
that. But the Bible doesn't call that a gathering. I noticed that 
where Paul is talking about the purpose of all ministries, the end 
of the race. Paul is talking about that in Ephesians 4 and he says, 
what is the purpose of ministry? What is the purpose of the Spirit? 
Til we all come in the unity of the faith. Til our coming is in 
faith of the Son of God. When do we constitute a true coming, a 
true gathering? When each person who is there is there because of 
the faith of the Son of God. They are joined by the faith of the 
Son of God. They're not joined by being Baptists, Pentecostals, 
believing in heaven or not believing in heaven, believing in 
rapture or not - no, none of that. We can either agree or disagree 
on those points, but none of those points constitute a foundation 
for the gathering. And there are very few gatherings today. Oh, 
there's a lot of buildings with a lot of people in them, three 
people to three thousand to thirty thousand, but they all sit there 
as individuals in actuality. Their whole common thing is some 
point, some issue.

Paul says 'til we all come in unity of the faith. Until we do we're 
not in unity yet. The fact that we're in this building does not 
unify us. The only thing that it means is that we're all in this 
building. We may be sitting here as far from each other as the east 
is from the west. And in most places that's the way those folks are 
sitting there. You have a hard time if you have fifty people 
getting many of them agreeing on any one thing. You start 
multiplying that and instead of having a greater unity you have a 
greater division. It shouldn't be that way but it is. Some are 
there for the Sunday School, some are there for the choir. Some are 
there because it's convenient to their home. These things are all 
there, yet we have the audacity to say, 'we're all gathered.' Well, 
we're all in one building, but that's like saying we're all on one 
planet.

What constitutes This Man? FAITH. Not my faith, not your faith, THE 
FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD! The article 'the', according to the Greek 
text means the faith of the Son of God. So when Paul says the unity 
of the faith, he doesn't say the unity of faith. Where the faith is 
used it is always referring to the faith of the Son of God. Paul 
says the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of 
the Son of God. How does that faith come? It comes when Christ is 
revealed in you. Paul just got through saying "It pleased God to 
reveal His Son in me." We sing the song, "We are gathering together 
unto Him." The real truth, the reality of that is we are being 
gathered together in the knowledge of Him. We are being gathered 
together in the faith of Him. And if we are not being gathered 
together in the faith of Him, then we are not being gathered 
together. We may be herded up in one town or in one building, but 
we're still not gathered as one - gathered together - together 
meaning 'as one', unless we are gathered in the revelation of Jesus 
Christ - in the faith of Him. And when I began to realize that's 
what the scripture is teaching, what Paul is teaching, I realized, 
my God, there's not many that are gathered. And that's why you see 
so many scattered so easily, so many offended so easily - they 
weren't gathered in the first place. They were just in the same 
building, in the same 'church'. There's got to be that gathering, 
folks. We're first gathered to Him. Until I'm gathered to Him, 
there's no chance of me being gathered to you. Because my gathering 
unto Him is where I'm gathered to you. Unless we are gathered to 
Him, we're not gathered at all. Consequently there is a move of 
God's Spirit, here in Christ Jesus, to gather a people in the 
knowledge of Him for the manifestation of Him. And that's what This 
Man is. 

How are we gathered? And according to what are we looking - we are 
gathered in the face of Jesus Christ. We are gathered together 
first with God. We meet the gaze of God in the face of Jesus 
Christ. We come to know God is our Father in the face of Jesus 
Christ. Now we can say God is our Father, but it's different to 
know God is our Father. I can read the Bible and say, "I'm a son of 
God, it says so right here." But oh my, to come to that 
comprehension in the face of Jesus Christ goes far beyond the 
letter of the law - it's the reality of the Spirit. And that's 
where you and I have got to come. We've got to come to the reality 
of the Spirit which the letter of the law declares, but just 
reading the letter of the scripture does not bring you to that 
reality - it declares that reality. But only the Spirit can bring 
you to that reality. I mean the scripture declares salvation, and a 
sinner can read it all day, but until he's born-again it doesn't do 
him any good. 

There's got to be a working of the Spirit in This Man. There's got 
to be a revealing of Jesus Christ in you and I. This has got to be 
more than just a true teaching. It is a true teaching, but it's got 
to be more than a true teaching. It's got to be more than Matthew, 
Mark, Luke, Corinthians, Romans, Acts - it's got to be more than 
Paul said. IT'S GOT TO BE WHAT THE SPIRIT HAS MADE REAL 
IN ME. And it will identify with what Paul said, and Isaiah, Jeremiah, 
Matthew and Mark, Luke. Because the scripture speaks this truth, but 
only the Spirit can bring us there. That's what coming in the unity of 
the faith is all about. It's not just all believing one verse in 
the Bible. No, it's all having experienced one faith - a faith that 
is produced in you and I through the revelation of Jesus Christ! 
And I'll guarantee you, when we are gathered in that faith - 
nothing - not hell, can separate those who are come in the unity of 
the faith. Why? Because they are come as One Man! They come in the 
knowledge of the face. And when you and I begin to see the face of 
This Man, and we walk in the faith, being the revelation, the 
light, the knowledge; when you and I begin to behold our face, and 
in Him comprehend we are One Man, there is nothing that shall 
separate us. BECAUSE THE FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD BINDS 
THE THING TOGETHER!

The whole purpose of our traveling and meetings is to bring 
believers to the faith, that coming might be in the faith. It's 
just that - to bring believers to such a faith, to present 
believers with such a faith, such a reality, that a heart may turn 
to see Him, and that faith of the Son of God be birthed. And that 
person in that faith be joined to a gathering that is taking place 
in the Spirit and in the heavens to give Him manifestation in the 
earth. The whole purpose of our travelling is so that believers 
come to this faith so there might be at one point in time a coming 
of A Man in the unity of the faith. We're going to come in faith 
until we come to it. Until Christ is revealed in us. I declare to 
you a greater faith than just believing there is a Christ, a 
greater faith than just believing there is a God, a greater faith 
than just believing my sins are forgiven. I declare to you the 
faith of the Son of God - it is a knowledge of Him, it is His 
knowledge working in you.

Turn to Hebrews 9:24, "... now to appear in the presence, or in the 
face of God for us." Christ is not entered into holy places made 
with hands. No, He's entered into a sanctuary made of God. That 
sanctuary being you and I. Jesus referred to this in John's gospel 
the 14th chapter verse 3 where He said, "I go and I will come 
again." The word there 'come again' means 'come anew - in a new 
way, in a new form, in a new method.' I will come, but I will come 
anew. " And I will receive you unto myself, that where I am there 
ye may be also." The result of this being that you shall come to 
understand that " I am in my Father, you are in me and I am in 
you." That's exactly what this writer is saying. For Christ is not 
entered into the places made with hands. He's not entered into the 
old tabernacle. The old tabernacle stood for something. It was a 
foreshadow of something. It spoke of something. Christ isn't 
entered into the type. He's entered into the REALITY. "... which 
are figures of the true, but he's entered into heaven..." and it 
talks about heaven. Heaven here is translated 'heavenlies'. He is 
entered into the heavenlies. Well, what does He say? " He has 
quickened us together, raised us together, seated us together in 
Christ, in heavenly places." Hebrews 8:2 says. "... a minister of 
the sanctuary and the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, not 
man." 

Where does that take us? Back to the prophesy in Exodus 15:17, "And 
thou shalt bring them in. In where? Into the sanctuary that thou 
hast made for thyself to dwell in." That's where He has entered in. 
He has entered into a Holy Place, into a new sanctuary, a spiritual 
sanctuary, that Body that I was telling you about that you can't 
see but the Spirit reveals. And how does the Spirit reveal the Body 
that you are, the Sanctuary that you are? By revealing the person 
who lives there - BY REVEALING CHRIST! How does the Holy Spirit 
reveal the Body you are? By revealing the FACE OF WHOSE BODY 
YOU ARE! " He has not entered into the holy places made with hands, 
which are figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to 
appear in the face of God for us." We talked about that. See He 
doesn't come there alone. We went to Ephesians 5. He brings His 
whole Body. And what does He do? He presents His Body as one with 
Him. Hebrews says that He's not ashamed therefore to stand in the 
midst and call them brethren, for he that sanctified and they that 
 are sanctified are all of one. What is He doing? He brings forth 
His Body, and as it were He presents Himself, yes, but He presents 
Himself as His Body! He has to present Himself as His Body, because 
the whole purpose that He came for was to bring back such a Body. 
The whole purpose that He came for was to bring This Man forth in 
reality. Otherwise there's no purpose of Him coming - He's the Son 
of God in the beginning.

He's the Son of God, one with the Father, the Eternal Word before 
He came anywhere. His purpose in coming and returning to the Father 
is to bring forth the greater work, is to bring forth the greater 
Man, is to bring forth The Man God has seen and foreknown - is to 
bring forth a finished work! The Son doesn't show up empty handed. 
No sir - He presents His Body. And since God is eternal, He 
presents His Body as an eternal Body. God sees in His face every 
saint that is born-again, everyone that shall ever be born-again, 
everyone that yet will be born-again. He sees the whole of the Body 
in the face of Jesus Christ. Why? Because He accepts the Son! And 
none can come but by the Son, so He accepts the whole!

Glory to God! So He accepts first century saints and fiftieth 
century saints as far as that goes. He accepts us in the beloved. 
Because when we come, we have to come that way. There is no other 
way to come. So He appears in the face of God for us, and when God 
sees His face, He accepts the whole Body. And then the Spirit of 
God begins to move in that Body to bring that Body to the knowledge 
of Christ; to work the knowledge of Christ in that Body, thus 
knitting that Body together and joining that Body together and 
bringing that Body together for the manifestation of the glory of 
God in all the earth. This is the continual work of the Spirit. And 
it's based on the finished work of Jesus Christ. It's based on what 
He presents to the Father. What does He present? HIMSELF!

Now the word 'appear' here - "to appear in the presence of God for 
us." To appear in the face of God for us. 'For us' doesn't mean 
that we're one place and He's another, it means He stands there, 
and the scriptures are very clear throughout. Chapter 10 verse 19, 
" Having therefore brethren, boldness to enter into the holiness by 
the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he has 
consecrated for us through the veil..." Yes, it is in Him that we 
are there. He presents us there. So it's a whole Man being 
presented there. He doesn't stand there and we stand some place 
else. It means He stands for the whole! Now He stands for the 
greatest member and the weakest! There's no difference. I don't 
know whether that gives you some consolation, but that gives me 
some consolation. He stands for the whole. He stands for the hair 
shaft on the back of the neck. He stands for the insignificant 
member just like He stands for the significant one. Because God 
doesn't look at the members - He looks at the face, and when He 
looks at the face of His Son, He receives the whole Body! It 
doesn't make any difference what my place in the Body is, I'm seen 
and accepted in the face of Jesus Christ and you are too. So you 
see, really in the presence of God, we're not known for the 
ministry we've got, we're not known for this or that - we're known 
in the face of His Son. And that's one thrilling thing! That I'm 
accepted in the beloved. I'M KNOWN IN THE FACE OF JESUS 
CHRIST!

If you and I ever get a hold of that, we'll run over ourselves 
trying to give honor to each other. That's what Paul gets into when 
he talks about the Body and the weakest member, or those that we 
suppose to be weak members we give the greatest honor. What kind of 
knowledge do you think brings you to that? Understanding that all 
of you are accepted in the face of the beloved. Then Paul comes 
back with that for ministry in I Corinthians 1:26 and he says, "Now 
ye see your calling brethren, none of you are accepted or called 
because you're mighty or because you're noble or because you're 
this or that." Why? So that no flesh shall glory in His presence - 
and that means in His face. There's only ONE that glories in the 
face of God, and that's Jesus Christ. And Paul is trying to bring 
ministry to that, and he says, look here, you're not accepted 
because of your greatness and your nobility - YOU ARE ACCEPTED 
BECAUSE OF HIM! You have no ministry but by Him anyway. Every 
ministry you've got is either a ministry of Him or it's a ministry 
of the flesh. And if it's a ministry of the flesh it sure is not 
accepted of God no matter how great is it. But the ministry of 
Christ is accepted of God no matter how small it is because He 
accepts it in the face of Jesus Christ. Why? So as it is written, 
"HE THAT GLORIES, LET HIM GLORY IN THE LORD." Thank God 
no flesh shall glory in His presence. 

Now we ought to take some consolation in that. The LORD stands in 
the face for me! The Lord stands in the presence for me. That 
doesn't mean He's one place and I'm another, but that He stands 
there for me. There's some consolation there for you and I if we'll 
just follow through on that line. And the more you see His face, 
the greater consolation He becomes to you. But the word 'appear' is 
a Greek word 'emphanizo'. It means 'something emphasized' - 
probably we get our English word 'emphasize' from that. What it 
means is 'to exhibit one's self, something placed on exhibition.' 
Now this word 'appear' - "now to exhibit Himself, now to place 
Himself in open exhibition before the face of God." Well, what is 
He exhibiting? What is He placing on exhibition? HIS BODY - the 
work that He's done, what He has finished!

I don't want to lessen this by bringing this into a temporal 
example, but most all of us have had children who go and labor on 
something. They make something, and they're just so proud of it. 
And the first person they show that to is not their little friends, 
not their next door neighbor, the first person they go show that to 
is their parents. They bring it home from school, and they want to 
exhibit it. Oh friends - THE SON- "I come not to do my will, but 
the will of Him that sent me. I must be about the work that He gave 
me to do - to finish it." On the cross, at the place of His 
humiliation and the place of His exaltation He cries out in triumph 
and voice - IT IS FINISHED. Now to appear in the face of God and 
exhibit it - a finished work. He exhibits The Man that God has seen 
from the beginning. He places it on exhibition. He exhibits 
Himself, but He exhibits that which is one with Him. He exhibits 
His Tabernacle; He exhibits His Body. Before who? First before the 
Father. The Father is going to see This Man way before the world 
will ever see Him. Amen. His credibility, His favorableness is not 
first with the world, it is first with the Father. He is not 
accepted with the world, HE IS ACCEPTED WITH THE FATHER. 

Now I'm going to tell you, it doesn't make any difference who 
accepts you in this earth - it's whether you're accepted in the 
beloved or not. I want to have favor with all men, but when it 
comes right down to it, favor with God is the only thing that 
really counts! Paul has said that. He has said, 'What, do we preach 
to have favor with men or of God? And if we sought favor with men 
we should not be the servants of God.' It doesn't mean you go 
around trying to make people mad at you. It just means that you 
comprehend that there's only one place where This One's accepted. 
That's the thing that He cares about, the purpose. Look at Mary 
coming to Him. You see He stood there in that garden, in that 
glorified Body, which was a foretaste of the Body that would come, 
because He changed forms in that Body all the time. But that 
represented His Body, that represented a resurrected Body that 
would bear the marks of His dying - yes, those that would know that 
they have no life but Christ. John the Revelator saw that Body. But 
see Him standing there in the garden representing that Body. And 
His first desire was not to show Himself to Mary, it wasn't to show 
Himself to the disciples. Mary came into the garden in the early 
morning and what did He tell her really? He said, do not hold on to 
me. I have not yet gone to my Father. And the Greek there means, 
'do not seek to hold me in this form.' What is He saying? There is 
a greater form in which you will know me. I must go to my Father. 
The only desire on the heart of The Son that comes forth in the 
Resurrection is to present a finished work to the Father. You and I 
ought to shout over that because we are part of that work that He 
presents. We have no presentation before the Father except by the 
Son. Not then, not now, not ever. 

Turn with me to John 14. He appears there as the greater work there 
given Him to finish. The word 'finish' means 'to make complete or 
to make perfect a thing.' Verse 12, " Verily, verily I say unto 
you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also 
and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my 
Father." I never did understand what they meant, I just accepted it 
because the scripture said it. But I thought, why? What's this got 
to do with Him going to the Father? The word 'greater' here means 
'greater to a degree'. Now He says the works that I do ye shall do 
also, and greater works. And of course that word 'works' there is 
not in the original. It's having to do with a work, a thing, an 
occupation. The Greek word for 'works' is not things done, but an 
occupation - a thing given one to do. I give you something to do. 
Now in doing that you may do this, that or the other, but the thing 
that I gave you to do is the greater work. Folks, the greater work 
was accomplished at the cross. On His way there He blessed the 
people and healed the sick, and raised the dead and cleansed the 
leper and all of that. And He does all of that today, but that's 
not the greater work. The greater work was what was given Him to 
finish, given Him to do. He did these other things along the way. 
The greater work was His occupation - the word means 'occupation'. 
And the word 'greater' means 'greater in degree'. It has nothing to 
do with many or more, or more of, such as number. It's the same 
word Jesus used when He says, " Behold, a greater than Solomon is 
here." It's the same word Jesus used when He said, "One who is 
greater than the temple is in your midst." He's not talking about 
numbers there, He's talking about greater in degree. One writer 
says, "a more mature, a work of greater age, of greater maturity, 
or greater significance."

Now He says that we come into the picture concerning this greater 
work. Why? "Because I go to my Father." What does He do? What does 
He present to His Father? He presents His Father with the greater 
work. It's a greater work because I go to my Father. You will 
participate. You will actually be and participate and do a greater 
work because I go to my Father. When I appear in the presence of my 
Father, you appear there as the greater work. What will you do? You 
will manifest that work in the earth! Yes, you can heal the sick 
and this and that, but the work that you manifest in the earth is 
the greater work. And you can manifest that greater work because I 
go to my Father. Because I bring you into my Father, because where 
I am there ye shall be also. I am in my Father, you are in me and I 
am in you. And that's the work that ye shall manifest in the earth. 
And you'll do that because I go to my Father. If He didn't bring 
the thing before His Father, it could never be made manifest in the 
earth. It must first be accepted of the Father.

I want to show you something. Go to John 5 verse 19. "Jesus 
answered and said unto them, Verily, verily I say unto you. The Son 
can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do." What 
is He talking about? The Father up here doing something? No - the 
thing that the Father did, and the thing that the Son who is One 
with the Father in the beginning, the thing that the Godhead had 
determined - I have looked at a Man. I have determined a Man. Here 
is what God has done. So the Son says I can not come and do 
anything other than what the Father has determined, than what I 
have seen with my own eyes. Here is the look of God. In the 
beginning God looked at This Man and realized that it was going to 
take a cross. The cost was counted in the Godhead. In the beginning 
He was a lamb slain. The whole cost was counted in the beginning - 
of what it would take to bring forth such a Man. 

See how we have reduced that today in the modern day Church? We 
said that God sat down and figured the cost in the beginning of 
what it takes to save you and I from hell and take us to heaven and 
give us a home in glory. My God, how self centered that view is. 
No, God sat down and determined the cost and looked through the 
cross for THIS MAN! This Man is a whole lot more than a bunch of 
Christians sitting around waiting to die and go to heaven. This Man 
is one who is in union with Christ, not for the purpose of going 
and sitting on the bank of a golden river and fishing for glorified 
catfish through eternity. This Man is the One chosen of God to give 
Him expression in all the earth, ages without end! There's a little 
more to this you see, than satisfying the lusts of our flesh. Yes, 
the cost was counted all right, but here's the greater work. The 
work that the Son would bring forth and present as being one with 
Himself. So the Son says I can do nothing less than that. " For 
whatsoever he doeth, these also the Son likewise. For the Father 
loveth the Son and sheweth (this is the word 'revealeth, make open, 
make clear') him all things that himself doeth, and he will shew 
him greater works that ye may marvel. For as the Father raises up 
the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he 
will." What is the greater work there? He keeps right on talking. 

Look at verse 36, " But I have greater witness than that of John.." 
Greater witness. I'm going to tell you that the greater witness and 
the greater work is the same thing. If you think that a bunch of 
Christians running around on the face of the earth having no idea 
of their union with Christ, preaching doctrines and traditions and 
Churchianity is a witness of God or a witness of Christ - you're 
wrong! It's a witness of a religion, it's a witness of an 
Antichrist, it's a witness of the traditions of men, but it has 
nothing to do with the witness of Christ. THE WITNESS OF CHRIST 
CAN ONLY COME WHERE HE HIMSELF HAS DIVINE EXPRESSION! 
Not where people are talking about Christian things, not where people 
are talking about their religion. That has nothing to do with the word 
'witness'. The word 'witness' means 'MARTYR'. It means a life lain 
down and a life expressed. Paul says here is the witness, " So then 
death worketh in us, but life worketh in you." Here is the witness. 
The witness is a Man who understands 'It is not I, but Christ who 
liveth.' The witness is a creation that understands we have no life 
but Him! The witness is a creation understanding there's the 
witness, there's the greater work. The witness and the work is the 
same.

" I have greater witness than that of John; for the works..." What 
is my witness? My witness is the work! "I have greater witness than 
that of John..." Someone sent me something to read a while back - 
"The Anointed voice" - we're always trying to be anointed outside 
of Christ. And it goes into John, a voice crying in the wilderness, 
a voice of one - that God is raising up another John the Baptist 
ministry today, and that is typed with the Elijah ministry, because 
Jesus said that Elijah is come in John. And I thought, but that's 
already happened, why do we want another John? John has come, made 
his witness and the Lord's said 'I've got a greater witness than 
John.' Why would we want another John ministry running around 
saying, "There's one coming, there's one coming," when the One has 
already come? Why do we want an Elijah ministry? But you see that 
builds up a ministry - we're the Elijah ministry, we're this, we've 
got the mantle - and all of that - anything to just substitute for 
Jesus. Anything to make me great. Anything to keep you depending 
upon me - just anything. Yes sir, you can come and be part of this 
anointed ministry. Just anything other than the Lord showing up and 
taking it all unto Himself. And I came to think, why do we want 
another ministry saying He's coming? HE IS COME!! The greater 
witness is not another Elijah company, the greater witness is not a 
John the Baptist company, the greater witness is a people 
manifesting the reality of his coming - HERE AND NOW AND 
FOREVER!
To see that greater witness, to see that greater work we've got to 
look into somebody's face. But you see it's easier to look in 
John's face, it's easier to look in Elijah's face. It's easier to 
look in the face of a dead man, than it is to look in the face of 
the resurrected, glorified, only begotten, ever living Son of God, 
because there - ONLY HE APPEARS! That's what Jesus said. We 
started out with Jesus saying, " Who do men say the Son of Man is?" 
I'm telling you men are still saying that the Son of Man is a John the 
Baptist ministry. Men are still saying that the Son of Man is an 
Elijah ministry. But haven't we ever read the scripture? You 
condemn yourself. Peter says, 'They say you're Elijah. They say 
you're John the Baptist. They say you're one of the prophets.' No - 
it's not John come again, it's not Elijah come - IT IS THE SON COME 
AGAIN! It's Him come again. IT IS THE EVER LIVING CHRIST OF 
GOD COME AGAIN! It's not a dead man come again, it's the living Man! 
IT'S THE RESURRECTION HIMSELF FINDING REVEALING, 
FINDING APPEARING AND FINDING MANIFESTATION IN HIS 
OWN BODY! Not the body of John, not the body of Elijah - IN HIS 
OWN BODY!

But you see, we've got to look at the face to see that. It's just 
easier to look at John, and easier to look at Elijah, easier to 
look at me - and here I come. Sure I'll preach about Him and tell 
about Him, as long as I can get the glory - just substituting 
ourselves. Do you see how silly that is for us to do that? Haven't 
we read the scripture? Why should we look for another John? Why 
should we look for another Elijah coming? When the face that I want 
to see is HIS FACE! I want to see Him! That He may have an 
expression in a people. That there may be a people in the earth who 
themselves are, because they've looked in His face, in their 
ministry in their countenance, in their life, in their manner of 
living - they themselves are the expression of Him who is ever 
coming. This is the greater work and this is the greater ministry 
that He's talking about. It is This Man that He presents before the 
Father in His Own face.

So He says, " For the work which the Father has given me to finish, 
the occupation that the Father has given me, the thing that the 
Father has given me to finish, the same works that I do bear 
witness of me, that the Father hath sent me." There He is not 
referring, by the original translation, to the things that He does 
while accomplishing that work. He's not talking about the healing 
of the sick and the blessings. He did that. He does that. And so 
can This Man. But no, see THIS MAN IS THE GREATER WORK. That 
Man does works, but He Himself is the greater work. And we get all 
caught up in the works and miss the greater work. We get all caught 
up preaching works rather than the greater work. Without the 
greater work, the works... - they're not eternal. They are not 
eternal. I don't care how many times you get healed, that doesn't 
make that body eternal. He raised Lazarus from the dead - Lazarus 
died again. Those are wonderful things, and they should be everyday 
occurrences in the life of those who understand that Christ is 
their life. But the greater work is the Man Himself! The greater 
work is what He presented to the Father in His Own face. The 
greater work is that which is accepted in the beloved. The greater 
work is That Man looking in the face of Jesus and being changed 
into that same image, giving expression of that same One in all the 
earth. Now works may accompany that greater work, but it's the 
greater work. And the reason we haven't seen too much of either, 
either works or the greater work, is because we lust after the 
wrong thing. We set our mind on the wrong thing. And we don't want 
a manner of living to go along with it. I want to live my own life 
and God heal me when I get sick. That won't always work. I want to 
live my own life and God bless me when I need it. That won't always 
work. There's a manner of life to be dealt with here. There's 
something the Lord is after here. 

" And the Father himself which has sent me hath born witness of me. 
Ye have neither heard his voice at any time nor seen his shape." 
That's what all of this is about, because This Man, out from the 
midst of This Man, both the image of God and the voice of God; the 
glory of God and the voice of God is to be seen. Now go back to 
verse 21. " For the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, 
even so the Son quickeneth whom he will." He will show ye greater 
works. He's talking about the work of the Son. What is the work of 
the Son? Chapter 6 verse 38, " I came down from heaven not to do my 
own will, but the will of him that sent me." You have to understand 
that doing the will and doing the work is all the same thing here. 
"...and this is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all 
that he hath given me I shall lose nothing, but shall raise it up 
the last day." What do you mean - of all that He has given me I 
shall lose nothing? He's not talking about individuals. He's 
talking about the WORK - that I should not come short in any part 
of that which He has given me to do. That I would not leave the 
work unfinished. It has nothing to do with certain individuals 
given to Him and certain individuals not given to Him. No - He has 
given to Him a whole Man. He has given to Him a creation to bring 
forth, a mankind, a kind of man to bring forth, And He will lose 
none of that. In other words, He's not going to bring it part way 
forth or half way do it. No - He's going to do the whole thing. HE 
IS GOING TO PRESENT THIS MAN IN GLORY AS HIS OWN BODY. "What the 
Father has given me to do, and I won't fall short in any part of 
it."

Then He repeats it and makes it real clear. " And this is the will 
of him that sent me. Everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on 
him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last 
day." He's saying - everyone is a HIM. What is He raising up? A 
HIM! There's One Man He's going to raise up in His Resurrection. 
There's One Man He's going to raise up in His face. I WILL RAISE 
HIM UP. The whole work - the total work. What's it made up of? 
Every man that seeth me and believeth. But it's a HIM! And I will 
raise HIM up. I AM THE RESURRECTION. I AM THE LIFE, HE THAT EATETH 
ME, HE SHALL LIVE BY ME. I SHALL RAISE HIM UP. THIS MAN LIVES BY 
HIM! I will raise him up at the last day. The "last day" is this 
day of the Lord. There's only one day in the day of the Lord. This 
is the last day. If you want to do that in a theological way, He 
said I'm going to do all that in three days. He said, 'Destroy this 
temple and I will raise it again in three days.' He's talking about 
this work, This Man. What is the last day of three days? It is the 
third day. That's the day of the Resurrection. That's the day after 
the Sabbath day. That's the eighth day. That's the day of new 
beginnings. That's the last day. And it's during that light of that 
day. Who is the light of that day? HE IS! It is during the light of 
that day. "Work while you have light, for no man can work when 
darkness is come." It is during that day when He is raising This 
Man up in Himself, in His voice, in His knowledge, in His faith, 
and presenting That Man as Himself unto God the Father.

Verse 44, " No man can come to me except the Father which has sent 
me draw him. And I will raise him up at the last day." Again, verse 
53, " Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man (who is this He's 
raising up? It's the Son of Man) and drink his blood..." This is 
the blood of His life. This is the blood of the New Testament. This 
is the blood of a new understanding, Except we eat Him and come to 
His understanding, eat His flesh, drink His blood, because He says 
my flesh is meat indeed, my blood is drink indeed. Except ye do 
that you have no life in you. Why? BECAUSE THIS MAN LIVES BY HIM!

Verse 54, " Whosoever eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath 
eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day." There's only 
One Man coming forth in the last day and that's The Man who is in 
the very, and as the very Body of the Resurrection Himself, the 
very Body of Jesus Himself. He is being raised up by the voice of 
the Son, by the Spirit of the Son, through eating the Son, and he's 
being brought to behold the face of the Son, finding his identity 
there. He is accepted of God in the Son and the purpose of That 
Man, the greater work, the greater witness, the purpose of That Man 
is to give God His final expression in all the earth and ages 
without end. THIS MAN IS UNTO THE GLORY OF GOD THE FATHER!

Verse 55, "For my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink 
indeed. He that eateth my flesh dwelleth in me, and I in him. And 
as the living Father..." - Now we're bringing this right over from 
Chapter 5 verse 21. " As the living Father has sent me and I live 
by my Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me." This 
One lives by none but the Son. When you and I have Christ revealed 
in us by the Father, we behold His face, we will see Him by whom we 
live, through whom we live, with whom we live and as whose Body we 
live. That's the transformation that will bring about an expression 
of Him in the earth. Think what a transformation that does in one 
believer. Think what it does in a Body of believers. And this is 
what I've been talking about, what Paul is referring to - "til we 
all come in the unity of the faith, of the knowledge of the Son of 
God, to a perfect man..." ONE who is measured in the age of Christ. 
This is what Paul says is the END of all ministry, the purpose of 
all ministry, the purpose of the working of the Spirit. It is the 
end set before us. 

Jesus said, 'Because I go unto my Father, this greater work shall 
ye do. This greater work shall be expressed in the earth because I 
go to my Father.' The word 'go' means 'to pursue, to continue the 
journey upon which one has entered.' His journey didn't end in 
death. His journey - the death part was to do away with an old man. 
That's not the end. His journey didn't end until He stood in the 
face of the Father and presented a New Man! That's the journey He 
set upon. That's the end of our journey. If that's the end of His, 
that's the end of ours. The end of our walk is til we come to 
behold His face and in His face, see the New Man. That's the end of 
the journey. HE THAT IS FAITHFUL UNTO THE END SHALL BE SAVED! 
That's the end. Peter saying, 'behold the end of your salvation, 
the end of your faith, even the total salvation, the transformation 
of your soul.'  Those who look to Him shall behold Him. He shall 
appear without sin - unto salvation! What is the end of our 
journey? Beholding the salvation of the Lord! Where do you see the 
salvation of the Lord? IN HIS FACE! The end of our faith, even the 
saving of our soul. Where is our soul saved, changed, transformed? 
Beholding His face! His journey didn't end with the cross. His 
journey ended when He presented a finished work before the Father. 
And our journey doesn't end when we realize we're dead, our journey 
ends when we come to the full realization - HE IS MY LIFE! Our 
journey ends where His ends - IN THE FACE OF THE FATHER! 
HALLELUJAH!

Don't you see this is why God judged Israel so harshly for not 
finishing the journey? They were glad to get out of Egypt, and all 
of us are too. But they paid the price for not finishing the 
journey. They wouldn't finish the journey. I look at believers 
today and it's the most pitiful thing to look at. They are 
wandering around in the wilderness building idols to themselves; 
they just hit one high point and fall all the way down the 
mountain. No sooner does a new thing come to the pinnacle, it just 
falls all apart and people's lives are left wrecked, torn all to 
pieces in the shadow of it. Why? Because they are basing everything 
on a deliverance from sin - BUT THEY WON'T FINISH THE JOURNEY. 
They won't cross the Jordan. Because that's where they've got to look 
the Son in the face. That's where they've got to see what the whole 
Ark of the Covenant on the shoulders of the priests represents in 
the midst of the river. There's where they've got to come to the 
second circumcision. There's where they've all got to be gathered 
up in the vision of The Man that stands outside of Jericho. There's 
where they've got to come to the face of Jesus Christ. They don't 
finish the journey. So what does the Hebrews writer say? " I've 
sworn in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest." What 
does God call finishing the journey, the end of the journey? He 
calls it REST - entering into rest. What did Isaiah 66 verse 1 and 
2 say? " Where is the house that you build me, where is the place 
of my rest? Unto THIS MAN will I look." God's rest, God's finish. 
God lays it all down and calls it done when He sees This Man. Until 
you and I come to look into His face, there is no rest. There is 
effort, there is toil, there is turmoil - but there is no rest. We 
will not cease from our works until we look into His face. Here is 
the rest of God. Here is the finish of God's work. Here is the full 
salvation of the Lord. It's His rest! It's wonderful!!

But you see most of us haven't come to that rest. We're still 
trying to work it out. We're still looking at ourselves and trying 
to do good for God; still trying to be an Elijah ministry and carry 
a mantle, get an anointing - toil, strife, envy, jealousy - trying 
- no rest to that. When we look into the face of That Man we come 
to rest because we say, 'My God, it's not me, it's Him!' And we've 
entered into the Father's rest. Israel wouldn't do that. Why? 
Because of unbelief. The Lord said, "I swore in my wrath they shall 
not enter into my rest." That means there is no other rest for you. 
I'll not give you another rest. I've set one rest before you. The 
writer of the Hebrews says, " Therefore there remaineth a rest for 
the people of God." See that your laborings are to enter into that 
rest. Not that our laborings be accepted to God - no, see that your 
laborings are to enter that rest. See that your laborings are 
spiritual laborings and laborings with the Spirit to come to behold 
the face of Jesus Christ, and therein be accepted in the beloved. 
Come to a new identity and a new definition in Him.

Now - the journey brings us to the RACE. The journey was set forth 
in the Old Testament. Paul likens it to a race. I Corinthians 9:24, 
"Know ye not that they which run in a race, run all? But one 
receiveth the prize. So run that you may obtain." Many are called - 
few - that word means "one". Many are called but we're called as 
ONE. And the race is coming to that comprehension. Where do you get 
your prize? IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST! The prize of the high 
calling of God in Christ is to look into His face, and come to 
realize our union with Him. There is nothing greater than to 
comprehend in the face of Jesus - I am in my Father, He is in me, I 
am in Him. There is nothing greater. See, we preach that as a 
sermon, but it doesn't mean much to us. But when you see it in the 
face of Jesus - because the prize of the high calling of God is in 
the face of Jesus Christ!

Where do you come to find the crown? IN THE FACE OF JESUS 
CHRIST! The crown is upon the Head of the Body! Is it not upon the 
Body? Yes it is, but it's upon the Head of the Body. I come to see my 
crown upon Him! Yes, I find it in the face of Jesus Christ. I see 
the high call of God - This Man that is purposed and marked to give 
God full expression in all the earth - there's the high call of 
God. Where do I find that? Not in another Elijah company. I find 
that in the face of Jesus Christ. It's the race. 

Now, one verse concerning how we're able to run that race. Hebrews 
12:1," Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a 
cloud of witnesses..." That has to do with the cloud of His coming. 
"... cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin that 
doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience..." The word 
'patience' means 'the ability to do nothing until the Lord comes, 
the ability to wait in all things on the coming of the Lord, on the 
appearing, on the revelation of Jesus Christ'. So, how are we 
running? We're running with an ability given to us. We're going to 
run until we see Jesus! That's patience. " run with patience the 
race that is set before us looking unto Jesus, the author and the 
finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him..." 
What joy was set before Him when He went to the cross? THIS MAN! 
This finished work was set before Him. It was His joy on the cross. 
The death of the old man was not His joy. This Man that was set 
before Him, This Man that He saw from the beginning, This Man that 
He knew He would bring forth and present to His Father - that's why 
He went to the cross - for the joy that was set before Him! That's 
why Paul said, " I reckon the sufferings of this present world not 
worthy (don't talk to me about them), not compared to the glory 
that shall be revealed in us." He's looking in the face of Jesus 
Christ and he's seeing This Man. And he says if that's the joy of 
the Lord, then that's my joy too; if that's the thing He pressed 
toward, then that's the thing I'm pressing toward; if that's the 
end of His journey, that's the end of my journey!

Yes, running the race looking unto Jesus. It says if you're 
involved in that race you've got to be involved legally. To run 
this race you've got to run looking at the face of Jesus. And if 
you're not, you're just running around in circles, you're just 
beating the air. Paul said I don't want to be that way. You run 
this race looking in the face of Jesus Christ. And if you haven't 
come to His face you haven't even started the race. Here most of us 
are tired and exhausted, and we haven't even started the race yet. 
We've just been fighting the devil, fighting circumstances, 
fighting situations - we haven't started the race yet and we're 
already worn out. God help - out here in a fight, just beating the 
air, fighting imaginary foes, puffing themselves up. What a sight!

ONE - many start this thing. Many run - ONLY ONE RECEIVES 
THE CROWN. You know who receives the crown? THIS MAN! When 
you identify with This Man in the face of Jesus Christ - you finish the race. 
We run it looking in His face, but finally coming to behold. Paul said 
I haven't beheld Him in His fulness, but I press on. Most believers 
haven't even looked in His face yet. They don't even know what race 
they're running, they're just running the race of religion, trying 
to get to heaven. That's not the race. You're not even in the right 
stadium. Many who are in that race - you see if you look back ... 
No - you run looking unto Jesus. "To them that look for Him, He 
shall appear in the fulness of salvation." We're in a race and 
we're on a journey and the end of it is seeing HIM face-to-face. 
And that's not somewhere in glory land! That's in Spirit and in 
Truth and in the reality of Christ. That's the race. That's what is 
set before us. The end of that is not my glory or your glory. The 
end of that is God getting glory in a Man; God getting self 
expression in a Man, in all the earth and ages without end. 

I'm glad for Jesus! The greater work. The greater witness. The end 
of the race. The rest at the end of the journey is beholding Him 
face-to-face, wherein we are changed into that same image from 
glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. I trust the 
Spirit will challenge our hearts. That we will not be found as 
those that beat the air, run around in circles, on an endless 
journey looking to everything but Jesus, trying... You see all 
these warnings in the scriptures. LOOKING UNTO JESUS!  Who for 
the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame 
- the Adamic man that He brought to death. And He is set down at 
the right hand of the throne of God. CONSIDER HIM. Why? Because you 
are set there in Him! You'll never comprehend that until you look 
Him in the face. 

How wonderful it is. It opens the whole book and you see the whole 
book is declaring a living witness, a living work, a living Man 
made so by Christ who is His very Head - the very face of the 
creation of God. You can go back and see the type of this in the 
creation in Genesis. It was all without form, dark, void, darkness 
upon the face of the deep, and where did the Spirit move? Where He 
always moves - He moved upon the FACE of the matter. You are going 
to be involved in the true ministry of the Spirit in the face of 
Jesus Christ. He's not come to show us the foot, He's come to show 
us the face. He moves upon the face of the creation. He moves upon 
the face of This Man. He brings the shining in the face of This 
Man, that we may behold Him face-to-face, and there behold the 
identity of The Man whose Body we are. May God bring us to that 
place by His Spirit. 

Father, thank you for your grace and for your mercy. For the 
fulness of thy Son and the willingness of the Holy Spirit to bring 
us to such a place of beholding Him. Indeed thou hast by His death, 
burial and resurrection brought us to be united with Him by Spirit, 
now thou dost seek to unite us with Him in Truth, for the renewing 
of the spirit of our mind and the transforming of our inner man. By 
your Spirit then, do move, according to that which is set before 
your own face, move in our hearts. On behalf of nothing less than 
the very end, the very glory of us. I pray that for us.  AMEN