24.3 God Through His Body

A body You have prepared for Me (Hebrews 10). This is a reciprocal statement. – A body God has prepared for Jesus. – A body Jesus has prepared for God. Our focus is on this phrase, “You have prepared.” It is this phrase that defines us as humans, the action of our lives.

What is God dwelling in, moving through, and showing Himself as visible out from a body made up of many believers in Jesus as manifest sons of God, walking together, loving one another with pure hearts fervently? How does this work? What does God look like? I am not aware of these questions ever being asked or of this specificity ever being considered.

Not Yet Known. More than that, we must assume that God designed us in the first place with all the capacities needed for each one of us to fit perfectly into this wondrous arrangement. What does that mean? How does this work? I have zero knowledge of or experience in any of this. The only thing I can do is take the Word God speaks and set it before us as a sure path that we can follow into REAL.

But here’s the thing. Yes, this Body for God is set by Paul as our immediate destination and the purpose and goal of the gospel. Yet there is very little definition in the Bible of how this Body actually works, that is, how God Himself inhabits and makes use of our togetherness to reveal Himself. God Himself has not yet experienced this goal inside our reality.

A Living Body. We are not placing God into time, for God knows all things, and lives right now inside of that which is “future” to us. In this lesson, however, we want to consider God through His Body during the Age of Tabernacles, and thus we are also speaking of our resurrected state, that is, the kindness of Jesus as our essence.

Living, as we do, in a dying body right now is not normal and is not the intention of the gospel. Just as the gospel assumes life for each individual believer, so it assumes a living Body of Christ right here on this earth, the expression of the Lord Jesus as He is and in full. The Church, which is His Body, the fullness of Christ.

The BEST Form. At the same time, this lesson is titled, “God Through,” and so I want to place our focus on the Father, seeing out from His eyes, as He enjoys being Himself inside His creation, now seen and known by all. Yet our purpose remains to define the human. How is our humanity together the BEST form God could design to be His form and to express Himself through?

And we must accept that fact, that God did not design us as a “Plan B,” but as the most suitable form for Himself. “I will make him a helper suitable for him – of his same kind.” This is truly a great mystery, as the only thing Paul also could say, that we together are the flesh of Christ, and inside of Christ, the flesh of God!

Be Just Like God. Since it is our interactions together through which God is seen and known, the thought comes to me that I could merge together the “be just like God” verses with the “one another” verses and then place a Personal God showing Himself. And I will give God’s response in the form of a prophecy. [Upon completing this lesson, I must insert here that following this thought has given me answer to all my questions thus far.]

Be complete in exactly the same way that God is complete (love your enemies) – This is My full completion, that you love one another in exactly the same way that I love you (Matthew 5 & John 15).

“I reveal Myself first and always through a costly Love, and I have designed you as humans in just such a way that My Love through you is always costly to you. This is why I have not made you to “love” automatically, for I share your loss as Me.”

Friendship. True and genuine friendship is very rare among humans, that’s why we (and God) are so lonely. Friendship is the bond that reveals God. Indeed, look at John 15:11-17 as a whole. Jesus positions Himself as our Friend because He is always speaking into us that which He is hearing from the Father. Jesus shares with us His deepest and most Personal secrets, the voice of the Father always coming through Him. This sharing is costly to Jesus, as all true friendship is costly. Our response to Jesus is not just loving Him back, but rather, sharing that same friendship with one another.

The costliness of the gospel, the costliness that reveals God, is the costliness of human friendship at its deepest levels.

Walk as Jesus Walked. Let me say again. Not only is our togetherness as humans the BEST form that fits God most perfectly, but our togetherness as humans is the ONLY form suitable to God. Being just like God is found only in being towards one another. And, the truth is, I find that the “one another” verses and the “be just like God” verses are often the same.

Walk in exactly the same way He Himself walked. – As we walk in the light, just as He is in the light, so we have fellowship with one another (1 John 2 & 1).

Light is full honesty – Of myself I can do nothing. Light is utter trust that God shares our lives with us. To walk as Jesus walked is to walk every step acknowledging God with me.

Your Fellowship Together. “I designed you, as you are, to contain Me. To walk in the light is to walk in full honesty, that you are incapable of pleasing Me except you acknowledge that I share all your life with you. Yet I am not seen through your honesty towards Me, but rather, through your honesty towards your brothers and sisters.

“This fellowship you share with one another, this koinonia, this deepest of friendships, happens only out from honesty, out from being true and real towards one another. That fellowship is My outward appearance, the outflow of My symmorphy with each one of you. I live inside of Jesus inside of each one of you. Your fellowship together, inside of being real as the weak humans I made you, is My bright shining light by which all will know Me.”

Mutual Faith. Nothing in all the universe, nothing in the mind and heart of God, nothing in His vast creative abilities and untold wisdom and perception can compare with “human fellowship inside the deepest of friendships” as WHAT GOD LOOKS LIKE!

That I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual [one another] faith both of you and me. – Receive one another just exactly as Christ receives you. – I live entirely inside the sphere of the faith of the Son of God (Romans 1 & 15 and Galatians 2:20).

Mutual faith – the faith of the Son of God. The expectation of God towards one another AND shared together. To be encouraged is to be filled with conFID[faith]ence, something that happens together inside Jesus’ own faith.

Sharing Confidence Together. “I sent My Son, the One who reveals Me, into you, and I placed you entirely into His faith and confidence in Me. Jesus received you into Himself, not as a burden, though He carries all that you are, but rather as a treasured companion, a most precious friend, that you might share faith and confidence with Him.”

“Yet there is much more, for I did not send Jesus to be alone; I sent Him to prepare your togetherness as My own form and expression inside My creation. Just as I moved to touch others through Jesus’ faith in Me, so I move even more through your shared faith and expectation together. As you share faith with one another, so I fill your togetherness with the boldness of My own Heart. Your receiving of one another releases Me into the knowledge of all creation.”

Devotion. Faith is the “through,” the passageway for God into the knowledge of all. Our shared faith together is God’s highway, His channel of revelation. Sharing together the confidence of the Son of God is indeed the very Body of God and the revelation of His Heart.

As the one having called you is devoted [to you], so also yourselves be devoted [to God] in all your manner of life… Be devoted to Me, for I am devoted to you. – We are members of one another. – Submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ (1 Peter 1 & Romans 12 & Ephesians 5).

To be members of one another is to be devoted to each other just as we are devoted to our own bodies, this innate drive to protect and take care of our own physical needs.

Our Submission to One Another. “My devotion to you and your devotion to Me is expressed outwardly as your devotion to one another. You nourish and cherish your body, you protect it. Yet you are not “ruled” by your body, for your body is a servant that gives itself to what you intend to accomplish.

“My Body, which is your togetherness, your submitting to one another inside of the fear, the single-eyed focus of Christ, works with Me in the same way. As you are members of one another, so you are devoted to one another’s needs. Yet you do not rule over one another; rather, it is My intentions and purposes that are expressed through your devotion together. It is as you yield to one another in the full acknowledging of Christ Jesus, intent on My business, that I am free to do what I wish inside My creation.”

Sharing the Same Mind. Doing God’s desire, fulfilling His intentions, doing His work, is something that we do only together. And our devotion to God in His purposes is found only through our devotion to one another’s purposes and needs.

Let this exact same gut-level manner of thinking be inside of you that was inside of Christ Jesus. – Be of the same mind toward one another. – Have the same care for one another. – In lowliness of mind esteem one another as better than yourself in full reciprocity (Philippians 2 & Romans 12 & 1 Corinthians 12 & Philippians 2).

Think exactly as Jesus thinks, which becomes – caring about one another’s needs and interests.

Christ Community. How is it that being just like Jesus has become, in so many minds, being “able to walk through walls” or “going around performing mighty miracles?” The Bible is so clear. Being like Jesus IS caring for one another’s interests and needs, in a reciprocal, back and forth manner, that is, Christ Community.

“My son, born out from Me, know that My Body is Christ Community. For only in your togetherness can you be just like the Lord Jesus Christ. The full expression of being like Jesus is Christ Community; Christ Community is the full expression of being like Jesus. This is My mind and Heart towards you, that I think more highly of you than I do of Myself. Then, as you esteem one another in the same lowly mind, so all will see ME.”

Sent to Serve. The New Jerusalem coming down upon the earth is nothing other than the establishment of Christian Communities across the whole planet, turning Earth into Jerusalem. This city alone is the revelation of God. No individual all by themselves is capable of being God-revealed. Only our togetherness is God revealing Himself.

In the exact same [purpose for which] the Father sent Me forth, so I also send you. – Whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His soul a ransom for many. – Through love serve one another. – Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ (John 20 & Matthew 20 & Galatians 5 & 6).

Weaving Self-Stories Together. Jesus serves us by giving us His own soul, His own self-story, to become our self-story, entwined entirely with His. We could never become another “self” except we be given first Someone else’s “self” as our own present self, and then be given the opportunity and the ability to weave our own self together with His. This is the whole meaning of Jesus SENT into us.

And it is the whole meaning of Jesus sending us to one another. This sharing of soul, being of one mind, bearing one another’s burdens, is not a symmorphic relationship, but a fellowship relationship together. The soul of Jesus, then, the soul of God, is found at the junction of our own souls in fellowship together, a weaving together of our own life stories.

God Just Being Himself. “Just as I sent Jesus to you, to share His soul with you, so that you might have a story of self that I know and recognize as My own, so, through Jesus, I send you to one another. How could My own Soul, My ways of thinking, My desires and intentions, My vast range of emotions, be known by any created thing except through Jesus’ own soul sent through each one of you to one another?

“As I serve you, by sending Jesus into you to be your own story of self, so you serve Me in return, by sharing your own self-stories with one another in a beautiful tapestry of My own personality and expression. As you bear one another’s burdens, so you are the full expression of Jesus, and so you are My Body as I get to be Myself through you to all.”

Be Just Like God. Let’s bring in, now, the biggest statement of being like God found in the Bible, the verses that are God-Revealed.

And be kind with one another, tender-hearted, forgiving, that is, giving favor to each other, in exactly the same way that God inside of Christ gave favor freely to you. Therefore be just like God, as beloved children, and walk inside of love in just the same way that Christ also loved us and gave Himself to us for our sakes, an offering and a sacrifice to God, into a sweet-smelling aroma (Ephesians 4:32-5:2).

Be just like God – with one another, over and over in the same sets of verses. This is so clear and obvious, how on earth has the Church of Christ missed the whole point so completely. As Jesus said, “An enemy has done this.”

Be Kind with One Another. “Be kind with one another, for I am kind. Be tenderhearted with one another, for I am tenderhearted. Give favor to each other, for I give favor. Forgive one another, for I forgive. Be just like Me. Be just like Me, for you are My beloved children, birthed out from Me. Yet you are not as solitary individuals, but together as one body, as My best and only form inside creation.

“Walk inside of love – together, for I walk inside of love expressed through your togetherness. You together walk always inside of Me. You together are the sweet-smelling aroma of My Sent One, as My knowledge entering into every place you go, into every place I have created.”

Our Human Nature. I am convinced that I have made my case, that I have proven that the Bible says that BEING LIKE God is loving ONE ANOTHER and that the Bible says that God reveals Himself only through Christ Community. More than that, I now know how to write the next chapter out from my own life experience, how the weaving together of our life stories into a tapestry of beauty is God’s Personal Soul made visible.

It is our human nature to walk together. God designed us as humans, specifically, to share our life stories all woven together as a Community of Christ. Our togetherness is perfectly matched to God’s being, and God’s being is perfectly matched to our togetherness.