11.2 God through You
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Man was created first, as the likeness of God and second, as God’s image. These two terms have slightly different meanings. First, to be created like God means that we are designed with the capacity to contain, inside of our humanity, all the fullness of God, including the Father’s Heart.
Image is slightly different. Image is the visible expression of an invisible Person. Being conformed with the image of His Son means that you share together with Jesus being the express image of God’s Person. That is, God Himself is seen and known through you as an individual, but even more so, through your gathering together with other believers as you love one another.
Rivers of Living Water. Here is the verse of God moving through you into His creation, causing all to know Him, blessing all with life and joy. – On the last day, that great second Sabbath of the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus stood up at the climax, a moment of utter silence and expectation, and cried out loudly, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart, his belly, his innermost being, will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit whom those believing in Him receive; for the Holy Spirit is given as the glory of Jesus (John 7:38-39 – modified and expanded).
God created you specifically to be His channel as He moves through you, Himself being who and what He is.
Because You Believe. In the next chapter we will look at the larger picture of the river of life flowing out from you, and especially from you together with your local Church. Here we want to make God through you as personal and as real as we can.
Jesus said, “He who believes in Me, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.” Because you believe in Jesus, you KNOW, then, that from the moment you were born again, these rivers of life have been flowing out from you in every direction and at every moment. And you KNOW that it makes no difference what you feel, think, or see outwardly – God is telling you the truth.
Cast Down Temptation. The temptation of the evil one is especially strong, however, on a word such as this, even as clear as Jesus was. The first words of the evil one against every word God speaks are “Did God really say that?” (Genesis 3:1). And those words, in whatever form they take (you don’t really believe THAT do you?) are enough to scare most people away. But to those who want to believe, the temptation becomes stronger.
Jesus says – “Out of you flow rivers of living water.” The serpent says – “Rivers of living water can and ought to be flowing out of you, but are they? Look around and tell me what you see? Ha! If you want life to come out of you, you’d better perform a whole lot better than you are! – loser.”
By Speaking Christ. You have the authority to cast that voice down, not by attacking the serpent or his words, but rather, by seeing Jesus alone.
“Jesus, You say that rivers of living water are flowing out of me because I believe in you. Jesus, I know that you ARE what you speak inside of me. I know that you are true. Therefore, I know that life is always flowing out of me, healing and blessing others, whether I see it or not, and regardless of what I feel. Rivers of living water flow out of me BECAUSE I believe in You alive inside of me.”
You hold the Blood in one hand and the Cross in the other; speak Christ as the only life you are.
God’s Intention. It is God’s intention to reveal Himself to His creation, God seen and known, through humans. God’s intentions do not change.
But God seen and known through you requires symmorphy, that is sharing the same form, His Person inside of your person and your person inside of His Person through Christ Jesus, our continuous connecting Bond. And symmorphy begins for you in Gethsemane as God’s will and your will are merged together as one through the willingness of Jesus.
That is the beginning of symmorphy, but the fruit, the result, God’s intention through symmorphy is to work all things together with you and you with Him.
Set-Forth Purpose. Here is the verse of God’s intention, His set-forth purpose. – We know moreover that those who are actively loving God are working together [are synergeoing together] with God to turn with purpose all—all things, all entities, all circumstances, all moments—into pure and intrinsic goodness, that is, into the knowledge of God. These are those who are continuously being called as and by the precise details of God’s Pro-Thesis, His set-forth purpose from the beginning, the Blueprint of His House, the Lord Jesus (Romans 8:28 – expanded).
God did not create you just to live inside of you. Neither does God ever do anything separately from you nor you from Him. God wants to work all things entirely together with you.
Work and Working. How, then, does God work?
There are two words in the New Testament translated as “work.” One is energeo, which is always kept as energeo in the Jesus Secret version but is typically translated as “working.” This energeoing is God as active life Being what He IS inside of us. The other word is ergo, which is more properly translated “work,” that is, it refers to the outward doing that shapes outward accomplishments.
Jesus said this: The one believing into Me, the works [ergo] that I do, he also will do, and greater than these he will do, because I am always going towards the Father (John 14:12)
Father Does His Works. Just before that, Jesus said this: “The Father dwelling inside of Me does His works” (John 14:10). Jesus Himself did not ever “do” anything, for of Himself He could not. Rather, everything Jesus did was the Father doing inside of (energeo) and through (ergo) Jesus. But it’s not even the Father who performs the actual work. It’s not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord. It is the Spirit flowing out as a river who accomplishes all that Father and you intend.
When God commissioned Adam to subdue all, He did not intend for Adam to use his imaginative and fake self to do that. God intended that rivers of living water would flow out from Adam bringing life and joy to all.
How God Works. If it is the Holy Spirit flowing forth as rivers of life that causes God and your intentions to be accomplished, what, exactly, do you and God do together as your part in this wondrous flow of life?
You must remember that nothing created can be good in itself for the simple fact that God is invisible. God cannot be known. Thus all created things first know only a state of vanity. The knowledge of God can enter each one ONLY through their express permission, which God calls “faith.”
Here is how God works. – Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good… (Genesis 1:3). God speaks, and all things become. God sees good, and all things ARE good.
Speak and See. God speaking and God seeing always come first. Yet it is this very authority, then, that God gave to Adam, a gift that cannot be removed from humans.
It is as you speak and then as you see, that all things are what they are.
Those who speak cursing and see sin work with Adam to continue a universe of death. Those who speak Christ and see Him in all things, work with Father to bring forth a universe of life. Here’s how Paul said the same thing: God, who is always giving life to the dead and calling into existence things not existing (Romans 4:17).
Expecting the Spirit. Those who are actively loving God are synergeoing together with God to turn all things into pure and intrinsic goodness, that is, into the knowledge of God. This is why you speak good grace for the sake of all things, as the very Mercy Seat of God, for you and Father together are always making all things good.
But neither you nor Father have to “make it happen.” Rather, you and Father together rest in utter confidence EXPECTING that the Spirit of God IS flowing out from you accomplishing all that you and Father intend.
It is the Spirit flowing out who gives life. It is the Spirit who makes all things good. You believe in Jesus; rivers of Spirit are ALWAYS flowing out of you.