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Ephesians, Chapter 4
I am not going to read the chapter, we will just take it a verse at a time.
Verse 1. I therefore the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. KJV
The Greek word translated vocation means calling, it means calling in the Lord. Paul is first of all is calling himself the prisoner of the Lord, the prisoner of the Lord, and I call your attention once again, to the fact that as we mature in Christ, we become more and more His prisoner, and as you look around the church today, in many areas you find that the believers have made the Lord their prisoner, or they think they have made the Lord their prisoner. God is winking at it because it is spiritual childishness but I point out to you that Paul has clearly stated that a mature Christian, and Paul attained to full stature, is the prisoner, is the tool, is the vessel of the Lord.
He does what the Lord says, he thinks what the Lord thinks, he goes where the Lord wants that body to go. He no longer girds himself, but the Lord girds him, and we read in another place that Paul says that the Lord is his chain. You know it never occurred to me before, but it is a very common expression in the world for a man to say that his wife is his ball and chain, or a wife to say, that he husband is her ball and chain, it never occurred to me that, that expression which I do not particularly care for, could it possibly come out of the Bible.
Brethren, Paul was bound to the Lord Jesus Christ. I have told you this before, let me say it again, I rebuke all your carnal minds, the part of him, the part of Paul that was chained was Satan and his carnal mind, and they were chained in the bottomless pit, because the chain of Christ had bound them up, had forced them down, tread them if you will, bruised them if you will, under the feet of Christ in the man Paul.
When we read about Satan being chained the bottomless pit brethren, we are talking about the company of believers in whom Christ has matured to the point that he has bruised Satan under his feet, but he has not bruised him permanently. What does that mean? Does anybody know what that means to be not bruised permanently? They were not, do you want to say it, what?
COMMENT: We come up and we come down, it is only temporarily that we would come up again. He is going to bring us into full stature but...
PASTOR VITALE: What is he going to do with the two minds?
COMMENT: He is going to make them one.
PASTOR VITALE: Amen, so when Satan is chained in the bottomless pit of your soul and he is capable of getting out, what that means is that the Lord Jesus Christ has not yet woven your two minds together, you are still double minded. Glory to God. The weaving together of the two minds is the slaying of Satan, it is the slaying of the enmity in your flesh. It is the piercing through of Satan by the nail, by the needle, by the sword which is the word of God. Paul has his carnal mind all bound up by Christ, he says he is the prisoner of the Lord so we know he has his carnal mind bound up. I want to tell you brethren, you could be a prisoner of your own carnal mind, if you are a prisoner of your carnal mind, your human spirit's totally captive, and if Christ is being formed in you in any measure, if He has been conceived in you, you can be the prisoner, Christ in you, in His infantile stages can be the prisoner of the carnal mind.
Look brethren, if Paul could say the Lord shall shortly bruise Satan under your feet, if Paul can say that, that shortly in the near future Satan will be bruised under your feet, that means at that moment Satan is not bruised under your feet. Only one guy can be on top at a time brethren. If Satan is on top, who is on the bottom? Christ in you. All you people listening to the tape, do not go getting religious on me, no one can defeat the Lord of heaven, but He is being raised up from childhood in you, and He is not a full grown man yet, and He has not won the war yet in you.
EPHESIANS, Chapter 4:1-14
Verse 1. I therefore the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you, (all you believers out there), that you walk worthy of the calling wherewith you are called. KJV
What is your calling? Brethren you are called to be sons of God, you are called to be the body of Christ. You are not the body of Christ when your carnal mind is running your life. You are called to be righteous, you are called to be holy, you are called to be a testimony of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. What is the testimony that the Lord Jesus Christ has been resurrected? What kind of a testimony can you be to the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago was raised from the dead and ascended unto heaven?
Brethren I am going to suggest to you, the only testimony that you could give is that he is resurrected in you. For you to witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, He must be resurrected in YOU. You can wear a Jesus shirt, and you can wear a Jesus button, and you can give out tracks, and I am sorry, I am not mocking you, I am sorry if, I hope it does not sound that way, because God will use that if that is all you could do, but brethren if Jesus Christ has been resurrected in you, you do not need any of that stuff. By your conversation brethren, you will win them with Godliness and love, and humility, and last but not least spiritual power.
I want to tell you something, you are not going to win them with spiritual power when your lifestyle is that of a carnal person. It is the holiness, the righteousness and the love of God which is going to win the world.
Verse 2. With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another, in love. KJV
The word lowliness means humility, the word forbearing means bearing with one another. That means brethren, if you know that somebody's trying the best they can to live for God and they are still not perfect, and they have a fault that drives you crazy, instead of attacking them, you ask the Lord to help you to overcome whatever is intolerant in you. People do not change overnight brethren.
We have to accept one another with their faults. If that fault is attacking you, well on the moment you can deal with it in righteousness, you do not have to be abused, but if someone has an irritating mannerism or an irritating way about them, and they cannot seem to take the victory right now, you are supposed to bear with them brethren. If they have a problem that they have not overcome yet, but they are really trying, you are supposed to bear with them, forgive them when they fall, help them to stand up, strengthen the weak, teach them where they are ignorant, show them in love where their thinking is wrong, you do not throw them out of your company, you do not cast them out brethren.
The only time someone gets cast out is basically when the Lord makes the decision and usually that decision is only from what I can see when the person has reached a point of rebellion to the extent that they are unteachable, and they are polluting and contaminating the body of Christ that they are rooted in, and they may have to be cast out for a season. Know this, that anyone that is cast out in Christ, in due season God shall bring them again, it is a promise of the Bible.
No matter how many times He ever cast out Israel, just keep on reading a few more verses. And in that day I shall bring you again, I shall bring Israel again. With all humility and meekness, with longsuffering, that means you suffer long, you suffer with them, you suffer with their infirmity, you tell them again, you tell them again, you pick them up when they fall. You suffer with them, and you bear with them in love. The word love is agape love of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is an unconditional love brethren, that asks for nothing in return. It is the unconditional love of Christ, that casts out the demon that the disciples could not cast out.
When Jesus said, Oh ye faithless generation, how long shall I suffer with you? Jesus was saying that his disciples were casting out this demon in their carnal mind with the imputed authority that Jesus had loaned to them, and it was not strong enough. The unconditional love of God that all you want is that person's deliverance, all you want is that they should live, and if God uses you to raise them from the dead in you never see them again, so be it. There is power in that kind of love, that does not exist in a deliverance worker whose soul is gratified because he casts out a demon. Again I tell you God uses people in that category, but that category is limited in power. What category? The category of carnal men to whom power to cast out demons and to heal has been imputed, carnal men, who because of their carnality feel good because of their works. That is okay because Jesus knows that is how they are going to feel, but there is a higher order, there is a higher motive, and with that higher motive goes greater power.
In fact, when that motive is perfected in you, it carries with it unlimited power. That motive brethren is Christ, He could be in you but not in full stature, therefore you may have some measure of power but the spirit without measure flows through the man in whom Christ is fully born. Brethren, you were born again, you are being born again, and you shall be fully born again when Christ is fully born in you. He is the new birth.
Verse 3. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of grace. KJV
This word endeavoring means eager, eager to keep the unity of the spirit, in the bond of peace, the bond, that which binds together, and what binds us together? The Spirit of Christ binds us together. The word peace means exemption from rage, and the havoc of war. Let me take that from the top, eager to keep the unity of the spirit. Brethren here again we have another great misunderstanding in the church, brethren there is no unity in the church, in the carnal mind, the carnal mind of man is divided, it was divided when it was cursed at the Tower of Babel, God set one man against another, one nation against another, one mind against another. People will never agree in their carnal mind, there will never be peace or unity while men are living out of their carnal mind. Unity is in Christ, for you to be in unity with any other person, both of you must have Christ being formed in you, and the two of you must be thinking out of Christ, in any particular given moment to be in unity. Why?
Because Christ is not divided and the carnal mind of fallen man is divided. There is no unity in fallen Adam. Does anyone not know what I am talking about? It is an error in the church to think that we can be in unity when we are thinking with our carnal mind, when the guy over there is filled with envy, and the guy over there is filled with greed, and the guy over there wants to unseat the pastor, and the guy over there thinks he is a better musician than the musician that is over there, and the one over there thinks they are a better singer than the one over there. There is no unity because the mind of fallen man are filled with self exaltation and self preservation.
That is the way they are, and the conversion that is coming is through the death of that carnal mind, conversion through death brethren. That carnality must die and you must pick up the garments of your new man and start live out of him, and when you do that, your carnal mind shall begin to die, shall dry up and to die. There is unity only in Christ, if Christ is not being formed in you, you have no chance of unity, except for brief moments where you might find an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in a corporate meeting of believers perhaps while you are singing together, perhaps when there is a prophecy, but even then brethren, I really cannot believe that a whole group of people will have such total concentration that there would be total unity, it cannot be, the carnal mind is divided. Unity only will come when Christ is formed in us and we are living out of that Christ.
The slightest disagreement amongst believers means that at least one person is not in Christ. Brethren Christ is unified, if a word of knowledge is coming down on a particular issue, everyone that is hearing from Christ in this area will be saying the same thing. Confusion is not of God, confusion is of the divided carnal mind. Paul is saying, be eager to keep the unity of the spirit. What does that mean?
Strive not to fall into your carnal mind, and how do you do that? When you perceive envy rising in your heart, smite it brethren, put it down under your feet, wage war against every imagination that would arise in your mind because if you do not wage war against it, it is going to knock Christ down under its feet, and this battle of Armageddon is a continuous battle from moment to moment, from second to second, it can change whether Christ has the use of your mind, your mouth, your body, or whether the carnal mind has the use of it, they are constantly striving with one another.
You must join with Christ to destroy your carnal mind, and that is how you are eager to keep the unity of the spirit, it means warfare, you must fight in the bond of peace, keep the unity of the spirit, which binds, this is not a particularly good translation, to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. What it is really saying, the unity of the spirit which comes through that which binds together, it is the spirit that binds together, the unity brethren is in the spirit, and what this, I have a brief alternate translation for you here because the translation is not good.
Verse 3. Eager to maintain the unity which is in Christ Jesus which exists because Jesus Christ has defeated Satan in our mind. AT
Be eager to keep the unity that is in Christ Jesus, which is Christ in your mind, the unity that is there because Christ Jesus has defeated Satan in your mind and brought forth his son in you, eager to maintain the unity which is in Christ Jesus, that is not stated, in Christ Jesus, but this unity exists because Jesus Christ the Spirit of Jesus Christ, your new unconscious mind has defeated Satan in your mind and caused you to conceive Christ Jesus and that is why you have unity, that is how you have unity.
There is no unity in talking about carnal things. You know I knew some people once, they knew how vicious the warfare was in the church and how the people were filled with gossip, and all kinds of wickedness and they thought that the way to keep the peace was not to discuss anything of any value, not to discuss anything of any weight, they would talk about nonsense, the pastor's wife and even the pastor himself, every time there was a fellowship, they would talk about nonsense, carnal things.
I do not mean to put anyone down for talking about carnal things, but the unity of the brethren is in talking doctrine brethren. If I want to join with you, I am going to talk with you about the things of God, if I talk to you about cooking and recipes, well that is okay in its place, but there is no unity in Christ, and every time you try to talk about the things of God to the people of this ministry, they would change it over to carnal things, and they thought they were keeping the peace, but they were breaking the bond of unity. Does anyone not know what I am talking about?
The trick is to not talk doctrine out of your carnal mind. If you discuss doctrine out of your carnal mind, then pride enters in and striving and witchcraft, and that is what they were trying to avoid, but the answer is not to stop talking doctrine, the answer is to pray until God causes Christ to be formed in you and you develop a godly ability to talk doctrine without pride, and without witchcraft, without self gain brethren, but that Christ should be edified through you. If you cannot do it, you need deliverance.
You have to acknowledge this, that if you cannot talk doctrine out of a spirit that comes from the bond of peace, you need correction in your soul, I condemn you not, judge yourself so that you are not judged. You cannot go around trying to force your doctrine on people brethren, if no one wants to talk doctrine with you, because every time you get into a discussion you are trying to force your doctrine on them, there is something wrong in the way you are pursuing this fellowship, it should be an exchange of ideas, an exchange of ideas, whereby you are truly listening to everything the person is saying, and honestly responding out of Christ, in an honest exchange of ideas.
If you cannot do it, tell the Lord, He wants to fix you up so you can, why? Because people flee from people that try to force their doctrine on them, they do not want to talk to you, they do not want to be around you, they do not want to hear what you have to say, even if it is the truth, they do not want you inflicting yourself on them, it makes them uncomfortable, and they have a right to feel that way.
If you enjoy ministering, and you have any reason to believe at all, that some people have fled from you because you come on too strong, confess it to the Lord, and ask Him to sandpaper you a little more, until your spirit that you deliver it with is sweet and harmless as a dove. Glory to God.
Verse 4. There is one body and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling. KJV
This Scripture brethren is severely misused, and as we will see in verse 5 it talks about one baptism, strongly misused, we have factions all over the church world fighting about what the one baptism is, which one is it brethren, and who is the true body of Christ and who is the true spirit. Brethren, there is only one body, he is not white and he is not black, and he is not a denomination, the body of Christ is a spiritual body, it is not this physical body that you are looking at, but it is the body which is a container for the Spirit of Christ, and that container which holds the spirit is the soul, and the container which holds the soul is the body, the physical body. The body of Christ brethren, is the Adamic soul in which Christ is growing, and in the realm of the soul, we are all one flesh, there is only one soul, but it is divided. There is really only one body but it has been cursed, there is only one fallen Adamic soul which is the womb of Christ, it is the body in which Christ is being formed, and it looks like there is many bodies, because we have many physical bodies, but in the spiritual realm of the soul there is just one body, and it is the body in which Christ is growing.
There is one body brethren, and this is Strong's #4983, you may recall we had in a recent message, I told you that the Greek word for the physical body is Strong's #4984, so in verse 4 it is Strong's #4983, another witness that Paul is talking about the spiritual body, not the physical body. There is one body and there is one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling. Jesus says that Satan is not the spirit, well Satan is not the spirit brethren, Satan is soul who has stolen the office of spirit, spirit is an office, just like husband is an office. To be a spirit is a high spiritual office over the soul realm, just as a husband has a spiritual office over his wife. Satan is soul, but he has usurped righteous Adam's authority and took on the role of spirit, and he is doing a terrible job, that is why the human race in this world is in this condition, because he took on a job that he really cannot do.
In fact, it is a she, she really cannot do it, she is a female that has taken on a male role and she has messed it up pretty bad. You know in the corporate world, they have something that they have the Peter principle, and what that means is that executives keep getting promoted, they do their job well and they keep getting promoted, they keep getting promoted until they arrive at a position that they are incompetent in, and when they arrive at the position that they cannot do well, they never get demoted, they stay in their position of incompetence and they do not get promoted anymore. The man that devised this principle is saying, that the whole corporate structure is incompetent because Peter arrives at his place of incompetence and then stays there.
Satan arrived to the highest place that she could go where she is incompetent and she is stuck there and we are all paying the price, does anyone not know what I am talking about? She cannot do the job, that is why everything is dying. There is only one spirit. God is the only spirit that there is, Satan is really soul, and demons are bastards, half soul and half spirit, only one spirit brethren. Satan is a liar, what is that? Amen that is why we are bastards. The carnal mind is a bastard, the carnal mind is the original bastard, then the carnal mind has some little bastards, the demons. (Everyone laughing)
I am telling you the truth, well we have to lighten up somehow, otherwise this stuff gets really serious. Brethren there is only one spirit, it is the Spirit of God. Satan is a liar, did you ever wonder what that meant? You know we say so many things in the church, we really do not know what it means, Satan you are a liar, what does that mean? It means that you are really not a spirit, you really do not have the authority that you believe that you have, because now that I am in Christ, compared to the real Spirit of God in me, you have been proven to be a liar and the spirit in me has more authority over the soul which you are, that is what it means when you say, Satan you are a liar. That Satan was a liar?
COMMENT: He is saying, that was him thinking that Christ in you was not strong enough, and Christ in you is strong enough.
PASTOR VITALE: Well he does not think it is Christ in me, he thinks, well you know what he thinks. Praise God, wow, I wish I had all of that power, that person is attributing all this power to me and that is really amazing, I am not doing anything you know, I do not have any power brethren. The Christ in me does, but I do not have any power, I do not have any power to bring him down, but I do not have any power, no. that is what I am saying, I do not have any power to bring him down. I only have power to do the will of the Father.
I cannot roam about picking somebody and say, I have chosen to bring you down, all power that I have is resident in Christ, that means brethren, I can only do what the Lord instructs me to do which means if I am bringing you down, that it is not me bringing you down. I have no power to bring you down, but if I am executing the will of my Father, I am just a servant, I do not have any power, amen? Wonderful, they attribute all of this power to me. Jesus. Glory to God.
There is only one body and there is only one spirit, God is the only spirit brethren, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, the word hope means expectation, it means, this verse is saying brethren, that the whole body of Christ has the same expectation, what is our expectation? That our spirit shall be the Father, that the lie which has been living through us from birth will disappear as a shadow when the sun rises to high noon. The hope of our calling brethren, is that our carnal mind should be swallowed up by Christ and that we should be in the righteous image and the holiness and perfection of God, and that all darkness should be dispelled from us. There is one body and one spirit and ye are called in one hope of your calling. That is your hope brethren, that you will be of one body of Christ, and of the one spirit of the Father.
Let me make something clear here, if Christ is not being formed in you, then your fallen Adamic soul is not the body of Christ, you have to conceive, Christ has to be formed in you for your Adamic soul to be a part of the body of Christ.
Does anybody not understand that. To have this hope, the hope of this calling, you have to have the Spirit of the Father, which is going to bring Christ to be formed in you, then your brethren, with everybody else that has the same hope, that you have.
Verse 5. There is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. KJV
The word Lord, is Strong's #2962 and it is not specifically talking about the Lord, it is talking about a person or a thing, I am sorry, he to whom a person or thing belongs. It means master. Brethren, if you do not belong to Christ, He is not your Lord, you can say Lord, Lord, you can cross yourself, you can say Hail Mary, you can run to church sixteen times a week, you can dance in the spirit, brethren if you do not belong to Him, he is not your Lord.
For you to belong to Him there must be a sign of ownership on you, there must be a chain on you brethren. The one whom you obey, that is the one to whom you have come into bondage. Who do you obey? If you are not in obedience to Christ in a measure that is acceptable to Him for your spiritual age, whatever that is, He is not your Lord. And they said, Lord, Lord, why did you not take me? And He said, I never knew you. I was never formed in you, you never obeyed me, you danced in the church every Sunday, and it was beautiful, but you left the church and I never heard from you until next Sunday, and you did not even do what I told you in the church, it is nice that you danced. Obedience brethren, is better than sacrifice.
One Lord, one faith, faith brethren if you check that word out in the Greek, it is Strong's #4102, it is talking about doctrine brethren. You look at the condition of the doctrine in the church today and I have to laugh, brethren there is only one faith, there is only one true doctrine. Jesus said I will tell you the truth and the truth will set you free. Brethren, you are not standing up in full stature with a false doctrine. I do not care what you say and I do not care how you preach it, and I do not care how you scream, and I do not care how you yell, you can have the Holy Spirit, you can have received the Holy Spirit when you have false doctrine, you can even a hear a large part of this message, but not the whole message, if you leave out the judgment you are not standing up in full stature, you can have Christ being formed in you, and still not have the whole truth, it could be started to be formed in you.
Brethren, you are not standing up without the doctrine! There is only one doctrine, do not come and argue with me about it. All of you, I encourage you to be open and sensitive to the move of the Spirit in whomever you are talking to. I am not saying you cannot learn anything from anybody, and I am not saying that I cannot learn anything from anybody, but you have to learn from the Spirit of God in that other person. If it is not the Spirit of God, then you reject the doctrine. Do not get influenced because you see someone has a deep revelation, in every word you read, ask God to show you truth. We have newsletters out there today that are glorious, filled with spiritual truth and then seeded in the midst of it, is false doctrine, largely in the area of there is no judgment, there is no sin, there was no fall, there is no Christ in you, you are already Christ.
Beware, come on you have got to grow up and start thinking for yourself, you have to find out what you believe, you have to bang on the doors of heaven, until you have a doctrine growing in your own soul, do not go around preaching what I preach to you, listen to it, pray about it, you have got to get your own garden brethren, it has to be growing inside of you, you have to know what is right when you hear it, or at least have relationship with the Lord where He is going to correct you as rapidly and possible. You have to got to have your own Christ growing in you. Hallelujah.
There is only one faith brethren, and one baptism. Wow is this a big problem in Scripture, there is only one baptism, brethren it is when they sprinkle that on you with the salt, there is only one baptism brethren and it is when they immerse you under the water. I do not know, I never heard anybody say that only baptism is the baptism with the Holy Spirit, I have never head anybody, did anybody ever hear anybody say that? They always says the one baptism is with water, has anyone ever heard anything other than that? They say that the one baptism is the baptism with water.
They do not say it is the baptism of fire, they do not say it is the baptism with the Holy Ghost, they do not say it is the baptism of suffering, brethren baptism with water is the very beginning, it is not even a part of the spiritual baptism. Baptism with water is your point of contact that says to the Lord, I receive this covenant that you have offered me, thank you for offering it to me, you have said, If I go down under the water, you will do it in heaven. Brethren going down under the water is not going to give you eternal life!
It has got to happen in heaven. You have no power to do it in heaven, your soul has to go down under the water, you carnal mind has to go down under the water of Christ brethren, it has to go down under the fire of Christ brethren, you have no power to do it, Jesus said, give me a sign of faith, go down under the natural water, and I will do it for you. Brethren the one baptism is the baptism into Christ, every baptism before that is a step on the ladder leading up to the baptism with Christ.
The baptism into Christ, brethren Christ is the lake of fire, the one baptism is the lake of fire brethren that purifies, and that produces righteousness and holiness that will result in eternal life, you are not receiving eternal life because you went down under the water brethren, that is just the first step. Brethren if this message was really believed, you know you could not, the churches could not contain the people. If they really knew that they were not saved, if they really knew it, they would be beating the paths to the churches, everybody is sleeping and eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage, and having chicken dinners, and plays on the stages of the church, abiding their time waiting for the rapture, it is a tragedy, it is a tragedy because they have not been taught properly. If they are taught and they still do not do it, well that is between them and God, but this is a curse brethren, this is a curse to have our leaders, women and children, spiritual women and spiritual children, it is a curse. We have some ministers in the church today, that are doing an honest faithful job to the extent that God lets them. I was in another church this morning, and this church is really moving in the right direction and the pastors are sincere and there has been an outpouring whenever I go, but I want to tell you I sat there this morning, and I heard healing preached, and I saw all of the people run up on the prayer line, having faith for healing, and I sat there and I said, Lord, I feel like this is deja vu, does anybody not know what deja vu is? I have been here before Lord, fifteen years ago I sat in another church with the same spirit, with a similar message, with the same prayer line.
How come the cycle is starting again. How come I am sitting in a church seeing the same thing I experienced fifteen years ago? Because brethren, there is such a thing as dispensation, we are in the church age brethren, this is the dispensation of the church age.
You can only go so far in the church age, as sincere as the pastors are, that is all they are anointed to do. If this church continues on the path that it is going, we will be seeing demons cast out there, and then maybe if God really blesses them, we will see the kingdom message coming forth, but brethren, we have to get into the next age to see the next stage.
God has got a people, they are scattered over this earth, that have faithfully followed through the church age, they have been through the healing, they have cast out the demons, and they have learned the sonship doctrine, they have done all there is to do, and there is nothing left but to move into the next age. The next age brethren is already here but it is hidden and it is a hated and it is persecuted, its name is Christ, and it is only here in part, it is here in word, it is really not here in deed. I want to suggest to you, it is not here in demonstration. Whatever spiritual authority I have seen manifested along with this new age word that we are preaching here, is spiritual authority of the church age. Does anyone not know what I am talking about? The new age of Christ is manifesting in this doctrine, but there is a demonstration of power that comes with this age. There are signs and wonders that come with this age that are different than the signs and wonders that come with the church age. I have not seen it here yet, I have not seen it yet, maybe it is out there I have not seen it.
Brethren we labor, we labor, we do what God has given us, we study, and we preach and we teach, and we carry the word to whoever He sends us to. You want to know something, there is a big controversy of the church, what was Paul's infirmity, his eyes were sick, his back was sick, his knee was sick, I want to tell you something brethren, Paul's infirmity was his lack of spiritual power. He said to the people, you receive me as if I were an angel, you saw Christ in me, you heard the doctrine in me when I had no power. I was a natural man, no signs and wonders, no demonstration, but you believed me. That is what he was talking about. There was nothing wrong with his eyes brethren.
It is not hard to believe when someone's putting out a table of food supernaturally for you, it is not hard to believe when people are jumping up out of wheelchairs, it is not hard to believe that you are a messenger of God, but it is hard for you to believe that I am a messenger of God. I have no signs and wonders. I have some power, but it is almost never immediate, almost never, the only time I have ever prayed for someone where they were instantly healed, was when God was specifically witnessing me to that person. The new age is here brethren, but it is here in part. Glory to God. There is only one baptism brethren, and it is in to the lake of fire, and that means if you are water baptized and you do not go any further, you have not been baptized. That means if you have received the Holy Ghost but you do not go any further, you have not been baptized brethren. If you are pregnant for three months and your pregnancy terminates, you are not a mother. Brethren you have to go to term, you have got to get cast into the lake of fire brethren, so that all of the sin that is burnt off of you, or you are not baptized.
Do not panic, you cannot get into the lake of fire until it is time, you are not in control, Jesus is in control, but no, that you are not safe, it is not so safe, that you could just forget about everything and wait for the rapture, the work is not finished in you brethren, I know you know that, but you think it is going to come either after you are raptured or after you stand up in full stature, it is not, the work is being done in you here and now, and if it is not completed you will not stand up in full stature, if it is completed, you will stand up, the work is now, judgment is in the flesh, this is the day of salvation, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
If you think that you have done all that you need to do, and now you are waiting, brethren, you are deceived, the kingdom of God waits for no man, it does not stand still. Just find out what God has for you, everybody is not the same, but if you are hearing this message, the chances are God has called you to stand up in this lifetime. Ask Him what He wants you to do, it is not exactly the same for everybody.
Verse 6. One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. KJV
One God, this is just the Greek word theos, it does not specifically refer to the Father, it says there is only one God, there is only one God, Satan is a liar, he is the god of this world, he is the prince of the power of the air, but this world is a lie, this world is an illusion, Satan's deity is an illusion, when the real thing manifests, when the genuine article appears, everything that is not genuine, ceases to exist. As far as God is concerned, when Jesus Christ was crucified, raised from the dead, and ascended 2,000 years ago, He became the only God.
This is world is as good as finished, but if you are trapped here, for you it is real. If Satan is still the god of your mind, it is very real for you, for you to walk around saying, There is only God, therefore Satan does not exist. Brethren, that is denial and it is illusion, these Scriptures are talking about spiritual realities that are in the heavenlies, that which is in heaven must come down to the earth, and it must come down to the earth of your mind specifically.
Should I stand up in full stature, as I preach this message, (chuckle), for me, there would be no Satan, now I know there was a church on Long Island and there is a lot of people across the country still preaching this, that there is no Satan. I never really knew what Scripture they based it on, but perhaps it was this one, but brethren, if you have Satan in your mind tormenting you, and harassing you, you better believe that for you there is a Satan, because if there is not, you must be a loony tune! And there are people going around preaching there is no Satan, what do you mean there is no Satan?! Look at the insane asylums. You defy reason, what is wrong with you who preach this? I have told you this before, and I want to tell you this again, this is really important, burn it in your brain, what you read in this Scripture is not for every human being alive and every single moment of their life. At this moment as I read this to you, it is not for the whole world. Any Scripture, pick any Scripture, it is not for everybody at this moment. Everybody is not in the same place of maturity. Brethren for the one who is in full stature, there is only one God. For those who are not in full stature, you are double minded and unstable in all your ways, you have two souls, there are two ages in your heart, and each age has its own god.
This spiritual truth, this is a spiritual truth, there is only one God, and that is the reality of the heavens, but we are not in heaven, we are in hell! There is a god of hell, a lesser god, a pseudo god, but there is a god of hell, so as long as we are down here, there is more than one god, but it is a duality, that is what they tell you, it is a duality, you have double vision, I sure do have double vision, that guy sticks me with his pitch fork a lot. Do not tell me he is not doing what he is doing to me, what do you want to put me away somewhere, I do not know how people believe this!
The next step is, if you have a problem, if you go back on alcohol, if you go back on drugs, they tell you, Well it is your own fault. Well what if it is my own fault? If there is only one God, how could this happen? It is a totally irrational doctrine brethren. Jesus Christ meets people where they are, He meets them at their point of need. You think people love being reprobate? You think people love being sick? You think people sleeping on the street? Brethren, they cannot stand up. There is something wrong with their souls that brings them to this condition, you think they love it? How naive.
One God, and Father of all, and this word Father is Strong's #3962, it means male ancestor. Who is our male ancestor? Anybody, what is his name? Adam. We all have the same ancestor. Where does it say that, is it in Matthew, where is that genealogy, does anybody know? It is in Matthew? Adam was the son of God, he is our original male ancestor. So originally there was one God and there was one male ancestor, but that male ancestor fell, he was righteous, he was in righteous standing with the Father, and he fell, and when he fell, he divided, and the one who overturned him usurped the position of God, and Satan became the god of hell, and the offspring of Adam were cast down to hell, they were joined by chains of darkness to Satan, and there is now a subterranean world of the dead.
That is us, and that is where we are. In the Greek there were no capitals, so the King James translators did that for whatever their reason. The word just means male ancestor. One God, well of course it is obvious from the rest of the sentence that it is talking about the Lord. The male ancestor is righteous Adam, righteous Adam in whom there was a formation of Christ, it was in Luke, okay, the genealogy that says Adam is the son of God is in Luke.
We have one God and Father of all. Actually I guess this is not talking about Adam, I am going to have correct that, verse 6 says one God, and Father of all, I guess what this verse, although what I just said is true, Adam was our original ancestor, in this Scripture, it seems to be saying, God and the original male, and it seems to speaking about the spiritual male ancestor. I refer you back to the teaching that the spiritual son of God was joined to the earth, to form righteous Adam. This Scripture is not so much speaking about righteous Adam, as the Spirit of God who was in righteous Adam. Did I confuse anybody, does anybody have a problem with that?
One God and Father of all, who is above all, He is higher than all men, and He is through all, He flows through all of us, and He is in you all. He not only flows through us but He flows this whole world system, and this Scripture is a direct contradiction to the teaching in the kingdom church today that God emptied Himself out and now is only in men. This Scripture Ephesians 4:6 clearly states that He is above all, that means man, and He is through all, that means not just man, but He is throughout this whole world system and all of the universes and He is also inside of you. That is a false doctrine, that is a very serious error that is being taught today that God is only in man, because man being imperfect what that doctrine is saying that there is not a mature manifestation of God anywhere.
If we are the only manifestation of God in the earth, God have mercy on this world, there is no mature manifestation of God, what a wicked lie! If all I had to turn to was the immature Christ in me, without the Father backing Him up, I would be in a lot of trouble. Jesus.
Verse 7. But unto everyone of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. KJV
This verse, the translation is not too good, so I do have the alternate translation for you on this one also. First of all, the word measure is Strong's #3358, and it means a vessel for receiving and determining the quantity of things. Brethren this vessel which we are, it is, the purpose of it is to receive and determine the quantity of something, what are we receiving, what have we received?
We have received a drop of God, our human spirit, what we have that no other animal has, and that is not found anywhere else on this planet, is our human spirit, which is made of the same substance that the Father is made out of, and we are a vessel that contains it, and the word measure also means that we are a vessel for determining the quantity, it says quantity here, but this is all I copied out of my lexicon, but I am also going to tell you quality, we are a vessel also for determining the quality and the quantity of the spirit in us, and how does God test through the quality and the quantity of the spirit on us?
He permits trials to come upon us and He sees how mature we are in Christ, that would be the quantity, how much of Christ is in us, and He also tests for the quality, and there are Scriptures in the New Testament that talk about the touchstone, that is a test where you rub gold on it, and you can find out if something is really gold or not. The Lord lets us be thrown into the fire for the specific purpose of find out whether or not, there is any gold in us, and the quantity of that gold, and I want to remind you that our human spirit is dead, and for it to turn up as gold, it would have to be in the process of being quickened, because the Holy Spirit has joined with it, and Christ is being formed.
But unto everyone of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Let me talk about grace a little bit. But unto everyone of us is given grace, we talked about this recently, that many of us have been taught that grace is unmerited favor, well that is true grace is unmerited favor, but what does that mean? Unmerited favor, favor that we do not deserve. That is nice, but what does that mean to us as an individual? The gift that we have received that we do not deserve brethren, is Christ Jesus, that Christ Jesus should be formed in us because He is the ransom that is going to save our life. The only thing that is going to save our life is that Christ Jesus is going to appear in us, swallow up our carnal mind and impart life to our soul and our body. That is the grace, Christ Jesus, He who has the ability to keep the law and because He has the ability to keep the law, when He becomes our mind we will keep the law and we will therefore stop dying, and that is the savor, that is the gift of God that has been imparted to us, that we do not deserve, the ability to keep the law.
When we keep the law it will disannul the judgment, God's judgment which killing us. Many people in the church today think that our sins are forgiven and we are flying away to heaven in the condition that we are in. No we are not brethren. We cannot continue to sin and say I am covered by the blood. That is not acceptable to God, He has provided us with a free gift which is intended to enable us to stop sinning, that means we must stop sinning! By the grace of God, by Christ Jesus being formed in us, we must stop sinning. When He begins to be formed in us, we must pick Him up and wield Him like a weapon against our own carnal mind, not against your neighbor in the church who annoyed you, or not against your neighbor in the church that got the assignment to sing when you wanted to sing, because He will never be used like that.
He is a sword that has a mind of His own, if He does not like where you are sticking Him, He is not going to go, He is not going to let you use Him to kill somebody, He is not going to let you use Him to pierce somebody's heart.
If you have used spiritual power to damage somebody, you should know that it was Satan that you used. The Lord Jesus Christ is not a mindless sword that you can do anything you want with. If you are doing something unrighteous, you do not have to think twice, you should know it is not His power. Unto everyone of us is given Christ Jesus, according to the measure of the gift of Christ, according to the vessel which receives and determines the quantity of things freely.
Each of us has a part in God's plan of the ages, according to the measure of Christ which has been given to us as a free gift. The measure, the vessel that has been given to us brethren is not this body but the vessel that has been given to us is the formation of Christ in us. He is the vessel, He is the inner man, He is the new man that has been given to us, He is a very real person, and when He is fully born in us, we will not need this outer man anymore. He is the measure, He is the vessel, that has been given to us. This is not a particularly good translation here, so I have another one for you, But each of us has a part in God's plan of the ages, according to the measure of Christ, which has been given to us as a free gift, according to the body of Christ, according to the mind of Christ, according to the soul of Christ, we have a part in God's plan of the ages. Jesus.
Verse 8. Wherefore He saith, when He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. KJV
When He ascended up on high, talking about the ascension after the resurrection, He led captivity captive. What is captivity brethren? Captivity is hell, we are in captivity when we are in hell, so we can say, He led hell captive, and what is hell? Hell is an age, it is a mind, it is the carnal mind which is fallen. Hell is inside of us as well as outside of us. So when Jesus ascended, He led hell captive in the mind of the man Jesus of Nazareth, and in this hour He is pouring out of His Spirit upon all flesh, and He fully intends to lead captivity captive in your mind, He fully intends to lay hold on hell in your own mind, and make it captive, how? He is going to put a chain on it. We talked about that in verse one. He is going to chain it up, He is going to bruise it under the feet of Christ in Him, so we are told in verse 7, that we have been, everyone of us, has been given a measure of Christ Jesus according to the purposes of God in our lives, and as a free gift, and then in the very next verse, it says, you know to the carnal mind it says, well what is the next verse talking about, what does verse 8 have to do with verse 7? This is what verse 8 has to do with verse 7, we are given a measure of Christ in the form of Christ Jesus so that, Christ Jesus can lay hold of the hell which is your carnal mind and take it captive. And He gave gifts unto men. I sort of got ahead of myself a little bit here, let me back up.
When the man Jesus of Nazareth was raised from the dead and ascended on high, and He led hell in the man Jesus of Nazareth captive, and then He gave gifts to men. He was translated, He was glorified, He is now pouring out of His Spirit upon all flesh, and He is giving gifts to men, by means of the Holy Ghost, that is what it is talking about. The gifts of the spirit brethren, the gifts of the spirit. Jesus.
Verse 9. Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first in to the lower parts of the earth. KJV
Now that He ascended, Jesus, what is it but that He also descended first. Before you can ascend brethren, you have to descend. I am going to ask you to be spiritual with me brethren, we have a whole church world that believes that Jesus went down under the ground to some place called hell that exists in the middle of the earth. I want to remind you that at the beginning of time, Jesus was in the bosom of the Father. He was one with the Father. At the beginning of time, He descended into the earth, He was joined to the earth so that the man could be formed, He is the breath of life that God breathed into the man. He descended into the earth of the man Adam at the beginning of time, and He has been in the earth ever since, flowing from one generation to the next, He has never left the earth. Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first in to the lower parts of the earth, the lower parts of the earth brethren, not the unconscious mind, but the conscious mind. The closer a spirit gets to this outer realm, the lower he goes, for a spirit.
We have it in our carnal minds that He is coming from heaven and He is descending down to the earth, but the reality that spirit is in our center, and the Father, He travels away from our center, it is expressed by saying He is going lower and lower, but He is really going out. It is the same principle as saying a spaceship is going up, the scientists know that a spaceship does not go up, a spaceship goes out, that is why it is called outer space, it is not called upper space, it is called outer space. When a spirit goes out, he goes into the soul realm and eventually into this realm of appearance, and the Scripture says, he descends, just like we say a rocket goes up, and it is really not accurate, he is going out, but God knows we are carnal, that is why doing it this way, it is a parable. Does anybody not know what I am talking about?
The Lord has made this Bible so that the youngest or the most mentally incompetent person can understand it on some level, and there are a certain things that you have to pray about. This word descend, it really means to go out, just like to take off into outer space is not going up, it is going out. Does anyone not know what I am talking about?
Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth, that is this realm of the appearance, it is as low as you can get, it is pretty low out here and keeps getting lower.
Verse 10. He that descended is that same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things. KJV
Above all heavens, I am going to suggest to you that this expression means above and beyond the soul and spirit of man. He ascended beyond man, He ascended beyond man. We know that there are two heavens in man, the unconscious mind and the conscious mind are the two heavens in a man, and the two are supposed to be one, then there is a heaven that is outside of man. This is the heaven that is being denied by the false doctrine that we mentioned earlier saying that God is now only in men, no, God is beyond men and will always be beyond men, He is also in men, and He is also throughout the entire creation.
He omnipresent, He is omniscient, He is everywhere, He is glorious, He is great. He ascended up above all heavens, it means He returned unto the Father and became one with Him again, He went beyond the mind of man. Why? So that He might fill all things. How is going to fill all things? By ascending up beyond the realm of man. Brethren He ascended up as far as He could go into eternity, and now He is pouring out of His Spirit upon all flesh. Why? So that He can get a drop of Himself inside of everybody and fill up everything with the fruit of his life. Is that not what the Lord said to Adam? Go forth and multiply. What else did He say to Him? Multiply, and replenish the earth, and what else? He said to fill it, did He not say to fill it? The earth is going to be replenished in Christ and when it is filled with Christ. This earth of mankind, God told Adam to go forth and fill it with the fruit of Christ, to fill it with Himself, and that is what Ephesians 4:10 is speaking about.
Verse 11. And He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists and some pastors, and teachers. KJV
This also is frequently misunderstood, I think I have heard it preached, He gave to some people apostles, and He gave to other people prophets, is that how you have heard it preached? How have you heard this preached, is that how you have heard this preached? And He gave to some people teachers. Is that how you heard it preached? Yeah, well that is it really not what it looks like in the Greek. Every, the whole world, these are the gifts that are going to the whole world, and He gave this word, this word some, it really means a few, it may help you to understand it better if I say a few. He gave to the world a few apostles, a few prophets, a few evangelists, and a few pastors, and teachers. Brethren, surely you must know that the people in the five fold ministry are very small in number compared to the numbers of the church, and of the world. Everybody that is in the church is supposed to have the benefit of the whole five fold ministry. You who are the heirs of the promises, you are supposed to have the full spectrum of the five fold ministry, if you do not have it, ask the Lord why. You are entitled to it, He gave it to you. He gave gifts to men after He ascended on high, He gave gifts to men, in the form of the Holy Spirit, and that Holy Spirit is now in men, in the form of prophets, apostles, evangelists, teachers, and pastors, and you are supposed to be entitled the entire broad spectrum of the ministry. Does anyone now know what I am talking about?
What does tend to get confusing to some, is that all of these offices are resident in the son. I remind you of the teaching here that we found in Joel 2, that there were to be two outpourings of the spirit, one the former rain, and the other the latter rain and that the former rain was to produce what we call the temporary five fold ministry which we see in the church today, where we will find a man who is an evangelist and one man who is a prophet, and one man who is an apostle, but Hebrew 1:1 tells us, that in the past, the Father spoke to His people, through the prophets, but now in this day in the new age, He speaks to His people through the son.
If you are truly a son, I should not say truly a son, If you are a mature son, you will have all five of these offices, actually it is only four, the last office is a teaching pastor, it says pastors and teachers, teaching and pastoring go together, my understanding of this Scripture and the way it appears in the Greek, is that teaching and pastoring go together. That means, if you are calling yourself a pastor and you are not anointed to teach, it is not likely that God raised you up.
I say to all you teachers out there, who have been so hurt by the people that you have locked yourself away and you do not have a congregation and all you do is mail your newsletters out, I want to tell you that if you are teaching and you are not pastoring, it is not likely that God put you in this position, something is wrong. Why is that? Because when God calls you to teach brethren, He does not just call you to teach doctrine, He calls you to be an example. He calls you to teach about life, He calls you to teach about how to live the Christian life, He calls you to teach from His experiences, He calls you to people's lives, to help them to grow up and live fruitful godly lives, and you cannot do that only by writing a newsletter and mailing it out and having nothing to do with the people.
We see that in the church today, do not anybody listen to what I am saying and think that I am saying the men that do that, should stop doing it, what I am saying is, we are in an in part realm right now, if the man is writing an anointed newsletter, and you want to read it, praise God, read his newsletter, what I am saying to you is, the church is not in order. Does anyone not know what I am talking about? I am not telling you not to read anybody's newsletter, the church is not in order, and all four of these offices, are resident in the mature son. He will be pastoring you, and he will be teaching you, he will be evangelizing. Evangelism is not necessarily going to Nigeria, if God raises you up in the morning, and sends you to the supermarket and there is someone waiting there for you to hear the word of the Lord that He just sent you with, you are evangelizing. If you have someone over for tea, and you share this gospel with them, you are evangelizing, evangelism means to go away from your home base, that is what it means. To bring this message outside of these meetings, wherever he sends you, that is evangelism. Evangelism also, let me say this about evangelism, it is, well let me say this, in this five fold ministry, or four fold ministry, it does not differentiate between teachers and preachers, the evangelist is the preacher.
That means he stands up and will preach a spontaneous message, he will not go into the Scripture in depth, very frequently his text will be just one verse, but he will bring forth a message from the heart of God, that will not be deep teaching, but that the people will be able to grasp. An evangelist is a man that can preach without preparation, that can preach at the drop of a hat, that can stand up in a group a bring forth a message from the heart of God, a teacher will have to study and prepare to bring forth a message. Does anyone not understand the difference?
We see evangelists going out and having big campaigns, they are basically people that reach out to the masses in a broad overall way, and they are also people that go away from their home base to reach others. Teachers usually teach smaller groups and go into the depth of the Scripture. So the son is supposed to, so to make it easier instead of evangelist, I am going to say preacher, does that help you any, the son is a pastor, he is a teacher, he is a preacher, he is a prophet, he brings forth the word of God, I am not speaking now about prophetic utterances.
Prophetic utterance is almost always positive, it is for edifying, for edification, but the true prophet will bring forth a warning, the true prophet will bring forth a rebuke from the mind of God, not from his carnal mind now, but from the mind of God. We do not see many prophets in the church today, usually if they get up and they prophesy, they are called a false prophet, because prophets usually prophesy doom, they usually prophesy dire warnings of disaster, and if the elders in the church are not sensitive to the spirit, they might think it is a false prophet, and many of the members of the congregation frequently think this is, if they are not taught by the pastor, think that this is false prophesy, because it sounds so different than the prophetic utterance that they cannot believe that it is valid if they are not being taught in that area.
Then we have the apostle, and the apostle is the man of God in whom Christ is being formed, the man of God who is ministering out of that Christ. It is taught largely in the church today, that an apostle is a man who starts a church and turns it over to a pastor, and starts another church and turns it over to a pastor, I have a whole tape on apostleship, I know that Paul did that, but of all the actual Scriptures, naming the name of apostle, I could not find one that said that an apostle is a man who starts a church and turns it over to someone else.
An apostle is one who is sent by God to do whatever God tells him to do, an apostle is a man of God who moves under a supernatural anointing and goes where God sends him and delivers the word, the personal word, and the corporate word that God tells him to deliver, and frequently God will send him into a place where he knows he is going to be persecuted. An apostle is a sent one, it is a high office. Apostles have the authority to impregnate believers with Christ. Brethren you cannot cause someone to conceive Christ if you do not have Christ, an apostle is one in whom Christ is being formed, and one in whom Christ is mature enough to impregnate someone else.
Now there is another name for that in the Scripture, Paul said he was a father, he said that he had fruit in the many churches that he went to, that means that he was impregnating people with Christ, and he was their father in the Lord, because it was his ministry to them that caused them to conceive Christ. That is, as far as I could see, the overriding function of an apostle, to impregnate with Christ, setting up churches is the least important thing that they do.
So in the mature son we should be finding all four or five if you will of the offices of the five fold ministry. Just let me sum this up for you, we found in Joel 2 that there are to be two outpourings, called the former rain and the latter rain, and with the outpouring of the former rain, we see what appeared to be some pastors, some teachers, some evangelists, some prophets, I do not know how many apostles are around, with the early rain, I really do not know, I do not know what God would say about that, what an apostle would be for someone that does not, is not having Christ formed in them, I honestly do not know, maybe it is someone that starts churches, maybe that is what the early rain or the former rain apostle does, maybe he does found churches, I do not know, but I know in the latter rain, he does a lot more than that, he founds churches alright in people, he founds the church in people, glory to God.
We are going to see a big change over in ministry, it is coming real soon, it is already in the earth but it is hidden, it is severely veiled, and we are going to see appearing on the earth, men, and when I say men, I am talking about spiritual men, you can have a woman's body, I am talking about spiritual men, who are going to have the whole five fold ministry resident in them.
Someone called me up about six months ago, and she said to me, you know, something, I met someone, and she has got the weirdest ministry, talking about a woman, she has the whole five fold ministry resident in her, I have never seen or heard anything like that, and I never met the woman that she was talking about, so apparently this woman must have Christ being formed in her, and I am going to suggest to you that the only way you could have the whole five fold ministry resident in you is to have Christ being formed in you, I do not believe that, that is possible under an imputed anointing which is the gift which is without repentance, that is only in the person of Christ, the whole five fold ministry only exists in the person of Christ. Hallelujah.
Verse 12. and this is the reason why he has given the ministry; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. KJV
For the work of the ministry, this means to enable the ministry to produce a work product, for the work of the ministry, what is the work of the ministry, we are told in the corporate world, they produce a work product, if a lawyer writes a brief, it is a work product, that is what you are paying for, he has worked for you for five hours, and he is sending you a bill and this is what he has a produced for you, a brief. What is the work of the ministry, what is it their job to produce? They are to produce the body of Christ. They are given to the body of Christ to pull it together, God is building brethren, He is building a temple made out of men, and it is one big job, it is awesome, especially when you look at what he has to work with, it is frightening. It is frightening. Look at us. I am talking about the ministry as well as the people, look at us, it is incredible.
There is a five fold ministry given to us, so that a work product may be produced, the body of Christ, so that the saints might be perfected, brought up to full stature, or brought up to perfection, the saints are supposed to be perfected, not after this body dies brethren, in the flesh, and for the edifying of the body of Christ, that is to build, edify means to build up the body of Christ.
We could say the work product in the ministry is to start the body of Christ, to build it up, and to bring it to perfection, three stages, get the people started, build them up, bring them to perfection, three groups in the church, three categories in the church, three grades, beginners, middle school, and advanced.
Verse 13. Till we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. KJV
Until we come in the unity of the faith. I remind you that faith is doctrine, brethren, this five fold ministry is to bring the whole body of Christ in to one mind on doctrine, is that the funniest thing you ever heard? What a job. I am going to read it for you again, that is what Paul said, the ministry is supposed to work until the whole church comes into the unity of doctrine. This I got to see. God help us, do not believe it if someone is telling you doctrine is not important, doctrine is important in its place, love is important first, doctrine is no good if you are killing somebody to bring them into the unity of the faith. Love is most important, but in the hour of his appearing, doctrine is very important, Jesus is not appearing with a false doctrine.
I want to tell you that every son of God that stands up in full stature will be in complete agreement on every jot and tittle of the doctrine. Till we come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the son of God. This word knowledge means precise and correct knowledge. Brethren most of us do not know the son of God, we think we know Him, but really we know about Him, we have heard of His fame, is that not what Job said, I have heard of the fame of you, but I have never seen you face to face. Brethren you will not have a precise and correct knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ until you see Him face to face.
You must experience Him and experience at a time, you must be able to say, I know Him, and He would never do that, I know Him and He does that. We are going to be of one mind and one accord on doctrine, and we are going to be of one mind and one accord as to what God will and will not do, as to what God approves of and disapproves of, there is a lot of fantasy about that in the church today. Jesus help us.
Until we do, and we are going to do this, they are going to work to bring us unto unity of doctrine and to the unity of a knowledge of God, we have to be in complete agreement until the whole church comes unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That word perfect means full grown man, a full grown mature man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, until our vessel or Christ Jesus in us, you could say, either until our vessel is completely filled with Christ, or until Christ Jesus in us comes to the maturity of the Christ in the man Jesus of Nazareth. Please check this out, that we are not coming into the measure of the stature of the fullness of the man Jesus of Nazareth, but we are coming to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, of the fully matured Christ, in us.
Ministry is in the earth to produce unity of doctrine, a precise and correct knowledge of the Lord, and a fully mature Christ Jesus being born in you. This is not after your body dies brethren, it is in the flesh. A ministry that is preaching perfection after your body dies, is creating a problem in this church, and I am telling you brethren, either God is going to convince them of their errors, or He is going to take them down, because they are preaching this with authority and they are killing the babies. They are killing the baby that God is bringing the true word to, they are terrifying them and making them afraid to believe it.
It cannot go on much longer brethren, we are at the door, this ministry is going to repent or they are going to come down. I wish them no harm, I heard a preacher say once, they are going to be dropping dead in the pulpits. Well I do not know about that. They may just lose their ministries, remember God is a merciful God. I think the ones wicked hearts might be dropping dead in the pulpit, but most of them are not that wicked, they are just stubborn and filled with pride, and without understanding and spiritually blind, and spiritually deaf, and they cannot see and they cannot hear, and they cannot understand and therefore they are not converted.
He will just make the people leave the church when they cannot support their families, on the money that is there, they will go get another job, most of them. Now remember they are not fighting against this doctrine knowing that it is true, they think they are defending the faith when they fight against this doctrine, they think this is false doctrine and they are defending the faith, but there are some men, that knows that this is not false doctrine but is calling it false doctrine for his own purposes, I do not know what God is going to do to him, maybe he will kill him maybe he will not, but for God to kill you, you have to be in that category, truly wicked, to know that the doctrine is true, and lie to your people for your own purposes, whatever that is, most likely that you want to hold on to the people.
Those men are in a totally different category. I do not know what God is going to do with them. Most of these preachers are not, you know they are just human, they are carnal men, that is what their problem is. They have wives and they have families, he is not going to be killing them. Help us Lord.
Verse 14. That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. KJV
That we from now on, should not be spiritual children anymore, and what is the sign of a spiritual child? A spiritual child is tossed to and fro, and carried about every time a wind or a spirit of doctrine blows, doctrines are propelled by spirits brethren, spirits preach doctrine, lesser spirits, we know there is only one spirit, but we are down here in hell. We are down here in hell.
So that we should no longer be spiritual children, but we should have doctrine rooted in us, I mentioned this earlier that it should be growing in us, we should have our own garden. Brethren the garden of Eden is supposed to be growing in you, He is in Christ, the garden of Eden is in Christ. Christ is the garden of Eden, and after He is formed in you, your human spirit is going to separate from your carnal mind and flee to the garden of Eden.
Verse 14, That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, by the trickery of men, by the cunning craftiness, this is talking about error and trickery, whereby they lie in wait to trick you. Why would men give you false doctrine, to lie in wait to trick you? For many reasons brethren. Sometimes they want you in their church, sometimes they want your money, sometimes they want your adoration or your idolatry, sometimes they do not have the truth, so they just make up something.
But instead of doing that brethren, we are supposed to be speaking the truth in love, so that we may grow up into Him in all things which is the head, even Christ. Now this is a very important principle here, I have seen God do it over and over and over again, He will come to a person that looks totally incompetent to you and He will say that person is going to be a preacher, that person cannot even stand up on their feet, what do you mean he is going to be a preacher? God calls into existence those things that do not now exist, and He goes to you and He prophesies over you and He says, Preacher, and then He starts a program in your life that is going to produce the fruit that will be necessary for you to be a preacher.
That is what this means to grow up into Him, He set a goal for you, He says, this is what you are going to be. I do not care what you look like now, I do no care how sick you are, I do not care how messed up your mind is, I do not care how messed up your emotions are, I have ordained that you will fill this position in the body of Christ, and I will surely bring it to pass. That is what it means to grow up into Him. In all things, in every area of your life, but speaking the truth in love, let us speak in the agape love, that the truth that comes out of Christ, so that we may grow up into Him in every area of our personality and our life which is the head, even Christ.
God, when God prophesies over you, He prophesies it over the Christ in you, and it does not matter what your carnal mind is like. It does matter what your human failings are, the prophecy is to the Christ in you, and as the Christ arises in you, He kills whatever is necessary in your carnal mind, He breaks whatever curses are on your life that are hindering His plan for you. He is going to remove everybody from your life that is hindering you. If it is someone that He cannot remove, if it is a parent or a husband or a wife, or a child, He will give you the victory over the witchcraft that is keeping you in an ungodly tie to them. Sometimes He removes them out of your life, even if it is a child or a close relative.
Brethren, the Lord is not a gift giver in the sense that He is preached in the church, He is raising up an army of men in whom He will be ruling and reigning. He is going to make you what He has decided you will be, in His army. If He has put His hand on you there really is not much that you have to say about it. As He said to Paul, do not push against the pricks, you are just making it harder for yourself. We have a whole church world pushing against the pricks, even me, I was pushing against the pricks today. Jesus.
Brethren this is His ball game, this is His world, this is His creation, this world and this church is His problem, I am glad it is His and it is not mine. I would probably just kill everybody, that shows you where I am coming from right out of the carnal mind, I would just kill them all. He is going to do it, and He is going to do it His way, He is babying you when you are baby, but when you are old enough to get in the army, do not expect Him to baby you anymore, because you are sure to be disappointed. He has got a plan for your life brethren, and He will bring it to pass, and you will be everything that He has ordained for you to be, no matter what He has to do to bring it to pass, and once He truly receives you, there is no place you can run, so you do well to just ask Him what He has for you, and what He wants for you, and to work with Him, you do not want to be Jonah now do you?
12/07/08rr