18.3 By the Kingdom
© 2017 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
We have looked at the in-part church by appearance first and then by substance, by God forming His Heart in us. All these things we can see by present and by historical reality. In this lesson I want to explore how this in-part Church of which we have been very much a part and whom we know so well, relates to the arising of the Kingdom of God in the present day. Thus I am now speaking prophetically, and I will continue to speak prophetically through the next two sessions, “The Tabernacles Church” and “The Transitional Church.” Indeed, from here on through, I will be speaking prophetically in most of the upcoming lessons. – Let me explain myself.
Know the Way to Take
“And where I go you know, and the way you know.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” (John 14:4-5).
I drive often with my mind locked in habit. Thus, as we leave our home and I find myself driving down any one of several very common ways, I have to ask, “Where are we going?” The moment I remember where it is we are headed, I know whether I am on the right way or not. And sometimes I’m not.
We cannot investigate going forward from here, that is, the transitional church, unless we know where we are going, that is, the Tabernacles Church. Thus we must have our destination fully in view before we can know how we might get there.
Speaking Prophetically
Let me explain what I mean by “speaking prophetically.” I do not and will not make any attempt to “predict the future,” and neither does God. To speak prophetically is to call forth Christ into the human experience, to call forth that unfolding of God out from His pro-knowing, out from His heart, into our present experience.
Our future is entirely fixed inside of God’s pro-knowing Heart; our future is entirely fluid inside of God’s pro-knowing Heart. God does nothing apart from us; we do nothing apart from Him. In speaking prophetically, I am in no way attempting to be “correct,” or to add to Scripture, or any such thing. I am speaking out from my knowing of Christ and calling forth that knowing into the experience of all creation.
Is and Ain’t
Yet I would never have spoken in this manner before now. I do not make things up. I do not run with a word I do not know. If I do not see Christ in something, that is, God’s pro-thesis, I will not teach it. What is, is; and what ain’t, ain’t; and I ain’t capable of creating God; yet God is.
But writing Symmorphy I: Purpose gave me the absolute foundation I needed to write Symmorphy II: Essence. And writing Symmorphy II: Essence gave me the absolute foundation, out from God’s Word and fitting all reality, to write Symmorphy III: Kingdom, up until this point. And now, but only now, I know that I can speak prophetically out from the Springs of Living Water always arising in me.
No Rapture
Let me define the Tabernacles Church: the Church of Jesus Christ walking upon this earth with a post-resurrection ministry at its heart. – Think about what I am saying. This lesson, “By the Kingdom” is an attempt to bridge from the in-part church to the Tabernacles Church, but in our understanding. The session, “The Transitional Church,” however, will be an attempt to see that bridge in our experience.
There is NO rapture in the Kingdom of God. There is NO rapture of any kind in God anywhere or at any time. Let me define what I mean by using the word, “rapture.” A “rapture” is an instantaneous transformation from one condition of being into another condition of being.
From Glory to Glory
A rapture is rape. A rapture is God forcing Himself, His knowledge, on a created person by immediacy, by totality, and thus completely separate from faith, completely separate from that person’s express permission. God does not rape; God does not rapture. Our transformation is from glory to glory; the steps of a righteous man grow brighter and brighter. The Daystar arises in our hearts. – Christ is formed in us.
Thus, most of our brethren imagine that “going to” heaven is a rapture. That here they do not and cannot know God very well, but after they are dead they will instantly know all the perfection and sinlessness of God.
Ain’t Gonna’ Happen
And most of our brethren see “Jesus coming back” as another form of “rapture,” regardless of where they place it, pre, mid, or post-tribulation. In other words, they imagine an instantaneous perfection of God forced upon everything and everyone in a blinding flash. Ain't’ gonna’ happen. (Any form of rapture is one of those ain’ts that ain’t.)
And again, a rapture will not happen because God is kind as well as holy. For God to reveal all that He intends into our lives in one moment – that would so break our minds that we would need placement in a mental asylum. And it would break our minds as rape, as a violation of our persons.
Continuums of Reality
Now, every verse in the Bible referencing heaven sits comfortably inside my present understanding of heaven/earth as a continuum of our reality in the present moment. Those who are dead in Christ continue as they have been. Certainly they grow, but it is much harder to grow in God without a body of flesh than with full possession of God’s dwelling place. And they do not grow beyond us. Paul and John do not know God better than we do.
AND – just as heaven and earth are a continuum of present reality, with good and evil living side by side in both sides of this one place, so this age and the age to come are a continuum of actual history.
A Continued Walking
The Church WILL BE the Church as God intends in fullness upon this earth and inside of human reality. And that reality is a walk from one level of knowing God to the next level of knowing God for every individual human being, including all those who will be born on this earth in the age to come, and for all forever.
Let’s consider Isaiah’s prophesy of the age of the fulfillment of all that is Christ upon this earth, the age of the Tabernacles Church – the Age of Tabernacles. No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days; for the child shall die one hundred years old, but the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed (Isaiah 65:20).
God’s Order for His Church
Yes, in the Age of Tabernacles, there will be non-resurrected people living in a state of sinfulness, that is, not knowing God, still alive on this earth, birthing children and dying. History continues on; the only thing different in the human experience will be the complete absence of fallen angels.
But let’s back up, for we are seeking to understand the arising of the Kingdom inside the present in-part church. And thus I want to look a little further at God’s order for the Church, an order that remains the same whether in-part or in-fullness. God has one order for His Church, the order of the wineskin, yet the in-part church imposes a serpentine order upon herself.
The Order of the Wineskin
The order of the wineskin considers particular outward structures and leadership functions to be useful in a given situation or a season of any experience of God in the church. BUT that structure MUST then be thrown out on a regular basis as the next season of God in the lives of His people comes. The church does not exist without some form of structure, yet the structure cannot place itself as “God’s order.” The very moment any useful structure becomes “God’s order,” it is now past its usefulness and WILL serve ONLY to prevent the next step God has for His people. Outward structures that refuse to vanish we then call “sects” and “denominations.”
Five Types of Ministry
Paul’s layout of five types of ministry in the church is NOT a description of a hierarchy of persons or a set of church offices. And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-13).
These five types of ministry are gifts of Christ through different members; they are not positions of command and control. In God’s order, these are all works of service, not titles of office.
Always Side by Side
And the very moment members of Christ come to the knowledge of the full measure of our union with Christ, the purpose of these ministries ceases. We walk together ALWAYS as friends, side by side, regardless of any knowledge of Christ. In fact, to walk “above” another is to demonstrate a complete lack of knowing Christ. The one who walks “above” is not a ministry of Christ, no matter how anointed or capable they might be, for they are not regarding their brother or sister as Christ Himself. To call one’s self, “I am a pastor,” or “I am an apostle,” is to create a self-story that cannot be Christ. And as we know Christ to be our only life, we see the lofty “air” in which these people walk, and all we can do is sorrow for them.
No “Place” at All
For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called (1 Corinthians 1:26).
A significant problem for God in the church is that those few who are capable, wise, and noble leaders who do receive a call from God, then imagine that they have a “place” in the church because of the outward giftings they possess. They are wrong; yet they are the “leaders” in every gathering of Christians. Yet in all of their hindering of God’s purposes among His people, these wise and capable individuals do serve a purpose.
And thus we return to God’s primary purpose for the present church age, the quarry where the stones for His house are shaped.
A Core in the Midst
The Tabernacles Church will exist on this earth ONLY when there is, in the midst of any gathering together, a core of at least two or three individuals who are always laying down their “place” in order to give place to the least and the littlest. And whenever anyone else seeks to set him or herself in “place” above others, pushing others around, these two or three will take that one aside and say, “My dear brother, my dear sister, stop it. You cannot place yourself above Christ.”
BUT – they will always be showing all exactly how Christ lays down His life for each. By this we know love, that Christ laid down His life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
God’s Workshop
Just as Christ has lived us from death into life, so we will walk our brethren, each one individually, step by halting step, out of a false self-story and into the joy of Christ alone.
The in-part church is not about God’s perfection or the revelation of Jesus Christ. The in-part church is our passage, our training ground, the quarry where God shapes the stones of His house, the womb of the Church. The in-part church is God’s mighty workshop where He creates the most valuable quality in the universe – human hearts shaped to contain the Heart of Father.