10.1 Defining Symmorphic
Symmorphy means “sharing the same form.” The central and most profound aspect in the design and construction of humans is that we are symmorphic. We are designed to contain and to reveal another Person. And we are designed to live inside of and to know another Person as part of ourselves.
More than that, this other Person, who retains His own unique identity, even as we retain ours, shares with us in full every part of our form, and we share with Him in full every part of His form. More than that, this other Person with whom we share form, also shares form with a Third Person in just the same way.
Person inside of Person. Believe Me that I am inside of the Father and the Father inside of Me. – Know that I am inside of My Father, and you inside of Me and I inside of you (John 14:8 & 20). – God is love, and the one living inside of love, lives inside of God, and God lives inside of him (1 John 4:16).
The Person who lives inside of you is Jesus, and the Person who lives inside of Jesus inside of you is the Father. The Person inside of whom you live is Jesus, and the Person inside of whom you and Jesus together live is the Father. A human is a symmorphic being. And this aspect of our definition fits more freely into all seven of our categories than any other aspect.
Sharing Form Together. Now, this entire program of study is “Symmorphy.” And as such, it is all an investigation of how two Persons, God and a human, share the same form together such that God Himself is seen and known inside creation through our humanity.
God Himself is a Symmorphic Being separate from His design of humans; as Jesus said, “As You, Father, are inside of Me, and I inside of You” (John 17). Therefore, in making us symmorphic as well, God made us like Himself, as He said. Of truth, the primary focus of Symmorphy I: Purpose through Symmorphy IV: Covenant was to give form and shape to our understanding of what symmorphy is and means.
Symmorphos. Let’s bring in our earlier definitions. Remember that I began writing Purpose before I knew the word “symmorphy.” God’s meaning of the Greek word invented by Paul, symmorphos, did not come into my understanding until I wrote Lesson 4.3 of that text, “Symmorphos.”
Here are the words I wrote that changed everything for me. – “Synchrony” does not mean one time becoming another; it means two things sharing the same time. “Sympathy” does not mean one feeling becoming another feeling; it means two people sharing the same feeling. Symmorphos does not mean me, now one thing, becoming some other form, it means two people, Jesus and me, becoming one form. It means utterly braided together.
Symmorphy. Symmorphy (noun): 1. The state or condition of a human being fused utterly together with God such that the two persons, God and the human, exist and express themselves together as one. 2. Two persons, God and a human, sharing the same form.
Symmorphose (verb) – symmorphosed, symmorphosing: 1. The initial processes by which a human being and God are fused together as one. 2. Being formed together, formed together with, having the same form, being fashioned together. 3. To actively engage with God as one person with you.
Symmorphous (adverb): Contributing to or corresponding with symmorphy with God.
Symmorphic (adjective): Involving or exhibiting symmorphy; having the qualities of being fused together with God.
Two as One. “Being symmorphic,” then, means that a human possesses all the qualities of sharing form with God. What does it mean to share form with God in a fully reciprocal manner? We will never come to an end of discovering ever more of what such a wondrous life is.
Your flesh IS Jesus’ flesh. Jesus’ flesh IS your flesh. Your spirit IS Jesus’ Spirit. Jesus’ Spirit IS your spirit. You and Jesus share flesh together, both your flesh and His. You and Jesus share spirit together, both your spirit and His. Yet inside of this wondrous and continuous sharing, you and Jesus remain persons of distinct integrity, and thus your every moment is a sharing of communion, soul inside of soul.
Symmorphy and Synergeia. We cannot even consider the concept of symmorphy apart from direct, immediate, and continuous engagement with God.
Symmorphy, then, is the context or form that contains Synergeia, God and you energeoing together. And in fact, when God states His purpose in Romans 8:28-30, He begins with Synergeoing before He places that Synergeia into Symmorphy and Image. Form comes second with God; FIRE comes first. You and I share the same fire/life/energeia with God before we share the same form with God. We are God’s picture of the Pillar of Fire inside the Holy of Holies upon the Ark of the Covenant.
The Ancient of Days. I want to bring in, now, one of the most power-filled passages of the Old Testament in order to show the impact of synergeoing inside of symmorphy. These are all from Daniel Chapters 7 & 9.
I watched till thrones were put in place, and the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire; a fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him. – I was watching; and the same horn was making war against the saints, and prevailing against them, until the Ancient of Days came, and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom.
The Holy of Holies. Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.
We want to focus here on three phrases, “the Ancient of Days seated,” “judgment made in our favor,” and “to anoint the Most Holy.” Yet we want to consider these phrases inside the power of Daniel’s prophetic words. All three of these phrases are found inside this statement. – We are God’s picture of the Pillar of Fire inside the Holy of Holies upon the Ark of the Covenant.
The In-Between. “The Ancient of Days seated” means Father at home in my heart. It means that I contain all the fullness of God inside my form and being. “To anoint the Most Holy” means synergeoing with God, that is, the power of the Spirit upon us to reveal God to all. It means rivers of Spirit flowing out from me. And remember that God is always turning things around. He begins with Purpose, which is actually His end result. And He ends with Completion, which is actually where everything begins.
Then in-between these two, in-between the In-Dwelling and the Synergeoing, is “judgment given in our favor.”
Authority. In order for us to grasp what on earth God means by making us to be symmorphic beings, just as He is Symmorphic, I must show why this topic, being symmorphic, is found in the Action of being human, that is, what we do, rather than in “Pattern and Flow,” that is, what we are.
“Judgment given in our favor” means AUTHORITY. Two things regarding God and the human are not symmorphic, authority and power. When God said, “Subdue,” He divested all authority out from Himself and gave it entirely to man. God cannot “fix” the problems of our world because He has no authority to do so.
Synergeoing. Yet God reserved to Himself all power; God does not share power with us. – We have this treasure in an earthen vessel so that the excellency of the power might be of God and not of us (2 Corinthians 4:8).
Synergeoing happens, then, only when our authority and God’s power come together. Nothing in all creation can know LIFE or be GOOD apart from God and man coming together as one, with God possessing all power and man possessing all authority. God and you together make all things good; God and you together cause all things to live.
Only in Fellowship. Therefore, synergeoing with God is not found in Spirit with spirit, and it is not found in Flesh with flesh. Synergeoing with God is found only in the communion of two, soul with soul, sharing the same self-story inside the same self-awareness. Synergeoing with God is found only in Fellowship.
The purpose of Symmorphy, sharing the same form, is Synergeia, energeoing together, making all things good. And the passage from one to the other is Fellowship. For that reason, we KNOW that when Daniel saw His vision of the Ancient of Days seated, he saw you and me sharing Hheart with God.
Living Dynamism. Sharing Hheart with God is not “existing”; it’s not “what we are.” Sharing Hheart with God is dynamism, it is LIVING, it is continuous action, it is energeia, it is FIRE, it is LIFE, it is forever! Jesus does not “exist” inside of our hearts through faith, He LIVES in all dynamic action inside of our hearts.
And thus we must put two lines together. – For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man (John 5:26-27). Because He is HUMAN! – All authority inside of heaven upon earth has been given to Me (Matthew 28:18).
The Living Center. Sharing Hheart with God, then, is the living center of being symmorphic, it is the Mercy Seat above the Covenant written upon the heart. It is the throne of God, the seat of the Ancient of Days. And the fiery stream issuing and coming forth from this Fellowship of Hheart we share with God is that Synergeia that is our authority entwined with God’s power and God’s power entwined with our authority. That authority is the human Jesus living as us.
And thus every aspect and element of human purpose and action comes out from the fact that we are symmorphic beings, made to synergeo with God, sharing Hheart together.
Human Identity. Since being symmorphic is the central fact of our human design, we are making this chapter longer with a full fourth lesson.
Sharing Hheart with God is our purpose as humans, yet this capacity is also our fatal flaw. We are humans only as we contain another Person sharing our self-story with us. And that means that human identity must be formed only out from Fellowship. For this reason, humans, designed to be filled with all of God, but empty of the knowledge of God, are the source and cause of all evil thoughts, words, and actions.
Human identity is forged, then, in the fires of WAR, and we know our true selves only as we know the Lamb Sent into every part of our souls, that is, Jesus living as us.