13.2 Living in the Lamb
© 2015 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Begin this lesson by completing the reading of Hind’s Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard.
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death (Revelation 12:11).
How do we overcome? We know that God despises all human achievement for the sake of pretending righteousness. If overcoming is not human achievement, how do we overcome?
Much Afraid gives us the answer we need.
Much Afraid
Much Afraid was mostly very much afraid, but on occasion she was hit by craven and abject fear. She was crippled, clumsy, and often foolish. Much Afraid thought the Shepherd had planted His love into her, but it looked like a thorn and all it gave her was pain. She walked long with Sorrow and with Suffering. Much Afraid stumbled and bruised and bloodied herself at most every point along the way. She failed in faith, in trust, in perseverance. In the end, Much Afraid could not do what the Shepherd asked of her; she could not do it.
So What Was It?
What was the thing that turned Much Afraid into Grace and Glory? How on earth did she “make it” to the high places?
Every bruise, every cut, every tear, every stumbling, every failure, every drawing back, every hesitant step along the way she gave to the Shepherd regardless of her unending inability. The symbol of every gift of hopeless failure and gross inability that Much Afraid gave to the Shepherd was the little pebble she picked up along the way. Remember the pearls? Every offense, every failure, she tucked away. “This belongs only to my Shepherd; I will keep it for Him.”
Her Failure
She did not know that her failures belonged only to the Shepherd, but He did. She did not know that He carried her through every step, but He did. And there upon that high altar, all alone (as she thought), she gave it all back to Him, including the seed of love she had hoped might become something real in her. She had failed, just as the Lamb before her had failed.
Much Afraid could not carry her cross. How then did she become Grace and Glory? How did Much Afraid overcome?
My Yoke
Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. (Matthew 11:29-30).
A yoke is a wooden bar about five feet long carved to fit the shape of a man’s shoulders. Two heavy buckets hanging from each end of the yoke are actually easy to carry, much easier than one bucket without a yoke.Jesus said, “Take My yoke upon you.”
Carried Between Two
Placing one’s hands out upon the bars of the yoke actually makes it easier to carry the load.
Now let’s invert that picture, turn it right around. Much Afraid extends her hands out, every step of the way, hesitantly, yes, even though she doesn’t want to, to take hold of Sorrow in one hand and Suffering in the other. Every step of the way Much Afraid honors her companions, even coming to love them by the end.
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. This is not three things, but one thing carried between two.
We Speak Christ
Picture Much Afraid, one hand reaching out to Sorrow and the other hand reaching out to Suffering.
You and I are in her place with the word of Christ our only life in our mouth. We speak Christ, yet we always stumble and fall. In our pain, in our failure, in our desire to know Jesus alone, we reach out one hand and take hold of the Blood of the Lamb always washing over us. And we reach out with the other hand and take hold of the One death of Christ, one sacrifice for sins forever, having been perfected already inside of us. And in our weakness, in our tears, holding to the Lamb in one hand and the Lamb in the other, we speak Christ our only life.
The Blood
It is from this viewpoint that we approach the fourth most important verse in the Bible, the verse containing all the authority of Christ released now through us.
The Blood cleanses us from ALL unrighteousness. This transaction is not static; that is, we do not take a sin, go to the blood, get the sin washed away, then take another sin and do the same thing over and over. Jesus is all here now. The Blood is all here now.
The Blood constantly flows over us. We walk with no consciousness of sins. We walk without sin. We walk in Christ; we walk IN sinless perfection. Blood!
To the Death
They did not love their lives to the death.
Everyone wants to claim this refers to our own “death.” How can that be? How can our physical death, separate from the death of the Lord Jesus, mean anything? How can some human jig get God’s attention?
The word “lives” is psuche, the human soul, the human story. Jesus said that if we love our own story, we will lose it, but if we trade our story for His, we will find ourselves for real. And that is what this verse, the how of overcome, is all about.
But first, the death verses are absolute and unmistakable. We must know them.
One Death
We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all … But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God … For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10:10-14).
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him (Romans 6:8-9).
For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died (2 Corinthians 5:14).
One sacrifice for sins forever. – There is no other death.
The Word of Their Testimony
By the Blood always flowing over us cleansing us every moment, causing us to be the very holiness of God, by the one death of Christ by which we trade our false and useless story of self for the wondrous story of Christ, we speak Christ our only life. The word of their testimony.
The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10). – God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did (Romans 4:17).
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20).
Our Love for Jesus
What is important in this lesson is not the depths of meaning found in the words, but in the entrance of WORD into us as absolute, an entrance that we know by the power of story.
By one offering I, Daniel Yordy, am perfected forever. (Put your own name in the blank.)
You see, Much Afraid belonged utterly to the Shepherd from the very moment He planted the seed of Love in her heart. The problem was that she did not know that, nor could she. The only way Much Afraid could possibly know the reality of Love that was already her only life was as the story portrays, by one stumbling step after the other.
Speaking Christ is not some exercise of “power,” but simply our utter love of Jesus, that we want Him to be our only self.
Shall Not Return Void
Then we come to the final chapter of Hind’s Feet on High Places and discover something true unveiled there, something wondrous beyond the scope of human imagination.
For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:10-11).
The Word must accomplish the Father’s purpose, to seek and to save all that is lost, before it can return to Him fulfilled.
Brought You Here?
All the way along, it seems to Much Afraid that it is Sorrow and Suffering who lift her up, who dust her off, who carry her, step by stumbling step, all the way to the High Places. Remember what they said to her after they became Peace and Joy?
“Since you brought us here with you, we are turned into Joy and Peace.”
“Brought you here!” gasped Grace and Glory. “What an extraordinary way to express it! Why, from the first to last you dragged me here.”
Again they shook their heads and smiled as they answered: “No, we could never have come here alone, Grace and Glory. Suffering and Sorrow may not enter the Kingdom of Love, but each time you accepted us and put your hands in ours we began to change. Had you turned back or rejected us, we never could have come here.”
Remember what Isaiah said, that in a very real sense, Jesus cannot return to the Father, having completed all He was sent to do, except He find faith. As incredible as it sounds, in the end, it will be the Lord Jesus who says to us, “Thank you, My dear ones, you carried Me home. I could never have returned to My Father except you put your hands in Mine.”
Our Outstretched Hands
Let's look at Suffering and Sorrow, one on each side of us. On the one hand, lifting us up and carrying us every step of the way is “the blood of the Lamb.” The Lamb always carries us, and when we stumble and fall, weak and hurting, all we can see is Blood. We never consider our mistakes ever again. On the other hand, lifting us up and carrying us every step of the way is “not loving their lives to the death.” The Cross always carries us; we have no self but Jesus. Christ Jesus is our only self. We are He living as us in this world.
And thus we are utterly content in ourselves, in what we find ourselves to be, our true selves.
Our Task
In between these two absolutes, then, is the task given by our Father to us. The word of their testimony. – The word is in your mouth. Speak Christ; call those things that appear to be not as though they are the only things real.
But we never speak Christ “in order to.” We always speak Christ “because of.” This is our task; this is our glory. And in the end, the Lord Jesus will say to us, “Thank you for bringing Me Home. I never could have set creation free if you had not put your hands in Mine.”
The Place of Speaking
The prophetic word of Christ comes out ONLY from a very particular place. It is a place of intimacy and tears, of giving thanks for sorrow and for Joy, for suffering and for Peace. It is a place of having abandoned all concern over sin and all concern over the sinner, the first utterly into the Lamb's Blood, the second utterly into the Lamb-Slain. And there, carried by the Lamb in all ways, we speak Christ our only life.
Speaking Christ is not saying things about Jesus; it is speaking Christ, the victorious Conqueror, revealed personally in all ways as me. And in the end, the Lamb will conquer the serpent/beast BECAUSE those who are with Him are called and chosen and filled with faith.
You Carried Me Home
Yes, I am saying that the day will come when the Lord Jesus will say to us before all the universe, “Thank you so much, it was your faith that carried Me home. Every time you spoke Me, all that I am, as your only life in the midst of all your weakness, in the face of all opposition, casting all of yourself utterly into Me, it was you who enabled Me to accomplish what the Father sent Me to do, to set all creation free. I could never have done it without you.”
And we will stand there in wonder remembering the wounds, the stumbling, and the foolishness, as Lords and Kings and the great ones of the earth and of all the realms of heaven bow upon their knees in wonder and adoration before the One who fills our hearts.
The Jewels
But what about those little pebbles, all the emblems of every mistake Much Afraid made along the way? Look at them now, they are the jewels of her glory crowning her forever.
Pearls are the only entrance into God’s city. We give thanks for all things, for every difficulty along the way. All that we are, including and especially our gross inability belongs only to Jesus.
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. “My dearest one, it is so easy for Me to carry you.”