6.1 Placing the Victory
We must know everything, now, out from the Father’s Heart and out from His Desire.
To God be thanks, then, the One who is continuously and actively giving us the Victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57). The Greek word is nikos, the noun form of “to overcome.” This word is found four times in the New Testament, three times here and once in Matthew 12:20 – until He brings forth judgment into Victory.
Paul tells us three things about this victory, first, death cannot find it, second, Victory eliminates death, and third, God actively gives us this very Victory as our own possession.
Have Refused. God brings forth humans, through the good-speaking of Jesus, to reveal to all creation who and what He is through their love for one another. God brings forth angels, through the good-speaking of Jesus, to serve humans inside the fulness of Salvation, the revelation of the Father. And inside of this equation, God placed His Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the One who acts, the Substance, the Cause, the Seed, the Life-giver, to be received by all and to be honored by all.
Yet for 6000 years, billions of humans and billions of angels have REFUSED the very Word who brings them forth and, instead, have screamed against God, in every moment and breath, that He LIES!!
Horror and Pain. Then God sent His Word as His beloved Son, to win our hearts through life laid down and love poured out, and still we, the Church of Christ, have not believed into Him, but have continued to spin our own false self stories of antagonism against God. It has never, ever been an issue of God against us, always it is us against God, without a reason or a cause, and then we blame God for our own idiocy.
It is impossible to comprehend the horror and PAIN it is to our Father to be hit with this onslaught of accusation against Him that Jesus is FALSE, that when God speaks, His Word is not true. – And then our reveling in the death that alone is left for us when we refuse His Word.
The Very Worst. Now, inside all of this horror of billions of spears of PAIN driven into the Heart of the Father, every moment and without mercy, there is a particular set of accusations that are, to God, the very worst. That set of accusations comes from those whom God has redeemed, anointed with His Spirit, given His Word, and placed into the Bride of the Lamb, that they might clothe her with the Lord Jesus in all glory. But rather than clothing her with Jesus, with His All-Redemption-Now, they strip her clothes from her instead and proclaim to all listening that she is a harlot, that God does not hear her, that she is beneath of their own self-exalted selves.
There is nothing worse.
Judgment into Victory. Let’s bring in the entirety of Matthew’s quote of Isaiah, from Isaiah 42. You may note that the wording in our key verse is not the same. The reason for that is that Jesus and the writers of the New Testament knew only the Septuagint, the Hebrew Scriptures kept in Egypt, whereas we know only the Masoretic text, the Hebrew Scriptures kept in Babylon.
“Look and see! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will set forth My Spirit upon Him, and He will declare judgment to the ethnic families. He will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench, until He brings forth judgment into Victory; and in His name the ethnic families will hope and expect.”
God’s Answer Brought. Here is one of several descriptions of the moment of Victory. – When the Lamb removed the seventh seal, there was silence inside of heaven for about half an hour (Revelation 8:1). This means that in one moment, God brings His answer upon every single accusation, trillions times trillions of them, that each accusation is false and Jesus is True in its place.
God sent Jesus into the world as His answer to all the screaming accusation, but it did not work, the accusation continued on right on, including, now, from His redeemed. How is that? They accused Jesus of being “God,” that is, “above” and “super.” Therefore His witness, that He was the Word made flesh as a man, DOES NOT COUNT!
Out from Us. I think we have enough background in place, now, to set out what this Victory is and how it comes. It is evident that God does not possess this Victory. It is even evident that neither the Spirit nor the Son now possess this Victory. In fact God tells Jesus, “Sit at My right hand until your enemies are made a footstool for Your feet.”
We possess the Victory, for God has given it utterly to us, and God never rescinds what He gives. This Victory must come only out from us. You see, we have a tremendous advantage over Jesus. No one will ever be tempted to accuse us of being “God” or “super” or “above.” Our testimony, the proof of Christ, must silence all.
Our Ruling Verse. God is very Personal, and His Victory, now given to us, must be very personal as well. For that reason, we will devote the entirety of the next lesson to describing who we are as “The Overcomers.” Paul said that we are, right now, all-abundant overcomers. (The Greek word “hyper” should not be “more than,” but rather, magnified and enlarged.) Then, the third lesson will be an explanation of the impact through us of the two commands God gave to humans from the beginning – “Increase and Subdue.”
But let’s use our ruling verse to know the meaning of Victory. – THEY overcame (all accusation against Christians) through the blood of the Lamb, and through the word of their testimony; and they have not loved their souls unto death.
The Greatest Love Story. There is no such thing as a war of good against evil. In fact, that whole framework of thinking is called “death” by God. The war is the testimony of Jesus, the Lamb in us, against the accusation that His Church is false, our brothers and sisters.
Yet that “war” is not the real meaning of the story taking place. We have learned, rather, that the Apocalypse is the unveiling of the greatest Love Story ever told, and for real, right here on this earth, right now in this age. The “war” makes sense as the Determination of Love.
This is what I feel right now, that it is time for Love to take the battle to the enemy and to make God’s people free inside of glorious liberty.
Loved Not Their Souls. Let’s start with the last point, for it is the most important. There is only one way that “THEY loved not their souls to the death” could have meaning to us as real humans inside the Gospel of All-Salvation. God gave me a graphic picture of that one way just last night, just before He knew I would write this lesson.
I had the burning desire to search out properties for sale in Oregon, in the Willamette Valley, and near my home area. I saw, among dozens of properties pin-pointed on a map, one at $1,200,000. I was compelled to click on it only to discover that it was my own home, the house my father built. It was the same house, but unrecognizable inside and out. It had all been “upgraded” and the place turned into a “horse farm.”
We Belong to You. I will not try to convey the deep meaning of my “home” to you, except that now it was taken from me beyond reach.
Here is what we prayed together just yesterday morning. – “God, our Father, we acknowledge You in all, that You are God and that we belong utterly to You, that every moment, circumstance, and interaction of our lives is Yours forever.” That is what I did, in the tears and anguish of my soul, “Father, I am inside of You; I belong utterly to You. You keep me from all evil. You give me all of Yourself in place of all that I have lost.”
Here, inside this Hheart, we Love our brethren, and the entire cosmos, with God Himself.
Our Brethren. To “love not your soul unto death” is to prefer to find one’s self inside of God, inside of His Heart, even at the loss of all things dear, knowing with confidence that all belongs to us.
Who are our brethren? Look at Isaiah’s testimony of Jesus. – A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench. (The least and the littlest.) Thus we say, anyone on this planet who calls upon Jesus in some way, those are the ones we carry inside our hearts into the Hheart we share with God. This is the meaning of following the Lamb wherever He goes.
We do not produce such Love; rather, we acknowledge with all confidence of faith, that this very Love fills us full.
Believing the Word. Through the word of THEIR testimony. This contains the REAL and the ENTIRE meaning of our believing that God’s speaking of Jesus is faithful and TRUE. Our study of John, in writing The Jesus Secret II, has brought us to the deepest level of knowing and confidence as the Word God speaks flows through us, now our own word as well.
But this requirement, that we believe into Jesus, means that our knowing that none of this is “of us,” increases even as the scope and honor of Jesus in us also increases. We know that those who preach “obedience” are dishonest, for they neither obey nor care. Yet even more, there grows in such people a sense that they must “produce” of themselves.
The Father Is Glorified. The more we speak Christ our life, in honesty towards God and towards one another, and in the acknowledgement that our words are truly living and energeoing, the more we KNOW that we are a channel only, that it is our Father coming through the Word of our testimony.
We know that there is no self-effort, but rather, everywhere we look, we see Rivers of Spirit flowing into all the realms of power and influence in the heavens all around all humans. We see what we speak, that all seeming “power” is stripped away from all that is false. But that is not the point. The point is that we KNOW that Father is glorified as Jesus, every Word He speaks, is shown to be True through our confidence in Him.
The Point of Weakness. Through the Blood of the Lamb. – The metaphor most known as an “Achilles’ heel” is that there is a point of utter weakness inside the great boasting of evil. What is that tiny point wherein we drive the sword of our victory?
All evil comes from one thing. That one thing is the union, the marriage, the contract between contempt in the human and accusation in the serpent. Humans provide the contempt, of the earth, the foundation of the contract. Demons provide the accusation, of the air, that is, the words and voice to accuse. The result is the fire of hades inside of each and the river of death flowing out.
The Evidence of Jesus. There is one evidence only that you or I know Jesus as He is and are just like Him. That one evidence is that, in magnifying the Blood above all, we deliberately and through faith, see the entire Church through that Blood alone.
It all falls to pieces when there is no more contempt inside of us. This is what Jesus accomplished upon the cross, and what He meant when He said, “The prince of this world (the voice to accuse) comes and finds nothing (no contempt) in Me.” It’s what God asked of Joseph, that he would cover Mary as his own and not cast her out as a harlot. It is our faith in God, that we would cover the entire Church with the Blood of the Lamb, that eliminates death.
A Vibrant Joy. This is a battle of Joy. There is a vibrant joy, an upswell of singing, as we stride forth carrying Victory into every place. In human battle, there is a strong “what if.” What if the enemy’s sword is quicker than mine? A Victory already won means that we carry no such thought, but rather, the certain fervor of LIFE swallowing up death for the sake of all our Christian brethren.
It is this focus on the entire Church of Christ, that she might be raised up into glory, our Jerusalem, that makes God’s true Victory different from all that has come before. And this is the clear meaning of Revelation 12:10-11; it is the clear meaning of God.
Reading for Next Time. The next lesson is titled “The Overcomer.” In that lesson, we want to search out the deepest and central meaning of what it is to be one through whom Jesus loves His Bride. And so I would suggest that you continue reading/listening through Chapter 5 “A Perfected Opposition,” as well as “52. A Golden Cup” in The Apocalypse Now.
Knowing Jesus through us comes first, but Jesus through us comes into the very specificity of everything gone wrong, and so we must know exactly what and how the penetration of our Victory swallows up and eliminates death. – The shining forth of glory and the character and exact reproduction of God’s substance (from Hebrews 1:3).
Let’s Pray Together. “God, our Father, You have given to us the ability to know You even as You know us. But our eyes are not on ourselves, but on You, Father, on Your Heart and Purpose, and upon Jesus through us, that Your Word might be proven True. Father, You have enabled us to KNOW how important Your Word is to You. Our part is to acknowledge You, that Jesus might enable Your entrance through us into our world.
“God, our Father, we acknowledge You, that You share our lives with us. We acknowledge You, that You fill us full with all of Your Fulness, and especially as Love flowing out. This is Your hour, Oh God. Glorify us that we might glorify You in the acknowledgment of all creation.
“Father, You have set our eyes upon Your Church, upon Your people all across the earth, caught in the traps of the evil one and facing her time of greatest need. Inside of the name of Jesus, and through our confidence in the All-ness of His Sacrifice, oh God, we clothe our brothers and sisters with the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the authority to see Your Church as without spot or blemish; we have the authority to call her into Life.
“And Father, in all wonder, we come to terms with the authority You have also given us, to call You into our world, into visibility, that God-Love among us might become tangible and known to all. God our Father, we call You into our world and we call Your Church into Life. Inside the name of Jesus, it is complete.”