11. The Lampstand
Audio Only11. The Lampstand - for Notes
We know that He lives inside of us, out from the Spirit whom He gave to us (1 John 3:24). [Includes a picture of the lampstand.]
The word as living Bread is what we know. The Spirit as anointing and light is how we know.
Yet this light in the Holy Place remains in-part only, awaiting our knowledge of the why. The why is the Ark of Covenant.
Experience with the Church. The anointing that you have received from Him abides inside of you, and … teaches you concerning all, and is true (1 John 3). – Out of his belly will flow rivers of living water (John 7:37).
My experience with the light and anointing in the Holy Place is equal to my experience with the Bible as living bread. Nonetheless my own personal anointing was much more towards the Bible than any ministry of gifts.
However, even on the way into the knowledge of God, the Holy Place means one’s experience with the Church. And in the Church, there is always a diversity of gifts.
Learning the Spirit. As I ponder what things to share, remembering the mixture and the inadequate understanding of God as He is, I realize that God’s intention for the Holy Place is in-part.
We know God’s true purposes for the Holy Place only as we are turned around inside the Holiest and return with Father to His Church, with the Holiest being now the entire room.
You see, we can never receive Word as Living Seed bringing forth the life of God inside of us unless we also know the power and reality of the Spirit to accomplish God’s desire. In our Holy Place time, then, we learn the nature and ways of the Spirit and what it means to live in the heavens.
Speaking in Tongues. We must begin, then, with speaking in tongues.
Why do you teach your children to read? So that they can read their Bibles and know what God speaks. Why do you learn to speak in a heavenly language? So that you can know the ways and power of the Spirit who is the ink of that Word in our hearts. When children first go to school, teaching them to read is the primary goal. When you first enter into knowing God by the Spirit, teaching you the power and reality of the Spirit is the goal – hence, speaking in tongues.
Pray in tongues regularly, shout out loud in tongues when you are by yourself. You are learning to know a Spirit God.
Inexpressible Groanings. Speaking in tongues is not for speaking to humans but to God, not for others to hear, but to speak spiritual mysteries. – Speaking in tongues is to build up one’s self [as the dwelling place of God]. – when I pray in tongues, it is my spirit praying (1 Corinthians 14).
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 8:26).
Notice that Romans 8:26 is the prelude to 8:28, and thus how we work together with God turning all things to good.
Prophesying. Praying and singing in tongues is inward, directed towards knowing God in you. Prophesying, on the other hand, is outwards, directed towards speaking the good things of Christ in one another.
Prophesying is and ought to be a normal part of most church services.
To prophesy is to encourage one another that Christ is indeed our only life already, not to impose images of superiority on others. To prophecy is to speak the same word that is Jesus, not to bind people with the requirements of a distant “God.”
Calling Forth the Knowledge of Christ. And most of all, prophesying is a calling forth of Christ into the human experience, calling those things that do not appear as the only things already true. It is not for “predicting the future” for individuals or for the world.
I am a caller and I call you into the full knowledge that your Father is already showing Himself as He is through you as you are. Know Him.
But predictors of the future do not have their face set on the revelation of Jesus Christ through His Church. The statements of faith you find in The Jesus Secret are a prophecy, a calling forth of what is true into your knowing.
Discerning of Spirits. Discerning of spirits is a “background” quality, one might say. It has nothing to do with exposing “sin” in your brother or sister.
Rather, a discerning of spirits lets you know when something is not normal human bungling and folly carried by Jesus, but rather the working of unclean spirits.
In prayers of deliverance, a discerning of spirits operates to lead the one being prayed for into moments of repentance and forgiveness in order to break bonds they have made with darkness. The goal is never to “expose sin,” but always to release a dear believer into the full liberty of Christ.
Healing and Provision. Prayers for healing and provision, spoken in confidence and expectation in God arising, are a normal part of church life. God moves in power, and we must know that He does.
Nonetheless, healing is not a “superpower,” that is, it’s not something we possess. Rather – “It’s not by inward human fortitude nor by outward human doings, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord (Zechariah 4).
We never treat the Spirit as “the force” or as “the craft.” We are engaged as one Sspirit together with the moving of a very gentle Person in touching the lives of others. It’s not a good plan to use the Spirit to control and manipulate, though dishonesty does exist in the Holy Place.
Led by the Spirit. For those who are led and carried by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery again into fear, but you have received the Spirit of placement and setting forth as sons, inside of whom we cry, “My Daddy, the Father!” The Spirit Himself shares witness together with our spirit, that we are children born out from God (Romans 8:14-16).
Being led by the Spirit includes hearing the Spirit directing us, but it does NOT include the law of “hear and obey,” that is, “do or be punished.”
If I choose not to do something the Spirit is indicating, that is also Christ as me, and I walk in no down judgment.
Qualities of the Spirit. Let’s list some of the directions and qualities of the Spirit in regards to us. The Holy Spirit –
- Teaches us of Christ.
- Is the ink of Christ upon our hearts.
- Leads us in our way inside of Father.
- Causes us to know God, that is, to live.
- Causes us to know heavenly realities.
- Flows out from us to heal and to give life.
- Travails together with us for creation.
- Fills our hearts with joy and gladness.
Worshiping in the Spirit. I have been engaged with the power of the Holy Spirit in one form or another for 44 years, now. It is by my involvement with the Spirit that I know God.
God is Spirit, and it is necessary that those worshipping Him, should worship [kiss] inside of Spirit and truth (John 4:24).
True worship is an ongoing fellowship with the Father, Person with person, inside of one another, sharing Hheart and all the avenues of life with each other. It is the Spirit who causes us to know such a wondrous way of living. – Practice the Spirit.
The Anointing. I want to talk about the anointing – specifically the meaning of “out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” There is a sense in which this flow is general, yes, but it is also specific to each one of us as individuals.
I will pour out of My Spirit upon all FLESH (Acts 2). – He gives the Spirit without measure (John). – The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable (Romans 11). – He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him (1 Corinthians 6).
The Spirit moving out from you to affect not only others, but also the elements of heaven and earth, is, in a very real sense, an extension of you. The anointing is your impact, by the Spirit, on others.
A Wrong Definition. The Spirit is bound by God to you, to your interests and expressions, your beliefs and your human persona. The Spirit extends your human nature out.
Brother Sam Fife defined the anointing wrongly. He taught that the anointing is that quality of God’s Spirit that lifts us up above our human nature and enables us to walk in the “nature” of Christ. This is the recipe for the super “Christ,” for the removal of hope, and for the cultivation of arrogance and contempt.
My human “nature” is Christ living as me; I come only out from the good speaking of Jesus.
Extending the Human. I have never known anyone, however, who moved in the anointing of the Holy Spirit to the extent and with the impact that Sam Fife did.
That portion of Brother Sam that knew God in the Holiest, connected those who heard him with God. And that portion of Brother Sam that knew the “gospel” by the serpent, connected those who heard him with a way of living that became the same disaster produced by Adam, good things and evil things all jumbled together.
Nonetheless, it was the enormous strength and single-minded devotion of Sam Fife’s human nature that the Spirit extended outwards.
Being Honest and Real. Let’s bring this quality of the anointing right back into God’s true purpose for our learning time in junior high school, that is, on our way through the Holy Place.
When you are honest and real, the Holy Spirit extends your true Christ/human qualities out in gentle ways to touch others with courage and hope.
When you are dishonest in yourself, reaching out for an imagined “superiority,” the anointing that is the same Spirit will extend the strength of your intentions out to those who hear. You can do anything you want with the gift of the Spirit, anything at all.
The Aroma of His Knowledge. We speak good grace and thanks to God, for God always leads us, and God always leads us in the triumphal procession inside of Christ, in the full celebration of all victory over sin and death as Jesus shares His glory with us. The aroma of His knowledge is made visible through us in every place. Everywhere we go, people see the Father and rejoice in the knowledge of God. For of Christ we are a fragrance to God even as we are life to many (2 Corinthians 2:14-14 – paraphrased and expanded).
This is a quality of the Altar of Incense, in fact; it is the quality of being real, of being the human God created you as. Yet we are still talking of the anointing upon us.
The Anointing out from Me. Here is what I am saying. As you become fully real as God made you, resting utterly inside of Jesus, then it is not someone else’s qualities the Holy Spirit is extending as Christ towards others from you. It is your own human qualities, the very things God created you as and has cultivated in you as your joys and abilities.
You see, I am not strong as Sam Fife was. But God has made me to be kind, patient, and steadfast. And He has cultivated in me a knowing of His Word as Christ our life. Therefore the anointing flowing out from me is causing you to know the Father as I know and am known by Him.