31. No One Left in Her

© Daniel Yordy – 2019

What is one of the most amazingly overwhelming things we find when we enter into Jesus’ soul to discover ourselves already there?

We find, to our deepest joy and relief, that we are just like Jesus, and that if God could dwell inside of His weak and incapable Son, reconciling the world to Himself, God is well able to do the same with us.

Yet, at the same time, Jesus Himself is no longer in that form of weakness; now, in the power of His Word by which He sustains all things, all here now and Personal in us, He is fully able to be all completion inside our own present human weakness.

We have no need in ourselves to be “the connection with God.” Jesus is already that full Connection, now the only life we are.

In this letter we are referencing Chapter 17 and 18 in Revelation, that is, the Great Prostitute.

“Come out of her My people, so that you may not have fellowship together with her sins and so that you may not receive out of her afflictions and beatings” (Revelation 18:4).

All Christians on this earth are inside of this harlot, including you and me, that is why we must come out of her. I wrote my view of this harlot in Through Eyes of Fire, Chapter 24 “Two Women or One?” Please take the time to read it if you have not. My position now is unchanged.

As I read through it, I have to prevent myself from copying and pasting into this letter. Nonetheless, I want to approach this topic from a different viewpoint here.

Now, I wrote the last letter, “Setting Forth Our Souls,” a few weeks ago. I have been busy working on other things and felt no unction to continue here. Because I sent a copy of Symmorphy IV: Covenant to a reader, I decided to read it as well. At the same time, if I read for an hour or so when I awake sleepless in the middle of the night, I am able to go back to sleep, because my mind is at rest inside my Father.

Last night, I read Lessons 18.3 Patterns of Light and 19.1 True Incense and I understood this letter and why it’s been on a back burner until now. I was speaking of seeing through eyes of fire – “It is the FIRE of the seeing of Jesus through us that transforms everything out from the old creation and into the New.”

Look at the last section of Revelation 18, sub-titled “The Finality of Babylon’s Fall.” “Thus with violence the great city Babylon shall be cast down, and shall not be found any longer” (Revelation 18:21). This proclamation is then followed by a list of all those types of people that shall not be found in her anymore.

Now, this has always been read from the point of view of someone wandering around this shattered, wicked place and finding only ruin and the absence of human life. That is NOT our point of view. More than that, if the place contains no people, if it is not found any longer, how could anyone be in it wandering around?

But let’s transfer the meaning of this false city, Babylon and Confusion, into the entirety of the outward appearance of the old creation. Now we are seeing through a different set of eyes, for now we see that NO ONE remains inside this false appearance, there is no one left in her.

Our question is – how does that happen?

As I was reading through Symmorphy IV: Covenant, I saw that my desire to set forth the practice of those who block God’s people from entering into the Holy of Holies, to expose it clearly, was turned by the Lord at that time. I can see now that I did not have the context then in order to write such an exposure inside of a heart of redemption.

That context did come when I wrote Set My People Free, in the chapter titled “The Preachers.” I have the print copy now in hand and read it through on Wednesday when it came. This was the most difficult book I have written, and I am still too close to it to assess it properly. There is a fire that burns in it, a consuming fire, almost, yet I know that the fire is God, though it’s not something I want to spend long in. I have no idea what impact it would have on someone reading it who has never considered these things.

Consider the four horsemen trodding upon the hearts of God’s people. Arrogance – Contempt – False Measurement – Death. Indeed, this is the exact path of Adam – followed by the demon of refusing to step out into the light with the demons of hiding behind fakery and accusing everyone of everything. That is an exact description of Adam’s fall into awfulness.

These are called “the four horsemen of the apocalypse,” but that is a false rendering, for that point of view assumes that they begin their work only after they are broken away. No, they have been operating all along; the apocalypse, the unveiling, is when they are cast off. We could call them “the four horsemen of deception,” or “the four horsemen of prevention,” but somehow, I haven’t found the right ring in the wording. – Maybe it should be “the four horsemen of abuse.”

My concern here is the first two – Arrogance and Contempt, for these are the cause of Adam and all Christians reaching for a false measurement resulting in the entrance and exaltation of death. Arrogance and Contempt are the rulers of a false veil, a veil, that God says is no longer there.

Think of that. I did not realize, until reading through Symmorphy IV: Covenant again the last few days, that to those sitting upon the Mercy Seat, the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place are all one room, a room 15 feet wide and 45 feet long containing all five pieces of furniture. Only those remaining in the Holy Place beyond God’s season, see it still as two rooms. Something inside of them continues to erect a veil that God has removed.

That something is, in the end, arrogance and contempt.

Why is it that all these deeper truth preachers, including Augustine, look long and clearly into the Holy of Holies, understanding it fully, and then turn their backs on such a thing, turning God’s people into a fake “struggle against sin” instead of living inside of God?

The problem with living only inside of God is that you have to take everyone else in with you. For if you are already fully transferred out of darkness and into light, out of death and into life, out of lostness and into all Salvation, then that means that all these other stupid, carnal, lazy, fleshy, idiotic, stumbling, drunken, lousy Christians are as well.

If Jesus IS living as you, then He IS living as all who belong to Him just as much.

And that is the great stumbling stone and rock of offense.

Contempt.

Contempt is the female side of Arrogance, but it is Contempt that slits people’s throats.

To be like Jesus is to lay down your life in the agony of travail and in gentle regard for the sake of what you perceive to be the most worthless people on earth – “fake,” hypocritical, shallow, and abusive Christians.

Now, if you will go back to the beginning of these letters, you will see this assumption set forth all the way through, that if Jesus lives as me, then He also must live as every other person who belongs to Him, regardless. And you will see the assertion that if Christ lives in my heart, then utter yearning over His Bride also lives inside my heart, whether I feel it or not.

This was always a given to me, and it was very confusing to me when I found that some of my readers who had come along close with me for a season did not share that same view.

They could NOT enter into union with Christ because they would NOT take all these worthless and fleshy Christians into the same place with them.

Why do the Christian souls hiding out under the altar in Revelation 6 refuse to enter into the Holiest? Look at their words – Contempt. They will not enter because, like Jonah, they want to see God exclude all those people whom they despise.

I’ve also been reading my book, The Feast of Tabernacles. (When I send some of my books to a new reader, I sometimes am so intrigued with what they might be reading, that I have to read those books again myself just to see.) I can see that, as I wrote that book in 2014, before I had even conceived of the Symmorphy texts, I was still grappling with this same issue of the Day of Atonement and what it means for us. –  Who will open the Doors of Tabernacles for the many?

The last letter, “Setting Forth Our Souls,” gives us the clearest answer yet.

I want to explore a little more the meaning of this Contempt before finishing this letter with our travail for the sake of all who belong to Jesus. As I said, Contempt is the “female” side of Arrogance – we could also call her “Babylon, the Mother of Harlots,” the enslaving of the souls of men.

Let’s begin with Jesus’ parables. Two in particular deal with this present issue resting upon us, the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement that all of God’s people might enter into all the fullness of living together only inside of God filling them full to overflowing.

The first is the Parable of the Great Supper, in Luke 14:16-24, also called the Parable of the Wedding Feast in Matthew 22:2-14. The parable is long and well-known to you, so I will not include it all here. You might want to read them through for yourself, however.

 First note that the guests have long held the invitation. (Matthew is a bit expressive, so let’s stay with Luke’s account.) When the servant went out to say that the time is now, they already possessed the full invitation. For our purposes, that means they were already born again and filled with the Spirit. Why did they not go running into the great feast – the Feast of Tabernacles?

In this parable, Jesus suggests that they were too interested in their present life to waste their time living inside of God. But there is a deeper underlying reason, which we will see in a second parable. It’s as if these invited guests knew that for them to enter into the feast, they would have to bring with them all the worthless people that the Master intended also to invite to the feast at the last minute. – “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’

Or as Paul put it – God has chosen the foolish things of the world… and God has chosen the weak things of the world… and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are (1 Corinthians 1:27-28 – reduced).

The fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles, millions of people living together inside of all the fullness of God, will include the most worthless people on this planet. That’s so wonderful, for that reality of God has given you and me the opportunity to sneak in first, with David the pirate, into a place where we clearly do not belong and where we sit down inside of that which we have not earned.

Then consider the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard in Matthew 20:1-16, an even longer parable. This was the parable that haunted me when I left the fellowship of Christian communities of which I had been a part for many years, and it was a part of my decision to leave.

Those who labored long inside of “the dealings of God,” were filled with contempt when they saw the master giving the same reward to these who had NOT earned it, in their estimation. These are the same as those who had refused to come to the feast even though they had held the invitation for some time.

What kind of a God saves worthless people and fills them with all of His glory, people who have done nothing to earn His favor?

Contempt.

I now understand why the brethren in that fellowship continue living right next to the Holiest, singing about it, preaching about the wonders inside – AND REFUSING to enter.

No one can enter the Holiest, sit down upon the Mercy Seat, and become the revelation of Father through faith alone without also taking all who belong to Jesus with them inside their hearts, regardless of all their lameness and their blindness, their poverty and their brokenness.

They know this instinctively. – It is contempt, then, that keeps them out. And in remaining outside of the Holiest because of contempt, they turn and beat God’s people for “not measuring up” to their arrogant view, not of Christ, but of themselves, of their own hard self-rightness. This is the way of Death, right next to, but refusing the Way into Life, that is, refusing to be the very flesh of Christ as life laid down and love poured out.

Next, I am thinking of two elders with whom I had close relationship from the beginning of my community experience at Graham River Farm. Both have since left that fellowship, but one has connected with Preston Eby since. The other one, who had been a mighty preacher in move conventions, anointed with power, said to the first – “If God is going to ‘save everybody,’ then I want nothing to do with such a God.” – Contempt.

The concept of “easy grace” was brought up in a conversation I had recently. The speaker, of course, was contemptuous of such a thing. But this fresh awareness of such an accusation made me think through the logic underneath such a “doctrinal” position, a position that most Christians hold. What is the guy really saying?

And, of course, Pastor Joel Osteen is charged with the crime of teaching “easy grace.”

There are only two options, of course, the same two options before Adam, before every human since, but especially before every Christian. Either we enter into all of God freely through faith, or we work our way into earning such a prize.

If grace is not free and “easy,” how can it be God? If living inside of God comes as a payment for correct human performance, then who could ever live inside of God?

BUT – that is not the real underlying thinking behind those who condemn “easy grace.”

First, they are assuming that “I am correct,” that is, “God is with me.” And the reasoning behind such an assumption is that they “measure up” because they are “correct.” Thus, it’s an easy thing for them to assume that they themselves “earn” the grace of God. – God is obviously on my side in this great contest of “prize, prize, who gets the prize.”

But such arrogance is only in the background, naturally assumed and therefore not front and center in importance. What is important in the condemnation of “easy grace” is that such a thing allows all those CONTEMTIBLE and fleshy Christians who do not go to my church and who do NOT measure up to my qualifications, to run around imagining that they are enjoying the Salvation of God! And “I-I-I-I-I” forbid such a thing!

Arrogance and Contempt are very human qualities, AND they are very demonic qualities.

Please understand that putting in front of people whom I do not know the seven chapters of difficulty in Set My People Free is the hardest for me of those things I have written and sent out. They contain an awfulness, as does this letter, that I typically bounce away from in the joy of sharing Christ with you. Yet this part of the sword of fire turning in every direction is most necessary; I know that.

Let’s turn back, now, to this thing you and I have done, this most revolutionary action in all the history of mankind. We have entered into the Holiest, we have turned around, and we have sat ourselves down upon the throne of heaven entirely through faith and against all the wails of judgment screaming against us.

But we have done something far more radical than that. We have taken all our brethren with us inside our hearts, regardless of who they are or where they are living.

There is no one left for Babylon. No one remains a victim of Contempt.

Let me set before you one whom I know has EVERY reason not to forgive a “Christian” preacher of unbelievable abuse, one who did more than most, not only to drive beloved others away from living inside of Jesus, but then who beat them with whips and taught them to beat each other with whips more than – well, dear Jesus – and all inside the Altar of Incense, inside the Holy things of God, right next to the Holiest.

How do we take such a one inside our hearts into the Holiest, and there release that one in Mercy together with God entirely free from us? This is entirely beyond us; it is not something I would ever ask of anyone. Only one thing could inspire anyone to love such a wicked abuser and to see them through eyes of fire, pure and holy and free inside of God, and that one thing is – for Father’s sake.

By this we have known Love, for He set forth His soul for us, and we also are committed to setting forth our souls for the sake of our brothers and sisters.

The one who condemns grace given freely to the many is the one least deserving of any grace at all. Yet Jesus died even for such men; the ones standing in front of the cross jeering and mocking Him into death.

Therefore, from now on, we do not perceive or identify anyone according to the details of the flesh. …Therefore, if anyone is inside of Christ, he is a new creation. The old things are already gone; look and see, the new has already become. And all things are out of God, the One who has already reconciled and reconnected us to Himself through Christ, and has given to us the ministry or service of reconciliation and reconnection, how that God was inside of Christ reconciling and reconnecting the world or cosmos to Himself, not counting to them their false steps or falling away, that is, their disconnection from God, and [this same God] has set forth and placed inside of us the Word of reconciliation and reconnection with God.

For the sake of Christ, therefore, we are ambassadors as God Himself encouraging and inviting through us. We deeply desire for the sake of Christ: Be reconciled, connect yourself back [through faith] to God. For He made the One who never once knew any disconnection from God, to take upon and into Himself that disconnect for us, for our sakes, so that we might become the just innocence of God inside of Him (2 Corinthians 5:16-21).

I had to include most of this passage, it is so relevant to us right now.

We are not that reconnection, Jesus is. Nonetheless, Jesus shares His glory with us through sharing that same reconnection with us as we also set forth our souls for our brothers and sisters. This is sharing Hheart with God.

I am speaking of travail.

Deliverance, that is, casting down the false demons abusing God’s Church, is not the real issue. It must happen, yes, but the real issue is the awakening of the hearts of many out from their own arrogance and contempt and into being like Jesus.

This is the greatest miracle, the proving of Jesus faithful and true, the travail of bringing forth LIFE out from weakness in the face of all contempt and accusation.

This is what God has taught us to be and to do.

No one is left in her because you and I have taken all of them inside our hearts into the New Creation, into God all inside of all.

That seems a closing point, but I do want to open a little further our travail for the sake of all who belong to Jesus.

Grace is NOT free, but all the cost of grace is borne inside the Heart of our Father, and we, finding ourselves only there, share with Him the travail of that grace. We are the Ark of the Covenant. We sit upon the Mercy Seat, and judgment is committed to us.

If, on the other hand, we hope for what we do not see, we expect it eagerly through steadfastness. In the same way, the Spirit also joins as help together with our weakness; for we are not aware of the things that are necessary for us to pray, but the Spirit personally brings us in line with Father for the sake of others, with inexpressible groanings (Romans 8:25-26).

From the time I was nine years old, when the shadow of Asperger’s came over me, I have lived with a deep sense of angst inside of me. I do not remember it specifically prior to around age 12, but I do from then on. I have always called it an “angst,” but I know that it contained an element of Spirit inside of it. It was not continuous, but common; I would call it now a deep sense of travail, an inexpressible groaning.

That sense of groaning, as I think about it now, even during my teenage years of darkness, was always towards the heavens and towards Christian community. Whatever I am doing outwardly, then, inwardly I am speaking in tongues, even sub-consciously. I may be playing Solitaire on my computer to ease my mind (which is always racing) or even watching a TV show and still, underneath there is a deep inexpressible travail in a subconscious speaking in tongues, that is, a reaching out in the Spirit for something HOLY to come.

More than that, it is an angst that is always triggered by any view of injustice or hurt, a weeping inside, a bearing of the pain. I never watch movies about injustice inside of African slavery because the sense of travail is just too much for me. I remember when I was a boy, returning to our summer camp in a bus from a visit to the Pacific shore, sitting next to another boy, an African boy in a state and a church where there were simply no Africans at that time. I knew nothing at all about them. This boy was experiencing great pains from cramps in his muscles. He found relief by gripping my knee tightly. I was more than willing to allow him such relief; something inside of me went out over him. The counselor made comment to me later how unusual it was for him to see a twelve-year-old boy bearing so, with patience, the pain of another.

[Please, don't imagine that I was some sort of "saintly" little boy. I was anything but. What I am saying, rather, is that the outward appearance of anyone CANNOT tell us the real happening deep inside of them deep inside of God.]

I’ve never thought much of this until recently; it’s just a common part of my makeup since I was a child and I have never had reason to give it any meaning. Nonetheless, over the last few weeks, the Lord has been introducing to me a different understanding.

That understanding is that my whole life has been the Spirit joining as help together with my weakness, bringing me in line with Father with inexpressible groanings. That does not make me special; I am convinced that the same Spirit has been doing the same thing with you all your life, in similar or even in very different ways.

And so I have asked myself the question – Is the fruit of the understanding of the Word that seems just to flow out the moment I start typing, is that the fruit of fifty years of a travail of the Spirit with me, a travail of which I was hardly aware or towards which I have assigned little significance?

Then, the questions that follow are – what more fruit will come out from the travail of our lives together? And – How is it that there was a travail towards Christian Community even when I was a child when I did not know there was any such thing?

I am saying this because there is no such thing as the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles in the life of the Church apart from Christian Community springing up in many different forms all across the earth. And there is no such thing as true Christ Community apart from the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles.

The first Day of Tabernacles is supposed to be the next letter, and I intend to hit that topic full blast. Nonetheless, I find in me yet an empty space between this letter and that, a great chasm that we must leap over with two more letters before we can find ourselves inside of the Feast of Joy.