1.2 Focus and Layout

The guiding idea of this course is that the Kingdom of God emanates forth, unfolds every moment, from Father and us sharing life together. God’s completion is an ecosystem of life, a dwelling place for all, including the Father. This ecosystem, this dwelling place is living and dynamic; it unfolds moment by moment.

This unfolding dwelling place, then, emanating forth moment by moment, comes out from first, God the Father sharing life together with each individual believer and second, God the Father sharing life together with each local Church. As each one of us shares life with God, our every step becomes our dwelling place, not only for Father and each one of us, but for all living things of heaven-earth.

Some Basic Terms. In this study, we use the term “unfolding” to denote the experience of creation and our daily lives as the intentions of God and us together are worked out moment by moment. And we use the word “season” to denote the time through which one focused purpose of God comes to completion before the next focused purpose begins. We often use the word “season” rather than “age,” though they are similar in meaning. “Age” in present usage is something fixed and of long duration, whereas “season” corresponds to an unfolding and is typically of shorter duration.

This unfolding, then, is the outflow from God with us, sharing life together. It is a River of Spirit and Word together, that is, Christ Jesus, the unveiling of Jesus Christ.

Definition and Purpose. We define completion first as everything operating as intended in its original design. Yet our own personal completion is Father with us sharing all of life together. That is also the first part of God’s completion. Then, the second part of our completion and God’s is that our every next step be made a dwelling place, not just for Father and me, but for all living things, the Kingdom of God. It is only inside this intimate participation of Father and me together, constructing every next moment as our Home together, that completion comes to every other thing.

The purpose of this course, then, is to consider this relationship, both individual and as each local church, and the completion that it brings to all things.

Limited to the Lamb and the Ark. Symmorphy VI: Mankind is about humans in our completed state, just like the Lord Jesus Christ, including as Firstfruits and as the House of God. This course, then, will not duplicate what was taught in Mankind, but will position many of the truths of that text into their place in the unfolding of the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God proceeds out from everything God means by the Lamb upon the throne. And in its going forth, the Kingdom is everything God means by the Ark of the Covenant and its journey. Here is the Covenant inside the Ark. – Clearly, you are an epistle of Christ, written with Spirit ink upon your human hearts of flesh (2 Corinthians 3:3 – reduced).

The Lamb upon the Throne. God has given us a picture that must rule all thinking about completion, the picture of the Lamb upon the Throne. The Throne is the authority of God in the universe, that outflow of All-Carrying that shepherds and guides every particulate of creation inside the knowledge of God. The Throne is the Mercy Seat, where we dwell with Jesus the Lamb, that is, our hearts.

The Lamb, then, means all expression through human weakness as God made us. It means no sufficiency in ourselves. It means going under with Father for the sake of others. The Lamb is our life, this One who, by Himself, is the cleansing of all falling short, this One who seeks and saves all that is lost.

Focus # 1. The first focus of this course is Father sharing life together with each one of us, specifically, Father at Home in our hearts. This is the essence of meaning found in the tenth ruling verse of the Bible: You in Me and I in you – Know the Father – Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

“If anyone loves Me, he will keep, guard, and watch over My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and will make Our home in intimate closeness with him” (John 14:23). The key words are “make,” “home,” and “with.” – We will make with him a home. In the Greek – poieó: to make, do, construct; – moné: an abiding, an abode, lodging, dwelling-place; – para: beside; in the presence of; with intimate closeness and participation.

Intimate Participation. I have been translating “para” as “in the presence of,” that is, “giving an account in the presence of God.” But here is a more accurate rendition of the last part of John 14:23, as I see now. – We will come to him and will make Our home together in intimate closeness and participation with him.

If we used that translation in Hebrews 5 it would be “giving an account together in intimate closeness and participation with God.” And that is what I have found; that is the truth of God. As I have written my life story, so God and I together, participating together in intimate closeness, have made my whole life our dwelling place.

Personally and Together. Paul used the word “oikos,” the source of “eco”-system, as the dwelling place of God. John used the word “mone,” in Jesus speaking, but only twice, in John 14:2 & 23. Mone is the noun form of meno, to abide. We must understand that Jesus did not speak in Greek, but likely Aramaic, and thus John carefully selected Greek words when he gave us what Jesus said, a back and forth between meno and mone.

It would be fully appropriate to use Paul’s word “oikos” in reference to the local Church together, an ecosystem, and John’s word “mone” in reference to each one of us individually, that is, a home. We will focus our study of completion and kingdom out from these thoughts, to know these things more fully.

Focus # 2. The second focus of this course is the word “subdue.” “To subdue” is the action of the Kingdom. – Now, when He [Father God] shall have placed all under Him [Christ Jesus], then also the Son Himself will be placed under the One having placed all under Him, so that God may be all inside of all (1 Corinthians 15:28). – To the one who overcomes (Revelation 2 & 3).

Now that we finally know what Life means and what the Kingdom is, we also know, for the first time, what this term overcome/subdue/place-under actually means. It begins with my being consciously aware of Father participating with me in turning our life together into our dwelling place.

Every Thought Captive. Out from my conscious awareness that it’s Father with me doing this, I embrace each next moment of my life as it comes to me in all of its circumstance as something NOT “coming at me,” but rather, as the very fabric of our home together, Father and I, coming out from our shared life.

This is the END of all human pretending and finagling. This is the Completion of all giving of thanks. This is bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10). And right now I am so excited I can hardly contain myself. The last time I was this excited was when I was six and it was the night before Christmas.

Swallowed Up by Life. This is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith (1 John 5:5). Faith CALLS each next moment and circumstance as Father and I building our dwelling place together – forever.

Then, every person, human or angelic, that interacts with me in every next moment has entered into the habitation of Father and I sharing life together. Every material thing, every living thing, every particulate of heaven and earth, as I interact with it, becomes part of the habitation of Father and I sharing life together. By calling my every next step Father with me building our home together – for the sake of others – death is swallowed up by LIFE.

Focus #3. The third focus of this course is the place and meaning of Christ Community. – And I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out from heaven from God, having been prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (Revelation 21:2). – Inside of Whom the whole building, being fitted together, is increasing into a temple, holy inside the Lord. Inside of Jesus, you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God inside the sphere of Spirit (Ephesians 2:21-22).

Just as our individual lives are not static in completion, but are continuously unfolding out from God and us sharing life together, so also is the local Church as a Community of Christ.

The Local Community of Christ. John’s word, spoken by Jesus twice in John 14, is mone, a dwelling place. We will apply this term to our own personal lives. Then, Paul’s word, meaning the same thing, is oikos, a dwelling place of God, the root of ecosystem. We will apply this term to each local Church sharing life together.

What is a local Community of Christ wherein all of us together walk together in conscious awareness that God is among us tangibly and demonstrably, as love one another? And what is the house we together build together with God, in intimate participation, a dwelling place for all of us together? What is our corporate faith, wherein all of us together turn every next moment into our together dwelling with God?

Community Life. This faith of the Son of God, expressed in us both individually and together, is the CAUSE of all completion coming to all things in every direction. It is what swallows up everything into the intimate knowledge of a God who participates with us in the sharing of LIFE.

What will every moment and circumstance of my years in Christian Community become in my knowing as I call all of it to be the dwelling place of God and us together, the very revelation of the All-Carrying One? And what will be the Community Life experience into which God next takes Maureen and me wherein all of us know together the boldness of this intimate participation with a God who dwells with us?

Already Complete. Finally, we must place upon all our discussion of the completion of all things the third truth of the ruling verse of the Bible, that all things are already complete inside of God from the very start. In coming into completion, we are not “making something happen,” but rather, we are entering into the knowing of what is already and has always been true.

We know that the Son of God IS presently and actively come and has given us an understanding, a through-mind, so that we might know Him who is the true; and we are inside of Him who is the true, in His Son, Jesus Christ. We are speaking of the true God and life that unfolds the ages (1 John 5:19-20).

The Path Ahead. At this point, the layout of upcoming chapters and lessons is quite tentative. I have no doubt that things will shift as we go forward, and that I will then rewrite this little bit. In the first part of this course, after this introductory chapter, we want to further establish our understanding of three things.

First, we want a definitive look at the meaning of completion as it applies to the ages and to the Kingdom. Second, the life that unfolds the ages is knowing the Father. What does it mean to know the Father in all completion? And third, now that we have a handle on the meaning of overcome/subdue, we want to expand the meaning of those words in every direction including the meaning of “increase.”

Salvation and Tabernacles. In the next two sections of this text we will discuss the present time in which we live, that is, the completion of this age of human folly, and then the age that is even now arising, the Age of Tabernacles wherein all that God intended for this present heaven-earth will be brought to its fulness. The completion of human wickedness is every individual person being persuaded that they are WRONG in each and every accusation they have ever uttered against God, utterly and awfully WRONG. This is the purpose of this short dispensation in which we are right now, the end of this age.

The third part of this text, Tabernacles, a consideration of the meaning and purpose of this arising new age, is very exciting to me. I can hardly wait to get there.

Justice and the Church. The fourth section of this text will be a consideration of the completion of justice and the resolution of all wrongs. We will present an argument from the New Testament as to how the doctrine of eternal damnation is so contrary to God. We then want to know how God will bring all accusation to silence through a time of purification and how justice comes to everything stolen inside the present age of folly.

The fifth part of this text will be the Church Forever, Christ Community. What is the Church, the Body of God, the revelation of the All-Carrying One, the dwelling place of the Father, as she is in Christ Community now and forever?

This Journey. This course, Symmorphy VII: Completion, is the beginning of the most exciting time of my life and yours. The guiding idea of this course is that the Kingdom of God emanates forth, unfolds every moment, from Father and us sharing life together. This new way of understanding life will alter our seeing of everything; it sets us on the very path that will swallow up all death into the unfolding LIFE of the Knowledge of God.

Our journey forever is a moment by moment unfolding of a life shared in all ways with God our Father and He with us, a life of intimate participation together in all things and in every moment. Join with me on this journey of overflowing JOY.