8.2 Describing the Holiest
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
The Holy of Holies in Moses' Tabernacle, and thus the same Holy of Holies inside of God, is a perfect cube, 10 cubits by 10 cubits by 10 cubits. Let's get a full picture of this room in which we sit together with God upon the Mercy Seat.
In front of us is the Veil, the flesh of Christ, now our flesh, a Veil that in no way blocks our view. Thus, for us, right in front of us is the Altar of Incense and all those of our brethren living under that Altar, crying “How long,” yet unwilling to enter into Life. It is these whom we love who hold our immediate attention, yet they are certainly not our whole picture.
Coming down into us out from the heavens is the Being and Person of God, we as the tip point of Himself, the entrance of the Energeia of God into His creation. We do not “see” this Fire, for we are this Fire and it burns as Life inside of us. The Fire burns, but it does not consume us, as it did not consume the bush that Moses saw, as it does not consume the Blood. Yet we and that Blood are the entrance through which this Fire comes.
A Diagram of the Holiest
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Our Surroundings. On either side of us, in our immediate context, we see the two cherubim with wings outstretched around us, this one who KEEPS us utterly from all things not of God and this one who SANCTIFIES us utterly unto all things that are of God. Directly above our heads are the four coverings of Christ by which we are covered, yet we also see these same coverings of Christ as that which is beneath of us, carrying us through all, and that which is within us, the only life we are.
Then, just beyond the cherubim and also behind our backs, as the “boundaries” of this infinite space in which we live, are the wooden boards, covered with gold, that make up three of the walls of this Holiest place. This is most interesting, for the walls to our left and our right remain covered by the four coverings that are Christ, whereas the wall to our backs is just the wooden boards covered with gold. Beyond them there is no covering except the goat skin, Christ living as us forever.
Extending into the Holy Place. The coverings over our heads, the wooden boards covered with gold to our left and our right, and the wooden bars covered with gold supporting those boards in place, all of those things extend on out to the Holy Place as the same thing. We will study these three things more when we look at the Holy Place, yet here is one thing we must know about these three things now, coverings, boards, and bars. These three are part of the Holiest. As they extend into the Holy Place, they remain the same, yet in the Holy Place, they are extensions of the Holiest.
When we arrive in the Holy Place, together with Father, we will see all that is in this place as it exists entirely and only as the New Creation, the Church, the fullness of Christ Jesus who fills all in all. And we will see the meaning of covering, boards, and bars inside the essence of Church as all Salvation. But again, we retain the understanding that these things simply extend the Holiest out to include in itself all that is the Church.
Within and Upon. Then, we look inside of ourselves and see there Christ as our very hearts, as the Covenant of God beating in our chests, forever being transformed by the Fire of God as resurrection life into the very Manna, the name of our Father and of His Christ within us, this LIFE for which we entered this Covenant to obtain.
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you (Romans 8:11). – To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written… (Revelation 2:17).
And finally we see that we are seated upon Blood sprinkled upon one piece of pure gold beaten fine into the Mercy Seat of God. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me upon My throne even as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne (Revelation 3:21).
Seeing Our Brethren. Okay, these exciting things must wait for their own sessions. The boards and the bars will also wait for the sessions on the Holy Place, for they signify Christ as His Church. And here's the deal, because the Veil in no way blocks our view, we do not see the Holy Place as our brethren remaining in it see it. We see the Holy Place as complete and we see all of our brethren remaining in it as being fully complete in Christ living now as them. The fact that they don't know the truth about themselves does not change our view of them. We see no sign of sin or of falling short. We see only Christ living now as them.
You see, those remaining in the Holy Place in the present moment, including all those drawing near to God, but refusing to enter into God, continue seeing and defining their reality by the definitions of the outer court. They still see God through the image of the serpent; that's why they are afraid to enter into God, He looks too much like the devil to them. And they still define themselves by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We see them only by the tree of life.
The Four Coverings. I do want to talk about the four coverings, however, as part of our description of this Holiest of Holies in which we live, that is, our description of God.
When I mentioned the tent coverings in Session 6, I did not have in mind what those four different things might be. After I wrote that bit, I thought – four? – and my teaching on the four aspects of Christ, developed in Symmorphy IV: Kingdom. My initial response was skepticism, since those four aspects come out of my own teaching layout and are not an actual statement of Scripture. I do not force things together. If something does not fit perfectly, I will not make it “fit.” I get so much excitement out of what God does say that I have no time for any emptiness of my own invention. At first I doubted that my “four aspects of Christ” actually fit.
The Four Aspects of Christ. But the more I compared those four aspects of Christ with the four coverings, the more they fit together, and the more my understanding grew. Let's try the comparison.
The linen cloth embroidered with cherubim is Christ as every Word God speaks. The goat's hair cloth is Christ as the One who lives as me. This is vastly significant, for it is the doubled goat's hair that beckons us from the outer court to enter into Christ, this One who has already become our sins as well as our sinfulness, this One who has become us, and on the other side – Christ living as us in our humanity continuing forever.
The ram's skins died red was the one that didn't seem to fit at first. In John's vision, heaven calls this aspect of Christ, “the Lamb Slain.” Yet the third aspect of Christ is Christ as a connecting Spirit of Power.
The Four Aspects Continued. We know, then, that the Blood of the Lamb and the Oil of the Spirit are speaking of the same life force that makes us the Body of Christ. Word and Spirit, Blood and Oil, cannot ever be separated, but are utterly part of one another.
Finally, the outer waterproof covering is Christ as a Corporate Body. And it is here, in this outermost covering, that we find the function of those ministries of Christ typically referred to as “covering.” Yet those ministries of Christ through His elect can operate in their small role of the whole picture of covering ONLY as the first three aspects of Christ are in their full place, particularly that covering of Christ that says to every “minister” of God – “I, Jesus, I AM living right here entirely as this one to whom you are ministering.”
A Peculiar Statement. I have come to understand the true meaning and nature of an apostolic covering ministry. And thus I find myself able, finally, actually to teach you such a thing.
Let me talk about a peculiar statement of Paul's first, and then I will attempt a definition of apostolic covering. So then death is working in us, but life in you. – For all things are for your sakes… (2 Corinthians 4:12 & 15a).
As I am writing this, I am visiting again in a community of the move of God of which I was a part for many years. Regardless of the kindness of the brethren towards me, still all my memory of the condemnation under which I existed continually while in this fellowship stands around my present awareness. This present awareness exists for one reason, that I might continue to draw from Christ my only life to bring forth a specific answer to all the objections our brethren have against entering fully into the Holiest of All. As I left that fellowship, I put off all these Bible references to “death,” for the only death I knew about was a weight I could not ever bear. Yet this is part of what I mean, that these things are known as they really are only as we live turned around inside the Holiest.
The Mercy Seat. Thus I now understand the “death” of which Paul was speaking in an ENTIRELY different manner. Indeed, there is NO connection of meaning between this living “death” inside of God and that wicked “death” inside of Nicene theology, the splitting apart of satanic mind control. I now understand what Paul meant, and I understand because this is now what God is leading me to practice towards you.
The source of all apostolic covering is the Mercy Seat, and the Mercy Seat operates in us and through us entirely by our expectation of God. This Mercy Seat that IS our very hearts operates in two directions at the same time. On the one hand, I am drawing you into my heart into the Love of God, here as I live together with God above the Blood. And here, above the Blood, I continually release you into all the fullness of God revealed with no consciousness of sins. Then, in the other direction, I expect with all confidence together with God, that Oour Holy Spirit, going forth from Uus, is turning all things difficult towards your benefit and blessing.
From My “Death” to Your Life. You see, wrecking my wife's car was not a fun thing to have done. If I had preferred living in myself, I would have become discouraged, questioning “Why, God, did YOU let this happen?” And in such a state, I would have ceased writing for a bit, with no thought of you. More than that, seeing this difficult thing work out “for my good” is fairly low in my valuation. Certainly, I expect the goodness of God in my own life, and I desire many good things out from God. Yet it is far more important to me that LIFE would arise in you directly as a result of God and I together turning Oour “mistakes” into your blessing.
And thus, in my expectation of God and God's expectation through me, I expect that Oour Holy Spirit will go out from my loss and become your gain. Thus “death” working in me becomes life arising in you. You see, a “mistake” only remains a mistake if we fail to turn it, together with God, into life and blessing for others by our expectation of faith.
The Heart of God. Now, I am sharing all this because I really want to capture for you the practical heart of living inside of God, inside and as His Heart. Thus it was in this mind of Father and I together turning EVERYTHING that might be difficult for Uus into goodness and life arising in you that I drove a few hours out of my way to Canada to spend time with a brother in western Kansas who has been reading and practicing what I write for some years now. It was in my heart to be a blessing to him and to lift him up in honor.
Yet when I drove on from there and from that time of fellowship and blessing, I found quite the reverse. In my own consciousness, my blessing of him constituted maybe 10% and his blessing of me the vastly larger 90%. I cannot tell you how deeply I was strengthened and lifted up by seeing the life and reality of this word God has granted me to share as it came back to me through a dear brother alive inside this same speaking of Christ.
The Working of Confidence. Indeed, as this brother spoke Christ back into me, the same word I thought I had taught him, but hearing it myself now on a different level, a level of reality and substance, I find myself walking on a far stronger foundation of confidence than I had known before. This confidence works, now, in two directions. On the one hand it is a strengthening of KEEP and SANCTIFY as they guard me in all things through which Father and I walk together AND, on the other hand, it is a far more clear seeing of the path forward to the community of Christ that fills my heart.
We have established thus far that resurrection life is known in our present moment as the increase of our CONFIDENCE in God utterly together as one Pperson with us. Thus my attempt to turn the difficult things Father and I go through together into life and joy arising in you succeeded mostly, so it seems to me, in a return of Life as an increase of the energeia, the working of confidence in me.
All Things Become Good. Nothing is ever good in itself even though all things come every moment out from the good speaking of Jesus. Things become good only as Father and us together SEE them as good. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness (Genesis 1:3-4). Light became, yes, but light was not “good” until God SAW the light as good. Once God saw the light as good, only then was it separated from the darkness.
This is God's pro-thesis, His original intention found in the Covenant written upon our hearts, that Father would work together with us and we with Him to turn all things good. But to turn all things good is to suffer inside Oourself a loss. And that's what this living “death” is inside of God, the willingness to lose everything, to set all things free from Himself.
All Things Return. Yet, just as my feeble attempt to suffer loss for your sake resulted mostly in an overflowing abundance of life returning back to me through you, so it is with God. God sets all things free from Himself, and then He sends forth Christ expecting. But what happens for us also happens for God. For Christ returns bearing all creation inside Himself fully restored back to God. Except now, creation knows God as He sings and laughs with joy through us, His entrance into being part of His creation.
Oh the goodness and wonder of God.
And this is the Holiest of All, the place where we dwell now and forever. This is its essence; this is its rest; this is its constant working.
So What Is the Covering? Here is what I find. As I went forward from my time with this brother in Kansas, I passed through a week of great inward (not outward) difficulty. As Father and I together walked through the circumstances in this context, I drew entirely from the foundation of strength and certainty that I gained from my interaction with the dear brother. I could see clearly how our interaction together had become my covering through difficult circumstances, protecting and keeping me.
At the same time, though it is beyond me to consider anything as of myself, yet my expectation of faith in God who fills me full is that the same sense of clarity, of light, of purpose, of sending, and of heart that came upon me is also coming upon the other brother directly as a result of our interaction together. And that sense of covering, of the knowledge of the immediacy of God upon our way and utterly with us, comes out from the apostolic Word that I share with you in the Sending of Jesus, otherwise known as the Lord Jesus Christ, the very One whom you already know so very well.