THE MYSTERIES OF GOD
“LET US MAKE MAN”
To operate in the same way as God seems impossible for us today, because we live in a different world and realm: we live in a physical world and the realm of nature. Mortal man builds, assembles, manufactures and grows what he needs because he lacks the power of creation which is unique to the realm of spirit.
In order for us to operate and to speak creatively as God does, we need to fully comprehend our origin in God, how we came out of God and what His original plan was - and still is - when He created this creature that He divinely called “man”. In essence, this is a major goal of this study. We will also hone in on divine reproduction, both divine and human and show the distinction between them.
BABYLON UTTERS CONFUSION
Religion is diametrically opposed to the genuine knowledge of God. Religion is man’s understanding of God; it is the fruit of intellectual knowledge spawned and grown by the working of the carnal mind. It can be ultimately traced to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. On the other hand, the true knowledge of God is a spiritual dynamic that is based on the greatest asset in the universe: our hunger and love for our Heavenly Father. We love Him, therefore we seek Him in relationship and we know Him through the unveiling of the mystery of Himself in His word. In response, He reveals His nature to us and manifests theChrist in our being. We in turn obey His word because we love Him and we grow spiritually into the fullness of the Christ revealed to our understanding. Until all that remains is not two, God and us; all that remains is one: Christ.
Religion has its base in Babylon, this worldly system of confusion. And Babylon has cast a veil over our eyes, keeping us from knowing the truth so that we can ultimately be released from the bondage of our mortality into the liberty of an existence which we once had in God in the realm of spirit. The instant our natural life began on the earth, we lost all memory of where we came from: out of God Himself.
Religion deceivingly tells us that life begins the day we are born into this world as a mortal human being. The whole world, including Christians, is deceived into believing this lie. Such a concept ties us to this transient world in which we function as mortal human beings. This deceiving lie began to crumble when Jesus revealed the truth to our understanding in His conversation with Nicodemus in John 3:3: “You must be born from above.”
This reveals that our origin does not begin with our exit from our mother’s womb in natural birth. Our true origin according to John 3:3 is from above, from the realm of spirit, where there is neither beginning nor end. Jesus is clearly alluding to a former origin in the realm of spirit, which was in ‘creation’ in the beginning. Specifically, in Genesis 1:26-28: Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;
let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moved upon the earth."
OUR TRUE ORIGIN
The origin of man is clearly revealed in Genesis 1:26 where God spoke a word and said, “Let us make man.” This was the final act in the creation of all things on the sixth day: God spoke and the man appeared. This man would not be visible to our natural vision because all creation over the six days of Genesis 1 was spiritual and not physical. The ‘man’ whom God created was spirit, indwelling the eternal unchangeable realm of spirit. Likewise, the heavens and the earth that God created would have been invisible to our natural eyes. In reality, the heavens and the earth that God originally created are still exactly the same as they were when Elohim spoke the word and brought them into being. The heavens and the earth that we see today are not God’s original, for that first creation was spirit. And spirit does not change; it does not cease nor does it die. This is the nature of spirit.
This First Man who became manifest in spirit when God said, “Let us make man” is the same Man who was born of the virgin Mary later on in Bethlehem. This same Man declared “I and My Father are one.” He was one with His Father God. He did not say I am like my Father, or we agree together. He declared that He and the Father are one. This is because He is the First Man created in Genesis 1:27 in the image and likeness of God. He is spirit. But when He was made incarnate, He looked like you and me.
Because the ‘Man’ that Elohim God created in Genesis 1:27 is spirit, this Man is eternal, cannot change, nor die, nor cease from existing. This is the scriptural truth that religion has hid from our understanding: that man’s origin began out of God, that we are created in God’s image and after His likeness as eternal beings and not as mere mortal humans. Before you challenge this statement and bring in the issue of mortality into our
discussion, hear the truth from the Scriptures.
The ‘Man’ God created in Genesis 1:26 was created in the likeness and after the image of God. God is spirit and therefore this ‘Man’ was also spirit, having no corporeal body. Man was created in order to fulfill an essential purpose of God in the earth. According to Genesis 1:28, Elohim God’s plan was for man to fill the entire earth and to subdue it. The ‘Man’ created by God in Genesis 1:26 is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the very Seed of God, from whom all mankind came forth. In Galatians 3:16, the apostle Paul confirms that Christ is the Seed of God.
Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ. (Galatians 3:16) In Christ, all mankind existed, eternally, in the realm of spirit. Jesus Christ is the Seed of God and all mankind was in that divine Seed. Therefore all mankind is the offspring of God, created as spirit, in His likeness and after His image. Therefore man can
never die even as Christ Himself cannot die. Let us learn more about the Seed of God, the “man” God created in Genesis 1:26. The following paragraph is a quick review of the names Elohim and Jehovah Elohim. It will also serve an essential purpose: it will affirm our origin in divinity, in God Himself.
GOD AND THE LORD GOD
In all of Genesis chapter 1 and through Genesis 2:3, God is referred to by the Hebrew name Elohim (Strong’s #430), which is a plural noun. Elohim speaks of God the Father; Elohim also speaks of Jesus Christ who is one with the Father and who has always been in the bosom of the Father. And because we were created in Christ Jesus before the world began, you and I are also intrinsically, inseparably and inherently part of the Elohim. Beginning in Genesis 2:4, and throughout the entire second chapter of Genesis, God is referenced by a new name: ‘Jehovah Elohim’, or the ‘Lord God’. Progressively, the ‘Eternal One’ was also used. In Hebrew, Jehovah first appears in Genesis 2:4. Jehovah basically means ‘to be’, which implies that God is; the Lord God identified Himself to Moses in Exodus 3:14 as “I AM”, meaning that He exists continually, He is self existent, all by Himself and for Himself, with no beginning or ending, the uncreated Creator who is all self sufficient; “I AM that I AM”.Who is Jehovah Elohim or the Lord God? He is the Logos of John 1:1: In the beginning was the Word [Logos in Greek], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This is the same Word that God spoke in Genesis 1:26 - the Man whom God created in His image and who was endowed with all the attributes of divinity. Yes, He is the Lord Jesus Christ, the One by whom all things were created. There was never a time that He did not exist.
When Genesis 1:27 declares that Elohim created Man (Christ Jesus) in His own image, the verb created (bara in Hebrew) means to bring out of Himself, to chisel out, to carve out, to produce from the same stock. Jehovah Elohim eternally self existed in the bosom of the Father; Elohim gave Christ Jesus expression out of Himself that Christ may fulfill a divine assignment: to replicate and duplicate divinity in a new race called Elohim who would in the process of time inhabit an earthly tabernacle. Jesus Christ is the total expression of God; and Jesus Christ is God fully expressed as man.
THE PURPOSE OF MAN
Genesis 1:28 reveals important truths about the purpose of man in God’s eternal plans. Most people have ignored this verse as being irrelevant for us today; nothing can be further from the truth. In Genesis 1:28, God speaks His will and purpose concerning the first man that He created in Genesis 1:26. Since all mankind came out of that one Man who is the Seed of God, who is Jehovah Elohim or the Lord Jesus Christ, it follows that whatever applies to the one Man also applies to all mankind. This Man was given the command and the responsibility to “ be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”
Note these truths about the man of Genesis 1:26. First and foremost, God created only one and only one man. Secondly, this singular man is the Lord Jesus Christ who is a corporate man: in Him was all of mankind that was ever to be born on the earth.
Please pause here and allow the Spirit of God to establish this vital truth in your spirit mind.
If this first man - who is Christ Jesus - fails to fulfill his obligation to His Heavenly Father, then theearth will never be filled with the offspring of God. But if He succeeds in fulfilling His purpose and He replicates Himself - thereby multiplying the Seed of God - then He would have initiated the process of filling the earth with the offspring of God according to Genesis 1:28.
Since that First Man of Genesis 1:26 is spirit, then all mankind is likewise spirit.Man’s true identity is spirit. After receiving a body in which to dwell and function in the earth, man’s identity remains spirit; but now that spirit dwells in a body, which gives him a visible presence suitable for this material world in which he lives.
The following natural analogy will help to discern a powerful spiritual truth. The natural or biological seed that was responsible for the formation of my body in my mother’s womb was originally in my father. Therefore it follows that the seed that formed my father was also in his father, and before that it was in his grandfather.
If we follow this regression backwards, we conclude that the first seed ever must have been in God Himself. Remember that our identity is spirit. According to our analogy, all the generations of man can trace its spiritual genealogy all the way back to a God. Christ Jesus is the Seed of God; He and the Father are one; He is the corporate man in whom all mankind was created. Out of that one man Christ Jesus, all humanity was duplicated in the likeness and image of God. This vital truth has been hidden from our understanding.
A NEW TESTAMENT WITNESS
The apostle Paul sheds further light on God’s original purpose for creating man. He states in Acts 17:24-29, God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwells not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshiped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he gives to all, life and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the ‘times’ (Kairos) divinely appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also “his offspring”. For as much then as we are the offspring of God , we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's devices.
Paul states that “God made the world and all things in it.” Whereas Genesis 1:1 declares that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Is there a contradiction between these two verses? Of course there is no contradiction; these verses are referencing two different creations.
The first creation in Genesis 1:1 is by Elohim God; the second creation is by Jehovah Elohim, the Lord Jesus Christ. In Genesis 1:1, Elohim God created the spiritual heavens and earth. This creation is spirit, has remained complete and will not change until the sands of time run out. The second world that God formed or made, according to Acts 17:24, is explained to us by Genesis 2:4. Genesis 2:4 introduces us to the earth and the heavens which the Lord God, or Jehovah Elohim, or the Lord Jesus Christ made, which is a visible manifestation of the spiritual creation. Here the divine activity is centered on the earth. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God -Jehovah Elohim- made the earth and the heavens. And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. (Genesis 2:4) The One who made all things that are visible in this world is the First Man, Christ Jesus, the man spoken forth by Elohim in Genesis 1:26. The same One who declared in John 10:30 that “I and My Father are one.” John1:1-5 confirms the same truth. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God; the same was in the beginning with God. All things were MADE by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness comprehended [or tried to control and possess] it but could not do so.
KING OVER A KINGDOM
The full truth concerning this First Man of Genesis 1:26 can only be discerned by the spirit; our natural intellect is finite and cannot comprehend Him who is infinite and Spirit. We prayerfully attempt to understand why Christ Jesus made the visible world in which we live today.Our Heavenly Father, who is Christ’s Father, is God and King. He is a King who rules over the Spirit Kingdom which He created in the beginning. Christ Jesus, the Son of God, is of royal descent; therefore He is also endowed with kingship and royal authority. However, there can only be one king ruling over a Kingdom. And the heir to the throne can become king only when the ruling monarch dies. Which presents a problem: the Son of God cannot rule as king over His Father’s spiritual kingdom because Father God is Spirit, eternally existent and will never die.
To resolve this dilemma, Our Heavenly Father allowed His Son Jesus Christ to build His own Kingdom with the original spiritual Kingdom being the blue print and prototype.
That is why Jesus declared, “I only do what I see my Father do, and I only say what I hear my Father say.” So the heavens and the earth we see today with our natural eyes are a physical material replica of the Father’s original creation. Do you realize that you were also created in that first man Christ Jesus who “made the earth and the heavens”? This is the One who dwells in all of mankind on this planet and who became ONE WITH US in our true spiritual identity. We were in that ‘Word’ who was in the beginning with God, and which was God. John 1:14 declares that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us: And the word became “flesh” and dwelt among us, and be beheld “His glory” [which was the same glory] as the glory of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
Please pause here and allow the Spirit to reveal the truth to you about who you are
When Christ became incarnate and took on the form of a man, no one discerned His spiritual identity. Even the disciples found it hard to believe that the Son of God looked like any other man walking the streets. Jesus told Phillip, “If you have seen me, you have seen my Father,” because “I and my Father are O-N-E.” Even today, the words of Jesus are still difficult to discern spiritually. They do not fully register in our spirit consciousness.
HE IS OUR SPIRITUAL IDENTITY
Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ was born of a woman in a manger in Bethlehem. He looked like any other baby born in the earth. He had no halo above His head and nothing to distinguish Him from another new born babe. His body was formed in the womb of the virgin just as our body was formed in our mother’s womb by the loving hands of our Heavenly Father according to Psalm 139:15-17. The first evidence that Jesus was different happened when He was twelve years old: He became ‘lost’ as Mary and Joseph were returning home from Jerusalem. When they found Him in the temple in Jerusalem, Mary scolded Him for not remaining with them as they traveled.It was His reply to Mary that reveals a difference, not in appearance but in the knowledge of His true identity. He replied with a question, “Do you not understand that I must be about my Father’s business?” At the young age of twelve Jesus knew who He was in His relationship with God. What a challenge is His reply to us today, as so many struggle to affirm their spiritual identity.
Our identity was established in that First Man of Genesis 1:26, as Paul declares in Ephesians 2:10 that we were all created in Christ Jesus, who is the Seed of God. This implies that whoever Christ Jesus was and still is today is identical to who we are now.
Every time I mention that I do not believe that we have to die, most Christians look at me like I am insane. They tell me that everyone has to die first, and then we ‘go to heaven to be with the Lord’. My reply is that I am now presently with the Lord because He now lives in me and functions through me, in as much as I allow Him to do so. I have seen all the miracles of Jesus, but I never performed one of them. Even Jesus said in John 14:10, “It is the Father in me that does the work [the miracle].”
We desperately need the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of our understanding if we are to fully comprehend the truths revealed here. Consider the words of John 1:3, All things were made by Him and without Him there was nothing made that He did not make.
Consider also the words of Ephesians 2:10 that we were all created in Christ Jesus, the First Man of Genesis 1:26. Put together, these two verses imply that you and I were in Christ in creation and were inherently involved in everything that He did because we were in Him. Here is another witness from Proverbs 8:22-30:
The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills I was brought forth: While as yet He had not made the earth, or the fields, or the highest part of the dust of the world. When He prepared the heavens, I was there: when He set a compass upon the face of the depth: When He established the clouds above: when He strengthened the fountains of the deep: When He gave to the sea His decree, that the waters should not pass His commandment: when He appointed the foundations of the earth: Then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before him.
We need to pause here to allow the Holy Spirit to make these words life for us today.
Please read these words again slowly for your Heavenly Father is speaking to you.
Remember God asked Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth, and when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” God said, “You should know because you were there with me.” These foundational truths must become established as revelation in our spiritual consciousness and not as knowledge in our natural mind. No wonder that Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 15:34, Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.
WE ARE MADE OF ONE
Paul declares that all the nations on the earth have come out of the ONE, and we are all of one blood. Which means that the “ONE” Paul speaks of is God who is the Father of all mankind. Consequently, every man on the earth must be my brother and every woman my sister. If this was taught and understood today, all wars and crime would cease. No one would want to harm their brother or sister. However, humanism fosters the idea of individuality, with responsibility only for ourselves and little or no regard for others. Humanity is divided into so many camps by language, nationality, culture, religion or color. In reality, all of mankind on the earth compose a single family whose members are all linked to the First Man God created in Genesis 1:26. All mankind are the offspring of God because we were created in Christ Jesus according to Ephesians 2:10. We all have the same royal lineage and the same heritage.To muddy the waters, Babylon emphasizes the principle of sin to cut us off from our heritage. Religion teaches that we cannot be what we were in the beginning because we have sinned and have broken the law of God. This disqualifies us from being the children of God. Such teaching contradicts the truths revealed to us in Christ. If a child is disobedient, does his or her rebellion deny them the rights of sonship? I think not. If a teenager becomes a drug addict, does his addiction change who his natural father is? The answer is NO!Neither can our behavior in life today change our spiritual identity. Disobedience to His word will certainly affect our relationship with God; however, His attitude and love for us is not dictated by our actions. For God so loved the world, including those who crucified his son at Calvary.
In the beginning, man was created spirit - in the likeness and the image of God. Spirit can neither change nor die. Despite religion’s emphasis of sin and its claim that sin separates us from God, no degree of sin can change our true identity, which is spirit. In the creation of the First Man of Genesis 1:26, there is no mention of a body. This is because that First Man that God spoke into existence was pure spirit. A little further, Genesis 2:7 speaks of a body being formed out of the dust of the earth: May the Lord open our understanding so that we can be able to grasp the truth concerning these things, until they register in our consciousness.
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. This describes the Lord God, Jesus Christ, obeying the command of His Father in Genesis 1:28 to be fruitful and to fill the earth. Christ brought forth a manifestation of Himself in an earthly body. Before we look at the details of this reproduction, let us consider the Father’s plan for this creature who lived in a body.
GOD'S DWELLING PLACE
Man was placed in a body on the earth. And God remained in the heavenly realm of spirit, invisible to all mankind. However, God’s original purpose is that man would become a dwelling place for God in the earth. We see the first indication of this divine purpose for mankind revealed in Exodus 25:8: And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.Moses was called to the top of the mountain for forty days and forty nights. In this encounter, God gave Moses the details of a tabernacle where God would dwell on the earth. God specified every aspect of the tabernacle, including the various materials to be used.
The tabernacle of Moses was to be built using the gifts offered unto the Lord out of a willing heart. No one was coerced or forced to give for the building of the tabernacle. It is essential that we remember that God’s house was to be built by the gifts willingly given by the people. Remember that the Lord God had made all things; so in reality He owned everything.
Exodus 25:8 is quite relevant concerning God’s purposes for mankind. It reads, “and let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.” The desire of God’s heart is to dwell in the midst of His people, now, and not after they die. It must have been an amazing sight to see the twelve tribes of Israel encamped around the four sides of the Tabernacle, three tribes on each side. It is every father’s delight to be with his children, and God is no exception. The Tabernacle of Moses stood as a type and symbol of a greater reality yet to be revealed. And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (2 Corinthians 6:16) Paul makes it very clear when he challenged the saints in Corinth, “Don’t you know that your body is the temple [dwelling place] of God which is in you, made available by Him, and so does not belong to you, for he redeemed you at Calvary.” (1 Corinthians 6:19, paraphrased)
This intimate fellowship is what our Heavenly Father had in mind for us when He created us in the beginning. Tragically, this personal relationship with our Heavenly Father is not experienced nor discovered by many Christians. In the Garden of Eden, Adam walked with God daily and fellow shipped with Him in oneness and harmony. This is what Father has desired for each and every one of us; however, so few have entered into such an intimate relationship, while the rest are missing out on the reality of His presence with us. Now that we understand that God dwells in His people, we no longer pray thinking of our God being separate from us in a distant heaven.
REPRODUCTION
Reproduction is essential for mankind to fulfill the will and purpose for which God created man. God created one and only one Son. But in that one Son, in the Seed of God, all of mankind was created. And all were to come out of that one Son by birthing. Abraham was given great promises by God. But the patriarch told the Lord that he had no “seed” or offspring, his wife Sarah being barren. God’s response to him was, “Look up and count the stars of heaven.” Of course this was an impossible task for the stars were innumerable. But God told Abram, “so shall your seed be.” How could Abram have offspring whose sum equaled the number of the stars when his wife was barren? Humanly speaking this was not possible, so God must have had something in mind that Abram knew nothing about at that point in time.After Lot and Abraham had separated from each other, God promised Abraham in Genesis 17:7-9,
“Look to the north and look to the south and to the east and the west, for all this land I will give to you and your seed forever. I will make your seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can count the dust, then shall your seed be counted.” [This term, “The dust of the earth,” in this instance refers to the nation of Israel.]
And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” And God said unto Abraham, “Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.” (Genesis 17:7-9)
God told Abraham that his seed would be as the dust of the earth. This makes little or no sense to man today. There must be something about reproduction that we know nothing about. And Father opened Abraham’s eyes to this hidden truth since he was the one whom God promised would have seed as the stars of heaven. Note Psalm 115:16, “The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD'S: but the earth hath He given
to the children of men.
In Genesis 1:28, Elohim commanded the First Man He had created to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” James 1:18 declares, Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
The last phrase in this verse means that the creatures brought forth by mankind must be exactly the same as the first-fruits. The term ‘first-fruits’ was familiar to an agricultural society like Israel. When it was almost time for harvest, the children of Israel were instructed to pick the first sheaves of grain that matured before the rest of the harvest. Then they were to bring these sheaves into the temple and present (actually wave) them before the Lord. This represented a divine promise to Israel: even as these first fruits are ripe and mature, so would the entire harvest be mature and plenteous (see Leviticus 23:10-12).
Think of the incredible implications of God’s promise: the first-fruit of the harvest would determine the outcome for the entire harvest. Christ Jesus is the Seed of God; He is the First Fruit that God sowed in the earth that He may yield a harvest, the offspring of God who would fill the earth. The First Fruit of God was created in Genesis 1:26; God promised that the entire harvest - of humanity - would be identical to this divine First Fruit. To accomplish God’s intended purpose for humanity, we in turn must fulfill Genesis 1:28,
which is to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
This responsibility for reproduction in Genesis 1:28 was not given to Adam and a woman, for she was not involved at that time. It was only given to the first man created, who was spirit; and spirit is male and female functioning together as one. Hence, that First Man of Genesis 1:26 had the ability to reproduce out of Himself. When Adam was living with Eve outside of the Garden of Eden, they produced a child, biologically, as all mankind has done in the earth. That first child, Cain, was a murderer who killed his own brother. That first child of Adam and Eve was not what God had in mind when He commanded the First Man to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Adam used the seed of man to produce his children outside the Garden; the seed fertilized the egg supplied by the woman. So these children could not be the offspring of God.
This is what we have filled the earth with, but this is not what God commanded in Genesis 1:28. The offspring of God must be produced by the Seed of God who is Christ, the First Man of Genesis 1:26; Christ is also the First-Fruits of the whole harvest. In order to bring all things back to the original intentions and plan of God, we must birth the Christ in each and every one of us. This is not a biological birthing by egg and sperm - which reproduces the seed of man. Rather, this is a birthing by the spirit. Even though she was a virgin, Mary produced the Offspring of God without the help of a man. Her true identity was spirit just as we are, and spirit is male and female functioning together as one. Hear the archangel Gabriel’s annunciation in Luke 1:30-35. It was spoken to Mary; but it is also addressed to you and me today: And the angel said unto her, “Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou shall conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: And He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end.” (Luke 1:30-35) Mary answered the angel with a most curious question, “How can this be, seeing that I have never known a man?” I want you to ponder the angel’s answer because it speaks to us today. Why? Because all humanity was in the First Man of Genesis 1:28. And the angel answered and said unto her,” The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High God shall be present or overshadow you: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Mary birthed the Christ in whom was all of mankind. So her Seed was as the stars of heaven. Most Christians believe that Mary gave birth to Jesus, the Savior of the world because all that humanity needed was a Savior. However, Mary birthed the Christ, the Seed of God, which is the true identity of all mankind. And likewise, we have the same responsibility: the same Holy Spirit who came upon Mary now indwells you and me; and the presence of the Most High shall overshadow us that we may birth the Christ also by the spirit. In Galatians 4:19, Paul declares, “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you...”. We are not to birth the Christ only in our own spirit; this is the first step. We must also help to birth the Christ in our brother and sister. Lord, help us to grasp these truths that the carnal mind has hidden from our understanding, so that we may fulfill the Father’s command and become fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with the God - kind of people.
CHRIST, THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA
Religion is most confused when it comes to the subject of the ultimate end of the ages and the future of mankind. Religion portrays God as a tyrant who will cruelly punish the very children that He brought into this world because they rebelled and have failed to obey His commandments. He punishes by casting them into a fiery furnace called hell where they will suffer burning torments forever and ever.On the other hand, God will reward those who supposedly followed His commandments. Once they die, they will be transported into a domain that God rules called heaven, where there is no sickness, pain, suffering and of course there no death. They have been granted everlasting Life. This is the basic teaching in Christianity today with some slight variations.
This doctrine of heaven and hell contradicts the scriptural truth told in Revelation 20:12. Hear what the Bible says about the end of all things, when time shall be no more and God surveys the handiwork that He began in creation, bringing it to its conclusion in the consummation of all things.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
John describes a vision that he saw while he was held a prisoner of the Roman Empire on the Island of Patmos. John saw the dead stand before God! To our natural intellect, this statement sounds contradictory: how an the dead stand before God? Dead people cannot stand before anyone. But we are not to interpret the Bible with our natural intellect. The contradiction is removed when we keep in mind that the last book of the Bible is the Revelation of Jesus Christ by words, signs and symbols.
The term ‘dead’ in Revelation 20:12 signifies one who has breathed his last breath on the earth and is no longer living. This term does not refer to a dead corpse standing to its feet. In reality, there are no dead people; not even those whose bodies have been buried in a cemetery! Here is the reason why. Mankind consists of a physical body which was formed in the mother’s womb. However, there is an invisible spirit indwelling this physical body throughout life. The individual’s identity is not the visible body; the true identity is the indwelling spirit within the body.
The spirit is who you really are. The body is not you because it has no life in itself. The spirit within the human body is eternal and cannot die. When a person stops breathing, the physical body ceases from living; the spirit returns to God from whom it originated. According to Genesis 2:7, the Lord God formed man (or man’s physical body) from the dust of the earth. But that body had no life in itself! So the Lord God imparted the life that would animate the body by breathing the breath of God into the man’s nostrils. The word for breath is the Hebrew neshamah, which means breath or spirit. Being invisible, the spirit is the life force within the body. Genesis 2:7 speaks of this life force as the breath of God. Remember that before His ascension, the resurrected Christ also breathed upon His disciples and told them “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22).
Genesis 1:2 declares that the earth was empty and lifeless and that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. The word ‘spirit’ here is the Hebrew ‘ruwach’, which means spirit, breath or wind. The Spirit of God is the only source of life. In Genesis 2:7, the Lord God - Jehovah Elohim - breathed the same breath (spirit) into the nostrils of the man formed from the dust of the earth. Let us closely examine the death of Jesus on the cross to underscore this principle.
As Jesus approached the end of His suffering, He cried with a loud voice, “It is finished!” Then He tells His Father, “Into thy hands I commend my spirit.” Instantly, His Sprit left His body and returned to God. At this point, the body of Jesus died because the Spirit - which is the life force - left the body hanging on the cross. And this is exactly what happens to all mankind when their bodies die, with the exception that we cannot lay down our life at will as Jesus did.
If the physical body constitutes the whole identity of an individual, then when the body dies and is returned to the dust of the earth, that individual would cease from existing. If this were the case then, where does hell fit into this picture? Resurrection is not the raising of the dust of the earth to become a body again. Resurrection is returning life to a body that is still intact.
While being entombed for three days, the body of Jesus did not suffer any corruption. On the third day, Christ walked out of the tomb, now being empowered to live forever, His life having no limitations. This again demonstrates that our identity is not our physical body; our identity is the Spirit of God within. The same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead now indwells you and indwells me. Indeed, we all began life with the same Spirit-life who has the same abilities as the One who created the heavens and the earth and hung the sun, moon and stars in space. We all equally have the same empowerment to fulfill our destiny according to the potential of the life we received from God.
BEHOLD THE LAMB
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. (Revelation 20:12)In Revelation 20:12, John states that he saw “the dead, small and great, standing before God.” What was standing before God? Were there millions of corpses? I do not think so.
Those who stood before God were spirit. Not spirits (plural) because there is only one spirit, and that is God. The spirit that is you is the same spirit that is me, for there is no other. Many Christians speak about evil spirits (plural). But where did these evil spirits originate? God is the only Spirit and He has never created another spirit. Jesus Christ said, “I and my Father are one” - not two separate entities. The scriptures declare that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.
As the spirit opened my eyes to see into this holy scene in Revelation 20:12, it would seem to me that there is only one man, Christ Jesus, representing the multitude that has passed through life on this earth. This one is the Lamb of God, the One also described in Revelation 5:6-8.
And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb [Greek: Arnion, a little Lamb] as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the seven Spirits [or aspects] of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne. And when He had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of incense, which are the prayers of saints.
When we understand what this scene represents for us, we will truly praise and worship God. After the Lamb took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat upon the throne, the four beasts and twenty-four elders sang a new song to the Lamb according to Revelation 5:9. “Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for you were slain, and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred,
and tongue, and people, and nation.”
No one in heaven or earth could open that book The book remained closed until someone came along who could open it and express the life it contained. We praise the Lamb who was slain, Jesus Christ, who walked this earth 2000 years ago and opened the book of life of the Lamb.
For thirty-three and a half years, He demonstrated for us how that life functioned. Then He declared, “The things that I do, you can do also.” Most of us fail to believe what Jesus said. We fail to see that He redeemed us unto God and restored our place and in Him.
Revelation 5:6-9 sheds a powerful light to understand Revelation 20:12 where the same book is involved. This is a scene in the spirit realm; there is no literal book. The term ‘book’ represents the life of the Lamb. Who was standing before God in Revelation 20:12? The ones who have lost their ability to function on the earth - the physically dead - having vacated their body.
So, all that is left standing before the throne is spirit, which is Christ. In this gathering, there is an assessment made of those present according to the Book of Life. This book is identified as the Book of the Life of the Lamb in Revelation13:8. Christ Jesus is the Lamb of God.
Tragically, most Christians turn this magnificent scene into a court house where a black book is opened accusing and judging the saints for every small or large transgression. Let the glory of this amazing scene linger in our minds until we see only One standing before God representing the billions who have passed on. All humanity is represented in the Lamb of God, Christ Jesus who takes away the sin of the world.
Adam was commanded “not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day he does, he would die.” God did not have a cemetery in mind when he talked about Adam dying. From the divine perspective, death is a break in relationship with God who is the only source of life on this planet. In Ephesians 2:1, Paul addressed those who were dead but are still living and walking the earth, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins”.
Even as Christ was spirit indwelling a body on the earth, so are we in like manner spirit indwelling this earthly tabernacle, our body. Many Christians believe that they have to die before they can receive eternal life, go to heaven and live in the presence of God. They also believe that after death they will be able to recognize one another in heaven and families will be reunited. And that the ones who were not ‘saved’ will go to hell. These
ideas are nonsense and have no basis in the Scriptures.
In actuality, the only part of man that can die is the physical body. The body is only the house in which I (my spirit) live. Spirit is eternal and cannot die. Many wonder as to where the soul goes after the body dies. The soul is an integral part of the spirit which is male and female functioning together as one.
The woman from Genesis 2 now represents all of humanity, which has become the living soul. By believing that the female part of our true being was removed from Adam, and is now a separate entity walking outside of us instead of dwelling within, we have denied our true identity.
In Genesis 2:7, Adam was brought forth without an egg and a sperm, shrouded in a body made from the dust of the earth. Automatically we conclude that Adam was different from the First Man God created in Genesis 1:26 - who is spirit and invisible - because Adam had a visible body like you and me. This wrong conclusion arises from a false assumption: we assume that the body is our identity.
In Genesis 2:7, the Lord God formed Adam’s body first and then breathed into that body the breath of life, which is spirit. Because we live in a physical tangible world, we have become accustomed to identifying ourselves by what is visible to our natural sight. In 2 Corinthians 4:18 Paul corrects this false concept by stating that all that is visible to our natural eyes is part of this transient world that is passing away.
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)
Hence, the only realities we have in this life are in the invisible world of spirit. The reality of our true being then is spirit, which is in the likeness and image of God. And spirit is invisible to our natural sight. The body is simply the house that we, ‘the spirit’ indwell. These two parts of our being, our spirit and our body, are divinely knit together according to Ephesians 2:10:
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. We are His workmanship, which refers to our body which was formed, not created in our mother’s womb, by the loving hands of our heavenly Father. But we were created in Christ Jesus who is spirit, referring to our true identity as spirit, in the likeness and the image of God, brought forth to fulfill the will and the purposes of God. Our body is really His body, designed to be His dwelling place so that we become “Emanuel, God with us.” Our body therefore is His only means of expression to perform the good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Jesus Christ said, “I can do nothing of Myself,” but also said, “it is the Father in Me that does the work”(John 14:10). Adam was also required to fulfill God’s requirement to be fruitful, to multiply and fill the earth. To fulfill this, Adam must come to the point where he would also birth the Christ by the spirit. Adam was the first earth man, and in God’s wisdom he was destined to follow another path whereby he would be tested in his relationship with God. The Lord God - or Jehovah Elohim - who in reality was God and man walking together as one decided to provide a ‘help-meet’ for Adam.
And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man. (Genesis 2:21-22)
Adam accepted the woman who was brought to him, as being the female part of the spirit that was in him. However, Adam saw the woman being taken out and walking outside of him as a separate entity. It was now impossible for that woman to bring forth Christ, as her reproduction is now by egg and sperm which is the seed of man and not the Seed of God.
When Adam found himself outside the Garden of Eden, he birthed a child with the help of the woman Eve. But this child was not produced by the spirit as God had directed that first man in Genesis 1:28. Because when God spoke in Genesis 1:28, there was no woman at that time. There was only the male and the female functioning together as spirit. How did the First Man of Genesis 1:26 reproduce Himself? This reproduction is revealed in Genesis 2:7:
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. The Lord God, Christ Jesus, had total access to the mind of His Father and knew all the plans and purposes for which man was created: to fill the earth with the God kind of together and forming a body that would serve in manifesting Himself. To fulfill God’s will and purpose for us as stated in Genesis 1:28, there is no need for another body, for the body has already been formed. The birthing - and the reproducing - of the Christ in us is simply the birthing of the life of God which is resident in the Seed of God within us. This Seed who is Christ would energize the body we now indwell by the zoe life of God. Likewise, birthing the Christ in others does not require forming another body; it works as the manifestation of Christ in us is imparted to others by revelation. In Acts 17:24, Paul states that God does not dwell in temples made by human hands. The Pharisees challenged the Lord Jesus concerning this same principle as He was
cleansing the temple in Jerusalem. His reply to them in John 2:14-16 was, “destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”.
Jesus was not speaking of the Jerusalem temple built with hewn stones. He was speaking of His own body, which was later destroyed on Calvary’s cross and resurrected in three days. Christ walked out of the tomb as the real temple of God, God’s true indwelling place.
Paul affirms this same truth, declaring, “Do you not know that your body is the temple or dwelling place of God, for it was formed by God in your mother’s womb for Himself, so it does not belong to you, for it was also redeemed at Calvary by His death” (1 Corinthians 6:19 paraphrased) In Galatians 2:20 Paul declares,
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” In other words, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
Not only was Paul crucified with Christ; indeed, all of mankind was crucified with Christ on Calvary! When the body of the man Christ Jesus was nailed to the cross, the body of all mankind was likewise nailed to His cross. This includes you and it includes me. When the body of Jesus was placed in the darkness of the tomb, we were also entombed with Him -and in Him - awaiting the dawning of that new day when the Son of God would arise in us and we could step out of the limitations of death and the darkness of the tomb into His marvelous light! We would walk in His light in a new body which fully expresses Christ, set free from the limitations of mortality. In our imagination, we have often rerun the vision of the resurrected Christ stepping
out of the tomb and walking through walls, greeting His disciples, and blessing many people. Most of those who encountered the resurrected Christ had no consciousness of who He truly is. Their eyes were open to see His true identity as Christ only when He broke the bread.
May the Holy Spirit reveal these truths to us and make them a reality in us.
This verse does not state that God created a woman, nor does it say that this woman was a separate entity. God created a spirit man who was in the likeness and image of God; this spirit was male and female functioning in unison as one. Exactly like God! Genesis 1:27 does not speak of a man and a woman - two distinct entities - as religion speaks. Later on, Genesis 5:2 declares, “Male and female created He him, and blessed him, and called their name Adam, in the day when he was created.” This First Man created in Genesis 1:27 is further described in James 1:18, Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth [Christ Jesus], that we should be a kind of firstfruits [identical to the original Man] of His creatures.
God reproduced us out of Himself without any external help. There was no woman needed for this reproduction when we were brought forth out of God as spirit in Christ Jesus. This same Christ was born in the form of man to a virgin and walked the earth several thousand years later.
THIS PHYSICAL UNIVERSE
Where did the visible heavens and earth come from, and what is their purpose?Genesis 2:4-5 states, These are the ‘generations’ of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field ‘before it was in the earth’, and every herb of the field ‘before it grew’: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a ‘man’ to till the ground.
The verse speaks of multiple generations - not just one generation - of the heavens and the earth. This verse also tells us that the physical heavens and earth were made - not created - by the Lord God. The Lord God is Jehovah Elohim which is a compound name that joins together both God and man. Jehovah means the ‘existing one’ and comes from the Hebrew hayah (haw-yaw) which means, ‘to be’ or ‘to become’. Jehovah is the name God identified Himself with when He spoke to Moses according to Exodus 3:14. And God said unto Moses, “I AM that I AM”; and He said, “thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”
Through Moses, the authority of the name of Jehovah delivered Israel from the Egyptians. Jehovah, or “I AM” means I am becoming what I am becoming. It has always been God’s will and purpose to make man to be his dwelling place so that He could declare His glory to all mankind. Jehovah is God in man. Later on, Jehovah became as Emanuel, or God with us and in our midst.
THE REALM OF SPIRIT
Jesus declared in John 4:24, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit andin truth.” Spirit is the Greek term “pneuma” which can also be translated as breath or wind. Spirit identifies a realm completely different from the natural realm. In the realm of spirit, there is no suffering nor pain, no lack or need, no death and no end. Most people living today cannot fathom the spirit realm in their consciousness. This includes many Christians. God must be worshiped in spirit and in truth.
I believe there is very little true worship ascending from the saints today. Jesus specified that we must be and function out of the realm of spirit in order to truly worship God. True worship must originate from the Most Holy Place. In 1 Corinthians 6:19, Paul declares that our body is the “temple” of the Holy Spirit of God. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19) The word “temple” is the Greek “naos” which identifies the Most Holy Place. It is no longer in the tabernacle of Moses; the Most Holy Place is now within our own spirit. Most worship that I have seen originates in the worship leader on the platform, who tells the saints what to sing and generally controls what is called worship. Which turns “worship” as we commonly know it into a human exercise that has little to do with the Most Holy Place.
We see the operation of the realm of spirit from the beginning of the Bible. Genesis 1:2 declares that the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit (which is God) moved upon the face of the waters to bring about a change. When the Spirit began to move, the voice of the Spirit of God spoke and said, “Let there be light,” and immediately there was light. God did not manufacture anything. Light was already there in the realm of spirit; it needed to be brought out. God’s utterance made the light manifest.
THE RIVER OF THE WATER OF LIFE
The book of Revelation is pregnant with symbols and types that hide spiritual mysteries. What was opened in heaven was not a literal book or scroll; rather, when the Lamb of God opened the seals of the book, He was revealing the mysteries of God that have been hid from our intellectual understanding. Our comprehension of God’s judgment of the redeemed - and the so called ‘unsaved’ - is based on a minuscule perception pollutedby the knowledge of good and evil. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints. And they sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. (Revelation 5:8,9) And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship Him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:8)
The last ‘book’ opened according to Revelation 5:8,9 and Revelation 13:8 is the book of life of the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world. The term “foundation” is the Greek katabole {kat-ab-ol-ay'} which means a throwing or casting down, and also refers to the injection or depositing of the virile semen in the womb. Which life does the book of life of the Lamb reference? The book refers to the life of
the First Man - Christ Jesus - who was created or brought forth out of God in Genesis 1:26. The One who John 1:4 describes as “in Him was life, and that life was the light of men.” In the original Greek, ‘life’ in John 1:4 is the term zoe, which is the very eternal life of God Himself.
Because this Christ indwells every man, His zoe life and His light or knowledge is resident in all mankind. But according to John 1:10-11, the world did not know Him, and He was actually rejected by His own brothers and sisters when He walked among them.
Even though He possessed all the knowledge and revelation of God, mankind crucified Him instead of embracing Him and receiving His zoe life. Before going to Calvary, the Lord Jesus Christ made an incredible revelatory statement in John 17:3: “This is eternal life (zoe), that they may know You, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” The unsearchable wisdom of God! Christ equates zoe or God’s eternal life with knowing the Father and knowing Jesus Christ, the One sent by the Father. This knowledge of God which comes by revelation and by the unveiling of the mystery of His being in our spirit consciousness is zoe life. And this can only be revealed, given or imparted by the Lamb, Jesus Christ, who alone can open the book of the zoe life of God. This inherent cohesion and oneness of the knowledge of God and His zoe life is further affirmed in the last chapter of the Bible. In Revelation 22:1-3, the apostle John describes a river of crystal clear water of zoe life. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month [new moon] and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more doom: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him. (Revelation 22:1-3)
This river which proceeds from the throne of God and of the Lamb transfers and releases all the blessings of the Tree of life. The river carries in its flow the essence of the life of God, its waters eventually producing the fruit of that life according to the divine order. It heals and restores all mankind on the earth until we all stand in God’s image and likeness without spot or blemish.
Thou mighty Christ, come forth in me, and fill me with life anew. Amen.
As you read this book, I pray that the eyes of your understanding are opened to see into the hidden truths that are revealed in Christ. He is the ultimate expression of who we are as the offspring of God. Listen to the divine wisdom hidden in the words of Job who climbed out of a very steep pit: Whence then cometh wisdom and where is the place of understanding? Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air. Destruction and death say, “We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.” God understands the way thereof, and He knows the place thereof. For He looks to both the beginning and the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole of heaven; To make the weight for the winds; and He weighs the waters by measure. When He made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder: And unto man He said, “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.” (Job 28:20-28)
Written by Des Walter
October, 2011
Posts
