25.3 Authority Together
The authority and rule of God into all creation comes out from one place alone. It comes out from our fellowship together inside each local Church. Yet we narrow down the source of the River of Life into one small portion of that fellowship, that of firstfruits.
Here it is. – By this we know love, in that Jesus set forth His soul for us, and we also are committed to setting forth our souls for the sake of our brothers and sisters (1 John 3:16). Yet here is the same thing in the New King James. – By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
How do I know that my interpretation of this verse is correct?
What Does It Mean? More than that, what exactly is my interpretation of this verse? Because, you see, when it first entered my writing in late 2011, I had zero idea of what it meant. More than that, everything I teach of what it means comes from this obscure meaning out from that obscure passage, all sorts of little things tied together to – voila – come up with what I am now calling the Source in creation of all rule.
Consider this line – That you might be filled with all the fulness of God. – We might not know how such a thing could be or the extent of what it means, but what we do see is that the meaning is clearly stated on the page. It is a clear declaration of Scripture. Rivers of Spirit flow out of our innermost being – again a clear declaration of Scripture.
The Poirot Principle. So how do I know that I am teaching you the truth of God concerning the source of all Salvation, both inside of Jesus, and now again, inside of and through us?
Remember what I called the Poirot principle, that Hercules Poirot would find the smallest seemingly insignificant clue, but a clue that meant something important to him, and then would follow that clue UNTIL IT FIT – and then, all the other big clues came together around that little clue and – voila – they all made perfect sense. Most find the “big” clues in the Bible, interpret them outwardly, and follow them to dead-ends. From the moment in late 2011 when 1 John 3:16 entered my awareness, I knew that it MUST FIT first before anything else could be known.
Tithemi Psuche. In this lesson I hope to describe the ACTION of all Salvation, something that happened inside of Jesus upon the cross, something that happens inside of us towards one another. Tithemi psuche – literally translated “set-forth soul.” Since that makes no sense to anyone, the translators interpreted it into “laid-down life.” And thus it became something Jesus did long ago and far away from us, making “and we also” a nice, but unrealistic ideal, thus irrelevant to all.
Three things have happened in my life since I wrote “Setting Forth Our Souls” in June of 2019. – (1) All the verses of the Bible now sing together for joy in my understanding. (2) Every moment of my history now sings Jesus to me. (3) Every moment of my present days is filled with Father sharing all with me.
Joined with God. Here is the one Bible verse that is the only place where we can understand the meaning of “set-forth soul.” – You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you. And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat… (Exodus 25:21-22).
And here is the one Bible verse that puts me into Jesus’ own “set-forth soul,” personally, in all my desperate need, the loudest words in the universe. – “Here am I (Jesus), I and the children whom God has given Me” (Hebrews 2:13 – Isaiah 8:18). I was there inside that Man stumbling through a way He could not go, carrying ME, carried by Father, the ONLY image of God.
Utterly Personal. 1. The Action of salvation is utterly personal, personal inside the Soul of the Father, inside the Soul of Jesus, and inside of our own souls towards one another.
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me” (Psalm 22:1). These words are not true; they are the words of a confused human soul being pushed towards the edge of the abyss. Jesus was in agony in Gethsemane when He made the personal decision to receive you and me into Himself. When Jesus said these words on the cross, it was as the picture you often see in movies, of someone hanging from a cliff with one hand and with the other, reaching up to grab the hand held out to them – Father, You are WITH ME! (Psalm 22:21-22).
Joining Together. 2. The Action of salvation is a service, introducing two others to each other and giving them a personal place to join together.
Death is split-apart-ness. Sin is disconnection from God. Lostness is utterly personal inside each human soul.
And there I will meet with you and I will speak with you from above the Mercy Seat. This joining together of God with me took place entirely and only inside the confusion and agony of Jesus’ Soul upon the cross. The personal place in which Father and I come together is Jesus’ Heart, there, just above the Blood. Every step of our life forever comes out from “Father with me.”
Seeing Others as Better. What, then, is this God who is WITH us, sharing our lives together with us even while we share His life together with Him? This is the One who reveals Himself through weakness, who humbles Himself the moment He enters into His creation, and who walks gently, lifting others up, seeing them as “better” than Himself.
I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them (Revelation 20:4). It is an extraordinary thing that the authority we share together places us with the Father beneath of each one whom we judge. This judgment is judgment to life. Our togetherness “with Father” is the place where Salvation happens for each whom we judge.
The Ultimate Cost. Then we have these MOST EXTRAORDINARY words – AND WE ALSO are committed to setting forth our souls for the sake of our brothers and sisters. It isn’t real if it isn’t personal deep inside of you, inside the workings of your own soul, of the story of words rolling around inside your spirit-awareness, just like Jesus.
Tithemi psuche then means that you provide your own soul to the Father who, in the moment of offense feels “far away” and to this person who has offended you, that they might be joined together inside your own heart, completely free of you. Yet here is what we have never known – practicing this joining of soul with soul together for the sake of others.
Gathered Together. I now want to come at our authority together from a slightly different viewpoint. “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together inside of My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:19-20).
Two or three “gathered together inside of Jesus’ name” is Christ Community, it is commitment to walk together. When that commitment is made, a new level of the revelation of Jesus Christ happens in this world and in the experience of those “two or three.”
In Our Midst. “I am there – in the midst of them” is something different from “You in Me and I in you.”
Christ in me is personal to me. But Christ “in our midst” means Christ Jesus in our relationships together, in our fellowship, in our interactions. This is the revelation of Jesus through His Body, not through individuals. This is a revelation of Jesus you cannot know except inside of commitment to the gathering together of two or three or more. This is a formal commitment, and it is ongoing. Though there are differences, of course, it shares some similarities with marriage between husband and wife.
Jesus’ Name. “Inside of My name” is taking on a deeper meaning than I have known before, a meaning tightly linked with “ASK.” Let me give you just the conclusion of what I hope to set forth in other venues of writing.
Asking “inside of Jesus’ name” is asking God to fulfill His Word inside of us in all that God means by what He speaks. That asking is real, then, only when it is followed by believing that we have received ALL that we have asked, as Jesus commanded us to do. Becoming the Word Jesus speaks, all through the fabric of our soul, and knowing ourselves as nothing else, is how we together are the place of all authority.
The Law of Christ. Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:3).
Jerusalem is the entirety of the Communities of Christ across the whole earth, but Zion is the FELLOWSHIP of the firstfruits inside those communities. And this “law” is not the law of Moses, but the law of Christ. Here is the law of Christ. – Carry one another’s great weight of value, and so fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6).
Bonded Forever. The weaving together of our lives in the deepest of fellowships is this – carrying one another’s great weight of value.
I want to speak towards those with whom I have walked in this way, people like Rick Annett and Don Howat, Brian Dwyer and Maureen. I just heard that Brian’s mother, Edie Dwyer, has just passed on, and that Brian and his wife were there with her as she passed, singing “Amazing Grace.” (Brian is a most beautiful singer.) As I thought of Brian again, I was so glad that I had placed all of Blueberry into the Lord Jesus Christ. I know Brian, and Brian knows me. Our lives are bonded forever, and that makes me glad, so very glad. I sensed as if I were there personally with him singing over Sister Edie.
Knowing What It Means. It is this deepest of fellowship, then, that comes out from walking together for years in commitment to know God and to know one another reciprocally, out from which the authority of God flows into all creation.
I have shared in my life story how Rick and Shirley Annett sacrificed their lives for us, and how I also risked my life for them, without thought. This is for real.
God orders my life perfectly for His purposes through me, yet I wait upon Him with tears to return me into such a fellowship of two or three walking together, carrying one another’s great weight of value. The difference is that now I know what it is and means.
Authority Together. The authority of God in the universe comes out from our fellowship together, out from the deepest friendship, out from all personal choice to bear the cost, to see one another better, to value each other above our own lives. God supplies the power, the Spirit of God does the work, but this committed fellowship is what it’s all about.
Now, here is what I just wrote in Symmorphy VII: Completion, Lesson 1.2. – The guiding idea of this course is that the Kingdom of God emanates forth, unfolds every moment, from Father and us sharing life together. This is us sharing life together, and it is Father with us sharing life together. This fellowship is the dwelling place of God.
A Personal Lesson. Because this course is meant to be a “definition,” we have tried to keep it as a point-by-point layout. There is some of that in this lesson; nonetheless, because of the nature of this topic, the Personal has come into the mix.
You were created and designed by God to share this fellowship of commitment with a few other people. Any definition you might have of yourself without KNOWING this committed Fellowship, cannot be complete or accurate.
This knowing is personal, and you have to get involved. It will cost you everything, but you will gain yourself. And there is no authority of Christ in creation found anywhere else but here.