268 - Part 8
JESUS IN THE BOOK OF JOHN

Part 8 of 10 Parts

 

The Following Message Has Been Transcribed For
Clarity, Continuity Of Thought, And Punctuation
By The LEM Transcribing & Editing Team.

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But Christ is not divided. There is only one true doctrine, and any measure of disagreement in the doctrine is the carnal mind appearing somewhere. Now the carnal mind could be appearing -- it could be appearing in me. I could be preaching you for six months straight in perfection; everything I say could be right on. And because I am not perfect, it is possible that my doctrine could be contaminated with something coming from the carnal mind. But everyone that is speaking doctrine out of Christ is in agreement because there is only one doctrine of Christ. Therefore, we should not debate over doctrine, brethren; you should not debate over it.

 

But Jesus said He came with the doctrine of the one who sent Him, and this is how you are going to know that doctrine when you hear it. "If any many will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself." Now, brethren, that does not necessarily mean instantly, and a lot of people that hear this doctrine reject it. Most people reject it initially because it is so radically different from the doctrine of man, but this is a promise to you. It is a promise to you. If you do the will of the Father, He will reveal His doctrine to you. You will get the witness in your heart.

 

Now that means that you have to have a relationship with the Lord where you are really in submission to Him. People that pay lip service to the Lord are not going to recognize His doctrine when they hear it. Why? Because they are serving their own self, and oneself is not served in this doctrine. This doctrine says it is not the other guy's fault, but it is sin in you that is the source of every problem you have. Now that does -- do not take a copout on this. That does not mean that I am on the other guy's side and I am against you; it means that the Lord has commanded us to walk victoriously over every spiritual problem that every other man has, to take the victory in the encounter, to take the victory in the conflict over other people's sins. And the only way we will ever take the victory over other people's sins is if we first take the victory over our own sin.

 

So, therefore, when you have a conflict with your brother, God's answer to your problem is to get before the Lord. Find out what in you is manifesting that is not of God. Get it cleaned up, and then you could go to that person with a righteous motive. What does that mean? An unrighteous motive is going to that person to show them their sins to il- -- to preserve self. A righteous motive is showing that person their sins because you are OK, but you really want to help them in Christ, so, so long as the turmoil is in you, God says look at yourself before you look at your brother. Then when you get yourself cleaned up, then you go to your brother because -- why? There is no condemnation in Christ. Because if you go to your brother when you are all upset, you are going to wou- -- wind up punching each other out, if not physically, with your mouth, and that is not the answer. So the Lord says separate; pull back. Separate for a season. Get your own self in order, and then come together in Christ, and God knows what He is talking about.

 

So the Lord says the only people that are going to recognize the doctrine of Christ are the people who do His will, and it could be for a season God will tell you this doctrine is of Me. I want you to study this doctrine even though you do not have the witness in your heart that it is of Me. But those people who can hear from the Father and study or attend a fellowship because God placed them in that fellowship, in due season you will understand the doctrine. If you are -- for example, if you are sitting under this doctrine out of obedience -- excuse me. If you do not understand it but you do know that you have heard from your God and He told you to be here, you will know the doctrine. Why? Because He who does the will of My Father will know the doctrine.

 

So we see that we cannot pick the church that we go to, and neither can we control our spiritual life, but that God is requiring obedience. And when we do what He tells us, we will understand the doctrine, and in that doctrine is life, not in the doctrine itself, but in the whole spiritual experience, which gives rise to our understanding, the doctrine comes forth the mind of Christ in which there is life. But the bottom line is obedience. Everybody OK?

 

Verse 18, "He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh His glory that sent Him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him."

 

So the man who speaks out of his carnal mind seeks his own glory. He wants to make disciples unto himself. Sometimes it -- he wants money; sometimes he wants fame; sometimes he wants the praises of men, but he is seeking his own glory. That means a man who is preaching his own doctrines will lay off and cease from doing it if there is no glory unto him. If he tries and he tries and he tries and he has no followers and there is no money in it and there is no power in it and there is nothing of this world in it, he will give up on it. Why? Because his root motive is his own glory. But if one preaches out of obedience to Christ because the Lord has said preach this doctrine and there is glory to Me in it, then that is a sign that this doctrine is of Christ.

 

You know, I have to tell you Celia is the only one that I ever -- I am not saying that no one else thought this, but she is the only one who has ever voiced this, and to be honest with you I never thought of it myself, that there is really very little lit- -- very little recompense from the world for me in preaching this doctrine, and now I am getting a lot more than I ever got. I have been preaching this for six years with very -- at the beginning, very little response, reproach, rejection, criticism, hatred, all kinds of financial difficulties and all kinds of problems, and I have been doing it because God told me to do it. And there has been very little in it for me except reproach until very recently, and that is one of the signs that the doctrine is of God because man is not going to want it. And I have had all kinds of people come here and tell me look at the size of your group. I had all kinds of cruel things said to me, but I cannot even take the glory for not giving up because God had such a hold on me that I could not give up; I still cannot. That is my whole life. My life is controlled by God.

 

I told you this morning I went upstate yesterday. All I have to do is know for sure that it is God, and I would have hopped up there on one foot. That is the kind of influence God has on my life. With regard to this doctrine, I am not able to stop. I thought I was dying when I went into the hospital three years ago. You know, all I could think about was who is going to take these master recordings. Who is going to t- -- I really thought I was not coming out of the hospital. Who is going to be responsible for these master recordings? That was all I could think about. It was God's gold that His people would recognize at some time. The time is coming. We are not going to be able to duplicate these messages quickly enough; there is going to be such a demand for them.

 

So that is a sign, when there is no worldly recompense for the teacher or very little worldly recompense. It is a sign that the doctrine may very well be of God. "But he that seeketh the glory the -- of the one who sent him, the same is true, and there is no" -- or the same is the truth, or the same is speaking the truth, and there is no unrighteousness in him. In anyone who has actually listened to me at any length and does not believe that I glorify Jesus Christ is not listening to my messages because I glorify Jesus Christ.

 

Verse eightee- -- verse 19, "Did Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why do you go about to kill Me?"

 

Moses gave you the law, and none of you keepeth the law. How come none of you keepeth the law? It is impossible to keep the law, brethren. I suggest to you that Jesus was not speaking about the Mosaic law because it is possible to keep the Mosaic law because the Mosaic law says every time you sin in your heart or in your mind or with your mouth or with your behavior, that all you have to do is bring a sacrifice to the priest, and you are clean.

 

And we are told that Job was perfect, and I have suggested to you in other teachings that Job was perfect in his keeping of the law. He certainly was not a perfect man. He was filled with pride and rebellion and fear, so he certainly was not a perfect man, but he was perfect in his keeping of the law. Every time he sinned, he confessed it and brought a sacrifice to the priest. So you have to read Jesus' words very carefully.

 

Listen, He said, did Moses not give you the law? And -- but yet none of you can keep the spiritual law of God. And how do I know that is what He meant? The sa- -- well, the first reason I know that that was what Jesus meant, the first reason I know that Jesus was not saying you cannot keep the law of Moses is that I know that a lot of Pharisees kept the l- -- He was speaking to the Pharisees. They kept the law of Moses. They fasted, and they made long prayers. Jesus says it Himself in the Gospels. They did all of these things that the law called for, but what really clinched it, what really clinches that Jesus is saying, "Why do you go about to kill Me?" And they said who is going about to kill you? That is the proof that Jesus was speaking about the spiritual law.

 

He said Moses gives you the law, but you do not keep the spiritual law of God. And this is how I know that you do not keep the spiritual law of God: I am looking into your heart. I am looking deep into your motives, and I see murder in your heart. And I know you have never physically killed anybody, but I see the sin of murder in your heart, even though you have the law of Moses. Why? Because these Pharisees were saying we have the law of Moses, and that makes us righteous. They were saying we have the law of Moses; we keep the law of Moses, and we are righteous. And Jesus said, you have the law of Moses, but you do not keep the spiritual law of God. And I am looking in your heart, and I see murder there, and that is how I know you are not keeping the spiritual law.

 

So we see the Pharisees speaking about natural things and Jesus speaking about spiritual things, and there is absolutely no communication whatsoever. And I declare to you, brethren, that there can be no communication between someone who speaks -- between two people with one person speaking on the natural level and the other person speaking on the spiritual level. You will never communicate. Now either the spiritual person has to get carnal, or the carnal person has to get spiritual, and I declare to you that I am drawing a conclusion from all of my to- -- my readings in the Scripture. I have never, ever seen Jesus get carnal. In every encounter that Jesus had with a Pharisee where the Pharisee was carnal and Jesus was spiritual and there was no communication at all, I have never, ever seen Jesus get carnal.

 

The lesser or the weaker must arise to where the greater is. The spiritual law of God will never bow its knee to the carnal minds of men, and there is no healing in it; there is no purpose in it; there is no glory to God in it. Therefore, the person that is manifesting the Spirit of Christ must be gentle in kind, but by the power of Christ, attempt to reach these carnal people, and when necessary rebuke them, rebuke their carnal mind so that the teaching can go in. Excuse me. So Jesus saw murder in the hearts of the Pharisees, but the Pharisees could not see murder in their own heart.

 

And Jesus said, in verse 21, "I have done one work, and you all marvel." And if remember, I reverse -- I referred you back to verse 15, and it says, "The Jews marveled, saying, How could Jesus have all this knowledge, never having gone to Bible school?"

 

And we have some people with all this knowledge that do not even know how to read and write. I heard a testimony once from an English -- a British gypsy who said the Spirit of God visited their entire gypsy camp, and gypsies do not -- they are illiterate; they do not learn how to read and write. And he said the Spirit of God fell on them, and this particular man who is now a minister, he said he did not even know until years later, when he finally learned to read and write and read the Bible, that they were moving in the full nine gifts of the Spirit.

 

And, of course, there are many testimonies of illiterate people having the ability to read the Bible. I am sure everyone has heard a testimony like that somewhere along the line. They cannot read anything except the Bible. I heard that testimony personally from one woman, very ignorant woman, and that is a Bible word. It is not a bad word, very ignorant woman with much pain and darkness in her life. And she fell down on her knees at a moment of great pain and said, Lord, if You do not do something, I am just going to die from this emotional pain. And what the Lord did for her was give her an ability to read the Bible, so you never -- that is why you should not ever tell God what the answer to your problem is; you never know what He is going to do. But that woman could not read, but to the day that she gave me the testimony, she could read the Bible. That was what He -- instantly, she came up off her knees, and she could read the Bible.

 

Verse 22, "Moses therefore gave you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;)" -- Jesus is saying circumcision was not given to you by Moses, but this comes from the covenant that their father, Abraham, made with Jehovah. Circumcision is not of the law of Moses. It was ori- -- that was -- circumcision was the -- one of the confirmations of the covenant between Abraham and Jehovah.

 

And Jesus says, "And yet on the Sabbath day, ye circumcise a man. If a man on the Sabbath day receives circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; are you angry at Me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day?"

 

What Jesus is saying is that there is a law which is greater than the law of Moses, and He said you even know that yourself, that there is a law which is greater than Moses because you know that circumcision, the law that says a male -- all the males have to be physically circumcised, that law comes from Abraham's covenant with Jehovah. And you know that the spiritual law is greater than the law of Moses because when there is a conflict, Mose- -- the law of Moses says you shall do no work on the Sabbath; you shall do no servile work; you shall do no physical labor, and that includes circumcising a man, but that the law of the Father says all male children shall be circumcised on the eighth day.

 

So if the eighth day falls on a Saturday, which is the Hebrew Sabbath, which law prevails? Which law is greater, the law of Moses or the law that arises out of the covenant that Abraham made with Jehovah or that Jehovah made with Abraham? And Jesus says you know that the spiritual law is greater, that the covenant that Jehovah made with Abraham is greater than the law of Moses. You know it yourself because you will circumcise a baby boy on the eighth day, even when it falls on a Saturday.

 

So Jesus is telling the Pharisees you know there is a greater law than the law of Moses, yet you have idolatry for this law of Moses, and you think salvation is in it, but salvation is not in it. And I say to the church today: You think there is salvation in speaking in tongues, but there is no salvation in it. Salvation is in the spiritual law of God, and you cannot keep it. You do not have what it takes to keep the spiritual law of God; that is why you need a savior. You need Christ in you keeping the law through you. Therefore, what Christ has done on Calvary cannot save you until it gets inside of you and is reproduced in your own heart.

 

The law of Christ must be an internalized law controlling your mind. When the law of Christ is internalized in you, thinking through you, doing through you, living through you and expressing righteousness through you, you shall stop dying. So what Jesus did on Calvary was give you the weapon or the ability to do what you must do to kill your own carnal mind and work with Christ for Him to become the controlling factor of your life.

 

Then Jesus says, in verse 24, "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment."

 

So what is He saying? He says it looks -- if you circumcise a baby boy on the Sabbath, it looks unrighteous; it looks like you are breaking the law of God. But the truth is, if you judge righteous judgment, if you look at the spirit of the problem, you will see that this is not a blatant, arrogant, rebellion, rebellious breaking of the law of God to circumcise that little boy on Saturday, but that the motive for that parent in circumcising that child on a Saturday and breaking Moses' law, the motive of that parent is to satisfy the greater law. And, therefore, even though the father is breaking the law of Moses, his motive for breaking the fa- -- the law is to serve the higher law of God, and, therefore, his motive is righteous, and the law of Moses should yield to the greater law.

 

It is just like saying we take a matter to court in our secular society here, and the court finds a judgment. The lower court finds a judgment, and the case is appealed. You go to the higher court. The higher court overturns the judgment. The lower court said the man is guilty; the higher court said the man is innocent. Well, the lower court must yield to the judgment of the higher court.

 

Brethren, if there is a conflict between the natural law and the spiritual law, the natural law must yield to the spiritual law, has to yield. Now if you do not have the spiritual law, if you are not aware of the spiritual law, if you do not have the operation of the spiritual law, well, then the carnal law is a good thing. You have to have law and order, otherwise you have chaos in society. You must have law and order. But when the spiritual law starts to move, when God starts to show you the motives of men, from that point forward, you must judge righteous judgment, and you must yield to the greater law.

 

So on the surface it might sound like one has a legitimate argument against his brother. We were talking about that this morning with our sister here. It sounds -- your argument sounds legitimate, and on that surface level, it is legitimate. But when the greater law is present, when the mind of Christ is present, then the carnal law must bend its knee to the spiritual law, and the spiritual law says it does not really matter too much what happened on the surface. Let us check out everybody's motives, and we find out that there is sin in both parties, that the person that offended you on the surface had sin in his heart, but that you too have sin in your heart in your reaction to the offence.

 

And Jesus says let us get our motives cleaned up, and when we get our motives cleaned up, the offences will disappear. The offence will disappear when you get your heart straightened out. The law of Christ is greater. He says it is not enough to make a reconciliation with this one person because there is a spiritual problem in your heart. You will have the same problem again and again and again. Let us have the operation. Everybody, let us have the operation, and let us stop this problem from occurring in our life. It does not matter if it is brother A or brother B or brother D. It is just going to -- [?you are?] going to keep -- it is just different faces doing the same thing to you, you having the same reaction for the rest of your life, so let us have the operation. It is time. That is what the Lord is saying: The spiritual law is greater than the carnal law, so let us judge righteous judgment. Let us stop looking at the actions and the words of people; look at the motives, and let us deal with the disease of the heart and stop this thing once and for all.

 

And we see that natural example in our human society. People have physical symptoms with their bodies. They are sick; they are sick; they are sick; they are sick; they are sick. They live with the symptoms. They do not feel good. They have a pain here. This hurts; that hurts. Finally, one day the doctor says enough is enough. I am scheduling you for the operating room. Let us cut this thing out. That is what Jesus is talking about. Let us cut this problem out of your life once and for all by dealing with the spiritual root of the problem. He says it is a greater law, and it is a greater ability to be able to deal with that spiritual root.

 

Rita could you shut that heat off for me, please? It is really hot in here. Thank you. Just put it at 12 o'clock, straight up.

 

So in verse 24, Jesus says, "Do not judge according to the appearance." Do not judge. We had this in the last meeting. The sons of God will not judge with -- by what they see with their eyes or h- -- could you just crack that window for me a little bit too before you sit down? Thanks a lot.

 

The sons of God, Isaiah tells us, will not judge by what they see or by what they hear, but they will judge by the mind of Christ in them. And there is only one judgment that the mind of Christ is concerned with; there is only one innocent party, and that is -- who is the only innocent? Who is the innocent blood? Christ. He is the only innocent party. If your conflict is arising out of your carnal mind when you are judging righteous judgment, everybody is guilty before God. Therefore, Jesus says look inward, and when you fix yourself and when you fix yourself and when you fix yourself and when I fix myself, there is going to be peace in My holy mountains says the Lord.

 

And why is He saying this now? Because now the power to fix ourselves is available. In the age where the power to change our hearts was not available, then we had to look at the surface. There was no such thing as motive. Judgment was based upon what people said to one another and upon what people did to one another. But Jesus said you have heard an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Kill your enemy, lest he kill you. But I say unto you -- what?

 

            Love your enemy.

 

Love your enemy, and pray for those who will despitefully use you. Why? Because in this hour, the spiritual strength to make a spiritual change so that these external problems never happen again is now available to you. You do not have to go after your enemy and take an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth anymore because the spiritual strength to change the hearts of men, and which change is going to affect behavior all across the world, is available to you. Stop fighting on the surface, and go in because the hour of your deliverance from Hell is at hand. Because this fighting on the surface, this eye for an eye, this tooth for a tooth, it goes on and on and on and on, and the only thing that changes is the face and the name of your enemy. When you start dealing with that spiritual enemy, it is just a matter of time, and you will be delivered from this type of conflict forever.

 

Can you hear it? You do not have to believe it. Do you hear it? It is the truth. That is what Jesus teaches. He is not saying love your enemy and let them walk all over you. He is saying stop hating the man because the true enemy is spiritual, and the hour is at hand that I am giving you dominion over that true enemy. That is what He is saying. So the righteous judgment is judging the motives of the parties, and everyone that is coming out of the carnal mind is guilty in their own place.

 

Verse 28, Jesus says, "Ye both know Me, and ye know where I am: and I am not come of Myself, but He that sent Me is true, whom ye know not. But I know Him: for I am from Him, and He hath sent Me." "Ye both know Me, and ye know from where I am." So He is telling them that they know that He is Christ, and He says that He that sent Me is the truth, and you do not know the truth. He says, "I know Him: for I am from Him."

 

Now this word "know," this is not an interne- -- intellectual knowledge of; this is an experiential knowledge of. For someone to say that they know God means that you have experienced God. You have experienced a union. That is what communion is. Communion is not eating a little cracker and drinking a little cup of grape juice. Communion is experiential knowledge. It means a total intimacy with no secrets, to know somebody. And that is the biblical way of saying that a marriage was consummated. "And Adam knew his wife." It is called carnal knowledge. Well, to know God, you must have a spiritual knowledge of God. That means you are so one with Him that there is nothing hidden from you, that you know how He thinks, that you know how He feels, that you know how He operates.

 

Jesus said, "I have had a spiritual communion with God, and, therefore, My mind is born of Him." He says, "But I know Him: for I am from Him, and He hath sent Me." And what He is saying is that I was born a natural man, and my human spirit had -- has an intimate knowledge of the Father, and I am of Him. That means His mind was born in Me, and because the mind of Christ was born in Me, God has sent Me to you. He was saying He is the Son of God; that is what He was saying to them.

 

He -- Jesus' whole message to the Pharisees is that He was the Son of God; that is why they wanted to kill Him. They said, how could you be the Son of God? Who are you to say you have an intimate knowledge of God? Who can know God? That is why they were enraged at Him, and ignorant men will say that you have pride because we have people today saying they have -- I will tell you I have some knowledge of God. I have a lot more knowledge of God than a lot of other people. And ignorant people who are judging with their carnal minds will say, who do you think you are? You must be lifted up in pride. But as I tell you all the time, pride is a spirit. If you are speaking the truth, you cannot be speaking out of pride. If it is true, it is not pride.

 

In verse 33, Jesus says, "Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto Him that sent Me. You shall seek Me, and shall not find Me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come."

 

And we are told in the next few verses that they w- -- the Jews were saying amongst themselves, what is He talking about? Where is He going? Brethren, He was talking about spiritual things. He said I am with you for a little while. That means He knew He was going to be crucified and that He was going to be leaving this world. "And then I go unto Him that sent Me." What He was saying is I am going unto Him; I am returning unto spirit form. The Father is spirit. For Jesus to go unto or into the one who sent Him, He meant He was speaking about His glorification.

 

And the Jews were carnal, and they said, where is He going that we cannot go? Is He going to Africa? Is He going to the Unites States, which did not exist at that time? It never occurred to them, the Pharisees of that age, that He could even be saying is He going to the moon, or is He going to Mars? Now in this day and age, where we know about space travel, carnal men would be saying, well, He is going to another planet. But He was not going to another planet, and He was not going to another geographical location. He was going into a different dimension, and it is called spirit. Some science fiction buffs call it the fifth dimension. Spirit is a different dimension. It coexists with this world.

 

Did you ever see a movie in -- what was that -- not "Star Trek" but that other -- "Twilight Zone." I have seen a couple of episodes of "Twilight Zone" where they talk about beings in another dimension. Actually, there was something in "Star Trek" about it too. It is another world that coexists with this world, but we cannot see it. It exists at the same time but in a different space. It is right here in the midst of us. "Behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you," but we cannot see it because we are blind, and we are deaf, and we are dumb, and we are in darkness. It is another whole world, right here.

 

So Jesus said, "I am with you for a little while, and then I am going unto Him that sent Me. And you are going to look for Me, but you will not be able to find Me because you cannot go where I am going."  Only people who are spirit can go into the spirit world. Brethren, one of the -- or a part of the great promise of this Bible is that our state of being is going to be converted into a form which will enable us to travel back and forth between the spirit world and this flesh world. Does anybody know the symbol in the Scripture that describes this ability? And I saw a something in heaven, and the angels were ascending and descending upon it.

 

            Jacob's ladder.

 

Jacob's ladder. He said, I saw a ladder. It started in the earth, and it ascended up into heaven, and the angels were going up and down at will. And we are told in another place that the sons of Zadok, who are the priesthood, that they were -- that term, the sons of Zadok, is an Old Testament term, but it is a symbol of the sons of God in the future, that when they minister in the tabernacle, they have to wear one set of garments. And when they come out to minister to the common man, they have to put on a different set of garments.

 

Brethren, right now Jesus Christ is a ball of light, but if He wanted to, He could appear to any one of us. He could appear right in the middle of this room in a humanoid form. That is what the Scripture talks about when it says changing His garments. He will take this ball of light, which He is, and clothe Himself in a humanoid garment so that we can see Him and relate to Him. Why? Because we are carnal, and some of us are not satisfied with His appearing to us as a ball of light.

 

In this hour, He is not even appearing as a ball of light. He is within us. He is in our mind. He talks to us; He thinks through us; He motivates us from within our mind. And He is nothing that we could see with these carnal eyes, although we do sometimes hear with these natural ears. Some people see Him, but most of the time you do not see Him, and most of the time I do not even hear Him with these natural ears. Most of the time, His communication with me is His mind thinking through me and His mind motivating me and His mind taking control of my emotions. That is my basic relationship with Him. Sometimes I hear an audible voice but not that often. Why? Because that is the way He has chosen to relate to men in this hour.

 

So if you are waiting for a vision, if you are waiting for a picture, to see oil dripping out of it, you know, the only thing you are probably going to get is a demon because He is not doing that in this hour, and you cannot tell Him how to relate to you. The Lord Jesus Christ is going to relate to you as He chooses to relate to you, and you will either respond or you will not respond because the Lord Jesus Christ is a controlling force. You had better believe it: He is in charge of the relationship, and you are going to do it His way. And He can control you, and He can force you because His motive is righteous.

 

And He can also abuse you and punish you if you are not responding to Him properly because His motive towards you is righteous. What does that mean? His motive for punishing you and abusing you is not to benefit Himself. It is not to gratify Himself. It is not to hurt you so that He could be satisfied. That is sin. But His motive for hurting you, for abusing you, for hurting your feelings by exposing sin in you, for giving you painful trials, His motive is that you should be delivered out of this realm of death and Hell, and, therefore, He can do anything He wants to you, and He is in right standing with the Father. If you can hear it, hear it.

 

So the Pharisees could not follow Him into the realm of the spirit, and they did not know what in the world He was talking about, so we see a communication problem here. The Pharisees had a big communication problem with Jesus. At one point, He even said to them, what is your problem? Do you not understand My speech? Are we not speaking the same human language? And the answer is that Jesus was speaking their human language, but He had spiritual truths that He was expressing with that language, and, therefore, He made no sense to the Pharisees at all. There was a severe communication block.

 

Verse 37, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters."

 

Well, there goes our communication problem, our double entendre. Jesus said, "If any man thirst," and the carnal man will say, well, I am not thirsty. I have plenty of water in my home. But Jesus was saying, if you are thirsting for spiritual things, come unto Me. Do not go unto Satan; do not go unto witchcraft; do not go into tarot card readings; do not go to your astrologer. If you have a desire for spiritual things that can be likened unto a natural thirst, come unto Me.

 

The promise is that if you desire spiritual things and you come unto Jesus, He is going to give you drink. He is going to satisfy your spiritual desires. "He that believeth into me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters." The word belly -- the Greek word translated belly signifies the spiritual reproductive part. And what is our spiritual reproductive part?

 

            The mind.

 

The mind. So He is saying out of your mind shall flow rivers of the waters of life or rivers of the spiritual mind which is in Christ, yet people that are carnal are going to read this and say, out of my belly? Even Paul talks about your belly, that your belly is your god, and they think it means that Paul is saying, well, you are worshipping what you eat. Well, Paul is saying way beyond that. He is saying that your spiritual reproductive part is your god; he is saying your carnal mind is your god. That is what he is saying.

 

How could anyone possibly know what this man was talking about? People were enraged at Him continuously, and I tell you people get mad at me. Lots of times I have been accused of double talking and being dishonest, and it is -- I tell the person it is not true. We are just coming from a different place. You just do not understand me because I am upfront. I do not talk in circles, but people, when they do not understand me, they get very upset. I witness it a lot, and then I will do everything I can to help them to understand because I see they are getting upset with me.

 

But the reason they are getting upset is they just do not know what I am talking about or my answer to their question makes no sense whatsoever because I am coming out of a place in the spirit that they cannot relate to. And they are saying, I asked her this perfectly legitimate question. Why in the world is she double-talking me like this? I am not double-talking you; you just do not understand what I am talking about. They say, why does she not answer my question? I am answering your question, but I am coming from a place that you cannot comprehend, so you come up higher. Let me bring you up where I am. Do not try to bring me down to where you are because that will not glorify God. If I am seeing the problem on a different level than you are seeing it, come up higher. You always should come up to the highest realm of understanding and let the person that is looking at it with a greater depth help you to ascend into that depth.

 

Brethren, the answer to the problems of humanity is to ascend out of Hell, and Hell is in the mind. It is the way we think; it is the way we look at things. So the answer is not to solve the problem down here but to ascend above it; that is the answer. I will tell you there is victory in ascending above the problem. I am talking to you from personal experience. The victory is in ascending above the problem, tremendous victory to see everybody raging around you and you are calm and cool and collected and in control. That is victory, and the only way that you will ascend to that place is to deal with the spiritual root of the problem in you. You have to shoot up.

 

We are f- -- all of us are living on the circle of the earth, and we just keep going round and round and round like mice on a treadmill. We have the same fights with different people, the same problems from the day we are born until the day we die. The answer is to go up. You have to ascend above it. Break that circle; it is a curse. Break that curse in your life. Ascend up above the fights. Glory to God.

 

Going on to chapter 8, "He that is without sin among you, let him cast a stone at her."

 

Well, we are speaking about the adulterous woman here, chapter 8, verse 7, and some of you may have heard my teaching on this, that when Jesus stooped down and wrote in the earth with His finger, that what He really do- -- what He really did, what stooped down was His humanity. His humanity went way down low, and the Christ came up in Him very high, and He had the authority to change that woman's heart. And that is how He could say to her, "Go, and sin no more," because He altered the spiritual problem in her heart that was making an adulteress. And I find this -- I have told you this before. I find this Scripture fascinating because what it says to me, if you can receive this understanding of Jesus stopping down -- let me put it on the message.

 

Verse 6, and this -- the Pharisees said -- well, let me start at verse 5, "Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such as this, as adultery, should be stoned: but what do you say, Jesus? And this they said, tempting Him, that they might have something to accuse Him with. But Jesus stooped down" -- you see, they must have had a revelation that Jesus would not condemn this woman, so they wanted to accuse Him of breaking the law of Moses. "But Jesus stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground, as though He heard them not. So when they continued asking Him, He lifted up Himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin amongst you, let him first cast a stone at her."

 

Well, in the -- when I looked up every word in the Greek, in that account, I found out that what it is saying is that Jesus, who was the God man, caused His humanity to stoop down, to go down very low, and the Christ in Him came up very high. And in that position of spiritual authority, He wrote on the ground of that woman's heart and changed something in her heart which delivered her from adultery and enabled her to stop doing it. Therefore, when Jesus told her, further down in verse 11, "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more," Jesus was not telling an habitual adulteress to go and sin no more. That is ridiculous to tell somebody who is caught in the grips of a sin that was serious enough to get her killed.

 

This woman was committing adultery knowing that the law of Israel, if she was caught, would stone her to death. Now no one in their right mind goes out and commits a crime that has a death penalty on it if they have the ability to not commit that crime. They must be caught in the grips of a criminal spirit that is trying to destroy them, so the tell -- that is like telling a serial murderer, no man condemns thee, therefore I do not condemn thee. Go out, and sin no more. Now who tells a serial murderer go out and sin no more? It makes no sense at all. Jesus had to do something to her to enable her to obey Him for Him to do that. Can you not -- anyone not see the sense of this? So He changed her heart.

 

What really excites me in this Scripture, and I do not completely understand it, is that the Scripture is saying that Jesus was not at the same height of His authority continuously. Now we know that He was the son of God continuously. If you can hear this, the height of His authority or the spiritual strength that He was moving in rose and fell, but at its lowest point, the point where He was the most man and the least son of God that He would be, He was still the son of God. Can you hear me? He never descended to the point where He was not the son of God anymore, but, apparently, the Christ in Him rose and fell. Now what does that mean? Brethren, when He was speaking to natural men, He was coming out of His manhood. And when He was ministering Christ to men, He was coming out of His priesthood.

 

It is exactly what I talked about earlier, the Zadok priesthood, Jacob's ladder and the angels of God ascending and descending upon that ladder between heaven and earth. When He was dealing with carnal men, He was in a large -- to a large measure, His manhood. He never stopped being the son of God, all you Pharisees listening to this message. Jesus never stopped being the son of God, but He did ascend and descend in His Godhood or back and forth between His Godhood and His manhood, depending on who He was relating to. Can you hear it?

 

So here He was talking to this crowd of Pharisees. What was He doing there when all this happened?

 

Verse 1 of chapter 8, "And Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. And early in the morning He came again into the temple." He was in the temple, "and all the carnal people came unto Him; and He sat down, and He was teaching."

 

And He had to be in some measure of Christ to be teaching, but He was teaching them on the level that they could bear, which apparently was not His greatest height of spirituality. He was teaching out of Christ but on a level that these people could understand, and when He wanted to do a miracle, He had to ascend into Christ to do that miracle.

 

Brethren, I have experienced this, except that I have no power to do it myself. You have heard my testimonies, how God has caught me up on several occasions very high, on one occasion to pray healing for somebody, on several occasions to pray healing and on other occasions to do deliverance. I had nothing to say about it, but I was very aware that I had ascended very high and that some wonderful thing had happened on behalf of that person. But, apparently, Jesus had the power to do it at His own will, but we also know that He did not do anything of His own will, so the Father must have instructed Him to ascend up to a place where He had the authority to change this woman's heart.

 

It is the same thing that happened with the Gadarene demoniac. By His spiritual authority, one sentence rewrote this man's heart. He was a suicidal maniac that could not survive in society, running around naked in the graveyards trying to kill himself, and Jesus rebuked the legion, and his heart was so completely converted that he became an ac- -- solid acceptable citizen.

 

I am going to live to see that. I have ascended. Christ has caught me up, and I have prayed healing, and I have prayed deliverance. But I have never, to the best of my knowledge, experienced changing a man's heart, but I am going to experience it. I know it because I have asked for it, and it is a righteous prayer, and He is going to give it to me. I know it. I want to tell you that it is absolutely glorious, and we cannot do it where we are now. I do not have the authority to change your heart. If I had the authority, I would make you all Christ right now. I rebuke the legion in you. Be Christ. You think you are going to be Christ when I see you at the next meeting? I do not think so.

 

You are all struggling, trying to confess your sins, trying to work with God. You are all valiant people here. Everyone here is a valiant soldier with painful circumstances in your life, trying to hack your way through by the power of God, and if I had the power, I would give you a 100 percent victory right now, but I do not have the power. I believe the day is coming that there is going to be people on this earth that are going to have the power, that with one rebuke to your carnal mind, Christ is going to arise in you and give you life.

 

So that is what Jesus did for this woman. So is He a respecter of persons? Why would He do it for one woman and not for somebody else? Because most of what Jesus did was for examples, that these great feats should be written down in a book, that the sons of God should have an example as to what our job is going to be. We are not going to do it for one here or one there; we are going to do it for the masses. All of humanity is getting a new heart. That is an exciting story for me.

 

Verse 10, Jesus says to the woman, "Where are thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more."

 

See, Jesus does not condemn you because He has the power to fix you. Jesus will never tolerate sin. If you have been taught that Jesus has forgiven you and therefore He accepts you as you are, you have received a lie. Jesus hates your sin; He hates my sin; Jesus hates sin. He is holy. The reason He does not condemn you is that He has the power to fix you, so there is now no more condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. But Christ Jesus is growing in your heart, and the white throne judgment is operating in you, and you are in the midst of this change. There is now no more condemnation unto you, but every sin in your life that is not being judged by Christ Jesus at this moment is sin unto you. It is sin unto you. You need to repent.

 

Verse 12, Jesus says, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."

 

Jesus is saying you cannot understand these things because I am the light. I am the light in your mind. I am the understanding which is in your mind, and if you follow after Christ, you shall not walk in the darkness of the carnal mind. What is He saying, and why is He saying it here at this point? He is saying, well, I have been trying to communicate with you, and you are carnal, and I am spiritual, and you do not understand a word that I am saying. And we have been talking for days, and I cannot reach you, and there is no way I am getting carnal. He said, I will come down to a certain point because there is no way you could ever understand Me I am so high up, so I will come down to a certain point. And you have to come up out of your carnality; you have to come you out of your darkness. You have to make some effort to become spiritual because I am not going down any lower than this. That is what He is telling them.

 

And, you know, I had the Lord say that to me in a personal word one night, years ago, when I was a young disciple, and my life was very hard. And I was crying, and I said, Lord, I read this Bible, and this Bible says that You are going to comfort me. Where is this comfort? And I had in mind, at that time, some carnal forms of comfort because I was carnal in those days, and I thought that the Lord telling me in His Bible that He was going to send me a comforter and that He was going to comfort me meant that He was going to comfort me by giving me the things that I thought that I wanted in this world and that most people think are the things that will comfort you in this world.

 

And the Lord spoke to me very clearly, and He said, I am not coming down there. You have to come up here. The comfort that I have for you is in My Spirit, and it is in My life, and you ha- -- I am not going to give you what you want down there; you have got to come up. And I was shocked to hear the Lord tell me that because I had a childish, carnal understanding of God and a childish, carnal understanding of what He means when He says He is going to comfort us.

 

I remind you, all comfort is in the Spirit of Christ. He may give you a couple of things down here in the soul realm because He has pity on us. If your child [?skims?] his knee, sometimes you give them a lollipop, and you know sugar is no good for their teeth, but you give them a lollipop because kids love candy, and you just give children candy. But the bottom line is that the comfort of Christ is the things of His Spirit.

 

And we just found that in the Book of Zephaniah the other night. Chapter 2, the Alternate Translation was, "All you people in whom the mind of Christ is being formed but you are still miserable and afflicted in your emotions and unhappy, all of you, the answer to your problem is to ascend into Christ, and perhaps He will give you the ministry of reconciliation, the ability to see into people's hearts and judge righteous judgment and be a part of the two witness company." That is His answer to you. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and its righteous, and all these things will be added unto you," but we are so immature, all of us.

 

Humanity is so spiritually immature. All we can think about is that we want our spiritual skinned knee taken care of right now. We want the pain to go away right now. Everybody is going through that. We are spiritual children, every last one of us, but Jesus is saying that the comfort and the victory is in ascending into My life. And you do not believe it until you experience it. You do not believe the high that you could get in ministering by the Spirit of Christ until you experience it.

 

I want to tell you there is a high in it. When the Lord catches you up because He has something He wants you to say to a total stranger and that anointing falls on you and you minister and you know it is Christ to that person, I am telling you there is a high in it. I cry. After God lets me experience that and then He goes down and I do not know how long it is going to be until He comes up to that height in me again, I cry because I lust for that high in Christ. It feels so good, and I lust for the day that I will be under that anointing continuously, and there is no strings attached to that high. He is not going to use it against you. He is not going to use it, the fact that it -- He makes you feel good, to bring you into bondage.

 

There is a price to pay for it, however. What is the price, somebody? It is your whole soul life. If you want to abide in that continuous high, which is legal -- there is no penalty associated with it, no penalty to your body, no penalty to your soul. If you want to abide in it, the price is soulish pleasure. The Lord is saying you cannot have both. You cannot be bisexual in the kingdom, only for a season that He lets you experience both, and everybody is bisexual right now, but it is a fo- -- it is a state of immaturity that we experience both human pleasure and the satisfaction that comes out of a full manifestation of His life in us. It is a state of immaturity. We are double-minded, but you cannot stay that way. We have to grow up into the fullness of the stature of the Lord Jesus Christ, and there is satisfaction, and there is glory, and there is intense pleasure in having His Spirit fully manifested in you. If you have never experienced it, I am telling you there is intense pleasure in it. If you have experienced it, you know what I am talking about.

 

And you have heard my testimonies. I have cried, and [?in one event?], I had a temper tantrum. I was caught up so high to pray healing for somebody that I stayed up for a whole week, and when I felt myself coming down, I had a temper tantrum, but it did not help me any. I came down.

 

So in verse 12, Jesus is saying, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."

 

And that is a parabolic way of saying come up out of your carnal thinking, and let My spiritual thinking manifest through you. That is really the only way out, and if you walk that walk with Me, you shall have the light of life.

 

Verse 14, Jesus said, "Though I bear record of Myself, yet My record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go."

 

He is telling them you are carnal. He says, you need to have My light in you because you are carnal. He says, "I bear record of Myself, yet My record is the truth." So what does that mean? It means that it is Christ Jesus in Him bearing record of Himself because [?try?] -- Christ Jesus is the only truth. He is saying it is not my carnal mind bearing record of me, that I am the Son of God. Who needs the witness of man? He says, it is not m- -- it is the witness of man saying I am the Son of God, but it is Christ in Me bearing witness. It is My mind, you see. It is not only the miracles that I do, the healing and the deliverance and the food; it is Christ Jesus in Me that is the witness. It is the wisdom that comes out of My mind; it is the fruit of My counsel that comes out of My mind. It is My words; they are spirit, and they are life, and that is what bears witness that I am of God, if you have ears to hear it.

 

He says, "I bear witness of My -- I -- though I bear record of Myself, My record is the truth." It is Christ in Me bearing that record because I know where I come from. I know who I am. I know I am Christ, and I know where I am going. I know I am going back to spirit, but you cannot tell. You do not understand where I come from, and you do not understand where I go. You cannot read My record. That is what He said to them. You are looking for a sign. You are looking for the loaves and the fishes and the healing and the deliverance. And He tells us in another place that there are angels of light that can do healing and deliverance and multiply food, but He says no spirit other than Christ can speak the truth and words which are spirit and life. That is what He is telling them. I have a true record, but be you are carnal, you cannot read My book. My book is in another language.

 

Therefore, He says to them, the reason for this, in verse 15, is that, "You judge after the flesh." You are judging with your ears, and you are judging with your eyes, but you cannot perceive the righteous Spirit that is motivating My words, therefore, what I do offends you. Your carnal mind is saying, He let that adulteress go. He should have condemned her, and He should have punished her, and she should be dead. Therefore, because He did not do this, Jesus of Nazareth is an unrighteous man.

 

And Jesus' answer to -- you see, He was talking to their hearts, and His answer to them was, you are carnal because all that you could see is that I let that adulteress woman go, but you could not see that I had the power and did in fact change her heart so that she will commit adultery no more. Therefore, there is no more reason to kill her because the whole purpose of killing the adulteress was that the seed of Israel should be preserved and not contaminated. Well, this woman is no longer a threat to the Hebrew society, so why should she die? He says, all that your carnal mind could see is that I did not obey your law.

 

God, keep us, brethren, from judges and officials who are bound by the law, who have no sense of humanity or compassion but religiously execute the law without taking into consideration the individual case of the individual human being. There is death in that. That is why our natural judges have an ability, in many instances, to determine what a man's sentence will be. It could be lesser, or it could be greater depending on the circumstances that led up to him committing the crime because there are extenuating circumstances. But the Pharisees were saying, no, this is the way it is, and this is the judgment that should be, and you did not do it. You did not fulfill the law of Moses, therefore you are an unrighteous man. You cannot possibly be God because God is just.

 

And they completely failed to see that God's justice is different from man's justice, and Jesus is rebuking them, saying to them, "You judge after the flesh." He says, I do not judge any man after the flesh. Verse 16 -- I -- when I first read this, it really confused me. "Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man. And yet if I judge, My judgment is true." Well, what do You mean I judge no man, but yet if I judge, My judgment is true? Jesus is saying ,"Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man after the flesh. Because when I judge, My judgment is of truth." It is out of Christ. He says, "I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent Me judge," not out of the carnal mind but out of the mind of Christ.

 

That is why some of the most antisocial people in the world, when they first come to the Lord, are rejected by the church because the [?jurch?] -- the church looks at their flesh. What are you bringing this man in here for? He is profane; he is reprobate; he is this; he is that. But God has looked at his heart, and he saw deep into his heart. He saw that that man, really, is seeking Christ.

 

And that is what He is challenging us to do, not to look at people, at the way they dress or some of the hang-ups they have at the moment, but to look deep into their heart and make a judgment whether or not that person is serious with God. And if they are serious with God, to suffer long with them and work every possible way with them to help them overcome the flesh that is trying to kill them. You have to look at the true motive of a person's heart. Do they say that or do that to you with a specific intention of being cruel and destroying you, or were they overcome by sin in their heart for the moment? Is this the time to correct them, or is the time to forgive them and turn the other cheek?

 

Every offence must be evaluated in Christ until such time as the mind of Christ is operating in you to such a degree that these reactions come automatically. Until that time, you have to ask the Lord these questions. What is a correct response to this person? Were they out of control? Did they do that because they were out of control? If that is the case, the forgiveness should be much more forthcoming than if someone premeditatedly did this sin against you. But, of course, forgiveness must come forth on every level, but it is a radically different case if someone is completely out of control than when they deliberately, premeditatedly move to hurt you.

 

I always have compassion on -- much more compassion on people who sin against me when they are out of control than people who sin again- -- because they are upset. They -- something has upset them, and they are out of control. I have no trouble forgiving these people at all, but someone who is deliberately set on hurting me out of vengeance or viciousness, sometimes I have trouble forgiving them. God has to really help me.

 

Verse 17 -- well, let me say one more thing on verse 16. So we see that those of us who are moving in Christ and judging righteous judgment, there are two witnesses to every judgment we make. The Lord Jesus Christ and Christ Jesus in us must be in agreement as to our evaluation of that person's motives. That is God's two witnesses. And also, please notice in verse 16, Jesus says, "But I and the Father that sent Me," and I suggest to you that that statement means that the Father has stirred up Jesus to make that judgment, that it was the righteousness of the Father in the man that led Him to judge that situation because we should be minding our own business, brethren. Unless so- -- unless an offence is directly leveled against us or unless the Father directs us to a circumstance, we should be minding our own business.

 

Now in areas that you have authority, if you have authority over your children, if you are a man, you have authority over your family, if you are a minister, over the people that you minister, if you see something transpiring between two other people and they are not taking the victory, they are both in their carnality, depending on the maturity of that person, the Lord might raise you up to call that person on the side and say, look, you were not manifesting Christ. But aside from such a circumstance like that, the only time you have a right to stick your nose in is when you are the offended party, otherwise butt out. If you are the offended party, if you have authority over the person or if the Lord Jesus Christ specifically gives you a word that stirs you up to intervene -- and you better be careful about that, that you are not a busybody interfering out of your carnal mind because you could be interfering with someone that is ministering out of Christ. And if you are too blind to see it, you could be interfering.

 

Do you know this happens all the time in the natural? We have several government agencies that have undercover or, as they say, covert operations. And the FBI goes out, and they are setting up a whole network to grab this drug dealer, and someone from another agency comes in and messes up the whole setup. Has anyone not seen a movie or a TV show like that? Well, that is what happens in Christ. If you are moving in your carnal mind, you could be coming in and really mess up the program of Christ through a particular son who is working with somebody else because you are judging with your carnal eyes. So it is very careful that w- -- it is very important that we do not interfere where we have no authority.

 

And one of the things that will make someone or incline someone to interfere when they have no authority is childhood abuse. That is the one, big thing. If you had an experience where you were a child and you felt that your parents did not exercise their obligation to protect you, you just might grow up to be an adult who is out to save everybody from abuse, and you -- what is really operating in you is that child that was not protected by the parent, is out there. It is still -- y- -- even though you are an adult person, you have carried that child over from childhood with you, and you are out there trying to save all the other children because you never recovered from your parents' betrayal of you, your parents' failure to protect you. So what should be a good thing, that you are rising up to protect the innocent -- it should be a good thing. Because you are in your carnal mind, it becomes perverted, and when it is used to come against the son of God that the Father has sent who is judging righteous judgment because the Father has sent him, that which started out to be a good thing becomes an evil thing because it is opposing Christ. It becomes anti-Christ.

 

So because of our carnal condition, pretty much everything we do, brethren, must be controlled. We talked this morning about controlling sexuality, or it will ruin your life. Everything we do that comes out of the carnal mind has the potential to go overboard, to cross over the line where it -- that line which says, at one time, it was positive, but when carried to this degree, it becomes a negative, destructive force. That is why men have to discipline themselves, because we are fallen and we are under the influence of a mind that does not know when enough is enough. So that is why the blessed child grows up in a home where they are taught self-discipline and righteousness, and they grow up to be a self-disciplining adult who has got their life in order. But we have thousands if not millions of people in this country today whose life is out of control in one way or another.

 

Verse 17, "It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of Myself, and the Father that sent Me beareth witness of Me." That is the two witnesses, the Lord Jesus Christ and Christ Jesus. "Ye neither know me, nor My Father: if ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also."

 

He says, you do not know Me, neither do you know My Father, and we know that Jesus said in another place, you search the Scriptures all day long, but you do not recognize me. If the -- if that searching of the Scriptures bore the fruit that it was supposed to bear, you would recognize the spirit of the word. But He is saying all of your studying has not done any good because you found your righteousness in the hours that you study, and it has not produced the fruit in you. So here He is saying, "You do not know me, neither do you know My Father: if you had known Me, you would also have known My Father." You cannot know Christ and not know the Father; you cannot know the Father and not know Christ.

 

"I go My way, and ye shall seek Me, and shall die in your sins: because whither I go, you cannot come."

 

And where is Jesus going? He is ascending back up to heaven because only He who came down from heaven can ascend back up into heaven. Because Jesus' mind was Christ, He was going back up into heaven, but He said to the Pharisees, you are going to die in your sins. It is another way of saying your mind is not Christ because in a prior chapter in this very book, He gave them a whole teaching on how only the one who came down can go up, therefore you must be born again. You must have the one who came down from heaven born in you so that He could take all of you back up. And here He is telling them that the one who came down from heaven has not been born in you, therefore you cannot go where I go.

 

"I shall go My way, and ye shall seek Me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot go." You are going to die in your sins because your mind is not Christ. That is what He is saying to them. He is -- first, He tells them you cannot understand me because you judge after the flesh; you are carnal people. He is really ripping into these guys. He has got a carnal mind sign. Jesus has a carnal mind sign. That is what He is saying to them. You are carnal, you guys.

 

And then He goes on to say further, "Ye are from beneath; I am from above; ye are of this world; I am not of this world." S- -- I look like you; I walk like you; I talk the same language as you, but I am not like you because that which you cannot see, My mind, is different than your mind. We look the same, but we are not the same. He is ripping them to pieces.

 

"I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins."

 

Well, if you have a King James, you will see that that word, "He," is in italics, and Jesus is saying to them, if you do not believe that I am, you are going to die. If you do not believe that I am the son of God, you are going to die. Why? Because I am the only one that has the power to cause the mind of Christ to be born in you so that the one who came down from heaven can ascend back up to heaven, leaving your captivity captive, taking you back up with Him. I am the savior. I am the only one that has the power to get you back up, so if you do not believe that I am, if you do not believe that I am the son of God, even though I look like you, I walk like you, I talk like you -- I was born of a woman like you, but nevertheless I am not like you; I have a different mind than you do. And if you do not believe that, you shall surely die in your sins. Ye who w- -- to whom the Word of God was given, ye are gods, but you shall die like men.

 

Verse 25, "Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. I have" -- well, let me read you Verse 25. "Then they said unto Him, Who are you?" Who do you think you are?

 

"And Je-" -- because He is telling them He -- Jesus is telling them He is different. So then he says, well, who are you? Well, He just told you He is I am. Did you ever try to talk to somebody and no matter how many times you say it, they just do not hear you? Have you ever tried to reach somebody and you say it over and over and over and over again and they just do not hear what you say? He just told them He is I am, and they said, who are you? I am I am. Who are you? I am I am. Who are you? Deaf because they do not want to hear it, and their mind is completely blinded.

 

"Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning." Jesus said I am the same that I said unto you from the beginning. I am the Son of man; I am the Son of God.

 

Verse 26, "I have many things to say and to judge of you: but He that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of Him."

 

He is telling them I am the son of God, and I have many things to tell you and to judge of you, but He that sent me is the truth; and I am going to tell the world the message of God. He answered them; He told them again who He is.

 

But verse 27 says, "They understood not that He spake to them of the Father." Then Jesus goes on to instruct them, and He says, "When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you shall know that I am."

 

When you kill My humanity -- and, please note, I challenge you to do a study on this in the Scripture. He has never, ever said the Son of God is being lifted up. It is always the Son of man is being lifted up. He says, when you kill My humanity, then you shall know that I am. And what did He mean? He knew the Father was going to raise Him from the dead.

 

And I will tell you this on our level right here: You try to kill the Son of man that is imperfect, you shall fail every time. Try to kill the Son of God with your mind -- I should say the Son of man. You try to kill Him with your evil; you try to kill Him with your snares; you try to kill Him with your plots; you try to kill Him with your character assassination; you try to kill Him with your hate. The Father shall raise Him from the dead every time. No weapon formed against you who are raised up of Christ shall prosper. If you are truly sent of God, no weapon formed against you shall prosper. No carnal mind who sets his sights against you shall prevail against you.

 

And I did not say, if you really love God, that is true; I said, if God really sent you, that is true. If you are doing a mission for God, no weapon formed against you shall prosper. The only weapon is the carnal mind, but God has to send you, brethren. You see preachers go down all over the place because God has not sent them; the Lord has not truly sent them. He may -- they may have good hearts, and they may be kind men. They may be trying very hard to do good works, but if they go down, God has not sent th- -- and they do not come back up again, God has not sent them.

 

We are on verse 28, "When ye have crucified the Son of man, then you shall know that I am, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father has taught Me, I speak these things."

 

He says, when you kill My flesh and you see the Father raise Me from the dead, then you are going to know that everything I did the Father instructed Me to do, and everything I have told you the Father has told Me to tell you.

 

"And He that sent Me is with Me: the Father hath not left Me alone; for I do always those things that please Him."

 

The Father has sent Me, and He has not left Him alone. So if you want to know what your part is to keep the Father to be with you always, it is an effort on your part to always do the things that please Him. The Lord is seeking those who worship Him in spirit and in truth. He is seeking those whose heart is turned towards Him. The ones that are rebellious towards Him, He is busy beating them. He is looking for the ones who desire to serve Him. He is looking for people that He could use, brethren. He is looking for men who will work with Him to the best of their ability to yield to His Christ mind. The Lord has much work that He desires to do towards His people, and it is His decision to work through humanity, so He is looking for people who will yield their members up unto Him and obey Him. And if you are running after your own self-preservation and your own gratification of your own flesh, you are not likely to obey God because, if every time He tells you to do something you are not automatically obedient but you are in a conflict over what is in it for you, then ho- -- what good are you to Him?

 

And I maintain, and I lived it. I lived it for years before God gave me full-time ministry, that your primary purpose in life is your obedience and your ministry to Christ. Do not because deceived thinking that the source of your dollars is the controlling factor of your life because it is just an illusion that you are subjected to. You serve God, and all these other things will be added unto you. Because if you are putting money first, you have made money your God. If you put your -- if you put the earning of money ahead of your service to God, then you know who your true god is.

 

Now you have to believe that God knows that you have to work, and He knows that you need an income, so I am not talking about people not working and going out there and trying to live off of other people when God did not send them to do that. You are not supposed to be begging. But when God calls you to ministry -- I do not know anybody that is called into ministry with an income at the beginning. Everybody I ever have known who has been called into full-time ministry has spent a season spending hours and hours in ministry with no financial recompense. You work your job, and you do your service to the Lord without pay until He chooses to give you pay, and God knows where the line is. He knows that you have to work.

 

But in different cases, the problem is different, and in some cases, it might be a question of giving up overtime, if God wants you to. It might be a question of taking less hours, if God wants you to. It might be a question of taking a job that pays less money because you will have an opportunity to minister, if God wants you to. The bottom line is that, in your heart, you must be willing to give up what your carnal mind says is best for your pocketbook so that God can use you the way He wants. That is the bottom line. You are just working because you need to live. If you are working for material things and that working is interfering with what God has for you to do and you choose the money over the ministry God has given you, you are making a mistake, and in due season, God will make that evident to you. Your choice must be Christ every time, believing that God knows you need money to live on.

 

And those of you know me know that I lived it, that I watched Him systematically destroy my career, but I went on faith. And, eventually, I did reap this ministry, for as long as He lets me keep it. I am very grateful for it, that I do not have a secular job anymore, but for years I was in agony over my jobs and the kind of jobs that He was giving me and my financial condition. He -- and He -- and the truth is the Lord destroyed my career, so for a season, I had a destroyed career without an income coming forth from ministry. It was that wilderness experience, that transitional experience where He expected me to give up material things for the privilege of serving Him because service to God is a privilege, and whatever material things you get along the way is His gift to you.

 

That is a very hard lesson to learn. I learned it very hard. I have an open testimony. I laugh at it myself, when I first saw the Lord raising up this ministry and I did not want to lose the good income that I had in my job. And I told Him that I would not go full time in this ministry unless I had a f- -- whole year's salary in the bank in advance from Him. He never said anything to me. Now if someone said that to me, I would laugh at you. I was just being naïve and ignorant, and, of course, He just never did it. He just took my job away from me. It was very painful for me, but you cannot serve God and Mammon. You have to have one primary driving force in your life, and if that primary driving force is money and you are called to the ministry, He will change your heart because it is normal to have that driving force, and I had it, and He changed my heart. He took everything away from me.

 

So if you are truly called to ministry, that is what He is going to do, but you need to know that if you are number one -- and if you are honest with yourself and your number one is your material possessions, that your heart is not right towards God, so you can expect judgment or correction in that area because He cannot use you when you are not willing to give up material possessions. You have to be willing to give them up, and if He gives them to you, that is fine. But in your heart, everything is the condition of your heart. You have to be willing to give up everything to follow Jesus, and then He takes you along the road that He takes you.

 

Some people have a harder walk than others. I have given up a lot to serve Him in this ministry, but I would not change it for anything, but I did not always feel this way. I experienced tremendous distress at my lack of finances at the beginning. I now have a great peace about it, but you need to know that if money is hindering you, He is going to have to break you in that area, and I laugh at myself. I told the Lord I am not doing this full time unless I have a year's salary in the bank. I am not going through this month-by-month [UNINTELLIGIBLE] -- week-by-week waiting to see where my money comes from, and He just ignored me.

 

Well, these next verses, I have a whole message on this. I do not really know how much time I want to spend on it. I think the message is called "The Spiritual Ministry of Christ," and I went from verse 31 all the way through to the end of the chapter, so I think I am not going to really spend any time on that. I am just going to refer anyone that wants my comments on John 8:31-59, I am going to refer you to the message entitled "The Spiritual Ministry of Christ." That brings us to chapter 9.

 

            [INAUDIBLE]

 

Well, I think we are going to call it quits here for tonight. Do we have any questions? Any questions on the message first, and then I will take any other questions. There is a radical difference between being generous with your money. There are some people that have no problem being generous. They give away all kinds of money and all kinds of gifts, and they could handle that, but when it comes to their turn to be the needy person, it is almost intolerable for them. It is much harder to be at the needy end and -- than it is to give all your money away because when you give all your money away you are in control. But when you are needy, you are out of control. When God puts you in a place where you are subject to others, you have no control.

 

Now the truth is that Christ is in control. The truth is that, when you have a faith walk, God moves upon men to meet your needs, but in your humanity, it feels like you have no control. And, frequently, God keeps you poor for a season for whatever His reason. He is building humility in you, whatever He is doing, so [AUDIO CUTS OUT]

 

But when you are needy, you are out of control. When God puts you in a place where you are subject to others, you have no control. Now the truth is that Christ is in control. The truth is that, when you have a faith walk, God moves upon men to meet your needs, but in your humanity, it feels like you have no control. And, frequently, God keeps you poor for a season for whatever His reason. He is building humility in you, whatever He is doing, so a lot of people have a problem being in this condition, waiting [UNINTELLIGIBLE] -- to have your needs met. It is very offensive to the human mind. You know, doing should not say a lot of people. I think anybody would have a problem.

 

But if you want to serve Christ and if you want to serve Him in a deep ministry, the chances of you having -- I do not know how to say this because all of your needs will be met. He will always meet all of your needs, but the chances of you having all kinds of ex- -- material extras at the beginning are very, very slight, so you have to be willing to give up everything to follow Jesus, and that includes that extra 10 bucks a week in your pocket to buy that little doodad that just makes you feel good. And you have to ask for it and pray for it and see if He gives it to you, and that is the dependency on Christ which is so offensive to so many people. It is a l- -- and the root of your problem is that you do not have control. That is what it is. It is a desi- -- it is an unwillingness to let go of that control or that measure of control over your own life and trust in God.

 

And we have a lot of women today that do not even want to trust their husbands. Now, years ago, it was very common for the man to totally control the finances, and a lot of women had complaints that they did not even have an allowance, that everything they wanted, if -- they had to go ask their husband for. If they wanted $5 to -- for something, they had to go ask their husband for the money, and that is a very grievous position to be in. A lot of women over these last years have rebelled, and we see the women's lib movement, but that is the condition that women lived under for centuries, that everything they needed was doled out to them by their husband.

 

And that is the condition that God wants His sons in. We are not supposed to be getting anything of ourself. Everything is supposed to be given to us by Him, and it is a condition of dependence that is very painful to the independent heart, very difficult, but it helps to bring you into submission. OK. We are waiting for questions. Anybody have any questions?

 

            Can you explain again about having the life within you, having His life within you or possessing His life? It is two different things, is it not?

 

Do you mean being influenced by His life? Is that what you mean?

 

            No. You said you partake of His life, OK. [CROSSTALK]

 

Oh, I see what you mean, yeah, having His life within you --

 

            Yeah.

 

-- or partaking it -- partaking of it.

 

            Like it was -- I could not -- I would like you to explain that a little bit more, or you possess His life.

 

Well, the word is partake of His life.

 

            Or partake.

 

OK. To have His life within you is to be influenced by -- to have the life of Christ within you is to be a carnal man who is influenced by the life of Christ. In other words, we can be influenced for good or influenced for evil. That is even a saying in the world: Do not let your friends influence you in an ungodly way. Human beings are influenced, and depending on the company that we keep and the way that we live our life, we can be influenced for good or influenced for evil, OK. But we are a carnal man, and under -- if we live under the anointing of the Holy Ghost and we go to church and we read the Scripture and we really try to pursue after Christ, we can attain to things in this life that we would never attain to otherwise. We can attain to high things. Carnal man can attain to high places in this world, under the influence of Christ, but we are not Christ. We are fallen men who are being influenced for good by Christ, and to par- -- that is to have His life within you.

 

To partake of His life, that means to eat of His life, and when you eat something, it becomes your flesh. That means to be joined to His Spirit. He who is joined to the Lord is one Spirit. To have Him as your very life, to not be a carnal man but to have mind of Christ being the controlling force of your life, that is partaking of Him, becoming one with Him so that the -- let me give you another example. To be influenced by His life means that our natural tendency is to do evil. The natural tendency of fallen man is to do evil, but when we are influenced by the Holy Ghost, He influences us, against our nature, to do good so that when we choose to do good, we have the power to do good.

 

But when we partake of Christ, our natural state of being will not be to do evil. There will no longer be a need to influence us because He will be our -- the law of our life, and our state of being will be righteousness. We will automatically do righteousness, so there will be no need to influence us. Without any hindrance, we will automatically do righteousness when we partake of Him. See, right now, we have to fight to do righteousness. Left to man's own devi- -- o- --  left to our own devices, man would do evil. He would break every law of God, left to our own devices without the influence of the Ten Commandments. Without the influence of the Word of God, we would do all -- we would break every law because our state of being is sin. But when we partake of Him, our state of being shall be righteousness, and there shall be no more need for the law because the law is not written for a righteous man; it is written for an unrighteous man. Did I answer your question?

 

            [INAUDIBLE]

 

            Is there a special time to partake? You know, is there requirements, you know, to partake? Do you have to conceive Christ? Is that the --

 

Well, that is the whole process of what we are teaching here. You start with the Holy Ghost, and then, yes, you have to conceive Christ. Everything that we are teaching here, it is the -- talking about the joining to Him, so that is everything we teach here, the imparted anointing.

 

09/22/15 Transcribed by VerbalFusion

 

09/25/15 1^st Edit SP