6. Taught of the Father
When I began the present season of writing in November of 2009, I wrote primarily of our union with Christ, the central truth of the Gospel and the joy of our lives. Yet I did not set aside other topics, for I instinctively understood the balance between the inward union with Christ and the outward revelation of Christ, and the various verses that went with one or the other.
Over the next few years, I engaged in a fair bit of interaction with others inside the word I was sharing. This engagement was both a blessing and a distress, for there was so much contradiction. In 2012 I completed The Kingdom Rising, probably the book that changed my life more than any other I have written, from discovering a God who carries us to being filled with all of God.
Yet I was continuing to write inside all the cacophony and contradiction, and inside of knowing all the bizarre side-tracks Christians so fervently pursue. Inside of that mix, I wrote a letter that I then made the first chapter of my book, The Covenant. That letter was titled, “My Experiment.”
The thing that deeply disturbed me was the Christian practice of seizing upon one truth of God from the Bible and using it to exalt themselves on the one hand and then to wage war against all other Bible truths on the other hand, by condemning those who found a different verse.
What I set out in “My Experiment” was my desire to KNOW my God by every Gospel Word that He speaks, as it is found in the pages of my Bible. What that meant was this. I refuse to exclude any gospel verse I do not understand or that does not seem to fit. For instance, I am not in the least bit interested in all the arguments as to why the Bible word hades does not mean “eternal hellfire,” as if the arguments of good versus evil mean something. Rather, I am very interested in knowing what God means when He uses the word “hades.”
In my early years of writing on our precious union with Christ, many New Testament verses did NOT fit. Yet I personally did not exclude them. I knew that what I was teaching on union with Christ was True, and I held to that, but I simply waited in trust in God regarding those other verses.
I now know that the problem was not “those other verses,” but my own mind. I did not yet know the full meaning of the Tree of Life. The indoctrination of years out from the tree of knowing good and evil took time to remove. In fact, that is still happening.
Here is the critical point, so, so critical. Two trees, two minds. There is ZERO connection between the two. You CANNOT go from one to the other.
God alone places us into the Mind of Life, and to wake up inside of that Mind is to be born of the Spirit. Nonetheless, many, being born of the Spirit and seeing a Word of Life, choose, rather, to revert quickly back to the mind of good and evil. Yet they continue towards the words of the Bible inside the power of the Spirit, for God does not take back what He gives.
And what is it that persuades them to return to good and evil? Outwardly, it is “sin in the flesh,” and so they preach. But that is not the real reason. The real reason is that they despise propitiation; they cannot stomach the Blood. And the reason for that is simple. If they acknowledged the Blood, they would have to receive their brothers and sisters as the Lord Jesus to them, these who are so contemptuous.
When Peter saw Jesus metamorphosed before him, with Moses and Elijah, he was not yet born of the Spirit. Inside the mind of death, the only mind he had, he gibbered a bunch of nonsense, yes, but nonsense that is very telling. – “Let me set up three different tents, so each of you can have your own tent.” – Say what?
And so the mind of death uses the power of the Spirit freely given to them to separate their own chosen verses from all others, to set up camp around what “God has revealed to them,” in order to be justified in condemning their fellow Christians who have themselves set up camp around a different set of verses. This is the practice of Christianity.
My practice of receiving every Gospel Word, that I might know God my Father in all, has made me a heretic to every other Christian way of thinking, with my removal of evil from God being the very worst. Some might agree with me on one thing, but they soon run from me over something else. A few years back I saw an interesting conundrum. Two different men were in communication with me at the same time. One was drawn to me by my teaching of ultimate reconciliation, but rejected absolutely my teaching on Christian community. The other was drawn to me by my shared experience in Christian community, but would have fully opposed my teaching on the end of Paul’s gospel.
I set all this out once more to show the incredibly difficult task given to the Lord Jesus, to remove every single tiny root hair of the tares inside our minds, even while strengthening every single tiny root hair of the wheat. This is a task He accomplishes only now in the completion of the age, as He said.
Yet here is an awful reality. God can place us into the Mind of Life inside of His Spirit, but we remain free to take the Spirit by measure and the Word by measure to build our own “tent,” our own self-aggrandizing agenda.
What saves us from such a horror?
Indeed, I did not understand the difference. Through my whole life, I have been surrounded by a hedge of thorns, confining me inside of great pain – and inside of a mighty bubble of GRACE. Yet I have looked out from that pain and that Grace to see others, elders and even traveling ministries in the move of God, anointed of the Spirit, who, having left community and the move, were sent to prison after committing great crimes. It made no sense to me that I was kept, and they were not.
It is only now, with full hindsight, that I can show you the difference.
What saves us, from our side of things? – SURRENDER to the All-Sustaining One, a personal surrender to a Personal God.
What did I do when the terror of the All-Sustaining One came upon me with the piercing demand, “Will you surrender all that you are to Me, right now?” I surrendered – INTO Him. And what did I do when the bony finger of God pushed against my forehead, “What are you doing to My Word?” I surrendered – INTO Him.
And when He taught me, “Justify Me in all things and find Me right and True, regardless,” He enabled me to obey Him, down to the loss of everything.
Yet the One who said, “Will you surrender all that you are to Me right now,” also said, “Son, you passed the test,” imputing to me what He had done as if it was I who had done it. And the One who said, “What are you doing to My Word,” also said, “Son, because you have honored My Word, I will honor you,” again, crediting me with His own doing, in spite of all my failure.
Yet what has really been happening, from age nineteen, when I first heard His voice saying, “My son,” until today? It has been the Father teaching me of Himself.
I did not know it at the time, but the two words, “My son,” made me a person and personal inside the presence of God, and they made God my Father utterly personal to me. From that moment on, I never thought otherwise.
And what was it that I did, at age nineteen, inside of pain and confusion, barred out by the inability to believe, when I heard “My son?” The words “My son” came first, my cigarette went out the window second (that is, everything else), and I picked up my Bible and pressed it against my heart, third. The possibility of faith that I might be saved came only fourth.
One thing only is important to you, and that is the Father, teaching you of Himself, that you might know Him.
If the Father uses this or that from the story of my life to show you Himself inside of you and inside of your own story, then that is good. Otherwise my own story has no meaning for you. The Father will use the Bible to show you Himself inside of you, but the Bible is not about the Bible, it’s about the Father causing you to know Him.
And the Mind of Life, into which the Father birthed you by His Spirit? It has only one purpose as well, for it is only inside of that Mind, inside the Tree of Life, inside of Christ Jesus, that you are able to know the Father teaching you of Himself.
Another thing that has no meaning is the outer form and the place inside His Church for which God designed us after the pattern of Jesus. Whatever that outward purpose, we will fill it with incredible JOY, knowing all the way through our souls, “For this I was made.” Nonetheless, none of that is the point.
The point is being taught of the Father, personally from Him, personally to you, inside of you. I want to talk about being taught of the Father. Let’s begin, again, with Peter.
When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ (Matthew 16:13-20).
On this rock, I will build My Church. The idea that this was an outward and hierarchical office that would then pass to the Bishops of Rome for thousands of years has no relationship with God or the Bible. More than that, it was to the same Rock, Petra, Peter, that Jesus said, a few days later, “Get thee behind Me, Satan.”
And the truth is, that second word is as much a part of that Rock as the first, for Peter placed himself as an example before all. When God rebukes you, publicly, horrifically, it doesn’t matter. “Justify God in all things and find Him right and True. Shut up about yourself, and do not split My Church.” I can assure you of this, when Peter heard Jesus’ awful words, he did NOT go to the other disciples behind Jesus’ back and say, “He had no right to speak to me like that.”
The first part of the Rock is this. “Peter, My heavenly Father revealed this to you.”
The “successors” of Peter were those apostolic ministries of Christ down through the centuries who were taught directly of the Father and who surrendered themselves only into Him. And yes, I would include Martin Luther and John Wesley among those, along with others.
Being taught of the Father is the Apostolic foundation of the Church.
Something almost “insane” has been happening as I have continued writing the “Flow of Gospel Word” lessons for The Open Scroll. The Gospel Verses have exploded into LIFE, in fiery power and authority. I feel as if I have been thrust into a “fantasy world,” this World of LIFE, yet I know that it was the fantasy world of good and evil, by which I once read my Bible, out from which my Father is saving me. I know that this Living and Energeoing Word into which I am being thrust is the only thing REAL.
Coming up in this series is a letter titled “The Valley of Decision.” That letter will be focused on the power of the Spirit to CONVICT, and that awful moment that comes to every individual, as the axe of God splits you wide open and a single decision is thrust upon you, right here and right now.
And the example God gives us is Paul.
We have had a problem in reading Paul, in that his words are very familiar to us inside the mind that knows good and evil. I am now absolutely STUNNED at the revolution and overthrow that are the first two chapters of 1 Thessalonians. The definitions of everything, of God and man, of Christ and salvation, out from which Paul is writing, are not of this world.
But more on that when we get to the Valley of Decision.
Here are the revolutionary words. – But we were gentle in the midst of you, as a nursing mother would cherish her own children. So, yearning over you, we were well-pleased to have imparted to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own souls, because you had become beloved to us. This mind, this way of thinking, is out of this world. This is not how most powerful ministries “anointed and sent by God” in our experience actually think.
I want to look at a statement of Paul in 1 Thessalonians that is inconceivable in its meaning, that no one else, searching the Scriptures, would have found. This is actually in Chapter 4.
Now, concerning brotherly love, you have no need for me to write to you, for you yourselves are taught of God into loving one another (1 Thessalonians 4:9). The mark of being taught of the Father is to be found doing something no human is capable of doing – loving one another.
On this ROCK, I will build My Church. Out from a truly revolutionary way of thinking, a mind of Life, Paul gives himself absolutely to one thing – the building up of the Church, that is, the place inside of creation for Father to come Home.
There are three things vitally involved in any human soul being taught of the Father. The first is the personal intimacy between Father God and you. Yes, the Father comes to you through Word and you know Him by Spirit, but it is the Father alone whom you must KNOW.
The second is the absolute splitting open of your own soul, God Himself saying to you, “It makes no matter what you and I go through together, you will NOT place any blame on anyone, not on others, not on Me, and not on yourself. You will justify Me in all things and find Me right and True, and you will hold your peace.”
And the third is that you are filled with one purpose only, that the Father might have His Home, right here, inside of heaven upon earth, the Church, the House of God. You live for one thing only, that the most revolutionary overthrow of human history would be birthed out from your all-travail, Christians on this earth loving one another with pure hearts fervently.
The second and third components of being taught of the Father are for later letters. Here, I want to continue just with the first, the personal intimacy between Father God and you.
Salvation is a living intimacy between you and Father God. On the one hand, that living intimacy is most of what it means to be just like the Lord Jesus, and on the other hand, if it is indeed the Father, your life will be marked by a zeal for His House – that is, loving one another.
This living intimacy comes only through the full knowing of union, first with Jesus, and then, the Father, coming through Jesus, sharing your life fully with you. Union always goes both ways. The Father shares your humanity with you first, in the knowing of your soul, and then, ONLY in reciprocity, you share His divinity with Him in the knowing of His Soul.
What I am writing here is in conjunction with writing “The Word of the Cross” in “Flow of Gospel Word.” You would do well to read that as well. Here is the definition of God and of man, in that lesson.
Definition: God is a Story of Words inside of a Spirit Self-Awareness. He made us like Himself, also as a story of words, coming out from desire and attended with emotions, inside of a spirit self-awareness. God gives us His Spirit to be part of our own spirit, part of our humanity, that we might know, not only ourselves, but also God. The Spirit causes us to know every part of God that belongs to us.
Then, here is a most extraordinary verse as it now stands in the JSV, 1 Corinthians 3:23. – And you come out from Christ now, and Christ now comes out from God.
The picture we want is flow. God is our Source, flowing through Christ Jesus to us. God always comes through Christ because, although Jesus has returned to the form of God, all here now and personal in each, He retains full humanity, for we are designed by His pattern. Thus God, who is too big and too other, can become known by us. And God has already given us His Spirit so that when an intimate God comes into us, we are capable of knowing Him.
To be taught “of” God means “out from” God. Of is genitive, “this comes out from that.” And we must know Him only through the Words He actually speaks. Otherwise, we imagine we “know” God, but all we know is something about what can be only our own imagination.
This God, flowing through you, teaching you of Himself, that is, imparting Himself to you, is three things. First, in Himself, He is GOOD. A Being of All-Goodness is flowing as Life up from your belly into your soul. I do not use any Hebrew “names” for God, because those words are just devices people use to keep God far away. Rather, the English word, “God” is also the English word, GOOD, and that is God in Himself.
Pure and Absolute GOODNESS is flowing into you, teaching you of Himself by imparting Himself to you. Think of that. “My Source is Absolute Goodness, I live inside of Absolute Goodness, and Absolute Goodness is always coming through me.”
There is no shadow; there is no mockery, there is no back and forth. GOODNESS, Pure and Complete, inside of Whom we REST.
Second, towards you, God is Love. God your Father really, really likes you. This Love is intimate union, sharing life and every moment and circumstance with you. The extent, the depths, the determination, with which God, who is a Being of Pure Intrinsic Goodness, WANTS to share our lives with us, personally and intimately, is far beyond all created comprehension put together.
And third, towards others, God through you is the All-Sustaining, All-Carrying One. God your Father is always seeing others as better, always going under for their sakes, always lifting them up into Life and Joy. And you are along for the ride.
Now, this sounds wonderful, yes, but that’s not how this God who is All-Good appears to us. All-Goodness appears always first as FIRE, All-Consuming Fire. Why? Because All-Goodness cannot be known inside of your perverse lust to mix good and evil together that you might control or avoid other people. Christ is all, first, then the Fire causes all that nonsense to vanish away.
That’s what happens when we give thanks. It is Fire, yes, but then we discover ourselves inside of All-Goodness, and we know our Father sharing all with us
I cannot teach you of the Father; God alone must teach you of Himself. God alone imparts Himself to you in an intimacy unique to you and shared only between you and Him.
KNOW the GOOD-ness out from Whom you come.