THE LIBERATING SECRET OF CHRIST PART 2 - HIS APPEARING by J W LUMAN We are not involving ourselves with the study of eschatology in any way, shape or form. I am dealing with the reality of His appearing in His House now. So let us turn to the book of Malachi before we start and just say a word of introduction that will help draw our minds together. How many of you know that we must be of one mind and one accord before the Spirit of God can do anything in our midst? So, to draw our minds together in this little study, I want to read to you from Malachi the third chapter. This is the appearing that I am talking about, this appearing in His Holy Temple, not His appearing to take it away, but His Appearing in it to cleanse it first, to make it like unto His own Glorious Self, His Appearing in His Tabernacle, His appearing in His Temple, His appearing in His People, His appearing in YOU. Amen. Well, here it is. Malachi 3:1 and 2, " Behold, I will send My messenger. He shall prepare the way before Me, saith the Lord, Whom you seek...shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His Temple, even the messenger of the Covenant, whom ye delight in... Behold, He shall come saith the Lord of Hosts, but who may abide the day of His appearing? Who shall stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and a fuller's soap." It is not talking about casting away, it is talking about His appearing. Listen to this. Verse 3, "He shall sit like a refiner, a purifier of silver. He shall purify the sons of Levi, purge them like gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." Glory to God! " Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be blessed unto the Lord, as in the days of old, as in the former years." Oh, you see, this is speaking of a time of His appearing in the Church. This is speaking actually of the full working of the Holy Spirit. Now, Jesus says in John 14,15 & 16 leading up to John 17, in these three chapters (Diagram #1) that "When the Spirit of Truth is come ye will know that I am in My Father, that you are in Me, that I am in you." Secondly in chapter 15 it says, "When the Spirit of Truth is come, He will testify of Me." Where? Where He is? Where is HE? HE IS IN YOU. "He shall testify of Me and you shall bear witness of that testimony. You shall bear witness of Me." And, in the sixteenth chapter he says, "When he is come, he will not speak of himself, but he will take of mine and show it unto you. He will glorify Me." This He speaks of the full working of the Holy Spirit, which is to reveal Jesus Christ in His followers, to reveal Jesus Christ in His Church, to reveal Jesus Christ in His Holy Sanctuary, that He in His Glorious appearing may do in actuality what He did in type in the Gospels. You know what happened when Jesus came to the Tabernacle in the Gospels, don't you? He walked into the temple, and He cleaned house. You see, He did not set the thing in order; He emptied it out. You and I just want Him to set us in order. We just want Him to arrange what we are doing in a better order. He won't do that. In His appearing He just casts everything out but Himself! What He did was so in type of what He would do by His Spirit through His appearing in His own temple. You see, that wasn't His Temple; it was a type of it. It had been desecrated by the ministry of man. It had been desecrated by the abominations. It had been desecrated by filth, and He came in there and cleaned it up. And what He ran out of there was men. What He ran out was men. He ran out the ministry of man. He overturned the tables and turned the doves loose, but He chased all the men out, thank God. And He alone stood there in His Temple. And the Scriptures say the people came to Him, and He healed them. And the people came to Him and He sat down and He taught them. This is His appearing that we are talking about. When Christ is revealed in you, His Holy Temple, when He is revealed in you by the Holy Spirit, as only the Holy Spirit can do, there is a liberating secret. So, on goes our study. Now, we want to look at something. I Corinthians 15, verse 45 is where we will start. " And so it is written, 'The first man Adam was made a living soul'." Alright, we are going to diagram that (#2), the first man Adam. The first man Adam was a soul. Of course we know that he was also a body because it was made out of dirt. Well, the first man Adam was made a living soul. Here we have a body. We have a living soul. Alright, we have the body of Adam, and we have the soul that God gave Adam. At this particular time, God was still on the outside speaking to Adam in the cool of the evening. He was on the outside, speaking to Adam. And Adam, at this particular time was without sin. He was without sin. He did not possess eternal life. He had not eaten of the Tree of Life that he might live forever. So, he was not in possession of eternal life. He was in the state of innocence. He was indeed a living soul. God breathed into him a living soul. And the Scriptures say that, " The first man Adam was made a living soul." And that is what Adam was. Adam sinned. He sinned by way of transgression; and when he sinned, his soul became dark without the light of God and his soul became deaf unto the voice of God. He could not see and he could not hear as it were, you understand, and he came into the awareness of his sin. So what happened was that Adam, instead of becoming God conscious, became sin conscious. There was a consciousness of sin in Adam that made him ashamed. And he ran and he tried to hide himself from God, and he did cover up his body; but God wasn't looking at his body anyway. God was in fellowship with his soul, not his body. And God could no longer commune with Adam. Adam, in fact, could no longer hear the Voice of God in communion. Now he could only hear the Voice of God in conviction. That's all. Communion was gone. You read your Bible. There was no more walking in the cool of the evening. What happened? First I can imagine Adam walked, and he heard the Voice of God, and it thrilled his heart. And it thrilled Eve's. (I look at Adam and Eve as one.) And it thrilled his heart. And he ran out, you know, to meet the Lord and to commune with the Lord, and to know Him, as God was at that time, revealing Himself to Adam, which was very much from the outside, you understand. God came and left, came and left, came and left. We might say He came in experiences in the cool of the evening, and Adam enjoyed His Presence in the cool of the evening, and the Lord, as it were, withdrew Himself. Now, that's the truth. The Lord as it were withdrew Himself, and He would come again and He would visit Adam. This is the picture that we have in the Garden. It is a shame that it is still the picture that we have in the Church today. It is a shame that we still have to gather together in the cool of the evening just to experience the visitation of the Lord. But you see, I got a little ahead of myself. But, this is the way Adam knew God, and this is the way God would reveal Himself at that time. Now, God had fully intended a greater revelation of Himself or He wouldn't have put the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. It was there. The Tree of Life was there. Adam just never got around to eating it. So, God came and talked to Adam. But look, there was a time when the same God came, same Voice, but there was a difference in Adam this time. Instead of running out to meet the Lord and having joy in the fellowship of the Lord, now...Isn't it odd? How that at first the Voice brought joy, and then the Voice brought condemnation? The same Voice he used to run and be glad to see, now he ran and hid from? What? Was God different? No, we know better than that. Did something change about the Voice? No, it was the same as it always was. The change was in Adam. The soul became dark, the soul became conscious of its own sin and now, the Voice of God doesn't bring communion. As I said awhile ago, it brought conviction and Adam ran and tried to hide from God. But, you can't hide from God, can you? He sewed up leaves and covered up the nakedness of his body. As I said, God didn't care about that, anyway. He was looking into the heart. He was looking into the heart of Adam. He said, "You ate of the tree that I told you not to eat of, didn't you?" Oh sure, the Lord questions, but He knows the answer before He asks the question. But what He said in fact was, "You did what I told you not to do, didn't you? You did exactly what I told you not to do, and the cost is what I told you it was going to be." And so it is that Adam fell away from God, and went into sin. Now, alright, that's not the end of the picture here. The last Adam was made a life-giving Spirit. "However that was not first which was spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from Heaven. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the Heavenly." Now, we have something else that comes into this picture. Here is the state of sin, cut off from God, you see. There was, as it were, a barrier between Adam and God, and he could no longer hear the Voice of God. God could no longer commune. Now we come to SALVATION. Whereas the first Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam, who is the Lord Jesus Christ, is made a life-giving spirit. So, here is the picture of a born-again believer. (#1) A born-again believer is not only soul, but he is spirit, a life-giving spirit. And who is that life-giving spirit? The Scripture says that it is Christ Himself who is made a life-giving spirit. But, look here. Here is the shame of it. Let's turn now to II Corinthians. Just like in the natural there was a veil put up between God and Adam, so that no longer this natural body could see into the realm of God, and no longer could God deal with this natural body, as He one time could, there was a veil put up there. So let's read II Corinthians the third chapter, verse twelve. "Seeing then we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech, and not as Moses who put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished. But their minds were blinded..." Not only that. But his soul was blinded as well, and the Scripture speaks of this here. "...their minds were blinded, for until this day remaineth the same veil not taken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. But, even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their hearts. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord..." What is that? THE HEART! "... when it shall turn to the lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now, the Lord is that spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty." (#1) Now, we are going to stop there, because we see a picture here of a veil. A veil that is upon the heart. "...which veil is done away in Christ in the rending of His own flesh." It is a veil that hides the Glory of God from the soul. A veil that hides the Glory of God from the heart. That is the veil that is being talked about here. And we find that this veil has been removed in Christ; there is no such veil in Him. We talked about it in the last book, "You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free." "You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free", but most only know Christ in a half-truth. Just stay with me here a little while. I am going to show you what I am talking about. Many only know Him in a half-truth. The veil still remains on their heart and they are blinded to the Glory of God that is in them. How many of you understand and know that most people think that Salvation is just being restored to the place that Adam was before he sinned? That Salvation is just being restored so that we can be like Adam was before he ever sinned. Folks, Adam was just a living soul. That's all he ever was. Adam, you see, never had the life- giving spirit. He never ate the Tree of Life. He never had the life- giving spirit. Adam was a living soul. That's all he ever was. That's all the Bible ever says that he was. Now, we will go on into this. Most people's idea about Salvation is just this. God is still on the outside, once again able to speak -TO me through one of my five senses. Now, if you are hearing me, you know I am telling you the truth. And, what we know of God, comes in through our five senses and our soul, as far as the true Glory of God that is in us, still remains dark. I didn't say it was in sin. I said it still remains dark because of this veil that is upon the heart. And behind that veil is the Glory of God. It was typified in the Tabernacle. Behind that veil is the Glory of God. In verse eighteen we see that very glorious truth. Now, we will look at that in just a moment. But, here is most people's understanding of Salvation. There is nothing wrong with your Salvation, but with your understanding of it. I told you before, every born-again believer... remember the little diagram?... is over here in Christ. But how many actually know that they are? How many really know the truth? How many stand in that realization? Not many. Not many have come to the liberating knowledge of that truth. Most think they are still over here IN Adam. Most still, you see, are struggling with the devil, struggling with the world, making problems where there shouldn't be any problems. Giving recognition to things they should give no recognition to whatsoever. And if their mind was occupied, if their heart was occupied with the fulness of God in Christ, they wouldn't give attention to those things any more. Well, that's what we call "walking by faith". The faith walk, you see, is not learning through these five senses, but having the Truth revealed by the Spirit of God and walking in the knowledge of the Spirit. Faith walk is not just getting things out of God. Faith is that God-given ability by which you walk consistently pleasing the Father. There is a greater purpose for faith than just getting something out of God. If you will just seek the Kingdom of God, God will give you all these things that you need. You don't have to exercise great faith to get them, just be obedient. He will give them to you. But, we try to replace obedience with what we call great faith, you see. We don't want to seek the Kingdom of God, but we want the Lord to meet all of our needs. We don't want to seek the Kingdom of God, but we want Him to heal us when we get sick. We don't want to seek first the Kingdom, but we want Him to keep us in good clothes, good house and good job. We don't want to seek the Kingdom, but we want Him to save all our unsaved loved ones. But, if we will seek the Kingdom, God will give us these things. He knoweth you have need of them before you ask. "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His Righteousness..." Now, that is faith. Faith, you see, seeks the Kingdom of God. Faith seeks to know Christ and His Fulness. Paul said, " The life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God." Not just faith IN God, or not just faith that there is a God, but that's the faith OF God working in me. Now folks, most believers do not understand their spiritual side. They still think that this is all there is to the picture right here, and that faith is something that they direct up here to God somewhere, so that God can do things for them. They have no idea that faith is to be an inner relationship, an inner reality of a living Christ. They don't understand that. So, what most people know about God, they know from God speaking TO them as from the outside, and they feed their souls that way. It's no wonder that most people are self-centered in their religion. This body can only give you earth consciousness. Your five senses cannot see beyond what you can feel or hear or taste or smell. That's it. And that's all most people know about God. What they hear with their ear, what they feel, what they taste, what they touch. Is that not real? It is real but it is not truth, it is not all that there is of God. It is an earthly consciousness of God, and most Christians only have an earth consciousness of God. No wonder then, that everything begins to center around themselves. Their idea of Salvation is self-centered, because their idea of Salvation is "I don't have to go to hell." That's about it. "I am not going to hell now, I am going to Heaven." You ask them about Heaven, and they will describe Heaven to you in the terms that this body right here can understand. They will describe it to you in terms that any man can understand. They will tell you that they just want a little cabin in the corner of Glory-land. Just whatever their body can understand. That is what their idea of Heaven is all about. That's all it is to them. And so, everything begins to be self-centered. And even when they try to serve God... the only means they have of serving God is the same means by which they at one time served the devil. It is the only means they know about. Once they gave their bodies to the devil; now they give their bodies to God. But there is more to Salvation than just not going, not staying, not doing, not wearing, not participating. There is more to Salvation than that. You know, "Once I used to go to the honky-tonks; now I go to such- and-such a church." I am telling you that this falls far short of what true Salvation is all about. But we don't know that. You see, here is a soul that is crying out for reality. Here is a soul that says, "I love God." Here is a soul that is saved from sin, that is saying, "I long to have fellowship with God. I want to know God. Surely there is something more to it than this. You know I have gotten every experience in the body that I can get and it still leaves me wanting to know God. What's wrong here? I don't go to these places any more. I go to church, but there is still something. What's wrong here?" The Church is full of these kind of believers, Holy Ghost filled believers who still, you see, only know this side of the picture. How to serve God? And all they know to do is not to do! To them God is still outside of them. The only way they know to draw near to Him is through some kind of special feeling that they can get from time to time. That's all they know. Well, I thank God that Salvation is a spirit, soul and body affair. I thank God for the feelings that I can get. Yes I do. I thank God for every experience that my body has ever experienced. But, oh, to think that this is all there is to it is disappointing. Because, you see, even in the pureness of the Garden, God came to Adam, then He went from Adam. He came to Adam, then He went from Adam. Then He came to Adam, then He went from Adam. It was visitations that Adam had with God. And, most people's idea of religion today is visitations from God. One of our favorite cliches is "Oh, didn't God come down in our midst tonight?" God doesn't have to come down anywhere. HE DWELLS IN YOU BY HIS SPIRIT! But, you see, we betray our understanding. You say, "Oh brother, those are just words." Well, those words come out from our understanding. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Those words come out of our understanding. We really have a comprehension that God came down in our midst rather than that He was manifested in us, and even our bodies, you see, experience that. Most of us don't have a real comprehension of our relationship with God. It is still like this Garden thing. In the cool of the evening God comes, and He goes, and He comes and He goes. We must come to understand more than that, because it was at one of the times that God was not present that the devil came to Adam and said, "Did God really say? Did God really say?" Oh, dear heart. God wants a people today, not that He just speaks to, but that He is continually speaking in. God wants a people today that can say, "Greater is He. Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world." Not He that is off in Heaven somewhere behind the stars. Greater is He that is in me than He that is in the world. We say that, but we don't understand what we say. We say, "Greater is He that is in me than He that is in the world," and turn right around and our concept of God is not that He is in us, but that He is off somewhere from us. Here I am, trying to get through this day, struggling, and praying and doing everything I can just to get through this day, just to get someplace where I can get into the presence of God, and yet, He is in me all the time! Folks, my heart bleeds for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ because of the absence of truth, because of the veil that is still upon our hearts that keeps this soul from knowing the true liberty of Salvation, that keeps this soul from knowing that Salvation is not just an experience that I have received in the body to where I no longer commit sins, but that Salvation is an indwelling Person. HE doesn't come and go; HE ABIDES! You see, we hear these things and we agree with them, but we don't get hold of them. We don't seem to lay hold on it to where there is a union between the soul and the spirit. You do know that they are not the same. But, there must be a sameness come about them. There must be a union between my soul and the indwelling Christ, in truth. There must be a linkage there, you see. I hope you've seen it, because the soul seeks for God; but because of traditional teaching the soul seeks God through the avenue of the senses. The soul says, "Lord, well, just give me another blessing. Just give me something. My Lord, I've got to make it through the day. Lord, just give me something, I mean, if all else fails, just give me a sign. Give me something. Just that I'll know that you are there. Just that I'll know..." Now, this is not a sinner praying. This is a Christian praying. "I just want to try to know you more. Lord." Some of you probably have prayed this way. Some of you have prayed this way too. I know you have. "Lord, just give me some kind of a sign. Lord, I want reality. I am not doubting that I am saved. I know that You are my Lord. You have forgiven me of my sin. You have healed me. But, I need to know You are there Lord. Just some how. Just some how." See, the soul is just looking out through this thing right here, the senses, because the truth is not being taught. "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." There is a liberating secret that the Holy Spirit wants to reveal, not to us as from outside; but He wants to reveal IN US. That there will be an inner knowing, an inner reality, an inner strength that will begin to control, not only the heart and mind, but will have its manifestation out through the flesh, as well. Now, there is a truth that you need to just get hold of and let the Lord teach it to you and rehearse it with you from day to day. The body was never created to know God. The body was created to serve God. The soul was created to know God. But, in and of itself, the soul does not know God. It knows self. It is self-conscious. Your own heart... "What man knoweth the things of a man save..." I know the King James says "spirit", but it is translated "sutro", which means his soul, his own understanding, his own heart. "What man knoweth the things of a man, except the heart of the man that is in him. But the things of God the spirit." That is translated "the spirit of God knoweth the things of God." You see, ah, yes this is it. The soul was designed to know God, but the knowledge of God is here in the spirit. It is here in the spirit. You hear me, now. You hear me. The knowledge of God is here in the spirit. All the fulness of God is here in the spirit. All the knowing of God is here in the spirit, in Christ who is in you! And, as long as the soul is designed to know God, designed to have fellowship with God, designed for the Word of God, yes, designed for the Word of God, designed to see, designed to hear; but as long as the soul is trying to find God out through the avenue of the senses, as though God is still outside, the soul is limited in its understanding of God. The soul can understand as much as the body can comprehend, in that way. Yes sir, and God can miraculously move upon the body. My word! I have had experiences that would stand the hair on your head, and you probably have too. But He is moving on the body and there is only so much that you can understand from that. Because it comes and it goes. And I have wondered why we can get such a blessing and can be knocked down in the Spirit and rolled over and all the things. And then it seems like the next day God is off in a vacuum somewhere. It is because your experience cannot contain God. Your experiences cannot contain God. They just can't do it. And your soul, you see, cannot come to the living knowledge that it thirsts after through those experiences. Although the experiences are a part, and though they are real. But the body was not designed to learn God or to know God. The body was designed to serve God. These eyes that I have were not designed to see God; they are designed to see for God, these ears designed to hear for God, this tongue to speak for God, but I have some more eyes that are designed, the eyes designed to see God, I have spiritual ears designed... "he that hath an ear to hear...", designed to hear God. Do you understand what I am trying to tell you? But the searching has to stop being from the outside, and begin to be on the inside. Because you see, by the Spirit, God has moved from the outside to the inside. He is no longer speaking to you; He desires now to be revealed IN you. How? In the Person of His Son. By His own Holy Spirit, He desires to be revealed IN you. He says, "I am going to have me a people, and I will not write My Word to them upon stones any more, but I will write My Word in their hearts." I will be in them, and I will walk in them, and I will speak in them, I will live in them, and they shall know me. Not by the avenues of the flesh. Not by experiences. No sir, they shall know Me in and by the Spirit, and they shall live as My People. Their bodies will become instruments of righteousness, rather than instruments trying to figure out God. That's true. That's true. That's what the Lord says. Well, let's look at this business, then. THE NEW BIRTH. Here it is. Here's the New Birth. In the first place, John says it is an actual birth that takes place, not just an experience. Yes, we have experiences, thank God. How many of you came to an old fashioned altar? I wept my eyes out. I cried my heart out. But, I am thankful that Salvation was more than that because that has been a lot of years ago. Something happened to me beyond tears. Something happened to me beyond repentance. Something happened to me beyond Godly sorrow for sin. There was a birth that took place in me. Oh, the first man Adam was a living soul, but could only know God through the area of the senses, but now, you and I ... The last Adam is a LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT! There has been a new birth. Nicodemus says, "Well, what is all this?" Jesus says, "Well, YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN." Nicodemus got hold of this thing but he didn't understand it. He understood more than most of us understand. He understood that Jesus was talking about a genuine birth. Most of us just translate that as some kind of experience with God. Nicodemus understood that Jesus is talking about a birth. He is talking about a real genuine birth. He said, "I don't understand this. How can I be born again? Can a man enter into his mother's womb and be born again when he is old? How can this be?" He didn't translate that into some kind of experience. He knew that birth was the issue here. Jesus said, "Well, you misunderstand me.. It is a birth. It is a very literal birth, but not a flesh birth. It is not you being born another time. IT IS NOT A REBIRTH OF NICODEMUS. It is the Spirit birth of the First-born Son of God. It is God moving from the outside to the inside. Oh, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit." Oh, this Last Adam is a Life-Giving Spirit. (#5) And, for the first time this person right here becomes a whole being. He becomes what God intended that he become from the very beginning. He becomes spirit, soul and body. But, it is not some kind of a human spirit that we are dealing with. IT IS CHRIST HIMSELF DWELLING THROUGH HIS ETERNAL SPIRIT IN THE BELIEVER! It is true, dear heart, it is a real birth. I Peter 1:23, "Being born-again, not by corruptible seed..." That is the first birth. "...but by the Word of God that liveth and abideth forever." This is the second birth and the Second Man! Alright, this birth then is of a seed. Now we are getting on down to it. Because Paul recognized and gave us to know who this seed is, not what it is. Galatians 3:16, "And to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." And, yet the miracle of it is if ye be Christ's then are you Abraham's seed. Not seeds, but seed. ONE SEED! We are many souls here today, but we are only one seed. We are many members but we are only one body. Oh, we are many sons, but we are only one birth. The birth of ONE SON. SALVATION IS THAT ONE SON BEING BIRTHED IN YOU BY THE SPIRIT. The seed which is Christ! Also, Paul said, "It is Christ in you, the hope of glory." And again, Paul says, "I am crucified with Christ." You say, "Well, what happens to the old Adam?" What happened here to the old Adam? The Cross took it's effect in me. I, Paul, am crucified with Christ, yet I live. But it is not me that lives any longer. It is Christ living in me." It is not Christ touching me on the head and blessing me; it is Christ living in me. It is not some kind of pseudo-academic understanding of being a better individual. No sir, it is the understanding that I am crucified, and Christ Himself lives in me. You see, to be crucified means that I have no life but the Living Christ who now lives in me. I simply have no other life but Him! I live because He lives in me! It is not soulish. It is Spirit and spiritual. Glory to God! It is not me trying to be a better intellect. It is not me trying to be more righteous. It is Christ in me, the righteousness and the wisdom and the sanctification, and the redemption of God. And the Scriptures say, " For of God are ye in Christ Jesus Who is made unto you wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption." Somebody says, "Well, we are the righteousness of God." No, read that verse again. You are the righteousness of God in Christ. It is all IN CHRIST! In Christ, there is none but Christ, for He is all and in all, and in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, nor bond, nor free, circumcised, nor uncircumcision, etc. but Christ is all and in all. You are what Christ is made unto you. That's what you are. Because He lives in you! There is a liberating secret in understanding this. It will liberate you. The whole theme that we are talking about is based on the understanding of Galatians 5, "Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free. Be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." Understand that Christ lives in you. Blessed be the Lamb of God! Yes He does. He lives in you. Christ in you the Hope of Glory. The New Man. Did you notice here in the fifteenth chapter of I Corinthians where it says that the first man was after the earth, earthy. The first man, this living soul, was after the earth, earthy. But the second Man... Did you notice that Scripture? I noticed that one time and I just fell down and wept and wept. I just wanted to beat on the floor. I felt like my body was just going to burst and go in different directions. I shouted, I screamed, I hollered, I danced. I got hold of this thing. Paul said, "The first man..." That's ME! That's my verse. He that is born of the flesh. The first man is made a living soul... That's me any way you paint it. You see, the first man, Adam. But the second Man! The second Man is not an earth man made over. He is not an earth man taught how to quote Scriptures. He is not a man taught how to think better thoughts. He is not an earth man taught how to control himself. The second Man is the Lord from Heaven! Glory to God! The Lord from Heaven moved into His House. Glory! The Lord from Heaven living in His Own Body. I am not after a blessing this time, Father. I am not after a feeling this time, Father. I am not after a Word from God this time, Father. This time, I want THE WORD revealed in me. I don't want it to appear anywhere. I want The Word to appear in me. This time Father I am not just after a feeling, No sir. This time I want to see Jesus as I have never known Him before. I want a face to face relationship with Him. II Corinthians 3:18. This is what we are meant for. So, look at this. "But we all with unveiled face..." Your Bible says "open face". Open face. Face that is unveiled. Face what? The face of our soul. (Diagram #7) This face. What new face? Jesus says you have ears to hear. Paul says you have eyes of understanding. This face, the soul. The face of your soul. Not this natural face that can't see God, because He is Spirit. He is invisible. We can see things that God has done, but we cannot see God. This face. This is the face that can see God. This is the face that is designed to see God. Oh yes, when this face turns, the veil is done away. Oh, "... with open face beholding as in a mirror (the vision of God) the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (#6) Oh, let me tell you what that means. It means that this soul looks into the spirit... Listen to what I am telling you. And this soul looks into the spirit, and it is like looking into a mirror. The soul looks into the spirit and sees itself. But, it is not this self, it is this Christ. Well, now, that is hard to understand. I say it poorly. The soul looks and sees for the first time its true identity. It has been looking out this way, through the senses; and now it looks this way, into Christ, and for the first time this soul sees its full Salvation. The soul sees its full righteousness. The soul sees its life. Who is it that the soul is seeing? It is seeing Christ the Indwelling Son! It looks into a mirror, but instead of seeing the old face, sees the New Face. Do you know what face it is? It is the face that II Corinthians talks about. Look at II Corinthians 4:6. Folks, it is the same face, I tell you. We are looking with an unveiled face into the glory that we see, the Glory of the Lord. Who is the Glory of the Lord? CHRIST IN YOU is the expected glory, He is the Glory of the Lord in you. The veil comes off your eyes and you see Him. For where is He? He is in you! That's where I see Him. That's where I know Him. I look into the face of my life. I look into the face of my righteousness. I look into the face of my not only soon coming King, but my King Who is now come, and abides in me. I look into His Face, and my soul rejoices; and my soul is changed into that same image, for my soul, you see begins to reflect the joy that He is, the identity that He is. What does that mean? It means that my soul is filled up with the knowledge of Him. Look at II Corinthians 4:6, "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness, hath shined..." not into, not from outside, no. "...hath shined in our hearts..." Here it is. He hath shined in our hearts. He shines from within. What does He do? He reveals His Life, He reveals His Son Who is the Life. And the life, the knowledge, the reality, the revelation, the realization of Christ in me fills up my soul and my soul is satisfied, because it is better than it was in the Garden! God is not walking beside me. No, He is IN ME! He is not speaking to me; He is speaking IN ME! He has moved from without to within. He is appearing in His Temple. He is appearing in His Body. He is appearing in this member. God commanded the light to shine out of darkness and shine in our hearts to give THE light of THE knowledge of THE Glory of God, where? IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST. We behold Him as face to face. What a beholding! Our soul beholds its Spirit of Light. Our soul beholds Him Who is the very life of our soul, the very redemption of our soul, the very Salvation of our soul, the very wholeness of our soul. Our soul beholds Him in a way that experiences have never been able to teach us. Oh, the Spirit of God reveals Him in us! And once, dear heart, that we begin to take on His Mind (because that is what it means), changed into His same image. It means we begin to take on the Mind of Christ. Our soul begins to be filled with the light, the knowledge, the wisdom, the understanding of the mind of Christ. Well, now, having the Mind of Christ, don't you think we are going to begin to live as the Body of Christ? Oh, yes! You see, that is the reason that most believers don't live as His Body now, because they don't have His Mind. They have the mind of another, the mind of Adam. So, we try to live as the body of Adam. We don't sin. We just try to live as the body of Adam. We are still trying to live without... You know, most believer's biggest goal in life is to live without sinning. If we can just live without sinning. Oh, but if we understand that we are His Body, the biggest goal is not to live without sinning. No! The biggest goal is to live as His Body, being about His Business, doing His Works, manifesting Him! Do you understand what I am talking about? The goal now is not just to not sin. The goal now is to manifest Him! Oh glory to God! Jesus didn't get up every morning and say, "Oh, I hope I make it through the day without sinning." No, He got up every morning to be about the Father's business, and I am telling you, when the Mind of Christ, when He Who is in you appears in your soul; when He fills it up by divine revelation; when the Light of His Life fills your soul, you will begin to know the Mind of Christ. And you will present your members as instruments of righteousness. Not as a way or as a means of righteousness, but instruments of righteousness. In other words, you begin to present them as instruments, as members of this righteousness, you begin to live as His Body. Not your body... HIS BODY. Because you understand it in your heart, not just in your brain. You understand in your heart, I am crucified, but He now lives. It is not my life, it is not my body, it is Christ in me the Hope of Glory. It is Christ living in me. Not far off from me. He lives in me. How do you know? Because He is appearing in me by the Spirit. And the Bible says, "The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our hearts that we are the sons of God." It is the Liberating Secret of His Appearing. Let's just look for a moment at something else. II Corinthians the fourth chapter. Right on down from verse eighteen. Now, you understand that when Paul wrote these letters under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that he did not write verses and chapters, etc. He just wrote a letter. You understand that don't you? In the original letter... When you write a letter, you don't put it in verses and chapters, you just write a letter. And, these are epistles, letters, written to the Church. Now, verses and chapters are alright just to associate things, but the point is that the thought continues. "Therefore..." Now, why did he start a whole chapter with the word "Therefore"? That links it with what has just been said. Therefore... because we see Him... Because we come with open face, because we see the Glory of the Lord, and are changed into that same image. "Therefore, seeing we have this ministry..." What ministry? Well, what have we just seen? We have just seen Christ in us the Hope of Glory. That's the ministry. "Seeing we have this ministry." I don't care what you call yourself. I don't care whether you say you are an apostle, a prophet, a pastor, a teacher, a janitor, a Sunday School teacher, a deacon, an elder... I don't care what you call it, He is the ministry. You are the Body, He is the ministry. "Seeing we have this ministry..." It is not just me out here trying to do something hoping that God up here is going to give me strength. "Seeing we have this ministry..." It is not just having it; it is seeing that we have it. SEEING. The eyes of our understanding being enlightened. Seeing that it is Christ in me. "Seeing that we have this ministry, we faint not..." Oh, that doesn't mean that the body doesn't get tired. It means the soul doesn't quit. It means the soul doesn't faint. It doesn't mean that we don't get weary. It means we don't get weary in well doing. Why? Because it isn't my life; it is Christ's, and He is an endless source of life, an endless source of anointing, an endless source of flow. This old body has to lay down and rest, but the Christ in me is never at rest. Twenty-four hours a day, three hundred and sixty five days a year He is in communion and fellowship with God the Father. "Seeing we have this ministry, we faint not." You see, folks, you are looking at somebody who has had to bring too many missionaries back off the field. Send them over there ill taught, ill prepared, (you forgive my crudeness of speech), dumb as a door knob, a zeal for God, but no understanding. Here they go and all they are seeing with is the senses. And, they get to their station and their five senses meet some circumstances they have never seen before. All of a sudden, it is not a lovely surrounding and lovely buildings and lovely food; and the people that they thought they loved are not loving them. They look at all that garbage and all that mess, their understanding of God is that He is off up here somewhere. All of a sudden their zeal falls out the bottom of their feet. All of a sudden it is, "What in the world are we doing here?" Then it becomes, "Nobody cares about us, or they wouldn't have put us here." Then bitterness springs up. Soon you have people who want to come back home. Do you know why? They never saw this ministry. They never saw that we are not alone, that we are never alone. We have been looking in the wrong place. HE IS IN ME! HE IS IN ME! It's not me that's here. It is He that is here. You want to find me? Look for the Cross. I am crucified, and He is the one that is here. It is not my body, it is His Body. It is not my ministry. It is Christ in me. It isn't my life. It is Him. And I am not alone, I am part of His whole Body. I don't care what these eyes see, I have a great cloud of witnesses surrounding me saying, "Hold on, go on, run the good race." I refuse to try to know God throughout here by senses, when I can see Christ in me. I am telling you there is a liberating secret, and as it is seen, it will liberate you. Look at what it does. The first thing: It liberates you from the fainting syndrome. You are liberated from the fainting syndrome. Liberated from seeing things that the flesh thinks are too hard, too much, too this, too that. No sir, you just know it is Christ. Thank God, you know if you are liberated from the fainting. You may get tired. You may get disgusted in the natural. You may get a lot of things, but you won't quit. You don't even think about quitting. Why? Because it is not my life, it is Christ's. And nobody may listen to me, but one thing they can't do. They can't stop me from serving Him! You can't stop me from laying down my life. I understand that my life is Christ. You can't stop me from laying down my life. There is no place to quit. The second thing: It delivers them from false theology. "... but have denounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness nor handling the Word of God deceitfully." II Corinthians 4:2. Now, how would you handle the Word of God deceitfully? "But by manifestation of the truth commended ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." You handle the Word of God deceitfully when you preach something other than Christ. You handle the Word of God deceitfully when you bring people into bondage to something other than Christ, some other righteousness than the righteousness of Christ, some other holiness than the holiness of Christ. You go forth preaching circumcision instead of preaching the Lord Jesus Christ as the circumcision of your heart, and you handle the Word of God deceitfully. We are not talking about a bunch of sinners. We are talking about a bunch of believers. But, once you see Him, you are never going to preach another righteousness but Him. Once you see Him, you are never going to preach another holiness but Him. Once you see Him, you are never going to preach another life but Him. ONCE YOU SEE HIM, YOU ARE GOING TO PREACH HIM. Paul said in Galatians 1:16, " It pleased God to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him." Once you see Him, you quit handling the Word of God deceitfully. II Corinthians 4:5, "We preach not ourselves..." That's what it will liberate you from. You quit preaching yourself and start preaching Christ. We preach not ourselves. Oh, so many want to preach themselves in place of Christ, want to use His Name, but preach themselves. I'll tell you, folks, when you see this: Here He is, here is the whole of it, here is the sum of it, we preach HIM! "We preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ the Lord." OURSELVES? Well, we are your servant for Jesus' sake. Oh, there is a Liberating Secret of His Appearing. Blessed be the Lamb of the Living God. Now, I want to go one more place. I John 3:1-2. Here is something that you are going to have to think about for a while. I want you to do that. You consider it in prayer. I want you to understand, I am not here bringing some new, strange doctrine to you. I am trying to declare to you by the Spirit of God that we are in a living union with Jesus Christ, and that, He desires to appear in His Own Body. Now, in I John the third chapter, we see something that most people, for lack of any better explanation I guess, simply apply to the Rapture. I am telling you that the depth of this Scripture is not applied to the Rapture. I will tell you that the true coming of the Lord is the culmination of all revelation, but, the Lord speaks of Himself as being He Who IS, and was and is to come. Now, let's understand He Who IS. Because He Who Is, He Who Was, and He Who Is To Come IS NOW IN ME! You have to get hold of this by the Spirit. I want you to look at this. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath..." H-a-t-h, not "is going to" but "hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore, the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not." Remember I told you, we move out of time past into time present. "Now we are the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be." Now, to whom does it not yet appear? In other words, it is not yet revealed, it is not yet made manifest. What does verse 1 say? It says, "The world does not know us because it did not know Him." Yet, that doesn't change the fact that, now, we are the sons of God, whether the world knows it, or accepts it, or sees it or not. In fact, "It does not yet appear." To whom? To the world. It does not yet appear. It is not yet manifested, as it shall be, who and what we are in Christ, and Who and What He is in us. The world hasn't yet seen this, because God is still showing this to sons. God is still training up, in His House, sons of God. The world can't see and, the pitiful thing is that most of the Church has not seen either, but it is given to the Church to see. Jesus said, "It is given to you to know these mysteries." I speak to these people in parables; it is given to you to KNOW. Yet they didn't know either. He said, "You are the ones who are supposed to know what I am talking about. These people are not supposed to know. It is given unto you to know." Paul says, "These things that have been hidden from generation to generation are now made manifest by His Spirit." Oh, beloved friends, we are not the ones from whom it is hidden. It doth not yet appear to the world, what we shall be. The final manifestation, the final glory does not yet appear. The world doesn't know us. They don't know us because they don't know Him. But we shouldn't be in the same darkness; we shouldn't be in the same ignorance. The Church should not be stumbling along just like the world is, still thinking that God is outside somewhere. NO! That shouldn't be our understanding; but, rather to be living in union with Him daily, waiting for that Blessed Hope, waiting for that glorious manifestation, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. Not a bunch of manifested sons, but the manifestation of sons, which is the coming forth of the Lord Jesus Christ in His fulness. Where? IN HIS WHOLE BODY! I am afraid we get too busy preaching about sons, and forget to preach The Son. We get too busy preaching about the Kingdom, and forget that there is a King involved here. The world is not waiting for my manifestation; it is waiting for His. Waiting for sons, waiting for the Body, waiting for those in whom Christ dwells to manifest Him. You are not going to manifest what is not revealed in you. The Church is not going to manifest a light that it does not have. Oh, come on now, we have the Life, but we have to have the Light. We have to walk in the Light as He is in the Light. Then you have fellowship one with another. Then, you have the continual cleansing of His Blood, and of His Life. Yes you do. Well, it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know... Look how it is written. "...but we know...we know that when He shall appear... when He shall appear, we shall be like Him..." According to religion we are going to be made like Him. This verse doesn't say that. "But we know..." We know something. We know that "... when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him AS HE IS." (#7) Not as He shall be, but as He IS. What is that talking about? Oh, it is talking about what Malachi said, "He is going to appear." We are going to see Him as He IS. And, we shall be like Him. What do you mean "be like Him"? We will understand that here is my life, here is my righteousness, here is my holiness. We will understand that we have no life but Him. I am nobody's body, but His Body! When He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. And when Believers see Him as He is, in them, and grow up in that knowledge, then we shall manifest Him as He is, and the world shall see Him. Jesus says this in John 17, "Father, teach them, show them, that they are one even as We are One." Why? "That the world may know that Thou hast sent Me." I am telling you that you are His Body, and He has no other Body, and you have no other life, and it is His desire to appear IN YOU, to transform you into Him image, to transfigure you into His likeness, that you and I, His Body, may manifest Him in the midst of the earth. There is no limit to the manifestation of Him. Well, the Holy Spirit is come to reveal Christ in you. Let's not see Him as we think He should be, or will be. Let's see Him as He is. When He shall appear... I see Him as one who was dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God. Romans 6:9-10. I see Him as one who has died once and for all unto sin; and I see Him as one over whom sin has no more control. I see Him as alive unto God. I see Him as the righteousness of God. I see Him, I see Him as He is. I understand that what He is, He has been made unto me, and I am nothing but that which He has been made unto me. But, I am everything that He is made unto me; and yet, it is not I, but it is Christ Who is in me. It is not me in any shape, form or fashion, except me at the Cross; but it is Christ Who now liveth! It is not me trying to be like Him. It is Christ living in me. He is revealed in me by the Holy Spirit. It is a liberating knowledge working in me. I have no life but Him, no righteousness but Him, no calling but Him, no gift but that which is the fulness of Him, no ministry but Him, no business but Him, no purpose but Him. You see His Body filled up with that, and you are going to see the glorious liberty of the children of God begin to set the creation free. AMEN. =================================================================== DIAGRAM #1 SOUL VEIL OF FLESH BODY SPIRIT DIRT CHRIST DIAGRAM #2 GOD SOUL BODY SENSES DIAGRAM #3 SOUL BODY SENSES DIAGRAM #4 SOUL BODY SPIRIT DIRT CHRIST Knowledge of GOD - All fulness dwelling in Christ. - All wisdom, understanding, knowledge. DIAGRAM #5 SOUL BODY LAST ADAM LIVING SPIRIT DIAGRAM #6 Eyes of SOUL understanding Light which is Christ Truth which is Christ BODY SPIRIT SENSES FULNESS OF CHRIST Full Salvation DIAGRAM #7 SOUL Veil taken FACE away Manifestation of BODY CHRIST Christ in the flesh FACE to the world As HE is Beholding Him in His appearing Face to Face, being filled with the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God, the soul is transformed.