37. The Gate Again
Audio Only37. The Gate Again - for Notes
37. The Gate Again - PP
The Gate is the transformation of our bodies, that is, the resurrection.
God’s incredible pattern of the Tabernacle shows us a most critical reality concerning the resurrection of our bodies. The world will be impacted by our love for one another as local fellowships of Christ BEFORE that resurrection.
This impact, however, follows the same pattern as our learning of the things of God on our way into knowing God as the Holiest. That is, this impact upon the world does not need to be complete; it just needs to be.
The Authority of the Church. Understand that the Church already impacts the world fully. There is no other possibility. The world is always affected by the Church, never the other way around.
The world does NOT know God through the Church because the Church does NOT know God through her. The ignorance of God in the Church is the CAUSE of the ignorance of God in the world.
Death is God-not-known. By embracing the serpent’s gospel, the Church took the authority given to man to become the river of death to the world.
The Pattern Requires. We know that God is filled with faith; nonetheless, we hear a note of desperation in the cry, “Come out of her, My people.” Yet there is no “coming out” except we carry all our brethren with us inside of Jesus inside our hearts.
The pattern of God requires the beginning impact of life upon the world through the Church before our bodies are swallowed up by life.
This impact comes through faith alone, the life of Christ revealed in our dying flesh (2 Corinthians 3:11). It is the proof of Christ through us, faithful and true.
The Goal of the Gospel. The Tabernacle is God’s means of ordering the verses of the gospel in our understanding. The Gate places for us the goal of the gospel as set by Paul – the resurrection of our bodies.
And so, in this lesson, we want to look at that resurrection in four ways.
First, we want to know what it is, from the gospel. Second, we want to know how it happens. Third, we want to know where it fits in this whole layout. And fourth, we want to know how the resurrection impacts the world, all of heaven-earth.
Standing Up Again. The Greek word translated “resurrection,” anastasis, means to stand up again.
In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul called this “standing up again” as “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.”
In 2 Corinthians 5, he referred to the same thing as “to be clothed, that what is dying may be swallowed up, drunk down, and consumed by LIFE.” But in Romans 8, Paul called this “standing up again,” as “the placement and setting forth as sons, that is, the redemption of our body.”
Defined First by Paul. In Philippians 3, Paul referred to this “standing up again” in three ways, first as “that I might know the power of His standing up again”; second as “seizing hold of the filled-to-the-brim calling of God”; and third as “the transformation of the outer appearance of our lowly individual physical bodies.”
Finally, in his last letter, 2 Timothy, Paul describes “standing up again” in this way. – Christ Jesus, who has indeed abolished death, rendering it inoperable, and now has fully brought life and the inability to decay to light through the gospel.
The resurrection, then, is defined first by Paul.
Death Abolished. Already abolished death. – The word “death” has been reduced down to two definitions for us. Death (as we now understand it): 1. Ignorance of God. 2. The condition of a human without a physical body.
Paul said in 1 Thessalonians that dead Christians will stand up first, before our own bodies are swallowed up by life. I’ll be able to teach you what all this means right after. Until then, we place this word before our eyes in full expectation of faith.
And that is the how. There is only one HOW, the Word coming through faith to be written as Spirit ink upon us.
A Dream. The resurrection cannot happen apart from our personal human faith, our own willingness to receive into us that word of “Stand up again,” as the only life we are, even now, before we see it outwardly.
That I might know the power of His standing up again.
Let me share again the dream I had a few months ago. I, with several others, was standing before what could best be described as channels out from God. We were eagerly expecting resurrection to come out from these channels. We could hear the sounds of life as an effervescent bubbling coming towards us.
Receiving the Resurrection. When the life came out of the channels, it came across us in a gentle flow of bubbles, a happy rain or mist washing across us.
We became young again, yet our full selves. It was so simple and joyous. We went around, then, sharing the resurrection with everyone, that they could receive it just as we had received it.
Of truth, the receiving of the resurrection was simpler and easier than being born again or receiving the Spirit. It was so, “of course,” yet it was overwhelming wonder, purity, and goodness.
Put on Jesus. Where, then, does the resurrection fit into God’s overall pattern, this Gate again. Remember that the Gate, the Door, and the Veil all look the same and all are entered in the same way.
Through our emergency rescue into the knowledge of things already true, we enter into each level of knowing God by getting down on our knees, picking up that cloth, and placing it upon ourselves, thus suddenly finding ourselves inside a place of reality we had not known before.
Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. – Put Jesus upon yourself three times.
The Flesh of God. But now, having turned around, this Christ Jesus upon us becomes first as the Veil, the flesh of Christ towards one another, “You are as Jesus to me,” second as the Door, the face of Christ to creation, and third as the Gate, the Body of God, His dwelling place and revelation forever.
That the life of Jesus also may be made visible inside of our dying flesh. The Gate is that moment when our flesh is no longer “dying,” but now, fully unable ever to decay or die.
Nonetheless, the resurrection of our bodies is NOT the point, the point is that God Himself now has a Body.
God Has a Body. This is the final thing, then, that we want to know inside this lesson, and that is what does it mean for God to have a Body? Actually I said, “How the resurrection impacts the world.”
And that’s how – God now has a Body. God has a form inside of creation through which He can interact with all created things as part of His creation.
Look and see, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will tabernacle with them, and they will be His peoples, and God Himself, their God, will be with them (Revelation 1:3).
God With Us. And that is the whole point of the Tabernacle, for it shows us God with us.
The final three lessons of this Tabernacle Teaching will explore the meaning of God revealed through us setting creation free. That will include thoughts on the wider impact of life upon the universe. Here, then, we want to limit ourselves to the immediate meaning of God now possessing a Body, that is, the Gate.
What will it mean that an invisible Spirit Being can now show Himself clearly through our gathering together?
Resurrected Sons. Seeing God is seeing resurrected sons of God loving one another with pure hearts fervently. Seeing resurrected sons loving one another is seeing God.
God comes into view through the interrelationships among those who are just like Jesus, sealed utterly into Father’s heart and filled with the joy of being human.
Being joined together and being held together through every joint of its supply or provision, according to the energeia inside the sharing from every part… (Ephesians 4:16). God lives inside this interrelationship that is Church.
What Comes Out. When we use the phrase “sons of God,” we mean both men and women, for this phrase is not a gender word, but a “birthed out from God” word.
Consider this line. – Remember those leading you in the way, who speak the word of God to you, observing carefully what comes out from their way of living; imitate their faith. Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, today, and into the ages (Hebrews 13:7-8).
Society will then be shaped entirely by people “observing carefully what comes out from their way of living.” This “way of living” and what comes out from it will be a river of life.
Father in Abundance. When people see how resurrected sons of God relate together, especially when there are several in one place, they will see the joy of being human, just like Jesus, the same forever, like they’ve never understood before.
They will not be seeing “super-humans.” But they will be seeing humans as God created us to be. And what will be flowing out of us the most is peace, an incredible ocean of peace. And second, they will see us delighting in and highly regarding one another.
And out from that shared peace, joy, and love, Father will walk among humans in all overflowing abundance.