Part 6 of 8 Parts
This Message Has Been Transcribed And Edited For
Clarity, Continuity Of Thought, And Punctuation By
The LEM Transcribing & Editing Team.
Praise God. This is Part 6 of Revelation, Chapter 21. I'm going to read you our recap, our Alternate Translations of verses 9 through 12, and we will do, Lord willing, verses 13 through 17 tonight.
Revelation, 21, verses 9 through 12, Alternate Translations, "And Christ Jesus, the one who owns the many-membered, fallen living soul and who has fulfilled the Father's requirements to execute the last deadly wounds upon her, appeared in me as He forced my carnal mind under His feet. And He was saying from within Me, I'll open your spiritual eyes so that you can see the woman, who was Christ Jesus' bride, and my carnal mind was sleeping."
So this sort of relates to what we were just talking about in the exhortation. Christ is executing deadly wounds upon the carnal minds of men. If Christ is doing it, the fruit will be life. If it's your carnal mind executing deadly wounds, the fruit of it will be death unto you.
And, please, note that for Christ to be manifesting in your mind, your carnal mind must be sleeping. So if you fall asleep in these meetings -- I've been telling you this for at least a year now. What's happening to you is that the Christ in me is putting your carnal mind to sleep. If Christ is arising in you, if Christ is developing in you or is mature enough in you to open your eyes, then you're awake in these meetings. But if Christ is still too immature in you or is not being formed in you because you're a young Christian, to open your eyes, that means you're sleeping at these meetings. And I've been at these meetings where everybody has been sleeping. So, in due season, as Christ is formed in you, He will open your eyes, but it's the Christ in me that's putting -- that is wounding your carnal mind and putting him to sleep. So even if your eyes are not open at these meetings, the fact that your carnal mind is sleeping is positive, and it means that your carnal mind is not there opposing the words that I'm speaking because my words are spirit, and my words are life, and they're going into your heart. So, in due season, Christ will begin to be formed in you, and at such time as that, He will open your eyes after the Christ in me has slain your carnal mind.
Verse 10, "And He took me in the authority of God's spirit to a heavily populated nation which abides in a spiritually high place because Christ Jesus is her God, and He showed me the renewed Jerusalem, that many-membered, sinless soul whose heavenly condition was reaching into the Hell of this world system and converting it into Eden."
And what that is basically saying is that the soul that we are -- we're all soul. Personality is an expression of soul, and the mind that is in our soul makes our soul either dead or alive. If your mind is carnal, your soul is dead, and if your soul is dead, that means, eventually, your body will die. But when the mind in you is Christ, your soul shall receive life, and your body shall never die. So we see, in Verse 10, that J- -- that Christ is showing John humanity; the living soul is humanity which has been renewed. Jesus spoke about the regeneration, the raising from the dead. And the renewal of this human race will be accomplished by giving her a new mind, a mind which is powerful enough to preserve her body and keep it from dying, and the name of that mind is Christ.
So if Christ is being formed in you and -- or if Christ is being formed in someone that you know who died, it does not mean that the Scripture is not true. What that means is that Christ has begun to be formed in all of us, in the form of a seed, and He's growing, and He's getting stronger every day, and, eventually, He will be strong enough to knock out our carnal mind, to kill our carnal mind, and take His place as the Lord and master of our person and preserve our body, and we shall no longer die after that event takes place.
The problem in the church world is that they read these Scriptures and they think that it has happened already, and it hasn't happened already. And because they know the results of what's supposed to happen after the regeneration are not happening in this world -- they know. They're not that dumb. They know it's not happening. They know people still die; people get sick; people have all kinds of problems. Christians die and get sick and have all kinds of problems, so the carnal mind has made up this fairytale that after your body dies, all the promises are imparted to you in some faraway place, but this is not true.
The promises of the Scripture are to be imparted right here in the earth, in the flesh, where we are right now, but it takes a mature mind of Christ to give us these blessings. All of the promises of the Scripture are in Christ. This carnal mind of ours is killing us; the way we think is killing us. And this carnal mind has got to die and be replaced with the mind of Christ, and when that happens, our soul, our personality will have been renewed, and we shall be a new creature in Christ Jesus.
And the reason we don't see it happening in the fullness in the earth today is that the season has not arrived. We see it happening in a measure. The woman who was adulterous, she's now a faithful wife. The person who was a thief, he's now a faithful citizen, guarding over other people's money without a problem. So we see some measure of this renewal in our life now. We see drug addicts that don't take drugs anymore; we see people who were dying from severe illnesses who are no longer sick. We see all this, but, in the final analysis, everybody that has had their miracle, after they live 80 or 90 years, Lord willing, what happens to them? What's happening to them?
[?They die?].
[?Die?].
They die. So what does that mean? It mea- -- it does not mean that the promise is in the hereafter. It means that we only have the promises, to date, in measure. We have enough of the power of God in the church today to save us from a life of destruction in the here and now. The Bible says, "You who are scarlet with sin, you shall be as white as snow." If your life was going on the road of destruction because of sin, there is enough power in the church today to give you a productive life, but there is not enough power in the church today to stop you from dying, but that day is coming very soon. The day is coming very soon that that measure of power is to be imparted to God's people, and we're going to see people -- it's going to happen one at a time or a small group at a time, handfuls of people here or there whose lives are preserved, and then it's going to spread, eventually, to all of humanity.
Verse 11, "And because the Lord Jesus Christ was possessing her unconscious mind, her conscious mind was made to resemble the cherubim in the same way that the serpent was made transparent, bright and crystalline, and her unconscious and conscious mind were in the image of the Father because of judgment."
Now I'm not going to go into that too much because I didn’t feel that I could make it -- that I could put it in any more simple English, but I will comment on that last phrase. "And her unconscious and conscious mind [?when?] -- were in the image of the Father because of judgment." Brethren, our carnal mind is criminal, and because we have criminal minds, the whole human race is under the penalty of death; that is why we die. But when our mind is renewed and it is in the image of the Father, we shall receive life, and we shall cease to die. And the method by which God is going to bring this change to pass in our life is through judgment, so the wounding of the carnal mind. And how is your carnal mind wounded? Difficult, tragic experiences come into your life.
Brethren, man is a stubborn animal. Human beings, we're stubborn; we're stiff-necked, and we will not give up our own ways, so the Lord must wound us through painful experiences. When it's Christ giving you the painful experiences, the end result of your torments is that you shall be raised from the dead, and Christ being raised from the dead -- what, anybody? Dieth no more. Hallelujah.
Verse 12, "And the renewed living soul has all of the human weaknesses that the sons of Israel had, but Christ Jesus has made them faithful by reforming their nature into the image of the Father, and now only the Spirit of God can pass through the conscious minds of that many-membered, holy city with connects -- which connects heaven to the earth."
And, unfortunately, brethren, we have many Christians who think that that happened to them the day they said, Jesus Christ, I receive you as my Lord and savior. Brethren, you are as carnal as the people in the street if Christ is not functioning and flowing as your mind. The only difference between you and the people outside of the church is that your life is in order and you're doing some good works, but your mind is carnal. You're still under the penalty of death, and your unconscious mind is spewing out witchcraft and jezebel and pride and envy like a volcano that's gone haywire.
I got a phone call from a minister today who was cursed by a member of her congregation. She called for prayer. She said the woman doesn't even know what she's doing, just filled with witchcraft and jezebel and every evil work. Well, I didn't feel led to tell her on the phone, but I -- it's coming up in me now. Well, sister, if she's a member of your congregation, it's your place to tell her. It's fun being a minister; everybody shoots at you. I don't know. This word of correction did not come upon me when I prayed for her today, so I guess it wasn't time for her to hear it.
But, brethren, if you're a minister and your congregation's shooting at you, you're supposed to be telling them what they're doing. And if you're not a minister, if you don't have a congregation, if you are mature in Christ and someone is shooting at you with all forms of wickedness coming out of their mind and their mouth, if you can do it without condemnation, you are supposed to be telling them. If you cannot do it without condemnation, you are supposed to be submitting for counseling and prayer to someone who can teach you how to do it without condemnation. This is the hour of the judgment of the church; people's sins are to be exposed. It is no longer a valid excuse that I didn't understand it or I didn't know it or I can't help it. The war is on, and the frontlines is your own heart.
Continuing on with Revelation 21, Chapter 13 [sic], "On the east three gates: on the north three gates: on the south three gates; and on the west three gates."
The interlinear text translates the word on as from. Now I'm going to have to relate Verse 13 to Verse 12 for us to see what the Scripture's really saying. The interlinear text reads, "And at the gates" -- I'm going back to Verse 12 now. "And at the gates angels 12, which are the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel, and they're coming from the east gates three." Do you hear what I'm saying? If you link up Verse 12 to Verse 13, what it's saying is that the 12 angels, which are the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel, they're the ones that are coming from or through the east gates three, the north gates three, the south three gates and on the west three gates. It's the angels that are coming through the gates. It's not just that the city has gates all around it. The Scripture is saying that it's the angels which are coming from the east gates, and the angel, I suggest to you -- who is the angel? Does anybody know who the angels are?
[?Sons of God?] [INAUDIBLE]
The angel is the spiritual man which is in Christ, OK. Now I've been preaching that here for a long time. I've been strongly challenged on that, that I preach that an angel is a spiritual man. An angel can be in the flesh, or an angel can be spiritual. You could be crying out day and night for God to help you with something, and He will raise up a human being who is enough into Christ to respond to the instruction of the Lord, and that person will rise up and go to you and be an answer to your prayer. And the average person will never recognize that Christ has sent you. The average person will never recognize that God has heard your prayer and sent this person to meet your need. Carnally minded people will never recognize it, but that's how God operates. And if God has heard your prayer and raised up a believer who can hear God and do what He tells them -- and do what God tells them to do and that person goes to you and ministers God's response to you, that person is an angel unto you, very much of an angel unto you.
Then we have spiritual angels, an experience which I have not experienced yet but I really look forward to. I'm told, in some circumstances, God will let a believer leave their body. If He raises up someone to answer -- for example, if He would, for whatever His reason, decide that I would be the one to answer the prayer of someone in Canada and I had to be there tomor- -- within an hour, I look forward to the day that He will take me out of my body and travel me or take me to wherever I have to go and let me minister to that person. And it's my understanding that when God does this, when you're out of your body and you land wherever you're going to, that you appear to be very human. I've read several testimonies about this. You take on human form even though your body is back where you left it.
Angels are men who are under the power of Christ. Brethren, three years ago, I had what I found to be a very exciting experience. I guess it was about three years ago. I still had a secular job, but I hadn't been home for a few months, and -- I hadn't been home for a few months, and the L- -- and I was hoping that I wouldn't have to -- that the Lord was going to sustain me, that I wouldn't have to go back to work, and the Lord spoke to me one day, and He said, Sheila, I want you to look in the want ads, and I looked in the want ads, and there was a particular job that looked like it might be interesting. And He said, I want you to go pursue it, and it was in Manhattan, and I was very aggravated because I did not want to work in Manhattan.
I was hoping that He wouldn't send me back to work. I was very frustrated and aggravated, but I did what He told me, and I got on the train, and I went all the way into Manhattan. And I went all the way over to get this interview which turned out to be an employment agency. It was a disaster. The woman's dog was biting my heels. It was terrible, and I walked out of this -- and the job wasn't even for me, and I walked out of the job, and I was headed for Penn -- I walked out of the employment office, and I was headed for Penn Station, very aggravated, saying, Lord, what was this all about? A whole day of riding on that dumb train cost me money to get there and get back. What -- I must -- I couldn't have possibly heard God. I had a mess up. I couldn't have heard God.
And as I approached Penn Station, I bought myself an egg salad sandwich on a bagel, and as I'm walking along eating, there's another ministry standing right on the corner where Penn Station is, preaching. And it was a Jewish ministry, and some -- and I was -- I said, oh, isn't that interesting? And I started to watch him, eating my bagel, and they started ministering to a man who aggressively stopped them on the street, a Jewish man, very upset that they were preaching that God has a Son. He was argumentative; he was fighting with them, and I'm standing there eating my bagel. You don’t step into other people's ministry. You just don't do things like that. And as I'm watching this, I'm stuffing this bagel in my mouth, waiting for my train.
I realized that the minister just didn't have the answer for this guy, and I knew that I had the answers for this guy. And I shoved my bagel, [?put my?] bagel away. The spirit of God just raised me up. I went running right up there, which is -- under normal circumstances, you do not do things like that. I went right up; I barged right in on the man's ministry. And I said, excuse me, I think I have the answer for him, and I started talking, and the minister stood there for about three minutes, and he just walked away because the Holy Ghost was all over me. And I ministered to that man; I gave him the answers God wanted him to hear. I even gave him one of our messages, unheard of. You don't do things like that, but I knew it was God. And after the whole thing was over, I went over to the other minister to apologize, and he was very angry. He was upset, but he said to me -- well, he said, it was God, so he knew it was God, so he had no argument with me. He knew it was God, but he didn't like it.
So what am I saying to you? What did I say to you? God got me on that train, took a whole day of my time to get me into Manhattan to answer this man's question on a technical point that not many people know the answer to. I was an angel to that man. God sent me all the way from Long Island. I came home, and I said, Lord, do you mean to tell me there was not one Christian in Manhattan on a business day that could have answered that man's question? You had to send me all the way from Long Island? Apparently, the answer was yes. I was an angel unto that man, sent specifically to him to answer his question. How could God have a Son? Isn't that ignorant of you Christians? How could a Spirit have a Son? He didn't know that the Son of God is a mind. No one ever told him that before.
So I've been preaching for years that angels are men, sometimes in the flesh, sometimes out of their bodies but appearing in their flesh, and this is the first time that I found a Scripture to support it. We'll see it a little further on, but I found a Scripture to support it. I've been severely persecuted for this teaching I'll have you know. I'm persecuted for a lot of my teachings, but I li- -- I get excited when I find a Scripture.
OK, so I'm saying to that at the gates, the 12 angels, which are the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel, were coming through these four gates. I suggest to you that the four directions, north, south, east and west, are explained by Ezekiel's description of the glorified man in Chapter 10 of the Book of Ezekiel. "And every one of these glor- -- of this -- and every one had" -- now talking -- he's talking about the glorified man now. "Every one had four faces: the first face was the face of a cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third face was the face of a lion, and the fourth face was the face of an eagle." This is a glorified man. Now, brethren, he is not a perverted man that has one of these heads on all -- he's not a man with a square head with four different faces. This Scripture is speaking about the spiritual nature of the man.
The glorified man will have four aspects to his nature, a cherub, a man, a lion and an eagle, and we're going to line those aspects up to the north, south and the east and the west. On many other messages -- I'm not -- I'm just going over this because I've taught on this many times. The east is representative of God. The sun rises in the east, and it sets in the west, so the east is representative of God and is typified by the cherub. God is -- the cherub typifies God. The north is representative of Satan, cold and dark, and is typified by the man. Fallen man is Satan. The west is representative of the nature of man in the soul realm, which is typified by the lion. And the -- man, in the soul realm, is spirit; man is spirit in the soul realm. Right now he's a beast. He's a beast, and he has spiritual power. Lions can tear. It's the immature creation in the soul ream, typified by the lion. The south is representative of the influence of Christ upon the nature of man and is typified by the eagle, so the south is the mature creation in the realm of appearance. East typifies God; north typifies Satan; west typifies the immature creation, and south typifies the spiritual immature creation. Excuse me.
OK, let's try and get through this. We're told that there are three gates on each of the four directions. Three, I remind you, is the number of the spiritual man, and we've studied that many times specifically in our messages dealing with symbolic numbers. Three is the number of the spiritual man. 12 is the number of God's perfect government, I remind you. So we see the many-membered Christ appearing through three gates or through the spiritual gates -- three is the number of the spiritual man -- through the spiritual gates of the city.
And what are the gates? I remind you, from a past meeting, the gates are our perception. They're our senses, the eye gate, the nose gate, the ear gate. We have spiritual senses also. We have spiritual senses also. They're called knowledge and wisdom and discernment. So we see the angels entering in. We see the angels, the spiritual men, the Christ man, entering into the city, which is the living soul, through spiritual senses.
I'm going to read it from the beginning again. So we see the many-membered Christ appearing through three gates or through the spiritual gates of the city, from each of the four different directions. We see the many-membered Christ entering into the city from each of the four different directions by His spiritual senses. We're entering into the renewed soul by a mind which is Christ, by a mind which has wisdom and knowledge and discernment and understanding. We enter in through our spiritual senses. We enter in through living out of and through utilizing and through manifesting the mind of Christ. Spiritual things are of the mind.
Brethren, this is a big problem today, getting people to understand that fasting and ritualistic prayer and even going to church four times a week, casting out demons, healing the sick, although all good, in and of themselves will not get you into the kingdom. If you are going to church four times a week and you are attending a ministry which is building Christ in you and they have four meetings a week and you are going, well, praise God you do it, but if you go four times a week to a dead church, it's not getting you into the kingdom. It is not the act of going four times a week that's getting you in. It's not the act of the ritualistic prayer. It's not the act of feeding the poor. It's not the act of going to the prisons. It's not that act that gets you in. What gets you into the kingdom is the formation of Christ as your new mind and your transferring into that mind and living out of it.
If you don't know how to do it, don't panic. Ask God to help you to start thinking with the mind of Christ. I pray continuously, Father, what is Your reaction to this circumstance? What would you do if You were me right here and now? What do You think? What do Your eyes see? Am I comprehending this accurately? Let Christ be my mind. I pray it continuously, and then you wait for Him to answer your prayer.
He must build in you. I'm not telling you to not be faithful. I'm not telling you to not go to the prison ministry. Do it, but don't believe that these works are getting you into the kingdom. They're good works. God will bless you for them. You will reap good things into your life. Your children will be blessed, but that's not how you get into the kingdom. You get into the kingdom when you get the mind which is the kingdom, and then you live out of it, and only Jesus can give you that increase. So you do all your good works. If you would like to fast, you fast. I'm not telling you not to fast, but it's not getting you into the kingdom. Fasting is not getting you into the kingdom.
Now I spoke to someone not too long ago, can't even recall who. We were speaking about fasting, and they said to me how they love to fast because they have a real spiritual experience when they fast, and they get up real high, and it's glorious, and they're all for fasting. And as most Christians know or as most Christians go, when someone -- when a Christian really gets a good experience, they cannot understand that you do not want to do what they do. Well, let me tell you something, brethren, I am not against fasting. I'm not against it. The doctors even say that it's good for your body. But I want to tell you that when you start to abide in the mind of Christ and when Christ is your mind a large percentage of the time, you have more spiritual -- more consistent spiritual experiences on a regular basis without fasting than people who fast continuously and only have their spiritual experiences when they're fasting.
Listen to me. Fasting to get a spiritual -- or to have a spiritual experience is what the carnal Christian must do. The Christian whose mind is carnal who wants to have a spiritual experience fasts, and the Lord blesses it. Exactly how, I don't know. But the Christian whose mind, a large percentage of the time, is Christ, who's thinking out of that mind, who's living out of that mind, does not need to fast to have a spiritual experience. Fasting is the ministry to the carnal Christian which will give them a spiritual experience. Fasting from food, I should have said that. Fasting from food is the experience of the carnal Christian which will enable him to have a spiritual experience. The believer who has the mind of Christ being formed in them and who is living out of Him to some measure does not need to fast from food to have a spiritual experience. Why? Because they are already fasting from everything that this soul realm has to offer them. To have Christ being formed in you and to be living out of Christ, automatically begins to cut you off from the soulish pleasure of this world.
So if you don't fast and this is your reason why, do not let any man condemn you because my answer to carnal Christians who try to condemn me or put me on the spot is this. You fast one day a week from food. You may go on a 40-day fast once a year from food. I fast from the soul realm every second of every minute of every hour of every day of my life. I fast a much greater fast than a 40-day food fast wi- -- only on water. You could -- probably couldn’t bear my fast. And because I fast from the soul ream every second of every minute of every hour of every day of my life, I have spiritual experiences frequently without any preparation, without saying I, one week from now, will begin a 40-day fast and expect to hear from God. I expect to hear from God every second of every minute of every hour of every day of my life. And I do not fast fully from the soul realm, but I am fasting from a large measure of soulish pleasures. Does anybody not understand me? I am not against fasting. I do get irritated at carnal, pharisitical Christians that cannot even comprehend that if you are not doing what they are doing that you might have something better. They just assume that you are behind them. Is everybody OK? OK.
So three is the number of the spiritual man. 12 is the number of God's perfect government. So we see the many-membered Christ appearing through three gates or through the spiritual gates of the city from each of the four different directions, or we can say the many-membered Christ is appearing in the realm of appearance on four fronts, as follows. First, He is appearing through the spiritual aspect of the creation, which is what? Anybody know what is the spiritual aspect of the creation? It is the mind. The spiritual aspect of the creation is the mind. The east typifies the mind of Christ. Does anyone recall another name for the mind of Christ? We had a whole message on it. Anybody? The kingdom of God. The mind of Christ is the kingdom of God. And the north typifies Satan, so we see that the east and the north together, the kingdom of God and Satan, typify, if you recall the teaching -- does anybody know? The kingdom of the two heavens. The kingdom of God is the mind of Christ alone, and the kingdom of the two heavens is the mind of Christ which has bound up and brought into subjection the satanic power source.
The kingdom of heaven, if you look it up in the Greek, is accurate- -- more accurately expressed as the kingdom of the two heavens, functioning and operating as one heaven under the authority of Christ. The kingdom of heaven is greater than the kingdom of God. You may have the kingdom of God in you, in your mind, if you have the mind of Christ, but if that kingdom of God has not fully subjected your carnal mind, you are a double-minded man until such time as the kingdom of God brings the satanic realm into subjections, as Jesus of Nazareth did, at which time your mind will no longer be the kingdom of God but will be the kingdom of heaven. Everybody OK? We have a whole message on that, brethren.
So the east and the north together typify the kingdom of the two heavens or the mind which is in the glorified creation. And, second, the many-membered Christ is appearing through the soulish aspect of the creation, which is the flesh. The west typifies the visible aspect of the soul known as personality, and the south typifies the expression of Christ through that personality. So we see that the west and the south together typify the human personality under the influence of the mind of Christ. So, once again, brethren, this glorified city that we're reading about in Revelation 21 is speaking about humanity. It's speaking about the living soul which is indwelt by the mind of Christ, and all of this description of it is a symbolic, mysterious way of expressing a truth that the majority of the church world is not ready to understand.
So as we've said many times here, the Bible is a parable. God will have us receive it on whatever level we're capable of receiving it. As we read this Bible in faith with whatever measure of understanding we have, it goes into our heart, and the Lord blesses us for it. In this hour, however, those of us who are being prepared to be caught up to full stature are being given the understanding of the mystery of God. The Scripture is speaking about the human race indwelt by a glorified mind that is invincible. We are being given information about what is happening and will be happening to us. It's not a fantasy. Excuse me.
I've had Christians very sincerely tell me that they believe that the New Jerusalem is coming down from Mars. They believe that a whole city, a castle in the sky, is descending upon the earth. It may be crushing my little building here as it comes down. Brethren, we must grow up. God's creation is humanity. It is us, and these are all symbols describing our glorification. Hallelujah. Who wants a castle out of the sky? I want the mind of Christ. I want to stop dying. I want to be delivered from dependency. Do you realize how dependent we are? Everything that sustains in this world is outside of us. We must get food from outside of us. We must get shelter from outside of us. We must get clothing from outside of us. We must get love from outside of us. We must get companionship from outside of us. Brethren, we are vile in our dependency. When Christ is our mind, every need shall be met from our internalized Christ, every need.
Do you know how when you get very hot you go jumping in the water if you can find water? I was visiting somebody not too long ago who, for whatever reason, wouldn't open their windows, and I thought that I would be passing out from the heat. I knew I was there in a form of ministry, and I just prayed to the Lord. I said, Father, I can't take it. I have got to leave. Almost a panic came upon me that I couldn't bear it another second. I said, Lord, I'm asking for permission to leave. And what do you think happened? I cooled off. I want to tell you I was supernaturally cooled from the internalized Christ which is within me. Apparently, He did not want me to leave. He will keep you cool in the summer; He will keep you warm in the winter. He will provide whatever shelter and food, love and companionship you need as you grow in to Him, but, ultimately, He shall be all that you need.
So this city, it's the glorified living soul of which we are members in particular, and this particular Verse 13 is a highly symbolic verse. If you couldn't follow me, please, don't worry about it. It was very difficult. I had to meditate on it for hours, and just as I was about to give and just pass by it, because I didn't now what to make out of it, the Lord gave me this understanding, so don't worry about it if you're not following me.
The Alternate Translation for Revelation, Chapter 21, Verse 13 is as follows. Believe it or not, the enchristed mind and the enchristed personality of the living soul. Verse 13, which says, "On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates," is speaking about the enchristed mind and the enchristed personality of the glorified living soul.
Now that's not even a whole sentence, so I found, as I prayed about this, that that Verse 13 really needs to be inserted in our -- in Verse 12, so I am inserting in our Alternate -- I'm combining our Alternate Translation of Verse 12 and 13, and I'll show you where I just included Verse 13. "And the renewed living soul has all of the human weakness that the sons of Israel had, but Christ Jesus has made them faithful by reforming their nature into the image of the Father, and now only the Spirit of God can pass through the enchristed mind" -- now here's the insert, "the enchristed mind and the enchristed personality of that many-membered, holy city which connects heaven to the earth."
Continuing with Verse 14, "And the wall of the city had 12 foundations, and in them the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb." The wall, I remind you from a previous message, we determined is Christ. The city that's being spoken about is the great and holy Jerusalem; 12 is the number of God's government, and the foundation -- does anybody -- can anybody tell us who the foundation is? Christ, yes. I Corinthians 3:11 says, "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ." "And the wall of the city had 12 foundations."
Now I'm going to suggest to you that a spiritual foundation -- well, we know the foundation is Christ, but this verse says 12 foundations, so I'm going to suggest to you that each of those foundation is speaking about a lifetime in which Christ was manifested, or let me change that. 12 is God's -- is the number of God's perfect government. I'm suggesting to you that number 12 is a symbolic number typifying all of the lifetimes in which Christ was having experiences so that -- and those were lifetimes of His immaturity so that He could eventually mature into the glorified Christ. Let me say it again. 12 foundations is the symbolic number typifying the many lifetimes that Christ has had, been experiencing spiritual experiences in the flesh, which accumulated experiences and accumulated lifetimes are resulting in the mature Christ appearing in the earth. Now for anybody listening to this message who haven't heard other messages, we do believe in a spiritual lifetime here, and if you just hold on, I'm going to review it in a few minutes.
"For other fou- -- and the wall of the city had 12 foundations, and in those foundations the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb." Names, I remind you, typify spirit. So the 12 foundation with the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb signifies the complete number of lifetimes, foundations, through which Christ had the complete number of spiritual experiences, that's the names, necessary to grow Him up into full spiritual manhood. An apostle is a man in whom Christ is appearing. Brethren, if the mind of Christ is functioning in you and you are living out of that mind of Christ, you are an apostle.
And the word Lamb, this is 12 apostles of the Lamb. Now we know that the Lamb is mentioned several times in the Book of Revelation, and John the Baptists said, "Behold, the Lamb of God," and I want to suggest to you that -- you know, I -- it used to confuse me, that I knew that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God and the fully mature Christ, and how could this word Lamb be used in the Book of Revelation? Because if you look it up in the Greek -- I didn't write down the number for you, but if you look it up in the Greek, it's speaking about a lambkin, a baby lamb which is less than a year old, and I didn't fully understand it until recently when the Lord showed me that the Lamb in the Book of Revelation is not the Lord Jesus Christ but is Christ Jesus, the offspring of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So when we start reading the Book of Revelation at the beginning, we find the Lord Jesus Christ saying, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first of the creation of God," and by the time we get to the back of the Book of Revelation, we find a lambkin less than a year old, and that is Christ Jesus, the second generation of Christ which is coming forth in this hour, Jesus of Nazareth, the first generation of Christ, Christ Jesus, all of us, the second generation of Christ, and the two are one. How could that be? Because Jesus of Nazareth, the first generation of Christ, has become our unconscious mind, so the first generation is pure spirit, and the mind of the second generation, which is the Son, which is soul, spirit and soul. Is everybody OK?
Let me just put these foundations on the board for you. I thought it might help you to see it like this. This is the realm of appearance up here, and this is the realm of the spirit, invisible. So we see, in the form of foundations, lifetimes. I'm not going to draw the whole 12; I don't have room. Well, just to give you an example, we had Abraham in this lifetimes. You think Christ appeared in Abraham? Do you think Christ was in Abraham having experiences? I think so. You OK? And the next one would be who?
[INAUDIBLE]
Well, before Moses. We'll say, Isaac, OK, and then up here we have Jacob. So in all of these lifetimes, we had Christ appearing having spiritual experiences. And let's put Moses in here, OK -- having spiritual experiences that can be likened to our five -- our fifth year, our 10th year, our 15th year, every year from one through whatever we are today. We are the sum total of every experience we ever had since our birth. If somehow, supernaturally, our 10th year could be ripped out of our experience, it would probably change what we are today, so Christ Jesus has been having many lifetimes, and in each generation -- let's say in this year, 1993, Christ Jesus is having, probably, thousands of experiences in all the believers in whom Christ is being formed right now. But we know that, from the beginning, when Christ first started to appear, He wasn't appearing in the whole world. He started in Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then He appeared in -- actually, I think, before we get to Moses, we would have to include Joseph. Although, to be honest with you, I haven't really prayed about this. I'm just trying to give you an example.
[?Would Noah be in there??]
Noah would be in there too I'm sure. I don't know if it would actually come out to 12 or not. I haven't tried. I haven't really sat down and thought about it, but this is the general principle. These are the foundations that the Scripture is speaking about, and when you get here -- when you get above the line into the realm of appearance -- I should use another color. When you come into the realm of appearance, who do you have up here? Does anybody know? We're talking about Christ Jesus.
The foundation of Christ Jesus are all of the experiences that Christ Jesus has had in the past. That's why we're told in the Book of Hebrews that all of those famous saints in the hall of fame in the Book of Hebrews could not come into the kingdom without us because Christ Jesus, which is a spirit -- Christ Jesus is a mind, the offspring of God, has to have had all of these experiences, including the experience He's having in you and the experience He's having in me and the experience He's having in everybody here. It has been ordained from before the foundation of the earth that Christ Jesus, which is a mind, must have every experience that He has had unto date and all of those that He will have until He finally appears in the earth in full stature. And all of these experiences will be the foun- -- will be included in the symbolic number s- -- known as the 12 foundations; 12 means the completed number of experiences.
So over here we have Rita and Michelle and Mary and Celie [SP] and Sheila. Who knows, maybe He's even in Rosie [SP]. What do I know? And Joseph. We are all part of the 12 foundations that are in the realm of the spirit because when He appears in full stature, He will have had to go through all of these lifetimes. Does anybody have a question on this? Does anybody not k now what I'm talking about? 12, the number of God's perfect government. Foundations, speaking about spiritual foundations which are experiences, overcoming experiences that Christ has gone through which results -- which shall result in the appearance, in full stature, of the lambkin, not Jesus of Nazareth but His offspring, Christ Jesus, the many-membered Son of God. Is everybody OK? OK. That excites me. I don't know about you. That gets me all excited, that God is opening up these mysteries. It's awesome.
Alternate Translation, Revelation 21, Verse 14, "And the mature Christ Jesus was built" -- or came into existence -- "upon the overcoming experience he had in the many lifetimes of His immaturity."
It would be just like me saying, and Mary exists today as a result of all of the overcoming experiences she has had since she was born into this world. Another way to say it is we are the sum total of everything we have experienced since we were boring. That's what the Scripture is saying.
Verse 15, "And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof."
Gold typifies deity. A reed is a measuring instrument. Now when we measure -- when the Scripture talks about measuring, does anybody know what's being measured? What's being measured?
[?Christ in us?].
Christ in us.
[?Christ in us?].
Christ in us is being measured, exactly, first of all, to see whether or not He's there, and if He's there, to see how mature He is. So we're measuring f- -- we are measuring men in relationship to the established standard, which is what? Who is the established standard that we are measuring ourself against? Not Christ.
[?The Lord Jesus Christ?].
The Lord Jesus Christ, the one -- our big brother, the one who has already overcome and been glorified, so don't tell me that you're doing well compared to your brother or you're doing well compared to the Baptist Church. Jesus really doesn't want to hear it. Look at yourself in comparison to the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will see where your shortcomings are, not for condemnation but that you might know where to start to work or at least to pray about these things. Brethren, the best of us are pitiful next to Jesus, and that is the truth. I tell you of a truth. I have a lot of spiritual power; I really do have authority, but I look at myself next to Jesus, and I am pitiful. That is the truth. So if you do that, it'll keep you from getting proud. Brethren, we have one long way to go.
So Jesus is our standard. The golden measuring instrument is the glorified Christ. The word measure means to judge according to any rule or standard. The city is the glorified living soul. The gates, as I mentioned earlier, means perception by means of the five senses, but we found out that there are three gates, meaning that we're talking, here, about the spiritual senses not the natural senses. And the wall is Christ. Now let me remind you that back in Verse 9 it was Christ who started speaking to John, and we did that on another message, so it's been Christ who's been speaking to John all along.
Alternate Translation, Revelation 21, Verse 15, "And Christ Jesus was speaking with me, and He had the Lord Jesus Christ within Him."
Christ Jesus has the Lord Jesus Christ within Him. Is everybody OK with that? Christ Jesus is the mind of Christ in me, the mind of Christ in a man, and wherever the mind of Christ appears, the spirit of Christ is with Him. The mind and the spirit of Christ are one. The mind appears in a man, and spirit of Christ or the Father can appear in the man or beyond the man, contrary to the teaching in the church today that God is nowhere outside of man. That is not true. Man is within God. OK.
"And Christ Jesus was speaking with me, and He had the Lord Jesus Christ within Him, the one who is the standard against which the soul and mind of the living soul may be measured."
And what is it being measured for, the soul and the mind of the living soul? The measurement will determine whether the mind in a particular person is Christ or not and whether the soul of that person is renewed, whether the soul of that person is alive or dead. So when we measure ourself up against the Lord Jesus Christ, we find out whether or not our mind is Christ and whether or not our soul is alive or dead.
And all you Pharisees, if you haven't shut off the message yet, I'm telling you one more time. When Jesus Christ of Nazareth body died, His Father raised Him from the dead in three days. And your teaching that all these millions and billions of Christians whose bodies are dying are happily running down streets of gold and living in a mansion on the other side of the veil is not scriptural. It does not measure up to my standard or to the standard of this Bible, and you are preaching a lie, and you shall be held accountable for every word that you have preached and for every believer that you have caused to stumble. Glory to God.
"And Christ Jesus was speaking with me, and He had the Lord Jesus Christ within Him, the one who is the standard against which the soul and mind of the living soul may be measured."
Please, note that in Revelation 11:1, John is given a reed like unto a rod and told to measure the temple, the altar and them that worship therein. Let me read it to you, Revelation, 11:1. It sounds very similar to Revelation 21:15. Is that were we are? 15, yes. OK, I'm reading Revelation 11:1. "And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein."
I'm not going to spend too much time on it. If you'd like to review Revelation 11:1, it's on our two witnesses series, part 1, and I will make these brief comments. The mind of Christ is the temple; Jesus is the altar, and them that worship therein are the fallen members of the living soul who are doing the best they can to live out of Christ. I'm suggesting to you that in Revelation 11:1, John is given an immature, imparted Christ to measure the church and that Revelation 11 is speaking about the two witness company. Now that's not very hard to determine if you read the rest of that chapter, that Revelation 11 is speaking about the two witness company. What I'm saying to you -- let me say it again -- is that it says John was given a reed like unto a rod, and in that message, we determined that the rod was Christ. So John was given a reed that was like unto Christ. He wasn't the fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was an immature measure of the imparted anointing, which makes one eligible to be a member of the two-witness company.
Now it's manifesting today; the two-witness company is manifesting today. People who have a mature enough Christ and who are living in that measure of maturity that God has anointed them to go forth and bring correction to other human beings, other Christians, to correct -- to expose the sin in their heart and to bring it to the light without condemnation so that person might be delivered and go on in Christ. And we see, in Revelation 21, Verse 15, the Scripture is speaking about the sons of God, the perfect, mature Christ in whom there is no error, who would have the power to not only expose these sins but bring a much more rapid deliverance than we see in this hour.
Continuing with Revelation 21:16, "And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, 12 thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal."
The city, I remind you, is the new, glorified Jerusalem, and it lieth foursquare. This word lieth is Strong's 2749, and it means to put or set in place or to stand. Foursquare means four-cornered. Well, let me put this on the board for you. We're told that the city had four corners. Now what kind of a form do you think this city would have that has four corners? Want to guess?
[?A square?].
A square. What do you think? What ki- -- what form would this city have, four corners? OK. So you would assume it would be a square, but I want to tell you it doesn't have to be a square because if I draw something like this, we have four corners, and it's not a square.
[INAUDIBLE]
It doesn't say that the corners are equal. Four corners, you can have four corners in different kinds of forms, so we need additional -- I believe that the city is a square. We just need additional information on it. So we're told that this city is four-cornered, has four corners, and we're told that the length is as large as the breadth, so that's what tells us that it's a square, that the length is as large as the breadth, and that word breadth, it really means width, so now we know that it's a square. Now you say to yourself, well, how can this be? This woman just got through telling me that this Scripture is not speaking about any actual city. It's speaking about the human race and the mind that's in it. Well, here's a Scripture that says the city is a square. She probably doesn't know what she's talking about. But those of us that have been studying here for a while know that before I ever even looked at this Scripture we found, in our study of Ezekiel, I believe it was Ezekiel 1, that God expresses this creation, frequently, if not always, or is -- let me put it this way, that the Lord is able and does frequently express His creation mathematically. And does anybody remember what the square typifies? We studied this in our 38 series. The square typifies --
The glorified man.
-- the glorified man. And as I said, God gave this to us a couple of years ago before I ever even looked at this Scripture. And the number of the glorified man is, anybody?
[CROSSTALK]
What?
[INAUDIBLE]
Well, each man is 144, and the Scripture says there are thousands of 144s. What the number of the --
[?144,000?]?
No, if you look it up in the Greek, it says there are thousands of hundred and forty-fours. OK, let me review this whole thing for you while we're at it. It's been a while since we had this study. OK. We start out with the earthman. And does anyone know what the number of the earthman is?
[INAUDIBLE]
No, the earthman, six. The number of the earthman is six. He goes around the circle of the earth, and he's flat. This world, without Christ, is flat. You know, once you get Christ in you and you start to get a vision of how dull and flat this world is, you just want more and more of what's up there. So, at some point, we're spinning around this world, spinning around this world, and at some point, the Lord from heaven decides to intersect our life, and He comes down from heaven, and He intersects our life. And He is also a man; although, He is the man from heaven, and His number is also six. He's a different kind of a man, but He's also a man.
The intersection forms a right angle, so we see the man who was strictly on the earth is now bent up towards heaven, and he has a new number. He was a one-sided man, totally flat. He is not a two-sided man, and his number is what? 12. The spiritual man is expressed by the number 12, and we have a line here closing this right triangle. We don't really talk about him too much. What is the name of this line?
[?Satan?].
Satan, yes. Now there's one more step; there's glorification, and we find that in glorification, the creation becomes pure spirit. And I dug up one of these old exhibits. God showed us -- now as we see that six plus six equals 12, there has to be a mathematical expression that gives us number 144 for the spiritual man, and the Lord showed us that that calculation is made by employing Einstein's theory of relativity, and I guess I'll go over it for you. I'll put it on the message.
OK, Einstein's theory of relativity. What does that mean? That is a theory that indicates how energy is formed. Spirit is energy. We are flesh. We are slow. We are dull. We are being converted into energy. It is pa- -- does anybody know, in the natural, when we make energy, what process do we use to make energy?
[INAUDIBLE]
What?
[INAUDIBLE]
Fire, for heat, exactly. Well, do you feel that your life is heating up? Are the trials getting hot? Is life tough? Is there always confusion and contention and trouble and problems in your life? Well, there's a spiritual fire burning under you, and the purpose for it is that God is converting you into spirit very, very slowly. So just let me show you how we get the number 144 for the spiritual man. Einstein's theory of relativity is very simple. It says energy or spirit is equal to -- I don't remember this. OK. It's equal to mass. That means -- like, I'm a mass, like, I span space. Mass times the speed of light squared, that's Einstein's theory of relativity. So what we're saying here is that mass is that which takes up space in the realm of time. That's me or the whole living soul; we're mass, and that's number six, so we'll put in a six for the mass.
Please, bear with me. I didn't have time to review this. I'm taking it right off the sheet. Light equals the Spirit of God in the realm of time and space, and that's Christ, the spiritual man, is number 12. So what we're saying here is spirit is equals -- is equal to man, the number six, times light, which is the spiritual man, 12, squared. If you can't follow the math, don't worry about it. We're going spirit is equal. Six times two is 12. Let me take it right off of here. Six -- spirit is equal to 12. I think I did that wrong. I'm sorry. This should be a two; six times two. Spirit is equal to 12 squared, and 12 squared is number 144. If you couldn't follow the math, don't worry about it, but it's valid math, OK.
Let me repeat the principle to you again. Man is a natural man. His number is six. He becomes a spiritual man; he gets another side to him. He becomes a 12, OK, but there's a much more radical change in glorification. We are becoming pure energy. Spirit is pure energy, and the way it's determined is through this formula that a heathen scientist devised, and we find that it works in the Scripture.
So, quite simply, what is happening to this triangle that we have on the board is that -- well, to square something -- let me tell you what that means. To square something means to multiply it by itself. If you have a number two and you want to square a number two, you would say two times two equals four. If you want to square the number 10, you would have to say 10 times 10. OK, that's what to square something means; you multiply it by itself. So to square this right triangle, we will be multiplying it by itself, and what we wind up with is another right triangle, and together we have a square.
But what I never realized when we did this study in the 38 series -- what I never realized was that there is another dimension to this, and we'll see it as we go further down in Revelation 21. There is the length, and there is the width, but there is also height, and we find out that this glorified creation is not a square. I preached it on the 38 series that it was a square. It's greater than a square. It is a cube. That means it is a three-dimensional square. So we see that the glorified creation has length; that's the earth side, has width, which is the spiritual side, and then He has height, and we go all the way up into the heavens. You see --
[INAUDIBLE]
Uh-huh, yeah.
[INAUDIBLE]
See, when we become a spiritual man and we become that right triangle, we're existing by the angle. If you recall, I had it on the board. Let me put it back on the board for you. When we become a spiritual man -- and we're not completely spiritual men right now. We are growing up into being spiritual men. To be a full spiritual man, you have to be in full stature, so we are approaching spirituality, but we exist down here by this right triangle. Our spirituality exists in this point where our natural man meets our spiritual savior, OK, but when we become glorified, we ascend all the way up into the he- -- we receive the height, and we re- -- ascend all the way up into heaven. So the creation is a cube; the glorified creation is a cube.
So let me just go through these last few words here. "And the city lieth foursquare," so the geometrical expression of the glorified man is that He's square, but He's more than a square; He's a cube. And he measured the city with the reed, and, remember, the reed is the glorified Christ. He compared the living soul up against the Lord Jesus Christ, and there were 12,000 furlongs, so let's talk about that. The number 12, again, is God's perfect government, and the word thousand is Strong's 5505, and it means, symbolically, the law fulfilled in the realm of the spirit. I have here this exhibit; it's exhibit 71, part 5. If you don't have one at home -- you should have one. If you don't have one at home, you're free to ask for one, where we did a workup on this, what the number 10 through 100 million means.
And the number 1,000 is referring to the law fulfilled in the realm of the spirit, and what that means -- when the law is fulfilled in the realm of the spirit, it means that our human spirit is separated from Satan. The fulfillment of the law, which is Christ, in the realm of the spirit, is that our human spirit is ripped away from Satan and completely joined unto Christ.
So the city was 12,000 furlongs. The word furlong is Strong's 4712, and it means a length comprising 600 Greek feet, and as you know, the number of man is six. So I want to suggest to you that the symbolic meaning of this number, 12,000 furlongs, is that the 12,000, the number indicating the liberated human spirit, is joined with the number 12. I should have -- I meant to have 1,000 here, fix my notes. The number 1,000 indicates the liberates human spirit, and it's joined with the number 12, God's number for a perfect government, indicating that the human spirit has not only been liberated but is now joined to God's perfect government, which is Christ. The word furlongs indicates that although the human spirit has been glorified, the number 600 is still present, indicating that the city is still a man. He's still a man.
You know, brethren, when they write about the Neanderthal man and all forms of prehistoric man that were very, very animalistic, as far as science is concerned and as far as God is concerned, as far as I'm concerned, it's that they are a man just as we are a man, but they were a prehistoric Neanderthal man, and we are modern man, but we are all men. And if you look up the word man in the Scripture, you'll find that there's no difference. It's the same word used to describe fallen man as used to describe glorified man. The Greek word is anthropos, Strong's 444, so there's just man. You might want to modify that word by saying modern man, fallen man, Neanderthal man, but we are all men. So we see here in Revelation 21, Verse 16, the Scripture indicating that this glorified creation is still, in God's eyes, very much man. The same Greek word for fallen man as for glorified man, anthropos, Strong's 444, different kinds of men but all men. OK.
"And the city lieth foursquare," it's squared, and it's a square. And it's -- then we found out that it's a cube, and the city was measured up against the Lord Jesus Christ. And we found out that the condition of the living soul was that the human spirits of men had been separated from Satan, and the number 12 indicates that they were joined to Christ, yet they were still a man. And the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal, and that's the phrase that tells us that it's a cube. The length and the breadth of it makes it a square, and the height of it being equal makes it a perfect geometric cube, the most stable geometric expression, as far as I know, known to mathematics, a solid cube. It's untoppleable; you can't throw it over. It's just steady, perfectly weighted and measured out, cannot be overturned, that the c- -- that the soul will not be overturned again, won't be overturned, won't -- but won't be able to fall.
[?As opposed to, like, a triangle or something?].
A triangle is not as stable. Let me show it to you.
[INAUDIBLE] square [INAUDIBLE] oblong, right?
What was that?
Noah's Ark was, like, oblong?
I'm sorry. I don't understand your question.
It was oblong, the shape of it.
What was oblong?
Noah's Ark.
Oh, I don't know. OK, so if you have a tri- -- you're talking about the right triangle.
I was thinking about a triangle that's --
An isosceles triangle, like this?
Yeah, a [?full triangle?].
A f- -- an isosceles triangle like this. OK, this is always possible, that a big wind would come along at the apex here --
Yeah.
-- you know, and do damage to it or topple it, you see, but a cube, it's -- there's no thin point. There's no weak point. It's just perfectly steady, solid, total stability, so let's finish this up. I'm on page 6.
Alternate Translation, Revelation 21, Verse 16, "And Christ Jesus compared the city, which is in the form of a square, to the gl-" -- well, I should have made that -- I say, "And Christ Jesus compared the city, which is in the form of a square to the glorified man, Jesus Christ, whose human spirit is separated from Satan and joined to His Christ mind, and the city was a cube."
"And Christ Jesus compared the city, which is in the form of a square to the glorified man, Jesus Christ, whose human spirit is separated from Satan and joined to His Christ mind, and it was revealed that the living soul was a cube or that the living soul was, indeed, legitimately glorified."
Hallelujah. Amplified translation, Revelation 21:16, "And Christ Jesus compared the city, which is in the form of a square to the glorified man, Jesus Christ, whose human spirit is separated from Satan and joined to His Christ mind, and the city was glorified."
Hallelujah. [AUDIO CUTS OUT]
Alternate Transla- -- I'm sorry. Continuing with Revelation 21:17, "And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel."
The wall is Christ, I remind you. Number 144 is the number of the glorified man, and cubits is Strong's 4083. It's speaking about the forearm, and it was used in Bible days as a measure. You would measure from your elbow, I believe, unto the point of your middle finger. M- -- well, first of all, I ask you to look at your King James and see that several of those words are not in the Greek. In the King James, if you exclude the words in italics, the verse would read, "And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred forty four cubits, the measure of a man, that is, of the angel."
The interlinear text makes it a little clearer, and that reads, "A hundred and forty four cubits, a measure of a man which is of an angel," but the word of in the phrase, of an angel, does not appear in the Greek text. The phrase, then, according to the Greek, should read, "An hundred and forty four cubits, a measure of a man, which is an angel, a man which is an angel." So here we find a Scripture, finally, after all these years of persecution, that clearly states that a man can be an angel. There is a particular type of man which is an angel. There's a man which is fallen. There's Neanderthal man, and there is a man -- a type of man which is an angel, meaning a messenger or servant of God. I think the apostle is the messenger, an angel, a servant God, a holy one, an angel, a holy one of God. It's possible for a man to be a holy one of God. Or we can say 144 cubits is the measure or the mathematical expression of the man who is an angel. Let me read it again. Or we can say 144 cubits is the measure or the mathematical expression of the man who is an angel.
So earlier on this message, I talked about two types of angels. I talked about a fallen man who's moving in Christ in some measure who is on assignment from God, and we can be an angel if we are specifically -- if we are the vessel through which God is specifically responding to somebody's prayer. If we are on a mission, specifically sent by God, we are an angel, or we can come out of our bodies, and that's a much more supernatural experience. And here, in Verse 17, we find out that the ultimate angel, the ultimate man which is an angel is the glorified man who has been purely spiritualized who does not have to come out of his body but whose state of being is a condition of pure spirit. His body has been transmuted into spirit. That is the ultimate angel, but as we have learned in our studies of the Scripture, just about everything that we find in the Scripture has a lesser and a greater manifestation. We find that, in this hour, we have a lesser manifestation of angels, a less spiritual, less mature, weaker manifestation of the operation of angels, but there is a greater manifestation and operation of the angel, and that is glorified man, which is pure spirit -- is the true angel, the glorified man.
Alternate Translation, Revelation 21:17, "And Christ Jesus measured the mind of the glorified living soul, and it was the mind of a man who was an angel."
Recap, verses -- Revelation 21, verses 12 through 17, "And the renewed living soul has all of the human weaknesses that the sons of Israel had, but Christ Jesus has made them faithful by reforming their nature into the image of the Father, and now only the spirit of God can pass through the enchristed mind and the enchristed personality of that many-membered holy city which connects heaven to the earth. And the mature Christ Jesus was built upon the overcoming experiences He had in many li- -- in the many lifetimes of His immaturity. And Christ Jesus was speaking with me, and He had the Lord Jesus Christ within Him, the One who is the standard against which the soul and mind of the living soul may be measured, and Christ Jesus compared the city, which is in the form of a square to the glorified man, Jesus Christ, whose human spirit is separated from Satan and joined to His Christ mind, and the city was glorified. And Christ Jesus measured the mind of the glorified living soul, and it was the mind of a man who was an angel."
Hallelujah. Any questions, comments?
Yeah. When you were saying that whether fallen man or glorified man, it's man, and, I don't know, this thought passed my mind that I'm thinking might be humanistic, and I'm just going to ask you if it is. That we are where we're supposed to be right now, that we're progressing into what God is wanting us to go into and that it's -- He's just got it all under control, and we're at the point where -- I don't know how to put this. I think it might be humanistic, though, what I'm saying. Do you hear what I'm saying? We're where we're supposed to be.
The humanistic aspect of it is this. I agree with that. I believe that there is an evolution of man, not from monkey to man but that man himself is evolving. But what the humanists say is that, left to our own devices, man will eventually become glorified. I don't know whether that's the term they use or not. And what my understanding of the Scripture is, is that unless Christ is added to the human race, we shall never get off of the circle of the earth.
OK. Then that was like a fine line because that's the thought that passed my mind, that -- is that, eventually, we'll get there; we'll be glorified, but I know that you have to Christ to get there, you know.
Yeah. Christ must be added to us. This is the major factor that the humanists are missing. They believe that man of himself will eventually ascend into deity, and that is not true. We must have the seed of the Father added to us. What they're saying -- let me put it in a simple parable-ic way. What they're saying is if a woman lives long enough, she will have a child. No, brethren, you will not have a child until the seed of the man is injected into your body and you conceive.
Is there any meaning to the cube having -- the cube has eight sides when you count just the sides of it, eight sides total. Is there any meaning to that?
Does it have eight sides. Is that correct? I only --
Yeah.
-- count six, but I could be wrong. Four going around --
And f- --
-- and one on the top and one on the bottom. Is that wrong?
Four going around.
Four on each side, and then the foundation and the one on top. I see six, but I could be mistaken.
I thought I counted eight.
And that's the number of man.
[CROSSTALK]
Si- -- cubes is a six-sided, three-dimensional geometric expression, glorified man.
One, two, three, four. I thought I counted -- I guess it is six.
Glorified man.
Yeah, six.
See, the humanist teachings, they have a lot of truth, but that is their major error, that they do not or will not or cannot understand that man can only develop so far without having Christ added to us. They believe all the --
But --
-- potential for deity is within man, and it's -- and that is no more true. I just feel to say this again. Please, bear with me. That is no more true than saying that a very healthy, young woman has everything that she needs to produce a male child. She doesn't. she must have the seed of the Father. And isn't that where feminism is going today? They're pretty much saying -- if you analyze what they're saying, they're saying we do not need men. That's what they're saying. They're trying to -- this radical feminism has a spirit behind it that is trying to stamp manhood out of this country, and some of them go so far as to say it. They're saying that lesbianism is the preferred lifestyle and [?who?] -- they just don't need men. It's a vicious [?hate?] -- radical feminism has a spirit behind it which is a vicious hatred for males that's beyond anything that the normal mind can rationalize. It's got to be spiritual. Did you want to say something else?
But isn’t it true that --
Just a minute. Celie [SP], honey, will you do me a favor? You have to go to the bathroom? Would you mind using paper towels and not use any of the towels in there?
[INAUDIBLE]
OK. Thank you. Yeah.
Isn't it -- I lost my thought. Isn't it true, though, that God is in control of all things and it's progressing in His time and that it i- -- and that Christ is going to do this work?
Yes, I believe that, that God is in control of everything.
And that man has evolved to this point, and b- -- and it's all under God's control. He knew the whole timing, the whole thing. Isn't that true?
Well, I know He's in control, but I know if it's to that degree. I think there is some measure -- how do I explain this? -- where man goes his own way within his own guidelines. For example, if you're raising a child and you put them in a playpen, they have total freedom within that playpen, so our world is as it exists, and I think men have some measure of freedom within certain boundaries. So what I hear you saying now, what I hear you repeating to me, is what I believe is a teaching that says man cannot do any wrong; man cannot sin; man can do nothing wrong because God is completely in control of everything, and that's not true. Man can, has and is and shall in the future sin until his heart is converted. So man's not -- God's not in that much control.
We do have certain limits where we have freedom within this plan of God, and that's how man sins. Even Christians sin, go deliberately against God's will every day. I see Christians going deliberately against God's will, and I cannot say -- I cannot agree that God has planned for His people to sin. No, I do not believe that teaching. I don't believe it's true. We are responsible for what we do that is sin because if you say that God planned the sin, then there can't be any sin. If God said -- if God arranged for you to do it, how could He be punishing you for it? Doesn't make any sense at all, so that's where they go off. Anybody else? Would you, please, t- -- hit the pause button for -- that is a vicious, vicious doctrine, you know, and it's all through the church as you well know. It is a vicious doctrine that makes God the guilty party for all of the terrible things that have happened to people over the centuries, takes the blame off of man and puts it on God, condemns God, very vicious teaching.
So where is the balance of understanding that we are in God's plan now, and He is progressing -- Christ is progressing and will be glorified in the earth, that He's in control --
Yeah.
-- but all those thoughts --
Well, Christ is not appearing in every man. You see, this is a very hard word. It's only for mature people. [?Where?] there are billions on the face of the earth, and there have been, I guess, billions, you know, fo- -- over past generations, and Christ is only appearing in a handful, and He's increasing. Each generation, He's appearing in more and more people, and it is God's plan that the creation has fallen into sin, and Christ is appearing in each generation, practicing to overcome that sin in a handful of people. And all of the others are in outright sin.
I don't have a problem with that. I know that that's true. But what I'm hearing or -- I'm still hearing that He is in control of all things and that He knew that man was going to fall and He was still in control and that He planned on appearing in a few, ages and ages later.
No, I don't believe that. I don't b- -- and we have messages on that, that subject, humanity, if you want to review that. I don't believe that. I can't redo the whole --
You don't believe what, in specific?
I don't believe that God knew that man would fall and plan this whole thing this way. No, I don't believe this at all. I believe that God made a creation, and He did not make it perfect, but He made it good, and the creation had to be tested. Just -- my natural example is if you have a 1-year-old child that's ready to walk, you stand them up on their feet. You can do that. You can hold their hand, but you cannot move their legs for them. They're going to -- they have to move their own legs to walk. So God did everything that He was going to do for this creation. He told Adam that there was immoral impurity in his flesh. He gave him dominion over the moral impurity. He gave him a handicap we say, and He said, now, Adam, if you just obey my instructions, we're going to get this creation glorified with a minimum of trouble, and then God removed Himself and let Adam be tested by the moral impurity, OK.
Now God may have looked into the future and seen that man would fall. I'm sure that He did, but it wasn't that God planned that man would fall. God said, Adam, I'm giving you the opportunity to not have to go through this mess. Now if you don’t fall -- it's possible that you won't fall, and if you don’t fall, I'm going to glorify the creation with a minimum of pain. However, if you do fall, I'm still going to glorify the creation, but there's going to be some pain involved. And God did make this creation planning it that all this suffering should be here. This suffering is in creation because our ancestor, Adam, disobeyed God and fell, and the guilt is on man. The guilt is not on God.
And God said, Adam, if you should fall, I've got a backup plan, a plan B. It's there, and plan B will bring you back to where you would have been if you didn't fall with a guarantee that you will never fall again because it's given unto a man once to die and then the judgment. And after the judgment, which will correct the weakness in you that made you fall. You shall never fall again. But God did not plan it this way. It was not God's will that it would be this way, and we go into that on the series, the "Subject to Vanity." The translation of the Scripture in Romans 8 is a very poor translation where it says God subjected the creation to vanity, and it was His will, something like that. It sounds like it was God's will that we fell, but it's a poor translation, and it's not true. It was not God's will that we fall.
We fell because our ancestor was disobedient to the Father, and his guilt is still upon us, and we study that on the series on the Christ in Romans, I believe, Chapter 5. I believe it was Chapter 5 where we looked up every word in the Greek, and we found out that it is so hard for us to attain unto salvation and the resurrection from the dead because the affect of our ancestor, Adam's, sin is still operating in our lives. We are under judgment reaping what our ancestor sowed, so it is not God's will that this happened to us. That is a wicked doctrine. It aggravates me. It's wicked, and it's so subtle that even when I preach it like this -- do you understand what I said. A lot of people can't even understand the difference. I mean, you're mature, but a lot of people -- a lot of very -- a lot of Christians who would like to understand what I'm saying can't even understand what I'm saying. The difference is so subtle.
So since we're talking about this, let me just put it on the message. I already said I discussed the subject to vanity on our message called "Subject to Vanity," and this issue of us still being affected by Adam's sin is on the "Christ" series. It's one of the early messages. If you're hearing this message and you want to know which message it is, I'll try and find out for you. I think it's on part 4, if I'm not mistaken, of the Christ series. Anybody else? OK, would you just put it on hold for another minute?
I'm just thinking of these various witches and warlocks that have out-of-the- body experiences. Is that still called an angel?
Yes. We're told in Revela- -- [AUDIO CUTS OUT]
-- manifests in people's minds. Are they also considered angels?
Say that again. These aliens that what?
That manifest from the minds.
[?An abduction thing?]?
Yeah.
I wasn't aware that they were -- oh, that manifests through people's minds?
Mm-hmm.
Are they angels? Well, I don't think so. Well, maybe they are. I don't know. I would really have to think about that. I don't -- I'd have to spend some time on that, Mary. The question is what's the difference between an angel and a demon, and that I could tell you. A demon is a particular thought. An angel is a whole personality. An angel is the whole mind of a man. A demon is a thought. You may have a demon of murder that thinks murder all the time, but an angel is the whole mind of the man. And in the same manner, we have the difference between a ghost and a demon. A ghost is a whole personality that refuses to die after the body that he lived in died. Usually the ghost continues by a strong emotion, a vengeance or hatred, keeps the soul from dissolving, but it is a whole personality. A demon is a particular thought, an aspect of that mind that's plucked out as if you would see an imperfection in a tomato, and you just cut it out and throw it away. The whole tomato still continues.
If it's possible for a spirit to remain intact, how does that stand up under the Scriptures in Ecclesiastes 9 when it says when someone dies their thoughts perish?
You're talking about a ghost? Is that what you're saying? Yes, that's the whole point. What you just quoted is the Scripture, OK, that when the body dies, the body goes back to the dust, the physical dust, and the soul goes -- is supposed to dissolve. The soul that sins dies, but when the person dies and he -- against his will and there's a great emotion, it can hinder the soul from dissolving. It will eventually dissolve, but that strong emotion which is rooted in satanic spiritual power that is opposing the will of God, on occasion, has enabled that personality to remain bodiless in this earth realm, but I believe, eventually, it must die. I guess it could take a long time, depending on the circumstances surrounding it, but that doesn't mean that what you read in Ecclesiastes is not true. What that means is that there is a violation. A ghost is a violation of God's law.
[INAUDIBLE]
Yes, ghosts are real. It's a violation of God's law. It would be as if to say somebody jumped out of a window, and for all intents and purposes, they should have died. You must have heard situations like this, and they just get up and walk out. They have violated that physical law. Somehow, supernaturally, whatever, that physical law did not accomplish its purpose in that person, so this ghost is breaking God's spiritual law that says when the body dies, the personalities supposed to die also. So how long he's going to be allowed to break that law is up to the Lord.
But how could that be, Sheila, because I thought that was just -- I thought that that was the judgment, that that soul must die.
Right. It must die.
So since that's a judgment from God, then how could a soul be strong enough to come against the judgment of God?
Well, first of all, the soul died already. The soul that sins dies. The living soul already died. We're already dead, OK, so what we're talking about in the case of a ghost is a particular manifestation of a dead soul, a particular manifestation of that lump of clay that the Father has formed that the Father is marring, OK, which refuses to be marred. And we can liken it to a piece of pottery that has a stubborn piece of clay, and you don't -- and when you just hit it with your hand, it doesn't mar easily. Maybe you have to take a hammer and break it. It will dissolve eventually. It's j- -- it's resisting the instruction and the law of God, so there has to be penalties for it. I don't have all the information on it.
What was Mary James' question for you to talk about this? I was just -- I wanted -- just wanted to know [?what the question is about?], people that see ghosts you were saying? I don't know.
[INAUDIBLE]
What does that mean that they're -- you mean if someone were to see someone's -- like, if my great-grandmother died and I see her appear, is that a ghost or some- -- I don't understand what [?you just said?].
Well, it could be a ghost, or it could be a demon.
Oh, I see. Wha- --
You have to find out what it is.
You mean that her soul [?if it died?]?
If it's a demon --
[CROSSTALK]
-- it's coming from -- most likely, from your own mind and has some diabolical reason for appearing to you as your dead grandmother, most likely to get you under its power, but a ghost is a whole personality that just has not obeyed God's law and dissolved. Do you see the difference?
So they're -- oh, I see. So you do believe that, in some cases, after the body dies, a personality may not always day immediately?
It has to die eventually.
I see.
But in certain cases, the person -- it's always an evil person. Although, on T.V and in the movies you hear about good ghosts, but as far as I know, it's always an evil person who, by the strength of their will, which is witchcraft power, is so opposed to dying, because they want to take vengeance or whatever, that they oppose God's law, and they don't dissolve. It's just like some people, by witchcraft power, keep their bodies alive. There's healing by witchcraft power today. Some people are so ornery they just won't die. You must have heard a story like that.
I get the chills just by you talking about this. Why is that? Like [CROSSTALK]
What? What'd you say?
I get the chills. Like, I get scared when you talk about these ghosts. I don't know why.
OK, now we have to rebuke this fear, OK, because --
[CROSSTALK]
-- fear is not of God, OK, so I'll rebuke it, but you have to start doing it yourself. [?Do?] I rebuke this fear. Fear is not of God, and if God be for you, who could be against you? And you can do all things in Christ which strengtheneth you. OK? OK
[?Yes?].
[?Perfect?].
Is it possible that -- you know, they have to eventually die, but is it possible that -- you know, you hear stories that they say that they -- you know, they've been around for 600 years or something. Can they really, actually, some of them last that long?
I don't have any information about that, but I don't see why not. I just don't know.
So sometimes they could li- -- they could be around that long, huh?
Yeah. I haven't heard from the Lord on that, but --
Because I was under the impression that if the soul didn't have a body to express through that it -- there was no way it could stick around. It dissolves.
Yeah.
That's what I thought, so apparently, what you're saying, it's not true.
It takes a large measure of witchcraft power to keep it around, which -- negative power, usually anger or some form of passion.
[?Negative power.?]
Negative power that keeps it going. It has to have a purpose to stay around. In other words, I won't rest until that person dies. You know, something like that, a very negative, satanic power.
Why wouldn't it be just, also, then, the opposite, that somebody with a real strong Christ mind, say, that died, that Christ didn't full -- come to full stature in them. Why couldn't their Christ mind be around for a long time?
Because Christ isn't doing that. Christ is yielding to the law of God. Christ yields to the law of God. Christ is not criminal.
And appears in the next vessel.
Yes.
I see.
That's a criminal mind that -- a ghost is a criminal --
Right.
-- mind.
Isn't that what you said, the Chri- -- that Christ appears in the next vessel, right?
Yes.
[CROSSTALK]
And Christ is obedient to God. That's a criminal behavior.
Yeah, OK.
To refuse to dissolve your personality when your body dies is criminal activity, and Christ is not criminal.
Also, do they have the power to do activities that manifest in the natural?
What do you mean?
You know, like, you've heard the real stories where they -- those ghosts or spirits -- is that the same word, same thing, ghost and spirit? It's not the same is it?
[CROSSTALK]
Because an evil spirit is a demon, right?
Yeah, right.
OK, so then ghosts, I'll say, can actually move something in the natural, like they say, [?then?] -- or you hear a thumping or you hear -- you know, does that really happen?
Well, I don't really know for sure. That could be a ghost, but most li- -- more likely than a ghost --
[CROSSTALK] or something.
Yeah, more likely than a ghost, that would be coming out of somebody's mind.
And do they ha- --
It's a psychokinetic spirit.
Do ghosts have that desire to haunt?
I don't -- you know, I really don't have any information. It's just a- -- everything that I told you is what I know --
Yeah.
-- that some soul -- some personalities refuse to dissolve because of some criminal, satanic, strong spirit in them. That's all that I know. But as far as moving things, my feeling is that that's much more likely a psychokinetic spirit coming out of somebody's mind, out of a living person's mind. If Christ be for you, who can be against you?
[INAUDIBLE]
Yeah. Well, I used to have a lot of fear, Michelle, you know. When I first came to the Lord, I was terrified of certain things, and the Lord severely rebuked me, but I had some really bad moments of fear, you know. Now sometimes I'm so bold, I have to laugh at myself. I've changed so radically, you know, but you'll outgrow it. But you have -- you really need to confess it as sin. It's sin; all fear is sin, you know. Because it -- no -- fear has a minimum function, that it lets you know that there's danger around. Beyond that function, fear is sin because it does nothing but destroy. Fear destroys you.
[INAUDIBLE]
It may not always be what?
[INAUDIBLE]
Fear is -- the only time fear is not sin is if you're in bed at night and some robber comes in and you see him and you get scared. Or m- -- I don't even know if that's good. That's not even a good example.
[INAUDIBLE]
Maybe if you look down and you see blood pouring out of your arm, maybe for a brief moment -- just for that brief moment that it registers in your mind that you need to do something, but just for a brief moment. Everything after that is sin because as soon as you get that alarm button, you're supposed to [?call?] in the name of Jesus. That's the bottom line. When we're tempted to sin, we're required to say Jesus. That's all; just say the word Jesus. He can turn the whole thing around.
[INAUDIBLE]
Well, that's my policy. I want to tell you that's my policy. The first thing I do is yell Jesus, and then I do whatever I have to do, but I want Him to be in my decision-making process no matter what the crisis is. [?If it's?] a crisis, you say Jesus, and then you do what you think is the right thing to do. He'll be right there with you.
[INAUDIBLE]
When you're [INAUDIBLE] secular people [?and they're?] hurting you and in any situation, you [?say Jesus?]?
You still yell Jesus.
Can I say it in my mind?
Oh, yeah. You just say it in your mind. Just say it in your mind. I know when I was in the hospital three years ago, I -- after you have surgery -- well, I guess you know that. You're a nurse's -- what are you, Michelle?
An assistant nurse's aide [CROSSTALK]
A nurse's aide.
And that's all.
After you have abdominal surgery, you ha- -- they give you a machine to blow into to work your lungs because if -- no -- but no one told me if you don't do it you could get pneumonia, so I was real lazy about it. I was -- you know, I was annoyed with them because you're weak after the surgery, and I got pneumonia, and at one point I had a mucus plug in my throat, and I couldn't breathe. I want to tell you that's happened to me three times now. It's the most awful thing I've ever experienced in my life, that you can't breathe. What a horrible way to go, to suffocate to death, and I got really scared. I had the nurses around me; I had a doctor around me; I had an intern. The doctor didn't know what to do, and I couldn't breathe, and, finally, I ju- -- in my mind, I said, Jesus, you know, do something, I'm going to die. I just said Jesus, and that mucus plug popped right up in my throat. I tell you, immediately, popped right up in my throat. Three times that happened to me. Wow, [INAUDIBLE] what that means. That's horrible, to not be able to breathe, so I just -- I'm trained, you know. Any kind of crisis, before I do anything, I say Jesus, and then I go do whatever I have to do.
[INAUDIBLE]
You couldn't do it?
[?I couldn't do it?].
Well, I know I got so scared after that that I was blowing on that thing day and night. I don't want to have to go through that again. It was a very upsetting experience. And then the intern came in. He was a resident I think, and he didn't know what to do, so he called for help, and nobody knew what to do. They were all flying around the floor. They -- nobody knew what to do, and I said Jesus, and the thing popped right up in my throat.
You said Jesus out loud?
I said it in my mind. I couldn't breathe. You can't talk when you can't breathe.
[?That's right?].
[INAUDIBLE]
And both of the two times I almost choked to death. I yelled Jesus [INAUDIBLE]
[INAUDIBLE]
Yeah.
[INAUDIBLE]
[INAUDIBLE]
Yeah. It doesn't -- that really doesn't mean that. "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." It really doesn't mean to misuse the word Jesus because the world is filled with sinners doing much worse things than using the name of Jesus incorrectly. The name of God is talking about the Spirit of God, so to take the name of the Lord your God in vain means to misuse His Spirit. That means to use the Spirit of God to hurt people, to rob people, to cause people to stumble, to bring them into an ungodly submission to you. That's taking the name of the Lord thy God in vain. To preach to accomplish your own purposes in the people, that's taking the name of the Lord your God in vain. Believe me, the Lord's really not very upset about heathens out there saying, oh, Jesus. He really couldn't -- they're doing much worse than that. He really couldn’t care less. Names in the Scripture typify spirit. If you go out and you cause -- you who have the Spirit of God, you go out and you cause someone to stumble, especially when you have authority over that person and you use that authority to hurt them, that's bad.
But, of course, that's just not the name of Jesus. This whole society is going belly up, you know, with people who have a natural authority abusing the people under them, parents abusing children, husbands abusing wives, adult children abusing elderly parents. You just see abuse of authority everywhere, so something's really wrong in this society. It's a sign that judgment is on the way. It's very bad.
08/03/14 – Transcribed by VerbalFusion
08/12/14 – 1st Edit CAS/BP
