7.3 Your Third Encounter with Jesus
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
I want you to think back, now, to your season of enjoying all the wonder of the Holy Place. During that season, you ate of Jesus as a living word, asking God to fulfill His word in you and believing you had received. The words of the Bible became alive as Christ in you. You walked in the anointing of the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of God revealed Christ to you. You moved in the gifts and authority of the Spirit in blessing others. And you learned the great aroma or value to God of giving thanks in and for all things, especially that which is difficult. You sought, with others, to go on into an ever-deeper knowledge of and walk with God.
A Third Barrier. It wasn’t long, however, before you hit a brick wall dead on. You perceived another great barrier between yourself and the knowledge of God. And you perceived that barrier to be your flesh, the desires and inclinations of your body that, to you, seemed to operate always in opposition to the life of the Spirit.
So, misreading Romans 7, you set yourself on the task of subduing the flesh, of breaking the “bonds” you received from Adam, the task of hearing God speak and doing what He said. Yet you failed, completely and absolutely, at the whole business of obeying the Spirit; you could not enter into the Holiest. And in your ruin, you came before God a third time, this time in the deepest of desperation and hopelessness.
To Know God. You knew that you needed to know God and you knew that you could not grasp such a thing. This is age-unfolding life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent (John 17:3). – Having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh (Hebrews 10:19-20). In that moment of desperation, you entered into a third agreement with God.
You see, in the days and moments before you entered into this third agreement with God, you found yourself pondering deeply two words – one sacrifice for sins forever (Hebrews 10:12) and – I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (Galatians 2:20).
Christ, not I. Christ, not “I.” His flesh, not “my” flesh. And in that moment of your third agreement with God, you agreed to allow Jesus to be your flesh, to be that very thing that you imagined standing between you and knowing God. The full knowledge of Christ now living as you in all ways filled all the pathways of your consciousness.
Before you entered into that agreement, you were incapable of seeing your inability EVER to please God, you were incapable of knowing the Holiest, and you were incapable of receiving Christ Jesus as being the only life you are. Here are the words that could define the philosophy by which you lived: “I’ve got my flesh under control; I will do what God says. I will prove to God that ‘I’ love Him.”
Jesus IS Become You. Yet something else was happening in the heavens all around you, inside your absolute reality, things of which you were quite unaware. Another Person had set His intentions upon you.
Two thousand years ago a Man, an eternal, all-here-now Man, had dropped to His knees a third time in Gethsemane. And through that third hour on His knees, this Man, in agony of soul, agreed with God: “Not My will but Thine be done.” What was this agreement with God? Jesus agreed, in that moment, to become your flesh, to become all the perversity of your own ways always seeming to be contrary to the Spirit.
Jesus agreed to become you.
One Flesh with Him. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two {Christ and you} shall become one flesh” (Ephesians 5:30-31). How could Jesus become your flesh? How could Jesus become you? – He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for you!
When Jesus said “Not My will but Thine be done” the third time, you were already there inside of Him, speaking those words. Jesus had become you. Jesus had become all of the filthiness of your flesh, all of your separation from God. And you, there inside of Jesus, spoke through His mouth the words that allowed God to bring you, one day, into that agreement with God that you and Jesus already made together.
The Final Surrender. In some ways you had come full circle back to your first agreement with God. For surrendering yourself to Jesus, to allow Him to BE all of your present sinfulness, to be your present self, to allow Him to be you, this surrender is the greatest surrender of all.
And you knew three things in that moment as Jesus Himself carried you through the Veil into the Holiest, into John 14:20. You knew that you were incapable of ever living the Christian life. You knew that you were incapable of ever pleasing God. And you knew that you could not fix yourself nor anyone else. You needed Someone else to become your life, to become you. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ – Christ who is our life (adding Colossians 3:3).
Sinking into Jesus. For God’s next season in your life, you sank into the utter rest of knowing that Jesus Himself lives as you, that He carries all that you are inside Himself inside of Father every moment. And you began to rejoice inside of John 14:20. In that day {this third day of agreement with God} you shall KNOW that I am IN the Father and you IN Me and I IN you.
And the meaning of these words became the meaning of your life. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this present world (1 John 4:17). As Jesus IS, right now, so you are in every present moment. And as Jesus rose to His feet the third time in Gethsemane, so you did as well entirely inside of Him. Jesus is become you.
From Glory to Glory. But when you entered into Jesus as your only life, you left many people just like you once were. They do not agree with God; they are convinced they can live the Christian life by their own effort. They fantasize themselves seeking God’s will and doing it. You agree with God; you know you cannot live the Christian life, but another Person must take all your flesh upon Himself, that you might be His Body, His expression of Himself as you.
And there are no more barriers ahead, no more brick walls against which to crumble. Yes, there are transitions ahead inside this walk inside of Jesus, but those transitions are from glory to glory, the easy expression of Jesus Himself living as you. But we all, with unveiled face, reflecting as a mirror {our own face} the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18).
I in You. I want to talk about that first period of time in which you found yourself entirely inside of Jesus, inside the Holiest, one flesh with the Lord Jesus, Christ Himself now living as you. Now that you were living entirely and only inside of the Lord Jesus Christ, inside of John 14:20, having stepped through the cross in confidence, you realized that knowing this Christ was now your entire pursuit.
Yes, Jesus had become you, and knowing what that really meant consumed the passion of your heart. You knew that Gethsemane was fulfilled inside of you, that all that you are, including your sin and your shame, existed only inside of Jesus. Now you longed to know how every element of the Atonement had become a description of you.
Perfect Rest. You were hit with much accusation through this time; you were now a target of the evil one, a threat to his continuance. Yet you learned to put all of your own personal awfulness into the Lord Jesus, knowing that He shares everything with you. You learned to hear Him say to you, “This is my own frustration that I am sharing with you. Let’s together place our shared difficulty into the Father’s love.”
And when you did something you knew was wrong, you did not hold onto it or call it your own, but you placed it entirely into Jesus dead upon the cross. You would not listen to any voice of accusation; you knew that Jesus was all there was in you. Through much opposition you entered into His perfect rest.
The Blood. The accusation still came, though you would not hear it. You could not see any charge laid against you because your eyes were covered with blood. Everything you saw, you saw through blood. You no longer had to pretend to be “holy”; you could just be yourself. And as you learned to enjoy Christ as you, the things you once did that hurt other people began to diminish. You no longer needed to “defend yourself”; the blood continuously carried away all consciousness of sins.
But then a stirring came to you, no longer the barrier you had known before, but a reaching forward to the next joy of knowing Jesus.
Speak Christ. You heard the words, “Speak Christ. Speak what God says you are.” And you began to speak Christ personal as yourself. You spent many tear-filled times seeing the Lord Jesus in every moment of your past, there with you, living as you, carrying even your wrongful actions entirely inside Himself. You knew He did not intend the evil things you did, but He intended you, and bore even that wrong action as His own.
At the same time, you spoke all of Christ as He is now, all the story of His life, all through your own present story. Through this wonderful season in your life, your story and Jesus’ story became so intertwined that, looking across your days, all you could see was one seamless story of Christ.
Led in Triumph. At times you wondered, “Did I miss out because of my inability to respond to God?” But you spoke the answer yourself: “God always leads me in triumph. All of His ways concerning me are perfect. He has never led me wrong. He has never not led me.”
At the same time, you learned to be honest and real. You realized that “walking in the light” had nothing to do with pretending that you were holy. Rather, it simply meant to be honest in all things. When you treated someone badly, it was no longer a problem to say, “I’m sorry, please forgive me. I was wrong.” The honesty of light released you from all your former falseness.
Yet again, a new desire arose in you, a longing to know the Lord Jesus as you never had before. You knew that Christ is the Redeemer, and that God was also in you, reconciling the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19).
The Most Important Place. Now, this new place of knowing God, this wonder of sharing heart with the Father, we will explore in the next two chapters. In the remainder of this chapter you must be rooted and grounded in the most important place now and forever, the ONLY place you live, the ONLY thing that salvation is and means.
Salvation IS living inside of John 14:20. – In that day you will know that I am in the Father and you in Me and I in you.
(Shout these words out loud.) In this day {the Today of Salvation}, KNOW that I, Jesus, am inside of our Father and you, ________ (speak your own name) ARE inside of ME, and I AM inside of you, ________.