WHERE IS THIS TAKING ME
Adam was created and placed into the Garden. He was originally arrayed in light
made after the image of His Father. He was innocent. Yet, not perfect. He
transgressed when he chose death over life, Barrabas over Jesus, pride over
humility. All of the creation became clothed with a beastly nature and thus
darkness fell and the work of salvation began.
Man would not have a real say in its recovery because a God to whom we call
Father was orchestrating His plan of total recovery and reconciliation. This
restoration would result in the greatest act of love the universe had ever
known.
Before the foundations of the world, a lamb was slain. The same was the Word of
God who walked in the Garden in the cool of the day. This same voice had told
Adam there are two trees in this paradise. One the tree of knowledge or good and
evil and the other the tree of life. This Word had created all things and
nothing exists that has not been created by this Word. Good as well as evil had
been created.
I was born, then after 12 years I was Born Again. In other words, I was begotten
of the Father. He chose me, called me, and saved me. There I was, walking out of
my grave with blood upon the doorpost and lintel of my heart and I was full of
the lamb of God, which I had consumed. I looked all around and all I saw was
mixture and confusion, death was still looming overhead. I was standing in a
graveyard clothed in a body of death. The natural light had shown around me and
I was yet in the outer court. I had partook of the Passover experience (Deut.
16:1) and yes I was saved. The light of God had shinned into my heart. Yet I was
an infant and the voice of my Father who had called me was now a voice of one
who would nurture. I lived on the milk, nothing was solid, and I felt so
dependent upon my new relationship. I attended church, I prayed I read my Bible
but I understood little. As a child in Christ, I imitated much of what I saw and
I believed all I was told. The great preachers from the pulpits seemed to
revolve around traditions of men, self-taught doctrines and theologies embedded
in them from manufactured institutions of learning. I began to feel the hunger
pains. From my belly were sounds of groaning and yearning for solidity.
I was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested, tried and proven with
every sort of sin, but I was given strength to resist the temptations. When I
failed and when I faltered there was that still small voice which said "I have
never stopped loving you." God would remind me that my sins were behind me and
it was not what I had done that mattered but what He had done. This was the
voice of my father who did not condemn but who restored. This power to prevent
my foot to go to the left or to the right came from within. A strong breath of
wind had flooded over me and when I emerged from this drowning, I was
rejuvenated. However, in an age of Pentecost (Lev 23:15; Deut. 16:9), the
wanderings would take me through many more trials, suffering, and much fire. I
was being refined of my Adamic conscience and being brought into the
consciousness of a new and living way. My thoughts were changed and I was being
transformed by the renewing of my mind. As I walked in the midst of tribulation
in need of every thing, I would only accept that which the Father would write
upon my heart. I battled my guilt and often I felt condemned but never by my
heavenly Father. The condemnation would arise from within my own being.
I assumed it was my fault, that it was something I had done and that I needed to
work harder, but later I would understand that it is not by power nor by might
but by the Spirit. This Pentecost wilderness was leavened and soulish and the
buildings, which I was constructing, would be torn down. The work of my hands
would not please the Father.
My personal throne and Kingdom had to be surrendered in order for Jesus to
govern my path.
I thought that if I gave up my idols and sacrificed unto my Lord that my
sacrifices would be accepted. The lesson was; that I; myself should yield and
surrender because it was not flesh and blood I was warring with. I learned to be
totally dependent upon Him. That my body was the temple of the Lord. My hearing
was being trained to receive His Words and these Words would be engrafted upon
my heart. The war that raged was a civil war within. Even though I had been
good, good was not good enough or even expected out of me. I had to come to a
place where I worshipped the Father in Spirit and in Truth. I was still carnal
and Adamic in my mindset. This would be part of the sanctifying processes. To be
purged and cleansed throughout this walk that I might appear spotless and
blameless before Him when He came for me. Matthew 3:11 speaks about being
baptized in the Holy Ghost and with fire. I was being dipped into the Savior,
Jesus Christ, into the Holy Spirit that He would lead me into all truth and
being dipped into God because "God is a consuming fire." This fire was a
cleansing agent. Mark states plainly in 9:49 :For every one shall be salted with
fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt." (Lev 2:13-15)
It was clear…these trials were for my own good. It is impossible for anyone to
stand before a pure and holy God without being refined, without being purified.
This same God whom now I called Father would receive me unto Himself at an
appointed time.
I was beginning to comprehend that the journey was not over it was just
beginning. That there was more to be revealed. Therefore, I applied myself to
know my Fathers heart. I had moved from the Passover when I first met my Savior,
into Pentecost, which would be a time when I would be taught by an "earnest of
God's Spirit," but my question was, "Where is this taking me?"
God soon gave me an answer. Tabernacles was the next step (Deut. 16:13; Lev
23:33). To enter into God's rest and to cease from my own labors. To make
everyday "The day that the Lord had made, or the Lord's day." To only, pursue
the work of God. My will would be God's will and my ways would be God's ways.
For we which have believed do enter into rest; namely, the works that were
finished from the foundation of the world. (Hebrews 4:3)
There was a seed planted in my heart and a seed can only produce after its own
kind. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, (present tense) and it does not yet
appear what we shall be; but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be
like him; for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2) This scripture revealed to
me that His appearing, His unveiling, the revelation of Jesus Christ was coming
from that seed which is Christ Jesus.
The light was growing inside of me and who I used to be existed no more. Christ
had been crucified as me upon the cross and I could see clearly that the only
thing left for me to do was to walk by faith. To trust Him, would mean I would
become a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Walking by faith meant that my eyes would
soon be open. Faith is hardly blind. I would no longer have to look through a
glass darkly (2 Cor 3:17-18). The veil of my flesh would no longer be needed to
shield me from the presence of God. I had been invited to enter a place reserved
for the overcomers. As God continued speaking to me, I was suddenly overwhelmed
by only what can be explained as divine revelation and my life disappeared. The
only thing that remained was the shell. For inside a new Kingdom was created a
paradise of communion and fellowship with the Father. It was not what I knew but
now I know the Father. All of my studies, church attendance, sitting under hours
of teachings never revealed to me in all of those years what the Spirit did in a
twinkling of an eye. All of the doubts fear, un-forgiveness, and traditions were
exposed and resolved. Questions I had long struggled to answer were no longer
mysteries. I would no longer confess that I was a sinner saved by grace because
that is like clothing the old Adam with righteousness. That cliché is saying
that the Adamic nature is still alive in you. I now understood I had been raised
from baptism a new creation. Not the old creation restored but ALL things were
now new. I was in fact a new heaven and a new earth and I am seated with Christ
in heavenly places (Eph. 1:3)
While I was in Pentecost, the Holy Place, the place of my soul, God and I stood
together. Now I was seeing less of myself. He was leading me across the Jordan
and as I drew near to this new land, my life was vanishing. I was entering a new
stage the Holy of Holies, the Holiest of All. This was the place, where self
could not enter. It was only God. My life was hid in Christ and the light that
had been inside, the invisible God, was now being made manifest. This
manifestation or revealing will soon occur as the manifestation of the Sons of
God. When those who have overcome will be joined in such union "greater works
than these will you do." It was now my life, which was transparent, and God was
seen clearly. "I live, yet, not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life that I
now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who died for me."
I was part of God's Kingdom that exists in Heaven, in the lives of just men made
perfect. It was revealed that I was part of a body, which shall attain to that
same realm. There would be a great harvest soon and God would shortly gather his
elect as a farmer gathers his crops. Blessed and holy is he that takes part in
the first resurrection; on such the second death has no power. "I am in you and
you are in me" (John 14:20)
Jesus life had been a pattern for me individually and to the church corporately.
As Jesus rose from the dead, quickened by the Spirit I to had followed His
example by ascending to greater spiritual heights (Eph 1:3). I was dead but now
I am made alive, quickened by His Spirit. He had ascended to be with His Father
in heavenly places and has invited each one of us to follow Him in the same
manner (Eph 1:20; 2:6). He was calling me into the Priesthood of God and of
Christ, to reign with Him upon the earth.
My life in Christ has not become more complicated throughout these many years.
It actually has become much clearer. This journey has taught me to no longer
trust in the arm of flesh. My total dependence is now upon the author and
finisher of my faith. We are to be taught by the Holy Spirit as God so ordained.
Each one of us, being bought with the price of blood can only move forward from
death if we lay down our lives into the hands of life itself. We belong to God.
Invite the Father to show you, to teach you and to write His law of love upon
your hearts.
Many people today have an escape theology that they have placed their faith and
hope in. The Holy Spirit is saying to us today that Christ is here in our midst.
The Kingdom of God is within you. Your Body is the Temple of the Lord. You are
fearfully and wonderfully made. Did God send back His Spirit to live and abide
in you? Then experience Jesus in your life today. There is a great unveiling a
revelation is occurring in our midst today. If we do not draw close to Him now
what makes us think that when He is totally revealed that we will even recognize
Him?
"The Kingdom of God does not come with observation" (Luke 17:20-21) Do Not allow
our adversary to rob you of the joy of His presence now. Today He lives in us
(Gal 2:20), our hope of Glory (Col. 1:27).
1Cr 15:47 The first man [is] of the earth, earthy: the second man [is] the Lord
from heaven. As [is] the earthy, such [are] they also that are earthy: and as
[is] the heavenly, such [are] they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne
the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
This is a heavenly calling that each of us has been invited to partake of (Heb.
3:1). Invite God to make the change in your life that you may fully understand
the eternal purpose, which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Many have done
soul searching to find spiritual truth but John 3:6 That which is born of the
flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Dale Thompson