27.3 All Things
© 2017 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Let’s consider this great estate which we have inherited. As heirs, we are now the owners, possessing full title right to everything God has created and will create, full title right to all the works of our Father’s hands.
And make no mistake about it; the absence of property right is the absence of peace and prosperity. The “commons” are always left in ruin because, in the end, no one personally cares.
Ask of Me, and I will give You the peoples for Your inheritance, and the extent of creation for Your possession (Psalm 2:8 – paraphrased).
Land. I am of south German stock – Anabaptists – farmers and peacemakers. Many of my ancestors come from the foothills of the Bernese Alps in Schweiz land. I have always held a secret desire, something that would mean an immense amount to me, should God ever give me its fulfillment. I want to own a piece of property – land of rich soil, many and varied trees, and flowing streams. Land with character and slope, hidden places and open fields. A good land. And I am not small-minded. The land of my heart would be at least a number of square miles. Enough to be complete, but not so much that I could not walk and know and care for every square foot of it.
Personal Meaning. Heaven without earth holds zero interest to me. I have no desire to know such a thing and its long waiting. Inheriting all creation holds no personal meaning, unless we can reduce such a concept to what does hold personal meaning. And personal meaning varies enormously from one person to the next; Father’s House is filled with many dwelling places.
I love finding properties through Google maps, anywhere in the world, actually. I print out the terrain maps, marking and studying them carefully. I dream of all I would shape and build. On a recent trip I went near one such property in southern Missouri and discovered that had God given me it, I would indeed have been in heaven on earth.
Larwood. Heaven on earth. That is not a cliché, nor a fantasy. That is actually God’s only reality; how all things actually exist.
But let’s make this investigation of our inheritance practical. Go to Google maps, type in Larwood Covered Bridge, Oregon, and set the “terrain” feature in the menu list found in the upper left of the search box. You will see a picture of Larwood Bridge, three miles north of where I grew up. Now scroll out until Richardson Gap Road on the west and Baptist Church Drive on the south are comfortably inside the screen. Or Follow this Link.
Yea – pretty much all of that. Between 25 and 30 square miles. My boundaries are definite, and I know them. The house my father built is inside those boundaries.
Look More Closely. Here is what I am getting at. “All things.” “Harps on clouds.” “All creation.” These things have no meaning. God made us humans. And humans connect personally with place and people.
Google maps are so cool. Anywhere you might be on this planet you can look at the same thing. Scroll in close to Larwood Bridge, then grab the little man in the bottom right corner with your pointer and place him on the blue line just to the right of Larwood Bridge. Look all around by twirling the screen with your pointer. Go down the road by clicking on the road until you see an open field. Look around again. Now scroll out until you get a three-D aerial view. Scroll out just a bit more until you can see all around Larwood Bridge.
I Would Shepherd That Land. What if God gave me such a land – all my own. I would know that land. I would walk its paths; I would note every tree. I would study the slopes and the flow of the streams. I would mark the boulders. I would map every detail.
I would care for that land with all the passion of a true shepherd.
But my vision of that land is in no way static, for I cannot see land without also seeing it filled with people and wondrous homes and lodges, paths and roads, gardens and orchards and the wonderful blueberry fields lining Roaring River and the vineyards I would plant on the south-facing slopes. And the people in many villages of joy.
Filled with People – and Berries. And I would know the people as I would know the land. I would know their delights and interests, their sorrows and tears. I would know all their expression. What times we would have, what sharing, what fellowship – and performances of every kind. We would work together shaping that land, planting the best trees, sawing logs into lumber and building beautiful things with our hands, these very hands.
Berries, lots of berries of every kind. Blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, red and black raspberries, thimble berries, salmon berries, loganberries, huckleberries, elderberries, even the lowly sumac berries among the trees. As I said, berries. And pink grapes and white grapes and blue grapes. Lots of blue grapes. And fire cherries and black cherries, regular cherries and plums. And three dozen varieties of apples.
Out of Father’s Heart. Every single one of these things (and all else) comes out from Father’s Heart, out from His Pro-Knowing. And every single one belonging to each one of us finds its full place in our own hearts.
You see, into that land, every step of it, and into the people, each dear one, I would speak Christ, I would speak life and joy, blessing and honor. And as I saw Christ Himself appearing in the land and in the people, so I would know Jesus Sent. And the homes we would build. Oh, the homes we would build. I know their placement. I know the essence of their shape. We would make Rivendell second rate.
Angels as Well. Yet we also understand this. Heaven is no longer hidden from our earth. So yes “elves” – angels – are as much a part of our lives as people. One of the sad things of The Lord of the Rings movies is that Rivendell was not filled with many elves, laughing. Indeed Rivendell as Tolkien created it was community as I envision it.
What a world that would be, as angels are as visible to us and part of our everyday lives, angels as persons, intermingling entirely with humans as persons. I would know each angel as I would know each human. And with the angels, all the substance of heaven very much part of its counterpart as it gives life to earth.
What heaven substance corresponds with blueberries, I wonder? And do angels prefer to live in and among the trees?
One Place. You can expand such a reality until every star in the sky is surrounded by living planets filled with the unending increase of the Kingdom, and still, this basic layout, in its essence, would be unchanged.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. – Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven (Matthew 5:5 & 12). You see, the entire problem with “heaven as another place” is that it is not. Verse 5 and verse 12 are simply both parts of the same thing. There is no heaven separate from earth; there is no earth separate from heaven. The two are one place.
Fruit That Remains. I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain (John 15:16). – Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full (John 16:23). – For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was… to Abraham and to his seed… through the righteousness of faith. – Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed (Romans 4:13 & 16 – reduced).
Now we have received… the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God (1 Corinthians 2:12 – reduced). – He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son (Revelation 21:7).
The Covenant. Now that we have our picture of a personalized inheritance, let’s bring the Covenant into that picture. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them (Hebrews 8:11). You see, to speak Christ into each one is not to “teach them to know the Lord,” quite the opposite. Speaking Christ into one another affirms that each one knows the Lord and that the one speaking is not “superior.” When I speak Christ into you, I am raising you above myself.
Nonetheless, God remains invisible; for each one to know the Lord as He is, something else must be in the picture.
Enlarging Covenant. The truth is, there is more substance in this course, substance filled with more specifics, than I ever imagined. I had assumed that writing this course would clarify Covenant, at least for me. Yet the exercise has, in fact, so enlarged Covenant that I tend to forget much of what has come before. The task of specifying the Covenant for the next session will require much study. One of the most important lessons in this course has a very unassuming title – “Lesson 7.1 Wood, Gold, and Bronze.” In that lesson we looked at each piece of furniture in the Tabernacle, the action taking place on it, and the fruit coming forth from it, as the essence of the Covenant.
For All. Here is what was said. – None of these things are for us who are engaged in this Covenant with God, nor for God. All these things are for others. Yet all these things are Uus, that is, God and us together. And God and us together are then these things for all.
From the Ark, God and us together give the inner strength of life to each member of God’s creation. From the Mercy Seat, God and us together give direction and purpose to each member of Oour creation. From the Table, God and us together give the outward sustenance of life to each member of creation. From the Lampstand, God and us together give light upon the way for each member of creation. From the Altar of Incense, God and us together give the well-pleasing odor of Christ coming to each member of creation.
Five Fruits of the Covenant. 1. Inner strength of Life. 2. Direction and purpose. 3. Outer sustenance of life. 4. Light upon the way. 5. The pleasing aroma of Christ. Manna – Authority – Bread – Light – Aroma.
These are the five things God wants He and us together to be towards every individual person or entity in His entire creation coming out from this Covenant with us. Everything that is involved in the terms of the Covenant is for the producing of these five things for all. And thus we know that by these five things is how all will know God. Let’s bring these five things, then, into this picture of my and our role as shepherds over our great estate.
What I Give. As we learned, though all will know the Lord, not all will know Him at the same level or by the same means.
I, as an individual, moving freely among all those people and angels, plants, animals, and elementals, physical substance and heavenly substance, all intermingled, will be to all as the Ark of the Covenant with the Mercy Seat upon it. I will give to them their own hidden manna in their due season, writing Christ upon their hearts, inner strength of life. And I will carry them upon my heart before God as His Mercy Seat, not controlling anyone, but imparting direction and purpose to each.
But I will not be alone, for always, some of you, sons together with me, will walk together in each place.
What We Give. And together, we will bless the fields and the flocks and whatever sustenance angels rely upon, and from our blessing abundance of life will be sustained. Our fellowship together will show to all what Father is all about. And our walk together, loving one another with a pure heart fervently will waft through every nook and crevice of all that estate as the pleasing aroma of Christ.
That brings us to what I think will be the most precious of all things we inherit. One another. – For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you as the face of our Lord Jesus Christ inside of His presence? For you are our glory and joy (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20).