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Posts Tagged ‘Dimensions’

The Dimensional Word

Posted in The Living Word, tagged , on May 13, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Scripture reading: Ephesians 3:14-21

All of the Word of God is dimensional and none of it is natural, although it has natural dimensions. For instance, let us take the word baptism. In the natural dimension, this means being immersed in water as a spiritual covenant between the believer and Jesus Christ. In the spiritual sense, it is the baptism of the Holy Ghost. In its fullness, it means the baptism into Christ. The scriptures for these three baptisms are Matthew 3:11 and I Corinthians 12:13.

I will give you another example of the dimensional Word. We can understand what peace is. One definition is the absence of war. This would be the basest plane of peace. On the other hand, we know peace to be calmness and tranquility, which is another dimension of peace. Yet, there is another and higher peace of love between persons and kindness and felicity. But the depth of peace is the peace of God which is on the fourth dimension and beyond the understanding of man.

From my experience, I remember the first day Jesus Christ came into my room and talked with me. My mind, my will, my desires, my emotions were all caught up into a heavenly tranquility, which stilled my whole body and being for the space of nine hours, while He talked with me and I questioned Him concerning the Word. The Scripture describes it thus:

Philippians 4:7, And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Here we see an example of four dimensions of peace, and the fourth, which is the peace of God, passes all understanding.

We read of the dimensions in the word in Ephesians 3:17-19, That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.

From the context we see that only those who are rooted and grounded in love are able to comprehend the four dimensions. The word comprehend in this context means to lay a hold of, to imbibe and appropriate unto oneself. Thus we see the meaning extended beyond the English meaning of comprehend, or not merely to understand. The mystery of spiritual comprehension is that one does not know that he does not know the things he cannot comprehend.

In the natural, a dimension is a measurable extent of any kind as length, breadth, depth, area, volume, etc. We could describe a spiritual dimension as a spiritual realm or frequency of spiritual activity. Just as different frequencies of electrical magnetism might be carrying radio waves and television pictures all through your house while you remain in perfect calm, hearing and seeing nothing, so it is that the spirit world is all around us without our knowledge.

The Word of God and the laws of God exist on all the frequencies at the same time. When, therefore, the Word goes forth from any dimension of God, it permeates all the dimensions, even to the highest heaven and sometimes to the lowest hell. When God speaks a word on the natural plane, we must understand that as we grow in the Spirit, the same word will have a deeper meaning, and yet a deeper meaning, and yet the fullness of the meaning still lies beyond us in the heavenly realms.

There are no barriers to the dimensional power of the Word of God and this power has nothing to do with human faith or belief. One cannot say, “I will believe so and so in order that I might achieve this result or that,” because faith is not under our control, but under the control of the Word of God.

Romans 10:17, So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, December 1993, pg. 3-4)

Thought for today: Even though we cannot always understand the depth of the Word of God, it is still there and available to all who dare to grow deeper in the Spirit.

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Being in Christ

Posted in The Living Word, tagged , , , on May 12, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Scripture reading: John 17:9-23

The Word of God is a great mystery which none of us can claim to fully understand, but more and more the Lord is revealing to us deeper things pertaining to Himself. As we draw closer to the light, we can see clearer and clearer some of the things which were hidden in the past.

The Word of God functions on many different dimensions and we relate to Him according to where we are in God. There are four basic planes upon which our understanding can reach. But beyond these, the planes of the function of the Word are within the spiritual and beyond the veil. Our Lord spoke to Nicodemus that if he could not understand natural things, how would he be able to understand spiritual things. We can easily understand the things on the flat plane, the horizontal plane. But on the vertical plane, there is both height and depth. On the vertical height plane we understand that God is above us, that the realm of heaven is above our realm, and that there are things too high for us. On the depth plane, we have to be in Christ to get deeper in God, therefore, the IN CHRIST situation is a whole new realm of human experience. This experience is beyond the Christ-in-us experience. This position is us-in-Christ as described by our Lord Himself in His prayer to the Father:

John 17:21, That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

The dimension of being IN CHRIST is the place of being overshadowed by Him in all things. When Christ becomes the Head of the believer, then the believer becomes a part of His body. Many believers claim to be in the body of Christ without having Christ as their head in their actual day-to-day life, which we will describe as a fourth dimension living. In order that we might fully understand this thought, allow me to show you by scriptural references the difference between the Christian who is IN CHRIST and the one who is not.

John 17:23, I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

All those who are in Christ are one. This is the only solid united in the world. They do not have to know each other nor do they have to join any organization because they are joined of the Spirit and will never move one against the other. At present, the world does not know this. The world will classify Christians in one mistaken bundle and do not yet recognize that there is a vast difference between those who are in Christ and those who are not. If we are to be specific, then we must recognize that in the church there is an Outer Court, a Holy Place, and a Holy of Holies. (Note: For a more detailed description of these three areas in the Tabernacle of Moses, please read The Pattern.) The Christians in the Holy of Holies are those who are covered by the Shadow of the Almighty, who not only have Christ in them, but are themselves spirit, soul, and body – in Christ. Those who are in the Holy Place are the ones in the realm of the gifts of the Spirit, who have not yet made the supreme sacrifice of the offering up of their soul nature upon the Altar of Incense. This means that total death has not yet occurred in the soul of the believer, which hinders the life of Christ coming forth.

The Holy Place is the place of the soul. It is also the place where Christ enters into the believer’s soul through the ministration of the Holy Ghost. Previous to this, the believer had the Blood of Jesus in his soul, which gave him life. We call it the born-again experience. He was dead in trespasses and sins, and the Blood of Jesus Christ quickened him and brought him life. The next experience of baptism into the death of Christ is designed to bring him into the life of Christ. So, while the Outer Court represents death, the Holy Place represents life. This Life of Christ in the believer is designed of God to lead him through the two stages of the Holy Place: to experience union with Christ in the Lampstand operation, and to feed on Christ and His body, depicted by the Table of Shewbread. The next and final experience of the Holy Place is the offering which God demands before the believer can enter the Holy of Holies and find rest under the shadow of the Almighty. This offering is the most prized possession of a human person – his soul. When this sovereign act is accomplished, the believer loses all his rights. He loses his nationality, his pride, his ancestral endowments, his carnal identity as male or female, and he knows nothing but Christ and His crucifixion.

Galatians 3:27-28, For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

The baptism into Christ mentioned in Galatians 3:27 definitely could not be speaking of baptism in water; neither could it be speaking of anything humanly accomplished. In I Corinthians 12:13 we are told that we are baptized into Christ by the Holy Ghost. This baptism makes us a part of Christ, which part we call His body. The average Christian might read the above passage and think that it gives him or her license to get up and minister in the congregation, but this passage is written for those who are IN CHRIST and cannot be applied otherwise.

We must conclude that being IN CHRIST means that one is in that Fourth Dimension mentioned in Ephesians 3:18 as the depth of Christ.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, December 1993, pg. 1-3)

Thought for today: In order for an individual to be in the body of Christ, Christ must be their head in their actual day-to-day life.

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