20.2 The Face of God
© 2017 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). The Church, we together, walking as one Body together, are the face of Jesus Christ, the Face of God to all creation.
Now, I have two sessions together that are speaking of the same thing, this session on the Door as it is positioned facing the outer court and the next session on the Image of God as God’s full revelation. The problem I am facing is that there are key concepts needed in this session that I must place in the next session on Image, in particular, Lesson 21.2 Perfection.
Placing the Door. I am, however, relying on my teacher’s instinct, knowing that before we can understand something as it is, we must first position its place in God’s order and among those things around it. For that reason, we will limit our discussion here on the essence of the Face of God, drawing in only that which is essential to understand how all this fits together.
Thus, in this lesson, we want to know what this Door is as it now operates, not just as the entrance into the Holy Place, but as God coming through His Church into the knowledge of His creation. Then we want to understand the outer court, as Jesus said, “Judea and Samaria,” and finally how this Face of God, the fully victorious Church, will impact and transform all Christians as the witness of Christ.
The Knowledge of God. We begin with purpose – that all may know Me. This is ALWAYS God’s purpose, to be known – BUT – to be known as He IS, not to be known as the other guy is.
We cannot really go forward without addressing the concept of perfection. I now see that of all Christian words, the great dividing line inside the minds and hearts of all Christians, is the two vastly opposing definitions of perfection. I do not know of any Christian except those who are resting inside Christ as them, who are not focused on the perfection of the serpent. That false image bars from them any chance for God as He is to come into their knowledge.
God’s Perfection. But I want to position God’s perfection here as the face of Jesus Christ before we define and expand on God’s perfection in the next session. To do that, I would share with you my experience yesterday.
I am visiting my daughter here in Canada, in a wonderful Christian community of some of the most precious people you could ever hope to meet. This is where my son will finish his final year of high school. As I observe these precious brethren in their work together, their eating together, their fellowship together – as they ARE, I see Jesus Himself all the way through ALL that they ARE as individuals and together.
As They ARE. Here’s the deal. Jesus is their life; He knows them; He carries all that they are utterly inside Himself; He reveals Himself through them every moment. They are without fault before the throne of God. They are the express image of the Person of Our Father just as they are in all of their human characteristics and in every moment and circumstance of their lives. They are already the Face of God as God means His Face to be.
A Great Contradiction. The terrible contradiction, however, is that they do NOT KNOW themselves – and they do not know the Father, but rather, in their religious expression, they position themselves as always fallen short of God, of “perfection” just beyond their reach.
For that reason, being present inside their religious expression, their songs of worship, their prophesying, and the “word” that they share, is, for me, an excruciatingly painful experience. Yet at no point do I see them as anything other than the Lord Jesus Himself, especially as they are gathered together for meals.
Hammer-locked. The problem for me, then, was that the Lord hammer-locked me into attending the service in which another brother had come from afar to preach – thus, even though I would be welcome to share freely the Word that I carry, yet, in respect, it would be the other brother’s time.
Now – if there had been any remaining sickness of “you must go to the service in order to submit to God,” I would have refused without concern. But I live entirely turned around. And thus I could see that my laying down my life for my brethren was my Father’s intention in His overflowing desire to be known by these precious dear one’s who fill His heart so full.
My Request. Early Sunday morning, then, I sent out to my readers the letter containing “Believers Together as Incense.” In that letter, I presented this request.
– I am finding myself in a very difficult place today, not at all outwardly, but entirely inwardly. I am caught in the intense travail of God for His church. I would ask, especially those of you who open this email early on today, that you would place yourself before the Almighty upon the Mercy Seat of your heart and extend, together with your Father, a bubble of Oour Holy Spirit for me to walk in as I have never known. And more than that, that the aroma of the gentle blessing of Christ would go forth from me to all in spite of all my personal inhibitions. –
My Purpose. Now, I have two very specific purposes for being as detailed as I can be in sharing this experience. The lesser is that everything God takes me through outwardly always seems to be the very next topic in my outline to write. And the greater is that this topic God was squeezing me in travail together with Him and with you is this very Door, the Face of God as His Church.
Asperger’s possesses two qualities. I am well able, when I am prepared, to encase myself in a full bubble of Jesus in protection against religious expression that is against the knowledge of God. But the other quality of Asperger’s is that such expression is excruciatingly painful to me, almost more than I can bare.
My Position. When we left for the service, I had seen that at least ten readers of these letters had opened them, you whom I knew would extend yourselves towards me turned around upon the Mercy Seat. More would open the email through the morning. Thus, in the spirit of my own mind, I positioned myself differently than I have ever known before.
You see, in the last letter I said that if you are in Jesus and Jesus is in me, then you are also in me, together with me. Thus I sat down in the service in the full knowledge of you inside of Jesus inside of me, of us together walking through this experience as the Veil and as the Door, the Face of God. You were literally and substantially with me in the Spirit as the face of Jesus Christ. I was NOT alone.
My Experience. The service was wonderful. The praise contained only one song of unbelief – “Create in me a clean heart” – while never ever believing that God has answered their request. Then the brother who shared presented a wonderful word, a word in which I found more than a dozen points from which I could have presented what I would have shared had there been time (that is, Symmorphy I: Purpose, Lesson 20.2 Ask and Believe).
What the brother did, in his sharing, was to take the congregation right up to the Veil and to look at the dim outline of the Holiest, right there, beckoning them in. What the brother was not able to do was to take them with him through that Veil and there to remain forever turned around inside the Holiest – partly because they had no idea that the Holiest IS John 14:20 only nor that the entrance IS Galatians 2:20 only.
My Dilemma. When the brother finished, there was a waiting pause which most certainly included an invitation for me to get up and share, which I was most willing to do. Yet I hesitated and then one of the elders got up, spoke just a bit, and closed the service.
At first I was a bit disappointed that I had not gotten up, even though I no longer second guess myself, but see all things as Christ. You see, I had the right word, the full ability of grace, and I know the anointing would have come upon me with power – to take these precious brethren by the hand, to gently cut away their false image of themselves, and to take them right into the Holiest of all (in their knowing) and there turn them around.
Until the Right Time. But through the afternoon, I realized that it was good that I had not done so. You see, although I could have shown them Christ in power living now as them in all that they are, using the power verses of the New Covenant of which they were fully aware, yet I was not in a position to sustain that Word towards them until they are grounded fully in it.
And thus, I would have shown them something in which they could not, yet, remain. Think of bringing forth a child prematurely, a child that gasps for breath, but cannot remain alive. It is better to remain in the womb until the right time.
The Veil and the Door. Now, what I am defining is actually the Veil, but the same truths hold true for the Door as for the Veil. The difference is only that level of Christian experience which each one faces. We know the Door, however, only as we now experience in full measure being the Veil, the very flesh of God towards His Church.
Now, I will not credit us with having anything to do with the morning service being a wonderful and uplifting experience. Yet more of you opened the email through the day and extended yourself towards me through Our Holy Spirit.
An Honored, but Separate Jesus. That evening, we were visiting in the home of a family here. After dinner, we all gathered in the living room and began to sing songs of worship. Suddenly, I found myself in the dilemma for which I had asked you to be here with me through the Spirit.
Every song, although fully honoring Jesus, positioned Jesus as separate from us, Jesus coming to us and touching us, an action we must reach for Him to do constantly. As I listened to song after song, I realized that there was no knowledge in these songs of Paul’s gospel, but only the Jesus known by the first disciples, a Jesus who did and who does wonderful things for us. One song even called Jesus, “You are my all in all,” yet I know that such a reality is neither known nor believed. In the song, it’s just a nice-sounding phrase.
My Travail and Father’s. For much of an hour, I sat there, joining in worship, most certainly, but not singing out loud, in travail together with Father for His answer for my brethren. Then, in the middle of the songs of praise, they sang a song that absolutely ripped me to pieces. It was a song I once sung, twenty years ago, with earnest fervency of heart, a song that once filled me with —? What I know not. It was a song of the most terrible Christian unbelief I have ever known.
I will share with you the words of that song in the upcoming lesson on God’s Perfection. It fits 100% into this outline of the Tabernacle as the expression of the Covenant.
My Healing Balm. I slept poorly that night, partly because I inadvertently ate the wrong stuff for lunch. When I rose early in the morning, I thought I wasn’t in much shape for writing. However, with a pot of coffee, I was soon feeling better. I opened my ChristRevealed.info website, and the first thing I did was listen to the song of our union with Christ shared by Bayila Dalaky. His words flowed across all the raw places in my heart as a soothing and healing balm. Thank you, Bayila.
Then, I read the letter I had sent out the previous morning, Believers Together as Incense. In those lessons was every answer I needed for all the questions raised in my heart all through that weekend.
The Largest Question. Yet the largest question remains. HOW, God, do I, and we together, show You as You are through us to our brethren so that they also might KNOW You as You are and rejoice in Christ Jesus as all that they are, including their sin and their flesh?
How are we to be the Veil, the very Flesh of our Father, showing Himself as He is to all these dear ones who are already filled with Christ, already perfect, already the revelation of Jesus Christ, so that they might KNOW who and what they are? (This is and will be the very same issue as the Door.) What is it that must be in place before we can, with all confidence and joy, convince our brethren, by the power of the Holy Ghost, that they ARE already entirely and only inside the Holiest, inside of John 14:20, for God put them there from the start, and all they have to do is turn around, that is, believe in Jesus?
Only One Answer. The answer to the largest question with which we are engaged in the present moment, as this Determined God steps forth in us to seize His Church to Himself is the same all the way through – the Community of Christ for real.
I, by myself, cannot be the witness of Christ, only we together. By your joining with me through our shared Holy Spirit, we are, together, a significant part of what the Veil/Door means now in our going forth. Yet I know, from long years of experience, that the power that sets God’s people free comes only when the outward expression of life together is in full visible expression through us.
My Mission. So, from here on out, expect only one thing from me – the constant pro-phecy, the calling forth of Christ as His Church – and in particular, that specific place of God that is for my wife and I, together with those whom God would draw into a tangible and real Christian Community with us, flowing entirely out from this word of Christ Our Life which I share.
It is from such a place alone that this Word coming through me in power can be a continuing Word that establishes many in the full reality of knowing Jesus Sent now as themselves.
I believe, in this lesson, that I have, indeed, described as best I can for you both Veil and Door, you and I together inside our shared Spirit and inside of visible Christian Community, the full expression of all that Jesus IS, the very Face of God.