22.4 The Appearance of God
We know for a fact that when God becomes visible inside of His creation, He appears as a Man. And this Man, who is the appearance of God, humbles Himself. There is no other visible appearance of God. And this Appearance of God was no different from any other human; that’s why Adam’s followers got rid of Him.
And the Word became flesh and lived among us.
Yet upon this same Man were the same words spoken that were spoken of Adam. – “It is not good that Jesus should be alone. I will make Him a woman of His same kind.” Jesus Himself said, “If a Seed is not planted in the ground, it remains ALONE.”
Into One Flesh. And so God put Jesus “to sleep” upon the cross and drew His woman, as Blood and as Water, out from His side. Then, on the day of Pentecost, fifty days later, God, by the Spirit, brought Jesus and His bride together.
Then this Seed, this alone-Seed, this only-Kind became something different. In Jesus’ metaphor, the Seed became the plant; in God’s reality, the Seed became the Church. And inside this Church, the purpose of the alone-Seed was to bring forth many more seeds just like Himself, of His same kind. – For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. “Because of this, a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined with his wife and into one flesh the two will be” (Genesis 2:24). This is a great mystery, but I speak of Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:30-32).
The Body of God. The Church is now the flesh of Christ. – The Church, which is His body, the fullness of Christ who fills all inside of all (Ephesians 1:23).
Yet the Church as a Bride, though the highest beauty of God, is not yet the final completed appearance of God inside all heaven-earth. It is the Church as many sons, just like the Lord Jesus, brought out from His union with her and seized into God and into His Mercy Seat, ruling all things as Love, who are God’s completion, the true and full appearance of God forever. These sons, filled with Jesus, walking as one together, are now the Body of God, what God looks like. Yet they are human forever. We must know what that means, for, by faith, this is us.
Cherishing the Flesh. I received a question from a reader of my letters concerning a teaching she had heard in deeper truth circles, a teaching I also have heard, that is, something quite similar. This teaching posits that when God breathed the breath of Life upon Adam, this was the “tree of life,” but when God formed Adam of the DIRT of the ground, that was the tree of knowledge.
I’m sure you can see how un-Biblical this teaching is, for it comes out from the same hatred of Adam towards a God who appears to all His creation through human weakness. Paul said, “Indeed, no one at any time hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, in just the same way also that Christ nourishes and cherishes the Church.” Paul had no idea of the strange evil about to enter Christianity.
Made of Dirt. That evil was the hatred of the flesh, the hatred of God-made-visible, the original rebellion of Adam.
But let’s go back to how God made mankind. – And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being/soul/self (Genesis 2:7).
There is a silly idea that God is not a “living soul.” Say what? Does God have no mind or no emotions or no desires? Is God not a Story of Words inside of a Spirit self-awareness? That is the meaning of a “living soul.”
Yet man is earth, that is, dirt, with heaven breathed upon him, that is, spirit. This is the flesh that the Word became.
God Manifest in the Flesh. The appearance of God forever is dirt breathed upon by spirit, at the junction of which is a story of words inside of a spirit self-awareness, that is, a unique human person.
The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof. Calling earth “low” and lusting after a “higher life” is rebellion, it’s root is gross unthankfulness and its fruit is death. The teaching that this sister heard was itself the fruit of the tree of death, seeking to control all who give it heed.
Yet this is the completion of God, a people, many brethren, walking together as one Body of God, having embraced LIFE, that is, God manifest in the flesh, and having rejected forever the insane lust to be something “better than God.”
Jesus Metamorphosed. The completion of God and man together is death swallowed up by LIFE. Next, let’s look briefly at the metamorphy of Jesus.
And Jesus was metamorphosed (transfigured) before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. …A bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” …When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. …Jesus commanded them, saying, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead” (Matthew 17:2-9).
The point is not that Jesus “glowed.”
Become Like Him. I would suggest to you that it was not Jesus who changed, but the eyes of the disciples. The veil was lifted from their eyes. Jesus was metamorphosed in the eyes of the disciples because He shared life with the Father, and, by being every Word God speaks, He took upon Himself the patterns of expression that are God just being Himself inside of creation.
The point of this passage is not the “glow,” but rather, the words, “This is My Beloved Son; in whom I am well-pleased (see as good – Genesis 1). Hear Him.” That is, feed upon His Words that you might be metamorphosed as well by being with Him. This is the same glory of which John spoke. – And we looked upon His glory, glory as the Only-Seed [as of the only Kind that is] from Father, full of grace and truth..
The Same Image. Yet in His resurrection, Jesus said this. – Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have” (Luke 24:39). Then, on the Day of Pentecost, that same flesh became our flesh. The Word became flesh as us.
Our metamorphy is the same as Jesus’ metamorphy. – We all, then, having been unveiled in face (the cover taken off our eyes), are reflecting the glory of the Lord [to one another] as a mirror and are being metamorphosed (transfigured) into the same image from glory into glory, just exactly as from the Spirit of the Lord.
Dirt Transfigured. What is that glory? The glory is dirt transfigured, that is, seen for what the flesh is – God, manifest in the flesh.
And so we need another word, carefully defined, to describe this final slight alteration of the appearance of human flesh, an alteration that allows people to see the kindness of Jesus in our face and to know the gentleness of His touch through our hands. The word we will use is “transfiguration.” And by this word, we do not mean “metamorphy” as found in Jesus as seen by His disciples or us as seeing one another. Rather, we will define it as the slight alteration of the seeing of human flesh as the result of death swallowed up by life, that is, resurrection.
Transfiguration. Transfiguration: The completion of the processes of transubstantiation and metamorphy as they work together, our human bodies of flesh swallowed up by life. We call this completion a “slight alteration” of our outward appearance, for we do not lust after an image of superiority as Adam did.
The primary change is that people will be able to see the kindness of Jesus upon our faces and feel the gentleness of His touch in our hands. Yet this is life, the redemption and resurrection of the physical part of our bodies. We will possess the vigor and beauty of our youth, yet retain the wisdom of our walk with God.
The sustaining grace of God, however, means that we walk right now, entirely through faith, knowing that we already share that same resurrection with Jesus; we already are God’s image.
God-Revealed. God’s appearance inside of all creation forever, in all the realms of heaven and through all the stars and planets, is human flesh, that is, dirt and spirit-breath fused together as one body. God incarnate. God made visible through human flesh.
Yet this is not a “bunch of humans,” but rather, many sons walking together, loving one another with pure hearts fervently, and through their devotion together, the rule of Love goes forth into all created things, setting creation free, setting God free to be Himself in the knowing of all created things.
Just as the Father Himself is our completion, so we also are the Father’s completion, the outward appearance of God forever. Humans fit God. Man is God-Revealed.