23.3 Calling Forth Christ
© 2017 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
I have one purpose in this lesson, and that is to place before our eyes something so Holy, something so REAL, something that causes me to tremble in the FEAR of the Almighty. I want to show you Christ Jesus as He is, as I have never seen Him before.
There is one God, the Father, and one Connection between God and man, the Man, Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5). This Man, Christ Jesus, exists entirely in the form of a Life-giving Spirit. God is All Here Now, God All in all. Thus this Man, “seated at the right hand of the Father” IS the Father becoming known in every place, but first in every heart that belongs to Him.God and Creation. Thus, as we picture the Father as filling all things and in whom all things exist, so we know Jesus as the becoming known of this invisible God, not just to us, but, in the end, to all creation. Jesus making Father known to all creation happens entirely through one thing – Christians on this earth loving one another.
Now, I want to position God and creation, not regarding substance, but regarding the knowledge of God. The totality of God, including the Atonement is absolute; the ignorance of creation is also absolute.
A Hole in the Dike. You very likely read a story when you were younger about a little boy who had gone for a walk beneath the great dikes that kept the sea water out of the lowlands of the Dutch farmers. The boy noticed a tiny trickle of water coming out from near the bottom of the dike. Somehow this boy understood, maybe not specifically, that the sea, way above him, would drown the entire lowlands and all the people in them. And that this little trickle could grow into a complete breach of the dike. In great insight and courage, the little boy stuck his finger into that hole to stop the water. Long after dark, the concerned villagers found him, still there, still keeping the waters out. This little boy had preserved all their lives.
Reversing the Story. Now, let’s reverse that story entirely. You see, the press of God being known is enormous; yet the walls of the ignorance of creation continue successfully to keep that knowledge out in spite of the fact that every single person in creation lives and moves and has their being only inside of and out from this ocean of living Spirit. And remember that God being known by all is the essence of God’s immense Desire and the whole purpose of everything.
Then, we also know this Life-giving Spirit longing to be known (our Jesus) as every Word God speaks. Thus this OCEAN pressing against that dike is the Voice and meaning of EVERY single Word coming forth from God.
What Penetrates the Wall? Now, consider that hard black line in the diagram, the prevention of creation from singing in harmony with Christ as the revelation of Father.
Here are two questions asking exactly the same thing. What penetrates that wall? – When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith in the earth? Jesus, as He said, was speaking figuratively, for He comes only through faith.
Now, consider the difference between the enormity of God’s desire to be known coming through unending Word AND the tiny period that is ignorance.Only through Faith. Close your eyes and envision the enormity of that Pressure of God becoming known by Infinite Word, all of God’s thoughts regarding each one, pressing with all passionate Desire towards all creation. Yet this same God is meek and lowly of heart and He will never force His knowledge on anyone.
Christ can come ONLY through faith.
Now, this same immeasurable Word, this same Life-giving Spirit has come through faith into our hearts and there He has made His eternal dwelling place. His Faith IS our faith. Yet He has also made us His witness, to speak the same Word in harmony together with Him.
The Testimony of Jesus. The testimony of Jesus is not telling people about a God defined by Nicene theology; the testimony of Jesus IS the Spirit of Pro-phecy, calling forth that which does not appear into the knowledge of all.
We are the little boy at the dike. Only our role is completely reversed. Somehow, we understand that the only way all this Word can penetrate the darkness of creation is if we open our mouths and speak in harmony with that same word, calling forth Christ into the knowledge of all. And we find the courage to do so.
But what is it that God needs in order to become known?
Open the Gates. There is only one way to defeat a city that possesses an impregnable wall. You must have your own inside that city who secretly OPEN the gates. Let me define the gates – our mouths.
You see, this Knowledge of God exists entirely in the form of Spirit Word. Yet Spirit Word is much more than talking about. Spirit Word is a Symphony of Life. Every metaphor enabling us to know Jesus and Spirit is involved in knowing this greatest of pictures – God becoming known.
Here is the penetration. The dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live (John 5:25).
He Needs a Voice. Let me try to say what I’m trying to say. You and I have already turned around. We already speak Christ as our only life by every Word that He is. Yet there is so much more Word, just in the Bible, Word which we hardly comprehend.
That Word is Living Spirit, and that Word is in our mouths. We have the authority to speak Christ, to speak as God speaks, to call forth life from the dead. This WORD is wanting to be known, every Word that is Jesus. All He needs is a voice, many little voices, the sounds of many waters, calling forth that Word into visibility, calling forth the knowledge of God in every place.
Harmony. Yet that Word made visible, the express image of God’s Person, is very specific. The Word made visible IS a family of people walking together as one, loving one another with a pure heart fervently.
You and I are the Gate, the Doors of Tabernacles, our mouths, the words of our mouths. As we speak every Word that is Jesus into fulfillment, not just in our own lives, but in the entire Church of God, we are coming into harmony as one with that Word. That harmony of our hearts and mouths is the penetration of the knowledge of God into the knowledge of creation.
Immense Power and Desire is behind every Word we speak.
A Leak Has Been Sprung. Close your eyes and picture the immense Heart of Father to be known coming through WORD, through the Words that are Jesus now found in your mouth. As you speak those words in harmony with the Life-giving Spirit that Jesus is, you are now God’s inside man or woman.
A leak has been sprung in the dike.
As we turn that story around, we realize, as the little boy did, that one tiny trickle is all that is needed. That tiny trickle, left unchecked, will open to several trickles, then a spigot, and then a torrent as more and more holes open up, more and more voices speak Christ their only life, until a great flood of the Knowledge of God comes pouring through the Church, a family of people as the revelation of God.
The Witness of Jesus. Again, this is NOT a “telling about.” The gospel is not old men going around talking.
The witness of Jesus is the Spirit of Calling Forth. – God who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as they ARE. The prophecy of Christ is a Spirit agreement, His Words in our mouths, His Words made our own, personal as us.
Yet because it is Jesus, we no longer limit this calling forth of Christ to our own lives, but we speak, now, regarding the entire Church of Christ. We call forth a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle.
Community. There is no revelation of Father without Community. There is no revelation of Father without brethren walking together, loving one another.
Here is all we need to know. This is My commandment that you love one another just as I have loved you. That’s not an idea. That’s Spirit Life POWER seeking for all fulfillment with the entire earnest Passion of the Almighty. That Word does not need the failed works of our own human performance to become what it is. That Word needs faith. That Word needs mouths that speak in full harmony with Himself. That Word needs calling forth into visibility.
Power to Witness. You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit is come upon you and you shall be my witnesses (Acts 1:8). – I will give power to My two witnesses and they shall prophecy (Revelation 11:3). – The witness of Jesus IS the Spirit of Pro-Calling Forth (Revelation 19:10b). But because the Church has never actually known the gospel, she has never known witness either.
Now, here’s the thing. Pro-Calling Forth does fit here as the Victorious Church goes forth as God becoming known to all the world before the resurrection. But our concern is first for the Church herself.
A Precious People. So let’s place ourselves in this present moment. Our focus is on one thing – the Church – our brethren – millions of Spirit-filled believers in Jesus who hardly know God and who do NOT know who they are. We don’t have to be any more than the little boy. All we have to know is that a trickle is all that is needed.
As I consider all those who currently read this letter, there are a few with whom I have never communicated, but the majority of you I know, either face-to-face or by email. What an incredibly precious group of people. There are no “big-shots” among us. Yet you are real people, kind and caring, filled with joy and the earnest expectation of God.
Through Each One. Each one of you is unique; through each one of you this word of Christ our life finds a fascinatingly different expression.
One of my readers is a formerly Jewish woman who writes poetry similar to modern female Jewish poets. She shared with me a poem she wrote in that style. The words were similar to what I have studied in Poetry courses, but utterly different from my own.
Yet the knowledge of the word I share, turning our darkness towards His goodness, the arising expectation of God, calling forth Christ into human reality – was all through her words, reverberating upon my own heart in great encouragement.
And the same word is unique through each one of you.
Fear and Trembling. There are two parts to our homologia, our harmony with Christ, Jesus in our mouths. The first is that the Word must be pure, untainted with the doctrines of men. The second is that it must be personal to us and current to our individual personality and manner of speaking. It is upon both that I find the fear and trembling of God.
On this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word (Isaiah 66:2). This is a play on words, for the “trembling” goes in both directions. First, we share heart with God, including our love for what Jesus actually says, and second, our own person vibrates with that same word.
A Glorious Church. In the next session, as we look at the Power of the Spirit going forth from us accomplishing all that Father and we speak, we will expand on the immense importance of a PURE word in our mouths. Here we want to finish with the wondrous realization that this Word that IS Jesus has become us as we find ourselves to be.
And thus it is from our own hearts that the Word of Prophecy, the Calling Forth of Christ proceeds. And the joy of our own hearts is all we need to speak, to sing, in harmony with Jesus. “The Father and I are one.”
– You are a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle; you are the fullness of Christ revealed. –