29.1 Giving an Account
© 2017 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
In this first part of the review, we want to look at the practical application of all we have learned through this study of Covenant.
Now, there is a two-part factor an astute student of the Word might wonder as to why it is not found in any of the prior lessons in this course. That two-part factor is our giving an account of the deeds done in the body – and the reward we do receive from God as wages for our works. Yet it is those two things that must fit here as our present practical application of the Covenant.
Consider carefully the entirety of 1 Corinthians 3:9-15.
Revealed by Fire. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will prove each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
The Fire of Covenant. Paul places his gospel of our full union with Christ as the foundation upon which we build, and he concludes with the affirmation that being carried by Jesus all the way through death is all that we need. Yet, in-between, there is a work, a proving, and a reward.
Amazingly, one would imagine that a study of Kingdom would be all about action and adventure and a study of Covenant would be all about dull facts. Yet we have found the opposite. For Kingdom is all peace flowing quietly out from rest and Covenant is all fiery action inside the Energia of God. Without the Fire of Covenant there can be no righteousness or peace in Kingdom. It is the Fire that proves the work.
Fire in Your Mouth. Where do we find the Fire of Covenant? Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.” Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us? Then I said, “Here am I! Send me” (Isaiah 6:6-8).
Here is that exact same experience for us in the New Testament. The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach) (Romans 10:8). – As the Father has sent Me, I also send you (John 20:21).
Giving an Account. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned (Matthew 12:36-37).
The word “idle” does not refer to daily human conversation. From the list of synonyms in Strong’s definition, I draw two words, inactive and unprofitable. In other words, the speaking of words that are contrary to life. The one who states: “Where no sin can stand in my way, let me enter in, with boldness I pray,” is speaking words of unbelief and rebellion contrary to Christ. Those words can result only in continued death, that is, in not knowing Jesus Sent. And remember, there is only one Day of Judgment, ever, and that is TODAY!
Speaking Christ. Our account of ourselves as well as our account of all others inside ourselves IS the account we are giving to God every moment. And that account is either out from God Energia or out from strange energia. I am speaking of the story we tell ourselves about ourselves in the context of ourselves first, our brethren second, and all creation, third.
The practice of the Covenant is the practice of speaking Christ, the fire of God from the altar placed into our mouths, the Fire by which alone all that is not-Christ could ever vanish away. Thus our logon “giving an account (a form of logos),” is found further in three incredible words in the New Testament: homologia (the same word), parrhesia (bold statements), and prophéteia (calling forth the Knowledge of God.
Expressions of Logon. Alas, this is not a content lesson, but part of the Review, that is, how we can apply practically the things we have learned in this course. For this reason, so much of my present thoughts regarding these things must wait for the next course. Here, let’s bring in how these three expressions of logon, giving our account to God every moment, actually work in our lives.
Homologia – Let us hold the rudder of speaking the same word of hope resolutely and unyieldingly, (that we are just like Jesus), for filled with faith is the One who promised (Hebrews 10:23). Jesus is every Word God speaks; His fire in our mouths means that we speak the same Word He is as our own story.
Stronger and Stronger. Parrhesia – Love has been brought to full completion among us in this: that we may speak bold statements (of Christ our life) in (this present To)day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this present age, in this present moment (1 John 4:17). Do you see how 1 John 4:17 just gets stronger and stronger?
Prophéteia – God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did (Romans 4:17b). Even though the term “prophecy” is not in this line, yet it gives the clearest definition of what “calling forth” means. Prophecy is NOT “prediction”; prophecy is the Ekenosis, the calling forth of an unknowable God into being part of us.
Between Two Words. You see, I place myself entirely and always right in-between two words from the gospels. Let it be to me according to Your Word – Let it be to you according to your faith.
It is insane to insist inside one’s being that every circumstance and every moment is an invisible God with me – against all outward appearance. Those who think that way are normally confined to padded cells. Those whose hearts are not failing them for fear right now are willfully blind to the things even now arising on the earth – and I am NOT speaking of world war. Yet I WILL say that this moment of my present darkness IS God through me restoring His Church to her glory.
Pirates, like David. Now, look again at the three verses that give us the clearest pictures of these three views of the same thing, our speaking Christ as the only life we are, our account of ourselves to God every moment. Do you see how BOLD and daring these statements are? Only fierce pirates, like David, who care not a fig what anyone else thinks, would SPEAK the same words Jesus speaks as themselves, right in the very Face of the Almighty.
I do not see these three Greek words as three “steps” in the speaking of Christ, but rather, as three closely related definitions of that one speaking. Nonetheless, we have seen through this study of Covenant that there are three steps in the speaking of Christ, with each of these three verses defining together each one of those steps.
Steps of Speaking Christ. The first step of speaking Christ is to speak Christ as yourself. The second is to turn around, seated upon the Mercy Seat, speaking Father and you together, speaking goodness out from Father towards all things. And the third is to go forth with Father into His Church speaking Christ into the hearts of all.
Now, I want to apply something concrete to the speaking of Christ. When I was in college at Blueberry, I took a course in my first year on a general study of the Old Testament. When we got to the Psalms, we learned that there are seven (I think) different Hebrew words for praise used by David. I don’t remember all of the others, but one of those words became permanent in my thinking – shabach – SHOUT OUT LOUD!
Shouting Christ. Without even thinking about it, I found myself quite inclined to do that (but something I could dare only in full solitude). I shouted at the top of my lungs, out loud with my voice box, with all my strength and energy. I shouted praise. I shouted tongues. I shouted my contention with God. I shouted prayer, and although I did not know such a thing, I shouted Christ. I have been shouting Christ since I was thirty years old.
I am so incredibly grateful for the gift of God in my mouth. You see, in August 2006, when I heard Joel Osteen say, “Speak what God says you are,” that understanding found a fully prepared soil inside of me. I was writing out the verses of Matthew-on found in The Jesus Secret, with all the shabach of my heart, before that day was done.
Practice What I Teach. If you are practicing what I teach, then you are shouting Christ your only life out loud with your voice box, with all the strength and enthusiasm of your heart and by every Word that He is. You are giving to God the only Account He ever wants to hear from you.
Let’s bring this practice, then, into the fulness of the Covenant in our lives. The first part of speaking Christ is our inclusion inside of Jesus in Gethsemane, that is, Jesus has become all that we are as we find ourselves to be. We can know Jesus only in, as, and by our own hearts.
A Two-Way Street. Yet it is never enough to speak Christ as yourself, for that is only the first part of Covenant. You must also speak yourself as Christ Jesus.
Union with Christ is a two-way street, Person inside of person. Yes, you are IN Jesus, which means Jesus has become all that you are. BUT – Jesus is also IN you, which means you have become all that Jesus IS, every word God speaks, Christ as others, a Spirit of Power AND – a many-membered Body.
I begin by calling all my stumbling foolishness the Lord Jesus Christ, having become all that I am, sharing all my agony utterly together with me. But we know God only by His double-riddle.
God’s Double Riddle. We know Jesus-Sent only in our hearts, only by knowing ourselves for real, entirely as we are, for He has become us. But we do NOT and CANNOT know what we are. You do not know yourself. So how can you know Jesus as you when you do not know you.
Therefore we know ourselves only as we know Christ, hence the Jesus Secret, speaking all that is Christ Himself that we might know who and what we are. Yet, in acknowledging the good things of Christ inside of us, we NEVER EVER see ourselves as anything other than Jesus having become us in all our present limitations.
What is God? A Man shows us. What is a Man? Whatever God is. – God’s double-riddle.
Practice the Mercy Seat. Christ as me is where we must begin in the fulness of the Covenant. But then we must go on to Christ IN and THROUGH me, that is we must know our own hearts as the very Mercy Seat of God. It is in practicing being the Mercy Seat towards others, together with Father, calling every moment and circumstance in our lives as God in me reconciling the world to Himself, that we live in the second level of speaking Jesus-Sent, that is, of knowing God.
By this we know love, because He set forth His soul for us, and we also ought to set forth our souls (the Mercy Seat) for the brethren. Having become then, God’s Mercy Seat, we see before our eyes the third level of speaking Jesus Sent – into Jerusalem.
The Journey of the Ark. And therefore we journey forth as the Ark of the Covenant, never leaving the Holiest, for we ARE the Holiest, speaking Christ into one another, into our brethren, into all creation, calling forth an invisible God into the joy of being seen and known by all.
But it is only in direct conversation, face to face together, that I can speak Christ into you and that you can speak Christ into me. And thus the third level of knowing God is walking together as Christ’s physical Body, loving one another with a pure heart fervently. I know when a reader has embraced all that I teach, I hear of them speaking Christ into others, whatever the personal cost.
My Great Reward. There are verses that clearly state that we, as believers in Jesus, do receive a reward from God out from the works we do in our physical bodies in the present Today. Read 1 Corinthians 3:9-15 again. To know Christ as ourselves is to be in all the salvation of God, yes, but with no reward. Our human weakness is essential to the perfection of Christ, but not the whole picture. Yet what is our reward?
I visited last week with a brother just outside of New York City. During our visit, I had the opportunity to speak Christ into him, not as anything other then two brothers who love Jesus together. And he also spoke Christ into me.
Yet I know that fruit has arisen and will arise inside this brother’s life as a result of the words of Christ I imparted to him face to face. That fruit of Christ in him is my great reward forever. I am a wealthy, wealthy man.