16.3 Extending Union
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
The Lord has given us a revolutionary new way of thinking, and that is, that we, by deliberate choice, take every single thing we have learned about our own personal union with Christ and place it consciously and vocally upon every aspect of life together. In every measure that Christ is my life and your life, so Christ is also our life together.
For me, my knowledge of union with Christ began before I knew anything about union with Christ. It began when I was first writing out what became the raw material for The Jesus Secret, when I got to Colossians 3 and typed out these words: Christ is all there is in me.
Christ Is All. The very moment I wrote those words, something happened inside of me – what I did not know, but I knew my words were true and I knew that I had found the very entrance into life. Christ is all there is inside our life together. Inside our life together there is nothing, not anywhere nor at any moment nor in any interaction, that is not Christ.
The next moment for me was when I was hiding in the gift of momentary disassociation from the noise of a false gospel being spoken at children and I found myself “lost” inside of Jesus. In just the same way that Jesus Himself is our refuge in time of trouble, all of us inside all of Him, so also is life together. First, life together is that same refuge, and second, everything in life together runs into the safety of being found inside of Jesus.
Knowing the Truth. Then, out from that revelation of my complete union with Christ, I sought confirmation from the Bible and from others that this was, indeed, the truth of Christ. That’s when I found the “Christ as us” website and began to read Fred Pruitt and Dan Stone. In exactly the same way, when we discover that union with Christ includes union with one another, that the same union we enjoy as individuals sweeps into itself our life together, we search the Scriptures that we might KNOW that we are living IN the truth.
But then – I entered into nine months of travail and battle, speaking Christ my only life against all unleashed accusation. And this experience through these nine months is the main thing I want to convey, in this lesson, to our life together in Christian community.
Exciting – You Are Coming to Join Us! Let’s say the Lord moves mightily to establish a Community of Christ inside this word that I share. Let’s say you hear some exciting things about God dwelling among His people. And let’s say that your heart is quickened with joy, that you close out your present affairs, and that you move across the country to be a part of this new Community of Christ. You drive onto the property, you get out of your car, and you are greeted by the brethren. Through all the bustle and excitement, you make your way to your room for the night. You have arrived. What comes next?
New and Glorious. For around three months, plus or minus, everything is absolutely exciting. In the worship services you are swept into the joy of the Lord beyond what you have ever known. As you eat together with your brethren, you are simply enthralled with the fellowship of Christ. The power of the word preached is far more impactive than you could have imagined. The honor of brethren working together in lowliness of heart is comforting beyond measure. You are secure inside of Jesus inside of life together. You are living in glory.
For about Three Months. For around three months, plus or minus, then the honeymoon is over. Then, the accuser comes to you to see if he has anything at all he can snaggle inside of you. Except – even more than that, he comes to see if he has anything he can speak, now, against others, through you. And the bottom drops out from under you. You lie on your bed in the night and think, “My God, how on earth did I get myself into this?”
Is union with Christ the excitement of the moment? Or is union with Christ the absolute commitment of your heart? Of truth, the accuser WILL find out.
Contempt. Do you know what will likely be the turning point for you? It will be when you discover that Daniel Yordy is NOT what you thought he was, that he is nothing more than just another foolish and stumbling human, just like yourself, but more of an incapable failure than most.
And when you find contempt in your heart for me and when you express that contempt in one way or another (and some of you will be very harsh in your expression), it will be far, far more difficult for me than for you. Will I place upon your contempt for me, as it is expressed through religious words, the same union with Christ that I place upon myself? If I am unable to do that, there will be no Community of Christ.
Every Familiar Accusation. I want you to envision the two lines of the cross connecting at the heart of Jesus. We are speaking of Gethsemane; we are looking at the Doorway into Life. The Mercy Seat – sharing Hheart with God.
For nine months after I first learned of my union with Christ as a known reality, I was assailed unrelentingly with every voice of accusation familiar to me. Through the snippets of curse in my own story, through the false gospel preached to me over years, through the voices of others exposing my faults, through verses twisted from Jesus, those voices hammered against my heart.
The Proving of My Heart. I REFUSED to hear them. But refusing to hear them would in no way have won the battle. My refusal of all the wailing screams of accusation was forged inside of SPEAKING Christ my only life as I had taught myself to do while writing The Jesus Secret. Christ IS my life; I have no other life. Christ is all there is in me. – Life together IS Christ. Christ is all there is inside of life together.
I know the proving of my heart. I know that when the expression of your contempt for me hits me in a blast of pain and confusion, that I will take the Lord Jesus Christ and I WILL place Him upon all that you are. I know, for my heart is sealed inside the Heart of Jesus.
Gethsemane. Gethsemane – Here am I, I and the children whom You have given Me. Gethsemane is not something I just talk about; inside the tears, inside the pain and confusion, Gethsemane is where I live.
But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out (John 19:34). Medical science indicates that the blood and water would have come out from the sack around Jesus’ heart, meaning that life together as the Church issues, every moment, from the heart of Jesus broken for us, the place where God meets with us.
After nine months, the assault was broken and ceased, and out from there, I began to write what you are now reading.
Mutual Contempt. But life together is not a one-way street; life together is entirely reciprocal. And so, when, after a few months of knocking heads with you, I discover that I don’t like you, not at all, will you, also, speak Christ as all our interaction together? Will you place Jesus entirely upon me expressing my contempt for you?
I cannot place union with Christ upon life together by myself, nor can you. Placing union with Christ upon even our mutual contempt for one another is something you and I must do together. The experience, I can assure you, will be as the screaming travail of a woman in the very face of the dragon.
I Have Walked These Paths. And it is this child, born of this union inside of life together, that God seizes into Himself and into His throne.
You see, many who rejoice in “Christ as me” seem to vanish when the actuality of “Christ as you” comes into their picture. But I’m talking about something more than seeing Christ as you. I’m talking about you and me together placing Christ together upon our mutual contempt for one another. Is this something we can do?
I have been there. I have walked these paths. I know the fruit of Christ that comes out from a shared Gethsemane. And I testify to you that LIFE, eternal life, life together as the Church, is the greatest treasure in the entire universe.
Sealed in the Midst of the Storm. After nine months of speaking day and night the words of Christ my life against the words of familiar accusation, the accuser departed from me. Yes, over the next few years, the accusations hit me out from the heavens now and then. The arrogant Christ standing above me with his whips, inside the email I received in the fall of 2011, was one of those times of overwhelming accusation. Nonetheless, I persisted in speaking Christ my only life.
Then, in the summer of 2013, as I spoke “Sealed in the Midst of the Storm” into audio, my life changed. I have not known those levels of assault again.
Father with Me – Father with Us. That sealing, I know now, was my signature upon God and His upon me, that I am His Mercy Seat. And from then until now, I see nothing, not any circumstance nor moment of my life, as being anything other than my Father sharing all things with me, and through my difficulty, Father and I together are reconciling all things to God.
And when you and I together place the Lord Jesus Christ together upon our mutual contempt for one another, we will do so inside of manifest power. You and I together will come to know something we never knew before. We will know Father with us; we will know God.
The Jesus Secret Together. My knowledge of Christ living as me is not just a bunch of nice sayings. I know too well the actuality of the real, as do you. And our extension of our own personal union with Christ out over our life together, something that can exist only as we do it together, has to be real.
Jesus is real.
Yet out from a very real Jesus, personal and alive in our hearts, we speak all things that are Christ regarding our life together. Let’s try that. In fact, let’s change the wording, just a bit, in a number of lines from The Jesus Secret.
Speaking Together. We together serve one another; we together give our lives for one another. We love one another. We love each other together in just the same way that Jesus loves us individually and together. We lay down our lives for one another, but we do it together. We devote our lives to blessing one another as the Lord Jesus Himself.
We together say, “Let it be to us according to Your Word.” We together live by every word from God. Our eyes are set on God in one another; the entirety of our life together is filled with His light. We together abide in Jesus; Jesus abides in us together.
We together love one another for our diversities; we together enjoy our different ways of seeing and doing.
Christ Together. We together love one another when we together are unlovely. When we ignore one another or seem to work against one another, when we offend one another, we meet together, and together, we delight in one another. We smile and speak encouragement into one another.
The power of the Holy Spirit is upon us together; we together are the witness of Christ. We gather together as believers in Jesus; we are of one heart and soul together. We do not claim anything as our own, but we share all things together as the sharing of Christ. We yield to one another; we pray for one another; but we do so together.
Life Together Forever. We could go on and on. In fact every confession of faith in The Jesus Secret can easily be altered from speaking of Christ as ourselves to speaking of Christ as us together.
One of my favorite memories is of a place in Oregon built for brethren gathering together. Here and there throughout the camp, inside and out, were placed banners or plaques with the words of Christ in faith and expectation. That’s something I would do in building the physical part of a community, words of Christ personal and words of Christ as us together. And we would speak those words in joy and faith, we would speak them together, until such time as we KNEW that these words are entirely and utterly true.
And after that, we would live them together forever.
We do, we really do believe in Jesus; we believe in Jesus together.