Life in Christ Jesus Podcast

A Lamb for a House II - Eat His Flesh and Drink His Blood

A Lamb for a House II
Many Christians want to know how to live right, or how to have a greater relationship with Jesus Christ.  If I could tell any Christians what they should do, I would tell them to go in, close the door and eat the Lamb.  This picture was painted in Israel.  On the first Passover Israel was commanded to slay a Lamb, put the blood of the Lamb on the door post and eat it all, save nothing until the morning.  They were to burn any remainder.  All the Lamb had to be consumed and Israel would come out of the door in the light of the New Day.
 
This picture should be a reality in Christ.  We enter the DOOR, who is Christ.  “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”  We come out of this DOOR in the Light of the New Day.  We come out in the reality of Christ.  This is the picture painted in Israel.  A people coming out of the Door, leaving their old things behind, and pressing toward the prize, which was Canaan land for them.  The prize we press toward is the fullness of God in Christ, our Canaan land.
 
Jesus says in John’s Gospel unless you eat His flesh and drink His Blood you have no life in you.  He later says that the words He is speaking, are Spirit and Life.  Much like the Israelites, we have to eat the fullness of the Lamb.  We go through the Door and inside the Door we eat the Lamb, until we see the Light of the New Day.  I believe this is said another way in the Book of Corinthians.
 
In Corinthians 11, Paul makes a statement referring back to the Last Passover Jesus ate with His Disciples.  Here Jesus told his disciples He was giving His Body and Blood for the New Covenant.  He told them the cup of Blessing they bless is New Covenant in His Blood.  Paul says we are to eat this bread and drink this cup and show the Lord’s death until He come. 
 
1Corinthians 11:23-26  “For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: 24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. 25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. 26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.” 
 
Does this mean we are to take communion, eat bread and drink wine or grape juice until the Lord literally comes?  I do not believe this is what is being said.  We eat His flesh and drink His Blood until He comes forth in us.  We actually do this over and over again in the views of Christ given by the Holy Spirit.  We eat the word until the Lord appears.  He appears where He is at.  He is in the Church who is His Body.
 
This is what Jesus meant in John 6:54 “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”  We eat His flesh and drink His blood and He raises us up.  We come from the reality of Adam, the old man, TO the reality of Christ.  This is the resurrection, being raised up into the Newness of Life.  Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the Life.”  We are made alive with Him, raised with Him and seated with Him, Paul writes to the Ephesians.  The LIGHT of the eternal Day of God is how we see this.  We see this Day the Lord has made through the Light, who is Christ.  We walk in the Light as He is in the Light.
 
Men and women have walked in the Light of this Day since the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  “This is the Day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.”  We walk in the Day of His Salvation.  The Day that He is the Light of.  Glory to God! 

A Lamb for a House - The First Passover

A Lamb for a House
In Exodus 12 we can read the story of the first Passover.  The Children of Israel were instructed to kill a Lamb, place its blood on the door post and enter the House to eat the Lamb.  This was a new beginning for Israel.  Israel was coming out of Egyptian bondage.  The bitter years of slavery and bondage were over.
 
That night death passed through Egypt taking the life of the firstborn.  Those in Goshen with the blood on their door post, who had eaten the Lamb were not touched by this plague.  Instead they had received the death of the Lamb, which represented the death of God’s firstborn Son, which would take place on Calvary many years ahead.  
 
Everything we read in scripture is a picture of Christ.  It is given for our admonition and participating in Him.  When I see this picture, I see THE DOOR.  Jesus said that He is THE DOOR that we enter and find life.  In our entrance is the fulfillment of the picture, we enter into His death.  The Apostle writes that we are baptized into His death.  In Romans Chapter 6, Paul sets forth the reality that we have been crucified with Christ. 
 
Our eating of the Lamb brings us face to face with His crucifixion.  We come face to face with our death with Him.  When He died all died with Him.  This is a glorious death.  The result of His death frees us from the bondages of Adam.  We are freed through participation in His death from the conscience of sins, the power of sin, and even death itself.  In Hebrews 2, it is written that Jesus destroyed Him that had the power of death that is the devil and delivered us who were subject to the bondage of the fear of death. 
 
This door painted with the Blood of the LAMB is glorious.  His death speaks volumes.  The children of Israel entered the Door to eat the lamb of their salvation, which served as the type and shadow of our reality.  We enter the DOOR to eat our LAMB that produces LIFE.  This was the picture in Israel.  In the evening they entered in to eat lamb, to come out in the newness of the new day.  In that new day they were no longer slaves to Egypt but a free men.  We in reality are no longer slaves to the Old Man, but through the DOOR of salvation, we enter into death to the Old man, and come forth in the Newness of His Life.
 
In Romans 6, Paul writes that we are raised together with Him in the likeness of His resurrection.  We not only go into His death, but we come forth in His Life.  He is the New Day to us.  We come forth into a Life we have never had before, His Life.  This is our salvation.  His death produces death in us to the old man, the bondages of sin and the death in the old man.  His Life produces a new way of living. Christ is in us.  God’s glory is set forth to be revealed. 
 
I see this picture in the Israelites going in to eat the Lamb, to come out of that House in the newness of life.  This is what Jesus meant, you shall go in and out and find pasture.  We enter into the DOOR, the old man is crucified, we come out of the DOOR in the newness of His life.  We do not come out of Him.  He is our place of origin.  We come forth in Him.  Glory to God. 

The Son of Man in the Candlesticks - Our Great High Priest

The Revelation Series – The Son of Man in the Seven Golden Candlesticks                                The High Priest Garments
 
For months now, I have been caught up in John’s seeing of Christ in the Seven Golden Candlesticks (Revelation 1:9-20).  Of His fullness and completion, we have received of His Grace.  Here, the picture of Him in the Candlesticks speaks of His fullness.  Walking, being revealed, and dwelling in the Church is the Son of Man in Glory.  I do not know how we can approach the Book of Revelation and miss this reality that John turned to see, “JESUS CHRIST IN HIS CHURCH.”
 
In His description of Christ, John writes that he was clothed with a garment down to His feet.  What I hear and see in this statement is the High Priest of our souls.  I see the garment of praise and salvation.  As our High Priest He has taken us with Himself into that within the veil, into the Presence of God to be presented whole, complete, righteous, and without lack.  Oh, that we may know Him as our Great High Priest, and no longer look to the Priesthood of Aaron, which spoke of Christ.  
 
There is no perfection there, only a continual remembrance of sins with every sacrifice and every offering made by that priesthood.  Yes, Aaron’s priesthood was of God.  It came to speak for the time that was present of what God would do in Christ.  It was sanctioned and ordained of the Most High Himself, but could never take away the sin and guilt of the conscience in man.  It was imperfect but ordained to speak of the PERFECT ONE. 
 
Hebrews 8:1 “Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;”
 
This is the summation of the thought we have such a High Priest who has sat down in authority, the right hand of God.  What does it mean He has sat down?  Why not just say who is in Heaven?  Who is with the Father?  Because He has sat down in rest and has all power and authority.  What His Priesthood speaks is what is true of the believer that has come to God by Him.  The believer is not destined to live in a sin conscience life, but in a life empowered by the Holy Spirit.  This High Priest cleared our conscience of sins (Hebrews 9:14), to present you holy and complete, perfect, before God our Father (Hebrews 10:10, 14).
 
This is what we can live in NOW, completion in Christ.  No longer having to succumb to the fear of death.  No longer having to succumb to whether God accepts me or not.  We are made accepted in the beloved.  We live through Christ in His Life.  The work He did at Calvary is enough.  It is this work that we must know and understand in our hearts.  It is this Priesthood that frees us from the conscience of sin that we must turn to SEE.  Going back to the old priesthood, to be told over and over you are not good enough, you do not measure up, will never complete your soul.
 
Unfortunately, this is where many in the Body of Christ are held, in the conscience of sin.  Much of the teaching that we sit under is like we are still under the priesthood of Aaron, the Old Covenant, where man was incomplete.  However, when our heart turns to the LORD, we see a New and living way, a NEW PRIEST, who has perfected forever them that come to God by Him.  Who clothes those that He loves in His own robe of righteousness?  Who fills those that are His in His own glorious life.  This is the Sum.  This is the Priesthood of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Here is where we have come.  Glory to God.  “We have such a High Priest.”  Who accomplished, fulfilled, completed all things in the body of His flesh and has made us complete in the Body of His Resurrection. 
   

The Grace Series - Shall We Continue in Sin That Grace May Abound

The Grace Series - Shall We Sin That Grace May Abound
Let me begin by saying I am a preacher and teacher of Grace. It is s God’s Grace that saves us, and not our own works. However, many seem to believe that God was simply satisfied with us like we were, and Grace came to show us that. This idea is not true. God created man for His Own reflection and Identity in the earth. Man, in himself, became everything but that. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
Romans 6 starts with a question, and then the answer. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?”  Is Grace abounding through our sins? Is Grace abounding through us at all? The answer to this is bound up in the Lord Jesus Christ. John writes of Him that He came full of Grace and Truth. So, Grace came through Christ, and Christ was full of God’s Grace. With this being true, we can conclude that to know Grace is to know Christ in His fullness. He was and is FULL of Grace and Truth (John 1:14).
Romans 6, continues on from Paul’s question to God’s answer of whether continuing in Sin manifests the abundance of Grace. “God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” God forbid that the idea even be in us that our continuing in sin is producing the fruits of Grace. However, when we look at ourselves and our inabilities, we might say it is impossible to live a sin free life. Our own nature from our natural birth is contrary to everything we are learning of God. How then can we who are filled with such lack walk in His Glory?
The answer to these questions, and our inabilities lies within the cross, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Here is where the abundance Grace begins to be found. Do we not know, as Paul would say, that we that are Christs have died with Christ? He that dead is freed from sin. Sin’s penalties diminished when Jesus hung on the tree. Laid upon Him was the iniquities of us all. He died and we died with Him. That is God’s Grace in fullness.
God poured out Christ’s death as the death of us all, and we are baptized into this death by the Spirit of God. In this, we through Him, become dead to sin. We become dead to the elements of the world. This work of His Death MUST be realized in our hearts. It is where we find freedom from condemnation, from attitudes, from the world, and from sin. I am not saying you will never commit bad acts or sins again, but I am saying in His death the penalty of them was destroyed and they are not held against us. They were placed upon Him.
In the knowing of His death we come to a place of transition to be filled with His Life. In this same Grace that produces such death in me, comes abundance of NEW LIFE. This is not the old me made better. This is Christ living in me, and my eyes becoming WIDE OPEN to His Life within me. This is New. Like Joshua said to the children of Israel, you have never been this way before.
This is the new and living way by the Spirit of God. Therefore, we cannot say through our sins Grace abounds. Grace abounds through the knowing in our hearts of His death, burial, and resurrection. Grace abounds simply through us knowing Him, and Living in this understanding, which is Living in Christ. This is the abundance of God’s Grace and God’s provision to us, Christ living in our hearts, and we by and in Him. Glory to God in the Highest!

Grace - Grace Defined Introduction

Grace Defined 
What is the Grace of God and how do we define it?  Strong’s defines grace as "Graciousness (as gratifying), of manner or act (abstract or concrete; literal, figurative or spiritual; especially the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; including gratitude)".  Some may like this definition some may not.  I do as it deals with the divine influence on the heart and the reflection of that influence in the life.  I believe that is a good definition as far as a book definition.  However, let’s look at what the scripture says regarding grace and what it is.
 
Ephesians 2:4-9  “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.” 
 
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” Grace is the gift of God.  Where do we find God’s gift in the scripture.  There are actually two places that comes to mind as I write this.  John 3:16 and Galatians 3:14.  I am going to concentrate on John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  What I want us to see here is that God gave.  Here is the gift of God, packaged in the person of Jesus Christ.  He is where Grace is found and defined.  It is defined in Truth.  Any other grace outside of Christ is not grace at all but just rubbish.
 
There are many declaring that Jesus just came from heaven to show you how God thought of you.  In this statement there may be a truth, but to understand this truth it is only comprehend by Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  If I see myself without the cross, I am a man undone with unclean lips and in an unholy land.  I am as David declared, “conceived in sin and shaped in iniquity.”  Many are declaring a grace that approves the natural man.  This I believe is not grace at all but deception. 
 
God loved and He gave His Son.  In this statement the fullness of Grace may be seen.  In the giving of His Son, you have the death of the cross which is attributed to us.  You also have the resurrection of the dead, which also is attributed to us.  The death side releases us where we were held in bondage and sin in the old man.  The resurrection side brings us into New Life, the New Man who is Christ Jesus the Lord.  By Grace we are saved.  We are saved by His Life in us.  Christ in you is your salvation.  Now He is the divine influence that is upon the heart, literally.  Hallelujah!  This is Grace, Christ in you and you in Christ.
 

The Revelation Series - Two-Edged Sword V

Two-Edged Sword V
Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
 
For the last few months we have been looking at the Son of Man in the seven golden candlesticks, declared of John in the Book of Revelation.  Out of His mouth issues a sharp two-edges sword.  The Book of Hebrews declares the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of the soul and Spirit.  This is where we have been concerning ourselves.
 
In the Book of Colossians 2:11, Paul writes, “and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.  Does this actually mean our physical flesh body has been removed from us?  We know the answer to that, as we are all moving around in a flesh body in the earth.  So, what does Paul mean in the operation of circumcision here described?
 
To understand this, I suggest we look at the Book of Romans.  In Chapter 6, Paul writes do we not know that we have been baptized into the death of Jesus Christ?  He says we are buried with Christ in Baptism to walk in newness of life.  Paul writes, our old man has been crucified with Christ that we should not serve sin.  Here in the Book of Romans is the description of the removal of the body of flesh.  This is the work of the cross which you and as believers are partakers of.  This is the work of the Sword of the Spirit, removing the old man that the NEW MAN would come forth.  This is the work the Holy Spirit is revealing in our hearts. 
 
You and I all were born in sin and shaped in iniquity through the natural birth, as the Psalmist cries in Psalm 51.  Every man born of woman comes forth in this order.  Every seed brings forth of its own kind.  The seed of man brings forth after Adam.  Through one man’s disobedience sin and death came upon all men.  We all lived in this man and were the embodiment of Him.  As the embodiment of Adam, or the natural man, we did not know God.  We did not know life.  We were filled with the soul or natural life.  Our minds and hearts were filled with that which is of the flesh.  That was all we really knew.  The Apostle Paul wrote in I Corinthians 2, that the spirit of man knows the things of man.  He did not know God.  This is the soulish life, the things of man. 
 
The cross of Jesus Christ is our solution to know not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.  It is our solution to come to the knowledge of the Lord.  Through His cross we are circumcised.  The circumcision is the removal of the flesh, or embodiment of the man of sin that was upon our heart.  In the place of this man, the man of flesh and death, we are NOW being filled with the man of Spirit and Life.  This is the circumcision, the removal of the old man from our hearts and minds and being filled with the New Man who is Christ. 
 
In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul writes that the first man was made a living soul and is of the earth, earthy.  He is the embodiment of the earth and that pertains to that realm.  He writes the second man is the Lord from heaven and is a life-giving Spirit.  This life-giving Spirit is the destination of you and me.  We embodied the earth man in ourselves.  We are to embody the Heavenly Man, who is Christ.  This embodiment is right here right now as we know Him.  As we have known the man of the flesh, we manifested Him, because we embodied Him.  Now that man has been removed through the work of Jesus Christ that we may bear forth the fruit of another man. 
 
Our soul, mind, and inner man must come to the awareness of this New Man.  Christ must be revealed in our hearts that we bear Him.  We are made knew to be the embodiment of Jesus Christ.  “Now you are the Body of Christ and members in particular.”  These words that Paul wrote are not just to be ink on a page, but words written in our hearts, our core, to bear about in our bodies the reality of Jesus Christ who we contain within.  Glory to God in the Highest.  Our salvation has come, the crucifixion of the first and the life of the second! Glory to God!

The Revelation Series - Two-Edged Sword IV

Two-Edged Sword IV
Revelation 1:16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. 
Out of His mouth proceeds the sharp two-edged sword which is the Word of God.  In the Book of Hebrews, the writer says that the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword.  This has caught my attention.  Why is this placed in Hebrews 4:12?   It does not seem to go with the scriptures before it.  Rather it appears to be just put in here.  However, we should now that nothing that has come through the Spirit of God is perchance. 
Hebrews 4:11 Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the hear. 
In Chapters 3 and 4 leading up to this statement, “the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit,” the writer is dealing with the rest promised to Israel and today if we hear His voice we can enter into rest by hearing and receiving His Voice.   In the days of Israel’s’ disobedience, they refused to hear and receive what God had said, so they did not enter the rest God had promised them.  Instead they wondered 40 years in the wilderness.  That generation passed and Joshua rose up to lead the new generation into the promises of God. 
When I go back and read of this story, I find it in the first five books of Joshua.  This is the account of the Israelites crossing the Jordan and coming in the promise land.  There are several pictures to get a hold of in this story that are speaking of the reality we have in Christ.  I want to draw our minds to the fact that they did not just come up to the Jordan and cross over they crossed over a VERY SPECIFIC WAY.  They crossed in view of the Priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant of JEHOVAH (Joshua 2:3).   
Above this ark was the place where God met with the Israelites (Exodus 25:22).  This ark contained the Word of the Covenant, the Word of God, and was the place where God’s presence abided in the Tabernacle of Moses.  It was the place of atonement for the sins of Israel.  The place of God’s rest.  What picture does it declare other than the Lord Jesus Christ, himself?   He came filled with God’s word.  God’s presence abided upon Him. He was the atonement for our sins.  This is the view we must have to cross over from the wilderness into the rest of God.  We must view the Lord Jesus Christ, our ark of the Covenant of the LORD, and cross over into God’s glorious life. 
Now the second picture I want to bring to our minds is after they crossed the Jordan they came to Gilgal.  This is in Joshua Chapter 5.  Here they were circumcised. This circumcision in the flesh speaks of the sharp two-edged sword diving soul and spirit.  Why did God give a covenant of circumcision to Abraham?  This was circumcision of the flesh to the male child.  Circumcision was to the most intimate part of the natural man.  Why was that?  It was speaking of the heart.  The heart, core, mind, and center of man had to be circumcised.  This was fulfilled through the living two-edged sword, the WORD of GOD, Jesus Christ Himself.
Colossians 2:10-13 “10 and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; 11 and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.”
Here the body or covering of the flesh is removed, the flesh that is upon our hearts.  This is the first man.  The Adamic man is removed in the circumcision of Christ, and the New Man who is a life-giving Spirit comes forth (I Corinthians 15:35-49).  We come forth in Him, the life-giving Spirit, who is the Lord from heaven.  Our hearts are moved from the covering of flesh, the soul man, to being covered of Spirit, the heavenly man.  Paul writes that this heavenly man is the Lord from heaven.  Here is where our change comes, in the twinkle of an eye.  We are quickened, raised, and made alive in this New Man, who is Christ Jesus our Lord.  Glory to God in the Highest!

The Revelation Series - Two-Edged Sword III

Two-Edged Sword III
John 6:53-63 “It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life.”
Out of His mouth comes a sharp two-edged sword, John writes in Revelation 1:16.  This two-edged sword is the Word of God.  This two-edged sword is Spirit and Life.  When we say it is the Word of God, does it simply mean it is the written word?  Does it mean it is the words of the Law of Moses?  What do we actually mean?  Maybe all the above but fulfilled and brought to life in Jesus Christ our Lord.
What I mean by this is He makes the Word alive.  For example the prophet Joel writes, “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered:”  While this was written in Joel’s time it was not in force until after Jesus raised from the dead.  He made it alive.  What was in the Book become personalized in the Person of Jesus Christ, and through His resurrection from the dead is made alive in the Spirit.
Jesus made the comment many times that Whosoever believes in me shall be saved, not perish, shall have the Spirit coming from their inner being, etc.  Jesus said these things, and they are recorded in John’s Gospel.  Now through the Spirit they are made alive.  We can receive them, experience them, and even give them.  We can go to our neighbor next door and declare that Whosoever calls on the name of Jesus Christ shall be saved.  Our neighbor can receive this word, believer and take it into their heart, and it is so.  Why is that, because it is Spirit and Life.  The Word we declare from the truth of Christ, as He is made real in us, is filled with His Spirit and Life. 
I believe that is what John saw in Revelation Chapter 1; the Son of Man in the Church, with the two-edged sword coming out of His Mouth declaring the Word of God in the Church.  I believe this is the first order by the Spirit of God, the Word revealed in us by the Holy Spirit.  “Hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches.”  Then as He is revealed, He is declared through the Church.  “The Spirit and the Bride say come.” 
This is exciting!  We can hear and know the Word of God, Christ Jesus the Lord, through the Spirit.  Then we can declare Him.  We can declare Him from a position of knowing, of having seen and experienced this Living Word in our hearts.  This is ongoing in our walk in the Lord.  We hear and see Him in our hearts by the Spirit.  We handle the Word of God as John says in His Epistle and we make known this Word of Life that we are handling.  Glory to God.