Life in Christ Jesus Podcast

Beware that you be not spoiled of man

Beware that you be not spoiled of man
Colossians 2:6-10 “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: 7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. 8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. 9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:” 
 
This teaching is from one of our Tuesday night meetings.  Here we are looking at Colossians 2.  The Apostle Paul is declaring to the Colossians that all fullness is in Christ.  As you have received Him, walk in Him.  Rooted, built, abounding in Christ Jesus.  In Him is the fullness of the Godhead bodily.  In Him is your completion.  This is such a beautiful set of scripture.  In Him is the fullness and in His fullness we are complete. 
 
I believe the vision of the Son of Man in the Book of Revelation Chapter 1 is a picture of the fullness of Christ Jesus in the Church.  Here is where we are to abound.  Here is where we are to grow, in the knowledge of Christ. In Him we have come to God’s fullness.  In Him we have come to our perfection and completion.  Let us abound in Him.
 
In the midst of Paul’s presentation to the Colossians of the believer being in Christ’s fullness he puts out a warning.  “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”  Here I am concerned is where many believer’s walk, after the traditions of man and not after Christ.  I believe this is evident even in much of our speech, as we typically declare to one another I am a Pentecostal, or a Baptist, or a Kingdom preacher.  We have, without meaning to, divided the Body of Christ.  Paul told the Corinthians they were carnal and walked as men because of this very thing. (I Corinthians 3:3)
 
In Galatians 1, the Apostle Paul writes and tells the believers he is astonished with them.  His astonishment is that they have moved away from Christ to finding perfection and completion in the law.  This I am afraid is one of the strongest bonds that is upon Christians today.  They come and receive Christ who frees us from the law, and then are immediately preached back up under its bonds. 
 
Anything but Christ spoils us.  The word spoil in Colossians 2 is defined as to carry off as booty or prey.  I can see in my mind a pirate coming in and gaining booty from his conquest.  We become the spoil anytime we are moved from the truth that is in Christ.  We need to be vigilant in the Word of the Lord to understand the truth that He, Jesus Christ, is.  Our hearts must always be turned to abound in Him.  Set our minds to His Revelation.  Set our thoughts to His course.  Let Him be Master, Savior and King.  Glory to God!
 

The Revelation Series - Two-Edged Sword

Two-Edged Sword 
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. 
 
Most Christians would believe that the description of the sword coming out of the mouth of the Lord is the word of God. As recorded in Matthew 4, Jesus said “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” We live through God’s word, which is in us. As we have made note of many times in our fellowship, Christ is in us. His indwelling presence is to be the reality in the hearts of the believer. We must hear the Word of the Living Christ of God, who dwells within us and be transformed by His power.
 
Speaking in regards to hearing His Word as recorded in John 14:10 Jesus said, "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.” Examining His words closely should cause us to consider common Christian belief. Many believe Jesus was down on the earth while the Father was far away in heaven. Jesus words bring a stark contrast to that belief. He said the Father in me does His works. He said to His disciples that they were to believe that He was in the Father as He was speaking to them and that His Father was working out of Him. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.”
 
Now seeing that God was in Christ as Jesus said in verse 10. Let’s look at verse 3. Here Jesus says, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” In verse 10 Jesus tells us where He is. He is in the Father.  This is the place we must see that Jesus is declaring. Many have believed that Jesus was talking of some place far away that He must take us away too. I want to be clear He takes us away, but in an entirely different fashion. He does it through the cross.
 
Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you. He was speaking of a place in the Father’s house. His preparation for us was made at the cross. At the cross Jesus made a way for us in the Father’s House. He took the old man in His flesh and put him away, and brought us forth in a new creation to dwell IN the very presence of God. In John 14:20 Jesus said, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” Jesus is speaking of the day the Holy Spirit comes.  When the Spirit comes, we are to know that Jesus is IN the Father and we are IN Him and He is in us. This is the place He was coming to receive us unto, IN Christ!
 
“Now we are no more strangers, but we are of the household of God,” Paul writes in Ephesians 2. Paul goes on to say that we are here in God’s household and are built on the foundation of Jesus Christ. This foundation is Christ in us. Here we are built for a habitation of God by His Spirit. This is where Jesus brought us to. This is the way He made, and this is what His WORD declares. Glory to God!
 
 
 

The Revelation Series - Hair White as Wool II

Hair White as Wool II 
In our continual pursuit of Christ Jesus our Lord, we are looking at His Hair White as Wool, as John describes in Revelation 1.  Proverbs 20:29 “The glory of young men is their strength; and the splendor of elders is their gray hair.”  The grey or white hair is said to be the splendor of the elder man.  This word splendor speaks of beauty and majesty.  Throughout scripture, God’s majesty and splendor is declared.  Here in Revelation 1 we see Christ Jesus in the majesty of God, or we see the majesty of God through Christ Jesus our Lord.
In Him dwells all fullness.  When we turn to see Him, we are turning toward the fullness of God.  Paul writes that it pleased the Father that in Christ would all fullness dwell, or all His divine essence, Colossians 1:19.  In Colossians 2:9 Paul writes that the fullness of the Godhead bodily dwells in Christ.   In Christ we find all the glory, splendor and majesty of God that has been declared throughout scripture.  Here in Christ this glory and majesty we read about becomes real to us.  We are in Christ. 
In the Old Covenant God’s glory, honor and majesty was on display outwardly.  He showed His deliverance and power as the Egyptians (horse and riders) were cast into the sea.  He showed His brilliance as Mount Sinai burned with fire and smoke.  His Glory filled the Tabernacle and Temple in a Cloud and a Fire.  The Israelites could physically see what God did, but could not touch it, or know it.  They could not partake of His essence, His substance.  They could just look at it outwardly and try to live in accordance to His law.    
We have come to a new Mountain (Hebrews 12) that can be touched.  We have come to the heavenly Jerusalem, Mount Zion.  We have come to a place where his work can be touched.  Not only is the Old Man crucified, horse and rider cast into the sea, but the old man can be put out of our hearts as we know Christ.  Our consciousness is in a process of change as Christ is revealed.  This mountain can be touched in our inner most being.  We can be filled to the fullness of Him.
Consider that our conscience or sense of being can come to the awareness of Christ as our life.  We can come to this.  We can comprehend this.  People say to me, but we can’t because we are in the flesh, and the answer is yes, we can.  It is not through our ability to come to the awareness of Christ.  It is through Him that lives within us.  It is not by our might, nor by our power, but by His Spirit.  It is through the Spirit of God revealing the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in me, in my heart.  May we see the splendor and fullness of our Life, who is Christ Jesus our Lord!

The Revelation Series - Hair White as Wool

Hair White as Wool
In Revelation Chapter 1, in the vision of the Son of Man in the Candlesticks, the scripture says His hair was white as wool and His eyes as a flame of fire.  Why is His hair white like wool, as white as snow?  Does this mean that Jesus simply aged and he had grey hair?  No, not at all.  We could say he is full aged, which would be a good start.  His hair being white as wool is speaking of one full of wisdom, knowledge and understanding. 
 
We approach Him who is of full age.   The scripture actually says that all treasures of wisdom and knowledges are hid in Christ, Colossians 2:3.  Do we spend our time searching for the hidden wisdom of God?  Do we spend our time searching for the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God?  Are we setting our hearts toward that idea?  I made a comment in last week’s sharing and repeated it in this one that I wish I had understood the purposes of God in Christ after I was first saved.  I wish this was what I had been taught and set my heart toward immediately after receiving the Lord.
 
Consider in your heart Ephesians Chapter 1.  Look at verses 9 and 10. Ephesians 1:9 “Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:”  How much time have we given to the mystery of His will?   Have we even considered that God had a will and purpose?  Much of our time in even coming before God it is to receive something for ourselves, correct? 
 
For a moment let’s change that order.  Let us approach our Father and say to Him what is the mystery of your will?  Show me Father how you have gathered all things together in ONE even in Christ.  All things in heaven and on earth in Him, “thy Kingdom come they will be done.”  Gather my heart and mind up in the work of Christ.  Let Him be my want and desire.  That I might know Him.  Let me set my affection toward Him that is above.  Let me obtain that which Christ obtained for me.
 
For a moment consider that the word fullness actually could be interpreted completion according to the Strong’s Dictionary.  Paul could be saying in the completion of time, God gathered up all things in Christ.  What did he gather?  He gathered the Temple.  He gathered the City.  He gathered the people of God.  He gathered the Priesthood, circumcision, the forgiveness of sins.  All things were gathered into Christ and completed.  He is the completion of all things.  I cannot know the true Temple of God unless I know the one that is built on the true foundation who is Christ.  I can’t know the true Priesthood of God unless I know the one that is after the order of Melchizedek and speaks of an endless life.  All of the things in the Old Covenant come to their completion in the person of Jesus Christ. 
 
You and I find our very own completion in Him.  I could spend all my days looking for purpose and it would flee from me until I come to the reality that the writer of Hebrews said, but we see Jesus.  Here we find our purpose.  Here in Him we find our completion.  Here we find our belonging.  Glory to God.
 

The Revelation Series - Eyes as a Flame of Fire III

The Revelation Series - His Hair White as Wool and Eyes as a Flame of Fire II
Revelation 1:14 “And his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;”
Over the last three weeks we have been looking at the description of the Son of Man as His Eyes as a Flame of Fire.  We have seen in scripture that it is declared there were seven lamps of fire before His Throne, and these seven lamps of fire were are the seven Spirits of God.  We saw that the seven Spirits of God were sent out into all the earth.  We also see in Scripture and know in reality that there is only ONE SPIRIT of God, but in the Book of Revelation the One Spirit is described as seven or seven-fold.  We have looked at the number seven and its relationship to Christ as our Sabbath Day.  The seven-fold Spirit here speaks of completion and fullness and rest that are found in the Lord Jesus Christ.
On the Day of Pentecost, as written in Acts 2 the Holy Ghost sat upon the disciples with cloven tongues of fire.  This fire began to transform those believers and consume all that was in them to refine them in the knowledge of Christ.  This is the work of the Holy Ghost to refine us in Word and Deed into the Image of Jesus Christ.  John 15 and 16 declares that the Holy Spirit will show you the things of Christ, “He shall take of mine and show it to you,” John 16:14.  As the Holy Spirit shows you that of Christ you come to a seeing of Him.  In this process of seeing you are refined in your heart to Image of Christ.  Hallelujah!
In Ezekiel Chapter 1, the prophet of God sees a Cloud with Fire.  In this Cloud are living creatures and above their heads is ONE on a throne.  This one Ezekiel sees has fire from His waist downward and fire from His waist upward, our God is a consuming fire.  When Ezekiel sees Him, he falls on his face as dead before him like John’s experience in Revelation Chapter one.  The Prophet Isaiah says in Isaiah Chapter 6 I saw the Lord High and lifted up.  When he saw Him, he said I am a man undone with unclean lips.  The answer to Isaiah was fire from the altar to purify His Speech.
The answer to our hearts and to our speech is the Revealing of the Living Christ within us.  As we see Him by the Spirit of God we are transformed inside and out.  Our speech will begin to align with what we see in our hearts, “of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,” Matthew 12:34.   As he is revealed within our hearts, He becomes our abundance.  We begin to speak of Him, or out of the understanding of Him.  Let us see, as the Holy Spirit takes of Him and shows Him to us and declare Him that we see to one another!  Praise God!

The Revelation Series - Eyes as a Flame of Fire II

The Revelation Series - Eyes as a Flame of Fire II
Revelation 1:14 “And his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;”
In Revelation Chapter 5 John sees the Lamb of God having seven horns and seven eyes.  These seven horns and seven eyes are the seven Spirits of God.  In Chapter 1 and Chapter 4 the seven Spirits of God are called seven lamps of fire.   The scripture says the seven Spirits are sent forth into all the earth.  Now we that search the Word know there is only one Spirit (Ephesians 4:4).  So, the number seven is speaking of completion.  God completed creation and rested on the seventh day.  In Jesus Christ our Lord, God has finished a work that we dwell in.
We could say the Spirit of God is sent forth in the earth in the finished work of God in Christ.  In Acts 2, the scripture says Jesus has shed forth the Holy Spirit in the earth.   Malachi said the Lord shall come to His Temple and sit as a refiner’s fire.  Paul says we are God’s Temple, we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit.  So, God sits in His Temple to refine us.  However, His refining is not making the best us we can be in and of ourselves.  He is refining us in he Image of the ONE that is in us.  We must come to see this.
God is not looking for the best Wayne or Bob or Andrew he can see.  He is looking for Christ.  The refiner is looking for His own image in the gold He is refining.  Our salvation is much greater than us coming to the place to not sin anymore.  Our salvation is Christ in us.  We are to be conformed to His Image.            II Corinthians Chapter 3 says we behold in a glass the Glory of the Lord to be changed into the same Image.  The Image is the Glory of the Lord.  The Image is Christ.  We are to look in the mirror of God who is Christ to be changed. 
Notice in Acts 2 when the Holy Ghost was given, the Spirit was described as sitting upon the disciples as cloven tongues of fire.  The refiners fire came right upon their mouth, and they spoke with tongues as the Spirt gave them utterance.  This heavenly language they received began to refine them.  Even what they spoke was refined.  That is what happens when the refiner begins to reveal the image.  Our utterance begins to declare by this refining process.  We do not speak by enticing words of men’s wisdom or knowledge.  We begin to speak by the Revealing of Jesus Christ in us.  We begin to utter His words.
This is so necessary in the Body of Christ today, that ministry would speak out of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and not out of themselves.  May He refine us to the very thought, person, and substance of Christ.  May His glorious understanding come forth in our voice.  May His nature come forth in our actions.  May Christ be revealed in our hearts that He be manifested through His body in the earth!

The Revelation Series - Eyes as a Flame of Fire

The Revelation Series - His Hair White as Wool and Eyes as a Flame of Fire
Revelation 1:14 “And his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;”
His eyes were as a flame of fire.  If you explore the Greek words for flame and fire they mean just what they say.  So how could his eyes be as fire and how can I understand that?  We that are His should ask these questions?  How do we understand John’s description of the Son of Man?  There are many teachers who get into the Book of Revelation and seem to gloss over the fact that John says in the opening Chapter that he saw one like the Son of Man IN the churches.  And He doesn’t just say he saw JESUS in the churches, John gives a description of How he saw HIM.
The Lord has drawn my mind to this description.  Christ was appearing in the church in a very specific way.  I believe His appearing here is our completion.  “We are complete in Him.”  Remember, the seven churches were seen as pure gold.  Gold in the Bible is speaking of the divine nature and substance of the Lord.  How the church comes to the divine nature is through the ONE who is seen in Him, who is the refiner’s fire.  I believe this description is speaking of His fullness.  Paul writes in His epistles that we are filled with the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:19). In Ephesians 1, Paul writes “the church which is His Body, the fullness of HIM, who fills all in all.”  We could consider this as saying Christ fills all members of the church with all the fullness and substance of Himself, “all in all.”
His eyes were flames of fire.  Where do we find these eyes as flames of fire in the scripture?  In Revelation 1:4 we are introduced to seven Spirits of God before the throne.  In Chapter 4:5 John sees these seven Spirits of God before the throne when he is caught up into the open door in heaven through the Voice as the Sound of a Trumpet.    Here before the throne are “seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.”   We connect the seven Spirits of God to the seven Lamps of Fire.  We should understand that seven speaks throughout the scripture of the Day of Rest and Completion.  Our completion is in Christ.
The seven Spirits and seven Eyes are gathered up into the Lamb of God.  In Chapter 5, John sees a Book in the hand of the One on the throne that no man could open.  But behold the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.  John sees Him standing as a Lamb having seven horns and seven eyes, which I believe represents the fullness of God, all power (seven horns) and all knowing (seven eyes).  Here we find these seven eyes in the Lamb who was able to Open the Book and release the seals thereof, which I believe represents the judgement of the cross which came upon natural Israel unto perdition and to the church as the grace of the New Covenant of God that we now stand within.  Every believer through the ages stands within the work Christ has done, and the Covenant He has set forth within the earth.
Revelation 5:6 “And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.” 
His eyes of fire are transforming and purifying fire.  Malachi writes the LORD shall come to His Temple and sit as a refiner’s fire and purify the sons of Levi.  Malachi is speaking of the purifying of silver and gold.  Silver and gold are purified in the fire to remove unwanted substances.  John the Baptist writes we shall be Baptized with the Holy Ghost and Fire.  Jesus is seen standing in the Seven Churches which are pure gold.  He is the refiner’s fire in the midst of the Church, which is His temple.  We are to see through His Sight and in the vision of Him we are refined, purified.  Our knowing moves from the earthy knowing of the Adamic man to the heavenly knowing of Christ.  We see through the work Christ has done and are purified through His work. 
As Paul writes to the Romans we are Baptized into His death.   Jesus told James and John that He had a Baptism to be baptized with, and that they would participate in it.  This is exactly what happens by the Spirit.  We partake of the death of Christ.  In this participation with Him by the Spirit we come to KNOW EXPERIANTIALLY in our heart that we are dead to the elements of the world, just as Paul writes in his epistles.  We are dead to sin.  We are dead to the law.  We are crucified to the world.  Why do we experience such a great death, that we may be filled with the Life and Substance of another, even Jesus Christ our Lord!
 

Dr. Lynn Hiles - Revelation 3 - Buy of Me Gold Tried in the Fire

Revelation 3
Because you think you are rich and increased with goods, but you need to Buy of ME
Dr. Lynn Hiles
In Revelation Chapter 3 the Lord Jesus rebukes the church of Laodicea to buy of Him gold tried in the fire, and white raiment and be clothed that you would not dwell in shame.  Dr. Hiles deals with a people moving from their own self righteousness to the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.  Many dear believers’ dwell in their own righteousness.  They try to dwell in their own self works for righteousness.  Even the message they set under brings them into view of a performance-based religion.
The problem of most performance-based teachings are they point to the wrong performance.  They point to our performance.  If we were looking at the performance of Christ, or His Work, we would be teaching the RIGHT works. Jesus counsels the Laodiceans to buy of Him gold tried in the fire that they may be rich.    His work is the gold tried in the fire, and we are filled with riches of God in Christ Jesus. 
He counsels them to buy white raiment that they may be clothed.  In Revelation Chapter 7:14 and 22:14 the Bible declares that they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  This is how we are made pure and complete.  We are made righteous through His work, being washed in His Blood.  There is no other righteousness we can have but His.  He is our righteousness.  We need to see His Work, and rest in what He has completed, putting on what He is done.  Paul writes to the Galatians that we are clothed upon with Christ.  Through our works we can never become righteous and feel Holy.
Jesus counsels them to anoint their eyes with eye salve that they can see.  Without the Spirit of God we cannot see the reality of Christ and our salvation.  Many believers go to the Bible, and do not SEE clearly what Jesus did at Calvary.  They do not SEE the transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant.  They do not see the removal of the Old Temple and the Bringing Forth of New Temple.  They do not see the New Creation created of God in Christ Jesus.  Instead they go to the Word of God and look for these to come. 
At Calvary Jesus removed the Old and through His resurrection He brought for the New.  In Christ we dwell in a new heaven and a new earth. We are subject not to rules on rocks, but we are subject to the very Christ of God and His work.  May we all see and believe what Jesus has done.  I hope you enjoy this sharing by Brother Hiles.  It is a tremendous word being released into the Body of Christ.
Revelation 3:14-19  "And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; 15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. 17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent."