Omega Message – April 1983
Cecil J. duCille
EPHESIANS 2
2:1 “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
2:2 “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
2:3 “Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
2:4 “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
2:5 “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
2:6 “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:”
When we were kids and being trained for confirmation in the Anglican Church, we were required to study the Catechism and be able to give the prescribed answers at our confirmation, and that would make us full fledged members of the church. Today, in the “Sons of God” movement, (the people who are striving to go beyond Pentecost) there seems to be another sort of Catechism being taught and learnt: A great deal of head-knowledge and very little heart knowledge.
In order to be in the First Fruits Company one must imbibe the very nature of God and become what he preaches, not just believing but living.
The inconsistencies of the people of the Body of Christ show that we are not growing in proportion to our revelation. If we were, then the manifestation in our outer court (our bodies) would show a much greater disparity, than can be seen at this time. Wherever there is weakness in a people, it shows up more in the women and the children. I trust therefore, that the sisters will forgive me if I use them as the example:
If we should take the brethren from the different spiritual realms of the Born-Again-people- The Evangelicals, the Pentecostals and the Sons of God (so called for want of a better word), then we would find no perceptible difference in their outward behaviour: Spiritual example, talk, dress, devisiveness, intention to manipulate others, carnal, weaknesses, lack of self control, and the greatest of them all LOVE.
About a week ago, the Lord came to me in the early hours of the morning and for many hours impressed this message upon me about the seriousness of the position of having knowledge and not applying it in our daily living moment by moment.
The cat jumps on the table and turns over a jug of milk, and immediately a word of curse is sent flying after the cat with, maybe a foot or shoes. For those who are striving after fullness in Christ this is sin, and it is a blessing if we can see it as such and deal with it immediately, knowing that it manifests something that is within us and not of God.
Ephesians 2:2 “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:”
It is time that we begin to look at the little things –
Song of Solomon 2:15 “The little foxes that destroy the vine.”
I trust the men do not believe that I have forgotten them, because I know that whatever is wrong with the women is also wrong with the men, the only difference being that the men will hide certain things more than women.
If we are walking from Passover (salvation experience) to Pentecost (Baptism, Consecration, Sanctification) and on to the final Feast of Tabernacles (Completion of God’s Perfect will for man), then there must be some marked change between the people of the different stages. The people who do not believe in the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and the speaking in tongues should have much less power to resist sin, and should show less of the Spiritual nature of God – Love – than those who do believe in the Holy Ghost. Of course all this is assuming that the position of the Pentecostal is correct, who believes that he is born again and given life by the Blood of Jesus Christ, BUT he receives Christ in the form of the Holy Spirit when he is Baptized in the Holy Ghost.
Galatians 3:27 “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
Is it possible to be Baptized into Christ and NOT put on Christ, and still live in self? No! Those who are Baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. Those who have not put on Christ have not been baptized into Christ. It is the Holy Spirit who baptizes the believer into Christ and the Holy Spirit cannot make a mistake. The term “Put on Christ” means that the believer has Christ not only inside, but on the outside. He wears Christ as one wears his clothes. The term “Put on Christ” was meant by the Apostle to convey just such a meaning. – Wrapped up, covered over, blanketed in Christ. One would see Christ before seeing the believer, or like our garments, the blend of Christ and the believer would be just beautiful, and complement each other.
The Putting on of Christ is a spiritual process which is as natural to the believer as growing is natural to a healthy child. If the believer does not grow into Christ and put on Christ, then there is sin in his-her life arresting the growth. The Holy Ghost is always reproving the believer of sin, righteousness and of Judgment, therefore if the believer cannot see his own sin, he is resisting the Holy Ghost. One can resist the Holy Ghost to a point where His voice of reproof is a mere whisper, and very hard to hear.
The people of the End-Time Body of Christ who have come out of the Organized Churches and are meeting in homes and buildings of all description, are guilty of RESISTING THE HOLY GHOST. This is the same sin which caused Christianity to fall into Apostasy in the first place.
Every Time We Disobey Christ We Obey the Devil:
Every time we resist the Holy Ghost, we go along with Satan as inadvertent partners – submitting to the “spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience”.
Christ enters into the Believer in order that the Believer might enter into Christ. When the believer has entered into Christ then he/she puts on Christ for all to see.
Christ first gave the believer His life at Salvation. The Blood of Jesus Christ is the Life of God given to us to Rebirth us, which brought us out of Death into LIFE. The Holy Ghost, is God Himself. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive God and Christ is in God. Now, this is done in order that we should walk in God even as Christ is in God. We see then, that we receive, God in order that we might live in God. When a person receives God and does not walk and talk and live in God, then he/she is resisting the very person whom he received.
What Does It Mean?
Many times we hear phrases like ‘Walking in Christ’, and they do not carry the force of meaning to our hearts, because we do not fully understand what they really mean. The phrase ‘Walking in Christ’, means that the believer has a daily, hourly, minutely, commitment with Jesus Christ, to act, live, and think, in his/her natural life as Christ would, under the absolute leadership or headship of God.
Quickened in the Mind:
Ephesians 2:5 “……Quickened us together with Christ…..”
The quickening of Christ in the human mind, changes the Pattern of the Thoughts. The believer is not left alone to struggle with a wild untamed, unruly mind, trying to hijack him at every turn. But Christ Rebukes the demons from the mind and literally pulls down the Helmet of Salvation over the forehead of the believer.
Once the believer surrenders to Christ and ceases from operating his mind as an instrument of unrighteousness, then by faith, Christ will move in his mind. The mind is the head of the soul. An unclean mind makes the whole soul impure.
Proverbs 24:7 “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he..”
The first quickening that the mind receives comes from the Blood of Jesus Christ – a dead mind becomes a living mind. The Second quickening comes when the Holy Ghost enters into the Spirit of the believer and radiates His Glory into the Soul. All that is required of the believer is that he SUBMIT to the Holy Spirit. Stubbornness or Rebellion prevents this surrender. The daily walking out of this surrender or submission to the Holy Spirit is a more technical matter than it sounds on paper. The Greatest Asset The Christian Has In Obeying The Holy Ghost Is His/Her Desire To Hear The Spirit.
John 7:17 “If anyone desires to do the will of God, he will know concerning the teaching, whether I speak of God or of myself.”
A true desire to know God and His truth, throws the onus back upon God, so that He by His own laws is bound to enlighten the believer. All the believer needs therefore, is an honest heart, and a pure desire to know the Lord. This desire must be as A Burning Fire which remains with the believer day and night.
Hindrances:
The mind is a peculiar instrument of God that cannot function on two levels at the same time. It must either be spiritual or carnal. If it delves deeply in the material, it cannot be spiritual. It will seem to be spiritual, but will translate spiritual matters carnally, which is one of the worse traps one can find oneself into. ‘The cares of this life’ and the ‘deceitfulness of riches’ CHOKE the word. The SPIRITUAL MIND on the other hand, will TRANSLATE CARNAL MATTERS spiritually.
This would be a good example: I used to work in an office where the men were always making rude and unseemly jokes. They would sometimes call my attention to the jokes, BUT every time this was done I had an appropriate scripture to suggest and this frustrated them so that one day in disgust, one of the men remarked, “You must know the whole bible.” Another time there was a big furor over a man streaking through a crowd, and while they were all laughing, I remarked that God had told the prophet to do just that to bring forth His message to Israel concerning their own nakedness. It is written:
Titus 1:15 “To the pure all things are pure; but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving, is nothing pure.”
The conclusion is that if the mind is filled with things of the world, we will have no peace, neither will we be able to progress spiritually. This is the reason for the widespread immaturity of the churches and the lack of spiritual understanding among the brethren. Churches which preach all the carnal things; and offer different escapes routes from financial, political, social and spiritual problems; are growing by leaps and bounds.
Quickened in the Emotions:
The human emotions in scripture is often described as a lion. When the emotions are quickened by the Spirit of God, then it responds more and more to God, and the feelings of God on any subject, gradually becomes the motivation for the believer. The scripture says:
James 1:2 “Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptation;”
The question here is HOW? How do I joy while I am being tempted? It is possible, but only through the KNOWLEDGE THAT IT IS WORKING PATIENCE IN ME. This cannot be done by human endeavour, but only by faith in the QUICKENING OF THE SPIRIT in me. I know that all things work together for good to them that love God, but under ‘the grind of circumstances’ all that I have to sustain me is the fact that I do know for sure that some way some how this thing is going to work for my good, because my FATHER GOD says so.
Upon the foundation of this sure knowledge I begin to feel the emotions of that which is to come, thus I am able to forestall the present emotions of sorrow or fear, or pain, and feel JOY. This joy therefore could not relate to the present circumstances in the natural, but reaches out beyond the natural to the realms of the spiritual to bring new life and energy into a darkened area.
If the emotions of the believer can be affected by outside influence, to cause the believer to sin, then the believer is not grounded, and will be tossed about at the will of Satan.
All of us seem to be in a realm where we can be affected by the influence of outside forces to some degree. This therefore, is the degree to which the enemy has yet some control over us. We must learn to close the orifices so that there is no crack in our armor, that emotionally we will only respond to God and the things which are God ordained.
Damaged Emotions:
There are so many who have been emotionally wounded, so that the areas through which God wants to express himself in the believer’s life have been ‘battered and bruised’, leaving a certain sensitiveness. This condition can only be healed by true agape love. No amount of psychological treatment is going to do the job.
In times past we participated in emotional sins and some of us as Christians have a hang-over from those days. The sins and the ones with whom we participated in the past do have a right to return to tempt us now that we are sanctified. When this happens, if the believer returns to his sin, then they will have double power over that believer. I have seen Christians find a doctrine which enables them to continue in sin having burnt their consciences with a ‘hot iron’. I know of a case where a brother was unfaithful to his wife and after several trials and repentances, he finally came up with the doctrine that Polygamy is right – that he should have more than one wife – of course, he justified it all from scripture.
This is an extreme case, but I have known of couples who commit sins in their married life by participating emotionally the way they used to when they were in the world;
Ephesians 2:2 “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:”
Just as we sin by usurpation in the Body of Christ; (One brother wanting to do the other person’s job, leaving his own undone,) so also many sin emotionally using the different organs of their body for the wrong purposes. Emotional sins go along with emotional devils. They damage the seat of Christ in the Soul. Christ and Christ alone must reign in the soul. Marriages must be held together by LOVE and not by any other thing. We must marry in Christ and we must stay in Him. Soundness in character and modesty in apparel are qualities that should be encouraged in the Christian world. The phrase ‘clothes line preacher’ that was tagged on Pentecostal preachers, had its justification, in that a dress code does not furnish spirituality, although explicit and particularly rude dressing habits, show some form of demon motivation. Believers should live in the sanctification and conviction that the Holy Spirit brings, and not be lured by the world’s standards. Giving way to worldliness causes one to come under the influence and power of the demoniac kingdom.
Ephesians 2:5 “Even when we were dead in sins, (He) hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
2:6 “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:”
We are a royal priesthood and a holy nation and must rise above the styles and the emotional traps which Satan has set for us. The seat of Christ must be cleansed for His imminent appearing. This is the area which Jesus Christ our Lord must occupy.
Quickened in the Desires:
Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”
Spiritual hunger is blessed of God. It is not in man to be hungry after God, but every good desire comes from God.
Philippians 2:13 “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”
Man in himself has no desire toward God. It is God in us that gives us holy desires, therefore, unless the desires are quickened, they will remain in darkness. The Blood of Jesus first quickened the desires, then the Holy Ghost poured more life into it, thus a person who has received the Baptism of the Spirit should possess a more lively desire after God than one who is not.
When however, the believer is Baptized in the Spirit, and He or she does not show these signs of life, then he is either resisting the Holy Ghost or his Baptism is questionable. There is a lot of false Baptisms in the church. Many speak in tongues and are not Baptized. It is Christ who Baptizes the believer into the Holy Spirit. The soul of the believer should desire Christ more than anything or anyone else. Some of the believers desire to speak in tongues more than they desire Christ.
Mark 11:24 “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them, “
The desires are a part of the Soul, a part of God’s habitation, we must be careful how we desire, and desire God more than our very lives.
Psalms 38:9 “Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire but thee.”
Isaiah 26:9 “With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.”
Psalms 42:1 “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
42:2 “My soul thirsteth for thee for the living God…..”
To desire Christ above all other desires is placing a right perspective in the soul. Christ first and every-thing else will fall into it’s proper place.
Once I asked the Lord how can I defeat the devil that he would find nothing in me. He replied, “Desire nothing.” The enemy of our souls works upon our desires more than in any other realm of the human soul. Jesus said:
John 14:30 “The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me.”
Quickened in the Will:
The will to serve God, to pray, to meditate to do the perfect will of God comes to us through the working of the Holy Spirit. It is not in man to will to do the will of God, but God gives the anointing which makes this possible. Opening up one’s Mind and Emotions and Desires to God will set the Will.
Woe be unto those who allow evil desires to motivate them.
God gave Israel a Judge and a Prophet, but Israel desired to have a king like all the other nations around them. (They wanted to be in style.) God gave them the desire of their heart in His permissive will but the best choice of Israel was not good enough. It Amounted To Rejection Of God. When We Accept Anything Else But His Perfect Will, Then We Reject God. Before we get near to that mark of perfection which god has ordained for us, we must cast every human desire, and every satanic desire from our souls and rise to meet Him in the Spirit.
In Order to Do This We Must Have Our Will Set on the Mark of the High Calling in Christ Jesus.
In conclusion let me say that the spirit to manipulate others is the spirit of the Anti-Christ. This spirit is rampant in the church and in order to eradicate it we must eradicate it from ourselves first. Whatever is within must be manifested without. Those who are walking in a higher spiritual realm are those who have overcome the wicked one and have risen above the control of demons.
Everyone Who Loves To Control Others, Is Himself Controlled By Another.
For Christ’s sake let us take the cleansing of the temple seriously!
Sonlight Devotional 