27. Now One Room
Audio Only27. Now One Room - for Notes.pdf
27. Now One Room - PP.pdf
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom… (Matthew 27:50-51).
It would not surprise me to learn that the writer of Hebrews had read this line and that it lodged deep inside.
The first obvious meaning is that the way into the Holiest, into living inside of God and God inside of us, is wide open. And in our entrance into the knowledge of God, that is the preeminent truth. Nonetheless, there is a far greater truth in those words, something we know only by turning around. – The Holy Place is now part of the Holiest.
The Measure of God. And a measuring rod was given to me, like a staff of authority, saying “Rise and measure the sanctuary [the holy place], and measure the altar [of incense], and those worshipping inside of it. But the court outside do not measure it, because it has been given to the peoples and they will tread upon it forty-two months (Revelation 11:1-2).
This verse fits God’s path for us right here.
Those who measure falsely, do not measure the Church, but rather the Atonement, finding it limited and insufficient. Those who measure by God extend His measurement, that is, Christ, out over all who dwell in the Holy Place.
The Fullness of Christ. Nonetheless, in the present season, that measurement of all the fullness of Christ does not yet extend beyond the Spirit-filled Church. The further measurement will come later. Here is God’s measurement.
Until we all come down to the unity of the faith and acknowledgement of the Son of God, into being a complete or perfect man, into the measurement of the maturity of the fullness or completion of Christ. – which, by definition, is – The Church is His body, the fullness of Christ, that is, the full meaning that is Christ filling full all inside of all, that is, Jesus filling with Himself everything in everyone (Ephesians 4:13 & 1:23).
To Be Unveiled. You who are being guarded, watched over, and kept inside of the power of God and carried through faith into a salvation ready to be unveiled inside of the final season of opportunity (1 Peter 1:4-5).
We now understand that this word Peter spoke, “to be unveiled,” is not the Veil but the Door.
When we combine this with the word from John’s vision, we see that extending the measurement of Christ beyond the Spirit-filled Church comes later, in the final season of opportunity. And when that moment comes, Salvation is ready first.
Going to Church. Salvation is the Church. The Church is not the way to salvation, the Church is the goal to which the path of salvation takes us. No present Church means no present salvation; no local church means no present local salvation.
We do NOT want to “go to” heaven, for we already live inside of heaven in all that living in heaven means. We want to go to Church, for Church is God’s end purpose.
Church is the goal of the believer; Church is our destination. Church is the passion of our hearts; Church is the direction of all our energeia.
Our Present Focus. If you want to see Jesus, do not go to heaven, go to Church. The Church IS the physical Body of Jesus walking the earth. “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20).
This is what I was sensing when I said that we be careful not to waste the energeia of God in the wrong directions. The Church, as God intends the Church, must be the driving passion of all our focus. We are not sent right now into the world, but into the Church.
And the most obvious and shocking reality of the Church right now is that she does NOT KNOW what she is.
The Church Has No Idea. NO salvation could ever go beyond the Church so long as the Church does not know that she is the Salvation of God. And so Peter’s “salvation ready” is the Church ready to be in the earth what she is.
We once thought that “evangelism” meant to go out into the world and win the lost to going to heaven after they die. Yes, God uses that ministry for those He is bringing into this Tabernacle path into the knowledge of God.
But no Salvation is found in that whole meaning of “evangelism.” How can anyone else enter into Salvation when the Church herself has no idea of such a thing?
The Community of Christ. If I could command your heart, turn your eyes, and focus your energeia and passion, I would take you to Church. Everything else for us right now is only loss.
Church is the community of Christ.
Only when going to Church is the only passion of our entire energeia can we now look at the staggering implications of no-veil. The Holy of Holies/Holy Place is all one room. Every element and function, ministry and individual person living inside the Holy Place is, in our present reality, inside the Holy of Holies.
A Larger Holy of Holies. We are now entering the Salvation of God. But before we do that, let’s look at an overview of what we find there, so that we might know everything in its place.
The Holy of Holies is now the Body of Christ. For this reason, we can now picture this one room in a circular form with the Ark of the Covenant through which comes the Fire of God, in the center, and then that same Fire flowing inside the Church as aroma, sustenance, and light.
We now KNOW that our human hearts of flesh ARE the entrance of God into His Church, that He might enter, through the Church, into His creation.
The Fire in the Center. This diagram is from Symmorphy IV: Covenant. It gives us a view of how the furniture now works inside this one room as the Energeia of God flows from our hearts and through the Church.
Salvation Ready. The above diagram includes the reality of the face of Christ through us as the Door, as we enter into the larger world, together as the Church, as the very Salvation of God.
BUT – that is not our present focus. How can Salvation go forth to all when there is no Salvation to go forth?
Salvation must be full and complete in and as the Church, in many local gatherings all across the earth BEFORE there is any salvation ready to be unveiled. And so everything found in our knowledge of God in the Holiest takes us to one place only; it takes us to Church.
Joined Together. When we arrive at the Door again, in our study of knowing God as He is, we will turn the things of God inside of the Church as her/His face to the world. But for this present season of God among us, we want to know what these things are inside the fellowship of Church.
And that brings us to a most incredible verse that rules the Energeia of God through our hearts in our local Church.
Out from Whom the whole body, 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, causes growth of the body into the construction of itself inside of love (Ephesians 4:16).
My Local Church. Ephesians 4:16 is the ONLY thing of any meaning happening upon the earth and in our lives. Every single truth of God with us, of Christ our life, of the ruling verses of the gospel, finds its place and expression only inside of Ephesians 1:23 & 4:16.
My local church. – Except I don’t have one right now. And I do not have the gift of gathering a local Church together, not even one online.
This inability and lack is Christ as me right now; nonetheless my drive and focus and passion is on one thing only. – I want to go to Church.
Becoming Firstfruits. But let us not be sorrowful in our present constraint, for God’s seasons are always right on time. Look across all of your experiences with church. There is no need to argue that church NOT coming out from all that God means in the Holiest is no church at all. We know it all too well.
And so, as God is completing inside of us the full knowledge of what He means by living turned around inside the Holy of Holies, we begin to turn everything we are and think and see towards what it’s all for, towards that moment when God Himself takes us to Church.
Only then can we be the firstfruits of Christ.
Only When. It will be only when I am back living inside of Christian Community, a Community coming out from this word of Christ our life that I share, a Community coming out from everything God means inside the Holiest, only then will I be able to teach you about the full realities of this larger Holy of Holies, with everything working in its place.
Until then we must speculate. Yet our speculations are guided entirely by the ruling verses of the gospel, by our taste of the good things of Christ, and by the Holy Spirit, who leads us into all truth.
And what we see now is already taking our breath away.
Oh Jerusalem.
If I forget thee, Oh Jerusalem,
Then let my right hand forget her cunning,
And let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth,
If I prefer thee not above my chief joy.
This is the set of my heart since I was 22 years old, even since 15. I am going nowhere else. I want you, with all my heart, to go with me to Church.
Going to Church requires five things, however, three outward and two inward. Going to Church requires people, property, and provision, and going to Church requires firstfruits and life poured out.
Provide for Them. I have said that God commanded me to do something only one time in my life – “Give My people hope.” Yet He also commanded me just a few years ago to do something else.
This second command came as quietly as the first, and it came the same as the first, that is, when God said, “Give My people hope,” I had no hope to give, neither did I even know what it was.
As I was writing “Give Me a Place to Stand,” God spoke His second command to me. I was asking you for provision, but God said, “You provide for them.” I have no more provision now than I had hope back then. All my present writing is that I might know what God means.