19. I Am a Son out from God

In this lesson, we are completing 2 Corinthians and working on Galatians for The Jesus Secret II. This includes a number of small pieces to fill up pages that have been tightened up as well as one new page in Galatians titled, “I Am a Son out from God.”

What is happening is fascinating. I am writing now out from present word, a word filled with the Grace come now inside the Apocalypse, the unveiling of Jesus Christ. The “Unveiling” means that our eyes are opening to what is real and True at an ever increasing speed. Thus I am weaving present word all through what I wrote 4-5 years ago, raising things to this new way of seeing.

The Weapons of Our Warfare. We have only one box to complete for 2 Corinthians, on the page, “My Weapons Are God-Enabled; I Am Ready to Dispense Justice,” 2 Corinthians 10. That box is titled “God-Enabled.” This small box comes in-between three pages newly written on Grace, and, by definition, it places GRACE solidly into our warfare against all that is false.

For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshy, but are God-enabled towards the tearing down of fortresses, overthrowing arguments, and every high thing or barrier lifting itself up against the knowledge of God, taking captive every thought into the submission of Christ, along with your readiness to dispense justice to all who hear amiss, even when your own submission inside of Christ has been made full.

Kept and Devoted. The words “God-enabled” are literally, “powered by God.” The phrase “mighty in God” allowed us to think in separation. Yet Paul means that the power is God-with-me, for we have no other power, God is utterly with me, that is, GRACE.

The “submitting of Christ” is to place ourselves in all that we are utterly into God in all our knowing, that He alone KEEPS us, that He alone makes us DEVOTED to Himself. And to acknowledge that we are coming out from Him in every moment, through every Word that He speaks. And our weapons are not “fleshy,” that is, “super-power,” but rather the certain CONFIDENCE that Word and Spirit go forth from our life shared with Father, exposing all that is false and establishing all into Truth.

God-Enabled. I know that God is utterly with me and that my Father shares all with me inside of grace. In my devotion to God, given to me by Jesus, I place all that I am entirely upon God in every moment. As I am kept inside of God from all that opposes, I know that my authority to cast down all darkness, to expose all fakery, and to open the ears of those who cannot hear, is God-with-me. As I share all with God, so Spirit and Word go out from us, bringing all into the submission of Christ. God Himself moves into my world through the authority He has placed as Jesus inside of me. I know in every challenge that I am God-enabled.

I Am a Son out from God. Let me first set out the problem. For Galatians 2:20, a ruling verse, I had only two pages. It needs more. Even though this line is from Galatians 3 and connects with “I Am Abraham’s Seed,” my intention is that it be a continuation of the fifth ruling verse. The page titled “I Am Crucified With Christ” is complete, but the second page, titled “Christ Is My Life,” needs a small box with a large statement added. Then we have four pages to complete, “I Am Abraham’s Seed,” “I Am A Son Out From God,” “Christ Is Formed Inside Of Me,” and “I Am a Child of Promise.” All four will be an expansion of “Christ Is My Life; I Have No Other Life.”

A Spontaneous Line. Thinking things through in this way helps me to know what belongs where. In fact, we have two pages now, titled “I Am Abraham’s Seed.” Clearly, the difference is that the first is SOURCE and the second, coming later, is INHERITANCE. So, the one line, in large print, that I added spontaneously to “Christ Is My Life” is –

My Life, my Source, my Energeia, my Purpose, my Story.

Then I realized that I had the topics to fit the pages. “My Source” completes the first page on “Abraham’s Seed,” Then I placed “My Energeia” and “My Purpose” beneath “I Am a Son.” I realized that Abraham means faith, so I added “My Faith.” Then, I placed “My Story” beneath “Christ Is Formed inside of Me” and “My Inheritance” on the page “I Am a Child of Promise.”

Abraham as Our Source. In both Romans and Galatians, Paul places Abraham as the definitive source of our faith inside the New Covenant. Our actual Source is God’s thoughts concerning us through the good-speaking of Jesus. But God intends Abraham to be the source of our story and our language, for specific reasons.

We do not look to Adam, but to Abraham. Abraham is God’s rebuke of Adam. Abraham had no “Bible” and no tradition. His culture had long since departed from the knowledge of God, but Shem, his forefather, did not die until Isaac was fifty-years old. It is probable that Abraham knew Shem’s story and was drawn by it. But when God spoke to Abraham, it was just him and God.

A Personal Voice. All Abraham did was hear a voice speaking to him. He knew that Voice was God, and never once thought otherwise. The Voice spoke simple things, not elaborate or magical things, things that always pointed towards the Salvation of God. Abraham knew this Voice was God, the Creator of all, and he believed that God was telling him the Truth. That’s it. That is the heritage from which God wants our own stories to begin.

Jesus said to Peter, “It was the Father who revealed that to you – and upon this Rock, the Father speaking to you, I will build My Church.” Abraham and Peter both tried to “do the word” themselves, which was a complete waste of time. The Word became out from itself, but through their confidence in believing.

Abraham Begins Our Story. Paul is very definite in his assertion that we have the same connection and experience with God that Abraham had. We hear the Father speaking to us, we know that it is God, we believe that He is telling us the truth, and then we expect with all confidence that Word to become in our lives as, and out from, the Lord Jesus in our hearts.

But this story by which we know ourselves reaches back to begin with Abraham. Abraham “did” nothing, except believe God even as he stumbled through his life. His offering of Isaac on Mt. Moriah was not “outward obedience,” but rather, ultimate inward devotion. We give ourselves to God in the same way, knowing that Abraham BELONGS in our story.

My Source. My Source is always the thoughts of God my Father concerning me through the good-speaking of Jesus. Yet Paul’s gospel also teaches me that Abraham is my father inside the substance of faith. Abraham is the beginning of my faith and of my story inside of Christ. I am not of Adam; I am of Abraham. I am confident that, as Jesus arose up out from the grave, Abraham was the first to follow, the first to ask Jesus into his heart, the first Christian in heaven-earth.

Abraham heard a voice speaking to him. He knew that Voice was God, and never once thought otherwise. The Voice spoke simple things, not elaborate or magical things, things that always pointed towards the Salvation of God. Abraham knew this Voice was God, the Creator of all, and he believed that God was telling him the Truth. That’s it. That is the heritage from which my own story begins.

I have the same experience and connection with God that Abraham had. I hear the same voice of the Father speaking to me, I know that it is God, I believe that He is telling me the truth, and I expect that Word to become the Lord Jesus in my heart. I am the seed of Abraham, for the Father also teaches me. Abraham belongs in my story, and I belong in his.

Statements of Faith. I initially had all the statements of faith from Galatians 3:1 to 4:7 on one page, but I have now split them in two. I am not dividing them by section, but by topic. I include those only from the page “I Am a Son out from God.”

I possess full confidence in the truth. I have begun everything inside of Spirit; I am accomplishing all completion inside that same Spirit. I began in Spirit; I am made complete in Spirit. God continuously and lavishly supplies the Spirit to me. The Spirit continuously energeoes many effects of power inside of me and among us together.

I believe God; my faith is just innocence; I am approved of God; God declares me innocent. Faith came to me and set me free from the horrific imprisonment that was law. I am justified out from faith. I no longer have any need for law.

I am a son out from God all the way through faith inside of Christ Jesus. I am a son because God commissioned and sent forth His Spirit into my heart. By that Spirit, I cry loudly, “My Daddy, the Father.” I am a son and an heir of Abraham through God. I am a son and heir of God through Abraham.

Our Focus. Through the verses of our passage, Paul builds a necessary intellectual argument regarding law and curse. That argument is not our focus, for “I am crucified with Christ” separates us utterly from both. Our focus remains Galatians 2:20, specifically, “the One who loves me, who gives Himself in trade for me.” This is our story, and the beginning of that story is Abraham.

This is the first time I have realized that God placed Galatians 2:20/4:19 inside the story of Abraham’s faith. Paul defines the “blessing of Abraham” as the promise of the Spirit freely given to us. The Spirit is our Energeia. The Spirit of God is part of me, part of the fabric of my humanity.

The Same Spirit of Faith. At first it seems a bit of a leap to go from Abraham’s story to the Spirit given to us. Yet it’s not. Abraham could not have heard God, or have believed God, or brought forth Isaac, or given himself in devotion, except the Spirit of God first came to him to be part of his own humanity. It is by the Spirit that we are energeoed to say, “My Daddy, the Father.” And it is by that same Spirit of faith that we are energeoed to say, “Abraham, my father.”

Here is our line, “And the life I live now in all the sphere of flesh, I live through the faith of the Son of God.” Abraham’s faith was Jesus. And the story is the meaning of a life, God speaking to him and to us through the unfolding of our lives, simple words that always point us forward.

My Energeia. The blessing of Abraham come now upon me is the Spirit of God given freely and without limit to me. God’s Devoted Spirit has become part of the fabric of my own being, the very energeia by which I live. I know that the Spirit of God energeoing all inside of me is Abraham’s blessing to me, the heritage I have received from him. By that same Spirit, I am enabled to cry, “My Daddy, the Father.” By that same Spirit, I know that Abraham is my father, that I also am a son out from God. This is the meaning of my life, the simple words of the Spirit spoken in me, leading me into all the knowledge of God.

Devotion. The purpose of Abraham’s life was devotion, the purpose of our lives is devotion. That devotion is specifically that God might have His way to enter our world. God’s way through Abraham passed through Isaac, Abraham’s son offered to God, then through Jesus, God’s Son offered to Abraham and to all out from him. God’s way through our devotion passes through our faith to become the revelation of Jesus Christ. Then, through Christ as His Church, God is known as Love by all creation.

No story formed my knowing of my own devotion to God in my earlier years more than Abraham offering his son on Mt. Moriah, the exact same spot where God offered His Son in return inside of Whom my story becomes complete.

My Purpose. Just as Abraham offered his son, the promise of God, back to the Father, so God gave Jesus to me, to be my only life. Jesus devotes Himself utterly to me, that I might live through His faith, the same faith by which Abraham knew God. Abraham’s purpose was His devotion to God; Jesus’ purpose was His devotion to God. My purpose is the same, I give myself to my Father, utterly devoted to Him, that God my Father might enter my world through my confidence in Him. I am a son of God; I am about my Father’s business.

Considering Faith. Faith is so much more than we have ever considered. And yet – it is also so much less. Faith is utterly human on the one hand, yet that “small” human faith is also entirely out from God.

In Galatians 2:20, the Greek wording is closer to “the faith of the Son of God,” rather than “faith in the son of God.” Paul is clearly presenting Abraham’s faith and Jesus’ faith as the same thing, a faith that we also fully possess. What is the one difference between Jesus as He walked this earth and you and me right now? Jesus knew that God spoke the Truth, and we are just beginning to believe such an incredible and revolutionary thing.

Utter Trust in God. The idea that Jesus had an “in” with God, or some direct connection flowing out from divinity, that we do not have, is absurd, for the Gospel is explicit, Jesus Himself is our “in” with God, our direct connection.

What David saw in Psalm 22 was Jesus as He is, not Jesus as we once imaged Him to be. So when Jesus told Pilate, “You have no power over Me, except what is given you from above,” He meant that, in utter human faith, He placed Himself entirely into, “God, You always keep Me; I belong to You and to no one and nothing else.” Jesus knew the Bible from His childhood, and He received every Gospel Word in the Scriptures as God speaking directly to Him. Jesus knew that God speaks the Truth.

The Meaning of a Life. The single most life-changing thing I have ever written was “The Meaning of a Life” in my autobiography. Until I wrote that, my life was just bouncing around in confusion. After I wrote it, I read it over and over, in wonder at the straight arrow shot that was God speaking to me through all. And only then was I able to know that the God who spoke to Abraham was the same God who spoke to me and in the same way. – This is the faith of Abraham, which, according to Paul, we inherit as his seed.

Understand that I am just processing these things now, for whether it is the gift of God that comes with His personal Voice or the gift of Asperger’s, I never knew thinking more highly of myself because of that Voice. I never imagined anything by it, and I never questioned but that it was God speaking True to me.

All That I Am. This is the same faith in which Jesus walked, the faith of Abraham, the faith of the Son of God. I possess that faith, as do you, because Jesus lives in our hearts. This is the same thing in me towards every Gospel Word. I have always just assumed that each Word is absolute Truth, and that I live only by that Word. I also knew, just like Jesus, that I could neither perform it nor produce it, but only God.

With the final chapter of my life story, “All That I Am,” I intended to place my life in devotion back into God. At the time, however, all I could do was include an unstudied account of the experience of completion through 2022. I am re-writing it now. My devotion back to God is one thing only, that I might take you and many with me inside of Jesus.

My Faith. My faith is the faith of the Son of God inside of me; I live inside the sphere of Jesus’ faith. My faith is also the faith of Abraham, for his faith is the beginning of my story. My faith is larger than the universe, and my faith is the simple story of one who knows that God is telling me the Truth, even as He speaks personally to me.

My faith is specific to each Gospel Word coming to me; my faith receives each Word as the Lord Jesus and as my only definition. My faith is not blind, for I see Jesus clearly living in all glory, personally and for real, inside my heart. My faith knows that I am just like Jesus; my faith knows that I am a son out from God.

My faith enters boldly into all that is God; my faith is confident that I am part of Christ. My faith joins with God my Father to be His pathway into my world. My faith shares Hheart with God as I join God and others together inside the agony of my human soul.

My faith receives my brothers and sisters as Jesus to me. My faith loves them in the same way Jesus loves me. My faith gives myself in trade for their sake. My faith stands firm with Father under all, until all have entered into Christ.

An Expansion of Union. Because of my own limited understanding, I had always seen Galatians 2:20 as an almost isolated verse in the flow of Paul’s contention with the Galatian church. Now I see that everything up to Galatians 2:20 was Paul creating the historical setting for that ruling verse and everything after is then meant to be an expansion of it. Paul seemed to be leaping to entirely other topics in his argument, yet when we make it Christ personal as us, we know that all these things are simply an expansion of our wondrous union with the Lord Jesus shown in 2:20.

We now have two more pages to complete. To “Christ Is Formed in Me” I am adding “My Story,” and in “I Am a Child of Promise,” I am adding “My Inheritance.”

Fellowship of Soul. You see, I have not yet filled in any boxes in this lesson except the statements of faith. I want to write all of them entirely out from this incredible exchange, “this One who loves me, this One who gives Himself in trade for me, for my sake.” And Christ being formed in me is entirely inside my soul, as my own story of self. Christ Jesus was joined utterly with my spirit and my flesh when I was conceived of God, but it is in our fellowship of soul together that Jesus is formed in me.

More than that, however, Paul is not just presenting Christ being formed inside of us, but also his own travail, shared with Jesus, for us, for our sakes. Thus we are seeing another rendition of 1 John 3:16, “And we also set forth our souls for our brothers and sisters.”

Becoming Real. The essence of our Salvation, then, is to change our minds from the story of a self always at war against God to the story of a self always sharing every moment with the Father, that is, to become just like Jesus in the fellowship of our own souls. And of course, we cannot be like Jesus without Jesus, Jesus in Person inside our hearts, and every Word that Jesus is, now the words of our own personal story.

I am, once again, promoting The Jesus Secret II. But of truth, the only way we can think like Jesus is to speak His speaking made personal as ourselves, which is the whole purpose of this text and of Paul’s Gospel. I always wanted to become real. It is in the entwining of my story with Jesus and His with mine that I am become REAL.

My Story. Jesus loves me and gives Himself in trade for me. My story has become His, and His story has become mine. It is by this wondrous fellowship I share with Jesus inside my own soul, inside my thoughts and feelings and desires, that Christ Jesus is formed inside of me. I speak His words, I live inside His faith, I share His Spirit, I live by His life, I connect with our Father through Him. I am become real as my story entwines with His. Yet it takes time for the True meaning of Jesus sent into me to form and develop in my knowing. It takes time for my story to become just like Jesus. I remain always in Jesus; Christ is formed in me.

The Promise to Abraham. Just as the story of our lives begins with Abraham and the hearing of our Father as a personal Voice to us, so the completion of our lives becomes the same inheritance promised to Abraham.

“I Am the Seed of Abraham; I Am a Child of Promise.”

In Genesis, God promised three things to Abraham. God promised Jesus to Abraham, coming through Isaac. God promised that blessing would come upon all ethnic families through Abraham and his Seed. And God promised Abraham the promised land, that is, Christ Community, brethren dwelling together in unity. Yet Paul said that the promise is the gift of the Spirit.

Knowing the Father. Thus we conclude that it is the Spirit that gives Life; it is the Spirit that brings and fulfills all three of the promises of our inheritance. We inherit Jesus alive in our hearts, our All-Connection with God; we inherit the glory of being a blessing to all creation, God coming through, and we inherit a life lived together, the dwelling place of God.

We inherit KNOWING the Father, a Personal God speaking personally to us, inside of us, sharing all. The Gospel of our Salvation is seamless, and it fills the Bible from beginning to end. Every verse sings His praises; every verse joins us with our Father.

My Inheritance. God promised three things to Abraham. God promised Jesus to Abraham, coming through Isaac. God promised that blessing would come upon all ethnic families through Abraham and his Seed. And God promised Abraham the promised land, that is, Christ Community, brethren dwelling together in unity. The blessing of Abraham is mine, the Spirit poured out giving life to all. I inherit from Abraham Jesus alive in my heart, my All-Connection with God; I inherit the glory of being a blessing to all creation, God coming through me into my world, and I inherit a life lived together with my brethren inside of Christ, the promised land, the dwelling place of God, Jerusalem from above.

A Personal Father. It is very important to me, dear reader, that you know two things. First, that from the moment you asked Jesus into your heart, God, your Father, has been part of your life, sharing Himself personally with you, a Personal Voice. Your job is to put Jesus upon yourself, that is, to discover all the ways your Father has made Himself personal to you, in very different ways from how He has been personal to me.

And the second thing is that you know that I believe that a River of Spirit flows out from me to you, carrying the same promise to you, that the God who has spoken personally to me, in fitting ways, through my whole life, will also speak just as personally to you, in ways utterly fitting to you. Know your Father, for He is Personal inside of you.

Reading for Next Time. I just received the proof copy of Our Glorious Salvation, so this week will continue to be devoted to finishing it. For that reason, I will work only on the JS2 pages, rather than include work on the introduction to the JSV.

I had not included enough for the ninth ruling verse from Romans 8, and so I added the page, “I Bring All into Glorious Liberty.” We are completely flipped. The last lesson of Our Glorious Salvation was “Glorious Liberty,” yet that was written entirely out from not knowing anything. We will seek to know a bit more about it next week, and when I write the chapter “Glorious Liberty” in Symmorphy VII: Completion, I might know a little bit about the topic.

We will also be finishing pages in Galatians and Romans.

Let’s Pray Together. “God, our Father, we are confident that You have always shared our lives with us, and that You have spoken so many things to us over the course our lives, things personal to us. And Father, we are confident that You have always spoken the Truth, that the Voice we have known was always You and that Your Word is always Jesus alive in our hearts. Father, we know that our faith, the faith of the Lord Jesus, is well-pleasing to You. We know that through our faith, You have made us Your straight Highway into our world.

“Father, our brothers and sisters all across the earth, Your people, oh God, remain in a “gospel” upon which is forced the knowledge of good and evil. Your people do not know the wondrous Gospel of Life in Whom they already live.

“God, our Father, we devote ourselves utterly to You for their sake. We believe in You; come through us now into Your Church. Let the River of Your Spirit FLOW! The weapons of our warfare are mighty, Father, for You power them with Yourself, through the mighty River of our Devoted Spirit joined with a Pure and True Word.

“Inside of Your Power, Father, inside of Christ Jesus, we cast down all that blocks Your knowledge inside Your people. We open deaf ears and restore sight to blind eyes, that the Jesus written upon their hearts might be read and known by all. Father, right now a Gospel of Life is coming upon all who belong to Jesus alive today. We know it is True because of the authority of Jesus whom You have placed inside of us. We know, God, our Father, that You always answer us.”