5. Sustained

Upholding and sustaining all things by the Word of His power (Hebrews 1:3).

Pheron – both words used in most translations, upholding and sustaining, contain meanings that are found in the word pheron. Yet pheron goes even beyond these incredible words.

Before we look at this reality in which we live every moment, I want to pull out by the roots one of the greatest and most destructive tares sown by the serpent in the field of the church – even in the translations of the Bible. – “The 'return' of the Lord.”

Preston Eby, in his wonderful series of teachings, Looking for His Appearing, lays out the several Greek words found in the New Testament all translated into the English words “return” or “coming,” and none of them meaning either one.

The word “return” is the declaration of the serpent that Jesus is NOT HERE NOW. Jesus said, “I am with you always.” The serpent says, “Someday.” Rather, the primary word translated “return” or “coming” is parousia, meaning presence, that is, all here now.

Let me define Jesus. Jesus is two things, always fused together, 100% of one and 100% of the other. Jesus is a person, made real to us as a human, of our same kind – and we of His, the best, the wisest, and the kindest, our brother, our friend AND Jesus is the entrance of the Father, every moment and at every point, into His creation, entrance meaning Creator and Sustainer, the Word the Father is always speaking. Never is Jesus one of these two without being the other full and complete.

But the word pheron has three parts: to bear, to carry, and to bring forth. “To bring forth” is the greatest of the three, “to bear” the most incredible, and “to carry” the most precious.

My purpose in this letter is to place before my own eyes every nuance of meaning found in that word pheron. But, you see, although the words “all things by the Word of His power” help us to comprehend this Jesus, only one application is vital to me, my very life. – Jesus pheron's me. Jesus bears, carries, and brings forth ME. – Bringing forth, upholding, carrying, and sustaining ME by the Word of His power.

The word “return” BREAKS every part of who and what Jesus is. Let us break the word “return” out of our minds and hearts. Jesus is not “coming back.” I cannot even imagine such childish, even wicked, treatment of the Lord Jesus Christ, our life and our heart.

Jesus is ALL HERE NOW and Personal inside of ME. And I, with you, am His body, the selfsame body that rose from the grave. We share our body together. – This is the gospel.

What is yet to happen is the apocalypse, the unveiling of Jesus Christ, when the cover is taken off and this ALL HERE NOW Jesus filling us with His glory is seen and known by all. That cover is the cataracts being removed from our eyes. But we see Him now fully as He IS – through faith.

Now, this word “sustain” is at the heart of John 14:20. But I find it changing my mind with joy as nothing ever before. I have said that everything looks different from here. I had no idea.

When the Lord first brought me back to Himself at age 19, I purchased all the expensive tomes on Bible study found at our local Christian book store including a text titled The Total Depravity of Man by Arthur W. Pink. Obviously, Pink was a Presbyterian Calvinist, for the title is one of the five tenets of Calvinism. I read maybe a third of the book, intrigued by its clear Biblical layout of innumerable verses, Old Testament and New. But, although I wanted to finish it, I did not, and then I lost it. It simply vanished from my bookshelf. Several years later I bought it again, but before I could read it, the book vanished again. I have no idea how each time.

You see, it’s not that the Bible verses Pink used were untrue; it's that he was missing the key element in the picture of man and of all things. He had left out the Lord Jesus Christ. And that missing key meant that he took all those true verses and fitted them into all the wrong places.

Sustaining all things by WORD. – That word is two things, it is HIS power and it is HIS goodness.

There is no such thing as an evil nature, either in the heavens or in the earth. Now, don't get me wrong; there is evil. But evil is appearance only. There is no evil substance. All creatures, animal, human, and angelic, and all substance of heaven and earth, are coming out of the good speaking of Jesus every moment, created and sustained by power as all the purity and glory of Christ.

All evil, then, consists of one thing: a created being, set free by God, turning its back on the good speaking of Christ, rejecting who and what it is, in order to create a foolish and unnecessary story of its own, a story always based first on accusation. That accusation is the rejection of one's design and place in God. All deliverance, then, consists of one thing, turning around, or, as the gospel says, “Repentance.”

But this turning around is something different than what I have ever heard in Christianity. To turn around is to face Jesus, eye to eye, as the One speaking me into being in all that I am right now entirely by goodness and by power – His goodness and His power. This Jesus that I have turned around to see is in the one place the Bible says He is – my heart. Since He is also seated at the right hand of the Father, my heart IS the right hand of the Father.

To turn around is to accept that all that I am as I find myself to be right now is, in fact, goodness and power.

When I look all through myself right now, I see that Jesus is speaking me. He is speaking my body; He is speaking my soul; He is speaking my spirit. I am continuously, every moment, coming out of the good speaking of Jesus.

Consider the following layout.

The believer has repented, that is, turned fully around into the good speaking of Jesus, never again speaking any other story than those words. The unbeliever has no thought of repentance but continues only in a false story of self. The problem is the Christian who is half in and half out. This Christian imagines that he or she has repented, but they have not turned to face Jesus alone. This is not a good way to live.

The body, of course, is the problem. My body seems more and more to be not doing what it once did well and to be doing other painful things it ought not. So here is this dichotomy, this contradiction. I look at my body and see and know that it is coming right now out of the good speaking of Jesus in power. I KNOW that this good speaking in power always sustaining me contains miraculous healing. But I also know that regardless of its present pain, my body is coming out from no other source than Jesus' good speaking every moment.

The result? I am filled with joy and contentment AND I am filled with hope and expectation, both at the same time. I am at peace with myself, in full acceptance of God's design and place for me in the present moment, AND I expect God arising in me in power and great glory. – Pretty cool, this turning around, isn't it?

But here's the thing. Part of turning around, part of repentance, is that all thought of any shadow of evil generating me has vanished. I see Jesus alone, and I see me coming out of this Jesus in power every moment.

Then I turn and see you. And I see you now as far more glorious and overwhelmingly holy and good than I had ever considered. If you could see you, you would fall on your face to worship. But we don't, because we are content to be weak as God designed us, weak and filled with Jesus.

Sustaining all things by the Word of His power. – Jesus pheron's me. Jesus bears, carries, and brings forth ME.

Bringing forth is the biggest; we see that reality by every metaphor God has given us. We see that we are coming every moment out of the good speaking of Jesus; by His voice, every particle of our being exists. We see that we are being birthed out from the heavenly woman every moment into all the throne of God. We see every aspect of our lives as the poem our Father is continuously writing.

We exist by God; every particle of our being, every moment of our lives, every circumstance surrounding us is engulfed, uplifted, thought about, labored over, and loved with intensity, by the immediate and close presence of our Father upwelling from within us every moment, through Jesus in our hearts. – But that's just the beginning.

Jesus bears me. – Here we have the picture of a Man on His knees to serve me! Here is the Laborer, bearing all my weight. I know of no load upon me, for Jesus bears all that I am upon His shoulders. All my griefs, all my sorrows, all my hopes, all my joys, all my dreams, He bears and has always borne, even before they were mine.

I want you to know something. This Jesus filling me full, speaking me by goodness and power, bearing all that I am, carrying ME in His arms, this Jesus is becoming more real than anything else; yet real only through faith, only because I deliberately choose to see Him as real. If Jesus showed up in a body separate from me now, He would be far less real, far less my Life, than He is to me right now. And I ain't seen or known nothin' yet.

Jesus said, When they say to you that I am here or there, pay no attention. – (For I am present with you and inside of you) – as the sun rises in the east and shines to the west (Matthew 24:23-27 - paraphrased). Peter told us exactly what Jesus meant, that this Daystar, Christ Jesus, the Source and Sustainer of all things, arises as the sun in our hearts (2 Peter 1:19). We look for Him nowhere else.

The glory of Jesus arising in me is overwhelming.

Jesus carries me. – Here we have the picture of the Shepherd and the lamb. To be carried is to rest upon His arms, to be tucked against His breast, to lean against His heart and hear it beating as my own heart.

This is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, of all things, of every particle of existence in heaven and earth, this Jesus who carries me. Jesus carries me by the word of His power, by a word of pure and continuous goodness.

Remember who Jesus is. Jesus is a Man, my Friend, the wisest and the best; I am just like Him. And at the same time, in every possible way, Jesus is the entrance of Father into me. (And in all that I write, when you read the word “I” and “me,” speak that as yourself. Those words are in your mouth, Jesus as you, the all-speaking of God.)

I really want to know what this word sustain/uphold really means. Let's find out more.
Using Webster's 1926 – sustain (modified). Jesus bears me up from or as from below; Jesus upholds me; Jesus supports me; Jesus sustains my load. Jesus keeps me from falling, or sinking; Jesus sustains my weight. Jesus keeps me from sinking into despondency; Jesus sustains me by hope. Jesus maintains and keeps me up. Jesus maintains me with undiminished force or intensity for my lifetime and forever by a sustained effort. Jesus maintains and supports me with the needs of life. Jesus aids, comforts, and relieves me. Jesus suffers under, bears, and undergoes me. Jesus endures for me without failing or yielding; Jesus bears up under for me.

The definitions of uphold do not add anything to these definitions of sustain. They are basically the same word in English, sustain from Latin and uphold from Saxon. Thus, let's include the definitions of generate (for “bring forth”), bear, and carry.

Using Webster's 1926 – generate (modified). Jesus begets, procreates, and propagates me; Jesus produces me. Jesus causes me to be; Jesus brings me into life. Jesus originates me by life processes.

Using Webster's 1926 – bear - transitive (modified). Jesus supports and moves me; Jesus carries and conveys me. Jesus renders and gives me; Jesus brings me forward. Jesus conducts and brings me. Jesus manages, wields, and directs me. Jesus possesses and uses me.  Jesus possesses and carries me as a mark of distinction. Jesus carries and holds me in His mind. Jesus carries on and maintains me. Jesus gains and wins me. Jesus supports, sustains, and holds me up. Jesus is answerable for me. Jesus admits me; Jesus is capable of me. Jesus brings forth and produces me.

Using Webster's 1926 – bear - intransitive (modified). Jesus carries my burden and suffers for me. Jesus withstands strains and bears against testing for me. Jesus endures difficulties with patience for me. Jesus means, intends, and effects me. Jesus presses up against for me.  Jesus takes effect, maintains influence and force for me. Jesus bears me and produces me as His fruit.

Using Webster's 1926 – carry (modified). Jesus conveys and transports me. Jesus conducts, leads, and guides me; Jesus escorts, moves, and causes me to go forward. Jesus transfers me from one place to another. Jesus takes me the distance in a single stroke. Jesus conveys me by extension and continuance; Jesus extends me. Jesus possesses and obtains me; Jesus wins and captures me. Jesus supports and sustains me; Jesus holds me while He moves about from place to place; Jesus contains me and carries me about inside Himself. Jesus carries me as a mother carries a child in her womb. Jesus carries me as His attribute and property, His show or exhibit. Jesus holds me high. Jesus sustains my weight and burden. Jesus produces me as a crop; Jesus supports me with sustenance. Jesus makes me good and valid.

I don't know about you, but going through these definitions and writing them out as Jesus acting upon me, acting for me, and acting through me – acting me – just does something all through me, filling in the cracks, strengthening all my foundations, causing me to stand immovable inside of Him.

Look at that: – Jesus transfers me from one place to another. Jesus takes me the distance in a single stroke. – As in – transferred out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of His dear Son (Colossians 1:13). And He does it in a single stroke. Yes, that is a golfing use of “carry,” but it's also the truth. – One sacrifice for sins forever. – Having perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

Sure, this is all “known” theology. But what we know can only be life to us as it is Jesus personal in me.

More than that, I am just overwhelmed as I find more and more evidence that the Bible really does teach my description of God. – God always reveals Himself through weakness, swallowing up into Himself all that we are including our sin and rebellion, becoming us in our present state, limiting Himself by our weakness. Thus, carrying us inside Himself, stumbling and falling along the way, He arises out of death into life, ascending on high, and we inside of Him.

And yet, somehow, I am convinced there is just so very much more inside this single phrase: Jesus pheron's me. God creates by speaking; God sustains by speaking; God carries by speaking.

All that God speaks is Jesus. All that God speaks is goodness and life and light. Jesus speaks me every moment. I am the speaking of Jesus. I am the testimony of Christ. I am the witness of the Lord Jesus.

Now, here's the thing, we must know that this is the only thing true every moment.
I read recently a short piece on “faith” written by a dear and good brother who has embraced the grace of God and union with Christ. I have no desire to belittle anyone, but all I could feel after reading his couple of pages on “faith” was sorrow, sorrow and deep groaning for God's dear people.

To this brother, faith was mostly a mental construct to ponder over, a “believing” in ideas or concepts. At no point did he suggest that faith was the entrance of the Father into him through the Lord Jesus Christ. At no point was his “faith” connecting with the Mighty Persons filling him with glory.

Faith is NOT a faculty of the mind; though the mind is meant to be a servant of faith. Faith is the skin, the door, the portal stretched across the connection between our spirit living in all the heavens of God and filled with the Holy Spirit, and the side of our soul next to our spirit, the will. The realities of our spirit enter into our will, mind, and emotions, in that order, by first passing through our faith.

Of truth, faith is also the door into our spirit, by which the Holy Spirit entered our spirits when we were born again. And faith is the door giving God permission to enter our bodies; we will know such faith as our bodies are transformed into the full and incorruptible expression of Jesus' resurrected body.

Faith is our permission to the Father to enter into us through Christ. Faith is human consent. If we are talking about anything else, it's not faith of which we speak.

Now, faith does not “cause” Jesus to speak us into existence or to sustain us by His good speaking every moment. But without faith we must live in utter ignorance of that reality.

Faith, then, is the entrance of light, the knowledge of God, the knowledge of what is already and always TRUE. Faith never “makes things happen.” Faith knows what already is.

AND – faith cannot mean a thing unless that faith is connecting directly and personally with a specific word God speaks. Faith is NOT some generalized, all-pervasive “force.” Faith is always specific to the Word God speaks.

Why do I write out all these definitions of Jesus pheron's me? Sustaining all things (including ME!) by the Word of His power is a specific word spoken by God. My faith makes that Word personal and alive as Jesus in me. I interact with that word, over and over. I cause that word, by the use of my brain, my tongue, and my fingers as I write, and my eyes as I see these words flowing onto the page, I cause that word to become real and alive and personal in me, as it already is, as Jesus my very and only life.

Faith is the seed of the woman. Faith is the womb of the church.

If the Father were not all here now, personal and real, then faith would be nothing at all. Since Father is all here now, personal and real, upwelling within us every moment through Christ our only life, then faith knows the Father. – And not-faith knows only lies and sits in darkness and mutters over unreality.

If it's not the Father personal and real inside of us, then it's not faith. And all the discussion must be about unreality, no matter how dear and precious the believers discussing the topic might be.

Faith is BOLD. Faith enters into all of God with reckless certainty. Faith sits upon the throne. Faith speaks Christ alone. Faith requires God to be in me all that He speaks. Faith holds God to His Word.

Thus, faith labors over the words coming out from the mouth of God, just as I do, repeating them over and over, each time in new and different ways. And we will do so forever, for this Father filling us full is without end. We do not speak Christ as a “repetition” of mental ideas, but as Jesus in us, living and real; and we speak Him from glory to glory.

Thus, the speaking of Jesus, speaking us forth in goodness and filled with the Father every moment, becomes the same Word in our mouths as we speak Christ our only life.

I would speak these things forever for I would know Him forever, and as I speak Jesus personal in me, my knowing of what is already real and true becomes certain and sure.

Our dear brethren, who continue to look for a “Jesus” to come “someday,” are missing out entirely on Jesus here and now Today. We are the ones who weep for them.

The Word, Christ Jesus, is in your mouth, this Word of faith which we speak. Speak Christ your only life. By all the travail of the Holy Spirit of God groaning inside of me and as a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ, I urge and admonish you, speak Christ alone.

Speak only as He is already speaking you.