16. A Foundation for Abundance

There extends out from each of us a mighty flood, vapor, energy - how can I describe it - that is God Himself. It is not just "Spirit," though it is Spirit, but it also affects fully the physical as well as the social realm. I am not speaking of God "in general." No created being knows God "in general." I am speaking of God revealed for the first time through many sons just like Jesus. This, for the first time in creation, is God specifically, God tangibly, God known.

      

I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. John 10:10

. . .  to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us . . . Ephesians 3:19-20

There are quite a number of Greek words and variations that all mean abundance or increase in some form and are scattered all through the New Testament. The Old Testament as well is filled with the declaration of increase and abundance. These words are background words, they slide into the text as adjectives or adverbs, but if we took them as root words, we would have to admit that abundance and increase is one of the key teachings and doctrines of God.

Now, God has built abundance and increase as the fabric and nature of His creation, but I want to separate completely between God Himself and His creation. You see, all creation does not know God; God is fashioning us to show Himself to creation through us. We do understand that God crafted creation using Himself (Christ) as His model. However, increase and abundance work in all parts of creation, in the earth, in human affairs, and in heaven, as natural laws. Yet God Himself is increase and abundance separate from creation and the laws by which it operates.

The Kingdom of God is NOT the creation coming into order under God. The Kingdom of God is NOT the creation coming into a state of perfection according to how God originally created it before the shadow of sin fell upon it. No. The perfect ordering of creation is the FRUIT of the Kingdom, not the Kingdom itself.

The Kingdom of God is God being Himself through us. God has always wanted to be Himself through us. God, being Himself through us, is the manifestation of the sons of God.

Thus, the Kingdom of God cannot come out upon creation until we, the revealers of God, first know God as Himself. God shows us Himself by showing us how His creation is modeled after Him. Then, He, who is always filling us full, discovers Himself to our hearts by the Spirit of revelation.

I am not wise enough to "correct" anyone. In the first place, I cannot know what is going on inside of someone else; God never tells me, and if I guess, I almost always make a fool of myself by guessing wrong. There is only one way you or I could ever know what is happening inside another or what they really mean by what they say and that is to ask them. I've known many anointed ministries, convinced that they had the gift of "discernment," who threw their guesses into my life without ever asking me. They were almost always stupidly wrong - yet I believed I should trust them. I cannot tell you the path of tears and agony by which I escaped the darkness such wild and incorrect guesses cast upon my life.

At the same time, the propensity to "correct" those who are "wrong" remains as a sad shadow upon our hearts. When I have tried to do it in recent years, I have made such a fool of myself. My guesses about "what the other person meant" were stupidly wrong. And when I see others doing this "correcting" thing, it's not hard to see that the guesses they throw at their brother or sister - without asking - are wildly inaccurate. Saying, "Just speaking the truth in love, brother," makes it even worse, trying to use God to back up the guesses, thus bringing greater affliction against dear hearts who long to know Him. The truth is, I have seen nothing but destruction and death come out of this practice, whether it's been done to me or I've done it or I've observed it being done, and I long for the day when we will stop committing this cruelty against one another.

The only "speaking of truth" that is true is to speak Christ who is meek and lowly of heart, gentle and tender and kind. He entreats; He asks; He seeks for the heart of a man. There is not an ounce of truth found in telling people what's wrong with them.

However - when we read or hear things that just don't sit right with us, that feel "wrong," we can share Christ alongside those words and allow Jesus to open hearts to Himself. This is the only "correcting" that is actually Christ.

So, I'm pulling three quotes from Facebook that don't sit right with my spirit in order to lay Christ alongside those statements. That is, in order to reach for an understanding of Christ beyond what we presently know. My purpose is to lay a groundwork for us to understand abundance in the nature and fabric of the Father.  

Also, please don't think I'm "correcting" anyone. I'm simply laying my musings alongside of others. We are still seeing through a glass darkly, but the light is exploding into brightness for all of us right now.  

The first comes from an interesting but (partly) ill-informed discussion of "marketing versus the gospel." The truth is there is no greater example of powerful psychological "marketing" than the gospel and all successful efforts to persuade people to buy something are only dim shadows of the principles of persuasion found all through the Covenant God fashioned for us.

But in that discussion, someone made this comment; "I don't think the Lord ever made it "attractive" or "desirable" to follow Him."

What an extraordinary statement! It's as if there are two totally different Bibles. Is the one I have correct?

David said, "Do not forget all of His benefits." He lists a number of great ones, but before the gospel.

Life and that more abundantly; the gift of the Holy Spirit; the love of God shed abroad in our heart; how shall He not with Him freely give us all things; he who overcomes shall inherit all things; you shall receive power; all things are yours; we have been given all things concerning life and godliness; the forgiveness of sins; joy unspeakable; peace that passes understanding. He healeth all thy diseases; exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or even imagine; ask that your joy be made full; never dying.

I'm just pulling these incredible benefits off the top of my head. I'm sure you can add many more to the list. These things are not ethereal; they are substantial and real.

The reason God takes anyone to the loss of all things is ONLY to draw us into seeing all provision flowing out of Him inside of us - the tree of life - in all abundance. In that place, increase in all directions never ends. It is only when we seek provision outside of the river of life flowing out of us that God must strike it down because He is jealous over us with great passion and can't stand it when we find life anywhere else than He flowing out of us.

Here is the next statement I saw on Facebook. I will have to paraphrase because I can't find it again. "I cannot really say that I am one of the firstfruits." Then someone else said, "Jesus likes to keep us guessing."

Okay, let's go to the core of the gospel, to one of the 8 most important verses in the Bible.

Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end/ For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end/ Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. Hebrews 3:6 & 14 and 2 Corinthians 2:

 Timidity never honors God; it dishonors Him. Timidity is treating God like dirt. God ALWAYS leads us to celebrate full and total victory NOW before we see it with our eyes. We call those things that "be not" as though they are. "Be it unto you according to your faith." The very thing that keeps us from partaking of Christ is the "wiffle waffle, maybe maybe, I don't know." The audacity of presumptuous boldness, seating ourselves upon the very throne of God, ALONE is the thing that pleases Him. The guy who "wants to keep us guessing" is not Jesus.

Finally, here is the third statement I saw on Facebook. Now, I don't comment there because the moment I enter such a discussion, I'm caught in an inner turmoil that can stay for hours and days. That's something I just cannot do. But when I sit here and write from my heart without engaging in "debate," then I can share freely of Christ.

"I am not a human being having a spiritual experience; I am a spiritual being having a human experience."

Now, this statement sounds really, really great, only it's un-Biblical and untrue. The first part, though not really the truth, is much closer to the truth than the second part which is so far from the truth as to be very, very sad.

I am not a "spiritual" being "having" a "human" experience.

I am a human being, created in the likeness of God as His image to reveal the person and being of God Himself to all creation, both to heaven through my spiritual body and to earth through my physical body forever. To stop being human is to stop revealing the Father. Why would I ever want to be just an angel? The definition of "human" is "God revealed." Heavenly creatures that are spirit only CANNOT reveal God; only humans can.

I can see that the false conception of "go to heaven" must be counteracted with a continual laying out of reality with all tenderness, over and over.

As a human, I have two bodies. I have a spirit through which I live, right now, in heaven, in the realms of spirit. And I have a physical body through which I live, right now, in the physical realms. My spirit is NOT me; Paul said that my spirit is subject to me.

I cannot "go to heaven." I will NEVER "go to heaven."

God says that I am in heaven right now. Why, oh why do we call Him a liar and refuse to believe what He says? Why do we imagine that we are not in heaven? What evidence do we have for that incredible assertion? Our blindness? The fact that we cannot see the obvious all around us? How is that proof of anything?

In all the ages to come I will not and cannot be in heaven more than I am right now. All those believers in Jesus who have lost their physical bodies are not one bit more "in heaven" than I am.

Heaven is created. In the beginning, God created heaven and earth. Heaven is created. Heaven is as created as earth; heaven is as temporal as earth; heaven is passing away; God intends to create a new heaven just as much as He intends to create a new earth. Both pass away and both are created anew at the same time.

The reason that is so is that heaven and earth are utterly intertwined. You cannot separate them. You cannot have one without also having the other - unless you are dead. Those of our loved ones who died did not "go to heaven." They simply lost half of themselves because of the condemnation of sin. Now they are in heaven only; they are unable to express themselves in the earth, even though earth holds every bit of their attention - but the gospel is absolutely clear on this point. Those who have lost their ability to reveal God in the earth want their bodies back; they want to be physical again. The gospel is consummated in the resurrection when those who have lost their physicality GET IT BACK AGAIN - so that they can be real humans again, so that they can reveal God to heaven and earth at the same time always and forever!!!

Now. Look around yourself. You are IN heaven. Angels surround you right now. Demons prowl around the edges of the room. Saints are right there, cheering you on. You are the focal point of many spiritual beings; all their hopes - or all their fears - are upon you. You ARE seated upon the throne of God - does not God say you are? How could He be lying to us? Heaven in all that it is fills the room in which you sit reading this letter JUST AS MUCH as the physical things, the walls, the chairs, and the computer screen.

Why is it that we cannot see the obvious? This is one of the most important questions we can ever ask ourselves in our pursuit of knowing God.

I cannot see the obvious BECAUSE I AM BLIND. I am utterly and totally in heaven. I cannot see any part of heaven ONLY because I am blind. And I am blind because I am still clothed with the skin of the beast God covered Adam with in His mercy.

That is why the revelation of Jesus Christ is everything to us. "Apocalypse" means "to take off the cover." By the removal of that false covering, I become fully human. I become just like Jesus; He is the first one of our kind. We become what we see. 

I have just realized what this means. It is normal for a human being to see both heaven and earth at the same time. It is normal for us to see angels and animals, to see human bodies and human spirits both at the same time. Right now, we are not normal. Right now we are extremely weird as far as real humans go.

Elisha was normal; he saw heaven as a normal man does. His servant was weird like us. Elisha's servant was scared; Elisha said, "Lord, open his eyes." For a brief moment the servant became a normal human being. He saw heaven - ALL AROUND them. He saw the mighty armies on Elisha's side. Then he looked at the enemy army. No comparison.

So let me say it the way I would say it:

I am a human being, revealing God to earth through my physical body and to heaven through my spiritual body - AND I am having a birthing experience.

You see, we're not fully humans, not yet. Jesus is the first one of our kind; Adam was not.

A fetus is a human. A fetus is fully in the world, yet the fetus cannot see the world and knows nothing of its existence. Does that mean the world does not exist? Does that mean the fetus is not in the world just because it cannot see the world?

Right now I am in the womb of the church. Right now I am in gestation. I am being born. I am becoming a human being, just like Jesus - the image and likeness of God. The moment I come out of the womb I will see all things as they really are. The fetus does not create the world when it is born. I do not create reality by coming out of the womb. What is, is; now I see it. That is all "going to heaven" is. That is why God commanded us never to talk in that way - "go to heaven," because it is a ludicrous and imaginary/fictional way of thinking.

I am "having" a birthing "experience."

She brought forth a manchild who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her child was caught up to God and to His throne.

"Caught up" is a figurative expression. Jesus said, "I have spoken to you figuratively." We should believe Him.

I have always had a spirit. When I was seven, God killed my old spirit and birthed a new spirit inside of me. My spirit has always been fully and utterly in heaven. It is a heavenly body. I have always related to all of heaven through my spirit. My spirit has always been fused with my physical body. My spirit is utterly normal and natural and I am very, very familiar with it. My problem is I did not know which of me was my spirit and which of me was my physical body and which of me was just me, both my spirit and my body being subject to me. More than that, I was never taught the normality of my spirit or how to live and walk and make use of its capacities. School and work taught me to use my mind and my body - but my spirit was always turned into something "religious" and "ethereal" and somehow, far away from me.

My spirit is as normal and natural to me as my body. I don't use it as much because I am blind and ignorant. Am I a spiritual being? Yes. That's what a human is, and when we know we are fully spirit, we will be fully human. Am I a physical being? Yes. That's what s human is, and when we know we are fully physical our bodies will be transformed into the new earth. A human being is one who is fully spirit and fully physical, both at the same time, always and forever.

Except - neither body is who we are, both are ONLY how we express ourselves outwardly. There is only one definition of man - God revealed. The physical is how we reveal Him in one direction and the spiritual is how we reveal Him in the other direction.

Now, let's get at the next misconception that comes from being blind.

God is not "of heaven," nor is Jesus to be found "in heaven." To say that God is "of heaven" is to say that God is created, for heaven is as created as earth. Paul said that Jesus ascended far above all heavens. If you want to be with Jesus you can't be "in heaven." To talk in that way is pointless.

All creation, heaven and earth, comes out of God and is fashioned according to Himself. God wrote Himself into the fabric of the spiritual and He wrote Himself into the fabric of the physical. All creation, both heaven and earth, is found inside of God and God fills all physical matter as much as He fills all spiritual matter. Yet He is not known by either. All things in heaven and earth live and move and have their being in God. There is no other place we could be.

All demons live and move and have their being in God. Demons are as heavenly as angels. They are spiritual beings. Sin is spirit first; it shows itself in the physical only by coming first out of spirit. Heaven turned its back on God before earth did. Heaven is the source of evil in the universe, not earth.

The idea that "God is in heaven, but not in the earth," is utterly impossible and imbecilic. Such thinking should come nowhere near our discussion of truth.

Now, let's pull in something mind-blowing that Paul said.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? . . . Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.              1 Corinthians 6:15-20

First notice where Paul says sin is - outside the body.

But wait a minute - what on earth is Paul saying?

 Paul says that every part of the physical body, including the sexual organ IS a member of Christ and IS filled with the Holy Ghost. Now, it's Paul who says this, not me. Paul says that to place the sexual organ into a harlot is to place Christ into that harlot. He then goes on to equate both MY body and MY spirit as equal. He states that I glorify God in and through my body and in and through my spirit, one to earth and the other to heaven. Yet I am something other than either body. I am the one who walks in union with God. I reveal God out through my spirit to heaven and out through my body to earth.

Now, if my physical body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, the eternal dwelling place of God, why on earth would I want to abandon it to be some sort of "spirit" being only? We know that being separated from our physical body is not natural, it is not godly, it is evil, and we fight against it with all that we have. We are right to do so. We do not fear death, but we do not see it as anything except the condemnation of sin, taking us to a temporary holding place where we also will wait with all heaven, with bated breath, our eyes focused upon earth, where all our dreams and hopes for being fully human lie - in those who are being birthed upon the earth as the first of those who become fully human - just like Jesus.

Yes, our new physical bodies operate at a much higher level than our present physical bodes. Nonetheless the are still the new earth; they still enable us to reveal God within the physical side of His creation. 

Now all this is the clear teaching of the New Testament and it is strange to us only because of the baby pabulum spoon-fed to us by a blind and ignorant Christianity all our lives.

I want to explore the intertwined nature of physicality, society, and spirit. These are actually three realms and all three are ruled by very simple laws. The physical realms are ruled by such laws as -

• The laws of thermodynamics
• The electrical laws - the attraction bond in atoms as well as the separation bond that keeps electrons separate from the nucleus and so on.
• The law of gravity.
• The laws of motion - a body at rest tends to stay at rest, a body in motion tends to stay at motion.
• The laws of aerodynamics.

These are some of the physical laws, though not all. However, the thing to realize about these laws is that they are basic and simple.

Now I say society in general instead of human society because there are many laws that govern all interaction between creatures including plants, animals, humans, and all through the interactions of the vast levels and kinds of heavenly creatures.

• First is the law of life. Life begets life.

We purchased a couple of rabbits for our daughter to care for. Guess what we discovered? Rabbits breed like rabbits. Who would have thought! For a little while we had two; then, suddenly there are rabbits bouncing around all over the place.

This is God's nature - be fruitful and multiply - increase and abundance.

• The law of sowing and reaping, both for plants, for animal and human reproduction, and for actions in society.
• The law of supply and demand.
• The laws of scarcity and invention.
• The law of giving by which free-market capitalism brought increase and prosperity to mankind for the short couple of centuries when it once existed.

You can see how many of these social laws operate in the realms of spirit as well - between spirit beings.

But there are also simple laws that rule in the heavens, governing spiritual substance, just as there are simple laws that rule in the earth governing physics and chemistry. The most basic law of heaven is the law of faith. The law of faith is a law in spirit substance just like electricity is a law in physical substance.

All of God's creation operates on simple and basic sets of laws. All of these laws come out of God and reflect His nature and being.

But these laws are not, themselves, God. Operating these laws in and of themselves do not cause us to know God. I can operate the laws of aerodynamics to fly a plane - God made those laws. But flying a plane does not cause me to know God. I can operate the laws of faith to draw provision and abundance to myself - God made those laws. But "think and grow rich" does not cause me to know God.

All of these laws reflect the nature and being of God, but they do not show His Person.

Yet we do. This is where I am driving. Knowing our Father as He shows Himself as He is through us is LIKE, but not the same thing as, His laws by which the various levels of creation operate. God is not a "set of principles." Yes, principles cause all created realms to function in harmony, but God is not a set of principles. God is a Person.

When God shows Himself as Abundance through us, it is similar to, but not the same as, the principles of abundance that He has established in His creation. The difference is it is the Person of God Himself.

We do not "operate" God; neither does God "operate" us. We know Him and walk with Him, He knows us and walks with us; He in us and we in Him.

But all the good and simple laws by which all the realms of creation operate in harmony together come out of our Father and by them He can reveal to us how He Himself IS.

There extends out from each of us a mighty flood, vapor, energy - how can I describe it - that is God Himself. It is not just "Spirit," though it is Spirit, but it also affects fully the physical as well as the social realm. I am not speaking of God "in general." No created being knows God "in general." I am speaking of God revealed for the first time through many sons just like Jesus. This, for the first time in creation, is God specifically, God tangibly, God known.

I say it over and over, but we must know that the New Testament is clear on this fact. Nothing and nowhere in heaven right now knows God as thus. God is not known until man reveals Him. Jesus is the express image of God; but He is the head of a body of believers that, as a living temple, are the multiplied express and specific image of the Person of God Himself - revealed.

By man death, by man also the resurrection of the dead. (1 Cor. 15)

This immediate Person of God revealed by and through us and going out from us to touch rocks and plants and animals and people and angels and cherubs and all the substance of heaven is the Kingdom of God; it is the river of life.

In my next letter, likely titled just "Abundance," I want to search the New Testament to see just how the God who is abundance shows Himself by increase out from us setting all creation free.

One more miss-conception that I want to address again here.

There is spirit-life/energy; there is flesh-life/energy, but there is no such thing as a soul-life/energy. Now, the word psuche is occasionally translated "life," but always to mean person or existence, not to mean a generating force. In other words, "life," like most words, has more than one meaning. It means on the one hand, a generating force; it means on the other hand, a personal existence.

We do not "have" a soul. Soul means person - mind, will, and emotions. Angels are persons - mind, will, and emotions. God is a Person - mind, will, and emotions. I am a person - mind, will, and emotions. Even animals, to a limited degree have a mind, a will, and emotions.

Animals have earthly bodies, but no heavenly body. They can show their thoughts and wills and happiness in the earth, but not in heaven. Angels have heavenly bodies, but no earthly body. They can show their thoughts and wills and happiness in heaven, but not in the earth. Man has an earthly body and a heavenly body, both. Man can show his thoughts and will and happiness in both heaven and earth all the time and forever.

But God is the one up a creek without a paddle. God has no body at all. God cannot show Himself in the earth because He has (had) no earthly body. And God cannot show Himself in the heavens because He has no heavenly body. When the Bible says that God is a "Spirit" and that angels are "spirits," I just don't see that the word means the same thing, the same substance. God is not an angel, nor does He have an angelic form.

On the other hand, God does show Himself in the earth through the Son, and He does show Himself in heaven through the Spirit. However, we know from God's own testimony of Himself that this is not sufficient for Him. Why would angels long to know God the way we do if the Spirit in heaven were all they needed to know Him? You see, when Paul and Peter both say that angels long to look upon the knowledge of God and salvation given to us - it is evident that the form of God in the heavens - the Holy Spirit - is not what causes them to know God.

That's why the promise given to Jesus was "a body You have prepared for Me." God wants a body; He wants to be seen and touch and handled; He wants to be known - in the earth and in heaven. But God will not make for Himself a created body separate from all the rest of His creation. That is not God. God is a corporate Being; He expresses Himself in, as, and through other persons - that is, humans. God made us to be His earthly body and to be His heavenly body all the time and forever. That is what man is. Man is God's body.

 . . . in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.Ephesians 2:21-22

That's what the whole thing is about. God wants a body - both earthly and heavenly; we are that body; and our passage of redemption is how we become what we are.

I am a human being, a person in the same way that God is a Person. My person is God's Person living as me. We are distinct, but we are one. I am created to reveal God through my physical body into the earth and to reveal God through my spiritual body into the heavens all the time and forever. I am having a birthing experience; I am becoming what I am. I am becoming a normal human being - just like Jesus, the first One of our kind. I am the image and likeness of God.

And God showing Himself through me to earth and to heaven is Abundance. Out from me, through rivers of living water, flows life and healing and increase and provision to the whole universe without end.

This is the normal Christian life; it is the normal human life.