11.4 Through the Church

11.4 Through the Church

John said that Jesus is the propitiation. Hebrews said that Jesus causes propitiation. Paul said the Jesus is set forth (Pro-Thesis) by God as propitiation inside of His Blood. Propitiation is the Life-Flow given freely that continuously restores relationships, first between us and God and then among us as believers walking together. This means that both parties are able to set aside the offense or difficulty in order to continue in fellowship together.

The word Pro-Thesis, set forth, means that all things coming into existence through the good-speaking of Jesus came through that propitiation, that freely given Life-Flow for the sake of relationships, before they ever appeared.

A Flow, an Unfolding. Life is a flow, a movement. Life is the acknowledgement of God, who, as Spirit, is always flowing forth. The knowledge of God flows fresh across us and among us, new every morning, with increase forever. This is age-unfolding Life, a flow, a movement forward.

The life unfolding the ages God has given to us, and this life is inside of His Son. The one who possesses the Son has the life. – “Whoever drinks out from the water that I will give him will never thirst in this age, but the water that I will give him will become inside of him a spring of water bubbling up into age-unfolding life.” – If anyone should see his brother…, he will ask, and God will give him life for his brother (1 John 5 with John 4). – Meditate on these things.

Where Oil Meets Fire. “What are these two olive branches that flow into the hands of the two gold pipes from which the golden oil pours forth?” – “These are the two fresh-oil ones who stand firm upon the Lord of all the earth” (Zechariah 4:12 & 14 using Strong’s Hebrew definitions). This also is the flow of Life into the Church. The Lampstand is where the Oil meets the Fire, the Church as God intends.

One final thing before we consider reciprocal love in the local church, consider this declaration of God. – Sacrifice and offering I do not want, but a body… (Hebrews 10). There is no desire in God for punishment or expiation towards sin. God WANTS His Word to be believed (know Jesus Sent) and a form in which to reveal Himself in creation (know the Father).

What God Looks Like. The local church is the embodiment, the visible expression, of all the dynamics of God, in Life, in Love, and in fellowship. BUT – Let’s have a clear picture of what God looks like.



Everyone mis-represents God. Trade these faces for any gathering of believers in any land on earth. This is God-made-visible.

Regular Folk Loving Jesus. The visible expression of God, the Face of God, is regular folk loving Jesus, loving one another. There is no other God. And I will be God inside of them and they will be a people inside of Me. – The Covenant.

What is reciprocal Love in the local Church? – God through Jesus. Reciprocal Love is the Fellowship of equals. Yet there is inside every local fellowship a small number of individuals, two or three perhaps, who have given themselves to the Father as examples to the flock. They are not above; no one calls them, “Pastor.” Yet the deep fellowship they know together reverberates out to all.

I and All My Brethren. They are surety for one another. In the hard places, in the tears engendered by walking together, in their frustration, when God probes the depths of their beings with, “Where are you?” Their answer is always, “Here I am, my Father, I and all my brothers and sisters whom You have given to me.” They value their relationship together as greater than life itself. They bear whatever cost there is to keep that relationship living and new. They humble themselves in order to lift one another up. Just as Jesus is surety for them, so they are surety for one another.

Are there such people? Do they exist? Is Jesus real?

Is Jesus Real? And that’s the answer to our question. – Is Jesus real? Jesus Himself in Person is the only propitiation for any connection between two or among many. If He is not Personal, real and present in knowing and acknowledgment, then Christians cannot love.

A woman clothed with the sun is a local Church clothed with Jesus. That means that each member of that Church knows “Jesus with me,” Himself in Person, actual and real, more real to each than anyone else. And each one is engaged in a very real and personal friendship with this very present Jesus inside themselves.

Is this not the gospel?

Seeing God Because. Then we know that when Jesus is real to us, the Father inside of Him also becomes just as real. Salvation is God-Real.

Now, this entire program of study is “Symmorphy.” And as such, it is all an investigation of how two Persons, God and a human, share the same form together such that God Himself is seen and known inside creation through our humanity. Then, this chapter is “Salvation Revealed.” This means that when the people of this world look at a local gathering of believers in Jesus inside their sphere, they see God. They see God BECAUSE the members of that gathering see Jesus for real when they look at one another.

Leaving All to Be with Him. Every Christian likes to imagine that if the Jesus of the gospels were to come to them, as He came to Peter and the others, that they would leave all to be with Him. Jesus has come to you, inside of your brother and sister, far more real than the Jesus who came to Peter and John. Will you leave all to be with Him?

This is Love. This is God made known. Christ Community.

When God removes the skin of the beast from us, it will be easy and normal to see the obvious. Peter said, Blessed are those who see the obvious now, while they remain blind, those who acknowledge Jesus in one another, and the Father through Him. This is Love.

Christ Community. I saw a book for sale at Wal-Mart titled “How to Be Rapture Ready.” – How to be “ready” for a Jesus who is NOT here with us, inside of one another, a Jesus someday. This is why they cannot love one another. This is why the world looks at them and sees NOT-God.

I love you because I love Jesus for real inside of me, laughing in all joy, loving you through me, and because I see that same Jesus in you, for real, loving me in return. Christ Community, brethren walking together inside of the commitment of fellowship, loving one another with pure hearts fervently, is Salvation revealed, God made visible.

God, Love through the Church, there is no other God.

Reading for Next Time. This lesson completes our study of the completion of the Age of God’s Patience. Now we turn and look at the foundations for the first decades of the Age of Tabernacles. The next chapter is titled “A Pattern Language,” and the first lesson is titled “A New Language.” The importance of this next chapter for our futures cannot be overstated. For that reason, I have created a specific outline for the entire chapter first, in order to be complete.

To prepare for this lesson, let’s go back to our study eight years ago of the words that birthed the Kingdom. Read “Lesson 2.1 Authority” in Symmorphy III: Kingdom. The Kingdom of God proceeds out from the words Jesus speaks, the very language that He is, the Song of the Lamb.

Let’s Pray Together. “God, our Father, our hearts go out over our brothers and sisters all across the earth. Each one is precious to You and to us. Your Church lives inside of You, Father, but she does not know it. She lives in all Salvation now, but she does not see the Lord Jesus inside of her and in one another.

“You have shown us, Father, that You cannot reveal Yourself to those whom You love except You have a safe passageway into our world. We give ourselves to You, Father, in utter trust, confident that You are moving through us right now into the knowledge of Your people.

“Your people are lost, Father, even though they are saved. They wander as sheep without a shepherd even though their Shepherd is inside of and among them, their only Life. Father, You are Compassion through us for them, for each little one who belongs to Jesus in every ethnic family. Keep them, oh Father, make them devoted to You.

“Lord Jesus, You share all with us, Your Surety, the travail of Your Spirit, and the Life-flow of Your propitiation. Your Blood, Lord Jesus, is all that we need to Love our brethren, regardless. Your tender Mercy is our beating hearts. Lord Jesus, You have found no man to stand; therefore, let us be part of Your Arm that brings Salvation to You.

“Father, here we are, inside of Your presence, carrying all our brethren with us inside of Jesus inside our hearts.”