24. Going Under

It has dawned on me that I am writing in-part a different sort of book than had first entered my mind. By titling what I hope to teach as “Set My People Free,” and addressing it to the second ministry of Christ at the end of this age, I am, in fact, writing a “manual” of preparation for ministry.

I do have a course near the end of the Bible Studies program titled “Preparation for Ministry.” My hope in that course would be to present the dealings of God that take you all the way down to the Jordan, that would pin any prospective ministry of Christ or “leader” in God’s House to the wall with the overwhelming question – What do you do when someone throws a spear at you?

But in realizing that this text is, in-part, setting forth a “preparation for ministry,” it dawns on me that my critique of “ministry” in this text has been absolutely devastating.

So, you want to be a minister of Christ, a leader in His House, a giver of your spiritual giftings to those less qualified? Good – then I want to TAKE YOU DOWN.

You see, touching God’s people with anything other than God Himself is something you NEVER want to do, I can assure you of that.

But to touch God’s people with God Himself, you have to go down under where God IS.
And God IS beneath of them.

It is a simple fact of reality – you cannot carry someone unless you are under them. And God is the All-Carrying One.

This is age-unfolding life, to know You, the only true God.

So you want to know God? Then I welcome you to the lowest of the low.

And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass (Revelation 21:21). God (gold) is beneath their feet, beneath of every single step that they take, always carrying them. If you want to join with Him towards them, that’s where you have to go.

Every time you look at another believer in Jesus, you ARE always looking up.

Yet, you are also in the most wonderful place in the universe – sharing heart with God.

God humbles Himself. We must understand what this means. In fact, this is an element that marks a huge difference between how I present God and how God is presented by many.

God is not “humble”; God humbles Himself. There is a huge difference between the two. In just the same way, “Meek and gentle” do not mean “wimpish.” It is all-power that is meek and gentle; it is true superiority that always humbles Himself.

The Hand that spins and lights the galaxies with mighty bands of electrical power is the very same Hand that gently caresses an infant’s brow.

In exactly the same way, it is only LIFE upwelling, Life abundant and overflowing, that can set forth that same life for the sake of others.

Death has never done anything for anyone, but only life. The death of Christ brought an end to awfulness in our consciousness; that’s it. The life of Christ is the life we live.

In the last letter I asked this question and gave an answer – But what is the force driving Christian E into creating an imaginary “Christian world” in which to know himself? The force is not the pastor, rather it is the congregation of dear and kind Christian people all around him. – What will they think of me?

In this letter, I want to understand how we lay down our lives for Christian E (and all other believers) so that he soon learns that nothing from us is pushing him into fantasy and death.

And that is the thing with which we must grapple. Two things only go out from the human, only two. One is life; the other is death. All “ministries” who impart the knowledge of the Lord Jesus as the only life they are to anyone, at whatever level, are ministering life. All “ministries” who impart anything else ARE imparting death.

Of course, inside of imparting life is so very much, including ourselves for real and the joy of good human fellowship. Knowing Jesus as He is turns all of our lives from the horror of tantalus to the joy of the moment.

Now, I am not suggesting that the Lord Jesus does not carry all of our foolishness, even if we were to attempt to force death on our fellow Christians by our own misunderstanding of life.

It’s just that there is this equation staring us in the face.

A. I rejoice in my union with Christ.

B. I think you need to be put in your place, and since I am an expression of “Christ as me,” I will throw my self-exalting ideas at you.

C. Whatever you do to the least of these My brethren, you ARE doing it to Me.

Christ treating Christ with contempt? Somehow, it just does not add up for me; neither do I want to know anything about the account that will be given out from such a scenario.

So what is it that saves you and me from being found in such a horror?

Giving thanks.

Justifying God in all things and giving thanks, even in our blackest darkness.

Unthankfulness was Adam’s rebellion; giving thanks is our return.

Giving thanks is how we go under to join with God All-Carrying.

This might be a shorter letter, but it is one that must appear here.

I want to talk about giving thanks.

I have said that “to know” is a sliding scale concept. To be aware is one side of “to know.” To live inside of is the other side of “to know.” Yet “to know” is the word we would use at every point from one to the other.

Giving thanks is different. Giving thanks actually changes its meaning from its beginning through its transitions and into its completion. Nonetheless, you start with giving thanks in the beginning, in spite of everything inside of you screaming against God and against your circumstances, and it WILL become the Mercy Seat of God in the end.

In the summer of the year that I was fifteen, my mom and dad, along with my older siblings all received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Around the same time, I came home one afternoon feeling that I had been rejected by my friends who, I imagined, “no longer wanted to have anything to do with me.” In my disconsolation, I grabbed a book of my mother’s, lay down on my bed, and read it.

The book was Prison to Praise by Merlin Carothers.

By the time I finished that book a couple of hours later, I was immersed into a wondrous experience with the Holy Spirit. I had no depth inside of me at the time, and so the experience faded away; nonetheless it was real.

What I did not know was that God had used my pain and that book to plant the most important seed into me that was Jesus Himself.

Merlin Carothers simply taught people to give thanks in AND for all things. And then he recorded the wondrous experiences in his life and in the lives of those who heeded him, the joy and blessing coming out from giving thanks.

When the Lord brought me back to Himself and then led me into the wilderness that He might contend with me, I carried this seed of giving thanks in and for all things inside of me, though I did not realize it.

Since it was God alone with whom I contended, no matter how awful I felt, no matter how determined I was to get my way, no matter how I screamed and fought and swore and wallowed in self-pity, in the end, when God always won, I surrendered my heart to giving thanks.

Then, when I was around 24, I sat under a teacher in Christ by the name of Jim Fant. Over and over, Brother Jim taught us to justify God in all things, to find Him right and true, regardless. In fact, justifying God in all things became, for me, the second definition of “give thanks.”

I can assure you, I did not “decide” to make this any “motto” of mine. All I know is that it went deep inside of me and whenever push came to shove, as happened so many times, “justify God and blame no one” always arose to be the only final choice allowed me.

I learned this, through these years, that no matter how much “in the flesh” one felt, still, giving thanks could never be a “fleshy work.” Giving thanks, even when I really did not want to, always brought peace.

During the worst year of my life, I went to different individuals seeking their wisdom and help. Each time, the only thing I received was a “scorpion.” In my most desperate moment, the counsel given to me was “You are the proudest man I have ever known.” I had come looking for and needing the Lord Jesus Christ from this brother. His counsel left me with less than nothing, with a scorpion inside of me I knew I did not ever want to touch.

I walked away from that moment in a daze, confused and numb – justifying God and blaming no one – and giving thanks, regardless that the awful situation for which I had sought counsel was in no way resolved.

When my family and I left that community a few months later, I was in even worse shape. And inside all of my agony and confusion, I justified God, I blamed no one, including myself, and I gave thanks. If you had asked me about those who had failed me, I would have felt and responded with only the deepest of respect.

It was a few months later, through an illustration shared in a sermon, that the Lord spoke these words in my heart – “Son, you passed the test.” Until that moment I, and everyone else, had simply assumed that I had failed my test.

And then I knew that God’s real test for anyone is – “Will you justify Me regardless of anything that happens to you or will you defend yourself and throw spears back at the people you are blaming?”

God is not “testing” us, but He is proving Christ through us. And those who prefer not to be the proving of Christ are always free in God to go their way, justifying themselves and blaming everyone else. God carries even that, but they will do much damage before they close their mouths.

Justice requires recompense. The cross of Christ never removes justice nor its requirement.

God Himself cannot refuse justice.

Some will be so busy giving back what they stole that they will have no time left to share Hheart with God.

Then, with writing The Jesus Secret and with learning my precious union with Christ, giving thanks, that had become justifying God and blaming no one in my most difficult times, became again the simple giving of thanks in and for all things. And so I have taught from the beginning of my present writing.

To giving thanks, however, the Lord added two other actions to me, speaking Christ personal as me as well as asking and believing I have received every word God speaks.

Now I realize this. Giving thanks was, inside of me, the removal of Adam’s rebellion. Then, coming out from the silence of Adam, speaking Christ and believing every word fulfilled became the formation of Christ inside of me.

Unthankfulness is the father of arrogance. An arrogant man or woman, filled with all the fulness of “God,” will use “God,” out from their “superior” perception of themselves, to place themselves “above,” and these other Christians, who just don’t get it, as “beneath.”

Giving thanks is the father of peace, and of the silencing of both arrogance and self-pity.
The three most wicked men in the Bible, Korah against Moses, Absalom against David, and Judas against Jesus, used “God” to anoint their arrogance and sought to lead God’s people into rebellion. All three were good, “Bible-believing” men, whose hearts never belonged to God.

I was fully aware, all the way through, that God was dealing with and removing “Korah” and “Absalom” from me. And in all my agony, I agreed with God.

But giving thanks did not remain giving thanks inside my union with Christ; instead, it transformed itself into something most extraordinary. Giving thanks became “speaking good grace.” And so, when I got a ticket for not stopping at a stop sign, I spoke good grace into the situation, even though I did not feel like it. And when I wrecked my wife’s new car, I spoke good grace, not only into that situation, but also towards you, that goodness might come to you through my loss.

But then “speaking good grace” also began to change into something else. And now I know of it as Father and I together making all things good.

The confidence that “Father and I together make all things good” IS the true ministry of Christ. It is walking beneath. It is being “GREAT” in the Kingdom.

So here is your own proof of Christ. – And, it might be a good idea for you to get a copy of Prison to Praise and read it if you have not done so already. Merlin Carothers is much better than I at making “give thanks” to be practical in regular human life.

Your proof of Christ begins with giving thanks in all things. Then it moves forward to giving thanks for all things, whether you see anything “good” in them or not.

You see, when you give thanks FOR something, like getting cancer, for instance, you are NOT claiming that God imposed the cancer on you. In complete contrast, it is God alone you are seeing in spite of that which is evil, leaving God free to turn it towards good. Inside of giving thanks, then, is found always the expectation of God, that He will arise on your behalf.

Then someone stands up in a public place and speaks false and wicked things against you into the ears of fellow Christians whom you had been hoping to impress. (What is meant by “someone throwing a spear at you.”)

What do you do? Not what do you feel, but what do you do?

You are perfectly free in God to throw your own brand of spear right back. You can justify yourself, blame them, and get “even.” And this is the path most chose, BECAUSE they imagine that their spiritual giftings make them “superior.”

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth… He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. (Isaiah 53:7 & 9-10).

You know, a person can scream and cry against such a reality, that it cannot “be God.” I never wanted to. From the very start, all I ever really wanted was to share heart with God, in spite of all my gross inability.

But as God proves Christ in you, so you begin to know Jesus in a way you never could have otherwise. You begin to know that Father is utterly together with you and that you and Father together are making all things good.

You are the MOST powerful being in the universe, with all who share Heart with God.
You are the second witness of Christ; you and Father together are setting creation free.