16. We Weep over the Church

Audio Only:






We now have the ability, out from the last lesson, to turn and look at Revelation Chapter 5 and through it to the deliverance service ahead.

While I was writing my first take on Revelation, titled Through Eyes of Fire, I looked at this unopened scroll, knew that it was of vital importance, and knew that I had no idea what it meant. And so I went on through the study until a moment when God opened my understanding and I wrote the chapter, “Back to the Scroll.” Since then, I have devoted many chapters in many books to the opening of this scroll.

Our Question. In this present study, the meaning of Revelation Chapter 5 has become even more critically important to us. In Symmorphy VII: Completion, Lesson 7.3 “Seven Dispensations,” I recently wrote the following concerning the dispensation of the in-part Church.

~ We place only our question concerning the In-Part Church Age without any attempt at an answer. Why does the veil remain, even against the clear and wondrous Word of an already completed Salvation coming through us into our world? ~

I just now saw an answer to our question here in Revelation 5. But let’s begin with the enflowing of Word.

The Enflowing of Word. We are seated inside of His throne. We are written on the inside and the outside with the Words that are Christ Jesus. We weep over the Church, that no one values the Lamb sufficient to believe that He opens the scroll to be read by all. We honor Jesus as the Lamb, fully capable of revealing Himself in all His abilities through us, through all of our inabilities. The Lamb has purchased us out from this world with His Blood given for us. We are a kingdom and priests towards God; we reign as kings upon this earth. We give all honor to the Lamb, that His ability to accomplish All Salvation now is absolute. Every living reality of the authority of Mercy proclaims “Let it be so; it is so.” We worship the Lamb inside of us who lives into the unfolding of the ages.
 
The Jesus Secret Page. Because I have spent a lifetime inside the meaning of this Chapter and because I have written much about it thus far, we have no need to “prime the pump.” Here is the layout of our page. First, we need a description of “The Written Scroll,” 2 Corinthians 3:3, Christ written on our hearts. Yet this must be followed by “The Scroll Unopened,” a terrible reality that covers the entirety of the In-Part Church age. The third box will be “We Weep” – over the limitation of Christ, and the final box is “Valuing the Lamb.” This is the order on the page, but we’ll discuss it all together.

An Unarguable Assertion. Here are the brass tacks that shape our discussion. When the manifest sons of God set creation free they will be doing NOTHING more than believing in Jesus according to the gospel. This unarguable assertion then leads to an inescapable conclusion. For 2000 years, Christians have NOT believed in Jesus according to the gospel, but only a little bit.

What Christian will argue this before God? “I was unable to be Your Salvation in this world, that all might know You – BECAUSE You did not give me what I needed to do so!” They will say, “We did not know.” God will reply, “No, you did not want.”

What Happened to Jesus? Yet the problem goes deeper even than the knowing and the wanting and is very clear and specific. Here is the response of an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ who has just written and sent into the Church the most wondrous exposition of a Gospel of LIFE and how God fulfills His Salvation in and through us. John is looking across the entire in-part church age and he cannot find Jesus as He is, Jesus by John’s gospel.

I wept loudly, because no one of sufficient value was found who could open the scroll to perceive what is written in it.

No one in church history has sufficiently valued the Lamb.

A Most Evil Doctrine. I will soon write a chapter in Completion titled “Redemption – A Love Story.” The first lesson only will be on redemption, however. The second lesson will be titled “A Most Evil Doctrine,” followed by “The In-Part Church Age.” The most evil doctrine that placed a veil upon the entire Church and is responsible for all the continuation of death from then until now is the certified assertion that the Lamb is not enough for Salvation Now.

When God has a people who walk in the certainty that the Lamb is their only life, according to the gospel, then God will be able to silence all Christian opposition – for their sake. It’s not for their destruction but for their salvation.

A Letter of Christ. Having that great issue in place, let’s set out the simple gospel truth found in the metaphor of the scroll. I saw a scroll upon the right hand of the One sitting upon the throne. The scroll was written on both sides, within the curve as well as on the back...

This metaphor means only one thing. It means that your heart is more the Bible than the Bible ever could be. – It is fully made visible that you ARE a letter of Christ, with us under your service, having already been written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God – not on tablets of stone, but inside tablets of hearts of flesh (2 Corinthians 3:3).

The Covenant. This is the center of the Covenant – I will place My laws in their through-minds, and upon their hearts I will inscribe them; and I will be God inside of them, and they will be people inside of me (Hebrews 8:10).

This is not “law” as ideas under human control, but rather, the Person of the Lord Jesus as every Word God speaks. The finger of God writing comes first; speaking Christ, then, only causes us to know what our hearts already are. This Personal, Living Spirit Word written all through the pathways of our hearts is everything of the Gospel. But let’s look at the specific picture given in the vision.

Rolled Up and Sealed. And I saw a scroll upon the right hand of the One sitting upon the throne. The scroll was written on both sides, within the curve as well as on the back, and it was sealed with seven seals. I saw a strong angel proclaim…, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to break away its seals?”

“Sit Thou at My right hand” (Psalm 110), the place of authority for the declaration of the Covenant. “Written on both sides” – Yes, you can see the tail-end of the outward part of this word, but not the inner reality. Seals meant to be broken away. – What could possibly prevent the mighty reality of God-made-known from being seen and read in the present season of unbelief?

The Written Scroll. The Lord Jesus, as the Lamb of God, is written upon the hearts of all believers in Jesus. That writing is the totality of the gospel and the completion of the Covenant. This is not word under human control, but Word as the Lord Jesus Himself. Thus the heart of each believer is more the Bible than the Bible ever could be. The opening of this scroll for all to read is the Unveiling of Jesus Christ, Jesus proven faithful and true in all.

What Is an Unopened Scroll? The seals are NOT put there by God. They are the blockages and strongholds of demons; they are gross unbelief.

The scroll, this “letter of Christ,” is already 100% written upon the human heart of flesh inside every believer, but no one knows it, no one believes it, no one sees Jesus as He is. No one was capable, neither inside of heaven nor upon the earth nor underneath the earth, to open the scroll or to perceive what was written in it.

What is an unopened scroll? What is the heart of a believer, filled with Christ written upon it, yet utterly unknown even to the one in whom He dwells?

A Profound Awfulness. How can a Christian be filled with all the fulness of God and remain utterly oblivious to His glory? How can Jesus walk this earth and no one has a clue? These questions define the entirety of the present Church age and our own Christian lives as well.

The biggest question for this lesson, however, is – Why did John, the apostle closest to Jesus’ Heart, weep so loudly? For this next box on our page, however, I want us to know the profound awfulness of this scroll, Christ in our hearts, being unopened and unread, including our own part in this travesty. We weep also for ourselves.

Dark Imagination. Of truth, the moment in my own life when this awfulness was most profound was in February of 1996, when, alone in the cold wilderness, I cried out to God to save even me. And in those dark hours I imagined that He neither heard nor answered me. Through those same hours, I read a book describing a blood covenant and what it meant inside the terror of running the gauntlet, yet I could make NO connection in my own understanding.

I was filled with a God who shared every moment of my life with me by Blood Covenant and I DID NOT KNOW IT!!! How is this horror possible?

The Unopened Scroll. Yet this completion of the gospel and the Covenant written upon the hearts of all believers in Jesus is unknown and unread by anyone in all heaven-earth. How can this be? How can a Christian be filled with all the fulness of God and remain utterly oblivious to His glorious Salvation? How can Jesus walk this earth and no one has a clue? Yet this ignorance defines the present age of Christianity. Yes, the seven demon seals prevent the scroll from being opened, and they must be cast off. Much more, God gives to us a sharing with Jesus in His suffering for His Church, that we might receive her as our own glory.

Not Having a Clue. Why was John weeping?

Then we have this line. – Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Look and see…” Look and see what? Remember the reality of the UNREAD scroll? – No one inside of heaven was capable. This elder didn’t have a clue; he could read only the tail end of the outer word. Jesus back then, Jesus up there, Jesus someday. Brother Joe McCord preached a word on this line, a word I remember well. He shared how elders so often come to the apostolic ministry imagining they had a word of correction. Yet they did not have a clue; they did not understand why the apostle wept.

Weeping inside the Spirit. Inside this same understanding, I can testify concerning Brother Buddy Cobb, with all evidence, that from the time I first heard him preach in September of 1977 until he passed on around forty years later, his life was devoted faithfully to weeping over the Church inside the Spirit.

No, he did not know what was written inside the scroll because he was not capable inside the Church age. Thus I now see that his ministry towards me was entirely of God. What I repented of was not “hearing Buddy Cobb,” but the false ideas we both shared because we did not know. Yet weeping over the Church inside the Spirit was something we also shared through all those years.

An Immense Loss. That last slide is a profound milestone in my own life. But it is John’s weeping we want to comprehend. – I wept loudly, because no one of sufficient value was found who could open the scroll to perceive what is written in it.

John is sensing an IMMENSE loss and grappling with a terrible failure. You see, if this was AD 95, then John understands that the Gospel he has just given to the Church, John 14:20, we inside of Jesus and Jesus inside of us, would NOT BE believed for, what is now, the next 1,927 years. Through all the centuries, no one “of sufficient value” is known. A “Jesus up there” is incapable of all Salvation now.

A Word Unfulfilled. I now understand the agony of my life. The primary example was the conventions in the third feast fellowship of which I was a part from age 20 to age 41. Move of God conventions were a “ripping apart” for me. I would sit there inside an open heaven, with the glory of a Word of Christ coming out from God into me, rejoicing in that Word. And I would sit there, weeping inside in all agony over that same Word seemingly unfulfilled in the communities of Christ in which I lived.

I did not know then, but I know now that I was weeping over the Church, over the limitation of Christ, over a now-Salvation not believed, over the agony of Father’s Desire.

The Agony of My Soul. “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it” (Ezekiel 9:4).

For fifty-five years I have wept in the agony of my soul over the limitation of Christ, over the agony of the Father, over a Church who does not know the LIFE that fills her belly. And when someone comes in their carnal intellect to challenge the Father’s heart that I share with you, I turn my back and walk away. I have no ability to comprehend a believer in Jesus who does not weep over Father’s Desire, who knows no commitment to Christ Community.

The Set of Our Face. (a song from Psalm 137)
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept
When we remembered Zion our home…
If I forget thee Oh Jerusalem,
Then let my right hand forget her cunning,
And let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth
If I prefer thee not above my chief joy.

Then a great sign was perceived in heaven, a woman enclothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and upon her head a garland of victory, a crown of twelve stars. Having a child in her womb, she screamed in travail, being tortured to bring her child to birth.

Here alone is the set of our face – for Father’s sake.

We Weep. To share Heart with God, we share with Jesus His present redeeming Love for all who belong to Him. This sharing goes deep into the agony of our own souls. We weep over the Church in all heaven-earth, that she might know the One who fills her with all of His glory, that she might bring the knowledge of God into the knowledge of all.

Yet now we weep over the limitation of Christ, over a now-Salvation not believed, over the agony of Father’s Desire. We commit ourselves to Christ Community for Father’s sake, that He might Tabernacle among us. Our face is set on Jerusalem, that she might be established as many communities of Christ across the earth, the source of just innocence, peace, and joy for all.

A Lamb NOT Valued. The distinguishing feature of the age of Christian unbelief is the limitation of Christ, a Lamb who is NOT valued.

Since we began Studies in John’s Gospel, the one thing that has grown by leaps and bounds is our knowing of the ability of Jesus inside of us accomplishing all Salvation now. We now see Revelation Chapters 1-3 as a profound declaration of the ability of Jesus inside of us. Yet as His ability has grown in our knowing, so we seem to be further and further from the thinking of our Christian brethren. To our astonishment, we realize that, in their minds, such a Savior cannot be “of God.”

The Most Wicked Action. A faraway and limited Jesus is the keystone of Nicene theology. But the single most wicked action inside the age of human folly has not yet occurred. There are rumors that it will happen soon. This most wicked action features strongly in John’s vision. I am speaking of that moment when a group of demonized Pharisees kill an animal, a “red heifer,” and/or a “lamb,” in that city God calls Sodom, but that humans today falsely call “Jerusalem.” They will call this wicked and open DEFIANCE of the Lamb Slain, “the sacrifice of atonement.”

And Christians across the world will say, “Yea and amen!”

The Lamb Is Able. They sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the scroll and to break off its seals, because You were slain and You purchased to God inside Your blood a people out from every tribe and language, people and ethnicity.

The Lamb is able to break off the seals. He does so one by one until they are GONE! The Lamb is able to accomplish all Salvation now. He is able to cause all to see His revelation inside His Church, inside our hearts, the Unveiling of Jesus Christ. To be given the privilege of speaking with Him as He shows Himself faithful and True is the glory of our lives.

Valuing the Lamb. The Lamb is not valued through the in-part Church age. Rather, He is known only as someone back then, up there, and someday. Christians simply do not believe that He has redeemed them and that He is Salvation come now through them into all creation. They do not believe He is able to make them the dwelling place of the Father.

As the firstfruits of Christ, we place the ability of Jesus upon our own human inability, that He accomplishes all Salvation through us now into our world. We value His Blood shed for us as the completion of the Covenant; we value His Words written upon our hearts as the very life of God. We share with Jesus, faithful and true, in removing the false seals from the hearts of our brethren.

Through Our Prayers Together. I know now that God is truly giving to us His meaning of John’s vision, and He is doing so for the Victory of Christ through us for the sake of His Church.

Through our prayers together, the hosts of heaven cast down the “super-Christ” and its barbs that destroy faith. We cast down contempt as the definition of the Christian. We eliminate the limitation of the Atonement of the Lamb. We purge a gospel of death out from the Church. We fling wide the Doors of Tabernacles, that all our brethren might rush into the Holiest. We set creation free. We enable all creation to know the Father as He is; we LOVE one another, God-Revealed.

Reading for Next Time. The next lesson is titled “The Story of the Song I.” John’s vision and the completion of this age can be understood only out from the great patterns of God, the pattern of the reproduction of life and the pattern of story.

The generation of life and the story of life are the two definitions of life, and life for all is the outcome of the story – that all may know Me. And Life is age-unfolding, which is also story. (You could watch The Lion King if you want.) John’s vision is the completion of the Story, and the center of God’s Story is a Song. The completion of the age is not random acts of destruction, but the singing of a new Song.

Let’s Pray Together. “God, our Father, You have made us a part of Your own Heart; You have caused us to share Your tears over Your people, the Church, and over her unbelief. Father, you have given us a vision of a glorious Church, without spot, a woman clothed with the sun, bringing forth the knowledge of God into the knowledge of all.

“And Lord Jesus, You have caused us to share with You in Your Victory for her sake; You have filled our hearts with Your own passion for Jerusalem, for Christ Community all across this earth.

“You have turned us, Oh God, for the sake of Your people.

“Lord Jesus, we place Your ability upon our human inability for the sake of our brothers and sisters. Dear brother, dear sister, KNOW that You are filled with all the ability of a capable Savior. Know that He accomplishes all Salvation through you now into this world. Lord Jesus, we place the value of Your Blood upon all that we are for the sake of our brethren. Dear brother, dear sister, KNOW the value of the Blood shed for you, that it has joined you utterly with God for His purposes. KNOW that Christ is written upon your heart as every Word God speaks.

“Lord Jesus, we share with You, faithful and true, to remove the false seals binding the hearts of our brethren, that they might know the glorious Salvation that already fills them full. We set you free, dear Christian, to KNOW Christ your Life.”