21.3 Living as the Ekenosis
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Our primary focus is on how we together live as God revealing Himself inside of and through the local Church. At the same time, we are turning, now, towards the immense bonding taking place between loving one another and setting creation free.
You see, our living together as the Ekenosis of God is taking place inside of a strong and particular context, that is, this present cosmos. And no one in human history, save Jesus, has challenged the social order and the prince of the social order in the way that we are. More than that, it is our living together as the Ekenosis that is the seed out from which the cosmos is made new by life.
Blasphemy. Look at this term: “Living as the Ekenosis.” Most, in seeing those words, would think only, “that sounds weird.” But let’s put the exact same thing in words most Christians would understand. “Living together as God Incarnate.”
“Father made visible” is also “God incarnate.”
The problem, of course, is that here is another way to say exactly the same thing as God incarnate. “Love one another as I have loved you.” When we say, “our life together is God made visible,” the world assumes we are mad and the church cries, “Blasphemy.” Why don’t they cry, “Blasphemy,” when we say, “Love one another?” – The answer to that question is the defeat of evil.
When I Write. Now, I have to be careful, because as I come near any new topic, thoughts regarding it are pouring unbidden into my mind, even before I have finished a present topic. I did not realize it before, but so much of Kingdom is just an expansion of what I have called the ninth most important verse – setting creation free.
And the moment you say, “love one another,” you are challenging the serpent in his den of power.
At the same time, my understanding searches for outlines to guide what I write; yet when I write, it is always in the present flow. Thus so much of Covenant ought to be drawn into the Ekenosis (Pro-Knowing, The Mercy Seat, Pro-Calling Forth), but that task must belong to you.
A Conscious Awareness. When you are walking together with other believers in Jesus, deliberately practicing the Mercy Seat together, both reciprocally and towards all, you are walking together as the Ekenosis of God. And everything of God, which we are knowing more and more as infinitely complex and piercingly specific, yet amazingly simple and true, is flowing out through you together to become known inside creation.
It is entirely beyond my ability to see the Word to make all the connections God Himself would make through your own local gathering together. And thus the first part of living as the Ekenosis is the conscious awareness in each of you that God, in fact, is showing specific facets of Himself through your togetherness.
Slaying the Dragon. Living as the Ekenosis is an endless discovery of treasures that are God as He shows Himself through you together.
But before we can consider a bunch of Christians living as God Incarnate, we have to slay the dragon in his den. When I first made the claim, seven or eight years ago, that Genesis 3:1 & 5 is the foundation of all Nicene Christian theology, I was shooting mostly in the dark. I am shooting in the dark no longer. Now, I know specifically and logically how that is so.
Christians are aghast when they hear, “We are God incarnate,” because they hold a Satanic definition of God, a Satanic definition of man, and a Satanic definition of the relationship between the two.
A Perfect Fit. I hope to be more specific regarding these things in the next session as we break the image of the serpent inside of our relationships together.
God is meek and lowly of heart, always thinking more highly of others than He does of Himself. Paul’s statement of the Ekenosis, that we should think the same way, was just another way to say, “Be just like God.”
But more than that, God made man to fit Himself. Nothing is more natural than God revealing Himself through man. It’s a perfect fit; life as it is meant to be. But for that fit to be natural, you and I must be real. And the place of our being real is in our walk together.
Being Real. We are so NOT familiar with being real, especially when we are with other Christians. We have been trained from infancy to wear a plethora of masks suited for every contact we could make with other humans. When we become Christians, our mask-wearing goes into a religious hyper-drive.
You who read these letters are more real, now, I believe, than at any time in your past. BUT – if the Lord should put us together, with our families, on the same property, you would be astonished, if you were a knowledgeable observer, at the wondrous display of masking and pretending still taking place. It’s when you offend me that I think about being “real”; only real would mean then, the realization that I don’t like you. Of course, not liking one another also carries its own vast array of masks.
Practicing the Mercy Seat. Now, I’m saying all this to show the enormous UPSET that loving one another really is. Living as the Ekenosis happens when we practice being the Mercy Seat together inside the demonstration of the Spirit and power, that is, inside the Holiest. Or I should say that living as the Ekenosis happens OUT FROM practicing the Mercy Seat together, both towards one another and out towards specific individuals and situations.
Living as the Ekenosis, as God Incarnate, is simply the ordinary everyday actions of life as we walk together in love. What changes as a result of practicing the Mercy Seat together in the Holiest is that we KNOW that God IS.
Another Being. Then, let’s bring in again the picture we derived partly from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. That picture, a spirit person showing itself through a formation of butterflies swirling together in the shape of a human body, speaking through their voices together, is what we are applying to God Himself coming into His creation through us together as His body.
We together are actually another Being, God, making Himself visible inside His creation. We together are NOT God. God Himself is and must be present for anything to be real. Yet if we are not real together, it can’t really be God showing up!
You Are Human. Here is how we break the false lens; here is how we slay the dragon.
Let’s say you and I are together in the same daily life. I look at you over time. You are a human, weak, vacillating, and emotional. Sometimes you are likeable, and sometimes you are not. Sometimes you are brilliant, and sometimes you are just dumb. Sometimes you are kind, and sometimes you are cruel. Sometimes I like being with you, and sometimes you irritate the tar out of me. You are, in short, a human.
Here is the question staring me in the face. Do you look like God to me?
What Do I See? The serpent certainly does not think you look like God; in fact, he is very hostile against such an idea. Every single word in his carefully chosen presentation in the garden was designed specifically to shatter inside of Adam and Eve and inside of all humans coming out of them any notion that they might actually be “what God looks like.”
But we’re not talking about the serpent and Adam; we’re talking about me and you. When I look at you, inside of real and practical life, do I see the Lord Jesus Christ energeoing as all that you are, in all of your ups and downs, your gifts and disabilities, your pleasantries and your irritations? Do I see Christ as you?
When You Throw a Spear at Me? When you throw a spear at me that rips me to pieces in public humiliation, do I see Christ as you? And even if it is clear that the devil certainly helped you to do that?
It does no good to teach people to see Christ in one another, with Christ at 95% of the seeing and sinful flesh as 5% that must still be dealt with. If you taught a people such a thing, and then left for 20 years, you would come back to find that their present teaching and seeing, appraised honestly, had become sinful flesh at 95% and Christ at 5%. It’s just the way it works. Christ MUST BE ALL first before anything “not-Christ” could ever vanish away.
Full Reciprocity. But my seeing Christ living as you on a daily basis and inside the pressures of real life cannot itself be the Ekenosis of God. Living as the Ekenosis means full reciprocity; it means the back-and-forth flow of your seeing Christ energeoing as me, and my seeing Christ energeoing as you.
Now, that’s one way of putting it, but Jesus stated the exact same thing more directly. Jesus said, “Love one another.” – Love one another in exactly the same way I have loved you. And I know and testify to you that this reciprocity will happen for us ONLY as we practice together being the Mercy Seat inside the Holiest, a local church clothed with the sun.
John’s Expression. But John had pondered a whole lot about what these words of Jesus actually mean, and so he write 1 John to expand on this final expression of God Incarnate.
Beloved, we should actively love one another; because love is [always flowing] out from God; and everyone loving out from God has been conceived of God and knows God. {Think of “out from God,” in terms of God as a fountain of water inside of us springing up.} …God is love. In this the love of God has been made visible among us, in that His Son, the One Seed God sends into the cosmos that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son as the propitiation, the Mercy Seat {think of the shield wall, then think of the empty grave} all around our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also are committed to loving one another (1 John 4:7-11 – JSV).
God Made Visible. (As you read these lines penned by John, think in terms of the Ekenosis, God made visible through us together, as we have seen it through this session.)
No one {in heaven as well as earth} has seen God [has not observed Him to know Him] at any time, ever. If we should actively love one another, God lives inside of [and among] us, and His love is brought to full completion and perfection inside of [and among] us. By this we know that we live, dwell, and abide inside of Him and He inside of us, out from His Spirit given to us. …Whoever shall speak the same word, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, God dwells inside of him and he inside of God. And we have come to know and have come to believe the love that God has inside of us. God is love, and the [one] living inside of love, lives inside of God, and God lives inside of him (1 John 4:12-16 – JSV).
Full Completion. In this love has been perfected, brought to full completion fused together with us, that we [together] might have boldness to speak [Christ our life] inside the [to]day of judgment, that just exactly as He is, so also are we [together] in this present world (1 John 4:17 – JSV). Just exactly as He is, so also are we together in this present world – God Incarnate.
Finally this – Do not be surprised, brothers {the word includes male and female}, if the world, the present cosmos, hates you. – By this we have known love, because He set forth his soul, His story of self, for us, for our sakes {story for story, life for life}; and we also are committed to setting forth our souls for the sake of our brothers and sisters. (1 John 3:14 & 16 – JSV).
The Great Issue. Setting forth our souls is the Mercy Seat, the place where God reveals Himself.
Yet this very claim, as John states, is hated utterly by the world. And when we say, in gentle CONFIDENCE, that our life together is God making Himself known, the world and much of Christianity will disagree. And many will seek to put us to death. And some will succeed in killing some of us in the natural before this thing is over.
This is the great issue in the Garden, upon the Cross, and in the Throne – What does God look like? God manifest in the flesh.