12.3 The Ministry of Christ
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink (John 7:37). – For we have all been made to drink one Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13). – The word {Christ, the Word God speaks} is near you, in your mouth and in your heart; that is, the word of faith which we proclaim. That, if you speak the same word in your mouth, speaking the Lord Jesus indeed… (Romans 10:8-9).
Christ Jesus is a Personal Spirit Word inside of you, a word that fills all the pathways of your own self-story. – It is fully made visible that you ARE a letter of Christ… having [already] been written… with the Spirit of the living God… inside tablets of hearts of flesh. (2 Corinthians 3:3 – reduced).
Love Out-Poured. The essence of this Personal Spirit Word that fills all of your own self-story, then, is this word. – The love of God has [already] been poured out [has been shed abroad] inside of our hearts through the Holy Spirit, the One having been given to us (Romans 5:5).
Being filled with Jesus, then, we see that all believers in Jesus are filled with this same Christ who is our life and this same love of God out-poured. And what they say, do, think, or feel cannot alter the Word God speaks or the reality of God through them. Then, when you KNOW that you are loved by all Christians in your life, you discover something important about yourself.
Wanting to Be Loved. Jesus said this: “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it” (Mark 10:15). You discover that the one thing you have wanted ABOVE ALL ELSE from the moment you were conceived in your mother’s womb is TO BE LOVED. And all the hurt you have caused other people in your life, with all the hurt you believe they have caused you, has been only because you believed they did not love you.
Look at all other believers in Jesus and say, believe, and know that each one loves you more than you can know, each one thinks more highly of you than of themselves, each one lays down his or her life for you as the love of God outpoured.
Greatly Enlarged. What happens inside of you when you KNOW that you are loved? First, you are humbled, and for the first time in your life you are able to see others as better than yourself. But second, you are greatly enlarged – and so is God. God and you together are no longer a peripheral item, for God-Love is the only place there is.
Then you see that every other human on this earth is just like you, their root DESIRE is to be loved by other humans, something they have never known. And then you KNOW that there is only one thing important happening on this earth, one thing only.
To Believe in Jesus. That one thing is the shaping of the human heart to contain and to reveal the Heart of Father God. And this is exactly what Jesus meant when He said, “If anyone thirsts {if anyone recognizes the root child in them wanting to be loved}, let him come to Me and drink {let him accept My love as the Holy Spirit outpoured through all others towards him}.”
But then Jesus also added this: He who believes in Me, out of His belly will flow rivers of living water (John 7:38). To believe in Jesus is to see Him as He is. To see Him as He is, is to be just like Him. To be just like Jesus is to be the love of God outpoured.
The River of Life. Do you see what happens when you turn around inside of God entirely by faith, by knowing that God speaks the truth and that all that God speaks becomes all that you are regardless of what you feel or of any human judgment? Then, when you walk together with those believers in Jesus with whom you gather, sharing together this same knowing that you actually do love one another – well, look out, because the river of LIFE is on its way into all creation.
But before looking at that river flowing out from you together as the local Church, I want to underline the absolute ROCK out from which that river flows. That rock is your confidence that Father shares all that you are together with you through the connecting Bond of Jesus.
Jesus in Essence and Appearance. You see, if you gather together in the belief that you “ought to” love one another, you never will, not in a million years. The actions of love, even to laying down your physical life for someone else, are without meaning or value.
Father ALONE is love.
Therefore, you must KNOW that Jesus is always making Father part of your life and you part of Father’s life. This is Jesus in His essence. And Jesus in His appearance is the face of your brothers and sisters together as you together are confident that all your interaction is Father Love, regardless of any human fallibility. This is Jesus as He is, know Him.
Respect and Regard. Then, when you know just how much you are loved by all Christians on this earth, you look out and you see that little acts of kindness and gentle words of encouragement are just the biggest of all things in the universe. And you see people in their hurt and confusion and you know that they do not know that they are loved.
Love isn’t big things; love is little things. Love is the deepest respect and the tenderest regard. And because you KNOW that you are filled with Father, and that God shares all things that you are with you, you reach out your hand to touch with kindness and you speak to bless with encouragement.
Setting All Free. The fountain of life in you is Father, and the source of the river flowing out is your shared Hheart with Father. But to love people is to be always setting them free of you, just as God always does. There is no control, no “rule over” in love, but only the deepest desire to bless.
You see, there is no need at all to “fix” anyone, for the love of God is outpoured in them just as much as it is in you. Their problem is they do not know, and so you show them what is true by loving them and by teaching them also to speak Christ as their only life.
And now the rivers flow – For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9).
Sending Forth the Holy Spirit. The ministry of Christ is the sending forth of the Holy Spirit to accomplish all that Father and you desire. You and Father together love, and then you together rest in the absolute confidence that the Holy Spirit is accomplishing all of the intentions of your love.
Yet you also do the little things of love, a kind word, a quick smile, a cup of cold water, a cup of coffee. And you know that as you do these little BIG things of love, that RIVERS are flowing out of you, the Holy Spirit IS doing all sorts of wonderful things in every direction entirely because you believe in Jesus. – Through us [God] diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place (2 Corinthians 2:14).
To Bless and To Heal. Will there be miracles inside that river flowing out? You bet there will. But the doing of what is called “miracles” is the action of the Holy Spirit, and it is entirely for the blessing of the one who receives it. Never is any “miracle” for the sake of any “power” self-exaltation. The love of God does not contain any such travesty.
And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live (Ezekiel 47:9). Ezekiel (whom Jesus was referencing in John 7:38) is not just speaking of an incidental, or local, or one-time thing, he was speaking of a universe of life formed by the rivers of the Holy Spirit flowing out from Jesus alive in our hearts, because we believe in Jesus.
We Together. All problems in heaven or earth or “under” the earth exist for one reason only – God is not known. The answer for each and every difficulty or hurt is one thing only – God known, God made visible, a God who shares all things with us, a God touched and handled, a God who loves to bless others above all things.
And the knowledge of God flows out from you together with those believers in Jesus with whom you worship as you love one another. We together are the Body of Christ; we together are Father revealed. God shows Himself as He is to all creation through us together, made one because we know Jesus as He is.
The Judgment of God. But the hurt in creation caused by Adam’s river of death is very deep and very broad. Healing cannot happen in a moment. God has appointed the unfolding of ages to come during which we will seek out each one who is lost inside of hurting and being hurt, and we will love them into the knowledge of God by sharing their hurts and bearing their sorrows.
This is the judgment of God. – That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should speak the same word, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11).
For all shall know Me (Hebrews 8:11).
Knowing Jesus As He Is. Here are the final points of knowing Jesus as He is.
34. Believers walk as if already resurrected, just as Jesus walked, by this response to every Word God speaks – Let it be to me. Having no sufficiency in ourselves, we know that God directs our every step in the celebration of victory.
35. Through humans God proves Christ against all that opposes. The accuser accuses the Word God speaks of falseness; we cast that voice down as the Church together. Jesus proves Himself true as we see Him as He is in one another.
36. The ministry of Christ is the sending forth of the Holy Spirit to accomplish all that Love desires. That river of the Spirit flowing out from Father and us together will transform everything with the knowledge of God-made-visible.