21.3 Love Poured Out
© 2017 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
I made a statement in Session 20, “The Transitional Church,” that is the absolute truth of God. “Every single member is free to give out from themselves into whatever function of supply to the body makes Christ in their hearts sing with joy. – This is the real place of the anointing, the source of all the power to be the witness of Christ in the earth.”
And now I really must point you to one of the most amazing movies I have ever watched – Kung Fu Panda 3. And no, I’m not being silly. I really do want you to find it and watch it. Yes, watch this story. (It would be great if you watched Kung Fu Panda 1 first.) But as you watch, translate all story parts into Christ.
Every Friend of Po
You know, we can be religious or we can be real. And nothing makes God more real to us than the simple illustration of story. I want you to see how every friend of Po gives of themselves as they really are, not some image forced upon them, but who and what they are. As they give themselves in the outflow of a river of life for Po, they are giving him the strength he needs to defeat the enemy and to set all free.
It is this picture, this sending forth of Christ out from the family of Christ, out from each one as themselves for real, that I want you to have in your mind as we look at the love now pouring out from this very fountain of Father’s heart. The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).
Going Mighty
Here is what I am doing. I intend to go mighty in the next six sessions of Kingdom. Indeed I must, for God’s Kingdom is mighty. Yet I have never written such before. Yet every mighty thing flowing out of us over the next few years comes out of this ONE source – Soul with Soul, Heart with Heart, Father’s love poured out.
I have seen in the last few days the screaming rage of the evil one coming out of the mouths of millions, screaming their hatred and false accusation against Jesus, screaming lies against us and against me. And Father spoke in Oour heart, “Pay no attention. They rage without substance. We walk only in My love outpoured. There is nothing else real.”
The Temple of God
The entirety of Ezekiel 40-48 is talking about the real Temple of God, a fully successful Church, made up of those who were once Jews and once Gentiles, but who are now one new man in Christ (Read Ephesians 2:14-22 – I am speaking the truth).
In Chapter 47, Ezekiel sees the river of life flowing out from that dwelling place of God among men. The water was flowing from under the right side of the temple, south of the altar (Ezekiel 47:2). Three things are important to us in this statement. First, the “right side” and “south” are the same thing. That means that Ezekiel is describing this temple as one going out from God, a concept we will know in the next series, Covenant.
Out from the Holiest
Even as I am writing these final mighty chapters of Kingdom, Covenant is now beginning to open to me in the Spirit. Having been established in the Purpose of God and His Essence in all things, we are looking at the outworking of God in His Kingdom. As we have seen, Kingdom must come before Covenant, yet once we SEE the Kingdom, now we must KNOW the Covenant in which we are bound together with God, a Covenant that, with God, moves out from the Holiest of All.
The next thing we see in verse two is that that the south side of the temple is the side facing the city of Jerusalem, yet the river flows out from this conjunction of Jerusalem and Temple, out into the dead parts of the world to bring life and healing to all.
The Altar
Finally, we see that Ezekiel mentions the altar. Now, usually, when the word “altar” is used, the context tells us whether it is the altar of burnt offering or the altar of incense, but not always. Here, Ezekiel seems to be referring to the altar of burnt offering, the Sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Yet that is not the source of the river, just the place where the waters flow out.
John gives us the source. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Revelation 22:1). The “throne of God” is the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies, the place where God meets with us. The throne of God, the source of life and love poured out, is Father’s Heart and Father’s Heart is our heart.
Our Hearts Together
Now, I am positioning all of this, these two totally diverse pictures, every member of the body giving freely of themselves as pictured by Kung Fu Panda 3 with the river flowing out from Ezekiel’s temple, out from the throne of God, BECAUSE this is how God wants us to see ourselves, inside both at once.
God’s Heart is not found in my heart alone; God’s Heart is found in our hearts together. We together are the temple of God. We together are the Body and the Spirit wherein the soul of Jesus dwells.
But now that we have the picture of God Substance in which God wants us to walk, let’s talk about love poured out for real.
The Source
By this we know love, because He set forth His Soul for us. And we also ought to set forth our souls for the brethren (1 John 3:16). Now that we know, personally and intimately, what Jesus’ setting forth His Soul for us really means, we turn and ask, how, then, do we do the same thing FOR one another?
Everything hinges on this. That the world may know that You… have loved them as You have loved Me (John 17:23). I’m not talking here about the love and life of God flowing out, but the source of that river, our love for one another. It is in our love for one another that the love with which the Father loves us as He loves Jesus is made known.
Give from Yourself
When Po and his friends and all the Pandas knew that the enemy was about to arrive, the Pandas asked Po to teach them Kung Fu like he knew Kung Fu. Po answered, “NO! I will teach you to be you.” Which is what he then did – teaching every member of the body to give of themselves as they truly were, not something they were not.
Then, Po saw that the only victory over the enemy would be to lay down his own life for the sake of his friends. Po’s friends, seeing Po vanish with the enemy, understood that Po NEEDED something from each one of them. They did not know how, but they knew they must give from themselves.
Simple Folks in Community
It was that moment, when I watched the story the first time, and all times since, that I saw so wonderfully real the revelation of Jesus Christ. As each one of Po’s friends spoke their own identity, their own name, given back to them by Po, into Po’s need, life flowed forth from them, the life of Christ (that’s all that “chi” means). Yet they were just Pandas, and a goose and a tigress. Simple folks who loved one another in community. And from the life flowing forth from his family, Po became – himself, laughing in victory, knowing that there was no real opposition.
I know it’s just a silly kid’s story, but it makes Christ in the fulfillment of Tabernacles so vividly real to me.
It Is Family
It is family together that sets creation free. Friends with friends, setting forth their souls for one another. No, I have no idea what I am talking about, but my face is set upon Jerusalem and I will not be turned.
Let me state again something from “Soul with Soul.” “It is from this place of you and me fitting perfectly together as all the purity of Christ, not by our performance, but by our faith in Jesus’ own set-forth soul, it is from this place alone that AND-WE-ALSO now proceeds.” And we also set forth our souls for one another and for all the brethren.
Complete Purity
For me to set forth my soul for you requires 100% honesty, that is complete purity, that is Christ as all that I am.
You may have defined what I called “my most terrible sins,” as I placed that sin into Jesus and I together, as a “little thing.” I disagree. We like to categorize sin by lesser and greater; God does not. You may find it difficult to place what you might call “far greater sins” into that same togetherness with Jesus. Don’t be dishonest. Sin is sin. Jesus is Jesus.
It is ONLY as I share all that my soul is, all of my own self-story, all of my history, all of my actions and thoughts and words in life, together with Jesus’ soul that I can set forth my soul for you.
When Push Comes to Shove
And we don’t use “Well, Jesus and I are already one” as a fallback. The issue is never what is; the issue is always KNOWING what is. And when push comes to shove, if you have not brought Jesus’ soul into every moment of your own story, you will be dishonest with me.
I know the press of walking together through the difficult places of life, and I KNOW how little all the shouting “Amen” really means and how precious a true heart laid down really is. And thus, as I set forth my soul for you and as you set forth your soul for me, it is a continuation of the very same sharing of Jesus’ soul – NO consciousness of sins.
No Consciousness of Sins
That’s it; that’s what we’re after. That’s what “setting forth our souls” for one another is really all about. No consciousness of sins.
It’s actually easy to walk in no consciousness of sins regarding myself; I can believe anything I want! – Everyone does. But when I walk together with you, even if our “together” is limited only to an occasional email or even a telephone call, suddenly, your DIFFERENCE creeps into my picture and I find myself dealing with “What’s wrong with you?”
And I can assure you of this, if we were walking together in practical daily life, your DIFFERENCE would very quickly overwhelm me – and the tangle of my mind would be struggling with “YOUR ‘SIN’ – You are so WRONG!”
Jesus Towards Me
How on earth can I walk in NO consciousness of sins towards you even though I “know you are wrong?” You see, when I kicked that younger boy in the wrong place, just because I felt like proving how “tough” I was, I was already one with the Lord Jesus and He was already living as me. And in that moment of my own wickedness, Jesus held in His mind NO consciousness of sins regarding me.
That’s a big deal. That’s why bitter Christians are really angry at God, at His own no-consciousness-of-sins when He OUGHT to be punishing these other Christians who are so wrong. By this we KNOW love, because He set forth His soul for us, AND WE ALSO ought to set forth our souls for one another.
God Together
We will know that we are in the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles and that God Himself is now all of our connection together, WHEN we walk together through whatever and I find NO consciousness of your “sin” inside of me and you find No consciousness of my “sin” inside of you.
The fruit of Calvinism, the fruit of the present teaching in the move of God of which I was once a part, is that everyone is fully aware of sin as they “try so hard not to sin,” not recognizing that God does count one sin to be greater than all other sins – self-righteousness, the rejection of union with Christ.
I know this, it is only out from the glaring honesty of my acceptance of Jesus’ no consciousness of sins towards me in every worst moment of my wickedness that I could ever do the same towards you.
The Hardest Task
And here is what I find. My acceptance of no-consciousness-of-sin towards you contains in itself everything that I presently know to be “laying down my life for you.” It is the hardest task I have ever seen.
To look at you in the middle of your WRONG towards me, and to see NO wrong, but only you in love with Jesus. I can assure you of this, such eyes are only God’s. As I see you in that way, I know that God is the only connection between me and you. And as I see you in that way, you are my friend, as Jesus is my Friend and as God is my Father.
Friends with Friends
Greater love has no man than this, that a man set forth his soul for his friends. – Greater love has no man than this, that a man walk together with his friends with no consciousness of their “sins.”
Let me define “sins” here. “Sin,” in this context, means any and every form or measure, any shadow or nuance of your wrongness or offense towards me and towards anything. This is not a “hiding” of sins, for it exists only in the light, only in our personal full and honest union with Jesus’ own soul. Yet even if in community someone had to be excluded because of criminal abuse, still, our no-consciousness-of-sins towards that one is the only thing that would ever bring them out of dishonesty, out of their own hiding from Jesus.
Seized into God
Love one another AS I have loved you.
God placed me in Spirit-filled Christian community for so many years partly to give me a full practical understanding of the soul of every human being. Show me the most “holy” and “anointed” man or woman “of God” you have ever known, and I will show you a person who does not walk in this way towards anyone. That’s not a condemnation; it’s simply the way it is.
When we find ourselves walking fully in no-consciousness-of-sins in all things towards one another, we will know that we have been seized into God and into His throne and that God is now our only connection.
One Place Only
I want to pull all this back into our study of the Kingdom. All the authority of Christ, all the rivers of life, all the setting of creation free, comes out of one place ONLY.
That one place is brethren walking together in love, that is, brethren setting forth their souls for one another, that is, brethren, walking together with no consciousness of any wrongness on the part of each other.
But what is it about this place that makes all the difference in the universe? It is only inside this place that each one, from the least to the greatest, finds the full freedom to truly give themselves as they really are for the building up of the Body in love.
The River Flowing Out
– Every single member is free to give out from themselves into whatever function of supply to the body makes Christ in their hearts sing with joy. – This is the real place of the anointing, the source of all the power to be the witness of Christ in the earth. –
But your giving out from your true self means something to me only as I receive you as Jesus Himself. And I receive you as Jesus Himself only as I see you with NO regard for any wrongness. I set forth my soul, I lay down my life, for you. And we practice this reality, knowing that it is true and Jesus and Father, by practicing being the Mercy Seat of God, drawing one another into love and setting one another free.
And out from that throne of God, our hearts, proceeds the river of life, love poured out, bringing healing and life to all.