THE NEW CREATION MAN - Des Walter

The Apostle Paul begins a discussion concerning the Resurrection as being an essential element in our faith experience. He said, "1 Corinthians 15:14 and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." Most Christians put the emphasis on the Death of Christ but Paul made the resurrection to be a key issue for us today. He continues saying, "Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not." To consider that we died in Christ which is true, but there is no resurrection, leaves us in a state of "Limbo." So Paul continues, "For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins." The death of Christ on the cross is not effective if there is no resurrection, which speaks of a transformation that now energizes the body. The resurrection of Christ provided a clear example of the transforming power of this new life, which can only be obtained through this three-day experience.
"Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." Without the resurrection our loved ones who have passed on have no hope of life beyond the grave, for if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept. Paul now spells out the essential nature of the resurrection of Christ as it relates to all those who have died physically before the Cross of Jesus Christ. If all men were incorporated in Christ in his death, then of course they must also be incorporated in him in his resurrection. The Apostle Paul applies an old Testament concept to the resurrection of Christ from the dead stating that he has become the "FIRST-FRUITS" of all those who fell asleep. The "First-Fruits" is a phrase relating to the "Wave Offering," that applied to Israel and their harvest. Before the grain crop was to be harvested, Israel was told to pick some of the already mature heads of grain from the field that ripened before the main harvest, and wave them before the Lord in the temple. This signified that whatever these "First-Fruits" are, that is what the whole harvest will be.
In the resurrection, Christ has become like the mature grain of the first fruits offering, declaring that the entire harvest of the world will be exactly what he is through resurrection. The Apostle John made this declaration, "1 John 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is (NOW), so are we in this world." Not as he was in his death, but as he IS today through his resurrection. Could this truth concerning his resurrection be the missing ingredient in our present day spiritual experience? Many now know that we died in Christ on the cross, but then the following two days are simply a blur in our understanding. Jesus Christ stated clearly that it would require THREE DAYS to produce the Temple of God, beginning with the death of the old. John 2:19. It is most evident that the TRUE Temple of God is not the OLD TEMPLE with a few modifications, but a NEW Temple suitable for the manifestation of the Glory of the Lord.
In Matt 24 the disciples took Jesus to show him the beautiful temple that they had built for him. His response was that there would not be one stone left upon another that shall not be thrown down. This was a prophecy concerning the end of an era, in which the temple in Israel’s history that had been central to their spiritual life would no longer be the dwelling place of God. But this was no longer to be so for Jesus Christ told the people of his day, that they could destroy "This Temple," speaking of his body, and in three days he would raise it up. John 2:19. This was a direct reference to his death burial and resurrection, which he was to accomplish at Calvary. Two major issues would be involved in his death, and the first would bring to an end the authority of the carnal mind, in the death of the OLD MAN, and therefore the Adamic consciousness. According to Romans 6:6 this also indicated that the "Body" would no longer be a body of sin under the control of the natural mind, but would become the Body of Christ under the control of the Christ mind. This is the first step in the divine program that would bring about the transformation of mortal man to become a NEW CREATION in Christ Jesus.
The first day represents the death of that which is the product of our first birth having come from our parents who could only produce a mortal human being. This is the reason why our body is subject to every kind of disease, sickness, pain and suffering finally ending in death. However, the Apostle Paul challenges us in 1Cor 6:19 by saying,

"Don’t you know that your body is the temple of God that is
in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own. For you are bought with
a price, therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit which are
Gods."

Because we were created in Christ Jesus in the beginning, we are a spirit being that resided in the Father throughout all the generations of man, until we were sent to the earth to fulfill our divine commission. Ps 90:1. At this point in time Father formed a body for us in our mother’s womb and we were born into this world. God had set in motion a law in all nature that states whatever the parents are, is what the offspring would be. Because our parents were mortal human beings, that is what we were in our birthing.
There were aspects of our being such as skin color and health issues to name just a few that we would inherit from our parents. We inherit tendencies towards certain health issues that are passed on to us from birth and imperfections for which we are not personally responsible. Many people are born blind or deaf and with other debilitating defects that come through our birthing into this world, some of which may be a result of life style issues involving the parents. When Jesus Christ came into this world he demonstrated a power over sickness and diseases and even over health defects direct from birth. After demonstrating this ability he told us that we also could do everything that he did, and that was demonstrated on the day of Pentecost. But only a few people since then have believed the Lord and proved that what he said was true, so sickness and disease have continued to plague mankind all over the earth.
The Ministry and work of Jesus Christ on the earth culminated in a divine encounter, which he had with his Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. This is recorded in Matt. 26:36-44, where he is commissioned to accomplish redemption for all mankind that would include his crucifixion at Calvary. The disciples could not share in this conversation between Jesus Christ and his heavenly Father, for they did not understand the depth of what was involved in the redemption of all mankind. He begins by saying, "MY SOUL is exceeding sorrowful even unto death." To understand what is involved here, we must go back to the time in Gen 2 when the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he took from him the female aspect of his being and produced a woman. In creation, that first man was the only son of the living God, Jesus Christ and we are told that he is MALE and FEMALE functioning as one. But now in this "allegory" in Gen 2, we find the female part is removed and becomes a separate entity that is introduced to Adam. Adam says to her," You are bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh so I will call you Woman, because you were taken out of me." Remember this is an allegory because it cannot be literal, for spirit has no gender, and so there is no such thing as a female spirit or a male spirit, but in creation they were united and functioned as one.
In this allegory that now demonstrates the function of the female that represents the SOUL of man, the woman goes out to express life on her own without any help from Adam, the SPIRIT. She begins with a conversation with a talking snake, discussing the one tree in the Garden of Eden they were told not to eat of the fruit. The snake said, "Did God say you were not to eat the fruit of that tree?" Eve answered the question just as God had said, including the fact that if they did eat of that tree they would die. The response from the snake was, "YOU WILL NOT SURELY DIE, because God knows that the day that you eat of the fruit of that tree that your eyes will be opened and you will be as gods knowing good and evil." Gen 3:4-5. The deception had taken root in Eve, and believing what the snake told her she took and ate the fruit. Now she gives the fruit to Adam, who has never spoken to the snake nor was he deceived, but he knew that there would be a time when this situation could be reversed, but only if he became one with the woman. So he took the fruit and with his eyes wide open knowing the consequences, and not in rebellion towards God, he ate the fruit. This resulted in their eyes being opened and they knew that they were naked.
Their relationship with God was broken and now instead of fellowshipping with God they were afraid of him and hid behind the trees. God called to Adam for he never recognized Eve as a separate entity but called THEIR NAME ADAM, as they were one in creation. So the word records that Adam became a LIVING SOUL which was not how he was created. As a living soul Adam lost his contact with God, and now functioned out of his soul life controlled by the carnal or natural mind, that has no concept of true reality. From that time man determined his own reality through his five natural senses, sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste. None of these natural senses can reveal true reality, for they can only be known by the spirit. Adam now sees himself living outside the Garden of Eden and has to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow as he competes with the thorns and thistles. All of mankind functions as a living soul until God moves upon the man drawing him unto himself." Scripture says,

"No man can come to the son except the Father draws him.

ABOVE he cannot see the Kingdom of God." However, man is living out of a life that functions as a mortal man being born of a woman.
In order to be born from above there must be a death to the soulish life we had been living for we can only live one life at a time, which must be either mortal or immortal for it is impossible for these two different lives to function together. The divine method instituted by God that would see our soulish life of unreality terminated, was given into the hands of his Son Jesus Christ on the Mount of Olives. He begins by saying, "My SOUL is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." In order for him to accomplish Redemption he was made to be the MAN OF SIN, which is ADAM (2Cor 5:21). So in his death he became the LAST ADAM, which means the very last person of a race of people that descended from Adam in the Garden of Eden. From Calvary there has never been another "ADAM" born into this world, for he was the very LAST ONE. When Jesus Christ was born into the world of a VIRGIN, which was FROM ABOVE all of mankind was birthed in him.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus Christ recognized all of the consequences of the woman’s deception in the Garden of Eden, and her eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. All the sickness, pain, suffering and death of people down through the ages now brought the sorrow of it all upon him, for remember the woman was taken out of him, and he recognized that she was a part of himself. Now his Father asked him to purchase the redemption of all mankind by laying down his own mortal life, and by so doing he would taste death for every man. This agreement was sealed by his drinking of the cup containing his Father will and purpose. This is a part of the COMMUNION service that the Church holds for God’s people. In 1 Cor 11:23, Paul says, "I have received on the Lord that which I am delivering unto you, that the same night in which he was betrayed took bread, and when he had broken it (His body) he said, Take eat, for this is my BODY that is broken for you, this do in REMEMBRANCE of me. He did the same with the CUP saying, "This CUP is the New Covenant represented in my blood, drink it in REMEMBRANCE of me every time you drink it." So we in the communion service basically sign the same Covenant Jesus made with his Father at the Mount of Olives, that we would gladly lay down our own life so that we might bring LIFE to all mankind.
It is important to know that the word "Remember" in connection with the Communion service is not just to keep Christ’s death in our memory and think about it once in a while, but comes from the same Greek word as TRUTH which means a NOT FORGETTING, and Jesus Christ said, "I AM THE TRUTH." As soon as Jesus had signed the covenant with the Father he woke up the disciples and told them the one who would betray him was approaching with the armed guards. So Judas approached and Kissed Jesus which was the sign that this was the one they were looking for. So Jesus was arrested and led down the road like a common criminal, for now he had become what we are and for the time being could no longer live as a son of the Living God. They stripped him and put a purple robe on him and beat his back until it was raw, yet he answered not a word. He was as a lamb led to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth. He was despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was a man on a mission and he would not allow anything to prevent him doing the Father’s will. Even to Pilate the supreme Judge, who tried to release Jesus, he said, "You have no power over me except my Father gives it to you."
So they crucified him, willingly laying down his natural life, and thereby tasting death for every man. His final word was, "It is finished, and into thy hands I commend my spirit." At that moment life left his body and his death was complete. The soldiers were amazed that he had died so quickly for crucifixion was a very slow and agonizing death. The thieves who were crucified with him were not dead so they broke their legs as the bodies had to be taken down from the cross before sundown. Joseph had arranged to take care of the body of Jesus; so having prepared the body for burial it was placed in the tomb, which was sealed with a large stone. From the Old Testament came prophecies concerning his burial especially, Psalm 16:10 "For thou wilt not leave my soul life (Nephesh) in SHEOL or the grave; neither will you suffer your Holy One to see corruption." So his body never deteriorated in the grave, as there was nothing wrong with it except that as the LAST ADAM the Soul life desired to express itself, and this is the life that died there on Golgotha’s Hill. Romans 6:5 "For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection."
If we are of joint origin or planted together with him in the likeness of his death, Paul tells us that "We shall also be in the LIKENESS OF HIS RESURRECTION." So the death we died in Christ at Calvary is linked together with his resurrection, so the changes that occurred over those three days in Jesus Christ must also be linked to us who believe that we shared that same experience with him. Death is the end of conscious life on this earth, which is the product of the LIVING SOUL. So in our death IN CHRIST is the destruction of our human consciousness, in which the carnal or natural mind used its natural faculties to establish the realities out of which we lived. Now a new faculty of consciousness is established by the SPIRIT OF OUR TRUE IDENTITY that was created in the beginning, producing the NEW CREATION MAN. Nothing of this transformation is visible to our natural sight and neither were we in any way involved in this change. We are aware that the change of the caterpillar into the butterfly, which is the same process, as expressed here in the resurrection, was carried out in secret with no human eyes being privy to the process until it was complete. To even attempt to explain the process apart from the issues that have been made plain to us by the Spirit of God is futile.
The evidence of a change that took place in Jesus Christ himself, as he stepped out of the tomb is all we need to know. First of all the stone had to be removed, but not to let Jesus Christ out but to make public the evidence within the tomb itself for the disciples to see. The stone that sealed the tomb denying access to the burial place as well as sealing in side whatever had been placed in there, represents the LAW OF GOD given to Israel written on pieces of stone. The Law stated, "The soul that sins, IT SHALL DIE." So no one could ever leave the tomb because of the consequences of sin, for it was sealed with that stone, which represented LAW until Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ, to remove the stone and make a pathway THROUGH DEATH into LIFE. We need to note what the Apostle Paul said concerning the resurrection. In Rom 6:4 he reminds us concerning Baptism saying, "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of Life. In water Baptism, although the symbolism of the water represents the grave and being buried with him, it would seem that as in Peter’s statement in Acts 2:38, Water Baptism at that time was associated with the forgiveness of sins.
Remember that the Apostle Paul only recognized one Baptism in Eph.4:5, and that one he mentions in Gal. 3:27-28 which seems to resonate with the truth revealed in the resurrection. "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."

Paul made a similar statement to the Church in Corinth in
1Cor 12:13, "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be
Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink
into one Spirit." The first thing that Paul mentions is that we are ALL Baptized
into ONE BODY and that body is CHRIST. The truth is that the only BODY that
walked out of the tomb in resurrection was CHRIST and not JESUS. Once the "Old
Man’ or the Adamic consciousness was taken into death the body, was released
from its mortality and its connection with this world.

Paul says this Baptism BY THE SPIRIT, causes us to PUT ON CHRIST, as we would put on our clothes. Here he is speaking about the body that in resurrection has under gone a transformation so that it is no longer mortal but immortal. Likewise we no longer have ethnic or national identity, and also we lose our "Gender," as there is no more male and female. As we contemplate these things we realize that the resurrection produces the most radical change that is possible on this earth. However, such a change is not possible without our participation in the DEATH of Jesus on the cross. Religion has devised its own formula for "Salvation," that allows a person to remain basically the same with only a slight modification to their thinking. So that those people remain the same but never become a NEW CREATION in Christ. They face the same problems of unrighteousness as they had before and also sickness continues to plague their bodies. Jesus Christ made it clear that if any man desired to come after him, he has to deny his old identity of "Self" and take up his cross and follow him to Golgotha. Paul’s concept of that transformation is summed up in the statement, "If any man be IN CHRIST he is a new creation."
After the resurrection not even Mary knew whom he was, thinking she was speaking to the gardener, until he spoke to her. Jesus made it clear that his "Sheep" would HEAR HIS VOICE, not with natural ears but by the spirit voice within, but he never said we would recognize him with our natural eyes.. Later when two of the disciples were walking together on the road to Emmaus they met a man travelling on the same road who joined in with their conversation as they spoke about Jesus, how they thought he was the Messiah of the Old Testament until he was crucified. Now all their hopes were gone as this was the third day. But this man who was Christ began at Moses and the Prophets and began to expound unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning him. That was how he knew his own true identity at the age of 12 because he saw himself in the Old Testament Scriptures. When they came to the place where they were to stay they asked the man to come and join them, which he did. As he sat at the meal table with then he broke the bread just as he had done in the upper room, and their eyes were opened and they knew who he was and then he vanished out of their sight.
It was only then that the two disciples recalled how they had been deeply affected by what Christ said to them as they walked together, but they never realized who he was then. So physically he still looked like a man but could not be identified as Jesus who they knew so well. After the resurrection he could walk through the walls as he did to enter if to the private discussion with the disciples, who had locked the doors and windows. But there was another issue associated with the resurrection and that was that at the same time that Christ left the tomb. Matthew 27:52

"And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints
which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went
into the holy city, and appeared unto many." This was a testimony to the
resurrection of Christ, just as the Veil in the Temple was rent in Matthew 27:50
Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost, and
behold the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and
the earth did quake, and the rocks rent. At the very moment that he died the
veil was removed, and access into the Most Holy Place was opened to whosoever
will to enter in. Once the veil was removed the temple could no longer function,
and the Priesthood under Aaron had become obsolete. So many changes took place
as a result of the Death, Burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, many of which
have remained even to this day.

History records that the Priests sewed up the veil in an attempt to re-establish their priesthood and authority, but of course the Temple itself was destroyed along with the city of Jerusalem in AD70, just as Jesus had prophesied in Matt 24. There has been much talk about Israel building another temple but it will never be recognized by God, who since the Cross and the resurrection has his own TEMPLE just as he said, in John 2:19. This Temple that has NOT been made with HANDS, for now CHRIST is the head of a new living BODY that incorporates all those who are IN CHRIST. Paul reminds us that when we are IN CHRIST, our bodies also become the Temple of God through the death burial and resurrection, now functioning under the HEAD, which is Christ. This is what produces the transformation in our body, because it is no longer governed by the Carnal mind that has been affected by the snake, for it cannot survive the Cross. Our humanity and mortality are put to death in the Cross to release us from its bondage and authority and the government of our life is now upon his shoulder, which will continue to increase until all mankind bows the knee to the King.
The Apostle Paul had divine revelation concerning the Cross and the Resurrection making the plan of God very plain. He uses the Laws of nature to help us understand about the DEATH and the BURIAL of Jesus Christ in 1Cor 15:35. "But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? You fool, that which you sow is not quickened, except it die: And that which you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: But God gives it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body" According to nature the SEED that you sow is not the new plant that grows, for the seed in order to reproduce must DIE and disappear. But out of that death of the seed a NEW PLANT is birthed. The principle of LIFE out of DEATH denies the concept that is becoming popular today, of REINCARNATION. The seed is not reincarnated, because it must die if there is to be a harvest from that seed. Jesus Christ was a man of flesh and blood and he was mortal because he could die but according to Gal 3:16 he is THE SEED OF GOD. So at the cross Jesus laid down his life so there could be a harvest unto God out of the death of that seed. Christ being spirit could not die so Jesus said at the end, "It is finished," and then he said, "Father into thy hands I commend my spirit." At that moment the spirit departed from his body and he was DEAD.
However it was prophesied in Psalm 16:10. "You will not leave my soul in hell (sheol or the grave) neither will you suffer your Holy One to see corruption." So the body that was put in the tomb saw no corruption, but out of the death of that seed a new life sprang up and Father gave it a new BODY, as it pleased him. This BODY is the true TEMPLE OF GOD, (John 2:19) that is under the control of the HEAD which is CHRIST, and all those who are IN CHRIST are incorporated into that BODY and function under the same head which is Christ. For our body to be the true body of Christ it must have been incorporated into the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, for only then can the transformation take place. Until then our body remains under the authority of the carnal mind and so remains subject to every sickness and disease. The true Body of Christ cannot be sick for Christ is the head having control over every cell in our body. To even think that our body is the Temple of God which is his dwelling place, and yet be subject to sickness and disease that puts a limitation on what it can do, surely cannot be much of an advertisement for God’s dwelling place. It appears to me that the whole concept of what the Cross represents for us together with his burial and resurrection, needs a lot more consideration than we have given to it up to now.
Our consideration of the resurrection would not be complete without taking notice of what Paul shares with us in 1Cor 15 about the kind of Body that Father supplies for the New Creation Man. It begins in Verse 39 by saying that there are different types of FLESH, one for the man, another for the beasts, and another for the fish and another for the birds. In the same way there are celestial bodies, and terrestrial bodies, but the glory of the celestial is different to the glory of the terrestrial. There is also a glory of the sun, and another for the moon, and another glory for the stars, which is different for each one. In exactly the same way it is so for the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in Corruption, but it is raised in Incorruption. It is sown in dishonor but it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness but it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body but it is raised a Spiritual Body, because there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. That is why it is written, "The first man ADAM was made a LIVING SOUL, while the LAST ADAM was made a LIFE GIVING SPIRIT, but remember that was not first which is SPIRITUAL but that which is NATURAL, and then later that which is SPIRITUAL.
The first MAN is of the earth, earthy, but the SECOND MAN is THE LORD FROM HEAVEN. What the earthy man is, so are all those who are earthy, and as is the HEAVENLY, so are those who are HEAVENLY. In this statement is a very vital truth that we need to consider carefully. The first man speaks of Adam in the Garden who ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and found himself on the outside of the Garden of Eden. He is the first man who became the man of the earth. Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary is the second man who becomes the Lord from heaven through his death burial and resurrection. We become the earthly man through our first birth being born of a woman in the likeness of that first man from the Garden of Eden. To become that second man, who is the LORD FROM HEAVEN, requires that we must submit to death, and recognize that we died in Christ on the cross at Calvary. After this we must be buried to release the heavenly life of the seed of God planted within every man. As the divine seed yields up its life through death, the man of the earth becomes the Lord from heaven, now possessing a life that is eternal allowing him to walk out of the tomb as the NEW CREATION MAN.
AND AS WE HAVE BORNE THE IMAGE OF THE EARTHLY, WE SHALL ALSO BEAR THE IMAGE OF THE HEAVENLY.
Now this I say unto you brothers, that FLESH AND BLOOD cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, neither does corruption inherit Corruption. Behold I show you a MYSTERY, We shall not all sleep (Die), but we shall all be changed in a "Moment." This is not a TIME Word but is from the Greek word ATOMOS, and indicates that the change in our body is to take place in the ATOMS that are the building blocks from which our body is made. These atoms are protons and neutrons rotating around a nucleus and to change them simply requires that they be speeded up to function as they did before Adam ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the twinkling of an eye, for the Trumpet shall sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this MORTAL must put on IMMORTALITY.
The religious authorities in this world have convinced us that this resurrection is an event that will take place after the millennium etc at the end of the world. What would be the point of such an idea, for if the resurrection of Jesus Christ has not taken place 2000 years ago no one would have believed the Gospel? The resurrection was proof of the power of the Gospel to break the power of death over all mankind and it is the evidence that man needs to see in this our day. In John 11 we have the account of Lazarus who was sick and who finally died. When Jesus was told about his sickness the scripture says that he remained where he was for another two days. These two days are significant in that they indicate that they were a part of the THREE-DAY experience of the death burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus told Mary and Martha that this sickness was not to be "Unto DEATH" or consummated by death, but for the glory of God. Then he told his disciples that he wanted to go into Judea again, but they argued with him that the people there had tried to kill him the last time he visited that place. But Jesus was not persuaded by the disciples for he was about to demonstrate the fact that death had no power over him or anyone else if they could believe it.
Jesus told the disciples that Lazarus was "ASLEEP," but they misunderstood what he said suggesting that he would wake up out of normal sleep if that was so. Only then did he used the terminology they understood by saying Lazarus is DEAD. Then he said, "I will go and awake him out of his sleep." By the time he arrived Lazarus had been dead four days, one day more than Jesus Christ had been dead. Martha made her feelings of resentment known when she told Jesus, "If you had been here my brother would not have died, but even now I know that whatever you ask God for he will give it to you. So Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."

And Martha replied.” I know Lord that he will rise again in the great
resurrection at the last day." This is the common belief among Christians today,
but listen to the reply Jesus spoke to her,
"I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE
LIFE, HE THAT BELIEVES IN ME THOUGH HE WERE DEAD, YET SHALL HE LIVE, AND WHOEVER
LIVES AND BELIEVES IN ME SHALL NEVER DIE."
Jesus was telling us that the
resurrection is NOT AN EVENT but a PERSON Jesus Christ!

What a difference this makes to us today, if we can believe it. Christ is in every man and so in truth every man has the resurrection provided that the Christ is activated in that man. In the statement Jesus made concerning resurrection, provision is made both for those who have passed on and for those who are still living today. Christ living in us today means that we can enjoy resurrection life now and we can embrace immortality and the body can no longer be affected by sickness, for Jesus said, "Whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die." The Death, Burial and Resurrection deal with our humanity and our mortality, which in turn vitally affect the body. In truth, there is nothing wrong with our body but it has been functioning under the authority of the Adamic man who became a LIVING SOUL. The "Living Soul" can never know God for it functions apart from God, and so has no input from God but functions out of the "SOUL LIFE." This life of the soul operates through the Mind, the Emotions and the Will, with the Mind in control, functioning out of the deception of the serpent that remains from Eve’s experience in the Garden of Eden.
Paul makes it clear that "Flesh and blood" cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, so it is obvious that our involvement in the cross of Jesus Christ is not optional, but is demanded by God if our body is to be the his TEMPLE. The body that was born of a woman could never be the true Temple of God as it is subject to sickness pain and disease and to all kinds of limitations of the flesh including age. The life governing that body must be brought to an end, for it has no capacity to bring forth a manifestation of a true son of the living God. Most Christians continue to live out of their mortality just as the rest of the world does so that they are indistinguishable from the people of the world about us. It is only in death that a new life can be generated. Nature teaches us this principle Life, for as we plant a seed we are looking beyond the present life that is apparent to us, to a new life that will be birthed out of the old. Paul uses this law of nature to help us understand the principle of resurrection. He says that some will ask, "How are the dead raised up and with what body do they come?" Obviously the majority believes that they are simply raised up with the same body that they had before. Lazarus was simply brought back to life but not in the truth of resurrection, because he died again later. Jesus Christ never died again but he ascended into the spirit world back to the Father, in which he completed his journey returning from whence he had come.
Paul responds to those who would question what is the body that is raised up in resurrection, "Thou fool, (because everyone should have known the process in nature of a seed planted in the earth), that which you sow is not quickened except it dies, and the SEED which you sow is NOT that body which grows, but is simply bare grain of wheat or some other grain, BUT GOD gives it a body as it pleases him, and to every seed his own body." So the principle of the seed from nature explains the process of resurrection very clearly, for the seed planted MUST DIE or there will be no resurrection. The principle revealed in Nature concerning New Life is that it must come out of a death. When we plant a seed of wheat and the conditions are right, as the new life emerges from the earth if you dig up that small plant you will not find the original seed that was planted. It has yielded up the life that it contained to be vested in the new plant and therefore to result in a harvest, and for this it gladly embraces death to itself.
While we can see the principle involved it seems not so easy for us to lay down our own life, having not yet appreciated the wonderful Life that is available to us when we lay down our mortality. But it is said of Jesus Christ, "Who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." He was willing to endure the cross, not for himself but for the salvation of the world regardless of the cost to himself. Very few Christians seem to have a sense of responsibility to God for the world, being concerned only for their own salvation. It is this selfish concept that causes us to deny the purposes of God for all mankind. When God expressed his love it was not just for the few, but for the whole world, "For God so loved the world that he gave us his son." The Apostle Paul testified, "When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood." Gal 1:15-16. Here was the cry of his heart expressed, "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you."
Jesus made the way plain when he said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." To recognize that the man born of a woman can never be the vessel in the hand of God through which he can manifest himself, will cause that one to take up his cross so as to divest himself of his humanity as a LIVING SOUL, in order to become a NEW CREATION MAN. There is no substitute for the death, burial and the resurrection if we are to fulfill the divine potential that was placed within us in creation. In this we have overcome the last enemy to be destroyed and that is death itself. Jesus Christ declared,
I AM HE THAT LIVES AND WAS DEAD AND NOW I AM ALIVE FOREVERMORE, AND IN MY HAND I HOLD THE KEYS OF THE GRAVE AND DEATH. Rev 1:18
May the Lord give you knowledge and understanding of these things that your life may be blessed and fruitful for his glory Amen?
Des Walter July 2007

Coming Out Of Darkness Part 2 - Gary Sigler

Coming Out Of Darkness Part 2 0f 7 - Gary Sigler

CALVARY’S EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION"This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (Eph. 4:17-18).
Alienation from the life of God in us is a great problem in the Church. All of us are still, to one degree or another, alienated from that life we have within us. And the only thing that is going to bring us into more of an understanding of that life, and prepare us for what God is about to do on the earth, is to have most of our concepts of God which we have been taught in the past by our forefathers torn down. They have to be uprooted, because what God wants to bring to the earth through His people is the Gospel of reconciliation. This is the only Gospel that Paul ever told us we need to preach. The people of the earth must be told the magnitude of Calvary’s victory.
Very few of God’s people are aware of "Calvary’s Emancipation Proclamation." I think probably most of us know what the Emancipation Proclamation was; it was the proclamation that freed the blacks from slavery. And oh, if we knew the benefits of Calvary’s proclamation! That is the reason that we are not moving in the power of God. The Church has so little power today. I know there are a few men who are operating somewhat in the power of God, and that it is flowing through certain ones in the gifts of the Spirit. But we haven’t seen anything yet, because when God by His Spirit comes to maturity within the Church, we will see the power of God such as never has been seen before.
In these days we must understand the heart of God. There is coming such an awesome power of God to the Church, that if you don’t understand His heart, and walk in the love of God, you will take His power and bring judgment to His people. You will cause them damage and harm. God is bringing judgment to His people, but it is a righteous judgment. You have to know the heart of God. You have heard it said that the Apostolic and the prophetic anointing of the early Church is going to be restored to the Church, and there are many men of God today who are prophesying and teaching that the Church as we knew it in its beginning stages is going to be restored. But that Church didn’t make it the first time! And I am not so sure that if the Apostolic anointing and power came back to the Church as it was in the early days, the same thing wouldn’t just happen all over again, unless God’s people begin to understand the heart of God. I don’t think such restoration is the answer. I think the only answer today for God’s people is to really understand, and have unveiled to them, the heart of God.

All Shall Be Made Alive
In the first message, I shared with you a passage which has become very controversial in the Church, and I want to pick up with that again. That is 1 Corinthians chapter 15, beginning at verse 20 and going through verse 23: "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming."
You remember I asked the question earlier, is the "all" in Christ any less than the "all" in Adam? Because if we can take that verse literally, just as it is spoken, "as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive," the question is answered. And to understand how this could possibly be, how we all died in Adam, and are made alive in Christ, we need to go back to the very beginning of creation to see what God’s original purpose was for creating man.
I know we have all heard this, but God’s original design, intent and purpose was to create humanity to contain and express His life on the earth. That was His intention from the very beginning. "Let us make man in our image, and let them have dominion over the earth." So man was created to have the very life, nature and character of God, and then to be a possessor and take dominion over the earth. But we all know what happened: For as in Adam all died . . . What caused Adam to die? Every one of you could tell me that when Adam chose the wrong source for his life, it brought to him death, and then that death passed to all mankind, because we all came out of Adam. That is what the Word says. So that means that you had no control over this life of sin and death when you came into this world. When you came from the womb, you had absolutely no control over the life that Adam gave to you. Now religion gives us a totally different picture. Religion tells us that you are a free moral agent, and God has given to you a free will, therefore you have the capability to choose right or wrong; you have the capability to choose either God, or a life of self; you have the capability and the free will to choose. We do have the freedom to choose, but as we will see, our will is bound up in the fall of Adam.

The Knowledge of Good and Evil Brings Death
When I was a struggling Christian with many bondages in my life, I was told, "The devil doesn’t make you do the things you do. You have a choice, and if you will choose to do what is right, then that will enable God by His Spirit to work in your life. But you have to make the right choices." And you know what? I never made the right choices! I often tried making the right choice, but I found that I seldom had the power to carry through with it. Now I know a lot of people do, but I didn’t have the character, nor the strength. I wanted God, but I also wanted the life that I had which was not compatible with the Christian life. I know a lot of people live at that place where I was. But all I was told was, "Gary, it’s up to you. You have the free will to make the right choice."
Then one day God revealed to me that my choice was made by Adam! Romans 5:12 says, "Therefore just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so in this way death came to all men, because all sinned." Now I have to ask you again: What brought Adam into death? What in the world did he do that caused him to die and caused me to die with him? God placed him in a garden with various things to eat and gave him very few instructions. When God created Adam He didn’t give him a rule book, He gave him just a couple of words. He said, "Of every tree in the garden you may freely eat. But the day you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you are going to die." That is what brought death to humanity. I have been teaching this for years, and I still do not have the full realization of it; I still don’t have the full experience of it. But I’ll tell you this, that the root of the darkness, and the alienation in our minds from the life of God, is the fruit of this tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Now consider: "Knowledge of good and evil". Think about the teachings of Christianity, or any religion in the world. What is the basis of their teaching, if it isn’t based upon the knowledge of good and evil? I know of no religion in the world, including Christianity, that does not base almost everything it teaches on choosing the good over the evil. Yet God says, "The very day, Adam, that you begin to eat that fruit, the very day that you begin to discern the difference between good and evil, is the day that you will die."
Why did God call it a death? It is because when God created Adam, He breathed into him, and we know that the word "breath" is the same word as "spirit," so what God breathed into Adam was His very own life and His nature. It says there was a Tree of Life in the midst of that garden, which simply means that Adam could have chosen to depend wholly and solely upon the life of God that was in him, the life that God literally had breathed into him (and there is so much in that life of God!). The life that God breathed into Adam was simply everything that He was. He breathed into him His energizing, quickening life. He breathed into him His power, His authority. Adam was an example of everything that God wanted on the earth. And God said to him, "Don’t partake of the knowledge of good and evil, because the moment that you begin to eat of the fruit of that tree, you will die." You will be cut off from My life. Your consciousness will be separated, and you will become in your consciousness separated from Me, as a separate entity. And you will begin, then, to live your life not by the knowledge of the life that I placed within you, for that will be cut off, and you will have nothing left but a knowledge of good and evil. You will struggle all of your life trying to discern and trying to choose the good over the evil, but you will be cut off from My life. And then you will take this nature that is separated from Me, and you will produce sons in your own image." That is what happened at the fall, and that is what the Bible says. Adam and Eve then produced sons after their image. They lost the image of God.
What was the very first thing that Jesus did on the day of resurrection? The Word says in John 20:22 that on the eve of His resurrection, He appeared. The doors were closed, but He appeared in the midst of the disciples, and the very first thing that He did, it says, is He breathed on them and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." That act restored back to those men what Adam had lost in the garden! Jesus once again, as God did in the beginning, breathed His life into them. 1 Corinthians 15:45 says, "Christ was made a Life-giving Spirit." And that’s why Jesus said, "I am the Bread of Life. Do you really want to live by God? Then you have to know how to eat of Me. Do you really want to live, do you really want life?" He said, "As the Father has sent Me, and I live by the Father, whosoever will eat of Me will live by Me." That is the promise—if you eat of Me, if you learn to assimilate My life, you will live by Me.
This is why Paul said, "Don’t be as the gentiles, walking in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God." To be alienated from the life of God means that you believe in your consciousness that you and God are two separate entities. To be in death simply means that you cannot possibly even imagine that you and God are not two entities, but one. But that is how it was in the beginning; Adam was a full replica of what God wanted in humanity. That is why he was called "the first Adam," and Jesus is called "the second Adam" and "the last man". Jesus fulfilled that which Adam failed to do. Jesus restored man back to the Tree of Life. Humanity can once again live by the life of God, instead of trying to choose the good over the evil.
Now, not only did Adam make a fatal choice, but here is where Christianity as a whole has made the same mistake. Very, very shortly, just within a few years—in fact even beginning within the lifetime of the Apostle Paul, men began to revert back to the knowledge of good and evil, rather than learning how to discern and live by that life that was breathed into them by the new birth. Religion tells us this: "God loved you so much that He sent His own Son to die for you on the cross." And we are told that for the joy that was set before Him, Jesus endured the cross. But the magnitude of that victory, in the Christian’s eyes, is so limited, because we have been fed for two thousand years from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. "If you are good, God will bless you; if you aren’t good, God won’t bless you." The magnitude of Calvary’s victory, according to the religious eyes, is that, yes, Jesus died for the world; He suffered on the cross, but His victory is limited only to those who, first of all, receive Him as Savior, and then after that learn to live by His rule book.
The book of Ephesians talks about the eternal purpose of God. The eternal purpose of God is that man would live from the flowing of God’s life within him. Paul mentions several times in the Book of Ephesians, especially in chapter 3, the "mystery" of the gospel. We all know that if something is a mystery, it is sometimes not that easy to figure out. The Gospel is a deep and hidden mystery, especially from religious eyes, especially from people who have been trained all of their lives to discern the difference between good and evil. Now I know that there is a verse in the Bible which says that some have exercised their senses to discern both good and evil. But it doesn’t say that they have learned to discern the difference between good and evil. It says they have learned to discern good and evil, yet both are from the same source! It’s not too hard to discern evil, but it is very, very difficult to discern the truth about good sometimes. The truth is that you can be very good, and still not have God’s character and His substance formed in your life.
If what the Word teaches us is true, just as sin entered into the world by one man, and through that sin death passed to all men, then what passed to all men was that seed that Adam took into him from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We are born into this life with that seed in us. I know this is a repeat, but we must hear this and clearly get an understanding of it. Before God’s people can ever grasp fully the reconciliation that He wants to bring through them, they have to understand His heart, because if you don’t understand the heart of God, and you do become filled with His authority and His power, you will use it to judge, and you will not judge righteously.
God is coming to judge the earth, but He is a righteous judge. God knew, and it wasn’t a surprise to Him, that His creation was going to fall. Every man that was born after Adam was separated in his consciousness and his awareness from that life that was in his spirit, and every man was then left with nothing but the discernment to choose between good and evil. Man was cut off in his spirit from the knowledge and the life of God, and because of it he had nothing left but the knowledge of good and evil. Therefore some men would become very good, and other men would be very evil. The people of the world as a whole, looking only through eyes of good and evil, would see that there was a group of good people and there was a group of evil people, and they would imagine that all the evil people needed God, but all the good people were pretty much OK. But listen! In God’s eyes, every man that is born, is born in death. He is alienated and separated in his mind from the life of God that is in his spirit. He is left only with a knowledge of good and evil.
John 1:9 says that Jesus was "the true light that lights every man that comes into the world." Proverbs calls the light of man, the spirit, "the candle of the Lord." So every man that comes into this world has a spirit, has hidden deeply in his being that candle, that spirit from the Lord which needs to be ignited. And we can go to men, and we can tell them about the Gospel; we can convert them, we can even get them to believe intellectually that Jesus is the Son of God. But then we begin to teach them how to live according to the Bible, to choose the good over the evil, and we have done the same thing that Adam did in the very beginning. Even within ourselves we try to choose the good over the evil, rather than learning how to contact and live by that Holy Spirit of God that has been placed within us.
Can’t we all see that? That is what is happening! We do not have, especially in the Church in America, many godly people who are manifesting the life and the character of God to a lost and dying world. We have many good people. And most of them think that because they are good, they are OK, and they are always trying to convince the one who is evil to change his ways so that God can help him—not realizing that good and evil are the same tree. We need the light of God to see this! Whether you are very good, or whether you are very evil, it is the same source of life that is cut off from the life of God.
Look again at Ephesians 4:17-18. "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you walk not as other gentiles walk, in the vanity of their minds, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart." This is the situation today. We have people all over the earth who have been regenerated by the Spirit of the Living God, who have never learned other than to discern the difference between good and evil.
Let’s go back and take another look at Calvary. God realized that because of Adam, the whole human race would be raised with a concept of knowing only the good over the evil. And He knew that it was absolutely hopeless. Paul told the Ephesians that before Christ, they were alienated. They were not members of the same family. But through the cross, God put into one both Jew and Gentile. Now one has to understand the mindset in those days, which was that the Jew was very "godly," and the gentile was the "ungodly." So Paul says that God by one offering put both the Jew and the Gentile into one body, thus bringing peace. The Word says Jesus was "the Lamb of God slain from before the foundation of the world." The question we have to ask —and this is a hard one to fight, this religious concept—is this: Is the magnitude of Calvary’s victory limited only to those who are able to choose the good over the evil?
I questioned God about this for years, before I came into the understanding that I am sharing with you. I used to question God, because I was so full of the lust of the flesh, as a young person, and even as a Christian! I loved God. I used to cry at night over my condition. But I wanted the things of the world. I wanted everything that you are not supposed to want. And I went through hell on earth as a man living to the full extent the experience of Romans, chapter 7. And the only reason we go through that is because of having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God that is in us because of the blindness that is on our hearts. We have to realize the magnitude of Calvary’s victory. The Emancipation Proclamation from the cross of Calvary was that you are not guilty.
You are living your life by the knowledge of good and evil if you are not one who has the ability and who has learned how to exercise your spiritual being so that you can live by God’s life. It makes no difference how good you are, or how evil you are, your life source is still coming from the wrong place. In God’s eyes, there is no difference. In the man or woman who is not living by the life of God, there is no difference between the good and the evil. It is all from the wrong tree. And all we have had for two thousand years, in Christianity, is religious teachings, trying to teach us how to be godly, trying to teach us and warn us to choose the good over the evil.
We need to read again Romans 5:12-21. You see, God understands our condition; we don’t. Because of our religious traditions, we think that we deserve all the guilt, we deserve all the shame. But I didn’t ask to be born having all the lust and wanting all the wrong things. I didn’t ask for it; that was Adam’s gift to me. And so because Adam made a mistake, religion tells me that I came into this world constituted and filled with the character and the nature that loves to sin, or maybe I’m fortunate and I have been born with a character which is good. But religion will tell me that because I inherited a life that loves to sin, and loves to do all the things that I’m not supposed to do, I somewhere have to find within myself the power to put that down and to choose to live right, so that God can bless me and I can someday die and go to heaven. Yet the very first thing that was said of Jesus by John was, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" I can testify that if you cannot overcome sin no matter how hard you try, if you will continue to seek after God, He will eventually grow within you, and you will overcome! The Christian life is not a matter of will power, but a matter of the Spirit of God flooding every area of your being, and that takes time. We are as "newborn babes" and it takes some of us many years to be transformed.
Church isn’t a happy place today. Why? Because we are under so much guilt and condemnation. When we get together, there are times when we break through and we touch the Spirit of God, and there is some rejoicing, but it is so limited! It’s so limited, because when you have the slightest—and I mean the slightest—bit of guilt in your consciousness, it separates you, and you can’t break through to the Spirit of God. The very first thing John said was, "Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!" Did He do that? If you are religious, you will say He did, but you won’t believe it, because your religious concept says, "Yes, He took away the sin of the world, but only for those who say, ‘Jesus I receive You,’ or only for those who learn to live and choose the good over the evil." Calvary is only beneficial to those who learn to make the right choices—that’s what religion teaches us! And so we have multitudes of people all over the world who genuinely have been regenerated by the Spirit of God, but they never have been taught how to live by that life of God that is in them. All they are ever taught is how to choose the good over the evil. And when you do that, it alienates you from the life of God in you, and you become like an unbeliever, having your eyes blinded.
You see, an unbeliever has no consciousness, no awareness at all that they have the Spirit of God in them. But if you have been regenerated, you do have that consciousness. At times you will experience the flowing of God, but because of your concepts, when you sin it will cause a blockage, for guilt cannot enter into the presence of God! The only people who enter into the presence of God and live there are people who know how not to be guilty. As long as you are in the flesh, I can guarantee you every day of your life you are going to err and miss God. Since 1969 I have avidly, every day of my life, sought after and hungered after God. In 1969, when I had the experience of being caught up into the heavenly realms and of experiencing God flooding me, I became extremely hungry for God. And I have spent literally hundreds and hundreds of hours on my face and in the Word of God, hungering and seeking after God. I have been one of the most hungry-after-God people, yet I still make mistakes every day. It is because I have not learned how to live fully by the life of God within me. And, in fact, it is not even a matter of learning. It is a matter of God’s life growing, it is a matter of the Spirit of God maturing within me. It is a matter of my seeking, every day of my life, not after something which is in a distant heaven, but that which is within—learning how to contact the reality of the Spirit, the energizing, quickening spirit of God, so that every day I can enter into His presence, and I can feast upon the spiritual manna. From that experience, I am energized and quickened and enabled a little more to walk in the life of God. But when I begin in my consciousness to choose the good over the evil, I am separated in my consciousness from God, alienated from that life. And I am left as Adam was again, to struggle around in darkness trying to choose the good over the evil, trying to whip my flesh into line.
Jesus did say, "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me." But that has been so misunderstood in the Church, because there is no way that Adam, your carnal man, can put himself to death. It cannot be done! And that is why the Apostle Paul said in Romans chapter 8 that if you through the spirit put to death the deeds of the flesh, you will live. The Christian life is totally a life of learning how, through the spirit, to live godly. You will never do it in your own strength. You will not live long enough to learn how to live godly. All you will be is condemned because you can’t make it. The flesh cannot live godly.
You simply need to behold the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world! You have absolutely no problem with God except in your religious mind. God’s people have a hard time believing the goodness and the loveliness of God, because we feel that we have to be justified in His sight by what we do, rather than by what He has done. Yet I can go to anyone on the street, I can go to a prostitute in the gutter, and I can say to her, "Lady, you have absolutely no problems with God, absolutely none." And I can guarantee you that when I begin to speak this way, the words that flow out of me will begin to generate in her. I will say to her, "Little lady, there will come a day in your life when you will fully reveal and manifest to the world the glory of God." There will come that day!
Another verse we need to look at says that the last enemy to be destroyed is death. What is God’s concept of death? It is living not by His life, but by a life of good and evil. God’s concept of death is having the consciousness of being separated from Him. If you are separated from God, then you are in death; so for the last enemy, death, to be destroyed would mean that there would not be anything, anywhere, in any place that was not reconciled to Him—for if there were any place, anywhere in the universe, that was not reconciled to God, then it would be in death.

Coming Out of Hell
You all are going to have to bear with me on what follows, because it may take a long while to teach and to reveal all of the misconceptions in the doctrines that we have learned. And I am just going to touch on one of them now, the subject of hell. I will cover this in more detail as we go on in this work. There are many other authors who have covered this subject in the true light of God’s nature, and I would be happy to recommend them to you.
The biggest question in people’s minds is the question of hell and the seeming teaching in Revelation about the eternal torment of hell. Let me just give you a little concept of what hell is. Hell is a literal place. Hell is a place that probably most of the world, and even probably most Christians, are going to experience at one time or another. Let me give you an example of hell. Do you remember a few years ago when the man heading the biggest ministry the world has ever seen confessed publicly, before the whole world, his sin? That man went through hell. Not only did he go through hell because he was caught and had to publicly confess, but he also suffered under the opinions of others—especially Christians. And I want you know that when I first heard about that, God revealed to me the heart of Jimmy Swaggart. He showed me a man who was not a hypocrite, as the world and as most Christians assumed, but he was a man caught in the web of the knowledge of good and evil. He had the largest ministry the world had ever known, and had probably spoken to more people than any other man at the time, but his message was very judgmental and critical. If you ever heard Jimmy preach, you know that he was a hell-fire and brimstone preacher. Why? Not because he was a hypocrite, but because he hated so much what he had inherited through Adam, and he struggled so desperately with that thing. He didn’t want anybody else to ever have to suffer what he suffered; and he did not understand, nor did he know, the extent of the love of God.
There is a book I wrote called Coming Out of Condemnation. Right after this happened to Jimmy, God revealed to me that he needed intercession. I wept and I groaned and I travailed for that man. I felt his suffering. I felt his agony. And God said, "It is time that My people understood that they don’t need to feel condemnation." (I wrote the book, and please get one—not because I wrote it, but because I can guarantee that you, too, suffer under condemnation, and you need to read that book.) And God said, "Write that book, and send it to Jimmy Swaggart." And of course you know how we all think. I thought, "Well, you know, he has this big ministry, and he’s in the middle of this; how can I even give it to him?" But I just addressed it: "Jimmy Swaggart, Baton Rouge, Louisiana," and I sent it off. Within a few days, I got a letter from Jimmy thanking me for sending it.
I’ll tell you, Christian, you just haven’t been caught. Now I realize that in Adam, in our natural character, there are some who are very strong-willed, and they are able by their self-effort to be very good people. However, they will condemn you something fierce, because you are not able to do what they can do. And they will preach hell-fire and brimstone to you and have your ears smoking. Yet God has men and women positioned all over the earth today who understand what I am telling you. Judgment is coming, and I believe it is coming quickly. Hell is coming to the earth. The fiery indignation is coming to the earth in a fully righteous judgment. The fires of God are coming, and the Word says that our God is a consuming fire. I have been judged by that fire many times. Do you think that Jimmy Swaggart didn’t go through a burning? Can you imagine what it would be like if you had your deepest sins revealed to the world? How about even to your family? (Now I know this is not still true for all of us. Right now I don’t have a problem like that, but years ago I did. I would have been absolutely humiliated to have the world exposed to my sin.)
Yet you know that Revelation says that there is a day coming when we shall stand before God and the books will be opened. Do you know what that book is? Paul says that you are living epistles, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the Living God. Each of us is a book. There is coming a day for everyone when their book will be opened. But let me tell you something: the fire of God, the judgments of God are never vindictive! We are taught a doctrine of eternal punishment. I will provide more detail later, how the concept of eternal punishment all happened. I will tell you now that it began basically with the Roman Church. It began by men, leadership in the Church, who wanted to instill fear into the hearts of God’s people. We know that the Bible says that perfect love casts out all fear, but yet the churches, almost everywhere in all denominations and in all sects, have within their Gospel and their teaching, fear. If we need to fear anything, it is the carnal self life that keeps us separated in our mind from the life of God in our spirit.
You have heard this expression: "If you really do love someone or something, let it go." Let it go, because if you try to hold onto it, if you keep it in bondage, there can be no genuine love flowing. God’s people today need to be set free. Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world! If the religious concept is true, the victory at Calvary was a very, very small and a very, limited victory. If the religious concept is true, when this thing all winds up, there are going to be a few on God’s side, but the devil is going to have the masses of humanity. That is not a great victory. Even common sense tells us that.
God knew that when He brought you forth into this life you were going to be separated and alienated in your mind from His life, and there are people who live seventy or a hundred years, and for one reason or another, they never, never, hear someone preach the true Gospel to them. Oh, they hear the religious gospel. But they don’t want that. They don’t want to hear, "You’ve got to change your life. If you want to be used by God, you can’t do that! Do you want the blessings of God? You can’t do that!" They don’t want to hear that, because they are just like you, they are selfish. Self wants what self wants. But when God regenerates your spirit, then you begin to want the things of God.
If people begin to realize the extent of God’s love, they will flock to Him. Can you imagine what it would be like for a prostitute to walk into a church where everybody knows she is a prostitute, yet they would love her, they would minister to her, and they would draw her into worship? Can you imagine how long she would be a prostitute? (And even if she was, that’s God’s business and not yours.) Do you have enough conviction in your knowledge of God and in the words that you speak to believe that you could speak life into her? Because if you can’t, she doesn’t need your church. If she only hears how she needs to change her life and clean herself up, it is useless. She can’t. She doesn’t need to hear that. If you will love her and minister life to her and not the letter of the law, she will begin to grow and change.
Let’s go to Romans 5:12-21. "Therefore just as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men because all sinned. For before the Law was given, sin was in the world, but sin is not taken into account where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by the breaking of a commandment. (These verses are so plain!) As did Adam who was a pattern of the one to come. But the gift is not like the trespass, for if the many died by the trespass of one man (and we know "the many" was the whole world) how much more does God’s grace, and the gift that came by grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflow to the many (Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin.) for judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. (That doesn’t compute in our minds!) For if by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. (The next is a key verse:) Consequently just as the result of the one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of the act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men."
How can we separate those two? How can we say "in Adam they all die, but in Christ they are not all going to be made alive"? We would rather read it that "condemnation was for all men, so the result of the one act of righteousness was justification to those who receive Jesus and begin to walk in obedience to His commands." It doesn’t say that. And I know that sounds right. What am I saying? Do I have the liberty to live any way I want to live? Are you telling me that I can do anything that I want to do, and that eventually I’m still going to be OK? If your attitude is, "If what you are telling me is true, then I am going to go live it up," then my answer to you is this: you do not know God, and you desperately need to be saved. But I will tell you this, you do not have a free will. Adam took care of that for you, and he bound up the human race into the will of the flesh. You do not have a free will. We can obtain freedom in our will only by learning how to contact and fellowship with God in our spirit. By spending time in God’s presence, and learning to live there, His Spirit will flow into our natural will and transform it into His will.
The Pentecostals love to say, "We are filled with the Holy Ghost." Well, let me tell you something: If you are really filled with the Holy Ghost, you will be a holy person. But you cannot be that way by trying to be that way. Trying to do the right thing doesn’t work. If you are full of the Holy Spirit, you will be controlled, moved and motivated by that Holy Spirit. But you can’t work for it. You can’t "live right" for it. You can’t try to choose the good over the evil for it, because that puts you into the works of the flesh. Trying with your Adam nature to choose the good over the evil puts you in that category of being alienated in your mind from that life that is in your spirit. You can’t make it that way.
"As the result of the one trespass was condemnation for all men, so the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life to all men." So, can you live any way you want to? Yes. But here is the problem. You’re going to go through hell one way or another. God had a plan in the very beginning for every human being that was ever born, and that is why I have shared so often that the Word says we have been chosen in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. That is God’s design; that is His plan, and that is His purpose, and your little will cannot stop God’s purpose for your life. Absolutely impossible! I have done everything in my life but curse God. I have told Him, "Leave me alone! I can’t do it any more. I can’t make it any more." God would just say, "Too bad, it’s too late for you. You consecrated yourself to me and there is no turning back."
You see, the teaching of religion has gotten confused between the "will" and the "choice." Your will is bound up in Adam, and you are not a free moral agent. You are bound up to that will of the flesh. But you can choose to do what is right. Now again, this sounds like the man in Romans 7, which it is. He chooses to do that which is right, but he finds in his members another law, warring and bringing him into the bondage of the flesh. We will go through that struggle. That is what happens when you choose to live by the knowledge of good and evil.
Another way to look at this is through the law of sowing and reaping. God’s magnitude at Calvary took away the sin of the world, so you have no problems with God, but if you sow to the flesh, you will of the flesh reap corruption. If you are in the flesh, and you have been reaping the flesh, the answer for you is not to try to change and to choose the good over the evil; the answer for you is learn how to feed upon spiritual food. Again as Jesus said, "If you will learn to eat of Me, you will live by Me." He was even so bold as to make a further statement that very few have been able to understand. He said, "If you will eat the food that I give you, you will never die," and He wasn’t talking about spiritual death. He said, "Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and they died," and He obviously was talking about physical death. But he said, "If you will eat the Bread of Life, you will never die." You may say, "I haven’t seen any examples of that." I’ll tell you, there are men and women all over this earth—and you probably never met any of them—who have learned to eat the Bread of Life and have never died.
I am not talking about some "ascended master" or some of the New Age teachings; I am saying that God has people on the earth who have learned how, and are learning how, to eat the Bread of Life. They shall never die! They are about to be loosed to all of creation, and they are about to begin to bring reconciliation and restoration to all of God’s creation. And the sad, sad, thing is that all of Christianity is going to be in an uproar over a group of people manifesting the loveliness of God and the attributes of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Do you know what the Church is looking for? The Church is looking for the restoration of the Apostolic Church, saying, "You better be careful, saints, because the days of Ananias and Saphira are coming back to the Church." How many times have you heard that just recently? If you are motivated to serve God out of fear, you will find yourself in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I have questioned God so much, and I wish God’s people would learn to do this. (Don’t be afraid to question God. Don’t be afraid to question the Word. We are taught in Christianity, "Oh, don’t question! Just take what the man of God says. Don’t question God." Please, I beg of you, you need to challenge God! He loves to reveal to you His secrets.) But all of us need our concept of God drastically changed. Our country, America, has not rejected God; they have rejected a Christianity which has given them such a low concept of Who God is. That is what they are rejecting. I rejected that God twenty years ago. I have not had the "Christian" concept of God in twenty years. I am a Christian, but that concept will kill you. How could you be a reconciler if you feel that people have to choose the good over the evil? How can you help someone who is constantly choosing evil? You can’t help them unless you understand the heart of God, and can be a reconciler.
God’s reconcilers are all over the earth. He is soon going to loose them, and they will go into churches, they will go into bushes, they will go everywhere, bringing reconciliation and revealing to God’s people the heart of God. That day will come and hopefully soon! But whether it is this Fall or next year, I do know it is coming very quickly. It has to be happening soon, because there is so much revelation, and there is so much coming to the Church that is revealing much of God’s heart.
All that has been written above can be summarized very simply: God truly does love humanity, and He does not expect you to choose the good over the evil, because He knows that you cannot. What you need is to discover the treasure of His life that is within, and to learn to live by that life. "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us" (2 Cor. 4:6-7).