20. The Place of Life

I completed the final draft for John Chapters 14-17, inserted them into The Jesus Secret II and completed the initial statements of faith in the side bars, all over the same couple of days. This exercise gave me a full view of the overwhelmingly abundant wealth found in these four chapters.

I have never known the Word to sing together in such beauty as it is singing together for us now. Every line fits; every verse conveys such meaning, not as ideas, but as the power of a shared life with our Father. How did we not know what is written here?

Why the Blindness? It is an astonishing thing that we could have read these chapters for years and saw little of what is written there. We saw – Let not your heart be troubled. We saw what isn’t here – “going to heaven.” And we saw a bit of obligation – Abide in Me, Keep My word. Yet now I will teach for more than twenty hours on the actual content of these four chapters and hardly scratch the surface. Prior to 2011 I saw little of what I will teach, and what I saw was only at a distance.

I am driven to understand, somehow, why this blatant blindness exists.

The Only Tree of Life. You see, the statement, “I live inside of Jesus,” is a most extraordinary statement, inconceivable and unseen to most. Yet it is the only Tree of Life, set by God before all mankind, the only Place where Salvation is found.

I have said that the one difference between the manifest sons of God setting creation free and you and me right now is that they believe what God says and we do not. I am more certain of this fact than ever. In reality there is no path from the tree of knowing good and evil to the tree of life, even though they are standing side by side, for God already put us into LIFE long ago.

Knowing the True. It appears to us, however, that we have fled in all desperation and haste out from the tree of death and into the tree of life. That appearance is true in this one sense, that we are fleeing not-believing what is already true into knowing Jesus already Sent into us. It’s not what’s true that counts, but KNOWING the True.

Nicene Christian thinking positions that EVERYTHING is divided between good and evil and that all the dynamics of the universe are good against evil. They have even colored God and the fabric of all things as knowing good and evil forever.

Split-Apart-Ness. “God knows good and evil. – Being a Christian is a life-long struggle of good versus evil. – The universe is split forever into all good and all evil.”

This was the organizational pattern of all our thinking, a RULE that prevented us from even noticing the LIFE that fills the pages of the Bible. The teaching “go to heaven” is far more destructive than the teaching “go to hell.” At least “go to hell” puts the fear of God into some, that we would run out from death with all our hearts. But “go to heaven” blocks every Word God speaks from our present lives and drives Jesus far away from us.

Two Metaphors Together. I want to fuse together in our understanding the two sets of images God gives us. I am convinced the Spirit intends for us to merge the meaning of these two contrasts. Two trees – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil versus the tree of life. Two crops growing together – tares versus wheat.

Tares versus wheat shows us how the lies are woven together with the truth of Christ such that you cannot tell the difference, not until the harvest. And the difference is one thing – the mature wheat bows; the tare does not – He humbled Himself – And we also.

Two Organizational Patterns. Keeping in our view that picture of lies and truth all woven together, looking exactly the same, let’s also bring in the strong picture of the two trees. I see that picture in-part as two opposing organizational patterns for all the verses of the Bible and all the thoughts of Christian thinking. It’s not that the tree of death splits into two branches of good versus evil; it’s that good versus evil is found in every root and branch, every twig and leaf. This organizational pattern for death-thinking gives a specific place for every verse and every thought. Everything fits.

A Desperate Need. Here’s how it works. You see a wondrous truth in the Bible, a word just leaps off the page and you see life and glory. But then things settle out and every truth soon drifts back to one place or another in the false organizational pattern of “the good in me against the evil in me, me all by myself.” No one sees that LIFE is living inside another Person.

I was twenty years old when I first began to see that the Bible actually says things quite different from how they say it says. From then until now I have carried a deep and overwhelming need, a DRIVE of desperate necessity, to KNOW every verse where it belongs, to have every thought subject to Life.

The Luring Trap. I saw this great trap when I thought to use Fred Pruitt’s books as I was working on the CRBI courses. I saw Fred take the wondrous truths of our union with Christ which he teaches so well, and fit all those things into the dark structure of thinking that God knows good and evil. And in the end, it seems that “union with Christ” becomes just another way to drive Jesus far away from us.

When our bodies are swallowed up by life, then we will know that all shadow has departed from our thinking and that we now believe that God is telling us the truth. Until that moment, we allow God to change how we think, that more and more Bible verses might rush into JOY.

The Jesus Secret Page. Now, you will notice that this lesson is titled “The Place of Life.” I added two more pages to John in The Jesus Secret II because John 14:20 and 17:3 both needed a fuller scope. Then I brought this page to the front because we must first position the meaning of John 14:20, what it is and where it fits before we speak the depths of where we live. I begin the Jesus Secret page with the explanation that these wondrous topics found in the page headings are woven together through all five chapters, that is, including the short “sending” passage from Chapter 21. Then we have the “tenth” ruling verse of the Bible, John 14:20 – John 17:3 – Romans 13:14.

The Tenth Ruling Verse. In that day you will know that I am inside of My Father, and you inside of Me and I inside of you. For this is age-unfolding life, that they would know You, the One true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ – with no other thought.

The Place of Salvation is “you in Me and I in you.” The Meaning of Salvation is to KNOW the Father. And our part in Salvation is to put the Lord Jesus upon all that we are. This is a RULE and as a rule it is absolute. Any thought that fits inside these lines we keep; any thought that does not we cast aside. This is bringing all thoughts into the obedience of Christ. Why? – Because we WANT to.

The Full Picture. In order for us to have the full picture into which this RULE fits, let’s list the remaining page headings for John.

The Place of Life. – I Live inside of Jesus. – Jesus Lives inside of Me. – Father Makes His Home in Me. – I Bear Much Fruit. – I Love My Brethren. – My Brethren Love Me. – The World Hates Me. – The Spirit Leads Me inside of All Truth. – The Meaning of Life. – I Know Jesus Sent. – I Know the Father. – I Am with Jesus; I Am One inside of God. – Jesus Sends Me.

These topics are woven together throughout. The remainder of this page contains three boxes: The Tree of Life – Ask and Believe – Person inside of Person.

A Person. The Tree of Life is a Person, specifically, the Lord Jesus. This is so Biblically evident that we are astonished it is not apparent to everyone, as we have already considered.

You diligently search the Scriptures, for you imagine that you will discover age-unfolding life in them. Yet the Scriptures also give witness concerning Me, but you have no desire to come towards Me, that you might possess life (John 5:39-40). – The life unfolding the ages God has given to us, and this life is inside of His Son. The one who possesses the Son, possesses the life (1 John 5:11-12).

Practical Symmorphy. When Paul invented the word symmorphos, sharing the same form, to fit into the critical verse of the gospel, his purpose was to place symmorphy at the center of everything. John, on the other hand, gives us the practical meaning of symmorphy – you in Me and I in you, Person inside of person inside of Person.

And yes, as we keep John 14:20 before our eyes, it becomes ever more real and practical, in fact, I am writing the entire series of Symmorphy textbooks for the sole purpose of making Romans 8:29 and John 14:20 practical and real to us. The tree of life is living inside of this Person who lives inside of us. This reality is literal and substantial in all ways.

The Way to Life. And He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life (Genesis 3:24). – To the one presently and actively overcoming, I will presently and actively give him to eat out from the tree of life, which is inside the paradise of God (Revelation 2:7).

The cherubim guarding the way to life and the cherubim above the Mercy Seat carry the same meaning for us. The flaming sword and the pillar of fire are also the same truth. Here is that Way. – …entrance into the Holiest inside the blood of Jesus consecrating for us a newly sacrificed as well as a living way through the veil, that is, through His flesh…

The Becoming Known. We do not enter into life, that is Christ Jesus, for God already put us there. We enter, rather, into the knowledge of what is already true. And knowing we have already entered, we turn around in our thinking, for this is where we live – inside of Jesus.

The Father is all here now as the essence of His being, but Jesus is all here now in a lesser way, as He says, “The Father is greater and larger than I am.” That “lesser and smaller” way is that Jesus is confined to purpose, that is, to making Father known. Thus we say that Jesus is the becoming known of God in every heart where God is becoming known.

The First Metaphor. We live inside of the Becoming Known of God and the Becoming Known of God lives inside of us. And because God is living, dynamic, and infinite, His Becoming Known is forever. We live inside of the Generation of Life; we live inside of the Completion of Life.

The first metaphor God uses to describe this Life in which we live is a tree, a tree that brings forth fruit. Yet this metaphor of a tree represents a Man, the Lord Jesus. How is Jesus a tree to us? How is He the fruit of that tree to us? How do we live inside of a Man?

The Tree of Life. I see the Tree of Life, the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. I come to Him, forsaking all else; He gives me Life of Himself that I might possess life. As i eat of Him, I know that I am already inside of Jesus and Jesus is already inside of me. We partake of one another; we share life together.

The Tree of Life is knowing that I live inside of Jesus who Himself lives inside the Father and inside of me. Salvation is living inside of another Person; it is Jesus and I, sharing the same form.

I live inside of the Salvation of God, and the Salvation of God lives inside of me. I live inside of God-Made-Known and God-Made-Known lives inside of me. I know there is no other place of Salvation; I know there is no other Life. Jesus causes me to know the Father; Jesus causes the Father to know me.

Ask and Believe. Lord Jesus, You say that in the same way that You live inside of the Father, so I live inside of You. You say that just as the Father lives inside of You, so You live inside of me. Jesus, You say that we live inside of each other in all completion, literally and substantially. You say that I am part of all that You are and that You are part of all that I am.

Lord Jesus, what You are saying to me is more than wondrous to me, for this way of living and thinking is not found in the knowing of this world. How can I KNOW it? Lord Jesus, I receive all that You speak, for I know You are telling me the truth. Let it be to me according to all that You mean. It is so, Lord Jesus; I KNOW what You mean. I know You.

“All of Infinity.” We live inside of a Person who also lives inside of us.

Consider the concept of All Here Now. All is infinity, all of infinity. Here is all of infinity inside every tiny point of space. Now is all of infinity inside every moment. Yet this “all of infinity” is a Person, the Father, who makes Himself known to us through another Person, the Lord Jesus, a Man like us except in form, inside of whom we live. Yet when we say, “except in form,” that’s not completely true, for He shares form with us. Our form is His form, both individually and together.

I Am a Person. This is a topic that is real easy to flip out into the fantastic and lose sight of the real. We will not do that. The real is that the Father is a Person and Jesus is a Person, and my LIFE is to KNOW Them.

I know what a person is because I am a person. I am a story of words, a story I tell myself about myself, inside of a spirit self-awareness. And inside this bubble of self-awareness I do three things all the time, I think, I feel, and I desire and choose. I am very sensitive. I am very self-aware. I am private and public. I am me. – And so is the Father. And so is Jesus.

The RULE. I know the Father through knowing Jesus, who is a human like I am. Yet this Jesus also steps into the background, so to speak, that I might know the Father.

Now this is John 17:3, which we must have in view as the center of this RULE. In the first part of the RULE, we limit ourselves to Jesus, knowing that He is inside of the Father.

The Place of Life, the Salvation of God, is a Person like us whom we can know. I live inside the bubble of self of another Human Person. Another Human Person lives with me inside my bubble of self.

Two as One. The Place of Life is two, Jesus and me, living together as one. Union – Communion – Expression. One in union, that is, one Spirit together. Two in communion, that is, sweet fellowship together. One in expression, that is, one flesh together.

Inside of this communion of two, then, everything Jesus is, I am and everything I am, Jesus is. Yet, we never lose each other, for we retain each our own dignity and respect, yet we share all. I reject a “person-less” ‘Christ” because I refuse to be alone. It is not good for a human to be alone.

Person inside of Person. I live inside of another Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, even while this other Person lives inside of my person. I live inside of God’s Salvation, two persons of respect and honor living inside of each other, inside of all that each other is and does.

Jesus and I live inside of one another. We share all of life together. Jesus and I are one in Spirit, one Spirit together. Jesus and I are two in communion, sharing sweet fellowship together, sharing one another’s bubble of self. Jesus and I are one in expression, sharing one flesh together.

Every part of me lives and is found inside of Jesus, and I live inside of Jesus, inside of all that He is. Every part of Jesus, in all that He is, lives inside of Me, and Jesus lives in every particulate that I am.

Defining the Intimate. As a teacher, I like to break things into a series of related points, so that we can understand. One of the most incredible such “lists” is found in Symmorphy VI: Mankind, the five aspects of the human heart. Personal intimacy, a person inside of a Person who is also inside of them, is not a topic that might be known by a “list,” nonetheless, those five aspects might help, along with the wondrous definitions of the word “in” from Webster’s. Ambition – Definition – Person – Belonging – Fellowship.

What does it mean to live inside of Jesus? What does it mean that Jesus lives inside of us?

Reading for Next Time. The next lesson is now “I Live inside of Jesus.” Knowing and living are not intellectual things, though the mind can think and talk about them. Knowing and living are personal things, known only in private intimacy. Personal intimacy is broken by pretending, that’s why we must be utterly real and honest with the Lord Jesus.

For the next lesson, read just John Chapter 14. – In that day you shall know that I am inside of the Father and you inside of Me and I inside of you.

Let’s Pray Together. John’s definition of “the spirit of anti-Christ” relates directly to John 14:20, first splitting “Christ” apart from the Person of Jesus and then from living inside of us, inside our human flesh. And, as John also said, it is inside the Church, our brethren, that this false spirit rules. Let’s cast it down for their sakes.

“Father, inside of the name of Jesus, inside of You, we stand firm, that we might synergeo with You for the sake of our brothers and sisters all across the earth. Yet for their sakes, Father, cause us to KNOW, as never before, this Place of Life and intimacy inside of Whom we live.

“Father, in the name of Jesus and by His Blood, we bind the spirit of anti-Christ ruling over the minds of our brothers and sisters all across this earth, blocking them from knowing that they live only inside of Jesus and Jesus lives inside of all that they are. Father, we bind that false spirit that speaks against the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we cast it down.

“Father, we place our expectation of faith, the faith of Jesus in us, together with Your faith, that our precious Devoted Spirit is even now whispering the full reality of John 14:20 into the hearts of millions of believers in Jesus.

“Lord Jesus, they don’t need to know us, for You are already inside of them causing them to know that You are.”