2.3 The Church

The essence of meaning inside of God is Fellowship. The completion of Jesus, this gathering together called “Church,” is a series of inter-relationships that can be described best by the word “fellowship,” or by Latin, “communion,” or in Greek, “koinonia.”

As we saw. – A human is a being who is just like the Lord Jesus Christ, sharing all form with Him as the revelation of the Father, a being who knows God, containing in heart every Word God speaks, who lives inside of God, a being who shares in the fellowship of Father and Son, living inside Their Symmorphy, and who shares that same fellowship with other humans living with them inside of God.

What Is This One Who Sees? We are seeking a more complete answer to the question – what did Jesus see? – the thing that compelled Him forward with the expectation of Joy through every stumbling step. First, let’s re-iterate – what is this stumbling man?

1. Every Word God speaks, the all-speaking of God, now become flesh. 2. The all-now Sustainer in power of everything that exists in creation. 3. The shining forth of glory and the character and exact reproduction of God’s substance.

4. The becoming of all, the becoming of the entire cosmos. 5. The actual and active life force of every human being. 6. The full cleansing away of all falling short. 7. The highest and most exalted meaning inside of God’s reality, that is, the name above all names.

The Wanting of God. Then we are suggesting that this incredible Being, staggering under a cross He cannot carry, wants something. And when we say “wants something,” we mean it from two perspectives. First, this WANTING is the visible expression of the Pro-Determination that is the Drive and Motivation of God, far beyond all the explosive power of the universe. And second, this WANTING is incredibly focused.

Jesus wants one thing and He wants it more than we can comprehend. He also tells us exactly what He wants. – This is My full completion, that you love one another in just the same way that I love you (John 15:12). – Let this thought rest for a bit inside the quietness of your heart.

Fellowship. What is a human? A human is a being who responds back to God with the very same singing of God. God sings Himself and He hears what He is back from us. And the singing of God, in its essence, is Fellowship. I can truly say that inside my years in Christian community, it was the many ways and experiences of fellowship that we enjoyed together that was the true meaning of God for me.

The larger answer to the question, “What did Jesus see?” is, of course, the Church. But now we have what we need to describe briefly what that is. The Church is full Covenant humans gathered together in Fellowship with God and with one another.

Two Together. I am a real human. The essence of what I want concerning God is Fellowship; the essence of what I want concerning you is fellowship. Remember our definition of Covenant. Covenant is that which binds two together in a shared life. Church is sharing life together with God and with one another.

Then, consider the essence of the Jesus Secret, both the initial conception that changed my life forever, and the wondrous realities found in The Jesus Secret II. Every statement of faith in The Jesus Secret is a speaking back to Jesus the very thing that He sees, the completion of the Covenant inside of us personally and together.

Full Covenant Sons. Let’s briefly describe this fellowship together of full Covenant sons inside of the Father. This is truly the essence of “human.”

Consider fifty full Covenant sons, male and female, living life together, loving one another with pure hearts fervently. Remember that fellowship takes place inside of four kinds of doings, fellowship in work and in worship, fellowship in recreation and in battle. And the flow of ministry going out can never be greater than the experience of fellowship within. Every impartation of life as the knowledge of God given to any other part of creation begins first as the sharing of life together, members of one another, inside of Church.

A Knowing of God. The most profound quality that each of these fifty share in common is that each knows God. Yet this does not make them all the same, except in that quality of knowing unlike anything found in the human experience. Rather, in knowing God, each knows themselves, and you will find these fifty more comfortable in their human skin than any humans you have ever known. It also means that each is unique and different from the other according to how God made them. Yet in their gathering together, they seem to complement each other in an easy back and forth of joyous relationship. No shadow exists anywhere in any of their interactions.

Treating Each as Jesus. This knowing of God their Father, then, sits as the bedrock of each of their souls, a knowing that is tangible, deep, and solid. But their expression to one another is filled with the Lord Jesus, that is, not only is He honored in subtle, but normal ways, but each one treats the other as the Lord Jesus. In fact, their words to each other are as a song of Christ singing together. You will see the deepest respect for each other underneath all the laughter and companionship. And their conversation reflects a knowledge of God as Love filling all the spaces between each other and between themselves and all things.

Pure Words. When you converse with any of these fifty, you will discover a depth of Word underlying all thinking and speaking. This is not a “theology,” as you would expect in a seminary. Neither is it words of duty and obligation. Rather, it is the pure words of God without imposition. And all of their normal human conversation reflects those pure and living words.

If you were to walk with any of these into difficult circumstances, you would discover that the quality of “Jesus, my Savior” arising inside of them with fresh and pure Word for the moment is simply the only way they think. They are the most content and thankful people you have known.

Real Humanity. As you begin to share daily life with these fifty, you are astonished at how real each is in every moment. Each is utterly content with their humanity, their abilities and inabilities. And each gives space to the other’s abilities when their own inabilities can’t do the job.

There is no hint of religiosity or plastic pretense in any of their doing. They never try to be something they are not. They are not super-people; they just love one another as humans. And their expressions of love fully accommodate each other’s weakness. You see no “need to be strong or right” in any of them, for their strength comes out of the knowing of God inside.

Father with Us. When you watch them face difficulties of any kind together, you see the visible expression of that bedrock knowledge of God that marks each one. You see a quiet and absolute confidence in “Father with us.”

They speak together, and then they act as if God has already done all that they ask. They face seeming defeat and act as if it is all victory already. They gently touch your hurt, and you feel the power of God going all through your body, yet they laugh and say, “It’s all Jesus.” And when you contend with them, they take the lower place, glad that they can serve you, yet without pretense. They are always lifting you up.

Fellowship and Rivers. As you watch this Church, this Bride of Christ walking together as one, you see an incredible phenomenon taking place. You see a depth of fellowship together and worship inside of God then matched with a flow of life and healing going out from them to all around. The extent of the river matches the depth of the fellowship. You never see them leave their fellowship together in order to “make the river happen.” Yet they are always directly involved together in the meaning and direction of that river.

People who come near discover the goodness and trueness of Christ living as themselves. Everywhere the river goes, life abounds and all created things are turned to purity and goodness.

Prophecy and Ministry. You hear these brothers and sisters speaking Christ to one another, calling their relationship together only by and as the Love of the Father. You see them treating one another in the highest respect and setting one another free from themselves and from the ‘group.’ And then you see that just as they are together, so they also are towards all those who come into some connection with them. They never abandon their togetherness in order to minister to others, rather, even if one or two are by themselves, still, their ministry towards others is always coming out from their walk together.

And when they speak together, you hear God Himself speaking in their voices.

The Bride of Christ. Individually, each one of these KNOWS the Father through knowing Jesus their only life. Yet together, they are the Bride of Christ, the completion of the Lord Jesus inside all heaven-earth. They are the Body of God; the Father walks inside His creation through their Love for one another. Their togetherness, walking together, fellowshipping together, loving one another, is the JOY set before Jesus, His great DESIRE, that prize for which He gave everything He is in order to have for Himself.

And as they are the Bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem become the entirety of heaven-earth, so all creation enters into the glorious liberty of the knowledge of God through their love.

This Is You. Here is what I am saying. – This IS what you ARE. And you cannot know yourself except inside of this expression. Neither can you know God. You are this right now, but it doesn’t do you much good unless you KNOW what you are, and that, not as mental ideas, but as lived experience.

A significant part of this text, then, is to give you the words that constitute what it is you are as a full Covenant son. But the practical meaning of what you are as a human will come to you only in the ongoing sharing of life together with the Father and together with your brothers and sisters in Christ. In the end, there is no Christ without Church.