30. The Trumpet and the Ark

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Again, the Spirit of God lingers on Revelation Chapter 11. How can we go forward if we do not receive from God all that He means in these lines? The time is upon us; we must know the Father.

I have something very definite to set before you in this lesson, but I have only a vague idea of how to get there. As usual, the only way to go forward is to set out the pieces and to circle around from one to the next. I want to begin with Jesus’ response in Matthew 7 that we looked at in the last lesson, “I never knew you; depart from Me.”

Two Questions. The meaning of “I do not know you” is simple and clear. It means, “You are not like Me,” or, “I do not recognize Myself in your approach.” And suddenly, being just like the Lord Jesus Christ is no longer a heretical idea or a distant impossibility, but essential to our entire place inside the presence of God. But everyone misses completely what that means.

God asked two simple questions of humans right from the start. The first, to Adam, was, “Where are you?” And the second, to Cain, was, “Where is your brother?” These two questions come to EVERY human being.

Jesus’ Answer. Those two questions clearly came to Jesus, for Isaiah heard Him answer God. “Where are You, Jesus?” – “Here am I, Father, here in all openness, inside of You.” “And where are Your brethren, Jesus?” – “Here they are, with Me, Father. I and the children whom You have given Me” (Hebrews 2). “Here am I” is the same as “Look at me, I belong to You.” It is placing one’s self entirely into God with NO self-defense.

Then, consider the words of those to whom Jesus said, “Depart from Me.” It is evident that Jesus had just asked these two questions of them as He does of all. “Lord, Lord, I, myself, I have done this and that.”

Evading the Light. Their answer was the typical self-focused and evasive answer humans give, one I have seen but do not understand. It’s not what they did or did not do; it’s what is not found inside their entire consciousness. First “I, myself,” is the only thing they wish to know. In this desperate and final moment, two things are missing. They do not know utter dependence on Jesus, and there is no thought of others inside their sphere.

Recognizing others and recognizing Jesus go together.

They hear rebuke, and they push back, pushing themselves in the final moment of Salvation! They don’t need a Savior because they are “not lost.” No light penetrates their darkness.

Our Answer. Let’s give our answer to God’s two questions right now. I will use my name to make it personal, but use your own name.

“Daniel, where are you?” – “Here I am, Father, right here inside of Jesus inside of You, hiding nothing of my human folly, blaming no one for any circumstance.” (Redemption - Union)

“Daniel, where are your brothers and sisters.” – “Here they are, Father. I have carried all the people You have brought into my whole life, here with me inside my heart. If You would have me with You, my Father, then I would come with every one of these as well.” (Salvation - Unveiling)

Faithful. That is the meaning of Jesus’ other words, “You have been faithful over a few things,” that is, “you have kept those people whom I have brought into your life.” But here is what Jesus says to the Father. “Father, I know Daniel, for I recognize Myself inside of him. Just as I have received him, in the same way and out from Me, Daniel has received all whom I have given to him.” (Be sure to use your own name as you read this, so that you might hear Jesus speaking of you.)

I was twenty when I first heard the understanding that we do not enter the presence of God without taking our brethren with us.

The People I Have Known. I have known by name more than 2000 people in my life. That’s more than most, because I was a classroom teacher for many years as well as living in community for years.

I think back to those whom I knew during my elementary school years, and then a different set of people during my high school years. I include both students and teachers, those whom I “liked” and those of whom I imagined dislike. I think of every member of my family, those who married into the family, and all the children and grandchildren. I think of all those with whom I shared experience inside of Christian Community, many of whom I mentioned in my life story, but many more whom I did not.

God’s Purpose. It’s an easy thing to include Lloyd Green in that mix. You see, my “interpretation” of his encounter with me was not God’s, that is, it wasn’t true. Yes, he was a manipulative bully, but that’s not why God brought him into my sphere. God brought him into my sphere, that I might place Lloyd Green into God with me.

As my mind goes across the whole span of my life and all the people in it, I say to God, “Father, here are these, here is this one and this one and this one. Father, receive each one of them into life, for I cannot enter into joy without them.” – “I DESIRE that those whom You have given me might be with me inside of Your glory.” – Just like Jesus.

“Not with Me.” A video appeared in my feed on YouTube, a bearded man with a caption on “Repentance.” He began to talk about the meaning of “true Bible repentance.” I did not listen long, for I knew that he meant to explain why most Christians will not be going “with him” into God. The meaning of his message was that he was happy not to have all these “shallow” Christians with him. The meaning was that he was not like the Lord Jesus at all.

Consider Moses contending with God for the life of every Israelite. Consider Paul contending with God for all the Churches. Consider Jesus receiving you and me in Gethsemane; consider the agony and the blood.

As If We Are. Let’s come at where I want to go from a different direction. The last trumpet, the deepest place of knowing God, is our bodies being swallowed up by life. Yet the angel told John, “In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is ABOUT TO sound, the mystery of God will be completed.”

I have said that we walk right now as already resurrected, even though outwardly we are not yet. You see, we walk in all substance now, without regard to appearance, yet we do not deny the coming outward change. This distinction allows us to believe utterly inside of God without being outwardly absurd or without living in denial.

I Am What I Am. I want to talk about the meaning of God.

God is; “I Am What I Am.” God is all; everything exists only inside of God. God is Life; therefore, everything exists only inside of Life. There is no other place, no other constitution of things, no other “universe.” AND – God is NOT good and evil. There is no construct, place, or constitution of things that is evil.

This God who is All is also thick; that is, it’s impossible to move or do except through the enabling Spirit of God. And this God inside of whom all live and move and have their being is Salvation; He is to be KNOWN.

The Matrix. I want to refer you to the movie, The Matrix, with Keanu Reeves. In the story-line, an AI computer has taken over the world and has learned to gain its energy from human bodies encased in vast rows of pods. In order to keep them happy, it feeds a software program into their minds that causes them to believe they are living in a “normal” world. Reeve’s character, Neo, is rescued from the matrix “mind” first, and then his body from the pod, by humans outside of the matrix. The world outside is dark and cruel, but it’s real. The climax of the movie is when Neo, having been trained, returns into the “world” of the matrix program and defeats the “agents” of the matrix by KNOWING they are NOT real.

The Concept of the Matrix. I want to use the concept of “the matrix” as a way to understand the human condition. Now, there are some holes and some contradictions in the fantasy creation of the movie “matrix.” More than that, human reality is quite different from the “reality” there. And so I want to make use of the concept only.

Here is the introduction of the real “matrix” into the human experience. – Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them. – So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life (Genesis 3).

Two Minds. The tree of life is the mind that knows God through Jesus. The tree of death is the mind that “knows” itself inside a paradigm of good versus evil.

Human reality, then, is the opposite of what is presented in The Matrix movie. – Bringing forth, carrying, and sustaining all things by His power-filled Word (Hebrews 1:3). Rather than humans being encased in pods that suck energy from their bodies, all humans are encased in the Spirit of God and draw their life out from the continuous good-speaking of Jesus.

Delusion inside Accusation. The problem is the skin of a beast, that is, an outward shell of darkness that blinds the eyes from reality, along with “knowing” good and evil, which distorts the perceptions and workings of the mind.

The belief of any human that they are not in All-Salvation, all heavenly glory, All-Life right now is a mental delusion. Yet that delusion also contains an element of spiritual darkness, that is, an anointing of accusation that surrounds every human from conception. “Positive thinking” cannot break the spiritual darkness, and therefore cannot actually change the mind.

The Exit. The one exit out from mental delusion is the entrance into the knowledge of God, that is, to give thanks inside of and for the sake of all things, turning everything meant for evil into an outcome of intrinsic goodness. This entrance opens the eyes and causes the human to see the real, that is, God-All, even if only dimly at first. And, of course, the only thing that would entice any human to do something so desperate as to see only God is the love of Jesus given to us, that is, redemption.

But the real “matrix” is something more. The real “matrix” is the many voices of humans and angels speaking a false reality to one another inside the anointing of accusation.

Faith Wins. In this way, the “mind” existing inside the humans in The Matrix movie is the same concept as the mind existing inside of humans in this present age – a delusion. Yet it is a delusion that seems to give an answer to everything, that is believed utterly by everyone, and that has terrible consequences of pain, suffering, and death.

Now, in the movie, Neo fights with an “agent” inside the matrix, that is, a computer program designed to “police” the thoughts of all humans in their delusions. The agent fires bullets straight at Neo in the moment of life or death. And in that moment Neo KNOWS they are not real. In his knowing, which is FAITH, the false no longer had meaning.

Foundations Ripped Out. Having set out the meaning of the matrix, I hope to draw from these concepts and from the movie in later lessons. For right now, I want us to understand that NOTHING prevents a people on this earth from living inside of All-Salvation now as if it’s the only thing real, because it is.

And thus, just like Jesus, they will treat with the voices of the false as they are, unreal and beside the point. When that happens, as a people believe that the true is the only thing real, the foundations are ripped out from under the false and, like the tower of Barad-dur, it all comes crashing down. Satan knows this, and he is angry in his fear.

David’s Tent. Now I want to come at my point from a third direction, and that is David’s tent. – And the Ark of His Covenant was seen inside of His sanctuary.

The exit from the matrix is the entrance into the Holy of Holies, which has now embraced the Holy Place as one larger room. And in the dynamics of the present season of opportunity, the Church’s exit from the matrix is those who live and walk as the Ark of the Covenant now including the Church as part of themselves. – There is no veil between.  

David’s tent is another picture of a much larger Holy of Holies, filled with dozens of people at once, singing praises together inside of the KNOWING of God-All.

A Larger Veil. Yet here is the expression of the outer tent of Moses’ tabernacle and the outer tent of David’s tabernacle in the gospel. – Therefore brethren, having already a free and bold proclamation of entrance into the Holiest inside the blood of Jesus consecrating for us a newly sacrificed as well as a living way through the veil, that is, through His flesh… (Hebrews 10:19-20).

We remain human, and God is seen and known through our one flesh with Jesus, through our outward humanity forever. Thus the larger tent is a metaphor of a human Church filled with all of God and revealing God to all.

What If? Now, I will talk more about the meaning of the Ark of the Covenant inside the Church, but I have drawn it in here because I want to tie its meaning together with the matrix.

What if millions of believers on this earth started living together as if the All-Salvation of God, the Kingdom as every step together, were the only thing real and that the matrix of this world was NOT? And what if they did so in an utter disregard towards the beast, the dragon, and death?

Probably the most ridiculous plot hole in modern movies happens from the first Matrix movie to the second.

Before Our Bodies Change. At the end of the first movie, Neo establishes that he knows that everything inside the matrix is not true. That means that, from then on, he would walk through the “agents” as if they did not exist. He would never “fight” them again. The second two movies abandon that premise completely and are unwatchable, in my opinion.

What if there were a people on this earth who live together in the utter FAITH that God alone is real, that their every interaction is God among us, that is, Reciprocal Love, that the “agents” of the matrix of this world are simply untrue, and that they live in all Resurrection now, BEFORE our bodies change?

A New Room. Finally, I want to come at my point from a fourth direction. I shared recently that Jesus invited me to step through a door, and when I had no strength to do so, He carried me through at my request. I shared that I had no idea what room He had brought me into, for I had no sensations or perceptions of that room.

My first perception of this room, now, is that it is a house of prayer, and that it is filled with the Anointing for me to draw God into the knowing of many individual people. There are so many exhortations in the Bible that when God says, “Ask,” we ought to ask BIG and not stop asking.

The Ministry of Christ. Here then is my point. – Then the sanctuary of God inside of heaven was opened and the Ark of His Covenant was seen inside of His sanctuary, the place of His dwelling.

The Ark of His Covenant made visible inside of His Church is – you and me, and many with us, dwelling inside of God, carrying our brothers and sisters with us. The Ark of His Covenant is the ministry of Christ inside a Holy of Holies enlarged to include the Holy Place, inside David’s tent, reaching out to include many, a ministry that does not rest until every little one, who belongs to Jesus and to us in this hour, is drawn into JOY, the crossing of the Jordan.

Judgment Is Given to Us. If the average person knows 700 people, some more, some less, and if you multiply 700 times 144,000, what number do you get? – Just over 100 million people carried in our hearts inside the presence of God.

A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened (Daniel 7:10).

Finally, I can talk about the Ark of His Covenant inside of God’s dwelling place, His Sanctuary, the Church. The Ancient of Days is seated in our hearts, and judgment is given to us.

A River of Fire; a Golden Oil. God loves mixing metaphors and so, even though literature experts frown on this practice, we must flex with God. A pillar of fire, a river of fire, a flow of golden oil to feed the fires of the lampstand, the Ark going forth, and rivers of living water are all speaking of this flow of Personal Living Spirit Word, God through us into His Church.

A “river of fire” has to be burning something, and so this flow of golden oil, meant to fuel the fires of the Church, is on fire, even as it enters into each one as flames of fire. And yes, we are speaking of the Spirit as on the day of Pentecost, yet not for the beginning of the Church, rather, for the Completion of the Church.

Into the Church. Picture stepping into the Holy Place, now part of the Holiest, into the Church that has gathered near, as that stream of Personal Spirit Word flows through us, Christ Jesus as He is, a Living, Energeoing, and penetrating Word. The first thing it touches is the coals of fire upon the Altar of Incense.

Consider my life story, Prepare a Path. Consider how I placed every moment and circumstance of my life into God. “Look at me, God, I belong to You. Let it be to me according to Jesus – for all these, my brethren.” Consider how the Fire that is God mixes with the agonies of my life, great or small, to make them goodness for others.

Our Lives with Jesus. This is the meaning of Romans 8:28, synergeoing with God. It is the meaning from Annie’s vision, “As if they were linked with the same fires and torrents of the divine nature.” The “coals of fire” from the Altar cast into the earth is the story of our lives given for the sake of others.

Then the Mercy Seat going forth, that flow of the Golden Oil out from the Father, carrying the story of our own lives as well, lives that are found entirely inside of Jesus from beginning to end, flows into the baking of the Set-Forth Bread and the oil with its fire for the Lampstand. We are speaking of Christ Jesus INSIDE OF His Church.

The Bread of the Word. People do not eat wheat kernels, nor do they eat raw dough. People eat bread baked in an oven. How can we be bread if we do not speak the same Word that is Jesus? And how can we be nourishment for others if that same Word in us has not passed through the Fire?

One thing we have learned from The Jesus Secret II is that this Word that is Jesus, now in our mouths, is an homogenous flow of meaning, of Life and of Love. It’s all one Word, filled with sustaining power. Speaking Word does not make us like Jesus. Jesus makes us like Jesus, and we speak our shared Word as Life for others.

The Oil of the Spirit. When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2:1-4).

The Church is clearly the Lampstand as Jesus said. And as Haggai said, the glory of that Church today is greater than any glory found in Acts. – A woman clothed with Jesus, bringing forth the knowledge of God into all creation.

A Church on Fire!!! We must now conclude that, of truth, Revelation 12:1 is the stepping forth upon this earth of a NEW WORLD, even before the old and false appearance has vanished.

John’s vision is not about Jesus coming with violence to punish humans upon this earth. John’s vision is about what happens to the power-plays of the world matrix as a people, clothed with Jesus, begin to live as if the Age of Tabernacles is the ONLY reality there is. For it is their RIGHT to do so.

Finally, for the first time, we are able to see, through eyes of fire, God’s seeing of a Church on Fire.

Reading for Next Time. We are now half-way through our study of John’s vision. I am convinced this point is marked definitely in Revelation, in the transfer from the Completion to the contest again. The next lesson, then, is titled “Recasting the Vision.” For this lesson, I suggest that you read “26. Using the Visions” in The River of Life.

The next lesson has three purposes. First, I hope to give a present view of the entire vision, something I could not have done when we started this study. I want to show every part of the vision as one of three topics, the ministry of Christ, the Bride, and the setting. Then, the next lesson will serve as a conclusion for the first half of our study and an introduction to the second half.

Let’s Pray Together. “Lord Jesus, we look across the earth and we see a Church that does not know the meaning of Your Salvation or the deadliness of this world. Lord Jesus, we see Your people, that they are a mess, confused in so many ways. We ourselves stumble yet in our faith inside of You, for we also need Your Salvation.

“Just as Isaiah said of You, ‘He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men.’ Even so You are now living as Your people and, of truth, You do not appear outwardly to be successful.

“Lord Jesus, we are with You now inside of Your glory, open our eyes to see that glory upon Your Church, regardless of any outward appearance. Lord Jesus, we want our brothers and sisters, millions of believers in Jesus, here with us inside of You, knowing You, knowing Father, for we know Your Heart of Salvation.

“We give ourselves utterly to You, Lord Jesus, that You might be faith through us, that our eyes might be the very eyes of the Father, eyes of Fire, seeing all things good. Clothe Your Church with Your glory, Lord Jesus. Draw her into knowing the meaning of Your Salvation. Cause her to be the revelation of Father right here on this earth.

“We ask in Your name, Lord Jesus; You have answered us.”