Category: UNION

The unbreakable communion that the members of the Godhead enjoy with each other. It is God’s intention to lead all His own into that same state of perfect unity that together they may at last be the bride, the wife of the Lamb.

OVERCOMING

The Eyes of the Lord

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2 Chronicles 16:9. For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support

  • Those who are doing their very best to live a Christian life?
  • Those who are always actively involved in their local church?
  • Those who are ordained to be reverends, pastors or priests?
  • Those whose heart is completely His?

‘Those whose heart is completely His’. This is the Lord’s one and only requirement. Jesus made this quite plain to all who have ears to hear. He told the rich young ruler, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” Matthew 19:21. NKJV. The young man chose his ‘great possessions’ rather than parting with them in order to follow Jesus.

If our heart is to be completely the Lord’s then it must be completely empty of everything that competes with Him for our attention – fame, fortune, friends and family, to name but a few. read more

FELLOWSHIP

My Presence shall go with You

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Exodus 33:14-15. And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then he said to Him, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.”
Exodus 13:21-22. The Lord was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.
Deuteronomy 2:7. “For the Lord your God has blessed you in all that you have done; He has known your wanderings through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have not lacked a thing.”‘
Numbers 33:1-2. These are the journeys of the sons of Israel, by which they came out from the land of Egypt by their armies, under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. Moses recorded their starting places according to their journeys by the command of the Lord….
Numbers 33:53. ….and you shall take possession of the land and live in it, for I have given the land to you to possess it.

It is the Lord’s intention to lead His people ‘out of the darkness’, symbolized by Egypt, ‘into His glorious light’, symbolized by Canaan. This promised land is the ultimate place of peace and rest where all human effort has faded away and all is rightfully brought under the mighty power and authority of God.

The Lord desires that the journey of each one of His own be enjoyed in ‘the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension’. Philippians 4:7. This state of peace may only be entered into however as we acknowledge Jesus as Lord within us and among us and as we choose to live in His presence. Moses said to the Lord “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.” read more

LOVE

The Veil is Taken Away

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2 Corinthians 3:15-18. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

….but whenever….turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.  In this statement of the apostle Paul, there is nothing to indicate who or what turns to the Lord. Some translations insert ‘it’, meaning the heart; some say ‘a person’. We do know that only beings made in the image of God can realize the person of God so it is quite legitimate to state ‘….but whenever a believer in the Lord or a community of believers turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away’.

This is in fact implied by what Paul writes next. It is the divine Person of the Holy Spirit who removes the veil that lies over our heart and sets us free to behold the glory of God and thereby to be transformed into the image of the Lord Jesus. We who believe need to remain in a constant state of surrender to the will of God so that the Holy Spirit may take the veil away, that we may behold the beauty of Jesus and live continually in His presence. The well-known chorus of a hymn puts it so well. read more

TESTIMONY

Antiphonal Hymn – Our Father’s Plan

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Galatians 3:26-28. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Our Father’s Plan

Son of God made Son of Man,
Jesus Christ, Thou art “I am”;
Took on You our great disgrace;
Safe in You, our resting place. read more

BODY RELATEDNESS

Partakers of the Divine Nature

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2 Peter 1:2-4. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. These verses describe unique blessings bestowed by Almighty God upon those who have come to Jesus in repentance and faith. Yet the high point of ‘His precious and magnificent promises’ is surely ‘that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature’. Jesus partook of human flesh for us so that He might procure for us the right to become sons of God. He as Son of God made Son of man that we as sons of men might be made sons of God.

John 14:16-17. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. NKJV. We partook of the divine nature when the Holy Spirit came into us at our new birth. The Spirit, who is one and co-equal with the Father and the Son, will abide with us forever.

Genesis 1:26-27. Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Adam was far more than just another creature. He bore the image of God’s one and only Son Jesus. When God created man on the sixth day He ‘saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good’. After that God rested, read more

DIVINE REVELATION

With Unveiled Face

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2 Corinthians 3:18. But we all, with unveiled face , beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

During my latest period of seven weeks in India there were several noteworthy events and happenings. Most significant among these were disclosures of the Divine Being. For instance, one Friday morning session with a Christian Leadership Student group will remain in my memory always. I was discoursing from the chapter in my book, ‘To Him Who Overcomes’. Towards the end of our time together it was as though Jesus in the midst of us put His arms around our small company and embraced us into Himself. I felt a shaking inside me but not at all of fear. It was the purest, calmest sense of love I have ever imagined. All in the room confessed a similar experience. I noted that many of them were lying forward over their desks in an apparent state of awe.

The veil that hid the face of Jesus seemed so fine that it felt almost possible to penetrate our gaze through it and behold Him. read more

ENDURANCE

If I be Lifted Up

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John 12:31-32. “Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”
John 3:14-16. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Romans 4:25-5:1.He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Ephesians 2:4-6. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ ( by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
2 Corinthians 5:10. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3:8. The central purpose of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus was that, through His death, all that Satan had brought about to mar the perfect works of God might be undone; that all be brought back to the perfection that God purposed in the beginning. Because of Adam’s sin and disobedience judgment came upon this world and upon all living things. All must be brought back to God. For this specific purpose Jesus was ‘lifted up from the earth’.

Jesus was lifted up from the earth in three stages. Firstly, Jesus was lifted up from the earth on the cruel cross of Calvary. There, as the sinless Lamb of God He willingly took upon Him the sin of the whole world, so that newness of life might be available to all who will trust in Him as Saviour. Secondly, Jesus was lifted up through resurrection from the dead because death had no power over Him. ‘God has made Him both Lord and Christ’, Acts 2:36. Thirdly, Jesus was lifted up from the earth into the heavens to be seated with the Father. From thence He shall return as King of kings and Lord of lords at His promised coming again to the earth to reign forever and ever. read more

ENDURANCE

Seated Us with Him

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Luke 11:1-2. It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.” And He said to them, ” When you pray, say: ‘ Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.”
Matthew 6:10. “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.”
Hebrews 5:8-9. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation…
Romans 8:16-17. The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
Ephesians 2:4-6. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus….

One of Jesus’ disciples, who had been with Him while He was praying to His Father, requested of Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray….” His response was ” When you pray, say: ‘ Father….” Within this one word ‘Father’ lies the assurance of our reconciliation to God through faith in the atoning death of His Son and the recognition that we are members of one family in eternal unbreakable unity. Our God is at once the awesome being before whom we bow and our loving Father whom we may love with all our heart and soul and mind. Now, in the power of the Spirit, we may also forever love and live in unity with all the other members of God’s eternal family.

“Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.” This statement holds the entire meaning and purpose of our life here upon earth. For, when God’s kingdom came into us in the blessed person of the Holy Spirit, from then on our life is to be wholly devoted to express the person of Jesus and the will and purpose of our Father upon this earth. To affirm in our fleshly weakness that this is not possible would surely be to deny the power of the One who now and forever lives within us. The Holy Spirit is God. His power is infinite. read more

OBEDIENCE

As it is in Heaven

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Matthew 6:9-13. “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.  Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’ ”
Hebrews 5:8. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.

In eternity past our Father’s will was unquestioningly obeyed and performed by every member of the heavenly host. His will was done in heaven and all His created beings performed it, and they worshipped their Creator. That is, until the rebellion of Lucifer the light bearer, the archangel of God. As soon as that insurrection occurred, heaven set in motion a plan that would return the conditions of unquestioned obedience to the Father by all His created beings.

All those who participated in that rebellion were under judgment. In God’s time they will be cast forever into the flaming fires of Hell. They will be without the capacity to exercise their will to do anything. When Lucifer became God’s adversary, Satan (for such is the meaning of his name) it became his role to oppose God. In Hell he has lost this role forever for he has no way to exercise it. Existence in Hell is completely pointless and purposeless, for the capacity to will and to purpose lies alone with God. Those who are judged and found guilty before God will be cast into Hell with Satan. They will be there because it was their deliberate and irrevocable choice to serve their self and thus oppose God. read more

FELLOWSHIP

A Fragrance of Christ

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1 Corinthians 2:7-10. ….but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but just as it is written, “things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.” For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
1 Peter 2:4-5. And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 4:11-13. And He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers, For the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the body of Christ; Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Recovery Version.
1 Corinthians 14:26-33. What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.
2 Corinthians 3:16-18. ….but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 2:14-15. But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing;

As the times of the Gentiles draw inexorably towards their close, the Lord is revealing many secrets to His own which have remained hidden until now; ‘the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory’. He is unveiling more and more concerning the things ‘that God has prepared for those who love Him’….through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.

Central within the purpose and plan of the Godhead is that there is to be a bride for Christ. Although it may seem incomprehensible to us, who perhaps cannot imagine that the Godhead could lack or need anything, a desire was created in Jesus for a counterpart, one who will complete Him. His counterpart will one day forever be the wife of the Lamb who shall fulfil and satisfy that desire. In God’s plan, formed in eternity past, Jesus’ bride, His wife, would be comprised of members of God’s highest created being, man. Fundamental to His unfolding plan God created Adam, in the image of Jesus, referred to in Luke 3:38 as ‘the son of God. read more

LOVE

The One Who Loves Me

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Matthew 22:36-38. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment.”
1 John 4:16-19. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us.
1 John 2:3-6. By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, ” I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected . By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.
John 14:21,23. “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”….”If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”

Why would the Lord God give to fallen mankind ‘the great and foremost commandment’ that He knew no one would be able to keep? Surely it was that He desires above all else from those He created in His own image, that He would receive from them, in like measure, what He freely and unrestrictedly gives to them – love.

It is instructive to note that, had Adam entered into this love relationship with his Creator, neither he nor his wife Eve would have, or could have, disobeyed Him. In a perfect environment the first rule of love is that in everything you will seek to please the ones whom you love ‘with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind’, by doing their will. Had the disobedient pair chosen to eat the fruit of the tree of life they would have been filled with the love of God, they would have gladly obeyed His every word and they would have lived forever. read more

FELLOWSHIP

Members One of Another

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Romans 12:4-5. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
Galatians 3:26-28. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
John 17:20-23. “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity….”

When the Scriptures speak about our destiny in Christ, it is as though we have already attained to it. For instance ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God….’  Ephesians 2:8. Compare this with ‘For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God’. 1 Corinthians 1:18. The Lord Jesus is both the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. That which begins in Him will always be completed perfectly in Him, yet there will be a process to be gone through. The process by which we are saved is described in Philippians 2:12-13. ‘So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure’. The Holy Spirit, who enters the believer at the instant of salvation, is Himself ‘God who is at work in you’. Each one who believes must permit Him ‘both to will and to work for His good pleasure’.

The passage in Romans assures all those who have believed unto salvation that ‘we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another’. This follows the Trinitarian pattern of the Godhead. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are members of one another, yet together they are one God. A wonderful expression of this pattern as applying to believers, is found in Revelation 19. Those who during their life experience have allowed the Holy Spirit to complete God’s work in them according to ‘His good pleasure’ will corporately be presented to the Lord Jesus as His wife at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Following the marriage supper the Lamb, sat upon a white horse, will be displayed at the head of ‘the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean….following Him on white horses’. Surely the ones dressed in fine linen will be the individual members who so lately had comprised the wife of the Lamb. read more

TRANSFORMATION

Transformed into the Same Image

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1 Peter 2:9. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light….
Colossians 1:13. For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son….
Ephesians 1:13-14. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation – having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.2 Corinthians 3:18. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

When we first experience salvation ‘by grace through faith’, we enter into a fullness of joy such as we have never known, yet our future is wrapped up in a mystery. We wonder what lies ahead of us along the pathway of life now that we have become a believer in Jesus.

It is easy to imagine that, having been ‘called….out of darkness’ or ‘rescued….from the domain of darkness’ we must simply await our ultimate destiny of going to be with Jesus in heaven at life’s close. Being brought ‘into His marvelous light’ is truly a life changing experience. Some feel drawn to enter some form of ministry. However, for most, the Christian life and walk will consist of joining with other believers in a pattern of church attendance and activities that follows the well-worn path of tradition. Looking back, the writer’s perspective was very much along those lines. read more