29. A Place Prepared

© Daniel Yordy – 2019

I have set before us a picture of 100 million Christians entering into all the fullness of Christ revealed through them over the course of the next ten years. Then, I have shown that visions and prophecies are not given to us to “predict the future,” but rather, to understand the present.

It appears, on the surface, that I am contradicting myself. In actuality, I have no ability whatever to know what the next ten years might hold. I am using the picture of the Church becoming fully victorious over a short time for the same purpose that God gives us the pictures of John’s vision – and that is to give us a visual understanding of the application and fulfillment of the gospel – so that we might BELIEVE.

God has placed and set forth in the church, first apostles, secondly prophets (1 Corinthians 12:28).

The apostolic word ALWAYS comes first. The prophetic word or vision comes only to confirm the apostolic word and to give it a sense of practical fulfillment. Never does the prophetic word rule over the apostolic word nor even stand by itself as a “word from God.”

Here is an apostolic word – And we also are committed to setting forth our souls for our brothers and sisters (1 John 3:16). The prophetic vision, then, of Revelation 11, with “the two witnesses being killed,” a vision that came only a few months after John had written the apostolic word, cannot be anything other than a visual representation to us of the truth of our reality established first by the apostolic.

Revelation 11 cannot rule over or add to or stand alone against 1 John 3:16; rather, it gives us the picture we need to make AND WE ALSO real for us in the fullness of times and as the final proof of Jesus Christ.

This book is titled, “The River of Life.” That river of life as it flows out to transform the outward appearance of everything, swallowing up everything found in appearance as a universe of death into the appearance of a universe of life, that river flows out of the fulfillment in full of the Feast of Tabernacles in the life of the Church on this earth.

Now, a couple of weeks ago, I wrote a different Chapter 29, titled “Building the Wall.” The concept was good, I was soaring in the Spirit, rolling along to a practical view of what on earth it might mean for millions of believers in Jesus to enter quickly into the marriage feast of the revelation of Jesus Christ. Yet when I had finished writing it, I found nothing of value in it, nor was there the connection we need to what the Feast of Tabernacles really is all about.

For that reason, I did what I always do in such situations, I turned and focused on other things and let it sit, slowly mulling over how this whole approach to Tabernacles needed to be quite different.

And God did as He always does in such situations, after planting both His word and my experiences with others into my mind, He opened my heart in the middle of the night to see His approach to Tabernacles and how I must share it with you.

There is the story of Gideon, how all Israel defeated their enemies, but only after Gideon and his 300 had the enemy running, not by their own might, but by the sounding of the trumpets. This story gives us one more view of the Day of Atonement and the eagle rescuing God’s people into the place prepared.

There is the story of Nehemiah, building a wall of protection around Jerusalem, giving us a view of the preparing of a place for God’s people and our being ready and able in the day of His power.

There is the story of Noah, building an Ark for the saving of the new world to come, keeping everything of that new world safe inside the destruction of the old. This is an important picture, one that we do not need to elaborate on, but which I would like you to keep firmly in your mind.

Noah’s Ark is the strongest picture of “a place prepared for her.”

The Hebrew word for the Ark is tebah: a box, chest, “probably of foreign origin” (I would assume early Chaldean, which is proto-Hebrew). It is the word also used for the basket in which Moses was placed.

The Hebrew word for Ark of the Covenant is aron: a chest, ark, “of uncertain derivation.” This word is also translated as the “coffin” that carried Joseph out of Egypt and twice as a “chest” containing money, etc.

These two words in the Hebrew text, coming from differing and uncertain origins can be best explained by a similar thing in English – “sick” and “ill.” You can say either one, and no one thinks anything different, for they are the same. The first is Anglo-Saxon and the second is Danish, from the Viking invasion.

Greek, being a more unified language, has the exact same word for both the Ark of Noah and the Ark of the Covenant – kibótos: a wooden box.

 I am justified, I believe, in setting before you the assertion that this “place prepared” is pictured to us by both the Ark of Noah and the Ark of the Covenant, that is, by a very wooden box. Nonetheless, the Ark of Noah represents the Church as the Community of Christ, the full expression of His proof in the earth, and the Ark of the Covenant represents our hearts.

Both together show us this “place prepared.”

I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you [inside of Father], then I am already coming and will receive you towards Myself, that where I AM, you might also BE. – In that Day you will know that I AM inside of the Father – and you inside of Me and I inside of you (John 14).

This “place prepared” is John 14:20 on the inside and the Church, which is His Body, the fullness of Jesus who fills all inside of all on the outside. It is the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles that gives us such a Church, that is, such a place.

Here is another view of this same place. – Inside of Whom [inside of Jesus] the whole building, being fitted together, is increasing into a temple, holy inside the Lord, inside of Whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God inside all the sphere of Spirit (Ephesians 2:22).

Christ Community, typified by the Ark of Noah, is the outer form and shape of this great revelation of Jesus Christ, proven faithful and true. Our hearts, typified by the Ark of the Covenant, is the inner source of everything that is outward.

This letter is about our hearts as that place prepared.

Whatever the outward form of the Church might be in actual human experience and over any specific period of time, if there is no heart out from which that outward appearance can come, then there can be no revelation of Jesus Christ, no proof that He is faithful and true.

Our hearts, one Heart shared together with Father and with one another, IS the place prepared that alone will carry God’s people through times of great difficulty and into the birthing of a new world, a universe of life.

Christ Jesus lives inside of our hearts through faith – It is fully made visible that we ARE a letter of Christ, having already been written with the Spirit of the living God inside the tablets of our hearts of flesh.

I want to take you and me together into an understanding of this Hheart beating in our chests, what it really is and means, far deeper than we have ever gone before. And because what I saw in the night by word and by present experience was so wondrous and so interwoven, all I can do in one letter is give the outer shape of this wondrous treasure inside of us. For that reason, the remaining chapters of this text, as we look at how God fulfills the gospel in His Church as the Feast of Tabernacles, will be shaped entirely by this Hheart we are seeking to know.

Let this same “mind” [phroneo] be in you that was also in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5). – Let this gut-level manner of thinking [the story you tell yourself about yourself] be inside of you, the exact same gut-level manner of thinking that was inside of Christ Jesus.

We possess the mind [nous] of Christ – the mind of Christ belongs to us (1 Corinthians 2:16), but not separate from Jesus, rather He in us, sharing the same mind together.

These are two different “minds,” phroneo and nous, not as opposing minds in the sense of being double-minded, but rather in our human construction, the thinking of the gut undergirding the heart and the thinking of the brain. As Christ Jesus is our only story of self, so these two places of thinking work always in perfect harmony together. In fact, it is the speaking of our mouth that enables them to be in harmony, the rudder that steers our ship, as James said.

Nonetheless, the gut mind is always more important, for it is the thinking of the heart. As Solomon said, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”

If Christ Jesus becomes visible to us, we will be just exactly like Him, because we will be seeing Him as He is (1 John 3:2).

I want to open up to you and me together and take us deeper than we have ever gone before into “we ARE just exactly like Him,” sharing Hheart with God.

It is safe, now, for us to take this journey BECAUSE all thought that we are some sort of “independent sons of God,” “like Christ” on our own, separate from the Person of Jesus, is utterly abhorrent to us. It is the very idolatry from which we FLEE.

It is Jesus in Person alive inside of us Who alone makes us to be just exactly like Him.
Let this exact same gut-level manner of thinking be inside of you that was inside of Christ Jesus, who, existing [as a Man, our pattern as humans] in the form of God [that is, all here now and Personal in us] thought in His gut [in the essence of His inward story] that being equal in substance with God was not something to actively hold (Philippians 2:5-7).

Think in your gut that you are “equal in substance” with God.

It is an extraordinary thing that the gospel of the serpent has turned the normal Christian life, full submission to God as God, coming always out of His Substance, into the epitome of rebellion and blasphemy and turned the arrogance of self-worship, “I am my own source; I am responsible for myself,” into the normal Christian life – “a sinner” taken to heaven, even though he ought to be thrown into hell.

For me to know in my gut that I am equal in substance with God MEANS to know and to walk in the full consciousness that every part of me and every part of my way is coming only out from the Pro-Knowing of my Father through the good speaking of Jesus.

I am NOT my own source; I am not my own “god.”

Now I want to take us further into what Jesus was inside Himself from Gethsemane to the Resurrection than we have ever gone before. I want to take us into Jesus’ own bubble of self. We not only have every right to do this, but we must, for, according to Paul’s gospel, we WERE there, in person and for real, inside His very bubble of self through every step.

And the gut-level manner of thinking going on inside of Jesus then IS this same gut-level manner of thinking Paul says should be inside of us now – and it can be BECAUSE the same Jesus inside of whose bubble of self we entered, there in Gethsemane, is right now inside of our bubble of self in all that He is.

To say, “Christ lives inside of my heart through faith,” is to say, “I am the incarnation of Father God.” For Father is inside of Christ inside of me, reconciling the world to Himself.

From the moment Jesus rose to His feet in Gethsemane, His Heart was our Ark of Noah, AND our Ark of Covenant, because you and I were, literally and substantially, carried inside that Heart, all the way through the ruin and destruction of the entire old creation and into the birthing of the New.

AND WE ALSO are now that same Hheart, with Jesus, carrying our brethren all the way through their not-knowing into the full knowledge of all the glory of their present Salvation.

Now, there was another fellow who shared Hheart with God who also went, himself, into Jesus’ bubble of self as He hung upon the cross, and this fellow conveniently wrote down for us Jesus’ thoughts. This is part of why we can know that the things we ourselves hear inside of Jesus’ bubble of self through the Atonement are truly of God.

And the extraordinary thing is that this other fellow went into Jesus’ bubble of self upon the cross 1000 years before Jesus got there. Now, if that doesn’t blow your mind, I don’t know what will! Of truth, it proves that God is all here now and Personal in each one and that we are coming out of His thoughts every moment.

Here is what David heard and felt as his own feelings and thoughts inside of Jesus’ bubble of self, not as an “observer,” but as a full participant with Jesus.

“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning? O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; and in the night season, and am not silent.”

That does not sound like any “mighty” super-Christ to me. That sounds like a very human MAN. We will come back to these particular words, for they are momentous in their implications.

Read Psalm 22:1-22 several times, putting yourself, with David, as part of Jesus’ own thoughts and feelings. Do you sometimes feel like this? Do these thoughts sometimes go through your mind? – Then you are just like Jesus and He is sharing Himself with you.

What, then, is Jesus’ conclusion in verse 21? – “You have answered Me.”

Father, You ARE.

God was inside of Christ reconciling and reconnecting the cosmos to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:18).

God was inside of Christ – in ALL of His mess and failure – reconciling the lost to Himself – and, in spite of all the weakness of His humanity (God, why are You so far away from Me – that is, God, in the imagination of My mind, I have driven You away from Me!) Jesus still affirmed that God was utterly with Him, regardless.

You know something? We can do that too. We can be just like Jesus.

In the midst of our agony and regardless of all our failure, we can also say, “Father, this is You, sharing Yourself with me.”

Jesus could not have saved anyone if He had not joined the Father utterly together with His agony and failure – by the faith undergirding His heart alone.

We share in His sufferings BY joining Father utterly together with our agony and failure – by the faith of the Son of God undergirding our hearts alone. We walk just as Jesus walked.

[I see that I must still add two more letters before we can arrive at the First Day of Tabernacles. I want to open this wondrous treasure to us slowly and carefully.]

Let’s put in front of ourselves the remainder of the Ekenosis before looking at its parts.

Thus, having willingly taken to Himself the form of a servant, Himself ekenosen, Himself called forth an invisible God into visibility, and became, by the faith of others, the likeness of men, and having been found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself [He acted just like God], having become submitted unto death, that is, the cross.

Wow. We have to take two phrases together in order to understand them both.

Being equal in substance with God was not something to actively hold – having willingly taken to Himself the form of a servant.

At first glance, it seems as if these two things must cancel each other out. How could Jesus not hold onto being equal in substance with God and then turn and be the very thing God makes Himself to be?

In order to fully comprehend the actual words Paul wrote, we ourselves must first spend time inside of Jesus’ bubble of self. Here are the Greek words, however, in the order Paul wrote them, Philippians 2:6-8. We will follow each line with a stringing together of the full meaning of each word.

Hos en morphē Theou hyparchōn ouch harpagmon hēgēsato to einai isa Theō

Who – inside of – the form – of God – existing, that is, coming right now, continuously and actively, out from being under and in the existence of God – NOT – the act of aggressively seizing – the leading thought, “I suppose I AM” – to be (I AM) – equal with – God.

Alla heauton ekenosen morphēn doulou labōn en homoiōmati anthrōpōn genomenos.

BUT – Himself – out of emptiness – the form – of a slave – having already fully taken and laid hold of – inside of – the same as – humans – having already fully become.

Kai schēmati heuretheis hōs anthrōpos etapeinōsen heauton genomenos hypēkoos mechri thanatou thanatou de staurou.

And – in outward appearance – having already been found by searching (the verb is passive, meaning something others do to Him) – as a human – He humbled Himself, brought Himself low, saw others as better than Himself – having already actively become – hearing under – all the way to – death – the death – even, indeed, moreover, on top of that – of the cross.

May I suggest that, as you look at your Calvinist rendition of these words you are looking at a forcing of these words into some sort of meaning based partly on the words and definitions of the serpent in the garden. More than that, as I maneuver my way through the meanings of these words at www.biblehub.com, I am looking at two very different approaches to translation.

The first approach I look at is Strong’s dictionary, a simple and true rendition of the actual meaning of the Greek. But then, the website also provides a hyper-Calvinist approach to defining Bible words that imposes Nicene theology upon each word, that is, a Satanic definition that denies utterly Christ as our life. I usually find a few useful nuggets from the Calvinist rendition, but always while I quail at the awfulness of their imposition of Satan upon God. That sounds harsh, I know, but it’s the simple truth.

My JSV translation is still not complete at this point. I find often that it takes many times over to begin to see what the words actually say. And these three verses are much more than Paul’s typical style of writing, which is confusing; these lines are hyper-confusing. And the Calvinists really have no right to force their English wording on Paul’s words ESPECIALLY since they blatantly define the most important word the very opposite of what Paul wrote. (In writing all this out, I am sharing with you my thought processes in working on the Jesus Secret Version.)

Kenos – to empty, to deprive of content, to make unreal.

And here, even Strong, who is usually honest and simple, departs from Paul, and thus utterly twists this most critical passage, making it part of the fundamental definition of a Jesus high above and far away.

Kenos is the Greek word and Paul used it a number of times to mean “empty.”

But look back up at the Greek words. Paul did not say “kenos” here. Paul made up a word that did not exist elsewhere in the Greek-speaking world, a word that is used only once in the human experience before now. Paul stuck the prefix EK onto kenos. EK–kenosen, that is, OUT OF emptiness. Not “empty,” but no longer empty.

And, of course, how could Jesus “empty Himself of God?” That’s impossible. God is all here now at every point of space and in every moment of time. Or did Jesus empty Himself of the knowledge of God? Don’t be absurd, or, as Paul actually says – It cannot be!

So – let me get back to my purpose, which is NOT to make an argument here regarding the ekenosis of God, that is, Jesus, calling an invisible God into visibility – in appearance as a man, but rather – Let this same gut-level thinking BE inside of you.

So, let’s return to our question. How do these two statements fit together?

NOT the act of aggressively seizing – the leading thought, “I suppose I AM” – to be (I AM) equal with God – together with – the form of a slave having already fully taken and laid hold of.

Is this the “form” of God versus the “form” of a slave? What on earth does this mean?

The Mercy Seat began in the “form” of God, that is, a shapeless and nondescript glob of gold. And then the Mercy Seat became the “form” of a slave, the very place that joins God and humans together, by the beating and beating of hammers.

You see, the form of God is shapeless. God has no boundaries, no beginning or ending. God is utterly invisible; God IS UNKNOWN!!!

Yet we are talking about the leading thought of our minds – I am equal with God. And notice that the word “substance,” the Greek hupostasis, is not in Paul’s actual words, although its meaning can be found in “to be” or “I am.”

The question is not – What is Christ? Or – What is God? The question is – WHAT IS MAN?

I can interpret the words – NOT the act of aggressively seizing, only the same as the second thing Jesus did after calling forth an invisible God into visibility, making God seen and known AS HE IS – He humbled Himself. Because, you see, in humbling Himself, Jesus was showing that He was exactly like – equal with – God.

I have laid these words out, but only so that they might enter into us as Jesus Himself. Nonetheless, we cannot know them unless we ourselves walk inside of Jesus’ own bubble of self all the way through the Atonement, not as recipients only, but as sharing with Him in all that He is.

It is only as this reality of Christ in the ekenosis becomes our reality now that we know what it really means – AND WE also are committed to setting forth our souls for our brothers and sisters.

I now know what tithemi psuche, setting forth our souls, really means.

And so, having laid this breadth of foundation in this letter, in the next, we want to go together into what being like Jesus really means in our lives right now, this place prepared for God’s precious Church, our sharing of Hheart with God.