15. Restoring Sight

(This is the audio from the Zoom meeting. It is unedited, and so you get all the normal noises of a service.)

I want to begin this session with a further understanding of Jesus’ words, “Narrow is the gate and pressed-in is the way by which you are led to life.”

We are no longer considering this in terms of ourselves, of finding for ourselves the knowledge of Father with us. We live inside of Father with us and we know nothing else. Rather, we are now seeing this as “the way by which we are led to bring all into a world of life.” That is our present task, swallowing up all the death in this world inside of the VICTORY of LIFE.

We must understand this “pressed-in” way.

God Takes Me Seriously. And having written that last line a few days ago, God, as He so often does, has taken me into discovering what He means by such a thing in my own desperate circumstances. In this very pressed-in place, I find a knowing of the agony of God and of the meaning of sharing Hheart with Him deeper than I have ever known.

None of this is for myself, for God has already led me into knowing that He shares Himself with me, which is LIFE. Rather, this is for others, including you, dear reader, just as He leads you also for my sake. This is for an upcoming lesson in Symmorphy VI, however.

Not a Safe Place. The issue is this, whatever is going on in this world, none of that is what’s really going on. And what’s really going on is that the Lord Jesus is sharing Himself with us in bearing the griefs and sorrows, not just of humans, but of God. This world and each human in it is not a safe place for God, and to enter into this world again, as well as to continue to carry inside Himself every deceitful and manipulative human is costly beyond what we can know.

Jesus did not just redeem us a long time ago, much more than that, He carries us now inside Himself all the way through death and into life – and that continues to cost Him all agony, for it is not really others we abuse, but Jesus.

To Save Him. I am now convinced that bearing with His disciples was more difficult for Jesus than bearing with the Pharisees. Nonetheless, we will wait until our study of Chapter 13 before we look at the costliness to Jesus of carrying these men, who should have been His support, but were not, inside His heart, along with the whole world.

Jesus, in the days of His flesh, offered, with loud crying and tears, both heart-felt prayers and an olive branch of peace towards the One able to save Him continuously out from death (Hebrews 5:7). We have never known what this meant.

Intentions and Strategies. Our purpose in this present study is to consider Jesus’ responses to those who outwardly opposed Him.

One word comes to mind concerning the group of men who brought the adulterous woman to Jesus – sliminess. Consider their intentions behind the strategy they devised. They weren’t just playing games; they intended to break this Man, somehow. Jesus had made their intentions clear – “This is the heir. Come, let us kill Him, that the inheritance might be ours.” They used the law as their weapon in order to find an inconsistency in Jesus’ response so they could expose Him to the people as false. This was a “fight” over the woman.

Jesus Was a Threat. The “inheritance,” in this case, was control over the people. As long as the eyes of the people were on them, they could fantasize their own superiority and enjoy whatever it is that bullies gain from abusing “lesser” people.

I petted one of my little banty hens, and the slightly larger banty rooster saw me as his enemy and came straight at me to divert the attention of his “woman” back to himself. (He did not get the better of the exchange J.) But this is what it’s all about – the religious-sexual sensation that power-over gives to wicked people. Jesus threatened their roost.

Through Him. To understand Jesus’ response, we must place Him into His frame of thinking. For God did not send His Son into the world-cosmos that He might judge the world-cosmos, but so that the world-cosmos might be saved through Him (John 3:17).

Notice the “through Him.” That’s the part people don’t get. Salvation is not a one-time event, been there, done that. Salvation is that which takes place inside of Jesus right now every single moment, the Salvation of each individual one. And part of the death that Jesus cried out to God to be saved from was the death of turning to outward judgment.

Jesus Knew His Purpose. Jesus understood what He would do upon the cross, where, in the deepest agonies of His confused human soul, He would refuse the sense of “God departed from me,” and draw God into His awfulness as sharing all with Him, and where He would refuse to regard the most wicked wickedness ever hurled against God, and receive these pain-causing people into Himself, and there, join them with Father upon His own Heart.

And in dealing with these wicked men now, including His disciples, Jesus kept Himself before God, that He would not judge outwardly, but would carry even them inside Himself, through their viciousness, and into life.

One Same Purpose. Jesus’ purpose towards these powerful men, who could ruin anyone’s life and career with one word, remained always the same. Their strategy was always to trick Jesus into saying the wrong thing; Jesus purpose was always to cause them to see, somehow, just how much they needed Him inside of them.

Jesus covenanted with God every moment to keep Him inside of that one purpose, and so His responses never had anything to do with their trickery, but always this one thing. “Let him who is without sin among you cast the first stone.”

“I Am Guilty.” That every mouth might be closed, and the entire cosmos brought under judgment before God (Romans 3:19). Jesus seeks one first response in every human soul – “I am guilty,” and then a CLOSED MOUTH, not one more word of excuse or explanation. Followed by an open door to Him to enter into them and to share fellowship together.

Do you understand just how difficult it is for Jesus to get this response from anyone, including you? I’m not talking about the fantasy of “knowing God” in solitude, but rather, the harsh reality found in interaction with others who wait for a justice many refuse to give.

Differing Strategies. We see, then, that Jesus’ intention towards the adulterous woman was identical to His intention towards the Pharisees. Yet His strategy was very different. He knew already that He had the “I am guilty” from her, and a closed mouth. And He knew already that her door was open to Him. It would not surprise us to learn that she was in the upper room a few months later, to receive this same Jesus into herself on the Day of Pentecost.

When Jesus said, “Go and sin no more,” He was speaking Himself into her. Yet the costliness on the cross was towards the Pharisees.

Entrapment. Then, if you consider the flow of conversation between Jesus and the Judeans/Pharisees, you can see that the strategy so often used against Him was the same strategy the serpent used in the garden. – Control the conversation. Get Him distracted into topics we present in order to divert Him into a sideshow so that we can catch Him off-guard.

This trick was used against me not too long ago, and, sadly for me, it worked. By engaging in a back and forth on the other person’s own terms, the effectiveness of the good word of Christ through me was blunted.

False Identities. Always it’s “Let’s talk about the word.” Yet it’s not to know the Father, but to trick you into “doctrinal heresy.”

Consider the identity of the Judeans who “believed in Jesus.” “Abraham is our father.” Notice how angry they became when Jesus challenged that identity. Yet we know by John 3:17 that Jesus had one purpose only, to get them to be guilty and silent. It was the same in the move. “I’m right with God because of my good-standing in the move. Those people who left the move are in trouble with God.” I became aware of this false identity in me only after I left.

Why Did I Despair? Inside of Jesus, I do not know any consciousness of sins. Inside of Jesus, I live with the wondrous knowledge that God my Father shares every part of my human life with me. Inside of Jesus, I know that Jesus has already swallowed up all of my awfulness.

Why did I despair in February of 1998 when the emptiness of my own words became utterly apparent to me? “I must come into union with God.” Ain’t gonna’ happen. Why did I fight so ferociously for months and years to know my precious union with Jesus?

A Place I Will Never Go. Why have I gone through such agony as to write my life-story and to place it out where anyone can read it? Why do I pay every price to place the Lord Jesus upon myself?

Very simple. Outside of Jesus I am far more wicked than the devil. Outside of Jesus I absolutely deserve eternal damnation. Outside of Jesus is a place I will never go.

Yet inside of Jesus, I must turn around, for I am just like Him. And now I share with Him the same carrying of Father’s great grief all the way through the darkness.

Hurting God. When you hurt other people, you are hurting God. Other people can hide from abuse at times, but God never can. And how perverse we humans can be towards one another, including and especially as Spirit-filled believers in Jesus, and it never enters our minds the hurt we cause. If a brother or sister attempts to share with us how much we have hurt them, we get angry. We defend and justify ourselves, or we convince ourselves that none of what we have done even exists.

Here is the pressed-in way for me, that I would draw, with the Lord Jesus and without blame, even these into union with my Father, here upon my heart. I must take my brother with me.

Never Side-Tracked. Consider Jesus’ words at the end of Chapter 9. – “If you were blind, you would not possess sin; Since you say, ‘We see,’ however, your sin and disconnection from God remains.”

Again, Jesus is after the exact same thing. First, He is never sidetracked into their non-issues. The “issue” is NEVER the issue, no matter how much we cry and fuss about our own “exalted” self. The issue is always relationship with God through Jesus first and then relationship with one another through that same Jesus. Everything else is meaningless distraction.

A Dishonest “Honesty.” Those who “observe the law to keep it” and those who preach “hear and obey” inside the gospel, are all fundamentally dishonest. They do NOT keep the law. They do NOT “hear” and they do NOT “obey.”

Yet look at their hold on their own deceit. Even when they slunk away after Jesus said, “He who is without sin, let him throw the first stone,” they did not allow that terrible honesty to force them into silence before God. “I am the one who corrects you” is the identity which they will never let go, not as long as they can.

Blaming Jesus. “I am the one who corrects you” is the story of self that is the opposite of the Lord Jesus. Yet Jesus’ one motive, to bring them to guilt, to silence, and to their willingness to receive Him into and upon themselves, is construed by them by their own fake story. That is, as they know what they really are in all their falseness, so they heap upon Jesus that very blame.

I am astonished at those who take upon themselves the “ministry” of criticizing others. (And I am not speaking of those who share inside the kindness of Jesus.) It seems to me they are projecting their own faults on the other.

Honesty versus Dishonesty. Honesty – Dishonesty. That’s really what it’s all about.
“I am blind, I do not know. I cannot see; I need help.” – Versus – “I can see; I am right. I know what your problem is; let me fix you. (And if you don’t let me fix you, then we both know that you are rejecting God.)”

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5 that God has already reconciled all to Himself. Two things only will continue to prevent any individual person from knowing what is already true. Lying and unbelief. The lying presents “I, myself,” and the unbelief closes the door to Jesus.

“Hide Us Away.” All sight will be restored. All will see what is really the issue. But consider this particular group of people in their response to knowing the truth about themselves and knowing the goodness of Jesus.

And the kings of the earth and the great ones, and the commanders and the rich and the strong, and every servant and free hid themselves into the caves and into the rocks of the mountains, and they say to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall upon us, and hide us away from the face of the One sitting upon the throne and away from the opposition of the Lamb, because the day of His opposition has come and who is able to stand?” (Revelation 6:15-17)

Today Must Be Today. What are they doing? They are projecting their own wickedness upon Jesus. They are finding Jesus to be guilty of what they themselves do. They are convinced that Jesus is just like them.

It doesn’t matter how reconciled to God a person might be. They must stop lying about themselves first, and they must stop refusing Jesus entrance into their lives. Their time will come in a future age, but the issues will never change. Today must be today, right now. Honesty must begin, and Jesus alone is life.

The Present Dispensation. I believe that we are inside the shortest dispensation of time in all God’s seasons. I do not think this dispensation is longer than 10 ½ years. We live inside the time of the greatest spiritual danger since the garden. We live inside the time of the greatest safety since Adam and Eve were driven out. Lying is universal. Truth, as it was known through the in-part Church age, seems to have vanished, including among Christians. Yet the Door that has opened to us to share Hheart with God is the greatest privilege in all time and creation.

What Will They See? Those who “believe” anything about this world, one way or another, have fallen into the darkness.

– The unveiling of Jesus Christ. – What will people see when the cover is removed from their eyes and they see all things as they really are? They will see the impossible.

Consider, if you will, a billion universes all built on utterly different laws and concepts from each other, and consider the nature of “impossibility” as it could exist throughout those billions of possible “impossibilities.” Which one is the MOST IMPOSSIBLE?

The Most Impossible. The greatest of all IMPOSSIBILITIES is what people will see when the cover is removed from their eyes.

They will see Christians loving one another.

I despair at times, just like Jesus did, when I consider how impossible this goal really is. Christians loving one another is the ONLY proof that Jesus speaks the truth, yet He cannot force Himself upon anyone. What I do know is my own place inside of God, that I would bear the Father’s grief, that I would carry His sorrows. That I would set forth my soul for each one of my brothers and sisters, regardless of all the pain and confusion.

Reading for Next Time. I did cover the outline of what I had wanted in this lesson, but it all went in a completely different direction than I had first thought. And out from what I am feeling right now, the most precious words in the Bible that I could hear are, “Jesus calls me by my name.” To be found inside of Him is the only place to be found.

For the next session, read Chapters 10 and 11 in the JSV. I hope to have them ready on the website before next weekend. And He calls His own sheep by name.

Let’s Pray Together. Our prayer today is to receive, with wide-open hearts, Jesus’ transfer of Himself to us in all that He is. How can I say that I share Hheart with God? I say it because it is Jesus who comes into union with me.

“Lord Jesus, we need You desperately to be our life, to be all that we are, for apart from You we are LOST. Yet we are never apart from You, for it is always You who comes to us. Lord Jesus, we receive You into ourselves every moment, for You command our hearts, and we receive Your own life-laid-down for others just as much.

“Lord Jesus, cause us to be the very Heart You share with the Father, to walk through all agony, to speak no defense of self, but to bear the awfulness of others all the way through the darkness and into life. Lord Jesus, cause us to know just a tiny bit of the great pain our Father bears as He carries all hurt committed against others inside Himself first.

“Lord Jesus, just as You bear our griefs, so be in us the bearing of the griefs of others, and as You carry our sorrows, so be in us the carrying of the sorrows of others. Cause us to be, Lord Jesus, that FAITH You so want to find here in the earth, to be that pressed-in way for the sake of others, that they might be led into LIFE.

“We know, Lord Jesus, that You make us just like Yourself.”