6.3 Spirit Connections
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all (1 Corinthians 12:7).Consider the diagram of two heart energy fields overlapping. Look carefully at the oval of overlap. You are seeing the revelation of Jesus Christ. Christ is revealed as He IS inside that overlap of Spirit between you and me. The “manifestations” of the Spirit are the visible appearance of the “electrical” synapse connections of spirit with spirit.
© 2008 Global Coherence Initiative
False Evangelism
Close your eyes, if you would, and picture a group of people pulling a heavy cart, straining under the load. Picture another man with a whip beating those laboring under the difficulty. Then, picture behind that heavy cart, a LONG team of many powerful horses tied to the cart and following dutifully behind.
On the side of the cart is written “Evangelism.” Inside the cart is all the elements of what is called “the Great Commission.” The man beating the people laboring under the load is saying “Get out and save the lost.” The whip is God’s “displeasure.” And the powerful horses that would prance in the pulling of that same cart with all joy? Yet cannot do anything because they are completely ignored?
Relationships of Love
The first two horses, the leaders of that long team of powerful pullers each has a name. Here is the name of the first: For IN one Spirit we were all immersed into one body… and have all been made to drink one Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13 – modified to the Greek). And here is the name of the second: Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another with a pure heart fervently (1 Peter 1:22b).
The entire driving heart of the apostles as they wrote to the church was focused on the relationships of love among the believers in Jesus Christ.
The Witness of Christ
Never once did the apostles tell their readers to “get out and save the lost.” Why? Because Christ ALONE is the witness of Christ and Christ IS a many-membered body. There is no living Body without Spirit, and there is no witness of Christ without a Body living by the Spirit, loving one another.
What we call evangelism today did not exist in the early church. Rather, the church gathered together in the demonstration of the Spirit and power, loving one another – and people SAW and they said to themselves – “My, how those Christians love one another!”
Sharing Together
So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved (Acts 2:46-47). – Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul… (sharing) all things common. And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all (Acts 4:32).
The word of the gospel goes out only from the Community of Christ. The Lord knows ALL whom the Father has given to Him, for they are already inside of Him, and not one of them can remain in lostness.
True Evangelism
When the Community of Christ is healthy and vibrant, then the Spirit of God draws in many without effort.
The reason the whip is needed in modern evangelism is that there is nothing appealing for anyone to which to be drawn. “Escape hell and ‘go to’ heaven” is not real because it is not Today, and everyone knows it is not real. No faith whatsoever is involved in any expression of such “evangelism.”
Now, Jesus does draw to Himself many who are brought to Him in this false way; He is very good at His job. BUT! – Those dear ones are then immediately harnessed to false labor and never know what it means to ride inside the Community of Christ, filled with Spirit and loving one another.
Saved into Church
Modern evangelism has NOTHING to do with the Kingdom of God. If people are not being saved into Church they are not being saved into Life, though Jesus carries all.
I hope that I have used a heavy enough axe to break apart the false “mission” placed upon the Church today, so that we might KNOW the true mission of the Church. That mission IS – Love one another. Love one another with a pure heart fervently.
And that love takes place inside a very specific environment. That environment is this bath of Personal Spirit Word in which we live together, of which we drink together.
More Substantial
I tell you what; I am so excited. You see, always before, when I wrote about any aspect of the third most important verse in the Bible, rivers of Spirit flowing out of us, I have felt limited and constrained. In Symmorphy I: Purpose, when I arrived at writing that section, I simply put it in place because it must fit there, and then went on to “more substantial” writing. Yet I knew that Spirit must be fully in place before I could ever write the capstone of my writing career, Symmorphy V: Life.
Writing this session has changed everything for me regarding my knowing of Spirit. Now I know how to present to you these rivers of Personal Spirit Word flowing among us.
Manifest
This lesson is on the connections of Holy Spirit flowing among us as one Body of Christ together. Christ is a Spirit of Power, but that Spirit of Power operates entirely inside a Body. There is no Spirit known (manifest) without Body, and there is no Body without Spirit known.
The word “clearly” in 2 Corinthians 2:3, Clearly you are an epistle of Christ, should read, you are seen clearly as an epistle of Christ. That word is the same Greek word, phanerosis/phaneroĊ, as is found in 1 Corinthians 12:7, The manifestation of the Spirit,” and in 1 John 3:3, We know that IF He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
Spirit Rooted in Love
It is the connections of the Holy Spirit, Christ as a Spirit of Power, a Spirit Word, among us as individual members of the One Body of Christ, by which Christ APPEARS, is seen clearly, by us and by all. And Paul roots those Spirit manifestations entirely inside the Love of God; that’s why Chapter 13 is found in-between Chapters 12 and 14 in 1 Corinthians.
The love of God has been poured out, shed abroad, in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us (Romans 5:5). In our hearts means our literal and fleshly heart energy field, active and alive, by which we live as humans – the love of God outpoured.
Normal and Everyday
ALL of the gifts and manifestations, demonstrations and ministries of the Holy Spirit are simply normal and natural expressions of everyday occurrence inside of Church. I know exactly what I am talking about because I have lived inside of this kind of Church for years.
When walking together in love, loving one another, is the sole purpose of life together, then these many visible manifestations of the Spirit have nothing to do with self-expression as so many in the charismatic realms of the church imagine. They are just the Body of Christ being the Body of Christ, normal and everyday. The same God who works all in all (1 Corinthians 12:6b).
Proximity
A full exploration of this reality of Spirit demonstration made visible awaits Symmorphy V: Life. Here, our focus is on Kingdom, on how the Spirit of God is now known to us as the energia carrying Word, Christ, inside itself, writing that Word continuously as Jesus Himself upon our heart energy field by which we live as humans. And how that same Spirit is our constant connection together.
The metaphor of radio frequency waves filled with word is limited to a local area, but the Holy Spirit is all everywhere. The expression of family requires proximity, but being One Body by the Spirit does not require proximity. You and I act directly together through the One Spirit which we drink.
Acting Together
And that is the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is you and I acting together IN this dynamic One Spirit in which we live together and of which we drink together. You may live in South Africa or Canada or Australia, while I live here in Texas. That “vast” distance has no meaning whatever inside this Spirit in which we live together.
The Spirit is always gentle, but NEVER static or blasé. The Spirit is ACTION personified. The Spirit is always working all.
A Tiny Picture
Consider the scalability of electricity. I have an electric drill. With the power on, the motor in that drill spins on its axis. With the power on, the light on my ceiling enlightens the entire room. In exactly the same way, by the same operation of electricity, the mighty power bands of Birkeland currents spin the entire Milky Way, enlighten every star in the galaxy, and spin every planet. And there are billions and billions of galaxies, all empowered by electricity just like my drill and my ceiling light. And all of that is nothing more than a tiny picture to us of this ONE Holy Spirit connecting all of us together.
Real Power
And yet all that electricity powering the universe, though it shows us a small aspect of this One Holy Spirit, none of that is what the Power of the Spirit, Christ as a Spirit of Power, is all about.
If you want to know what POWER really is, LIFE POWER, then you must watch a tiny plant unfold itself from the dirt. Or you must watch a fertilized egg in a mother’s womb be transformed into a living human child.
There is where we are seeing REAL power. The power of life.
And it is that real power that connects you and me together as we drink of One Spirit together.