10.4 Victory as the Lamb

We have access to all the mind of God, in all that He knows in His Pro-Knowing, through the Spirit who is now part of the fabric of our souls. We are channels through which all the power that is God now comes into our world. We are set as sons in creation, our inheritance, for God has put all into our hands and commanded us to subdue.

But we will NEVER know that these things are true if we are still eating of the tree of knowing good and evil. – Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become as one who knows good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the Lord God sent him out (Genesis 3:22-23).

To Keep the Way. There is a sense in which God is “afraid” of man, of what humans can do if they access His life and knowing, since He has already given them all authority over His creation. And there is a real sense in which humans today are re-creating, through artificial generative intelligence and thus without Christ, what we lost in our banishment.

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 [keep and preserve] the way to the tree of life (Genesis 3:24). That way is the Lamb, in all of God’s Gospel meaning of the Lamb, the nature and Person of Jesus inside of us.

As the Lamb. Victory is to be just like Jesus as the Lamb; being just like Jesus is the only outcome or “end” that we accept. Our eyes are set on nothing other than the Lamb fulfilled in us, our Salvation. Being just like Jesus is Salvation; it means that we are now safe to God and no longer hurting Him by hurting others.

Yet how are we just like Jesus? There are some ways in which we are not, the first of which is honor. Always it is Jesus who is above all; our honor is to be WITH Him. We are not the Cause, yet we speak the same Word. We are not Lord, yet we are seated inside His throne. And we are not the Savior, yet we share in His Redemption of others.

Seven Ways. I want to go through seven ways in which our Victory is being just like Jesus as the Lamb, seven ways through which Jesus was safe to God, that God was free to enter through Him into His world. These seven correspond with the seven arenas of power and influence, the seven principles of the Kingdom.

Yet here’s the thing. God is a Person and Personal. What He is and what He does, all THROUGH Jesus now living as us, is always personal to Father, to Jesus, and to us. We can speak of these things as principles, but only through first knowing how personal they were inside of Jesus when He walked this earth, and thus now inside of us.

Full of Grace. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His Glory, full of Grace and Truth. Grace is “God with me.” God with me is grace. Thus the essence of Jesus, His Source, is not first Word or Spirit, but rather, “Father with Me.” Then, out from “Father with Me,” Jesus is the flow of Living Spirit Word by which we know Him Sent into us.

As the disciples beheld Jesus, they saw that He was “full of grace.” Graciousness is the quality of being with someone, of caring with great care, of tenderly lifting up. Because Jesus knew always “Father with Me,” He then was to each one, “Lo, I am with you always.”

With Me in All. Jesus’ bottom line in His despair on the cross was, “God, be with Me. – You have answered Me. – God, You are with Me.” The essence of being like Jesus as the Lamb is to KNOW that Jesus is with me in all, sharing all with me, connecting me always with Father, always with Him. My Grace, My presence with you inside of you, is all that you need (2 Corinthians 12).

Then we turn, and out from His presence WITH us, we extend that same graciousness to others. – “I am with you; I am here for you. I care.” Through this grace, now our essence, the Lamb flows as Living Spirit Word, as the costly connection of all with God.

Full of Truth. I can do nothing of Myself. Jesus entered into His city riding on the back of a donkey colt, the lowliest beast of burden – the King, the reigning Lord.

To give thanks is to recognize Jesus as Lord. It is to bless our form as God made us for His purposes. It is to bless our way as every next step we share with Father. This is the entrance of King and Kingdom forever, meek and lowly of heart, blessing each next step as the unfolding of Life. Jesus possessed no power in His outward form, and neither do we. That is the truth, full of truth and honesty.

And that is the cause of all human hurt, trying to fill the gap of power that God never intends to give us.

The Truth Is. To possess all authority and to reach for no power over others is a primary quality of the Lamb. This is the importance of Jesus’ statement, “I could call on 10,000 angels.” But He did not. And when power flowed through Him, He said, “That was God working.”

The truth is that this next circumstance comes out from God and me together. The truth is, these other people are God’s gift to me, that I might carry them in my heart. Honesty, then, never needs to pretend. Jesus spoke out from this inherent honesty and the penetration of His words was with authority. People heard Him gladly, or were threatened by Him, because He was real.

Zeal for Thine House. Zeal for Thine House has eaten me up. – Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I would gather you to Me. – When He had, by Himself, cleansed our sins…

Why did God save us? What was the mechanism inside of Jesus’ actions that enabled Him to do so? – Jesus asked Him to – Father, forgive them, keep them, make them devoted. In the same way, God saved Israel because Moses insisted. God wanted to save, but He could not, not until His authority in the earth directed Him to do so, in utter certainty. Yet in asking God, Jesus and Moses both became surety for those whom God gave them. That meant, “I will walk with you all the way through your darkness into all of Christ.”

Surety for Them. God brought to me again all the people I have known in my life, asking if I would be surety for them, if I would receive them that they might enter into joy. I wept over each. The thought of excluding any was abhorrent to me. It was personal and real, with those coming to my mind standing in for many more whom I did not remember in that moment.

I received Buddy Cobb with tears of honor and Lloyd Green with compassion. I was torn to pieces inside that there would be no obligation placed upon any, that they need not know about me in their joy, just as Moses did not tell his people for 40 years that they were entering into life because he had asked God for them. As Jesus is, so are we in this world (1 John 4).

I covenanted with God at age 22 that I would walk with a people who KNOW God. That covenant stands and is SURE!

Giving to Others. I have given them Your Word. Jesus lived by reciprocity and everything God accomplished through Him happened by reciprocity. God first gave to Jesus, and then Jesus gave the same back to God by giving it to others.

“I come from the Father and I return to the Father.” This was not incidental and one-time. It was how Jesus lives, how God accomplishes His purposes through us. – “I will give to My two witnesses, and they will prophesy.” – “I give you Myself, and then you give Me back by speaking Me into those around you, those of Mine whom I have given to you. This is how we accomplish Salvation.”

Receiving All Given to Us. The one who comes to Me, I will in no wise cast out. – Receive one another in the same way Jesus receives you. Central to the authority we possess as human sons of God filled with Jesus is the right to receive and the right to refuse. When Jesus did not answer Herod, that was a simple and absolute refusal. When He said to the thief next to Him, “Today, you are with Me,” it was also simple and absolute.

Giving and receiving are two qualities of the Lamb through which God as Salvation flows. Yet that power is never of us, thus we rest in the simplicity of that which is certain. Give and it shall be given to you. – Other people, those whom God has given to me, are my treasure forever.

Setting Others Free. Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more. – The one whom the Son makes free is free indeed. To be surety for others inside of God, sharing with Jesus in all, is to be always there for them on the one hand and never to place them under obligation on the other hand. You are free of me, the costliness I share with Jesus.

Those who preach law and obedience, those who buy and sell the atonement, do so in darkness to possess other people. God never does; this is His costliness forever. When I give all to God for your sake, my faith is in God. I require a return of Him, but you are free of me. This is the glorious liberty of the children birthed out from God.

Sharing Hheart with God. And He took the little children into His arms and blessed them. – He who sees Me sees the Father.

Neither love nor power are of us, yet love and power flow through us. This is how Jesus thought about Himself. John and David both gave us a view of Jesus inside His soul in a way that the other gospel writers could not. They present to us a Jesus who is always connecting the Father with Himself. Jesus wept. – “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I am aware that You always hear Me; but on account of this crowd all around I said it, that they may believe that You sent Me” (John 11:35 & 41-42).

The essence of the heart is that God is good all the time.

Compassion. Compassion is sharing heart with another. One who has compassion on God will also have compassion for the heart of others. Other people will always disagree with me, at points I deem are important. Do I take issue with them, or do I embrace their hearts and honor them. Compassion means “sharing suffering together.” It is the beating heart of Symmorphy.

Sharing God’s suffering for others with Him was the deepest quality in Jesus that made way for God to enter our world. It is the deepest quality in us that changes the ages. Compassion is the visibility of God through us.

The Truth Remains the Same. Now, these seven qualities of the Lamb come from the same source as the seven doors in A Highway for God, and that is our realization, in writing The River of Life, that the seven overcomings matched the removal of the seven binding seals, and thus represent seven critical things pertaining to the unveiling of Jesus Christ. Because understanding grows only slowly, first in writing to learn, and then becoming writing to teach, there are differences in wording and layout between the seven doors in A Highway for God and these. The truth remains the same. And I am convinced that this is not me making stuff up, but rather a true account of the unveiling of the Lamb of God through us, His body.

Outward Visibility. The question then is – If Salvation revealed is the unveiling of Jesus Christ, God made known, then what outward demonstration of visibility will there be that is God pressing upon the immediate awareness of everyone? Everyone assumes a great image in the sky, of some sort, shining gloriously. Yet whatever that image might be, it’s all outward, it’s all separate; it’s all idolatry.

There is ONE demonstration of the outward visibility of God, and ONE ONLY – Christians on this earth loving one another with pure hearts fervently. What else is there that could possibly be the proof of Christ? And when people see this God, how will it affect them?

They Also Will Know. Humans throughout all heaven-earth will become fully aware that the universe really is Life and Love, and that their rebellion against God has been only the darkness of their own minds and hearts – without a cause. No one lives or has ever lived in a broken universe, split between heaven and hell, God and the devil. That distortion is found only inside the delusions of the soul.

When the world sees Christians loving one another for real, giving thanks in all things, not lusting after going “somewhere else,” but walking every next step in fellowship with God, they will know that there is also salvation for them. The Community of the Church, of one mind together, then becomes the core of human society, the Song of the Lamb.

Reading for Next Time. The next chapter is titled “Salvation Revealed,” and the first lesson is “The Father Made Known.” Those two terms are identical in meaning. There is no salvation that is not Father made known. Salvation is for God first. – “It’s now safe for Me to enter through you into the knowing of My creation.”

To prepare for that lesson, read/listen to Lesson 3.1 “God Our Father.” To quote from that lesson – “God enters a world where everyone is filling the loneliness of their hearts by abusing others. And God, our Father, turns this whole thing around through us by little acts of kindness and gentle words of encouragement.”

Let’s Pray Together. “God, our Father, You sent the Lord Jesus into us that He might cause us to be like Himself as the Lamb out from God. Father, because Jesus as the Lamb is out from You, we know that these qualities of the Lamb are the deepest essence and meaning of Your own Soul.

“God, our Father, we ask You to make us to be just like the Lamb in all that we are, in all that we think and say and do. We ask You, that these seven qualities would be the entire fabric of our souls and of our story of self. And Father, we ask You above all that we would share Your Compassion with You, Your shared suffering for others and Your Goodness flowing through to them.

“Father, we know that You always hear us, just as Jesus knew, and that You have given us all that we ask. We know that we share every quality of the Lamb out from You into our world, that Jesus, the Lamb, is the only definition of our souls.

“Father, we are Your presence with others inside this world. Father, we rejoice in how You made us and bless every circumstance we share with You. Father, we desire that all whom You have given to us might be with us inside of Your glory. We give to them freely all that You have given to us. We receive each with all honor and we set them entirely free of ourselves.

“Father, in all things, we share Hheart with You. – It is so.”