42. The Great Final Day
© Daniel Yordy – 2019
It is John 7:37-39, what I have called the third most important verse in the Bible, that shows us the outline of what God means by the fulfillment of the Final Great Day of Tabernacles in our lives and in the life of the Church.
Moreover, in the last day, the great day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus stood {in the moment of complete silence} and shouted loudly, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come towards Me and drink. The one believing into me, as the Scripture has said, “Rivers of living water will overflow.” Moreover, this He said concerning the Spirit, who those having believed into Him were about to receive…
As with all that God speaks there are two parts of the fulfillment of this word. The first part is personal in and through us right now, entirely by faith, whether we see anything or not. The second part is its fulfillment in the fulness of times, when everything appears as it really is. The second level of fulfillment can come only out from the first, out from a people believing that God is telling them the truth, regardless.
Thus we see that the great rivers of living water that are that release of the Spirit to cause all things to be healing and joy and life in all outward appearance and in the knowledge of everyone come out from a Church which has passed through the season of “dwelling in booths.” Her union with Christ is complete, and she is ready for life to swallow up all that is death.
There is no “surprise” in the revelation of Jesus Christ, overwhelming joy, yes, but no insertion of anything unknown. For all that God speaks, she has already believed even when she could not see. To walk by faith is to walk in what is real, and when our eyes are opened to see the substance of all reality, we will see nothing different than what God has already caused us to know simply by the miracle of believing that God is telling us the truth.
The inward substance that changes everything is “Love one another in just the same way that I love you.” The outward appearance that marks the transition of the ages is the resurrection of our bodies.
Regardless of whatever else the knowledge of the glory of the Lord filling the earth as the waters cover the sea might mean, the primary thing that this mighty outflow of Spirit will mean for us is the full enclothing of our physical bodies with the inability to die and of our souls with the inability to decay.
Now, because this book has been primarily an exploration of the third and fourth most important verses in the Bible, rivers of Spirit flowing out and casting down the accuser, I have penciled in two more letters before the conclusion. The first, “Sheltering Roof,” will look at the protection from evil given to all mankind by the Church “before and after” the resurrection. The second, “Rivers Flowing Out” will explore these rivers of Spirit “before and after” the resurrection. These two qualities together, protection and life, are the two parts of God’s command to us to “Subdue.” And through the faith of the Son of God fulfilled in us in full measure, we set creation free.
I found it very interesting, when laying out the points of “Christian thinking” for Knowing Jesus As He Is, that casting down the accuser and rivers of living water found their place in the fulfillment of the Church at the end of the “list.”
Before the resurrection of our bodies, all demons will be gone from the human experience and the falseness of human political government will be broken forever. We know that because Paul said that the last enemy to be defeated is death (1 Corinthians 15).
This letter, then, is about the resurrection of our physical bodies, not our being unclothed, but our physical bodies being swallowed up by life. This experience is a far bigger deal to us than we have ever considered.
You see, the New Testament, that is, Paul, clearly shows us that this event, our bodies transformed into immortality and incorruptibility, marks all that we have travailed with the Spirit all our lives in order to obtain. The resurrection is everything for us. It is the prize; it is the goal.
Consider the term Jesus used, out of his belly [his womb, his innermost being]; it means everything inside the abdominal cavity from the top of the lungs to the bottom of the gut. The word especially includes the womb. It’s not wrong to translate it as the heart; a better term would include heart, womb, and gut all in one word – except we don’t have such a word in English.
And so, as the rivers begin to flow in all fullness out from our heart-womb, what is the first part of creation that they hit? – Our physical bodies.
Three times Paul presented the resurrection of our physical bodies as the immediate and primary goal of our travail as Christian believers together with the Spirit of God, the first time in 2 Corinthians 5, Paul’s most anointed early book, the second time in Romans 8, the capstone of his gospel, and the third time in Philippians 3, his final prison letter.
Have you ever been in a church service in which you spent the time in travail together with the Spirit for the resurrection of your physical bodies? Since your answer is, “No, never,” then be assured, you have not been to church as Paul presented church, and neither have I.
I know firsthand the travail together for the fulfillment of Pentecost. I know even more the travail together for the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement. But Paul simply assumed those two realities already our only experience, and Paul placed our travail together for the fulfillment of the Great Day of Tabernacles as the normal experience of Church.
Let’s put these three passages in front of us. I have never experienced the resurrection, so I have no idea what I’m talking about. What we want is to know what God says so that we might believe it.
And indeed, inside of this reality we groan with great pressure and grief, longing to be clothed with our dwelling-place out of heaven. If indeed also, having been clothed, we will not be found poorly clothed. And so, being inside of this tent, we groan with great pressure of travail and grief, being weighted down, not that we desire to be unclothed [lose our physical bodies] but to be enclothed, that what is dying may be swallowed up, drunk down and consumed by LIFE. The One having now prepared us, that is, having achieved and worked out already, for this same thing is God, having given to us the earnest payment of the Spirit, the security of the whole (2 Corinthians 5:2-5).
Not only that, but even we ourselves, possessing the firstfruit of the Spirit, we also groan inside ourselves, eagerly expecting the placement and setting forth as sons, that is, the redemption of our body (Romans 8:23).
That I might know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, having already been symmorphosed, sharing the same form with His death. For by this manner, I would arrive at my destination into the resurrection out from the dead. Not that I have already obtained that resurrection or have already come to completion; but I am aggressively pursuing it, that I also might seize hold upon that which I also was seized hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers and sisters, I do not reckon myself to have seized hold of the resurrection (yet). One thing, however, forgetting the things behind and reaching towards the things ahead, I aggressively pursue all the details of the target all the way into the reward of the filled-to-the-brim calling of God inside of Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:10-14).
Paul said that he aggressively pursues the resurrection of his body!
Nothing that we desire is found for us in being dead “in heaven.” Everything we long for is found in the resurrection of our bodies. The resurrection of our bodies is the reward of the filled-to-the-brim calling of God.
Now, before we look further at these things, I want to make a point here that is critical to me.
There is a belief that half of God’s creation is “not of God,” that the physical side of heaven/earth, this place where we live, is “contrary to God.” That the passing of time and eating corn on the cob are both “contrary” to living in all the fulness of God. That being “real” humans means spirit/heaven only with no connection to the earth.
I REJECT this wicked concept utterly. God neither knows nor creates evil. Adam as a living soul, with a physical body and a spiritual body fully merged together, was the epitome and crowning point of God’s wondrous creation.
Humans without earth are not humans at all. Of course, when I say, “earth,” I am including all other planets upon which God might breathe a heaven through all the ages to come.
Heaven and earth are one place, with the qualities of each fully merged together in every conceivable way. DEATH is the divorce of heaven and earth, their splitting apart into a false dichotomy. LIFE is their marriage back together in full.
That’s our job – LIFE!
Yes, the earth as we know it now will pass away by the birthing of a new earth, but so will heaven, in just the same way and in the same moment. And that birthing of a new heaven and a new earth begins with the resurrection of our physical bodies.
Let’s define that resurrection. The resurrection means the full and permanent reunion of our heavenly spirits with our earthly bodies. Our new bodies will not be “heavenly,” that is, of heavenly substance; they will be earthly fully imbued with heaven in all seeing and experience. They will be made of physical atoms, just as they are now, but atoms infused utterly and permanently with the full breath of the heavens.
Physical atoms are OF GOD. Time is OF GOD. Laughter and dancing and joy are OF GOD.
“Floating on clouds in a realm without time” is the fantasy of unbelief, something God does not know.
The break between heaven and earth, caused by the contract Adam and the serpent made together, has been as hard on heaven as it has been on earth. Heaven is as wounded as earth is. Heaven is in as much need of healing as earth is.
Let me also put this thought in front of you. My final chapter is “Our Present Task.” I can tell you right now that our present task is being the Mercy Seat together with our Father, of calling all things into goodness.
Heaven and earth were stricken both at the same time as ice cold wedges were driven all through their connections together – BECAUSE Adam refused this same task appointed to mankind by God.
Father and us together will heal that great breach BECAUSE we together take on the job God created us for, to synergeo with Father in turning all things towards goodness. The healing of that breach is called the resurrection out from the dead.
The expression of our travail in Romans 8 is the most succinct because Paul knew he was writing the capstone of his gospel and he disciplined himself in a way that was not his typical writing style. – Not only that, but even we ourselves, possessing the firstfruit of the Spirit, we also groan inside ourselves, eagerly expecting the placement and setting forth as sons, that is, the redemption of our body.
Just as with everything else of God in our experience, this “placement and setting forth as sons,” has two parts. The first part is our faith now, and the second part is the full transformation of all outward appearance. What I am driving at is the great importance of this “before and after” connection.
And so right now, we walk in all that the birthing of the “manchild seized into God and into His throne” might mean – except we do so through faith and not by sight. Thus we synergeo with Father as His Mercy Seat in utter confidence that we are fully engaged with that which is REAL, whether we see any changes outwardly or not.
Several letters ago I mentioned a great and immediate difficulty for which my family and I were believing God together for a release. Well that release just came, miraculously, gloriously, and completely. We are utterly astonished, yet we cannot be surprised, for is this not what we believed even when we could not see?
God does what He says He is.
What I want us to see is that the fulfillment of that moment when we are sealed forever into “Love one another in just the same way that I love you,” that moment when the knowledge of God is made visible through us to all creation, that is, the birthing of the manchild made visible to all, and that moment of the fulfillment of the final Great Day of Tabernacles, is the moment when our physical bodies are swallowed by life. These are all differing ways of describing the same thing in the same moment.
Everything in our lives inside this present in-part age is focused towards this one moment. Everything flowing out from our lives inside the Age of Tabernacles comes out from this one transformation.
The resurrection is everything.
Here is what Paul said about the resurrection. – I am aggressively pursuing the resurrection, that I also might seize hold upon it.
This statement makes ZERO sense inside any part of Nicene Christianity, and it is almost completely ignored by most “theologies.” This statement makes perfect sense inside the gospel of Christ our life that I teach.
And Paul also said this. – We groan with great pressure of travail and grief… to be enclothed, that what is dying may be swallowed up by LIFE. The One having now prepared us for this same thing is God.
Every cry you have ever cried, every longing that has ever burned within you, every agony you have ever endured, is all about one thing, that your physical body might be enclothed with life. It’s what you want.
What do you want for yourself? You want one thing – the resurrection of your physical body.
If Paul is telling us the truth, that our whole lives have been consumed with the desire for our bodies to be swallowed up by LIFE, then we must KNOW the importance of this one experience to God, to us, to heaven, and to earth.
You can be sure of this. The resurrection of your physical body is far more important to God than to anyone else, because He wins the desire of His heart, to be seen and known by all, only through that happening. And it is of overwhelming importance to everything inside of heaven and earth. Paul said that all creation is eagerly waiting, with bated breath, for this one experience that must happen to us.
You see, because the rivers of life hit our bodies first, when all creation sees our transformation, they know that they must be next. Their transformation comes only out from ours.
Our belonging that is, our inclusion in God’s ecosystem, exists right now active in the heavens, that is, in the realms of spirit, out from which we continuously and eagerly welcome our Savior [and Life], the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the outer appearance of our lowly individual physical bodies, as we are symmorphosed with [sharing the same form with] His entire glorious Body [the Church], down to the finest details of the Energeia, the mighty continuous and swirling action of His ability to cause ALL [by symmorphy] to be subject to Himself (Philippians 3:20-21).
Jesus proven faithful and true.
The full and visible marriage of heaven and earth.
Having set out this great teaching and example of Paul in the fulfillment of his gospel, I want to place it back into our pattern of the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles.
We can picture the fulfillment of Tabernacles in this way. God in –> our gathering together –> God out –> all the ages to come.
Or again – God invisible and unknown, now known by His firstfruits –> our gathering together as the Church –> God made visible and known as He is to all –> all the ages to come.
Infilling –> God among –> outflowing –>.
In-between the infilling and the outflowing is the Church together, Christ Community.
This is a simple pattern, easy to understand and to visualize, and utterly profound.
The pattern of the Feast of Tabernacles rules the closing out of this present age and the birthing of the Age of Tabernacles.
Knowing Father-Love as all our connections together à loving one another as God among us à all creation rushing into a Love now made visible to all à.
This is the gospel; it is the normal Christian life.
In one day we know Father-Love as all our connections together. In one day we know Love now made visible to all. But the six days in-between are devoted to what everything is all about – loving one another as God among us.
And what makes it Jesus proven faithful and true is that we love one another as God among us BEFORE there is any outward visible change.
This is my entire contention and argument all the way through all that I have written.
The resurrection of our bodies is something we will experience together as local Communities of Christ. It is the supreme Community experience.
Now, since I have never been resurrected, it is a topic which I am unable to lay out for you in detail. However, I am just starting 1 Corinthians in The Jesus Secret II. The final statement of faith for this section is “I Enclothe Myself With The Inability To Die.” Since I won’t get to that section before finishing this letter, I will simply include here the confessions of faith from 1 Corinthians 15.
But first, consider James’s injunction – You don’t have because you don’t ask, and when you ask, you ask for the wrong things.
Paul makes it clear that the primary “right thing” for us to ask God for is the resurrection of our bodies. In fact, the worship services inside the fulfillment of the days of dwelling in booths will include a very large travail and expectation for the experience of the resurrection, coming upon us now.
Here is the word of the Lord. – I say this now, brothers and sisters, that the kingdom of God is not able to inherit flesh and blood. Nor does the inability to decay inherit decay. Look and see, I tell you a mystery. We will not all die; we all, however, will be changed –in an instant, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised unable to decay, and we will be changed. For it is necessary for this decaying to put on, to enclothe itself with the inability to decay; and this dying to put on, to enclothe itself with the inability to die. Now when the decaying shall have put upon itself the inability to decay and when the dying shall have put upon itself the inability to die, then the word having been written will become, “Death has been swallowed up into and eliminated by victory” (Isaiah 25:8).
Where of you, O death, is the victory? Where of you, O death, is the sting?” (Hosea 13:14). The sting of death is sin; and the power of sin is the law. To God be thanks, however, the One giving us the victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding inside of the work of the Lord, being fully aware that your toil is not without purpose inside of the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:50-58).
The purpose of our toil is victory over death.
Let’s pray together according to God’s will.
“Father, the desire of Your heart and ours is the resurrection of our bodies in a most glorious experience together, for it is this one thing that is the purpose of our Covenant together, that we possess Your life and that You possess our bodies, that You, Father, are able to be seen and known by all through us together forever. Father, You say that we must enclothe ourselves with the inability to die and with the inability to decay, that is, to enclothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Father, apart from You we can do nothing, and especially this injunction of LIFE. Therefore we ask You, Father, in full expectation of faith, that You would fulfill this word in our lives as the Lord Jesus Christ, that You would enclothe us, now and together, with the inability to decay and with the inability to die, that You would swallow up our physical bodies with LIFE.
“Father we know that You have prepared us for this very purpose. Therefore, in that knowing and in that expectation, and in our travail together, we believe that we have received all that we ask. Father, we believe You, that we have enclothed ourselves together with the inability to decay. Father, we believe You, that we have enclothed ourselves together with the inability to die. Father, we believe You, that we have enclothed ourselves together with the Lord Jesus Christ.
“And from this moment forward, Father, though we continue in travail inside all expectation of faith, yet we confess with all joy that we are fully clothed with LIFE. For this is the grace to come, come upon us now, to walk in full resurrection LIFE before our change comes, so that when it comes, it’s nothing more than a visible expression of the obvious.
“Father, we give You thanks that Your Word is True and that You do what You are.”
Now, let us speak Christ our only life.
- I enclothe myself with the inability to die.
- By the grace of God I am what I am; what I am as I find myself to be is entirely by the grace and presence of God inside of me.
- The grace of God toils utterly together with me more abundantly.
- The resurrection of the dead, LIFE, comes through me.
- I set my focus on the end of God’s purpose; which is all things restored – God all inside of all.
- God is all in me.
- Resurrection is sown inside my weakness and raised inside Christ’s power.
- As Jesus is now, so am I; I am just like Him. I bear the image of the heavenly Jesus.
- I will not die, but I will be changed. As the dead are raised unable to decay, so I will be changed.
- I put on and enclothe myself with the inability to decay; I put on and enclothe myself with the inability to die.
- I possess Victory over death given to me by God through Jesus. Victory over death is mine.
- I am steadfast and immovable; I always abound inside the work of the Lord.
But right now, we are looking towards the most exciting Church services ever to be held inside this in-part Church age, services in which we together, knowing God as all our connections together, loving one another with pure hearts fervently, utterly together in mind and soul, travail together in eager anticipation for this one fulfillment of all Desire.
The resurrection of our bodies inside the release of all rivers flowing out setting creation free, the Great Final Day of Tabernacles.