THE MAN UNDER AUTHORITY 
                              by  J W Luman 
 
 
The Lord has instructed me to deal with a line of thought that I believe 
is one of the most important areas of Truth that the Lord has dealt with 
me about. And that is the area of AUTHORITY. There is coming in the 
Church, whether we realize it or not, a change of administration - a 
whole new administration. This is an administration that is talked about 
in Ephesians 1:10: "That in the dispensation of the fulness of time..." 
In the original translation it does not use the word "dispensation". That 
is in fact a mistranslation. The word is properly translated 
"administration." That in the administration of the fulness of time. That 
word "administration" in the Greek breaks down into several root words, 
and it means "administrators". Every administration has administrators. 
There are two things that make up an administration - the head and those 
who actually administrate the will of the head. In our political system, 
we have a Presidential administration. The President does not 
administrate; he makes decisions and those are carried out by 
administrators even throughout the ends of the earth. His will is 
displayed through those persons who in and of themselves are absolutely 
nothing. But they are administrators of what is probably the most 
powerful administration in the world today. And because they are 
administrators of that administration, their word wields extreme weight 
and authority.  
 
This is what we are talking about. And there is coming a new 
administration - the administration of the fulness of time. In Hebrews it 
is called The Melchisedek order of priesthood. In the Chronicles and in 
the Psalms it is referred to as the priesthood of Zadok - those that 
minister only unto the Lord. In the time of the gathering of Israel unto 
David, it was called the sons of Issachar. And in Joshua crossing over 
the Jordan, it was the priests who were bound together by the Ark of the 
Covenant. They were all types of this administration. But Paul refers to 
it as administrators of the fulness of time. And it is through these 
administrators; this is a ministry. In 2 Corinthians 3:6-18 Paul deals 
with it as the administration of Spirit and Truth. And he tells you that 
this administration brings you to an unveiling of Jesus Christ, and he 
compares it not with the letter, but with the Spirit. So there is an 
administration about to come into effect today in the Church, an 
administration that is designed to gather up the whole Body of Jesus 
Christ into the very fulness of Christ! It is not designed for 
scattering, it is designed for the gathering. 
 
There are three marks of this administration - the vision, the voice, and 
the authority. We will now look at the authority. I want us to examine 
our lives as to whether or not we are under authority. Let's turn to 
Matthew 7 and we will begin looking at 
this Truth concerning authority. The Lord has really dealt with me in 
this area, and He has given me instruction in bringing me into a 
realization of this Truth. And those instructions to me are - I NEED TO 
BE UNDER GREATER AUTHORITY! I have found by the Spirit in searching this 
that you can only exercise the degree of authority that you yourself are 
under, and you can not exercise one hair more; you only have authority if 
you are under authority. And you can only exercise the degree of 
authority that you have submitted yourself to. That is a Bible law, a 
spiritual principle. As I travel I've come to realize that my words carry 
no more authority than I myself am under. And I've had to do something 
about it, because I do not want to limit authority in my life and in my 
ministry. 
 
Verse 28 and 29, "It came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, 
the people were astonished at his doctrine; For he taught them as one..." 
You need to make note of that. He taught them as ONE. Therein is the 
source of authority. True authority is invested only in ONE. And it is 
exhibited, manifested, carried out only by those who are ONE WITH HIM, 
and only to the degree that they understand and submit to that union, 
that oneness. We're going to look at this in the life of the Lord first. 
But what is so with Him is so with those who are in Him - all the way 
down the line. We are going to learn what it means to live AS CHRIST. One 
of the things it means to live as Christ is you live as a man under 
authority, exercising the authority that you yourself are under. You live 
as Christ. "For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the 
scribes." 
 
Now what was the difference here? The scribes are those to whom it was 
given to copy and translate from generation to generation the scriptures. 
There's nobody who knew the scripture better than the scribes. They wrote 
them, they translated them, they kept them, they were our modern day 
printers - not only printers but translators and transcribers. To them 
was given the charge of the Holy Scriptures. And no one knew the content 
of the scripture, the letter content, the definition content, the written 
content better than the scribes. And yet when Jesus taught, He taught 
them as one having authority not as the scribes. The scribes knew the 
scriptures, but they had no authority. They knew the book backwards and 
forward. I don't know of one scripture that Jesus sat down and wrote. 
They all testify of Him, but I don't know of one that He ever wrote, of 
an epistle that He wrote. And yet when He spoke, He spoke with authority, 
greater authority than those who had written all of the Word of God, and 
kept them and translated them and knew them. But when they spoke they had 
no authority. And the people could tell the difference! And they can tell 
the difference today! They may not know what they are sensing, but they 
can tell something's different here. They were astonished at His 
doctrine; not because He said way out things, not even because He healed 
the sick or raised the dead. They were astonished because He spake as 
ONE HAVING AUTHORITY. We are looking now at the source of His authority 
- HE SPAKE AS ONE. That is the source of all authority. 
 
An ambassador of the United States, when he goes to China or Japan, that 
man in the natural sense of the term, speaks as one. If he ever speaks as 
other than one, he immediately loses his authority, because he 
immediately takes himself out from under authority, and speaks as though 
he has a word of his own, as though he has a will of his own, as though 
he even has a desire of his own. And when that Ambassador of the United 
States expresses his will, his desires, wants, even his good intentions 
or even his reasoning, he immediately loses all of the authority that he 
has. Because he ceases to speak as one, and he now speaks as two. Even if 
he speaks on behalf of one, he still loses his authority. He's not there 
to interpret will, he's there to speak the will. He's not there to 
interpret what the President said, he's there to say what the President 
said. If he interprets it like the scribes did, he loses his authority - 
nobody cares about his interpretation. Now we've got an administration in 
the earth today who are interpreting the scriptures. The scripture says, 
"Be ye holy", so they interpret holiness - where you go, what you wear, 
what you eat, what you say. Those are interpretations - those are not 
holiness. THE PERSON OF HOLINESS IS CHRIST HIMSELF! And to be transformed 
into His image is to be holy. None of these interpretations have any 
authority to them. If the Ambassador even voices his opinion, he loses 
his authority. 
 
But Jesus spake as ONE! Jesus didn't just declare "The Father and I are 
One." It's not just enough for us to say, "Well, we're one, brother." 
We've got an administration all over the earth claiming they are one, but 
none of them are saying the same thing. They are all voicing their 
opinion. It could be a good opinion, but when you voice it, you lose 
authority. The pattern here is CHRIST HIMSELF! "The Father and I are 
one." But what I want you to see is that Jesus didn't just say that - He 
lived that way! He lived that way to the cost of His life. "The Father 
and I are one." Hear me Church, it's not good enough for us running 
around saying we're one, we're going to have to live as one. And if we 
don't, we lose authority. There is no authority in fifty voices, there's 
only authority in the voice of One. And if that's expressed through fifty 
people, then there's great authority. But if there's fifty voices, 
there's no authority at all. There's only authority where there's the 
voice of ONE EXPRESSED IN MANY, who are one and will bear the reproach of 
that. You say, what could possibly be the reproach of being one with God? 
It brought great reproach upon Jesus. Let's look at what it meant to Him 
to be One. I want us to understand that what it meant for Him to be One 
with the Father, is the same thing it means for us to be One with Him, 
and for us to be One - one of another - as a manifesting of Him in the 
earth. Jesus' prayer was, "Father, that they may be one, even as we are 
one." So it isn't manifesting many, but it is many manifesting One. What 
one? "Father... AS WE ARE ONE." So as it is with Him and the Father, so 
it is with us and Him, and as it is with Him and the Father, so it is 
with you and I - in Him. That we be a manifesting of that oneness that He 
has with the Father. 
 
It is a perfect line of authority until it's broken by one person trying 
to be other than one - trying to have an opinion of their own, a word of 
their own, a will of their own, a life of their own. And immediately they 
remove themselves from that tremendous line of authority, and they don't 
have authority. They just have a puffed up idea of themselves, and their 
voice becomes a howling wind, and a tinkling cymbal, and a sounding 
brass, and ceases to minister life and ceases to minister grace. John 
5:17, "But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. 
Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him..." What kind of reproach 
is there? What did it cost him? It killed him, that's what it cost Him! 
Verse 43, "I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not; if 
another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive." What He's 
saying is, if I come in my own name you'd receive me, you'd let me be a 
prophet, you'd let me be anything. But I come in the name of another. I 
come as a man declaring ONENESS. I come as a man under authority, having 
authority, and you won't receive me. You won't receive me because I won't 
come in my own name. But you know what? If He came in His own name, He 
would limit His authority!  
 
You see, basically down deep, we do not want God to have absolute 
authority in our lives, and that's why we resist anything that looks like 
that. And one who comes in his own name - we can receive him, because 
that only requires a little bit of us. I can come to you as an Apostle - 
you have no trouble receiving me as an Apostle, as a Prophet or a Pastor, 
a Teacher or an Evangelist - you'd have no trouble with that. But to come 
and tell you that I am one with Christ, I have no life but Christ, and 
begin to preach to you a gospel from that standpoint - I'm telling you, 
the Church is still having a problem with that. Because it demands 
absoluteness of authority in their lives. Receiving me as an Apostle 
doesn't. They can just say, 'That's right but that's good for Brother 
Luman. God requires that of him because he's an Apostle.' But when I come 
and tell you I'm not coming as an Apostle, a Prophet, a Preacher - I'm 
coming as ONE WITH CHRIST; I have no life but Him; all of a sudden now, 
you and I are in the same boat. When I begin to declare to you a life of 
oneness with Him, pretty soon it begins to dawn on us and we say - let's 
get back to the gospel where it is clergy and laity, and let's put 
restrictions of the clergy, but God knows our hearts. No sir! 
 
Jesus said I come in the name of my Father and you try to kill me. 
Certainly, because He was declaring a life to them - a life that demands 
all, that consumes. Certainly, He wasn't speaking on behalf of anybody. 
He came speaking as One. So He didn't just run around saying 'I and my 
Father are One', He lived it. And I'm telling you that God in the earth 
today is raising up a ministry of administrators, both men and women, who 
will declare that they are one - one with another based upon their 
oneness with Him, based upon His oneness with the Father! And they will 
stand in that oneness even unto death. They shall stand in that oneness.  
Why? Because when you understand you are one, you can never be less than 
that. You can say you're one, but to understand you're one is something 
else again. And that understanding only comes in the revealing of The 
Son. Because outside of Him we're not one with one another, so it's not 
us trying to find our oneness anywhere other than in Him. But if I am one 
with Him, then I am one with you. I can not be one with Him and not be 
one with you. That is an impossibility. And He can not be one with us and 
not be one with the Father. That is an impossibility. So He says, "In 
that day when the Holy Spirit comes to teach you, He will teach you that 
I am in my Father, and that you are in me, and that I am in you." He's 
going to teach you a three-fold relationship. He's going to teach you 
that just as I am one with my Father, so you are one with me, and so I am 
in each one of you, making you one, one of another.  
 
For what purpose, Jesus? For the purpose of manifesting the authority of 
my Father in the heaven; for the purpose of the Kingdom coming in the 
earth as it is in the heavens. And a bunch of people running around in 
the earth living their own lives, doing their own thing, is not the 
manifesting of the authority of One - it won't get it done. The Father's 
authority is not being exercised in the earth. Why did Jesus have 
authority? Because He spoke AS ONE! He spoke as One having authority! It 
meant a tremendous thing to Jesus. John 5:19, " Then Jesus answered..." 
What was His answer? They tried to kill Him. They said, "You broke the 
Sabbath." And Jesus said that God was His Father, making Himself equal 
with God. "...and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son 
can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do; for what 
things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. (in the same 
manner) For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that 
himself doeth, and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may 
marvel." 
 
What has He just said? For years we've heard it preached by folks that 
were trying to make the deity of Jesus less than it was, saying that He 
wasn't God, that He himself said I can do nothing of myself, I can say 
nothing of myself. But don't you understand the scripture wasn't 
declaring that He was less than God, He was declaring His union with the 
Father. He wasn't saying He was the Father, He was saying He's One with 
the Father - One in union! He was saying I can do nothing other than my 
Father says. Why? Because we're One! How can One do other than what my 
Father says? He was saying, if I come as the Word of My Father, then how 
can I say other than what my Father is saying? If I say other than what 
my Father is saying, I cease to be the Word of my Father, and I  
become less. Get a hold of this! But if I refuse to exercise any but my 
Father's will, I am equal! If I refuse to say anything but what He says, 
I am equal. If I refuse to do anything that He is not doing, then I 
become a manifestation of what He is doing. I become a manifesting of Him 
- I am equal! But if I take to myself one second, I am less. If I take to 
myself one thought, I am less. If I exercise one thought - you think 
about this. You say that's a little hard. It isn't hard. Paul says, 
"bringing every thought into captivity". Tearing down imaginations 
...bringing every thought into captivity! 
 
There is not one instance that Jesus Christ ever thought out of union 
with the Father! Can we say that now about ourselves in relationship to 
Him, let alone in relationship one to another? My God - no wonder we have 
no authority. We try to correct lives - we have no authority to do it, so 
we have to correct them on the measure of the law. We have to give them 
ten more commandments to try to keep. We have to dream up some 
substitutes because we have no authority. Why? Because there's no 
authority being exercised in us! We may look right, talk right, eat 
right, dress right, but inside we're not under authority. We have our own 
will, our own words, our own understanding, and we pretty much do what we 
want to do. Oh, we have a list of laws that we do and keep up a facade, 
but inside we have our own will, and we exercise it. No wonder we have no 
authority. We try to make ourselves something so that people will hear 
us, and all we do is puff ourselves up and become fleshly. And people are 
glad to receive you like that because you don't exercise a lot of 
authority in their lives when you're like that. They can receive you like 
that, and be glad to, because that just gives them an image that they can 
do like that and have that same attitude. My Lord! 
 
But Jesus refused that. So He didn't just say 'My Father and I are one" - 
He lived like it. And He said The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what 
He sees the Father do. The Son can say nothing of Himself but whatever He 
hears the Father say. We're never going to get a Body of Christ this way 
until we get a ministry this way. I'm not talking about men belonging to 
the same organization. I'm talking about men being under the same 
authority, being under the same Head. Not just all claiming to be 
Christians, but actually being under the exercise of the same Head! Men 
who can do nothing of themselves; men who can say nothing of themselves. 
Look at verse 21, "For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth 
them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will." Why? Because He did not 
live out of union with the Father! 
 
To be under the authority of the Father, then He could exercise all the 
authority of the Father. There's the upside of this. There's the 
wonderful, positive, glorious side of this. He said I can say nothing and 
do nothing of myself because I come as the Word and as the work of my 
Father. But on the other hand, my Father giveth life to whomsoever He 
will, so the Son giveth life to whomsoever He will. Why? Because a man 
under authority exercises the same authority that he is under. But no 
more - not a hair's breath more. And it has created in my heart, to be 
under greater authority than I've ever been in my life. I didn't say 
greater law - I said greater authority. I didn't say greater rules and 
regulations. Amen. More AUTHORITY. More brethren, strong brethren with 
whom I walk as one, exercising nothing of my own; saying nothing of my 
own. Under authority - exercising my will in nothing, because in this 
it's not being a preacher or not being a preacher, it's being one with 
Him twenty four hours a day! Not when you're in a pulpit and when you're 
not in a pulpit - it's continual. 
 
This you see in Christ. This is what He's talking about. "For the Father 
judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." Verse 37, 
"And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye 
have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. And ye have 
not his word abiding in you; for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not." 
But there will be a people who will hear His voice! We are speaking about 
the Living Word being revealed in a people. There will be a people who 
will speak with Authority because they will speak out from the Original 
Word of God - that Word that is a Person being revealed in them. And 
their ministry is gathering up the Body of Christ; their ministry is the 
gathering up of all things as one, in ONE. 
 
Ephesians 1:10: "That in the administration of the fulness of time HE 
might gather..." Who is doing the gathering? THE HEAD! Through whom? His 
administrators. The gathering of the people is unto whom? HIM! That in 
the administration, that through the administrators of the fulness of 
time, He might gather. And the word "together" there means "AS ONE" in 
the Greek and in the Hebrew. He might gather as one in one all things in 
Christ. There is an administration coming that's not going to stand up 
and split hairs over what you wear and how you look. It's not the 
preaching of sermons. There's an administration coming where all of that 
stuff is laid aside, and they begin to declare the Living Word of God who 
is being revealed in them. And through that administration, all that is 
in Christ is going to be gathered as One in One. This administration is 
not for the splitting, it is for the bringing together. This 
administration is not for the driving away, it is for the gathering up. 
Who shall hear this administration? "My sheep shall hear my voice, for 
they know me and are known of me." Who will not hear the voice of this 
administration? Those who fall in the category of the Scribes and 
Pharisees; those to whom the Word is letter, those to whom the Word is 
tradition.  
 
What a tremendous authority Jesus had. He could speak as the Father 
because He refused to live out of union with the Father, He refused to 
live as other than one with the Father. John 8:23, "And he said to them, 
ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of 
this world." Verse 29, "And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath 
not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him." Look at 
the oneness He spoke out of. "I am from above, I proceed out from my 
Father." There is an administration coming forth, and it's going to bring 
the Body forth in the same understanding - that we are not from beneath, 
our birth is from above! We are not of the Jerusalem that now is, but we 
are of that Jerusalem that is above, the mother of us all; that we are 
not some earthly organization, but we are those that are raised up 
together, made to be seated together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus! 
I'm sick and tired of hearing this business out of the Church - "Brother, 
why don't you come and preach to us where we're living?" My God, why 
don't we wake up and see where we are living; wake up and understand you 
are not of this world; wake up and understand you are raised up together 
and made to be seated together! My Lord, you are in heavenly places; come 
to an understanding you are not pilgrims and sojourners. I'm not going to 
get up and tell you how rough and rocky the old road is, and that we're 
just barely making it through when Ephesians tells me I'm no longer a 
pilgrim and a sojourner, but a fellow citizen with the saints of God! 
Fellow citizens - raised up together, seated together in heavenly places, 
in whom ye are built up together, fitly framed together as a habitation 
of the Most High God! 
 
I'm not going to stand up and tell you that you're earth creatures 
because you are not! There's an administration coming forth that 
understands that they are not of the Jerusalem that now is, but they are 
of a heavenly Jerusalem, a heavenly city, a heavenly man, a heavenly 
household. And to them is given the understanding to declare that Truth 
in the midst of the Body of Christ; to gather that Body together in the 
understanding of the Word, in the understanding of the Truth. It's about 
time that the idea and the definition of the Church changes from drudgery 
and hardship to the understanding that the Church is a people living in 
union with Christ Himself! It's the Body of His fulness - it isn't 
someplace we go - IT'S WHO WE ARE! 
 
Here He's saying this. Verse 31, "Then said Jesus to those Jews who 
believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples 
indeed." And the emphasis here is continue, and only if you continue will 
you know the Truth. And only if you know the Truth will the Truth 
progressively make you free. If you continue then you're my disciples. 
Who are His disciples? Those who know the Truth! If you continue then you 
will know the Truth. And if you know the Truth, then the Truth will make 
you (and the word "make you" is progressive); progressively it will make 
you free. Verse 36, "And if the Son therefore shall make you free, ye 
shall be free indeed." All of this is talking about growing up in Him! 
It's talking about coming into the fulness of Truth! The Exercise of His 
Authority! Now make note of John 6:57, "As the living Father hath sent 
me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by 
me." He is saying here that just as I am one with the Father, so those 
that eat me, are one with me. Just as I am one with my Father, so those 
who are my flesh - eat my flesh, drink my blood - those who are my Body 
are one with me. Just as I am come to express Him, so my Body is to 
express me. 
 
Now before we're ready to jump out and say, "I and Christ are one," we 
better have sat down and counted the cost of that statement. "The Father 
and I are one" Jesus says, having fully counted the cost. Not a second of 
His life did He live out of union or had a thought out of union with that 
understanding. We're ready to jump up and say, "We're one with Him". Oh 
my! We need to get ready to count the cost - bring every thought into 
subjection - that in nothing, nowhere, at any time, under any 
circumstances do we have a thought that originates other than in Him. No 
less an administration can declare Him in us all! Preachers as we have 
known Preachers can't do it. The administration we've known can't do it. 
A split, divided administration can't do it. That's why as never before I 
am seeking those with whom I can manifestly walk as one, and be under 
authority, exercising the authority of Christ. I'm speaking of those who 
would know Him at all costs - who would walk in the understanding of 
their oneness with Him at all costs. And whose desire it is to grow up 
into Him who is the Truth in all things; reckoning nothing to be worthy, 
to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us.  
 
Could anybody less than One with the Father have declared the Father? 
Could any less than The Son have declared the Father? Can any who are 
less than Him declare Him? He hath made us One, but are we walking in the 
understanding of One? Are we walking in the authority? You can say 'I'm 
one', but if you don't come under the authority of one, that is live as 
one... well. You see, the source of authority is ONE! Christ could say 
"I'm one," but if He did not live as one with the Father, he had no 
authority. He had to come under the authority of the Father to be one 
with the Father. In other words, He had to live as one with the Father. 
And only those who will come under the authority of the Head and bear 
that reproach one to another, one with another, can declare Him. And 
there is in your Bible spoken of an administration that shall declare 
Him. And there is in your Bible declared a people, a Body that shall 
manifest Him. A MAN UNDER AUTHORITY EXERCISES AUTHORITY IN THE EARTH. 
Turn with me to Luke 7. I want to show you something here you may not 
have noticed before. We've heard a lot about this story, but I saw it in 
a new light.  
 
"Now when He had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he 
entered into Capernaum. And a certain centurion's servant, who was dear 
unto him, was sick, and ready to die. And when he heard of Jesus, he sent 
unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and 
heal his servant. And when   
they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly..." Now look at the mind 
of the Jews. Here's the thinking of most people. "saying that he was 
worthy for whom he should do this: for he loveth our nation, and he hath 
built us a synagogue." The old boy had given them a lot of money! They 
said he's worthy, Lord for you to come and do something for him - he's 
worthy. That was their mind, that was their thinking. " Then Jesus went 
with them. And when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent 
friends to him..." I'm not going to get into the business that he sent 
elders, and then friends, and all of that, but he sent friends to Jesus, 
and they related his true heart. "... saying unto him, Lord, trouble not 
thyself;" Here's the first mark of a man under authority.  "...for I am 
not worthy..." There is an administration coming forth that is going to 
come up out of death. It isn't going to come forth tooting it's horn, 
bragging about it's years of ministry, and all the feats it's done and 
all the churches it's built, and all the years it's preached. I AM NOT 
WORTHY. I am not worthy - that's the first mark.  
 
"... that thou shouldest enter under my roof: Wherefore neither thought I 
myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall 
be healed." This man was commended for his great faith, in fact it was 
said of him that there was not that great faith in all of Israel. We hear 
sermons on this - Oh, He just sent the word, just believe in the sending 
of the word. It has nothing to do with it at all. The Lord did not 
commend the man for saying "send the word". The man saw a secret. The man 
understood more than all of Israel together understood. "For I also am a 
man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, 
Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, 
Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled..." 
He marvelled at this man just like the people had marvelled at Him. 
"...he marvelled... I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." 
He marvelled at the understanding of this man. Why? Because this man had 
expressed an understanding of the authority which Jesus operated in. This 
man said, I also - just like you. I also am a man under authority, having 
authority. This centurion was under Caesar, and he understood that when 
he spoke to a soldier, Caesar spoke to that soldier. Why? Because the 
centurion had no will of his own, no life of his own. Caesar would tell 
him to stand watch all night - he stood there. But on the same token, he 
could tell this man do this, do that, and the man would do it. Why? 
Because it was a man under authority who spoke to him! It was Caesar who 
spoke. 
 
"I have those under me and I have servants." Why? Because I am a man 
under authority. And when I speak, I speak with all of the authority that 
I am under. I am no better than the authority that I am under. But this 
man said I am under the greatest authority on the face of the earth at 
this time - Caesar. He recognized Jesus had a greater authority than that 
of Caesar, but he recognized the principle of authority. 'Because you are 
under the authority of the Most High God, and are One with Him, as I am 
with Caesar - all you need to do is speak the Word.' And Jesus said, 'My 
God, I haven't found this kind of understanding in all of Israel.' And He 
won't find it in the Church today either! But it's coming - this kind of 
authority. Then we can speak the Word, then we can speak the Word and our 
words mean something, because there's more than me to back it up. I speak 
on behalf of greater than I. I speak on behalf of a greater God than I. 
What a tremendous truth there is here. It will change your life down at 
the root level. This is the attitude of the Apostle Paul - NOT I, BUT 
CHRIST! I can do nothing of myself. Not I, but Christ. I have no life; 
Not I, but Christ. For to me to live is Christ! Only to the degree that 
this truly works in me, will I exercise authority. 
 
The administration that will exercise the authority of Christ in the 
earth must live together, must live as One with Him, because they are 
ministering to a Body that is One with Him, and that Body will only hear 
those who are One with Him - in understanding and in Truth. We are going 
to look at authority. I want to get down to a practical aspect with you. 
There are three words. He spake AS ONE. That's the source of authority. 
You either speak as One, or you have no authority. The first Greek word 
meaning authority means "to encircle round about". When Jesus begins to 
be revealed in you, when the Son of God who is One with the Father, who 
is the authority of the Father; for the Bible says He gave Him all 
authority and all judgment. So all authority and all judgment proceeds 
out of The Son. And when The Son begins to be revealed in you, all 
authority and all judgment begins to be revealed in you. And before you 
can exercise authority, you come under it. And before you begin to 
pronounce judgment, it takes place in you. Before you are a judgment, you 
are judged. And the word "judgment" here means "discernment". Before you 
are ever going to be the discerning of love in the earth, love is going 
to be discerned in you. When Christ begins to be revealed in you, He's 
going to exercise authority - He's going to encircle you round about.  
 
When Christ begins to be revealed in us, we begin to live in His 
authority. We will begin to live as those who are encircled round about 
by Christ continually. We'll begin to live as those who are in Him, 
raised up together, made to be seated together, who are encircled round 
about. We begin to live as those of whom it is said, ONE NEW MAN, which 
is CHRIST ALL AND IN ALL. All dwelling in Him, Him dwelling in all. When 
He begins to be revealed in us we'll understand what it means to be in 
Christ and that realization will just grow and grow into the expansion of 
His authority, until His authority in that realm of our lives is 
absolute, until we see ourselves as being absolutely no where but in Him. 
Put us anywhere, and we are there in Him. Any circumstance, any 
situation, life, death - we are there in Him! The rule of His authority 
has filled up that realm. We are a Man encircled round about by Him. What 
has He done? He has set the boundaries of our life. He has not set limits 
- He has set boundaries. There are not limits in Him in Whom all the 
fulness of the Godhead dwells, but there are boundaries. In Him there is 
no limits - you can search out the height, the length, the depth, the 
breadth.  
 
What are you searching out the height, length, breadth of? You are 
searching out the height, length, depth and breadth of the fulness of God 
- there's no limits to that. But there is a boundary. He has set around 
you a boundary. That means that outside of Him there is no life. So He 
does not limit you, yet He sets up a boundary. He is like the wall around 
Jerusalem - He doesn't limit the city because of the twelve gates, but He 
does set up a boundary. He gives definition to the city, and yet all may 
come and all may go, and the city is sitting upon the mountain with its 
twelve gates, but there is a boundary. And that boundary sits upon a 
foundation. And the foundation is the very revelation of Jesus Christ 
Himself! As Christ is revealed in you there is a wall, there is a 
boundary built up around you. As He is revealed in you, the wall is built 
upon a foundation. As the foundation is laid in Zion, a wall begins to be 
built and that wall begins to bring your life into definition. All of a 
sudden life begins to be defined to you - Life is being in Christ, Life 
is in Christ, LIFE IS CHRIST! 
 
You haven't had a definition for it before, because there's been no 
boundary. No limits, but a boundary. A boundary that says only in Him do 
I live - outside of Him I have no life. That's a boundary, but there's no 
limits to that because in Him dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead bodily, 
and ye are complete in Him! And you are at liberty to search out the 
absolute height of God, the length of God, the breadth of God, the depth 
of God. Think about that - the fulness of God! You are at absolute 
liberty to search out all of that. You have no life except in Him. 
There's the boundary. It gives definition - for the first time your life 
begins to be defined, for the first time you know what life is. For the 
first time we begin to know who we are. A Man - a New Man - a New 
Creation - A MAN UNDER AUTHORITY! A Man whose boundary is Christ! 
 
When He begins to be revealed in you He begins to exercise that first 
root word that defines authority in the Greek - it means "encircle round 
about." You'll begin to understand that you're in Him, and that will deal 
with you in areas of your life, and it just grows and grows and grows! It 
encircles you - you will begin to understand what it means to be in Him, 
as He begins to exercise authority in you, as you never understood 
before. Having no life but Christ, living no where but in Him! All of a 
sudden you will find yourself carrying that authority over into the 
simplest situations and the greatest of situations, you'll find that 
authority making a difference in your life. I'm not talking about 
theology now, I'm talking about Christ exercising authority. I'm talking 
about Him bringing you into the realization that He does encircle you, 
that you have no life but that which is Him, and that in every place you 
are in Him, and that begins to have an effect on you. It begins to effect 
your decisions, and that is HIM exercising authority in all of those 
areas. Pretty soon you find in every place you begin to be a 
manifestation of the knowledge of His Life rather than your own. Because 
that in every place you are there only in Him! He encircles round about, 
and you begin to live as One Man under authority, expressing that 
authority in the earth.  
 
When Christ is revealed in any believer, Christ becomes the encircling 
One, the One outside of Whom I have no existence; the One outside of Whom 
I am not found. Because the one that I was has been taken to the cross.  
There is not a moment, not an issue, not a facet that isn't encircled 
within Him, that does not find its moving, its being, its purpose in Him. 
The more He is revealed in me, the more I understand I'm nowhere but IN 
HIM! This is the realization of being in Christ. And He encircles you and 
closes out everything but Himself. He becomes the wall round about you. 
The revelation of Jesus Christ is the foundation upon which the wall of 
faith is built and He begins to encircle me and He gives definition to my 
life. "FOR TO ME TO LIVE IS CHRIST." Now I can define my life - it is 
by HIM, through HIM, and it IS HIM - and it's not found outside of 
HIM! As He encircles us round about, we find our Oneness in Him. 
 
The Church today has no definition. We have sought definition in 
denominational names, in other names. You ask most of the Church today 
and they don't know who they are, what they are, where they are or why 
they are there. Why? Because there's no wall - He is not the Encircling 
Word. The wall of faith is not built upon the foundation in their heart. 
As the wall begins to encircle one, then two, then more, as it encircles 
it encircles in One. And for the first time the Church begins to know who 
we are, where we are, what we are and why we are. Because He gives us 
definition, and we quit going to church, and we realize we are the 
Church. We don't quit gathering - no - there will be more gatherings. You 
see this gospel is not for a member; this gospel is not for a believer, 
it's for the Body - it's for the New Man. It's not for a person, but for 
A Man. You can not live as a person and grow up in Him in all things. 
It's got to be as a Man - THE MAN THAT HE IS. The book of Ephesians was 
not written to a believer; it was written to the Church. When He begins 
to encircle you, you'll find He'll encircle others with you, and He 
begins to gather you together. It is a Body Word because He's bringing 
forth a Body in the earth that will be the manifesting of His fulness! 
 
The second word is "author or original". He spake with authority because 
He is the original Word of God! He's not somebody's idea. He's not 
somebody's prophesy. He is the original Word of God! When Christ begins 
to be revealed in you, He will begin to exercise the original Word of 
God.  He is the "original Word." It's no longer reading about Him, it's 
going into the scriptures and just seeing Him. It will be as from the 
beginning. Look at the writings of John. Christ was revealed in Him. Paul 
was the same way. They were never able to speak otherwise of it. "In the 
beginning was the Word..." Everything started in the beginning. John 
didn't start with the virgin birth, he didn't start with the fall of man, 
he didn't start with the genealogy of Adam.  "In the beginning was the 
Word, and the Word was with God..." He spoke who had been revealed in 
him, and you will too. He takes over the authority in you. He becomes the 
authority in you - the Original Word of God! The first thought, the 
original intent. In John's epistles, "That which was from the 
beginning..." He could have made the basis of fellowship anything, but he 
made it that which was from the beginning, and the seeing and the knowing 
of Him. The book of Revelation - it's all the same. " Alpha... Omega" 
"...was...is...was to come." All of a sudden John was controlled by a 
Word that was original, a Word that was out from the beginning. It's not 
John's word, not his testimony, it's as from the original Word of God - 
not his interpretation or translation. When Christ begins to be revealed 
in you, the Original Word of God becomes your basis of all judgment, all 
fellowship, all ministry, all preaching, all teaching, all living. You 
come under the authority of the beginning. 
 
"In the volume of the book it is written of me. I come to do thy will, O 
God." I didn't come to offer a sacrifice, that isn't what You are pleased 
in. I didn't come to offer a sacrifice for the first man. I've come to 
take away the first and establish the second. That's the Original Word 
coming into you. When the Original word comes in there is a disappearance 
of the first, and there is an establishing of the first and the last - 
CHRIST! And at that point in time, the first becomes the last, and the 
last becomes first. And you want to talk about authority taking over in 
your life? You begin to live as though you've never ever had a life! 
There is a Liberating Secret of this Word, of this Original Word. You see 
we've all heard a Word that comes and condemns us of sin. You know you 
did, otherwise you wouldn't have repented. But the problem is we've got 
an administration today that doesn't know anything but that. And the only 
thing they know saints are supposed to do is come down and pray through 
again. And their idea of revival is to get all the saints down at the 
altar praying through. Their idea of revival is to get a refilling of the 
Holy Ghost. There is no such thing as a refilling of the Holy Ghost! The 
Holy Ghost is a Person, He's a Spirit, the indwelling Part of the Godhead 
- there's no such thing as refills! 
 
There was a condemning word that brought me to the point of contrition 
and to the point of conversion, yes sir. But there is a Word that comes 
that doesn't deal with me in sin, it doesn't deal with me as Adam or as 
ever having been in Adam. That Word deals with me as one who is in 
Christ, as one in Him from the beginning, as one who has never been 
anyplace but in Christ! When this Word comes it is "Therefore now there 
is no condemnation..." because it is not dealing with me except as being 
in Him, bringing me under the authority of Him. IT IS THE LIBERATING WORD 
OF LIFE! It is dealing with me as a forgiven, as a restored, as a 
reconciled Son. It is dealing with me as The Man, The Son that God saw 
and purposed from the beginning, and as The Son that God has achieved and 
brought forth in Christ Jesus. There's a Word being born in that Son, and 
it does not relate to sin - it relates to righteousness and holiness and 
fulness of life! That Word takes authority in you, and from that point on 
it is NOT I, BUT CHRIST! It's not me a forgiven sinner, it's NOT I, BUT 
CHRIST! 
 
What a Word! What a Liberating Word for those who are still struggling 
under the word of condemnation - still trying to believe that they could 
ever be good enough to merit God's grace. When He is revealed and takes 
authority, then this works in you to be manifested in the earth. Then you 
become ministers. Then you become the restoring arm of God in the earth. 
His authority manifested now in the earth. That's what all creation is 
waiting on. All of creation is waiting on such a manifestation of the 
sons of God! 
 
The third term is the term "I AM", the self existing One - I AM.  
All of a sudden it's just HIM! The Self Existing One - everything He is 
He's made unto me - me only that I'm in Him. I am not the Body of His 
fulness, neither are you. WE are the Body of His fulness. The Bible says 
"gave Him to be the head over all things to the Church which is His Body, 
the fulness of Him." No member is. All of a sudden I begin to see the I 
AM that He is - and it's not me - it's HIM! And everything that He is, He 
is made unto This New Man, because by now we're not walking as parts, 
we're walking as Him. By the time we've come to this third revealing of 
His authority, by the time it's just Him, we're past the stage of many 
anyhow. We've come under authority, and now we're ready to know Him as 
God intended His people to know Him from the time He called His people 
out of Egypt. "Moses, tell them, tell them I AM THAT I AM." 
 
What does that means? Tell them I am what I am, where I am, the I am that 
I am, the I am who I am! "In that day you'll know I'm in my Father, you 
are in me and I am in you. Where I am there ye are also." The I AM! The 
Self Existing One! And we have a New Man living as having no life but 
Christ. We have a New Man that can say, 'I am One with Him. For I do 
always that which pleases Him, I say nothing, I do nothing but what He 
does. I am the exercise of His authority'. The encircling Word, the 
original Word, the I Am - I am the exercise of His authority in the 
earth. I tell you this is the work of the Holy Spirit and I'm excited 
about it! 
  
So, the word "authority" comes out in the Greek from root words that mean 
"to encircle round about", another that means "original" and another that 
means "I AM". When He begins to exercise that three fold authority in 
you, you will begin to exercise that three fold authority in the earth, 
in all of your circumstances, in everything. You will begin to live as a 
man under authority, exercising authority! 
 
Now, Philippians 1:21 and Galatians 2:20. Paul is speaking as a man under 
authority, but let us see the term is not men under authority, but a man 
under authority. They were amazed at Jesus' doctrine because He taught 
them as One, He spake as One having authority. And it's only when we 
speak as One that we exercise authority. So it's not men - but a man - 
not men under authority, but a man under authority. In other words, it is 
those who understand they are ONE NEW MAN - a New Man under the authority 
of God exercising the authority of God in the earth. Paul speaks as a man 
under authority, because he never speaks as Paul, he never speaks as men, 
he always speaks as a man. He always speaks in union with Christ, as part 
of the New Man who is under the authority of the Father. Of course the 
fulness of that New Man is Christ, and it's that New Man that we're going 
to look at.  
 
So let's begin at Philippians 1:19, "For I know that this shall turn to 
my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus 
Christ..." Notice this - the supply. "According to my earnest expectation 
and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all 
boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body..." 
Who, who is being magnified? "...whether it be by life, or by death." 
What is the concern of this man? Whether he live or die? No - that isn't 
his concern. His concern is that Christ be magnified in his body whether 
he live or whether he die! That's his only concern, and the reason for 
that is - "For to me to live IS CHRIST, and to die is gain." It also is 
Christ. To me to live is Christ, to die is Christ. But if I live in the 
flesh, this is the fruit of my labor, and he's saying I don't really know 
what I'm going to choose. He says I'm rather in a strait here - having a 
desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better, but for you it 
is needful that I remain. He says if I remain it is only for one purpose, 
and that is through the supply of the Spirit of Christ that I may 
manifest Christ to you. 
 
Do you understand this man is under authority? In life or in death he is 
under authority. It is not even up to him whether he lives or whether he 
dies. If he lives - it's Christ. If he dies - it's Christ. Personally he 
says he'd rather step out of this body and be more perfectly with the 
Lord in that unseen realm, but I'm not allowed to do that for your sake, 
because it is needful for you that I remain. Yet if I remain it is not I, 
yet Christ living in me - whether in life or whether in death, it is all 
that Christ be magnified. My God, this is a man under authority! He says 
I'm in Him - whether I live, He is in me, whether I die, He is in me - 
and there he's speaking of the natural body, because he says that Christ 
be magnified in my body. How different that is from the conversation of 
most believers, of most preachers, of most in the Body of Christ today! 
Because we have not yet found ourselves in an attitude of understanding 
that has brought us really under His authority to whether it is His 
decision to whether I live or whether I die. Why? BECAUSE HE IS MY LIFE! 
So it is really His decision, and if I do live, I live for one purpose - 
for the sake of the Body of Christ, that Christ may be magnified in my 
body, in my living; for in my living it is not I, but Christ who liveth 
in me. This is a man under authority, and what a tremendous liberty he 
has entered into.  
 
You know most believers today in the Church really worry about whether 
they're going to live or whether they're going to die - that's really a 
point of concern with them. Unfortunately even being a point of concern 
with them, their concern has very little to do with Christ. Very few 
believers today would say, "Well, if I live, the only reason I want to 
live is that I may be ministering Christ to you." That would almost be at 
the bottom of their list of why they don't want to die right now. I'd 
like to ask you a question. Outside of the immediate circle of your loved 
ones, would anybody really care much whether you lived or died? I mean, 
would your life or your death really affect anybody a whole lot? We need 
to think about that. We have believers today that if they died - is the 
Body of Christ really affected? Or if they live, is the Body of Christ 
really affected? It would have with Paul. It would have made a tremendous 
amount of difference if he had died, because he was a man under 
authority, and he lived for one reason - to build up the Body of Christ, 
to magnify Christ. He lived for the sake of the Body of Jesus Christ. And 
Paul was able to say (this is the scripture) that if I went on and 
departed where I would be more perfectly in the presence of the Lord, 
that is, out of this body, it would be harmful for you. At this point in 
time it is very needful that I remain. At the same time he's saying 
that's really the only reason I stick around.  
 
As I search in this area of authority, I've begun to question - does our 
life make any difference? Other than affecting my little immediate family 
circle, does it really make any difference whether I'm here, there or 
gone? We need to stop and consider this, because it should make a 
difference. And in the life of those who are under His authority, it does 
make a difference. It makes a difference in the Body of Christ! A MAN 
UNDER AUTHORITY. Paul had a reason for living. "For me to live is Christ, 
and to die is gain." But to live is Christ. It made a difference in the 
Body of Christ if this man lived; it was for a reason, for a purpose. 
It's just a tremendous liberty you can enter into in the Lord - to know 
that your living and your dying is not only in His hands, but it is for 
the purpose of His being magnified; it is for the purpose of His fulness. 
What a tremendous liberty! Let's see why Paul spoke this way. 
 
Galatians 2:20, we've read it and read it, and most of you have it 
memorized. "I am crucified with Christ." Now here's the end of Paul's 
concern over Paul. " I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet 
not I, but Christ liveth in me." Now it makes a difference whether this 
man lives or dies! And the reason is because of his understanding. It 
makes a difference. These are the words of a man under authority. He has 
already died! He has released his life. He hasn't released his body, he 
has released his life in the understanding that I have no life but 
Christ. I live, yet it is not I, but Christ who liveth in me. Now we can 
understand his statement - for to me to live is Christ, because the life 
that I now live in the flesh, I live by another faith, I live by another 
understanding, I live by another wisdom. And it is just this - It is not 
me, it is Christ. It is just this - The life that is being lived in this 
body is not my life, and in fact it is Christ living! He is not drawing 
His life from me. I am drawing my life from Him. It is Christ living in 
me, and because He lives, I live! And therefore, whether this body lives 
or whether this body dies, that it may in life or death magnify Christ; 
that whatever happens to this body, it may magnify Him.  
 
What a liberty there is in coming under the authority of One. Jesus had 
this same liberty. Jesus said, "Well, all men may forsake me, but my 
Father won't forsake me, because He's with me." What a liberty He had. 
Why? "Because I do always the things that please Him. I and my Father are 
one." So whether I live or whether I die, it is unto the glory of my 
Father. And He's able to say that. And Paul here is able to say that in 
his relationship with Christ. He has come under such authority; that is, 
he has come into an understanding of such a union, that I have no life 
but Christ. He is able then to release all things to Christ and say, 'I'm 
not really worried about life or death. My only concern is that whether I 
live or whether I die, it is for the magnification of Christ. That He be 
magnified in my body.' So it is the speakings of one who is under 
authority. 
 
I want us to look at what I have called "The Liberating Secret of Being 
in Christ." I have by the grace of God since 1963 the privilege of 
sharing in the Body of Christ the reality of being in Christ, but 
recently the reality of being in Christ has taken on dimensions that it 
has never taken on before in my understanding. This that we call our 
gospel, we often call it "The Message of Christ" is not in actuality a 
message or a sermon, it is not a theology. It is a life. It is more than 
a life - it is a manner of living. It is more than a manner of living, it 
is a union with the Person of Christ Himself! And it has to be renewed 
day by day by day. How? As Paul said, through the supply of the Spirit of 
Jesus Christ. It has to be renewed daily. When you get up out of bed in 
the morning you've got to breathe - it's a life, it's activity, it's 
involvement in breathe and heart pumping blood - it's a manner of life. 
It's not just talk - you live. You don't just speak, see - you live. You 
don't just hear - you live. In fact, you can live without hearing or 
seeing or speaking, but you can not hear or see or speak without living! 
And what we're dealing with here is not something you can write down on a 
pad and say that you've got this message, and then go out and live like a 
hermit, extracting yourself from the flow of the Body of Jesus Christ; 
and still claim to be growing up in Him. That is an absolute 
impossibility, because no one believer - I don't care whether it's me, 
Peter, James, John, Paul - no one believer constitutes the total of 
Christ or the Body of Christ. We can't separate ourself from the flow of 
the Holy Spirit, and the flow of the Holy Spirit doesn't come from the 
birds, the bees, the flowers and the trees; it comes from the Body of 
Jesus Christ! And when I separate myself from the flow of that Body, I 
have stopped the flow of life. And when I stop the flow of life, this 
message becomes words to me. It becomes death, not life.  
 
And I can sit there, and all of a sudden the knowledge that once was life 
now becomes an element of puffing up; an element of self justification; 
and that which was once good begins to be perverted; that which was once 
wisdom becomes a deceiving element. This thing grows in dimension. But as 
the knowledge of Christ grows, it necessitates greater, not lesser 
involvement with the Body of Jesus Christ - greater, not lesser 
involvement. Paul spoke about this in 1 Corinthians 12 - "the eye can not 
say to the ear, because you are not an eye, I have no need of you." One 
part of the Body can't say because I'm grown up in Jesus and mature now, 
I don't have any need for you. That's impossible. Why? Because this that 
we're presenting is not a message, it's a life, it's a Man, it's a union 
with Christ. You can not live in union with Christ and not in this union 
with His Body. That is an absolute impossibility. Paul clearly states 
this in 1 Corinthians 12:12, "As is the body (speaking of the human 
body)... so also is Christ." And then he begins to use the analogy of the 
human body. "The eye can not say to the ear, because you are not an eye, 
I have no need of you." Then he reverses that and say, "And also an ear 
can not say because I am not the eye, I am not of the body." And that 
simply means that the most insignificant member of the Body can not say, 
"Well, I'm not as mature as them so I must not be of the Body." It works 
both ways. Is the whole hearing, is the whole smelling, is the whole 
tasting? When we come to this understanding Paul says, we begin to seek 
out what we consider to be the weakest member, and we begin to shower 
upon them honor and grace and glory, because you understand that in 
strengthening any member of the Body of Jesus Christ, you have 
strengthened the whole, and therefore you've strengthened yourself! 
 
I'm talking about living as A MAN under authority. I'm not talking about 
living as men, living as parts or members - I'm talking about members 
living as a Man! I'm talking about parts living as a whole. Parts must 
live as a whole, because no part is a whole. "They don't know what I 
know." Well, maybe they're not the head, maybe they're the toenail! 
There's no excuses - and I've heard all of them, because there is only 
one that is going to grow up into the Head in all things, and that one is 
the Body. That one is not the finger, the elbow, the heart, the arm - 
that one is the Body, and that's the only thing that's going to grow up 
into His fulness. Someone will say, "Well, I'm going to set out here and 
just wait until they get mature enough for me to join to them." They'll 
grow up and you're just going to set there and die! They're going to 
maintain life and you're going to get bitter and dry up and lose out with 
the whole kingdom of God, that's what's going to happen - I've seen it 
happen. "But they're just so carnal." What? Were you born spiritual? Were 
you born smart, were you born mature? Who took time with you? Who labored 
and prayed? By whose grace are you still growing in Christ? Certainly not 
your own! We get to a point and we think we've attained. Paul never got 
there. He said the only reason I care even about living in this earth is 
for your sake - the Body of Jesus Christ.  
 
Paul lived as A Man, he lived as the Body, he lived in union with Christ, 
A Man under authority. Paul never lived as though he had a life of his 
own. And there are members of the Body of Christ today who are doing just 
that - they are lying to themselves and deceiving themselves when they 
say they are not. They have separated themselves from the fellowship of 
the Body of Jesus Christ and they say they are "living as Christ", that 
He is their life. No - because as is a member, so also is Christ? No sir 
- as is the body, so also is Christ. You can not live as Christ except 
you live as the Body of Christ, and no member can do that by themselves. 
None. And we may even find that some who think they are the stronger 
members come to a realization of their need of who we think is the weaker 
members, just so we can live as unto Christ. We've got to have them to 
live as unto Christ! Listen, if I decided that the only place I was going 
to go minister this Word was in mature Churches, I'd just stay at home 
all the time! I'd just stay at home because I haven't found one yet. I 
haven't found any part of the Body of Christ that has grown up into Him. 
I've found many parts that are hungry, many parts that are in need, I 
have found every part to be a burden that He has given to me, but I 
haven't found any part grown up in Him yet.  
 
And if I did find some local expression where they had all grown up in 
Christ, they wouldn't want me there, because I'd be the least among them! 
They'd all be mature, and I'm yet learning Him! We need to understand 
what it means to live as Christ - what it means to live as A Man under 
authority, and Paul states it in these two scriptures I gave you. "For to 
me to live is Christ..." "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I 
live, yet not I, Christ liveth in me, and the life that I now live in the 
flesh I live by a new understanding with regard to my union with Him." 
And therefore Paul says, I need the Body of Christ because I can not live 
as Christ without the Body. If I separate myself from the Body of Christ 
I can not live as unto Christ and as Christ. So what I might as well do 
if I don't think they are mature, I may as well begin laying down my 
life. I may as well begin ministering to them. I may as well begin 
laboring. I may as well begin to bear about in my own body their 
infirmities. I may as well begin to suffer for their lack, and make up in 
my own body what they are lacking. Paul says all those things. He takes 
on the spirit of a Joshua and a Caleb - 'if this bunch is not going over 
in Canaan, we'd better start doing some teaching, because we're not going 
to get over there without them. God isn't going to let us go over there 
until all of Israel goes, so if Israel is not going to go, rather than 
getting mad and go and build us a tent off in the wilderness, we'd better 
realize that there's a ministry for us in Israel. There's a ministry for 
us in these people, and until these people come to Him, we're not going 
to go very far!' 
 
But you see, they were as a man under authority. They didn't have a life 
of their own, they didn't have a will of their own. They couldn't just go 
tippy-toeing off through the Jordan and go over there and conquer it by 
themselves, like so many of our believers today surely think they are 
doing. They just think they are growing up in Christ by leaps and bounds, 
and they're not. They are dying every day, and withering - in bitterness. 
They have no ministry, they just have a puffed up view of themselves. 
Those sound like hard words, but it's time we begin to understand what it 
means to come under authority. And to begin to live as in union with 
Christ. There is a Liberating Secret of Being in Christ - it will set us 
free and bring us into a liberty that we have never known, or been able 
to comprehend before. 
 
Now turn to Colossians 1;13. What it means to be in Christ in the first 
place, is that there is an elimination of me, there is an elimination of 
believers. Do you know that in the true reality of this statement, there 
are no believers in Christ. "Who hath delivered us from the power of 
darkness..." You see, man as Adam fell short of the glory of God; that 
is, he fell into sin. And you and I outside of Christ are found in Adam - 
we are one with him. We are one old man. We are not many old men, we're 
one old man. Adam is full of divisions - Christ isn't. Adam is full of 
male and female, bond and free, but the whole man Adam is made up of all 
those divisions- races, creeds, kinds and colors. You can't bring that 
over into Christ in any way, shape or form. You can't bring any kind of 
division over into Christ, because there is no division there. What is 
God's answer to this old man, this old man who is male and female, who is 
black and white? This old man who is all of these divisions that we still 
have harbored in our heart and try to bring them over into Christ, and 
try to see ourselves in that same understanding. That's the reason Paul 
said the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by a new 
understanding. I don't understand myself to be as I was in Adam. In Adam 
it is me - IN CHRIST - IT IS HIM! In Adam it is the Hebrew of Hebrews. 
In Christ it is Christ all and in all! In Adam it is Saul of Tarsus, the 
Jew. In Christ it is all that crucified, and Christ alone! 
 
See, most believers don't understand that yet. What happened to this many 
membered, this divided thing, this creation that fell short of the glory 
of God? What happened to this man Adam that is full of all these 
divisions that are existing in the flesh? God established a cross just 
for His purpose and just for His benefit. And there we were delivered 
from the power of darkness. "Who hath delivered us from the power of 
darkness..." The cross is a full deliverance from the power of darkness. 
The cross is a full deliverance from Adam and from all that is involved 
with Adam. And how did He deliver us? He delivered us through the death 
of one. The death of one - in that one died... So who's the one? What one 
died? The one that he became! Well, what did he become? He became the 
last Adam. He became one old man, and as one, He died. He died as the old 
man, as Adam. He died as all of the divided parts. He didn't try putting 
all that mess together. He died. He took it all to the cross. In His body 
He united that thing the only way it can ever be united. He united it in 
death! That's how all of our bickering saints are going to be united. 
They are going to be united in death - all that stuff just has to die. So 
Jesus took it all and united it all in death. 
 
He took it all to the cross and He killed it. We keep wanting to find it 
in Christ, but it's not there except in the figment of our imagination. 
What happened? One died and one arose - ONE LIVES - ONE came forth in the 
fulness of life! Now the old died, but ONE NEW MAN comes forth out of 
death, is raised up in Christ, and now lives by Christ, and can say, "Not 
I, but Christ"; can say, "For to me to live is Christ." Because in fact, 
that's who lives. And we who were in Adam were one old man and died when 
he died. He died when Christ became that thing and put it to death. But 
in doing that He has released us that we now may be one with another - 
One with a New Man! But in Him it's not like it was in the old. In Him, 
there is nothing that was in the old. In Him there is neither male nor 
female, but there was in the old. In Him there isn't black or white, but 
there was in the old. Why isn't it in Him? Because it all died at the 
cross - as one man - one death. And Christ came forth in newness of life 
and we, raised up by Him, together with Him, are made to be seated 
together in Christ Jesus - not as new men, but as ONE NEW MAN! Each of us 
having no life but Christ, each of us dwelling in no one but Christ. So 
in reality, there is no such thing as a believer even existing in Christ. 
In reality, this One New Man is not made up of Christ and me. He is many, 
but your Bible says "for we being many are one body." Now wait a minute - 
here is the mystery. Though this New Man is made up of many, He Himself 
is not many - He is One. So in reality, you can not say I am in Christ 
and at the same time say that I am an individual member.  
 
You can't say that because that is to say that if everybody else wasn't 
in Him, I still would be. That is not true, because the Body is not one, 
it is many, but the many are not many, they are ONE! And that's a mystery 
that only the Holy Spirit can reveal in each of the members, showing that 
each of the members, in fact, have been swallowed up in the Person of 
One, and therefore now can not say 'I have no need of you.' And can not 
say 'I'm here whether you are here or not', and can not say 'I can live 
as though you don't exist.' They can not say that any longer. They could 
in the old, but they can not in the new, because the new is nothing like 
the old. Romans 5 tells us that - not as the offense of the old...not as, 
not as - there is no comparison between the old man and the New Man! The 
old man is divided, the New Man is absolutely ONE, and there's no 
division in Him. But the division is still in the heart, in the 
understanding of those that are in Him. In their heart, in their soul, 
there is this division - in the figment of their imagination. Though we 
are in Christ, there are many in Christ who want to see themselves in 
Christ as they were in Adam, and they are not. They are in Christ, 
supposedly, but have a life of their own - they live in a figment of 
their imagination. Even though they call that life Christ, they still 
think it's a life of their own.  
 
We were just saying you don't know what member you are. You don't know if 
you're an eye or an elbow or a leg, but in Him, all are one. Every member 
makes up the Body. In Him, the emphasis is never upon what member you 
are, the emphasis is upon the Body; the emphasis is upon Him; the 
emphasis is upon His fulness. That's the reason you can know what office 
you operate, because the office is CHRIST! It's not you. You can know 
what gift you operate, because the gift is Christ, not you! But what you 
are, a member, is not told to you, it's not described - you don't know, 
you never will know. It's not important, because in Him it's not the 
member, it's the Body.   
 
So for me to live as a man under authority, I've got to live as one Body, 
as one with Christ. And to live as one with Christ, I have to live not 
only as a member, I have to live as His Body. I have to understand that I 
can not live aside from, or other than His Body. And immediately when I 
do that I am trying to be a person under authority - but there's no such 
thing. It's A Man under authority. One New Man, there is such a 
tremendous Liberating Secret here. "Who hath delivered us from the power 
of darkness, and hath translated us into the Kingdom of His Dear Son." So 
we're translated, and now we're in Christ. But since we're in Christ, 
it's a totally new ball game - a totally new creation. There are no 
similarities between the old and new creation. They are as different as 
the east and the west. One is dead, one is alive; one is a mixture and a 
division and a dividing; the other has no mixture, no division and is not 
divided. The New Man is One Body made up of many, and yet the many have 
ceased to be many, and by Him are become One!  
 
So you see, we're not dealing with believers in this word, we're dealing 
with the Body. This word is not for the maturity of believers, but for 
the maturity of the Body. Now, Ephesians 4 says, He gave some Apostles, 
Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers, for the perfecting of the 
saints. But the word "perfecting" there does not mean "growing up", the 
word "perfecting" there is " full equipping." To fully equip the saints 
for the work of the ministry, which is the building up, the edifying, the 
bringing to full stature the Body of Jesus Christ. You can never find in 
the writings of Paul where his emphasis is on the maturity of the 
believer, but only the maturity of the Body. Certainly it involves 
believers, but the emphasis is not believers, the emphasis is the Body. 
So we're to understand that a believer will never outgrow the Body, no 
more than the hand will outgrow your arm.   
             
That's because no one believer can ever manifest the fulness of Christ. 
And you can not grow; the Holy Ghost will not let you grow beyond what 
you can manifest. He reveals Christ - it's not your prerogative - and He 
will not reveal more of Christ in you than what you can manifest. No one 
believer can manifest Christ, so you'd better get in a body somewhere, 
not go off alone in a cave; and manifest the measure of Christ that is in 
you for the good of that body, that it may minister to others and that 
you may grow up together in Him. And begin to bear one another's burdens 
and begin to understand what it means to live under the authority of One; 
and to live as One. These epistles were not written to a believer, they 
were written to a Church, and it is written to me only as I am part of 
the Church, as much as I function as part of the Lord's Body. I'm not 
telling you that you've got to be a member of some religious 
organization, I'm telling you that you've got to function somewhere as 
the Lord's Body, and you can't do that by yourself, because you by 
yourself do not constitute the Lord's Body. That's the reason the Lord 
won't let me just make tapes and write books and send them out to the 
Lord's Body. No - you've got to function in the Lords' Body, you've got 
to bear the burden of the Lord's Body; you've got to lay down your life 
with the Lord's Body. Then you can write books and send them tapes, but 
you can't do that as a substitute for being part of it. You say, 'I'm 
just going to stay at home and pray for you.' I'd rather you'd just get 
beside me and help me! 
 
It is a tremendous understanding to begin to comprehend that we are in 
Him. It means something more than most believers realize. The Liberating 
Secret of Being in Christ. We've read that He's translated us into the 
Kingdom. Whose Kingdom? The Kingdom of His Dear Son! The word "Kingdom" 
means the absolute rule of One, or the absolute authority of One. Where 
there is no absolute rule of One, there in effect is, no Kingdom. Where 
there is no King, there is no Kingdom! Kingdom implies the realm of His 
rule. The realm of His authority is His Kingdom. How are we ever going to 
advance the Kingdom of God in the earth by building more buildings? No - 
it will be by living under His authority! The more people live under His 
authority, the farther His realm extends. Not more religious people, more 
living under His authority. Bringing every man under His authority is 
extending the Kingdom of God! Not bringing every man into religion, 
bringing every man under the rule of His authority! 
 
What I'm telling you is we had best be concerned with extending the realm 
of His authority in our souls before we can get too concerned with 
extending it in the earth. Because the only way it will ever be extended 
in the earth is by those in whom He has absolute authority in their 
lives. If you want the realm of His authority extended in a place, then 
you go get into that place - assuming that His realm of authority is 
fully extended in you! That's the only way to bring the realm of His 
authority there - by bringing someone there who's under His authority. 
And they will in that place manifest His authority. They can say, 'This 
day the Kingdom of God has come nigh unto you.' Most of us can not come 
into a situation and say the Kingdom of God has come nigh because the 
authority of God is not extended in us, and so we do not bring an 
extension of His authority, so we just rant and rave and holler and 
scream. We think with our loud hollering we're going to do something. No, 
His authority doesn't need that. All His authority needs is someone under 
it, who will just manifest it; who is able to walk into any kind of a 
circumstance in any place, at any time, and simply by being there, 
manifest the realm and rule of His authority. We don't have many like 
that in the Church today because we don't have many that have experienced 
in their own hearts the rule and the realm of His Kingdom, of His 
authority.  
 
We can pray, "Thy Kingdom come, thy Kingdom come." But in fact until His 
Kingdom is come in us, His Kingdom will not be visibly manifested in the 
earth as it is in heaven. Authority is not something I have, authority is 
something I manifest, something I express. Authority is what He has. It's 
His Kingdom - not mine. But in living under His authority, we become an 
expression of it. You can't manifest more authority than you're under 
yourself. If you come into a situation and you are not under His 
authority, all you're going to do is get involved in the situation. 
You're not going to change it. Kingdom is what we're talking about - 
Kingdom authority. Something many want, but few want to live under.  
2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if any man ..." Notice, if any man - and 
that's the last of it, that's the last of the man. Therefore if any man 
be in Christ. There's the last of it. He's not spoken of any more, except 
as a New Creation. What has happened? He's passed away. If any man be in 
Christ - now try to find him. No - he's a New Creature now. Now you're 
not dealing with a man. In Christ you're dealing with One New Creation, 
and the fact that it has parts doesn't lessen it at all. The fact that it 
has parts only enhances the fact that it is not parts - it's a whole. It 
doesn't depend upon its parts - the parts depend upon the whole. This 
creation can do without the parts, but the parts can't do without the 
creation. "If any man be in Christ..." What if there's some man that's 
not in Christ? That doesn't hinder what is. What is there is still a New 
Creation, and when another is added that other becomes part of the whole. 
The whole doesn't become part of that - it is swallowed up in the whole. 
This Gospel is dealing not with creatures, but with a creation, a New 
Creation; it isn't dealing with men, it deals with One New Man. He spake 
as One having authority. 
 
We only have authority when we finally come to the understanding that by 
the grace of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit and the Resurrection 
of Jesus Christ, we are not many, we are One. And in living as One, we 
are under the authority of One. To be under the authority of One means to 
live as One, having no life of our own, no word of our own, no this or 
that of our own - not even knowing what member we are. Just knowing that 
He is my life, and whatever I express - it is Him! 
 
You can always tell those who are living as a Man under authority. They 
have no free will, they are not an independent spirit. They are not under 
rules and regulations, and yet they are very much constrained by the 
Spirit of God, but they are at perfect liberty by their union with Him, 
doing only that which He allows. What authority! Paul speaks of this in 
another way in 2 Corinthians 2:14, "Now thanks be unto God who always 
causes me?..." No, there's no me there. "...who always causes us to 
triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by 
me?...No, by us in every place." He maketh manifest the savor of His 
knowledge by us in every place. He always causes us to triumph in Christ, 
and then wherever we are found, we are there a manifestation of the 
smell, of the odor of the knowledge of Him. In other words, wherever we 
are found, we are found as One in union with Him. Wherever we are found, 
we are found there living as One Man. We are found there not manifesting 
the savor of the old, but the savor of the new. It is by us that He makes 
manifest the knowledge of the life of Christ! Maybe He says there needs 
to be a good smell, a sweet savor over here in this prison - so I'll send 
Paul over there, because the only thing he's going to smell like over 
there is the New Man that he is. Wherever I put him, he's just going to 
manifest the savor of the knowledge of Christ. Why? Because Paul's a man 
under submission - not a person - a MAN. In other words, he will live no 
differently there than he is in Christ. He will be the same. 
 
Therein is our triumph. Don't you see our triumph in Christ is that in 
every place He is our life, and no matter what transpires there, we are a 
savor of His life. In that we are always triumphant. This is Paul saying 
it doesn't make any difference whether I live or die, the only thing that 
makes any difference is that Christ is manifested. The triumph is not in 
me living or dying, the triumph is in manifesting Christ! So they take 
him out and stone him, and he comes out triumphant. What do you mean, a 
man bleeding from head to foot - he's just been stoned! Yes, but he 
manifested the savor of the knowledge of Christ! In all things He maketh 
us to be triumphant in Christ, and maketh us in every place a savor of 
His knowledge. This is what God is doing. He's bringing forth a people 
that He knows He can put them anywhere and wherever He puts them, they 
are just going to be a savor of the knowledge of His Son. They are 
triumphant in all places and all things in Christ, because no matter what 
situation comes upon them they manifest the savor of the knowledge of His 
life - therein they triumph. THEY TRIUMPH BY MANIFESTING HIM! 
 
But we don't know whether we want to be under authority or not, because 
that's not the way we think in the natural. That doesn't look too 
triumphant to us. "For we are unto God a sweet smelling savor of Christ, 
in them that are saved and in them that perish." Unto God - that makes 
them a sweet smelling savor of Christ. Now to one we're the savor of 
death unto death, to another of life unto life, but to God in every 
situation we're a sweet smelling savor of Christ. "Thanks be unto God who 
always causes us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of 
his knowledge by us in every place." Why? Because we are the realm of His 
absolute rule. We are the ruled and we are the ruling. Wherever we are we 
triumph because there we manifest His absolute rule - whether death, 
whether life. We bring into that place the Kingdom of God. We bring into 
that place the absolute rule of the Son. "He hath translated us into the 
kingdom of his dear Son" so that we may grow up into Him in all things, 
so that we may come under His absolute rule and manifest His Kingdom, 
manifest his rule in every place throughout the earth. As it is in 
heaven, so be it in earth. It is not going to be until there is a people 
who shall manifest it. 
 
This administration that the Lord is bringing together I've seen more 
clearly in the book of Joshua than any where else. The Ark of the 
Covenant I've seen in a new way. Paul preaches a New Man - the Ark of the 
Covenant was God's symbol of that New Man. The Ark of the Covenant was 
not just God, it was not just Christ, the Ark of the Covenant is the 
symbol of a people. There are two covering cherubim, and not only are 
those cherubim representative of redeemed man, they are representative of 
heavenly man. Not just transformed sinners, but transformed heavenly 
beings. Yes, redeemed by the blood, but not just redeemed by the blood, 
but standing in the very glory of God! That Ark of the Covenant is a view 
of a New Man being formed in the heavens in Christ Jesus, for the purpose 
of manifesting the fulness of Jesus Christ in all of the earth. The Ark 
of the Covenant was a type of A Man standing in the Holy of Holies - a 
Man, a Man, God's vision has always been a Man. A Man - a Man in His own 
image, a Man in His own fulness, a Man of His own kind, but a Man 
nonetheless. A Man who is no less than His Son, but a Man who is the 
fulness of His Son. Not a Man as His Son went out from Him - alone, 
empty; but a Man as His Son returns to Him - full! Bringing many sons, 
and yet in Him the many has ceased to exist, and the One has come forward 
in reality. So it is not the many who are many, but the many who are 
absolutely, totally ONE! 
 
Filling up the heavens - a Man formed in the heavens, a Man who is fully 
the Son, and yet he is the fulness of the Son, having no life but the 
Son, no head but the Son, and no body but the body of the Son; which Body 
we are - joined inseparably unto Him! Can you see what A Man the fulness 
and the end of our salvation is? Yes, This New Man is the end of our 
salvation - He's the full expression of it, the full manifestation of it. 
Salvation as we've heard many times is not just getting out of hell, and 
it's not just getting in Christ either - it's growing up into the fulness 
of Christ Jesus; growing up into the Head in all things. There is the 
end, the fulness, the consummation. That's what Salvation is all about. A 
Man formed in the heavens for the purpose of manifesting the glory of God 
in all the earth. 
 
The Ark of the Covenant is a picture of that, of that which is joined to 
God by the blood, but now standing in the glory of God. And you see the 
administration of the letter could not approach that, except once a year 
in fear, in trembling, carrying the blood of the lamb. But that 
administration of the letter could never see that Man, could never 
understand that Man. They could only bring blood back there because that 
administration could only deal with sin, and sacrifices of sin - it could 
not behold the glory of God. Moses could not behold the glory of God. He 
could not look upon the face, neither could Aaron the Priest look upon 
the fulness of what the Ark of the Covenant stood for - a glorified Man 
in union with Christ. He could only deal with the sin, with the blood 
part of it, and then only once a year, and only then completely covered 
up with the garments which are a type of Christ Himself! 
 
But the first thing that happened when Jesus died is the vail is rent - 
the heavens are opened, and a Man appears in the heavens. Ezekiel saw 
Him, Isaiah saw Him, Jeremiah saw Him, John saw Him and Paul saw Him, and 
the Holy Spirit is revealing Him in the midst of the Church today. This 
same Man who is none other than Christ, but He's the fulness of Christ! 
He's a Man in union with the Son - a many-membered Man, but the emphasis 
is not many, nor membered - the emphasis is ONE NEW MAN - the fulness of 
Christ Himself. And there is an administration that will declare that 
Man.  
 
And the clearest type of that administration are these priests that 
Joshua raised up, because they took that Ark of the Covenant and they put 
it upon their shoulders. The government upon the shoulders of this New 
Man, this administration, this priesthood. And what was tying them 
together? Where one went, all went; where one stood, all stood. What was 
their tie? The Ark of the Covenant - the vision of One New Man! That was 
a type, and they carried that vision, that message, that revealing, they 
walked out into the midst of the Jordan and heavens opened - the Jordan 
opened! They walked out before the people. Why must it be done this way? 
Because you have not passed this way before! You've never gone this way 
before so it's going to take an administration of priests carrying the 
Ark of the Covenant upon their shoulders. They are bound together by the 
revelation of Jesus Christ! They are bound together by the open heaven 
and This Man appears. They see themselves as being in Him, swallowed up 
in Him, One with Him, and therefore One with another. And they fear that 
testimony before all of Israel, and they stand there until all of Israel 
has passed over into Canaan, and then the verse is completed - "Out of 
Egypt have I called My Son." Do you understand the type of it? And that 
which is set forth in type is even now beginning to be revealed and 
fulfilled in the Church. That in type is being revealed in us by the 
Spirit in living Truth! AMEN! 
 
We're talking about A Man under authority. We know "In the beginning 
God..." You know the Elohim God, the plural God, but nonetheless God is 
one God. And whatever comes out of Him has to be One, because One can't 
produce anything but One. In Him is the capacity to be manifold - that's 
why we're sons of God, but our God is One God. Anything that comes out 
from Him has to be One - One in Spirit, One in Truth, One in nature, One 
in character, One in expression. That's a divine law. If it's not One, it 
had nothing to do with Him. And that's why when the Son came out from 
Him, He came out as One! God is One and the Son came out expressing what 
God is. He came out as a Man under authority, and the purpose of His 
coming out was to take a man that was divided, a man that was many, and 
to bring that thing to nothing at the cross. He became the one old man, 
but in the one old man there were all these divisions that we still try 
to honor today. The Jew and the Gentile is in the old man; the man and 
woman, and the black and white is in the old man. The old man is all 
these divisions; he is many in nature and character, because his nature 
and character is not God - he was never after the kind of God. The word 
"kind" stopped when it came to the creation of man. Cattle, fish, 
creeping things after their own kind - but Adam was not after the kind of 
God. He was never after God's kind because only that which is of God's 
seed is after God's kind, and God's seed is One. "And he saith to Abraham 
and his seed, not seeds as of many, but unto thy seed, which is one, thy 
seed which is Christ." 
 
Jesus brought that thing that is divided to an end, and then He came 
forth. He came forth just like He came out! He came forth as One - ONE 
NEW MAN! That's the Man that the Ark of the Covenant typifies. That's the 
Man Ezekiel saw in the heavens. That's the Man Isaiah saw sitting upon 
the throne. His head is Christ, His Body is His own and His purpose is to 
manifest the glory of God in all the earth. And that's what came forth 
out of death unto life. And none of the old is carried over. We, those of 
us in Christ try to carry it over. We try to carry over the idea of the 
many, but the idea of many is not found here. That's why we can not live 
as a person under authority, we've got to live as a Man under authority. 
This New Man that we are in Him is not many - He's One. For we being many 
are One; each one member one of another. In many of our hearts we are 
still the many, but ye shall know the truth. An administration shall rise 
up that shall clearly define the New Man that we are through the 
revelation of Jesus Christ. And they who are in Him will see that it is 
not us, it is HIM! That it's not the many, it's ONE! And the first to see 
that as an administration coming forth, in the midst of this Body, will 
lift up the vision of that Man. Out of that vision shall come a voice, 
and out of that voice of One shall come authority! 
 
But it all comes out of One - not seeing we're two, but seeing we're One. 
Paul saw the Man. That's why he said it's neither this nor that. He 
covered just about everything you could cover. He said it is none of that 
- IT IS CHRIST ALL AND CHRIST IN ALL! It is One Man. Paul saw the Man, 
and he continually presented that Man to the Church of his day. I got 
excited a while back when the words of Paul came flashing through my mind 
where he said he was "one born out of due season". And for the first time 
I understood by the Spirit of God what season he was talking about. He 
wasn't talking about Peter's season and James' season of walking on the 
seashore with Jesus. Paul understood he was a man born way ahead of his 
time. He was declaring a vision to the Church of his day that the Church 
of our day will fully see and fully exemplify! Hallelujah! When I saw 
that I began to understand that the vision that the Man that Paul saw is 
the Man that we in Christ are! And in that time God raised up Paul and he 
declared the vision to the Church, but in this day God is raising up a 
whole administration who shall perfectly declare this same vision to the 
Church, and the Church shall come forth in the fulness of the Man, for 
the purpose of manifesting His glory in all the earth!  
 
What the Spirit of God is doing right now is forming an administration in 
the Body of Christ - an administration for the fulness of the time, to 
declare the full time is come! And for the gathering together, the 
gathering as One, in One, all things both in heaven and in the earth. 
Abraham saw This Man as the dust and he say This Man as the stars. And on 
Mt. Zion when he offered Isaac, he saw the whole thing come together! 
Abraham typified this administration of faith. Well, there's an 
administration that is coming forth that is going to declare A Man formed 
in the heavens, but to manifest Christ in the earth! Gathering up in Him 
as One, both in the heavens and the earth. To say I'm a little excited is 
an understatement - I am on fire with the reality of the vision that is 
beginning to be birthed in the hearts of those whose mind is turned 
toward Him. There is a priesthood that has nothing in their minds and 
hearts but to get Israel all passed over - into Canaan - that's the only 
job they have. I want to be part of the administration whose only concern 
is the Body of Christ coming together in the fulness of The Son! I'm glad 
I was born in this day. 
 
This Man is a Man under authority. He came out of Man under authority. "I 
come to do my Father's will. I come to finish the work my Father gave me 
to do. My Father and I are one, because I do always the things that 
please Him. My Father and I are one, because I never speak but what I 
hear Him say, I only do what I see my Father do. Therefore I don't have 
to testify of myself, my Father testifies of me. Therefore all that 
belongs to My Father is delivered unto me. Therefore as the Father can 
give life, so He giveth to the Son, that the Son may give life." Why? 
BECAUSE I AM ONE WITH MY FATHER! What Jesus has done is brought forth a 
Man that is One with Him, as He is One with the Father. So now there is a 
clear line of authority from the Father through the Son, through the 
expressing of the Son through all of the earth - Thy Kingdom come, Thy 
will be done, Thy authority come, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, in 
earth as it is in heaven! That's what He's bringing together. No 
organization on the face of the earth can hold a candle to what God is 
bringing together in the revelation of His Son! Though every one of them 
had this in view and this in mind, in this purpose and this plan - yes, 
but what He's bringing together now is coming together in the view of The 
Son Himself! For the declaring of Him and for the manifesting of Him. And 
it's not coming together for the building up of a ministry, it's a 
ministry coming together for the building up of the Body! Because it's 
the Body that's the One New Man! 
 
ONE - ONE - ONE. This is not men, this is A Man. It used to be men - 
over here in the old. In the new it's A Man, it's A Man under authority. 
When will this Man be manifested? When the Head is revealed in all of its 
parts. Then it will operate as A Man under authority - when they have the 
same mind. The Apostle said, "Oh brethren, I would that you speak the 
same thing, that you have the same judgment, that you be perfectly joined 
together in the same mind". That's beginning to take place through the 
revealing of the Son in the Body. You see One - you declare One! You see 
the same vision, you are transformed into the same vision. Seeing the 
same - speaking the same; having the same mind - using the same mind, the 
same judgment. It all proceeds out from Him, and the seeing of Him. This 
is an administration for the declaring of Him in the midst of a Body that 
shall manifest the fulness of Him. It isn't given to the administration 
to manifest the fulness. It is given to the administration to declare the 
fulness. The Body shall manifest the fulness. But without the 
administration it can't work. God is gathering Himself an administration, 
and the gathering is unto The Son. It's unto a vision. 
 
Ezekiel typifies a whole administration. He typifies the prophetic voice 
in the midst of Israel. And his only qualification was a vision of This 
Man. Nothing else qualifies him. His years didn't do it, his experiences 
didn't do it. But there is a seeing of Him, and a coming forth in the 
knowledge of Him that will enable us to declare His fulness in the midst 
of a Body which shall manifest this fulness in all of the earth. And I 
believe the lesser works (casting out devils, healings, etc.) will be in 
abundance as that Body begins to manifest Him. I'm not speaking against 
any of that. No - just looking toward the fulness of Him, because no 
administration has declared His fulness yet, that's why no Body has ever 
manifested His fulness yet. But the time is come.  
 
You're not going to find a bunch of "loose pins" in this administration; 
you're not going to find a bunch of self ordained prophets in this 
administration. They are not there. You're going to find an 
administration that is under that authority of One and who lives as One, 
one to another. And who understand that except we are under authority, we 
have no authority. What comes out of this Oneness? AUTHORITY! Where does 
it first take place? IN ME - His authority in me. Then you and I living 
as One - not as two, as One, One of another. And when we speak, we speak 
as One - not two. Why? Because it comes from Him - ONE NEW MAN! What 
happened? He is revealed, the Head begins to be revealed. And when Christ 
is revealed in you, He brings you under the authority of One. 
 
God is raising up an administration for the declaring of His fulness, His 
reality, that the Body may be the manifesting of that. I'm telling you, I 
don't want to go to the sleep of the grave... I know I'm in Him if I live 
or die, but I've got a reason for living. If I die it's Christ, If I live 
it's Christ. Paul said whether I live or die, the only thing I'm 
concerned about is that Christ be glorified in my body. But he said it's 
necessary for you that I live. I don't know who it's necessary for that I 
live, but I want to live because I want to see this thing transpire in 
the earth. I really want to see this fulness come in the earth. I really 
want to see the heavens and the earth joined in Him. He told Nathanael 
that was going to happen. He's the ladder, the joining of the heavens and 
the earth. Jacob saw it. 'Nathanael, I'm going to give you an open 
heaven.' He has given an open heaven today.  
 
This is The Man that is the joining together of the heaven and the earth 
- THIS NEW MAN - whose head is in the heavens, whose feet are in the 
earth - who is at One with Christ. For a walking out in the earth of all 
that heaven contains; for the manifesting in the earth of all the fulness 
of Him. I'm excited about seeing an administration coming together to 
declare Him. And I want everything that I do and say and to participate 
in to have nothing but that goal. I haven't time to mess with anything 
else. And the Lord is gathering together such a ministry. And that 
ministry will develop strategy, that ministry will lay down their life, 
that ministry will do whatever it takes. Because you don't just pick up 
that Ark of the Covenant and walk out in the middle of the Jordan at 
flood time - you have to be in ONE STEP TO DO IT! The Lord is moving by 
His Spirit. AMEN!