21. Victory
We desire an immortal body, which, in conjunction with our already perfected spirits, causes us to be an incorruptible soul. We must PUT ON immortality; we must PUT ON incorruptibility. We PUT ON the Lord Jesus Christ. Enduo, sink into as into a garment or into the covers of one's bed. Cast one's self utterly into perfect rest. We sink into immortality; we sink into incorruptibility. Victory is the moment, in the twinkling of an eye, when our mortal frame instantaneously becomes immortal and when our corruptible soul instantaneously becomes incorruptible.
© Daniel Yordy - 2014
Thanks be to God who gives us the victory in Christ Jesus our Lord. 1 Corinthians 15:57
What is Victory?
When we are standing in full and complete victory, when all that speaks against God concerning us is vanished, what will we be, what will we know in that moment?
Victory must be an individual experience before it could ever be a corporate experience. A “group” whose individuals do not each know victory cannot itself know victory. Yet the moment each individual knows victory personally and completely, then all relate with all in perfect order as the full many-membered body of Christ.
What is Victory?
In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul defines exactly what Victory is, that Life which swallows up death in the physical body and eliminates it, and he makes it clear that Victory is known as a specific and definite experience in a moment of time. He also says that God has already given us this same Victory. Victory over death right now is our personal possession.
Adam was alive, yes, and fully without sin. Yet Adam possessed neither death nor life. Rather, God placed both death and life before Adam, outside of his own person, and allowed him to chose. Once Adam chose death, there was nothing in his humanity capable of eliminating death or any part of it. Thus those who “try to obey” out of their humanity are just playing games with Adam's sorry death.
Adam did not have Life, nor did he have any access to it once God drove him out.
Life alone eliminates death. That life is IN Christ Jesus our Lord. That word “IN” goes both ways. We IN Him and He IN us. Since Jesus won that Life for us, He receives all the honor of it, and not some nameless “christ.”
Every one of us desires many things as humans. What we must understand is that we desire only one thing, and all other desire flows out from winning that one thing.
We desire an immortal body, which, in conjunction with our already perfected spirits, causes us to be an incorruptible soul. We must PUT ON immortality; we must PUT ON incorruptibility. WePUT ON the Lord Jesus Christ. Enduo, sink into as into a garment or into the covers of one's bed. Cast one's self utterly into perfect rest.
We sink into immortality; we sink into incorruptibility.
Victory is the moment, in the twinkling of an eye, when our mortal frame instantaneously becomes immortal and when our corruptible soul instantaneously becomes incorruptible.
Let's think about this for a moment. All created beings are corruptible: ALL. All angels are corruptible, both those who have become corrupt and those who have not. That means all created beings are free of God; God binds no one to Himself. However, angels do not have physical bodies, thus corrupt angels know nothing about that realm of death. At the same time, the human spirit and the human soul tied to it continue on forever as an entity, continuing to live, move, and have his or her being inside of God, even though it continues corrupt.
Mortality and immortality relate only to the physical body. Thus those humans who are in heaven only, having lost their physical bodies, yet continuing to live inside of God as perfected spirits before Him, are not “immortal” because “immortal” is a term that must have a physical body to find its meaning. At the same time, the Scriptures do not allow us to assume that those who are in heaven only are in any way incorruptible. Rather, they are “dead” in Christ. That is, they continue on in the same condition as we do before God. They without us do not find Victory, and our Victory cannot precede theirs.
Victory comes to all overcoming believers on both sides of the veil at the same moment. Notice that those in the heavens rush to our side of the veil in order to know Victory, not the other way around.
Those who are in heaven only right now, though they are as much with Jesus as we are, yet they are NOT immortal and they are NOT incorruptible.
Mortal means capable of dying. Corruptible means capable of turning one's back on God. Adam was both mortal and corruptible BEFORE he ate of knowing God by the law. He could die, and he could turn his back on God even when he was completely innocent. Fallen man is dying and dies; fallen man is corrupt. Christians are yet corruptible; we can eat of life and we can eat of death. Fallen angels are corrupt, but they cannot cease.
Only the physical form can cease.
Jesus, when He walked this earth, was NOT immortal; His physical body was capable of dying. Jesus, when He walked this earth, was NOT incorruptible; He was tempted by the lusts of His flesh in all ways just as we are tempted.
God cannot be tempted by evil.
Yet Jesus was, in all ways, God-revealed.
When I say, “We must know Him as our weakness before we will know Him as His power,” I am speaking primarily of the two sides of Victory, before and after, though it also has full meaning before that moment.
Declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. Romans 1:4
Let's start with “incorruptible.” We are to put on incorruptible. What does that mean?
Victory IS the moment when you and I put on incorruptible. What does that mean?
Jesus said, “Do not call Me good; only God is good.”
Only God is incorruptible. Only God cannot turn His back on God. God never denies Himself. The thought of denying Himself never comes anywhere near anything that is God.
In His resurrection, Jesus “became” incorruptible. When we say, “We are just like Him,” we say it entirely inside the full knowledge of Seed—plant—seeds. That is, we understand fully that right now, we know Him in our weakness, that is, we walk just as Jesus walked. At the same time, because we know that God has already glorified us, though we see it not, we speak Christ as He is right now. We call that which appears “not” as though it IS. Thus we also say that we are just like Him as He is right now, though we know that the moment must come when the substance of our faith becomes the appearance of an immortal frame and an incorruptible soul.
Now, I started to say that Jesus “became” immortal, but I removed that because that could denote that Jesus remains alone in an isolated physical body. Then this word of Jesus came to mind.
Today and tomorrow, I must “do miracles,” but on the third day, I will rise again.
Jesus was not talking about Sunday morning, April 17, AD 29. He was speaking of the Day of Tabernacles. Jesus does not consider Himself immortal until His entire body is immortal. Yet the immortality we PUT ON is Jesus' immortality. You see, this is a great mystery BECAUSE we are speaking of Christ and His church.
Seed—plant—seeds.
The Seed is complete in all ways, but in becoming the plant, in becoming the church, in becoming us, the Seed loses all of its Seed appearance and now looks nothing like a Seed. Yet that Seed, appearing now as the plant, continues to work through the plant until it has birthed and brought forth many more seeds exactly like itself. This is how we understand this great mystery. You hold to that pattern in your understanding and all things will find their place.
The moment the bean pod is broken open and the bean seeds are now ready either to be eaten or to be planted anew is called the resurrection of the physical body. It is called Victory. It is called the revelation of Jesus Christ, the removal of the cover.
Here is the definition of our becoming incorruptible.
That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them (Victory), that they may be one just as We are one; I in them and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know (Salvation revealed) that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me. John 17:21-23
You see that Jesus spelled the whole thing out precisely, yet we have never believed a word of it. We MUST understand why we have disbelieved and thus utterly ignored this whole scenario in our “theology.”
This definition of our incorruptibility given by Jesus has ZERO place or relationship with the Nicene Creed or anything in it or anything coming out of it. Thus, this definition given by Jesus, should we actually subscribe to it, is utter, unrestrained, hideous BLASPHEMY!
But here is our dilemma. We know first, that this moment of Victory, this condition of incorruptibility, comes only by the swallowing up of our physical body into immortal life. Yet we also know that as seeds looking entirely like a plant in outward appearance, we CALL those things that “be not” as though they actually ARE!!!
Thus, on the one hand we speak these words as complete and total, our reality right now, but on the other hand, we know that all outward experience will change dramatically in one moment, the moment of Victory.
Seed—plant—seeds.
So, let me bring this incorruptibility into our present understanding with words that are personal to us.
First, both the Greek and the English have no positive word to denote the conditions of immortality and incorruptibility. The English in-corruptible means no-rotting, the Greek means no-withering. The English im-mortal means no-dying, the Greek is a form of a-thanatos, no-death, that is,athanasia, no-dying. Thus these conditions are presently denoted as the opposite of something bad, not the presence of the good with no idea of any existence of the bad.
In a sense, this is the only way these things can be known in human terms. The reason is that when we are immortal, we cannot know death, thus neither death nor no-death ever comes to mind. We will not be able to talk about “immortality” because there is no negative with which to compare the only Life we are.
Victory is the moment we become, in all experience, incorruptible.
To say that is to blaspheme the Nicene God for only God is incorruptible.
However, since we are just like Jesus, we know that Jesus' words in His kingdom-birthing prayer explain to us exactly how this union with God works.
We are one with God in exactly the same way Jesus is one with God.
Union—Communion—Expression.
Father—Son—Spirit.
Filled with all of God, the Father—Christ Jesus living as us—the Spirit of God flowing out from us as rivers.
Jesus' words bring you and me as persons into the very Communion of the “Godhead.”
That's why few preachers ever teach these words, and those few who do, try their best to explain how it is that they do not mean what they say.
Yet it is a simple thing, really; it's what we were created for. – We are filled full with another Person.
Let's define ourselves again.
First, the Holy Spirit FILLS our physical body, causing every cell and organ of our physical body to be the actual body of Christ, while at the same time, the Holy Spirit is working the resurrection life of Jesus' body all through every particle of our physical body, though we do not presently see it. Then, our spirit is poured out (baptised) into the Holy Spirit, and thus is “lost” into that Spirit that fills and sustains all things. Our spirit never becomes something separate from us, yet it is found wherever the Holy Spirit is found and flows out from us with Him as rivers. Wow, that's pretty cool. Our own spirit is inside all the rivers flowing out from us.
Then, Christ Jesus lives in our Hearts. Now, I take this to be that heart which is the central organ of our soul. Thus Christ has become our life, our psyche, our self. Yet the heart is one, and as heart, it is also the central organ of our body and the central organ of our spirit. Thus Christ is all that we are.
And inside this Christ Jesus who lives in our hearts, who is our only Self, who is all that we are, dwells the Father, all the fullness of God.
Now Jesus said: That they all may be one (UNION), as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You(Communion); that they also may be one in Us (all of us together), that the world may believe that You sent Me (Expression).
The center of incorruptibility is Communion.
This Communion is found only inside of Union first, and it is always flowing out in Expression, bringing life and joy to all. This Communion is personal inside of each one of us, with both Father and Son. This Communion is also shared fully between us as brethren walking together in love.
But the Communion is the thing.
Incorruptibility, when all thought of death has ceased, will be known as communion, precious, precious Communion. Koinonia is the Greek word; fellowship is from the Saxon part of English; andcommunion is from the Latin part of English. They are all three the same word.
This Communion is first and foremost with the Father.
Here is how I said it in “Body.”
– God's task is to so merge Himself with us that He might always be the One seen and known through us.
This merging of God and Jesus was complete, two Persons in One. Jesus is not just our pattern, but also our life, Christ as us. Thus Christ as us is already programmed to complete this full merger with the Person of the Father inside of us.
– God's consciousness must be in my full awareness inside of me and my consciousness in my awareness must be inside of God. Jesus said, “The Father has never left Me alone.” We are always two persons together. –
My mind is the Father's mind, the mind of Christ, yet the Father's mind, His consciousness, also always walks together in sweet communion with my mind and mine is always in His in my full awareness.
My heart is the Father's heart, the throne of heaven, yet the Father's heart, the Mercy Seat, also always walks together in sweet communion with my heart, and mine is always inside of His in my full knowing.
The Father is the One always seen through me, yet I am also seen just as much. It's not me; it's the Father, yet it is me, for I am entirely alive inside of God. (Speak these things entirely as yourself; speak them by faith.)
In the resurrection, what is true of Christ now, becomes the same thing as the Father.
Before the resurrection, all connection with the Father passes first through Christ. He is the only Way.
Yet Jesus said this: And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. John 16:24
You see, here is how I understand it at present. Jesus is never “replaced” by the Father. Yet He, like us, always recedes into the background. Jesus is the Way, that means that all that He is, all that He does, is for the sole purpose of bringing you and me into total communion with the Father, into incorruptibility. Jesus is always right there inside that Communion, yet He always and only exalts the Father in us and towards us and never Himself.
As we are just like Jesus, we do the same for one another.
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.
I'm talking about Jesus forever.
I'm talking about and we also.
Incorruptibility, now known to us as precious Communion with the Father in all that we are, is the center of everything, the ultimate value, our most precious treasure forever.
In Thy Presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand are pleasures evermore.
But immortality is where the excitement takes place.
God is big on excitement; He is all about ADVENTURE!!!
If you want to commune with God, get ready for the RIDE of your life!
When I was twenty, I hopped in my car and drove twelve hundred miles into a far country, landing among a bunch of people I had never known before who had carved a primitive Christian community out of empty wilderness and in the midst of Bitter, Icy winter, a people shouting about never dying and being equal with God! I loved it.
When I was twenty one, I hopped in my car (without enough money to get there) and drove three and one-half thousand miles across the country, landing among a bunch of people I had never known before who were building a Christian community and convention site in a very strange land, the American South, in Hot and Muggy heat, with zero air conditioning, a people who raised the roof in the power of the Holy Ghost dancing before God in hilarious exhilaration over the defeat of death!!! I loved it.
I like adventure too; you see, God made me just like Himself.
I have rushed into so many frying pans, so many raging fires, because I just can't stay away from this God who takes our breath away.
Yet in all standing upon the peak of Everest, in all discovery of the heart of Africa, in all circumnavigation of the earth, in all stepping out onto the moon, ain't nothing comes close to our physical body being swallowed up by life, ain't nothing compares with putting on immortality.
I want the whole deal, and I want it now.
Paul said that we GROAN for this very resurrection, that the Holy Spirit GROANS inside of us in the deepest of longing for this ultimate ADVENTURE. When was the last church service you were in when you alternated between dancing in Holy Ghost celebration over our defeat of death in one moment to groaning in the deepest Holy Ghost travail for that same resurrection in the next moment? Have you ever been to Church?
If by any means I might attain to the resurrection from the dead!
That I might seize hold of that very thing for which God has seized hold of me!
This immortality is not our body, but Jesus' body; we put on the Lord Jesus Christ, spirit, soul, and body. Yet it is our body, for the Holy Spirit causes our body to be His resurrected body, flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone.
Precious communion, always inside of total union first, always flowing out as exuberant adventure!
We are always and forever part of God; God always and forever is seen and known through us.
That sounds pretty exciting, something one would sell everything else to possess.
God has given us the Victory through Christ Jesus our Lord.
We already do possess; when we call Jesus our only Self, we already have sold everything else.
But what, exactly, is that full experience of putting on immortality? What will we feel? What will we do?
I'll let you know just as soon as I know, only I won't need to, because you also will be telling me.
But here is one thing I know. God is never “high and mighty.” He is always meek and lowly of heart. He always carries the least and lifts up the lowest. He is always gentle and tender and kind. There is no greater joy God could ever experience than to take little children into His arms and bless them.
God desires the moment of our full entrance into Him and He into us in incorruptibility and immortality far more than we could ever know.
God longs to be seen. He wants to be known. He aches to touch and to be touched.
God desires us; God yearns for His Body.
If we could but glimpse, just a tiny little bit, the depths of God's longing for our immortality, we would never doubt again. We would be so caught by that Desire that we would instantly become immortal.
Father, I DESIRE that these, whom You have given Me, may be with Me where I am (in the Father), and that they might see My glory which You have given Me.
Now I see something I had not yet seen. Our bodies will become immortal, transformed into His same body, the very moment our eyes are opened and we see the overwhelming, unending, intense DESIRE in God to be seen and known through us.
When we see and know His heart.
This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
We know that we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.
~~~
I want, now, to conclude this series, and there is no better way to do so than the way I often have in the past.
If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. John 14:23
Love is always the source FIRST; keeping His word is only ever the fruit, fruit that must by its very nature always proceed from the source, whether we presently see it or not.
The source of all things in our lives is the Holy Spirit abounding as love in our hearts. He is already there; He is already love; He is already working ALL in ALL. Our part is to believe with the same confidence in our Spirit as God believes, that is, the faith of Christ in us. We keep His word only out from knowing that it is true, that it is the only reality that we are.
Yet here is what I find, the more I speak His word made personal in me, the more I speak Christ and blessing to you, the more I find that same word, that same love, constraining my way, guiding my heart, keeping me.
Those who will not speak Christ ALL and ALL cannot know what I know.
My Father will love him. This love is found in our knowing. This is not Father's general love for all, but rather something extraordinarily personal and intimate. And you know, this is love, which means we are always free of it. This personal and intimate love of Father for me, just me, is mine if I say it is, if I know it is. But if I will not say and know that it is, then, it is not. Father will never force Himself on anyone; yet the moment you and I chose to KNOW His particular and personal love for us, watch out, for this is One exuberant Fellow.
I sit here in the knowledge of how special I am to Father, filled with Father, enveloped by Father, carried by Father, as I have never known. Yet it's just me, Daniel; just like its just you, Father-revealed.
May I suggest that you go back to my letter, “Father,” and shout out the prayer of Jesus as it appears there, speaking your full name in the blanks. Speak it aloud in wonder and awe. Let the tears flow. It is true.
I teach no theoretical gospel; I teach Father and you.
If ANY ONE – We will come to him/her.
This is not a corporate experience. The body of Christ, the kingdom of God, these are corporate experiences, but not this one.
This HOME is you, Jesus, and Father, just the three of you, together as one in your body.
Person with person with Person. Person inside of Person inside of person.
Our Holy Spirit is the energia of all of it.
“Our Holy Spirit.” I said that in a prayer I included in an email reply this morning. I had to pause; can I say that? Our Holy Spirit.
I can and I do. Precious, precious Spirit. Our Spirit. Our holy, holy Spirit.
Ours as in yours and mine. Ours as in mine and ours and Christ's. Ours as in mine and ours and Christ's and Father's. Our Holy Spirit.
This One in whom we ALL put our full confidence in all of our expectation with joy.
We will make Our home with him.
Why did God create the universe? Why did He lose everything? Why did He suffer all things Himself for all whom He lost? Why did He become us, carrying us all the way into life?
Why?
Home.
Father just wants to come home.
“But how will I know the way home?” – Little William Thatcher. “Just follow your feet.” – William's father.
“Did you follow your feet? Did you find your way home?” – William's father. “Yes, father, you will never be alone again.” – Grown William Thatcher. (A Knight's Tale)
Home is NOT heaven, and home is not for us.
Home is us, the express image of God's Person to both heaven and earth, and Home is for Father.
Then they brought little children to Him, that He might touch them . . . And He took them up in His arms, laid His hands on them, and blessed them. Mark 10:13-16
Do you see God?
Do you know the desire of His heart?