22.2 The Ekenosis
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
My God, my God, my God. In drawing Paul’s invented word into present English, ekenosis, I discover that there is already a similar word in Christian theology – kenosis. And I am utterly floored at the flagrant deception.
Kenosis: (in Christian theology) the renunciation of the divine nature, at least in part, by Christ in the Incarnation (Philippians 2:7).
Paul did not say kenosis, meaning emptiness, and they KNOW that he did not. Paul said EK – kenosis, a word of his own invention, a word that means CALLED OUT OF emptiness or invisibility.
The Passage of Ekenosis
No one will ever know the Father or Jesus Sent unless this tare is, oh so very carefully, pulled out of their field.
But we are getting sidetracked. What is a Fathering God? Let’s bring in again the passage of the ekenosis as it should read from the Greek: Philippians 2:6-8.
Christ Jesus, a Man, that is, a life-giving Spirit, who exists in the form of God, that is, all here now and Personal in us, thinks that being equal in substance with God is not something to be actively held onto. Thus, having willingly taken to Himself the form of a servant, Himself ekenosen, Himself calls forth an invisible God into visibility, and becomes by the faith of others the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man, He humbles Himself.
Ekenosis Defined
Ekenosis: the action and process of calling forth an invisible God into visibility, into being seen and known by all.
This gives us, then, another view into this God who Fathers. God WANTS to be seen and known. The clearest picture of this incredible aspect of God’s heart is this: and He took little children in His arms that He might bless them.
When this Fathering God is seen and known by all creation as He really is, what will He look like? The real answer to that question must await the fifth book of this series: Symmorphy V: Life (hint: – family).
A Fountain of Water
Now, let’s place this same ekenosis into us. Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life (John 4:14).
Will become IN him – ekenosis.
A fountain of water springing up is the Father, that is, God Himself becoming seen and known through us. And the place IN us where this Fathering God MUST BE known by us is our own hearts. A Fathering God is the God in your heart, not any “God” far away from you.
Knowing Such Water
And this Fathering God known only IN your heart, exists in you in the form best pictured by a fountain of water springing up. Few alive today have ever known such water in the natural.
Only one short period of time in my life have I not known an underlying weariness in my physical frame. (Most people possess both an energy and a recuperation that I have not known except for those several months. That time and place was the first several months I lived at Graham River Farm, a Christian community of 150 precious believers in Jesus, in northern British Columbia. I have pondered much why that time was SO different for me.
Pure Spring Water
My only conclusion is this. That particular community at that time obtained all of its drinking water from one source, a huge artesian well that was down by the Graham River, but was not the water of the Graham. The water of that artesian well was pure spring water of the eastern slopes of the northern Rocky Mountains, untouched by human pollution.
More than that, the Graham River community had not installed the “luxury” of piping. Thus the only way we obtained our drinking water was to dip it out of the artesian well with buckets and then to ladle the water into a cup.
Father and Me Together
I am convinced that the pure water I drank through those months contained qualities of life and energy that most water drunk by humans simply does not possess. Piping water instantly alters the electrical frequency of the water, and most water sources are themselves not pure.
Now, in my writing (which is speaking for me), I refer to my Father utterly together with me, He and I as one person together through all things, on a regular basis. I do NOT see that quality of Father expressed in anyone else’s writing or speech. Yet one cannot pretend such words; they can come for real only out from the knowledge of a Fathering God.
Piped Knowledge
Thus we could say that the knowledge of “God” that most believers possess is a knowledge that is piped to them and that comes from a source that contains words God does not speak, that is, human pollution.
The artesian well at Graham River Farm was strong and full. Your bucket was full as fast as you could dip it. The water flowed continuously, water filled with the electrical frequency God designed for our human bodies.
It was, then, an incredible loss to that community when, years later, the Graham River changed its course and ran over that artesian spring, sucking its life-giving waters into its own murky current.
The Seed
Another significant metaphor of the ekenosis of God is a Seed. But let’s consider the Seed as regards the question of a God who begets. Now, since God is invisible, we can speak of Him only by metaphors. Only as Jesus lays down His life for us do we see the Father plainly. And only as we lay down our lives for the brethren will God be spoken of plainly again.
God’s Seed, God’s sperm, is God shaping Himself out from His own God-form, that is all here now but invisible and unknowable, and into a form that can be reproduced. The three metaphors that picture for us that Seed are Word, DNA, and the Person of Jesus.
What Is a Man?
God Almighty reproduces Himself.
And here you see why we must cast down the image of the serpent as the image of God. One image presents a bunch of “little Gods” running around controlling and zapping everything in their reach, and thus Christians reject any thought of “being like God.” The other image presents a Man on His knees to serve and many just like Him.
What is the reproduction of God Almighty? A Man. What is a Man? The reproduction of God Almighty. A Man on His knees to serve.
A Personal Word
And so we see that God first expresses His nature and qualities, His being and essence, the structure and fabric of His God-ness, into words. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and God was the Word.
Those words come into our human experience as DNA from God. That is, the quality and operation of the Word and the quality and operation of human DNA are the same thing. The Word is Seed, that is male DNA entering our female faith. But that Word is also, entirely, a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ. God is Personal, and He exists only in, as, and through persons.
Willingness of Heart
The ekenosis of God, God becoming seen and known, comes only through willingness of heart. Remember that in the ekenosis passage, Jesus willingly takes on the form of a servant, but He passively comes in the likeness of men. That passivity MEANS that you and I willingly call Him into ourselves in the expression and intimacy of marriage union.
Then, this Jesus alive in our hearts as the Seed, the DNA of God, connecting us in all ways as one person together with the Father is also the Seed by which you and I are born again. But that Seed is very specific in nature. Life requires Spirit, Spirit and Word always together.
A Spirit Word
It is the Spirit who gives life… The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life (John 6:63). Notice three things all together as one: Spirit, Words, and “I” or Jesus – then becoming LIFE in you and me. That LIFE is Father arising in us as fountains of water.
We can know a God who Fathers only by knowing the Seed, Jesus Sent into us – Spirit, Word, and Jesus always together as One. Thus we see a Fathering God imbuing His reproductive Seed with the qualities of Personal Spirit Word. This Personal Spirit Word operates towards us, then as the cross bar of human DNA and in us as the DNA of God.
What Jesus Is
I finally understand what Jesus is. Jesus is a Man existing in the form of God. Paul said that the second Man is a life-giving Spirit, that is, all here now and personal in us.
Now, contrast this understanding with Nicene theology. Nicene thinking claims that Jesus is God existing in the form of a man. Their “Jesus” is limited, tiny, and far-away, existing only in a solitary human form. Yet they insist that this very Jesus is “God.” They haven’t quite worked out getting in line to see their “God the Son,” entirely on the outside of themselves.
Man Defined Again
Let’s define Man again. Man is the Seed that makes God visible. As God brings forth the qualities of being seen and known out from Himself, God calls those qualities the second Man, that is, Human. He also calls them the Mercy Seat. And remember, when we say “brings forth” we do NOT refer to events in time, but to the all here now Being of God.
Then, we see our being Fathered by God in two distinct steps. First, God creates us in the likeness of the Pattern, the Human Jesus, although that Pattern exists in the form of God. And then God births in us Christ our Life as our conception.
A Picture and a Description
We are not looking at the Seed right now, however, but at the Father who forms that Seed inside Himself that He might be known by His creation through Man, His image. What is a Fathering God? The only plain picture we possess of this Fathering God is Jesus walking the Atonement, laying down His life for us.
But there is also a description of this Fathering God in the Bible, in 1 Corinthians 13. Now, the burden of this word has only grown in me. This is called the “love chapter.” Yet I have never heard it used to describe God, but only how we should perform.
Father Suffers Long
Let’s alter these words just a bit, verses 4-8. Father suffers long and is kind. Father does not envy; Father does not parade Himself, is not puffed up. Father does not behave rudely, does not seek His own. Father is not provoked, thinks no evil. Father does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Father bears all for all; Father believes all for all; Father hopes all for all; Father endures all for all. Father never fails.
We are speaking of a Fathering God. This is a God we know only by Heart. We are speaking of our own hearts. Let these words BE the definition for you of your own Heart.
Carrying Us Inside Himself
Let’s add to that Word of Father the description of Jesus showing us the Father plainly by the Atonement. – 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. –
You will know this Father arising inside your own heart by only one means, by speaking only what God speaks AS the Lord Jesus alive and personal IN you, AS you, and THROUGH you. Father and you, utterly together, the ekenosis of God.