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Posts Tagged ‘Body of Christ’

Christ in the Soul

Posted in Growing in God, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 12, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: John 12:20-26

When we accepted Jesus Christ, we received life. The Blood of Jesus Christ is the life of God. This is what we received in our souls which were dead in trespasses and sins. This life had to help us die to the alien life of sin which had occupied the soul. Then, we had the self-life, which also had to die. So we see that when we accepted Christ as our Savior, it was a matter of submitting to death in order to receive life. When that process is completed, then we begin to enter into Christ. Paul, speaking to the Corinthian Christians in I Corinthians 12:13, declares, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body.”

We are not baptized into the body of Christ until the body of sin and self is given a death-blow. If sin is still reigning in our members, then it was not fully dealt with. The grain of corn cannot bring forth a new life until it has given up its own life. We must die to live and that life does not begin until the death is complete. This is all done by faith.

The divine order of the entering into Christ is shown in the tabernacle of Moses by the three veils. The first veil is called the Gate, the second is called the Door, and the third is called the Veil. The door is Christ, and the entering in is preceded by the washing at the Laver, which is death to self and a complete surrender to Christ. Self cannot be on the throne and, at the same time, Christ be crowned as King. One King must depose the other. Even more than being deposed, ONE KING MUST SLAY THE OTHER so that there is no further possibility of a coup to regain the throne.

THE ENTERING IN OF CHRIST INTO THE SOUL of man is a conscious act of man’s will, which is preceded by the three BAPTISMS of death.

There must be a death before there can be a resurrection. The three baptisms are:

  1. Baptism in water, the baptizer being human
  2. Baptism in the Holy Ghost, the baptizer being Jesus Christ
  3. Baptism into Christ, the baptizer being the Holy Ghost

Christ enters into us, then we begin to enter into Christ. Just as the Holy Ghost enters into us, then we begin to live in the Spirit.

When Christ enters the soul as King, He begins His rule on earth within the individual. HE MUST REIGN TILL ALL ENEMIES ARE PUT UNDER HIS FEET, even death. We see, therefore, that He brings life and immortality to light by the gospel (II Timothy 1:10). The beast nature of man is being changed to the nature of the Christ.

We can see then that we can have Holy Spirit occupying our spirits, but not our souls as the five foolish virgins had in Matthew 25. This stands to reason why, although we receive the Holy Spirit, we still have the power to reject His counsel and have our own way. It also is the reason why we still fall into sin though having the Holy Spirit of God within us. The process of the Kingdom of God gently seeps into every area of our lives with our own free will consent, just as the leaven that leavens the whole three lumps of the woman’s meal in Matthew 13:33.

(Excerpt from The Pattern, pg. 148-149)

Thought for today: Let us give way in our souls to the Holy Spirit so that He may fill our vessel and conquer every sin in our lives.

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My Vision of the Lord Jesus Christ – Part 2

Posted in Time of the End, tagged , , , , , , on July 21, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Revelation 11:3

Let us look at Brother Hicks’s vision from our previous devotional in more detail. The Scriptures declares that when a vision is repeated three times, it is a sure sign that it will surely come to pass. I believe this is the case with this vision of Brother Tommy Hicks.

  1. The vision begins with what I believe to be a past condition of the Body of Christ: lying in the dust, covered with the debris and myriads of demons. The body began to quiver and convulse, which is the first sign of awakening. This vision was given in July of 1961, and I believe that the body commenced its convulsions from somewhere around 1948.

You will note that there was first a trembling before the convulsions. The trembling began way back at Azusa Street in Los Angeles, somewhere around 1907. But in 1948, God anointed many ministries, and each one was given the opportunity of preaching the message of the Kingdom or whatever else was chosen. We saw men like William Branham, who is the first man I heard preach a word against the denominational system and make a clear call to humanity to turn from the Babylonish denominations to Christ as head of the Church. It was necessary for a man like Branham to make mistakes, or else men would worship him; therefore, we will not think about the mistakes or faults of these men, but let us think of the ministry which God brought to the Body.

Wigglesworth, Finney, Howe (The builder of Zion City, Chicago), Tommy Hicks, Jack Coe, A. A. Allen, Oral Roberts, Miller (Argentina), McPherson, Seymour—I could fill this page with names. These were genuine miracle workers who God used to bring not only the Church but the world to a new consciousness of His power.

  1. The right arm being lifted up—I am convinced that some of the people of God are His right arm in the earth. The right arm of the Body of Christ is being lifted up in our time, and I believe we will soon see it reaching up into the heavens. The thundering from heaven is the blowing of the Fifth Trumpet (or message), which calls humanity to total surrender to Christ, and the giving up of every other head which rivals the headship of Christ in our lives. This precedes the raising of the left hand, which speaks of the awakening of the people of God who did not catch the first vision, but will recognize the moving of God among one segment of the Body and will repent of their laxity.
  2. The pouring out of the Spirit of God upon this generation is imminent. There is absolutely no doubt that the revival of all revivals is about to break upon us. This great pouring out of the Spirit will bring to pass the rest of the prophecy of Joel, which Peter said commenced with Pentecost. It did not end with Pentecost, but it will end with TABERNACLES. “BEHOLD, GOD HAS TABERNACLED HIMSELF WITHIN MAN” (literal translation of Revelation 21:3).
  3. The pouring out of the liquid light upon the people of the Body is certified by the Word of God in Revelation 11:3, “And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and three score days, clothed in sackcloth.”

The two witnesses are the Spirit and the Word being manifested in human beings—the power of the living Christ Himself with the Firstfruits Company. These will move and walk in the Christ ministry for three and a half years. Even as Jesus Christ ministered in His flesh and blood body for three and a half years, so will the Church. What follows then in the vision is only a description of the Man Child ministry being caught up into the heavenlies, yet ministering here on earth, pushing back the forces of Satan.

  1. It is noteworthy that at one point, some of the brethren turned back from this anointing, because they had lost their positions of pastors, apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers; because the Body of Christ had risen up in maturity and was doing everything and more than these ministries did before.
  2. THE FINAL STAGE OF THIS VISION SAW THE RESURRECTION OF THE SAINTS, AND THEIR BEING CAUGHT UP TO THE THRONE OF GOD. IT IS TRUE THAT WE SHALL BE EXALTED TO THE HIGHEST HEAVENS, AND THAT WE SHALL REIGN AND RULE WITH HIM ON EARTH.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, August 1989)

Thought for today: Behold, God has tabernacled himself within man.

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Who Are the Dead in Christ?

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , , , on July 11, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: I John 3:23-24

In our previous devotionals we have talked about dying to sin, but what are the signs of being dead in Christ. Those who are dead in the natural have no feelings, and are not involved in the things of the living anymore. So it is those who are dead in Christ – they are not involved in carnality and sinfulness. They do not willfully sin, would be more specific.

I John 3:23-24, “And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.”

Those who abide in Christ are dead – dead to sin. If sin calls, they will not answer because they are dead, but if righteousness calls, they will answer and be ready to obey. It is like a machine that is tuned to one frequency and will not be stirred by another.

2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

The terminology “in Christ” means “under the headship of Christ”, or in other words, “be in the body of Christ.” The beginning of the New Creation Man therefore is In Christ. When Christ becomes the head of the individual, then that person is in Christ. Christ comes into the believer in order to take the believer into Christ. The believer has Christ within his spirit when he is baptized with the Holy Ghost and not before then. This is clearly stated in John 14:17 that there are two operations of the Holy Spirit – with and within.

The dead are those who have crucified the flesh:

Galatians 5:24, “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.”

God hides those who are dead in Christ:

Colossians 3:3, “For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.”

Jesus heals us spiritually, not just naturally by His stripes:

I Peter 2:25, “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes we were healed.”

The believer is being asked of God to attend his own crucifixion every morning he rises. Being dead to sin is not one mighty act of sacrifice and it’s all over with, but a daily uphill task of bringing the members of one’s body under Divine Control. The man whose eyes are used to roving will find that his eyes will, even without his conscious participation, BUT when he submits this condition to God, he will as it were catch up himself just before he commits the crime.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, August 1984)

Thought for today: Let us attend to our own crucifixion today and bring the members of our body under Divine Control.

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God Is Creating a People

Posted in Body of Christ, tagged , , , on May 30, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Colossians 2:9-12

I have heard God speaking in our congregation in our songs, and in prophetic words. We thank God that there is prophesy in the Body of Christ in the midst of us; that God is speaking through the Body in prophesy. You see, God created a prophetic ministry so that the prophesy would be given to the Body. I don’t know if you understand it. The minister ministers to the Body and then the Body ministers. The end result of the ministry is for the Body to minister. The prophetic ministry will be abolished one day. The apostolic ministry will be abolished. All of the other ministries will also be abolished. But guess what we will be? When God abolishes the ministry, the WHOLE BODY will become the ministry, and then you will turn around and minister to the world. This is what God is training you for – to minister to the whole world; to bring the world alive! Because death will not triumph over God’s creation; God’s creation must triumph over death! So that there is no way that Satan is going to have anything near a victory, and we are the people who God is training to use. Now when I say, “We are the people”, please believe me, that WE ARE THE PEOPLE! I didn’t mean us, I mean WE.

In other words, God is creating a people to finish the job that Peter, Paul, James, John, and the apostles began. He is using a people to finish it. When God made Adam, He knew all the trouble that was going to come. He knew all of the destruction, but He looked at Adam and He said, “It is good.” (Genesis 1:31). It was a prophetic Word. God said that ‘it was good’, when it wasn’t good, but He saw things that are not as if they were. God saw that we would come forth and be victorious. So when we sing our songs about Zion, I wonder if we know what we are singing. We are singing about Zion, the very heights of God’s creation, that God is creating within you. You sing, “Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10).

God has not only given us the prophetic ministry, but He has also given us prophets. Prophets are people whose duty it is to prophesy. They have a job, and their job is to prophesy. But then the daughters of Philip prophesied, yet they were not prophets. But there was a prophet named Agabus. (Acts 21:9-10) So God is creating a prophetic nation, a prophetic body. He is creating an apostolic Body. You don’t have to worry about trying to be an apostle now. It is not your time. Your time will soon come when all the ministry of God will be incorporated in the Body, when God incorporates the Body with the fullness of Himself. The Scripture says that Jesus Christ was the “Godhead bodily” incorporated (Colossians 2:9); a walking, talking, God-man. He was the prototype of what God is making us to be.

You have to understand that I am not perfect, BUT I have a Spirit that is perfect. If I can only keep my ears and my heart to follow that Spirit, I will deceive you that I am perfect. I will act like I am perfect and some of you actually believe it. But it’s not true! NEVERTHELESS, I have a perfect Spirit and that is what you are seeing. Do you understand that I am talking about you? The same pertains to you!

(Excerpt from Breaking Through the Veil, a message given in July 2006 in Illinois)

Thought for today: God is training you to minister to the whole world, to bring the world alive.

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Rise up and Do

Posted in Body of Christ, tagged , on May 16, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Psalm 40:7-8

As the days go by, we find God changing the word that comes forth. This is one of the reasons we cannot preach “canned” sermons, because the “can” would be producing the same thing that it produced last year. But we find the word changing and the clarity of it is increasing. Even the same old word is coming more alive. I believe you are finding the same thing: that there is liveliness about the word of God that is coming forth in the body of Christ.

The body of Christ must be alive. The body must minister. God does not have a class of people called ministers. Did you know that? He does not have a class of people called ministers. God has set in the body apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. But where is the ministry? The ministry is in the body. This means there is no one who can come and say, “God sent me to minister to you,” unless he is a functioning part of the body. We are only different parts of the body of Christ. The finger is as alive as the toe, but the finger cannot do what the toe does; neither can the toe do what the finger does; but it is just as much alive.

God is directing us to an even more detailed understanding of what the body of Christ really is. He wants us to begin to walk in the body and live in the body. That is, if you cannot live as a body member, you are not of the body. We have too many dead members. Or, let’s put it a little better: members that will not exercise their rights to move and to live and to do what God wants us to do. In other words, God is feeding us more energy now; more life is coming forth now into the body than there was before, because this is the time when we are going to have to rise up and do.

(Excerpt from “Led of the Spirit”, Foundational Teachings #F077)

Thought for today: This is the time when we are going to have to rise up and do what God wants us to do.

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