Part 1 of 7 Parts
The Following Message Has Been Transcribed For
Clarity, Continuity Of Thought, And Punctuation By
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The term, men, is used generically, that is, as a descriptive term for both male and female human beings.
Wherever God is, Satan is, and wherever truth is, deception is, because heresies must abound. Does anybody know why? So that those who are elected amongst us should be revealed. Only those who have the spirit of truth will recognize the truth.
Brethren, every spirit is not of God, so try the spirit. Every man's spirit is not the spirit of truth. Now if you have the spirit of truth and you believe that your brother does not, this is no reason to be puffed up, but to bring yourself very low, humble yourself, and ask God how you can help your brother. But, of course, make sure that you're not the one in error. We must always place ourselves before God and say, let truth be glorified wherever it is. We must walk in an attitude which recognizes that we might be the one who is wrong, and be open to correction and instruction at all times.
We must study to show ourselves approved, believing that Christ Jesus will deliver us from error and bring us into all truth. We must faithfully serve Him, believing that He'll meet us in the way and cleanse us from all sin. And that even if, for a season, we receive an error or an aspect of error, there is never any reason to be fearful or to panic. Just lend yourself to prayer continuously. Pray always and without ceasing.
Prayer is an attitude of the heart which arises out of a desire for the truth of God no matter what the cost to our personal life. If that is truly your heart, the Lord Jesus Christ will truly bring you into all truth. So be at peace. There's no reason to be upset or nervous when you hear that false doctrine is in the Church, because it's the same thing as saying that Satan is in the Church. Everybody knows that Satan is in the Church. Where else would he be? He's here harassing those that are called unto perfection.
I believe with all my heart that the potential for perfection is a reality for men(1) who are in the flesh today. I believe that. I believe that a door into heaven is already opening, and that the other side of that door is perfection in Christ Jesus.
But it's not a simple thing. It's not a rapture of the body, nor is it a rapture of the mind. It's a transformation of mind, of attitude, of life styles, that takes time. It's a process. It's the putting away of sin and the taking on of righteousness. It's an exchange, an inch by inch exchange, of a fallen heart for a heart which is renewed in the righteous life of Christ Jesus. As we walk, we shall be transformed. It could take many years.
The Lord tells us that there will be those who will come into the vineyard at midnight. I, myself, have been laboring in this vineyard for fifteen years. My life has improved, my health has improved, but I am not yet in perfection. Why? Because that door has not yet opened. But it's opening. It's opening. And I believe that I will enter in when it opens. So, there are those of us who are starting to walk now, and there are those who will enter in at midnight.
I'm laboring fifteen years. I don't know how long you've been laboring, but it's possible that a friend or brother who just came to the Lord will enter in when that door opens. We're to keep our eyes on ourselves. We're to fight with all of our strength against envy, pride, rebellion and every sin of the soul, of the emotions, of the mind and of the flesh and cleave unto the Lord asking Him for our perfection. Keep your eyes off of the other guy and just look up unto Jesus.
We have spent some time in New York recently dealing with some of the false doctrine in the Church. Why would we do this? Not to hurt any other preacher. I, personally, am not against any man, but most of God's children in this hour do not have the necessary spiritual skills to recognize error when it comes seriously close to looking like truth. They can't rightly divide that very fine difference. Satan comes as an angel of light, brethren. If it were possible, the very elect would be deceived. So we have error in the Church today, coming forth from some very well meaning teachers.
We have done several series in New York where we merely read someone else's writings, with all respect for that person, and answer what they say. It's a very legitimate, Godly thing to do. We're responding with what we believe to be the truth, and the listener/reader can say yea or nay. You can believe me, or the other writer. I don't care. I love you no matter who you believe. My purpose here is to give you information which will enable Christ Jesus in you to work out the truth in your mind, satisfaction, and understanding. You're not to take my word as if it's the gospel truth. God is looking for thinking, functioning, reasoning sons. So we're going to hear two different opinions. We're going to do that today. We're going to hear the opinion of this writer and my response to that opinion. I'm going to give you Scriptures and tell you why I disagree with him, and you're going to pray about it and tell God that you want the truth. And the truth you shall have, however He gives it to you. Praise God.
How many of you have seen this Gospel According To St. Thomas? Have any of you seen this? It's circulating around where ever the Doctrine of Christ is being preached. There are all kinds of doctrine.
Some people in the United States avoid churches that teach doctrine because they're afraid of being deceived. You can't be afraid. You must go on, and to go on you must be willing to study doctrine. You can't spend the rest of your days with the Lord just praising and saying alleluia. That's wonderful. But, growing up into Christ Jesus, includes studying doctrine and exercising intelligence, reasoning facilities and faith in God, to perceive the truth. This is how you grow.
I'm going to make some general comments on the Gospel of Thomas. Then I'm going to read some Thomas Scriptures, tell you why I disagree with them, point out some contradictions that you may or may not have noticed, and give you some corresponding Scriptures from the King James translation.
The Spirit of God is very powerful towards this fellowship and it was the last time I was here, too. Of all the places I visited in Nigeria, the most power that He poured out was here in Aguda. So what does that mean? You're all young and I don't want anyone to misunderstand me. Anything that I tell you will never be a reason for you to be puffed up. If God is directing Himself here, what that means to you is responsibility. It does not mean that you're great and another guy is not great. It means you're called to a responsibility. He's giving you His Word, and you're responsible to faithfully repeat what He tells you to whoever He sends you to.
If He's giving you His Spirit, it means He has a job for you to do. The one who receives the Word and the Spirit, receives the commission to help those who might not be able to understand what I'm speaking about in a group like this. You might listen to me for two hours and go out and speak to someone for another two hours, talking about what it took me five minutes to say to you.
Do you know what I'm talking about? You'll break it down for people who couldn't understand me if they were here. There's a high call on this ministry. I don't know whether you know it or not, but the Spirit of God is resting here, and He told me to arrange these meetings because He's focusing Himself here during this trip.
Let me give you some background on this Gospel of Thomas. To be honest with you, I had heard of other apocalyptic books, but not this one, until someone handed it to me here in Lagos. And when I asked the Lord what I was to preach on tonight, this is what He showed me.
As I read the introduction to this gospel and how it came into existence and where it was found, what jumped out at me -- we must be careful to read with a discerning eye. Don't just read the words for the words, but read, looking, believing that God is going to speak to you -- what kept popping out at me was the word Gnosticism, Gnosticism, Gnosticism. And that's a word that I'm familiar with. Gnosticism, it's a course of study. It entails a doctrine.
There was a group of believers called Gnostics in bible days. I don't think they still exist, but they may. But in bible days there were a group of believers called Gnostics. They studied the bible. They were a religious community. They claimed Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior to the best of my knowledge.
I'm no expert on this so if anyone recognizes an error in what I'm saying, please share it with the group. But this is my understanding. At one time several years ago, I bought a book on gnosticism because I wanted to know what that doctrine taught. You see, I'm not afraid to listen to other doctrines. Some teachers will tell you, don't do that, you'll become confused. Well, perhaps if you're a very young Christian it's not ideal for you. But we're all suppose to grow up, so everyone of you needs to ask the Lord if you're old enough to read a variety of doctrines, believing that He'll bring the truth to you. Amen. We're suppose to be sons of God, brethren.
So I began to read a book on Gnosticism and I found that it sounded very much like what I teach, the message that the Lord has given me, with one very very urgently important difference. If you could hear it, if you could see it, if you could read between the lines, the glory is not given to Jesus Christ, but the glory is given to man. And although you're not likely to find what I'm telling you written out in words, the doctrine is preaching that fallen man, which we are -- we're not in the image of God in this hour.
The creation is still being formed and Jesus clearly told the pharisees, your father is the devil. That's what He told them. And the father of this fallen creation is the devil. That's why, brethren, we need to be adopted. You see, if you're having trouble believing that, that's okay, but I ask you this question.
If your father is God, why would you need to be adopted? And is not the Lord Jesus Christ adopting us? Is He not bringing many sons unto glory? It's because we're not His sons, you see. The serpent ran away with His wife, the soul that He made, and she bore an illegitimate child that is us.
So we need to be adopted. We need the mark of the beast to be erased from our minds because we're born with it. The mark of the beast is the way we think. The mark of the beast is the carnal mind. And it's being erased off of our soul and the seal of God which we read about in Ezekiel, chapter 9, is being impressed on our minds and on our souls in its place.
So we find circulating through the Church today a very subtle doctrine. When I say subtle, I mean that you have to read between the lines to really understand the depth of it. I had never seen it written anywhere.
We believe that fallen man in his fallen condition has the ability and the potential to evolve into God, but if you read the writings of Gnostic writers and a more modern term is New Age writers, if you read their writings with a critical eye and if the Lord quickens it to you, this is what they're saying.
The teaching is that man in our present condition is a product of evolution. If you compare us to the Neanderthal man there's a radical difference. Therefore, do we not have a reasonable reason to believe that at some time in the future, man or a strain of man will appear on the earth that looks radically different than we look today? If your foundation is evolution of man in the flesh, if you believe that, that we have evolved from the Neanderthal man, is it not reasonable to believe that we can evolve into God? And this is the basis of their teaching.
It sounds good. It makes sense. They don't come out and say it directly. You must have the skills to read between the lines and most people do not, so the Lord raises up a teacher like me to point it out to you. And I repeat, you do not have to take my word for anything. I will point it out to you and you pray about it and decide. So this is what we're up against. So that was the first thing that jumped out at me, the word Gnosticism made me on guard immediately, that this gospel came forth from the gnostics. Because I've studied Gnosticism and I know that that doctrine -- although I'm certainly no expert on Gnosticism, but I looked into it and I know that that doctrine sounds a lot like what I preach -- the underlining premise, the foundation of it, is the exact opposite of what I preach.
I preach Christ crucified. I preach the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. I preach Christ in you, the hope of glory. I preach Jesus Christ, our righteousness. I preach I can do nothing of myself, but it's Him in me that makes me everything I'm. I'm not a product of evolution as you have heard it preached. I believe there's an evolution of man which is in the spirit. I believe man is evolving toward Godhood through Jesus Christ. I believe that. But not the way it's preached.
Can you hear what I just said. Did anybody stumble over what I just said? I do not believe in evolution as it's taught; the gorilla; the neanderthal man; modern man; God. I do not believe in it. But I believe that Jesus of Nazareth was a manifestation of God. He clearly said I'm God. My father is God. My father and I are one. But when Jesus was raised from the dead and ascended He evolved into a higher form of Godhood. Did He not? Are there not things that Jesus Christ in His pure spirit form today can do that He couldn't do in the days of His flesh?
For example, in His present condition of Spirit, He's pouring out of His Spirit upon all flesh. He's raining on all of humanity and every human being upon whom a drop of His Spirit falls has received the potential for the life of Christ to develop in that man's heart.
Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I suggest to you, did not have that ability. He was limited in His form of fallen man. He inherited His outward form from His mother, who was a fallen woman. He had a physical body that was not changeable. After His resurrection, however, He appeared in many different forms. He appeared as the crucified Jesus with the nail holes in His hands, in His arms, and in His feet. On the road to Emmaus, He appeared as a stranger that His own disciples didn't recognize. And He appeared unto Paul as a bright shining light.
Let me say it again. Jesus of Nazareth, who was Christ, was God. But there's an evolution of the Godhead. When the Father raised Him from the dead He ascended...does not the scriptures say He ascended?..into a higher form of Godhood.
There's the Father and there's the Son. The Father is greater than the Son. Both are God. So my whole point is that for every error in doctrine there's a truth, because Satan has no original thought. Satan lays hold of spiritual truth and perverts it. So a lot of what you hear me preaching will sound a lot like error. If you have any questions will you please come and ask me. Don't walk away with the error. Because if you receive an error and you follow it and you keep on walking, you'll be out in left field. So the second thing, and of course I prayed, before I started reading, don't forget that, and I want you to know that I started reading with an open heart. I said, Lord, I believe that it's possible that there's a gospel that is not a part of this book. I don't want to be in any religious bondage. Maybe it's true. If it's true, show it to me. I'm not afraid of the unknown as long as I know that you're walking with me.
The second thing that jumped out at me as I started to read through the gospel was that I perceived the same spirit as I perceived on the occasion that I read the Book of Mormon. Has anybody here read the Book of Mormon? You know about the Mormon religion, you know what I'm talking about? I didn't read the whole book. I began to read it and what struck me very quickly was that it was not legitimate, but that it was a take-off, a joke, almost a parable. Is that the word? Someone will take a legitimate writing and rewrite it as a joke. There's a word for it. I can't recall what it is.
I said, they're making fun of the gospel. They're repeating it in their own words. It's like a hidden joke. That was the feeling in my spirit and I put it away. Shortly after that someone reported to me that there was a rumor going around, I don't know if it was the truth or not, that the Book of Mormon was written by some young college man who was planning some sort of joke and he never in a million years thought someone would lay hold of it and a whole religion would evolve out of it.
Now I thought that was very interesting that the thought that came to my heart I was now hearing from someone else. Whether it's true or not, I don't know. But the same perception came to me as I started to read this Gospel of Thomas. Like somebody or some group of people, for whatever their motives, whether it was a joke or whether it was a malicious effort to damage seeking Christians, I don't know. But, they sat down and they wrote another gospel. Having read the original four gospels, they wrote their own gospel. I find certain areas of it blasphemous. What I intend to point out to you are certain scriptures that I believe are teaching the exact opposite of what the scriptures says.
The way they phrase it, if God hasn't given you that discerning eye, you would think that it sounds fine. But it's twisted. It's backwards. And if God lets you see it and hear it, it's turning the whole thing around. And without actually using the word Satan, it's giving all the glory that belongs to Jesus Christ unto Satan.
So I would like to share my observations with you, or some of my observations with you. If the Lord lets us, we will continue tomorrow night. So we shall start on page l. In case anybody gets the tape and you have the book at home, I will give you some reference numbers. I'm not sure what they mean, but it's a number 80, we'll say paragraph 80 or chapter 80 and it's line 12.
It says, speaking about Jesus; whoever finds the explanation of these words will not taste death. Now sometimes, a word is perverted; sometimes a word is left out; sometimes a word is added. I suggest to you, brethren, that the scripture nowhere says, that whoever understands, that is, intellectually understands, the explanations of these words, shall not taste death. So I suggest to you that the word explanation was added in this gospel, indicating, in a subtle indication that the knowledge of God is intellectual. Brethren, the knowledge of God that is going to save you is not intellectual. The scripture likens it to the carnal knowledge between a man and his wife. You must experience God. You must join with God. You must be so one with God that He's you and you're Him. And when you flow together to such a degree with God, you shall be God. And when you become God, you shall never die. Neither shall you ever sin. Because the faithfulness and the strength of His life shall prevent you from ever sinning. Intellectual knowledge puffed up. There's no salvation in intellectual knowledge. I do have a couple of scriptures for you. Matthew 16:28; Mark 9:1; Mark 9:1; Luke 9:27. Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. So we see the ones who are not going to taste of death...number one, are the ones who are standing. There's a spiritual significance to the word standing, brethren. There's another scripture that says two men were lying in a bed. One was taken and one was left. To be standing means to be spiritually standing in the strength of Christ. Those of us who do not have Christ are scripturally speaking lying down in a bed. Those of us in this room, most likely, would be considered to be sitting up, sitting up. But Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the only one that I know...I believe that Paul did stand...who stood. I think Paul went into full stature. John might have. It's my personal opinion that the other apostles didn't. You're perfectly free to disagree with me if you like. But Jesus, who was Christ, He stood. So Jesus said, there are some of you who are standing here and you'll not taste of death. That Greek word translated taste means to experience. I just told you...to experience as a man experiences his wife...not an intellectual knowledge, complete knowledge through union. That's how you taste death. Brethren, we're all experiencing death. He's joined to us. We're joined to him. He's our carnal mind. We have a sin nature. Our spirit's one with death. We taste him every day. We experience him every day. Jesus was saying there are some here...and of course I didn't check the tense in the Greek. I didn't do that deep a study here. But He was probably saying there are some men here who shall stand...future...who shall stand. And cease from tasting death. There are some standing here who shall taste death no longer. Because everybody standing there was tasting death. Can you hear this? Those who see the son of man shall not taste death, those who see Him coming in power shall not taste death. This failure to taste death has something directly to do with a relationship with the Son of Man, Jesus Christ. It has nothing to do with intellectual knowledge. Mark 9:1 And he said unto them, verily I say unto you, that there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power. Till they see the kingdom of God...and the kingdom of God is within you. The kingdom of God, I suggest to you, is Christ Jesus in you. The Lord Jesus Christ...He's ascended. He's in the form of pure Spirit in this hour. When He comes to us initially, He comes in the form of the Holy Spirit and He rains on us and He penetrates our minds and our hearts and Lord willing, joins with our spirit. The spirit that we were born with, our human spirit. And in that union there's a conception of the life of God, a quickening of the beginning of the resurrection of your dead spirit. And the scriptures say Jesus grew in wisdom and in grace. So the Son of God in you is growing in wisdom and in grace and He'll continue to grow until He attains unto the fullness of the stature of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the Lord Jesus Christ is the resurrected Jesus of Nazareth who was Christ. He's a Spirit. When a drop of Him joins to you and His life begins to grow in you, His name changes to Christ Jesus. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Same spirit, different administration. The Holy Spirit's the seed joined to the spirit of man. The seed that is being sowed upon humanity today. Christ in you, the hope of glory. The seed that has joined to your spirit. That is the beginning of the life of God in you, just as a woman carries a new life in her womb. So this tasting of death which is about to cease in our existence is intimately related to union with Christ. And the truth of the scripture, I believe with all my heart, is that as Christ joins to your spirit and increases in you, there's a simultaneous separation of your union with or your tasting of death. As Jesus has said, I say unto you, of everybody standing here, I say unto you today, there will be some of you, I hope it will be all of you, for whom the day will come that you shall no longer be tasting of death. That he who has kept you in bondage by the fear of death shall have the power of death over you no longer. That's what Jesus said. When the kingdom of God comes unto you. You can't have this experience without Christ growing inside of you. Your intellectual knowledge will give you nothing but a big ego. A lot of knowledge and you'll still be dead. Knowledge, perhaps spiritual power, perhaps, but you'll still die. you'll still die. Just in case some of you're students here, I would like to make a comment on John 8:51- 52. This same phrase taste of death is in those scriptures. John 8:51 Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. John 8:52 Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, if a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Please notice that the Pharisees changed the word that Jesus used. Jesus said in verse 51, if you keep my sayings he shall never see death. The Greek word, Strong's number 2334, and the Pharisees repeating His words changed the word. Jesus said you shall not see death, but the Pharisees said, He said you shall not taste death...taste, Strong's number 1084 meaning experience.
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We were tainted with sin - before the flood - fallen man
We were cast down into chains of darkness, bound in chains of darkness. Bound in chains of darkness is the way we think. Reserved unto the judgment. The judgments of God are merciful. They're designed to free us from the chains which bind us. Paul said, this chain that I wear, His name is Christ. A chain is a ruling spirit. Judgment shall free us from the chain of darkness and attach us to the chain of life and we shall be translated, brethren, from the kingdom of darkness into His glorious light.
And that which is in our mind up here, it takes form in a physical world. This physical world. Paul calls it a gazing stock. That word appears in the King James. If you study that word, you'll find that it means a stage. Paul said that this world is a stage in which spiritual life acts out its passion. And of course, because the spirit that has erected this world is the spirit of Satan, we see a world filled with violence and all forms of lust; lust of the eyes; lust of the flesh and the pride of life. But in that hour that the mind of Christ rules in the hearts of men; that glorious Christ which appears in the back of the book of revelation wearing many crowns meaning Christ ruling through the many members of humanity in that hour, the world, the physical world outside of us will not look like this, brethren. It will not be filled with violence and death. It shall be filled with peace and life and the lion shall lay down with the lamb. And there shall be peace in all of God's holy mountain. What is outward is a reflection of that which is inward. So in this hour, I suggest to you, that the kingdom of darkness is both within and without. But the kingdom of light or the kingdom of God is within. It's within me. I believe it's within you, but it's not yet mature enough to have killed the seat of the beast and projected his image externally. The kingdom of light is not yet outside of us. If you just understand what I'm saying to you, I consider my ministry to you successful. Whether you believe it or not is not the'ssue. If I've succeeded in communicating some truth to you, Jesus will bring you into all truth. I do have some scriptures for those of you who would like to follow up that the kingdom of God is within. Matthew 8:12; Matthew 22:13; Matthew 23:13. Matthew 8:12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. That's a scripture indicating that there's darkness at that time. The kingdom of God is not outside. The kingdom of darkness is outside. Matthew 22:13 Then said the king to the servants, bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Verse 26 of chapter 80 in the Gospel of Thomas. But the kingdom is within you and it's without you. If you'll know yourselves, then you'll be known. Now this is really subtle. Listen, if you'll know yourselves, then you'll be known. But we're told we're going to be known of the Father. This is placing man in the place of God. Let's look up those scriptures that say we shall be known of the Father. John 8:19 Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also. There's a scripture that says we're to be known of the Father. We would know the Father and we would be known of Him. So the Gospel of Thomas saying you shall know yourself is placing man in the role of God. If you can hear what I'm saying. This is one of the subtleties. We're seeing that which is attributed to Christ attributed to the natural fallen man. You don't need Jesus Christ; you don't need Christ Jesus growing in you; know yourself and you'll reach God. And there's a teaching in the Church today that says meditate, look inward, get in touch with the god within yourself. And I suggest to you that the God within yourself is Satan, if you're a natural man. And people who are believing this doctrine, are contacting and are having spiritual experiences and the god they're contacting is working miracles for them and I suggest to you that god is Satan. It's going on in the Church today. I've read the literature. So if you know yourselves, then you'll be known. It's saying, if you can hear it, that man is god. That's what it's saying. Chapter 81 verse 18 of the Gospel of Thomas for those who have a copy of it.
Well chapter 81 verse 1 says if you do not know yourselves, then you'll be in poverty and you're in poverty. So again it's saying man has it within himself to raise himself up out of poverty giving all the glory to man, if you can hear it. Alright, the disciples said to Him, the disciples asked Him, would you have us fast and how should we pray and should we give alms and what diet should we observe? And Jesus said, do not lie and do not what you hate. Now this is interesting. Do not do what you hate. We know Paul talked a little bit about that, that which he wanted to do, he couldn't do. But that which he hated, he does. So what is this saying? Let me try to clarify this here. Paul is clearly stating to you that fallen man does not have the power to stop sinning. That is why we need a savior. We can't cease from sin. We need Christ to come and kill our sin nature. And when Christ becomes our nature, He who is our righteousness shall impart to us the ability to not sin. Paul the apostle said that he didn't have power over his own life. And here in the Gospel of Thomas we see a commandment to not do that which we hate. Well what is the underlying subtly of this? I suggest to you it's condemnation. It's condemnation. And what it's saying is that man in his own power can stop sinning. That's what it's saying. It's not that clear, but that's what it's saying. I've heard people preach this and I see heartbroken people crushed because they couldn't find it within themselves to stop sinning. They couldn't find it within themselves to obey this commandment. And I believe that the truth upon which this is based is this. Jesus knows you can't stop sinning. What He requires of you is confession of that sin, whether it be behavioral or whether it be in your mind. He requires you to confess that. It's sin. And eventually He'll bring you to repentance. you'll hate it. If you're truly repentant you'll hate that sin. And when you wait for the Lord Jesus Christ to save you from it, you'll fight against your flesh; you'll fight against your mind and you'll submit yourself to God; you'll resist the devil. And if you wait long enough he shall surely flee from you. But it says in another place, if you faint not. And what does that mean? You might have to fight the devil for a season before he flees from you. This is the truth. There's no condemnation in that sin in your mind. War against it. Rebuke it. Deny it. Cry out to Jesus to help you, but for me to say to you, don't do it...I know you can't do it. And for those who are now in Christ Jesus and called according to His purposes, there's now no more condemnation. I condemn you not. When Christ gives you the power to cease from sin, then you shall cease from sin. So what does that mean? For a season, we who desire righteousness dwell with unrighteousness in the same mind. We dwell with it hating it, having faith in God. That the day will come that there will be two men in one bed, righteousness and sin, and in that day, Christ is coming and He's taking the one and he's leaving the other. He's taking the sin and He's casting it out and the righteous one shall inherit the house. This is a big issue. That one little sentence. If you can hear it. Let us not condemn those for whom Christ has died, brethren. But let those of us who have been strengthened, let us strengthen the weak. And let us all go on. Verse 24. Now this is a very difficult one. We shall go slowly. And Jesus said blessed is the lion which the man eats and the lion will become man and cursed is the man whom the lion eats and the lion will become man. It's a parable. We have found in our studies that the lion typifies spirit. But you have to ask yourself, which kingdom and which lion. We know that there's a lion of Judah and we also know that Satan comes as a roaring lion, seeking whom he can destroy. Lion typifies spirit and what I'm going to suggest to you up front is that this parable is putting Satan in the Lion of Judah's place and the lion of Satan in the Lion of Judah's place. And I will try to share with you how God showed it to me. Let me tell you up front what I believe and then we'll see if we can understand it. Fallen man is eating Jesus' soul life. He said, if you don't eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no part in me. Fallen man is eating Jesus' soul life. We're not eating His Spirit now. There's the Spirit of Christ and there's the mind of Christ; soul and spirit together. We're eating His soul life; His flesh; His soul and the blood of His soul life. Okay? And in this hour, the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ is in the form of the Holy Spirit. Is that okay? Jesus was crucified. He rose from the dead. His flesh and blood was unified into a glorified spiritual man. He's now Spirit; He's pouring out of His flesh. And the way we eat of His flesh and blood is that we receive of the life of the Holy Spirit and we receive of the Word. His flesh and blood. And when we receive of that life; we mentioned this earlier; He penetrates our heart; He joins to our spirit and hopefully Christ begins to be formed in us. We eat of His flesh and His blood and when He joins to our spirit; and He consumes our spirit. He said if you were not hot or you were not cold; if you were lukewarm; I would spew you out of my mouth. We're eating of His soul life. He's eating of our human soul. And in that union Christ is being formed in us. I'm not going to spend too much time on this because I feel I'm losing you, so I'm just going to make one more comment on it and I'm going to go on. Blessed is the lion which the man eats. At the time of the fall, Adam partook of Satan and man fell. Righteous Adam partook of Satan's spirit and man fell and this gospel says blessed is that man whose disobedience to God caused the death of the Christ mind and brought us into the fallen condition that we're in today. It's a reversal. Do you at least see the principle of what I'm saying? It's a reversal. They're saying good is evil and that evil is good. It's Satan's teachings and it sounds like Christ. And the second half of it's...Cursed is the man whom the lion eats. But Christ is eating us. Christ is eating us. He says I wish you were having a womb?? I'm going to eat you up. And he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. He's going to consume us and we shall receive the life of Christ when He consumes us. And this word says cursed is the man whom the lion eats, but blessed is the man who receives the spirit of Satan. It's backwards. Do you know that there's a Satanic bible? Do you know that here in Nigeria? There's a Satanic bible. Everything is written backwards. Everything is reversed. God is evil and Satan is good. You pray about it. We will go on. Chapter 82 verse 14. Jesus said I've cast fire upon the world and see I guard it until the world is a fire. I suggest to you that Jesus does not guard this world. Who is the guardian of this world? Satan is the guardian of this world. Jesus has said I've cast fire upon the world. Well Jesus has cast fire upon the world. Jesus is a consuming fire. That fire is judgment and the judgment of God does not guard this world. The judgment of God is burning sin out of this world. And the opposing force to the destruction of sin is the one who guards this world. Satan guards this world. Satan owns this world. We were sold under sin. God sold us to Satan. That's why Jesus, the Lion of the tribe of Judah; He's the one who is strong enough to break the seal of Satan's ownership on this creation. He has bought us back with His blood. But Satan hasn't turned us over. Jesus has paid the price. We now legally belong to Him. We've been bought back, but Satan says that's what you think. You come and take it. That's what is going on today. Jesus has purchased us back. We're His property. He's the Lord and Master of this creation. But Satan is the possessor of this creation and Jesus has come to possess the purchased possession which is presently possessed by a criminal who does not have any legal right to us. And the worst part of the whole thing is that he has perverted our minds so desperately that we think we belong to him. And when Christ comes, most of us fight against Christ and perceive Him to be the criminal because our minds is corrupted by the one it's joined to, our husband. We're told in the book of Romans, stop obeying that husband and receive your new husband in faith, Christ Jesus. Rebel against that husband that you're experientially joined to. Do not obey him. But obey the new husband, the One who has purchased you. The one who truly owns you even though you're not yet joined to Him. And at this point, I would like you to read with me in the alternate translation bible of the New Testament; the book of Matthew, chapter 4. This is the account of the temptation and it makes it much clearer what that temptation was all about. Let me tell you up front what I believe it's all about. I believe that at His water baptism, Jesus of Nazareth, who was born of a fallen woman and therefore had a fallen body and a carnal mind, who also had the mind of Christ from His Father; and the two minds were at war as to who would rule the person of Jesus of Nazareth. And the temptation was the event in which the mind of Christ utterly defeated the carnal mind that Jesus of Nazareth inherited from His mother. And as we read this alternate translation, you'll see how arrogant Satan is. And the same thing is going on in your mind. Christ is coming in you and saying this man is mine. And Satan is saying to Him, that's what you think. Verse 1 says, then Satan caught Jesus up into the soul realm. I use to read that scripture. How could Satan catch Jesus up? What does that mean? It means brethren, that his carnal mind manifested in the man Jesus and he said to the Christ mind in the man Jesus, this vessel is mine. He'll do whatever I tell Him. He'll say whatever I tell Him. He'll walk wherever I want Him to walk and He'll reveal my life. And I've had this human race for all these thousands of years. This man was born of a fallen woman and I've authority over Him. And not only that, I'm possessing Him. My mind is attached to His soul. Did you read in revelation, chapter 20, that I saw the souls of them beheaded for the witness of Christ. It didn't say their physical heads were beheaded, brethren. Their souls were beheaded. Their carnal minds were severed from their souls so that the Christ mind could sit down at the right hand of the Father and be joined to that soul. So in this account of the temptation we see Jesus of Nazareth or Satan and Jesus of Nazareth arrogantly manifesting an attempt to control the mind and the behavior of the man Jesus, speaking boldly to the fully mature Christ mind saying, if you think you're going to motivate this man's behavior or this man's mind, you're mistaken. And we shall see Christ answering him. Very exciting. Then Satan caught Jesus up into the soul realm for a spiritual battle with the devil, who said...now let me point out to you that Satan is the unconscious mind of man and the devil is the conscious mind. So Satan caught Jesus up into the soul realm for a spiritual battle with the devil who Satan was hoping would kill the newly born mind of Christ and sacrifice that Christ mind unto Satan. And the devil aggressively approached Jesus saying, if you're really the Son of God, let's see you bring the many members of the living soul into spiritual maturity in their present sin filled condition. Now in the King James you'll read something about making the stones bread and I'm not going to argue with that, but we looked up every word in the Greek and I suggest to you there's a deep spiritual meaning in those scriptures, that have much more reality to me than the fact that Jesus had to be so physically hungry that he attempted to make physical stones bread. I personally don't believe it. If you want to believe it, that's fine with me. But I don't believe it. After looking up every word in the Greek, I believe the devil, which is the carnal mind of fallen man said to Jesus what is preached in this Gospel of Thomas and what is preached in Gnosticism and what is preached in the New Age Movement; You don't need Christ added to you to rise into perfection. That's what the devil said to Jesus. He said if you're really the Son of God, let me see you misuse your spiritual power and raise humanity up to perfection without Christ. And that's what is s being preached today. You can do it without Christ. You can do it. You can do it. And I say to everyone who is preaching it, you can't do it, you can't do it. You can't do it. But if you continue to attempt to do it, you shall remain in your sins and you shall surely die. You can't keep your carnal mind and ascend into spiritual maturity in the righteousness which is found in Christ. This is Jesus' answer to the devil. Verse 3, But Jesus...now let me point out to you what Satan was saying to Jesus was...he was promising Him power to go against God's plan. And Satan was so silly. Jesus was in full stature. He had all the power. Do you offer someone with all the gold, gold? That's what he was doing. But he was dead serious. Satan was dead serious. And he was tempting Jesus to misuse His spiritual power and said don't judge the carnal mind of these men. Let them ascend without judgment. Let them ascend into spiritual maturity with their sin. Do you know what that means brethren? It means that there would be a human race so completely filled with wickedness that there would be no hope of redemption. You see in this hour, we're both good and evil. We're still redeemable. There's still hope for us. Satan was saying let them mature on the evil side of the tree. Let the evil be so full grown that they will be in the condition that the Philistines were in when God said to the Hebrew children, the evil of the Philistines have been fulfilled. Go in and wipe them out. They do not deserve to live. They're so filled with wickedness and corruption and murderous violence even towards their own children, that they do not deserve to live upon the earth. That's what Jesus was tempting Satan to do with His power. And Jesus said, having completely forsaking His carnal needs and desires and craving dominion over the devil...Jesus didn't want any power the devil could give Him. He didn't want any of the glory of this world. He didn't want money. He didn't want sex. He didn't want women. He didn't want the power of man. All He wanted...there was only one thing He wanted...power over that devil. And I want to tell you that I'm at a point now, I can really relate to that. That devil has given me such a run for my money. He's so mad at me for preaching this doctrine...I want to tell you that if God came to me tonight and said, Sheila, you have one wish. What is it? I would say power over that devil. Because if you can hear it, in power over that devil is the satisfaction of your every human need. If you choose any of the three seductions that man is likely to fall into, money, women or power...those are the three things that will seduce a fallen man. If you choose any one of those three and Satan gives it to you, then he'll want his price back. you'll become his slave. He'll use you. He'll destroy you. And you'll not be satisfied in other areas of your life. you'll still be lacking. you'll still be experiencing torment. Complete satisfaction is only in Christ. The only place it's. Both the Greek and the Hebrew word translated salvation means satisfaction...total completeness. The filling in of all the holes, total evenness, no lack whatsoever. Verse 4 And Jesus continued to answer the carnal mind saying, man can't live in a soul which is in your image, Satan. He can only live in a soul which is in the image of Christ. And the soul that is in your image, Satan, is death. And I won't do what you're asking me to do. I will not sell my call down the river. All of humanity is waiting for me, the Savior of mankind and I will not sell my responsibility to my Father down the river. There's nothing you can give me of this world that would tempt me to turn away from my goal and that is to save this soul in righteousness. Any your days are numbered...me'ne, me'ne, te'kel, u-phar'sin. You have been weighed in the balance, fallen man, and you have been found wanting and you shall fall. And you shall never rise again, for the warriors of Christ are already at your door. And you shall go down and you shall never rise again. Satan tried to bribe Jesus. Verse 5 Then the devil demonstrated that he still had the authority to fully manifest his carnal mind in Jesus' renewed soul. How did he have that authority? He was talking to him. This conversation was going on inside of Jesus' mind. Brethren, your carnal mind will try and confuse you. You read a doctrine like this and your carnal mind is going to tell you it's true. It's going to tell you it's good doctrine, good doctrine man, it sounds good. You can expect your carnal mind and the members of your own household...they don't mean to hurt you...I'm not here to put enmity between you and your brother, but you must know that every counseling word you receive, no matter how spiritual you think that man is, you must run it past Christ; you must know whether it's his carnal mind speaking to you or whether it's his Christ mind that is speaking to you; and if you don't know, you must ask. Verse 6 And the carnal mind tried to confuse Jesus by saying, if you're really the Son of God, submit to my lordship, because God has commanded that the living soul should be delivered over to the authority of Satan's angels to preserve her from the damaging effects of being fastened to Jesus Christ. Now that is amazing. That is the devil taking a psalm and repeating it in a perverted way. Please everybody hear me. I've already heard someone come to me and tell me that they thought what I'm saying here is that this is the true interpretation of the original psalm. I'm not saying that. I'm saying the devil took a psalm, a legitimate psalm from the old testament and repeated it, changing the words in the same way he did in the book of John when the Pharisees repeated Jesus' word; and Jesus said, unless you follow me you'll not see death. And the pharisees changed it to taste death. And Satan also did it in the garden. Didn't he say to Eve; didn't God say, you know, oh you won't surely die. God didn't say that. That's the devil's tactic. He takes the scripture and he repeats it and he changes one word here and he changes another word there and he adds a word there. Do you know in the book of Genesis, when God said to Adam, if you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely die. That Hebrew word translated die means mortal. What God really said to Adam was, if you do it, you're not going to cease to exist, but you who are a god shall become a mortal man. And when the devil repeated God's words to the woman, he changed that Hebrew word translated die and he said to her; has not God said that if you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you'll surely cease to exist? One of the devil's devices is that he repeats the sentence, he repeats the scripture and he changes it so subtlety that if your mind is not in that place where you can hear it, you'll receive the lie. you'll receive the lie. It will go into your mind as a seed and if the Lord doesn't root it out, it will grow up into a big tree. And the name of that tree is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And another name for that tree is the tree of death. You must guard your mind brethren. So, my suggestion to you is that in Matthew, chapter 4:6, Satan is repeating a legitimate scripture changing a word here or there to completely pervert the meaning of the scriptures. Now let me remind you, we talked about this earlier, that God did sell this creation to Satan. He turned us over to Satan. We have been bound with chains of darkness in our minds, but God's motive was to keep us from total annihilation until the judgment which would restore us back unto righteousness. This was God's motive. If anybody ever says to you, what kind of a God is this who allows babies to die and people to starve to death? The answer to this question is, brethren, is that you do not know the scriptures. God had a choice when we sinned. He could have wiped us out completely or he could have restrained us for a season in preparation for a spiritual cleansing which would raise us from the dead. And God in His infinite wisdom chose to restrain us for a season and our jailers name is Satan. Until such time as the spiritual cleansing known as judgment, which will restore us back to righteousness, also called the resurrection of the dead or the regeneration. Now if you have a problem believing that when you see people suffering, all I say to you is that I don't dare to criticize God. He knows what He's doing. He has permitted it. I'm sorry for your pain, but I must stand with my belief that my God is righteous; that His wisdom is beyond the wisdom of man; that He knows what He's doing and this is the way it had to be. And He chose to not wipe us out completely.
#281 Part l Tape 2
(static - parts of sentences in the beginning)
The Lord might give it to one of your offsprings. ...generation... Another reason...live for Christ ...is that the blessings of God are passed on to continuing (?) nations. The sowing and the reaping judgments do go from generation to generation. The people who are doing all they can to live for Christ in this life...your children will reap your ( ?) benefits. The man who is unrestrained in his evil...his children will reap his efforts because the sins of the father shall be visited upon the children unto the third and the fourth generation. So the immediate practical encouragement to live holy is for your children. As for yourself, I believe that there are benefits in this lifetime that you can reap from seeking God and definitely benefits for your children or your grandchildren or your great-grandchildren and for your great-great grandchildren. So we have two reasons that I can give you that will hopefully encourage you to seek righteousness in this world. One, immediately will be the well being of your children and thirdly, if you're living in the right season, the possibility of obtaining permanency now. (question asked couldn't be understood) Well the answer to that is two-fold. With regard to the individual man, the answer is yes. He'll break apart just as the sinner. But with regard to the man's offspring, the answer is no. God will frequently complete a blessing or a work that He has begun in an offspring. A lot of people struggle with this. The example the Lord has given me, for people who feel that they would like to continue on in their existing personality...this is what the Lord has shown me. Now, we, in our present condition are Christ' immaturity. It would be a myth (.....?) at fourteen years old.......? You're a part of Christ' immaturity. He must grow up. We saw on the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus transformed and we saw Moses and Elijah. Now I know what the Church world teaches. But what I say, I believe is the word of God, is that Jesus of Nazareth was the sum total of every experience Christ had, Christ the spiritual man, Christ had had in all of the personalities that He lived in from the beginning of time. Jesus of Nazareth was the sum total. But in this hour there's a second generation of Christ arising and I hope you'll be part of it. That you'll be the sum total of every experience that Christ has had including Jesus of Nazareth from the beginning of time. Whether He reigns or not, which I believe He does, when He engrafts to your spirit, which I believe He has, as He grows and grows in you, you'll find knowledge of wisdom and experience that is beyond your ability to achieve it in this one lifetime because you shall be the sum total of everything that that spiritual man has experienced...? Try to cling onto that. Is is difficult. It's difficult. The second question was where are we today? I understand things have gone very slowly. I hear what you're saying. The reason they have gone this slowly is the way the Lord has set it up, that He would raise up a nation and make a covenant with them by which He could call them holy..Israel. There was one major purpose for God raising up Israel. That was to produce Jesus Christ. Every blessing that Israel received was a by product of the Lord's plan which was to raise up a savior for man. And it took almost 7,000 years. The next stage of the plan to save mankind was to convert the Savior into a form that could very quickly, compared to how long He was dealing with Israel, very quickly, He imparted to all of humanity ...2,000 years is very quick...It took God with Israel, several thousand years to raise up one man. It's now 2,000 years and I believe with all my heart, that in our lifetime, we will see Him standing up in the fullness of His stature of the Lord Jesus Christ all over the world. But there's another step in there. This generation of Christ is coming up now, this generation that is coming up now, is a hand picked handful of spiritual soldiers called Christ Jesus. Because this warfare that is necessary for your carnal mind to be killed and Christ to become your mind is so difficult and so devastating that the average human being would never survive. So God has raised up a strong one, the Father has raised up a many- membered strong one. And when Christ, our righteousness appears in us, we're not going to run for the hills and say, I've made it, so long everybody else. We're going right back into the masses of humanity and we're going to impart the mind of Christ to them, without their consent. We're going to be there with the teaching that will pull them through. There will not be this problem of doctrine. Once the sons of God stand up in full stature, there will not be these issues of doctrines. There are people out there that can't bear it. They don't know what to believe. They just walk away from doctrine, but when the sons of God are fully manifested it will be publicly revealed that they're manifesting Christ. All false teachers will be taken down. It will be simple. The peoples of the world will be coming to the sons of God for instruction, indoctrination and righteousness. There will be people there to help them, to support them through their travail which will result in the Christ mind in their own minds. But in any event, they will be taken against their will. I agree with you. It's my opinion that it will take approximately 1500 years from the time that the Sons of God manifest until the time that the earth, until humanity is in the condition where there's only men revealing the mind of Christ in the earth. I foresee that for a season there will be a mixture. There will be natural fallen men. They're not going to be in torment. They're not going to be in hell. They're not going to be tortured. But they will live out their natural life and pass out of this world system. And as fast as the sons of God can spread this glorious mind into the members of humanity, those members will stand up and be preserved. They will not die, they will continue on for the 1500 years. And those men who do not receive this regeneration and their natural bodily courses cause them to die, they will pass out. But the day will come and approximately 1500 years from the time that the sons of God appear, which I believe that that appearance is imminent, at any moment. That we will find a world where every human being is an expression of the Lord. And in that hour we will ascend into the next stage of resurrection. We read about this in the book of revelation. We hear about the souls under the altar saying how much longer, how much longer? And the angel says wait for the others, wait for the others. When every human being on the face of the earth is in full stature as one man we shall ascend back up into spirit form as Jesus of Nazareth did. We shall evolve from the sum...we shall be so completely one with the Father that there shall be no separation. And the scripture says; and after He has put every enemy under His feet, even the last enemy, which is death, but this doesn't include the one that put His enemies under His feet, right? Christ shall offer the creation up to the One who put all His enemies under His feet. And the creation shall be glorified. We shall be spiritualized, corruption shall be wiped off the face of the earth. The image or the physical expression of the mind will no longer be corrupt. It will be glorious. I don't know what it will look like, but I know it will not be corrupt. And then what did He do? I don't know. Eye has not seen and ear has not heard what God has in store for us at that time. Remember that as we mature, everything is a process. You can expect your spiritual life to get better and better. You should expect your life to get better and better, but let me warn you. I really like to give you all the information I can. Some people when they enter into this experience of the ascendancy of Christ and the descendancy of the carnal mind; there's a transitional period that they go through where it looks like their life is falling apart. Don't be deceived, but ask God to open your eyes and you'll see. Everyone doesn't experience this. I did. And God will show you that your spiritual life is zooming, zooming ahead. But the circumstances of your physical life may not be. You may even have some difficulties. So don't be discouraged. Just check out your spiritual life and if your spiritual life is zooming ahead, it's just a matter of time. Hold on to the horns of the altar, pray without ceasing. It's just a matter of time until your physical life, which is an expression, lines up with your spiritual life. We have the victory. We have the victory in Christ. It's just that sometimes what we would like the victory to be is not what Jesus would like the victory to be. Every hardship that He allows to continue in your life, He's using it, He's using it to build His nature in you. If you can just believe that, it will make any difficulty that you have tolerable. (Can't make out the questions) Let me remind you brethren that God is Spirit and that we're being returned unto a life in the spirit. We have died spiritually through separation from God. He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. And in that joining is life. When we separated from His Spirit, we died and we fell down into a physical existence. We're told in several chapters of Daniel and in chapter 12 and I think chapter 9; that we have fallen down into a physical existence where men labor for their existence, who are being restored back up into a spiritual existence. We're going to be like the angels, at the end of the program, not tomorrow, but at the end of God's program. We're being restored unto spirit. And therefore, some people may receive manifestations of God's promises naturally, but everybody will receive the fulfillment of God's promises spiritually. Everybody will not receive physical fulfillment of God's promises. What does that mean? Everybody will be married. We're the bride of Christ. you'll be married unto God. I can't promise you a wife or a husband in this hour. God may give you one; He may not. I don't know. But the fulfillment is spiritual. He may give you natural fulfillment also. He has promised that you'll never see the righteous begging bread. You should have shelter; you should have food; you should have clothing; you should have honorable work. Now if you do not have these things, you need to go to someone who can help you to pray in the event that curses are operating in your life. In the event that there are family line curses, which are hindering your progress, then they need to be broken. But let me clarify this, brethren. This teaching is not clear in the Church. Most Christians think that when someone prays over you, they take some olive oil and they say I break the curse in the Name of Jesus and you walk out of the Church and you have a job at $100,000 a year waiting for you. It does not work like this, as I'm sure most of you know. It doesn't work like this. Curses operate in the way that you think. Curses that are inherited, that come down on the family line are manifested in wrong thinking. The breaking of a curse involves a change in the way that you think. Now when a curse of poverty, for example, is in operation, no matter how many people pray for you, you'll find yourself in the same condition. When a man that God anoints to break this curse lays hands on you and breaks it, that curse begins to break, begins to break. This is very important. The Church is filled with fantasy and that fantasy is hurtful. If you're a desperate person and you believe that if I lay hands on you and say I break that curse and tomorrow morning, or next week, or next month, your life is not radically changed; if you're not strong enough you can lose faith in God. I tell you the truth. If God lets me do it and I say I break that curse and God honors my prayer; if it's His will that it be broken, which I don't know why it wouldn't be, unless there's some unrepentance in your life; that curse begins to break. What does that mean? God sends circumstances to you which will reveal to you that your thinking is wrong in this area. For example, you have no job; you have no place to live; you have no food to eat, but you're waiting for a job that satisfies your creativity. Wrong thinking, wrong thinking. You have no place to live; you have no food to eat, you take any honest moral work that comes your way. And you petition the Lord for a creative position. I condemn nobody. In the United States I deal with many people who come to me with wrong thinking. And when God sends them to me, they become very angry with me. But if God tells me to tell them the truth, I tell them the truth. If you want your life to change, you must change the way you think and you must change your behavior in this area. You start walking in righteousness. I've just now spoken righteousness to you. You start walking in righteousness and God will meet you in the way. But you do not change overnight. Your mind must be renewed in Christ. So the breaking of a curse is a process and the miracle is that you start to respond to the counsel of the person that God has sent you to. Because if the curse is still operating and someone came to you and said, look, this is what you must do; if you do it, God will meet you in the way and the curse will be broken, you would say that man doesn't know what he's talking about and you would refuse to listen. And the curse would remain. So when someone lays hands on you and says I break that curse and the next day God sends counsel to you and all of a sudden you say, hey, maybe I better make a change. Maybe that's God. Maybe I should take that job that is not my dream job. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe. That is the beginning of the breaking of the curse. You're no longer in a bondage that prevents you from taking any action that will change your life positively. That bondage is broken and now you begin to change. And it's not easy. It's hard to change. You have to deal with your pride. You have to deal with your rebellion. You have to deal with your emotions that are screaming at you, no, don't do it. And you must say, Christ, give me the strength to do what is right because I'm dying in the way that I think. It's killing me, the way that I think. So God's answer to your problems are guaranteed to manifest spiritually. They may or they may not manifest naturally. And your job is to be content with whatever He gives you. If God gives you, now that doesn't mean you can't ask God for what you desire; that does not mean that you can't ask for a wife or a better job or a car...ask. Jesus said, you have not because you ask not. But when it doesn't appear within a week, a month or even a year, you must resist bitterness against God. And even if it doesn't appear within a year, it doesn't mean He won't give it to you. The attitude that God honors is, Lord, I think I would really like such and such. If you would give it to me, I would praise you. If you'll not give it to me, give me the grace to be content. And then pursue your life. Now, of course, if you're willing to take any job that comes your way and no job comes your way, that is a desperate situation. You bang on heaven's door. You say, Lord, I need a job, any job, any honest work. You don't stop praying until you get that. It's a necessity of life. Can you see the difference? So be of good cheer. So be of good cheer. He who has called you
is perfect and the truth is that any discomfort that we have in this world, we have it because of sin. And this is another false teaching in the Church; that says that God has done this to us for His own purposes; that we do not deserve the pain that we experience, but God has done this to us. I declare unto to you, any pain we experience is a result of sin. And we must live with that. Our ancestors' sin, our sin. And we must cry out to the merciful God of heaven, asking Him to deliver us from ourselves and to bring us into a righteous walk which will enable Him to pour out blessings without measure upon us right in the here and now. And I remind you of the scripture that says, he who gives up his life for Christ; he who gives up land and children for Christ; he'll receive a hundred fold in this lifetime with persecution. He has good things for you. Sometimes we think something will make us happy and He has another plan for us that will make us far happier. Give your life to Him, brethren. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and righteousness and He'll give you peace. What more in life is there than peace? You ask for peace and it covers all of your problems. Because the truth is, your lack of this causes you lack of peace. Your lack of this causes you lack of peace. Your lack of that causes you lack of peace. If you pray for peace, what does it matter if He gives you A, B, or C as long as you have Christ in your soul. Can you not hear that? Don't tell Him what you need. Tell Him what your problem is and let Him fill you. He'll do it. (Couldn't hear question) I believe there's. I can't give you a scripture on this, but it's my personal opinion that there's something special about the people that He's calling. It's nothing that you have done and nothing that we can take credit for, but I do believe that He's calling people who have a high spiritual potential. Let me make that clearer. I believe He's choosing people out of the flocks of humanity who have, who are born with a potential for great spiritual development. Everybody does not have the same potential to develop spiritually. And the people, very frequently the average person in the Church is very religious, but God is not looking for religious people; He's looking for people with the potential for spiritual power. He wants to join His Spirit to you because there's a war coming. It's on already, but it's coming full blown and anybody who thinks that Christ is taking this creation back, and let me make that real to you, He's taking back the minds of men, even those of us who love Christ in this hour. Satan, through his carnal mind has at least some, if not a lot of control over us. And Christ is taking back men. He wants to be the only mind being revealed through humanity. And there's a war coming. It's going to be the likes of which most of us can't even imagine. It's going to be the war of the minds. It's going to be spiritual warfare. And I want to tell you, that He's taking a disproportionate number of African people; that is my opinion, with all of your heritage and witchcraft which appears to be a deficit. The pharisee would say, all of these African peoples with their ancestors steeped in witchcraft, what would Christ be doing with them? It's like in the scriptures saying what are you doing with the prostitutes, what are you doing with the alcoholic? Aren't you taking the good people? No, He's not taking the good people. I'm not saying that you're bad, please don't misunderstand me. He's not looking for good people. He's looking for people with a high potential for spiritual power because there's a war coming. And when a nation goes to war, it goes out looking for the strongest, most intelligent warriors he can find. In most armies, if you're physically damaged, they won't take you. If you have flat feet they won't take you in the United States Army. That's my opinion. We're having a war of the mind. The mind of Christ against the carnal mind. And there's no way you can be a soldier in this army and war against someone else's carnal mind until you have taken dominion over your own carnal mind. Because if you don't have dominion over your own carnal mind, when someone's carnal mind shoots at you with a spiritual bullet, your carnal mind is going to rise up and shoot back at him and you can't do that. The war must be won in the righteousness and the love of God. It must be Christ in you against the carnal mind in that man. Why? Because when it's Christ in you against the carnal mind in that man, when you kill his carnal mind, at the same time you'll raise his human spirit, which is the dead Christ, from the dead. If it's your carnal mind killing the man's carnal mind, you're going to kill the man. Jesus doesn't want you to kill the man. He wants you to kill his carnal mind and raise him from the dead. That's my opinion. (Couldn't understand the question) Taking vengeance over your own carnal mind? We take vengeance against our carnal mind through spiritual warfare as the Lord directs us. Before you can take vengeance against your carnal mind, the mind of Christ must be in the process of being formed in you. Because our spiritual weapons, these spiritual weapons of man is his mind. So if the mind of Christ is not being formed in you, you have no weapon to use against your carnal mind. So the first thing is you must, Christ must begin to be formed in you. Once Christ begins to be formed in you, the Lord will begin to reveal your man of sin, your carnal mind. He'll begin to show you the thoughts; and you'll think a thought and it will be like a light bulb will go off in your head and you'll say, God, that was an unrighteous thought and if that was me a month ago, I would have just acted on that thought and never even considered it twice. But that mind of Christ in me pricked my conscience and it said to me, that is an unrighteous thought. I refuse to do it and I rebuke the mind who instructed me to do it. I pronounce death upon the mind. Now warfare, spiritual warfare is with words. I pronounce death upon the mind that is instructing me to do unrighteousness. I break your power. You see, it's not so much in the words. I can give you all kinds of words to say, but it's more, it's ...spirit's revealed in attitude. I refuse to obey you. Some people, it helps to say words. I smite you; I break your power; (I take things out of the scriptures) I break your teeth; I break your cheeks; I break your bones. These words are all in the psalms. You can say them if you want to, but the power is coming from the spirit which is in Christ, which is saying you can't control me anymore. I wound you and I pronounce death upon you and you shall come under the authority of the righteous Christ in me. And then you say, Lord Jesus, please back me up. I tell you the truth. The Christ that is being formed in you, His name is Christ Jesus and He's not yet fully grown. That means it's possible for your carnal mind to defeat Him, not permanently, but it's possible to lose a battle and still win the war. The scriptures says, a righteous man may be cast down seven times, but God will stand him up every time. So it's possible to lose a battle, but we have a big brother, you see. And if Christ Jesus in us is not strong enough to defeat our carnal mind in any particular area, at any particular time, please yell for help. Yell, Jesus, help. (question?) I think what your question is...Colossians tells us that Jesus has already taken the victory and what is the explanation of seeing spiritual warfare coming from the spiritualistic Churches and how do we make that victory real in our life. Is that your question? This is a very important question. Because there are many christians who will say, Jesus did all that there was to do on the cross and there's nothing for us to do. And I declare to you if you do not fight this war against your own carnal mind, you shall surely die in your sins. What Jesus did on the cross, what Jesus did on the cross, was provide your weapon to you. You may recall just a few minutes ago, I said the spiritual weapon of man is the mind. If you do not have the mind of Christ being formed in you, the only weapon you have is the carnal mind, which is criminal. You have no weapon if you don't have Christ. It's as if to say, this place is wired for electricity. You have bulbs, you have light switches, but nobody knows enough to switch the light on. So you sit in the darkness. The glorified Jesus Christ of Nazareth is a potential in the earth, to build your weapon, to impart your personal weapon to you. Anyone who goes to war without a weapon is a fool. You must get your weapon and you must learn how to use it. The completed work is the mechanism, the machinery, to give you your weapon and to train you for the war. That's the completed work. Now your part is to follow the words of Jesus to the best of your ability, and ask Him, and hopefully, I've every reason to believe, He'll impart your weapon to you. Ezekiel, chapter 9 says, there was a man with a writers ink horn and there were six men, each with a slaughter weapon in their hand. What is this all about? Each man was slaughtering his own carnal mind and the man with the ink horn was Jesus Christ sealing them with the seal of God as they slaughtered their own carnal minds. So, let me say it again. The finished work is the machinery which will give you your weapon and your training. Now you have to take this weapon and you have to submit yourself to the training and you have got to confess your sins and you have got to repent and submit yourselves to whatever elders God raises up in your life to learn. And then you have to go out and practice the power of God. You most likely will have to take a few lumps; I don't know if you know what that means? you'll probably have to lose a few times; get knocked down a few times and overcome your pride; stand up and try again. Because you can do all things in Christ. That's the first part of your question. What you just read in Colossians was the provision of the mechanism that in this hour is available to all men, but all men are not partaking of it. Brethren, all Israel is not Israel. The second part of your question; how do you deal with spiritual attacks that come upon you? Simply because Christ is being formed in you and the carnal minds of men recognize Him; this is a spiritual part of the world. He's recognized here. You know, in the United States, He's frequently not recognized, frequently. He's recognized here. The minds of spiritualists, the people who go to the spiritualist Churches, whether they may be conscious of it, they may not be conscious of it............
(static - turned tape over - thought wasn't picked up)
He said to Jesus, if you're really the Son of God, admit to my ownership because I'm the prince of the power of the air. God gave humanity to me. If you really are the Son of God, surely you know that. I'm the god of this world. Why won't you submit to my lordship? static......? Because God has commanded that the living soul should be delivered over to the authority of Satan's angels to preserve her. (static..true?) We just talked about that. To preserve her until the judgment, which will restore her back to righteousness. But the devil finishes the sentence in a different way. He says to preserve her from the damaging effects of being fastened to Jesus Christ. Now let me suggest to you that the fastening to Jesus Christ is the crucifixion of Christ to the carnal mind. It's the union in which our salvation exists. He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. Paul said, I live, yet not I. I'm crucified to Christ, nevertheless I live, because Christ liveth through me. So the fastening to Jesus Christ is that event called the crucifixion of Christ. In another place the scriptures say, of the twain, He made one new man. Of the two minds, of the carnal mind and of the Christ mind, joining them together, fastening them together, Christ made one new mind. The beginning of the creation of God. But Satan said, God raised me up to save fallen humanity from being joined to you for the life of the ages. Let them stay joined to me, Satan. They will be better off. This is Satan's device. Now if you're a son, if you're a young son, up and coming, you may have experienced what I'm about to tell you. If you haven't, get ready. As Christ begins to appear in you and you begin to get a revelation that He's appearing in you, that He's manifesting Himself to other people in you; that He's speaking through you, that you have ministry for other people, you can expect carnally minded people to come to you and say to you, who do you think you're? That is not Christ in you. That is the carnal mind in you. That is Jezebel in you. That is witchcraft in you. That is pride in you. I will not receive your word unto me. That is not Christ. And the young son walks away and says, Lord, I thought that was you. Was that Christ or was that the carnal mind? And you walk away talking to yourself because your confidence is not yet built in you. But when you seek the Lord, He'll say to you, that was me son. Don't believe the lies of the devil speaking through the one I sent you to correct. Now go back and tell them again. And as you begin to experience your responsibility as a son of God, your confidence will build and the Lord will instruct you as to how to deliver the word of God in love to the man, to the carnally minded man who does not want to hear what you have to say to him. He would rather tell you that you're not a son of God than admit to the sin that God sent you to expose in him. And you must mature beyond this point of confusion. Look brethren, just like when you have children, every natural child is different. But you know that the two year old baby; boy or girl, second son or fourth son, fifth daughter, there's going to be some characteristic, some common characteristic of a two year old in each of your children. Is that not true? As you begin to live your life as a son of God, not yet in perfection, by the way, if Christ is manifesting through you and you're moving in the ministry of your son before you're in perfection, you're a member of the two witness company. When you arise into perfection your name changes to son of God. So as you live this life and as you practice, you'll learn how to be strong in your self- confidence and how to deal with God's children that you're sent to save, but do not recognize your great gift to them and will reach out and wound you. you'll learn how to minister to them in the love of God, even though at the moment, they do not want your ministry. But you'll go out of faithfulness to Christ. And you'll see Christ formed in the one who tried to confuse you in due season. So we see Satan using these devices on the man Jesus, the Son of God in full stature. How silly! But Satan doesn't give up. Satan, he couldn't believe that Jesus was in the maturity or the degree of maturity that He was in. He couldn't believe it. And even if he did believe it, he didn't have any new devices, so he kept using all his old devices. And this is what Jesus said to him. Alleluia, glory to God. Verse 7, But Jesus said to his carnal mind, there's a new mind, mind of Christ, being revealed through the living soul, and you Satan, through your carnal mind, have no authority to test that new mind, which is Christ, your God, the One
who owns you. You have been taken down. You have been replaced. You're not the God of Christ. You're the god of the dead, but Christ is the God of the living. And I shall raise this whole creation from the dead and you shall be god no more. He didn't fight with him. He didn't rail against him. He calmly told him the truth of the scripture and as you're training in sonship verses, you'll find within yourself an ability to deal calmly with the most aggressive carnal mind. In most instances, the man in whom this carnal mind is manifesting will not even know what he's doing. The average man's carnal mind just has his way with him. Just manifests at will. The average man doesn't realize he's hurting you. He doesn't realize he's biting the hand that is trying to drag him out of hell. You're blind and you're dead and you're helpless and you're hopeless. That's why no matter what we do to Jesus, no matter how much we hate Him, He never stops loving us because He sees our condition. The scripture says He looked at the people and He cried. And I want to tell you, He cried as much for the people who were financially stable as for those who were not financially stable. He cried for their spiritual condition. He cried for the rich man as well as He cried for the poor man. Because they were dead and they didn't even know it. Verse 8, And the devil manifests himself as the mind of Jesus' renewed soul again. This guy won't give up. This time declaring his authority over all the minds of humanity by demonstrating his ability to control the peoples of the world. Brethren, Satan has control over you. If Christ is not controlling you, Satan is controlling you. You're not your own man. Satan is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He does good things. Satan is living his existence through us and His hour is over. Because the hour of the son of man has come. He must bow his knee. Verse 9, and Satan says to Jesus, I'll sacrifice my own offspring, the carnal mind...now listen to this. Satan is saying to Jesus, I'm going to let you possess all the minds of humanity, which I just demonstrated that I own, if you'll just give up your claims of lordship and acknowledge that I'm god. I'll let you be the mind of the people if you make me god. In other words, what he's saying, I'll let you be the son if you'll let me be the father. That's what he said. Verse 10, Then Jesus says to Satan, get your carnal mind down under my Christ mind because the fact is, alleluia, that the very appearance of the mind of Christ in me means that the appointed time or at the appointed time, all of humanity shall acknowledge that I'm their God. And that I own them and they shall submit themselves to me and I shall appear in them. Alleluia! Satan, you have nothing to offer the Son of God. It's all over. Verse 11, Then Jesus' carnal mind stopped challenging His Christ mind and glory to God, it happened. The many members of humanity drew near to God and each one sacrificed their own sin filled soul, that's their carnal mind and Christ cared for them and supplied and distributed the necessities of life to them. Alleluia! This experience is already happening or is about to begin to happen to you. It's an ongoing experience for however long it takes. Your carnal mind will be telling you to do or to gain whatever it's that you need by illegal methods. Christ says to you, make your petitions known unto me and trust in me. It's the hour of laying down our carnal means of accomplishing or of obtaining the things that we need in this world and turning our life over to Christ. And the temptation that you see outlined in this alternate translation will be continuously coming to you. Satan will offer you all kinds of things. Don't do it. Don't take it unless it's God's will in your life. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and in due season everything shall be added unto you. Everybody is not rich in this hour. Everybody is not educated in this hour. Everybody is not married in this hour. Everybody doesn't have children in this hour. But in that hour, when Christ appears, in that day, all these things shall be added unto you. God has a purpose in your life. Everyone of you're not the same, is not the same, and everyone of you does not have the exact specific call on his life. You're called to be sons, but there are many different aspects of sonship. Christ may be doing one thing through you, teaching through me, and He may be doing something else through you. He has a purpose in your life. There's a purpose for every trial you're going through. There's a purpose for every hardship that you're going through. He has got everything under control. Put Him first and everything will work out. But whether the people co-operate or whether they don't co- operate, brethren, this soul has been repossessed. This soul was sold unto Satan for a Godly motive, a righteous motive and this soul has been purchased back and this god of this world will give up this possession and Jesus Christ will possess His possession and every promise in the scripture will come to pass. And there's nothing, there's no force anywhere in this earth or in this universe that can prevent it. Amen.
(Couldn't understand the question) I perceive the question to be..is this speaking about the reconciliation of the entire creation and how does that relate to eternal damnation and the doctrine of hell? Yes, it does refer to the reconciliation of the entire creation. And here again, we have a doctrine which I believe to be true in principle, but I believe it's being preached erroneously. I believe and the scripture teaches that the entire creation will be reconciled unto God, rejoined unto God. Isaiah 53 tells us we're going to be sown back together. Our spirit separated from Him and we're going to be sown back together to the Spirit of God. The King James Bible, however, talks about doctrines of eternal damnation. That's a very unfortunate translation. I've looked up all of the words in the Greek and I'm convinced that eternal damnation; the Greek word translated damnation means judgment and we just said tonight that the judgments of God are merciful. The Greek word translated eternal means age abiding; for the life of the age. And the one who is going under judgment is the fallen adamic man. It's Satan who is going unto judgment. You see, what has happened to us, the reason we have fallen is that Satan, who was designed to be under the authority of the Christ mind separated out from her authority. Let me back up a little. God made this creation positive and negative. The scripture says, He made them male and female. That's true, I don't deny that that is true, but I suggest to you that the spiritual truth behind that statement that God made the creation male and female is in a parable form. And that the spiritual truth behind it's that God made a creation negative and positive. If you look for natural examples in our world, you see that atoms are negative and positive. Electricity has a negative pole and a positive pole. God's plan is negative and positive together operating in unison as one force. As when you plug into an electric current, it's one force, but there's a positive pole and a negative pole. So God created man positive and negative and made a law that the whole creation would be under the authority of the positive pole. The positive pole would rule and that the creation would exist as one, even though there was a positive and a negative side to it. And the negative side to the creation separated herself from the positive side. So the reconciliation of the all is the reunion of the positive and the negative sides of the creation. And damnation or judgment is the forcing of that negative side which rebelled against her position. Her position was subordinate. She wanted to be the chief honcho. She came out from underneath the authority of Christ and set up her own base, we're told in Zechariah,
chapter 5. She set up her own base. She started running her own life and she killed Christ in order to do it. So the eternal judgment is the bringing back of this negative criminal aspect of the creation into the position ordained by God under the authority of Christ, which is positive, which is good, which is righteous; and the eternal damnation, the judgment that will abide for the ages ...what that means is, this negative aspect of the creation is going to be under military rule for the life of the ages. It's not a punishment that tortures you, that pricks your skin and causes you continuous pain. But it's a judgment that says you'll stay in the place that I put you and you'll go no further. It's a restriction. And if you follow the Greek words back to their roots, you'll see that the word tribulation means to be forced down under. Satan is being forced down under the authority of Christ. The reason that man is in the trouble that he's in is that the negative charge is ruling the show. That's what happened. So that's what eternal damnation is. Now if you can believe that, it fits in with this. By Christ being born in the mind of every man and bringing the negative charge in every man back down under His authority, there will now be one...Christ is not divided. Christ will be manifested in every individual across the world. Now we will not be robots; we will not be clones. Each of us will be an individual expression of the glorious and creative Christ. He's so creative; He's so great; there are so many aspects of Him that it's taking all of humanity to adequately express Himself. I believe that in Christ, even though we will all have that one Christ mind; don't look at this with the carnal mind now; ask God to show you this in Christ. I believe there will be an opportunity for each of us to be creative to an extent that we could never express ourselves creatively with the most optimum opportunity in this fallen world. We will have a greater opportunity to be creative in Christ, even though we'll all be one. Some people get distressed when they hear that, that we're all going to be one and they think they're losing their individuality. This is not true. The symbol in the scripture for the reconciled creation is a crystal, a crystal sea. We read about it in Revelation, chapter 21; one crystal, many planes, many facets; many sides to the crystal. It will be better than anything you can possibly achieve in this world. (question ?) I don't believe the bible is complete. I believe that it's true that there are spiritual truths which are...well, I don't know that I can say that they're not written in the bible. Let me say, I believe that alluded to in the bible, but the full knowledge of the truth will come out of the mind of Christ. It's not spelled out in the scripture. And there very well may be spiritual truths that are not even alluded to in there. That's very possible. We're told that if every word Jesus said were put in the bible, there wouldn't be enough books to contain it. So the question is, we take each book at a time; is this book a part of the genuine scripture? Now, it's not a question of something being taken out of the bible. ...At some point in history, a group of scholars got together and they agreed which books would be in this bible. So it's not so much that a bible existed and a book was taken out, but that it was never included in the first place. However, I would like to believe that Christ was operating somewhat in the minds of the men who put this bible together. Nevertheless, I've no problem with another book because I'm writing my own book. I've no problem with another book. I just have a problem with a book that Christ in me witnesses is error. This false doctrine; this subtly; this gnosticism is New Age, which is seeping into the Church today. And as you probably know, I preach a lot of things that you couldn't find in the King James Bible. I could show you the scriptures, but I'm not surprised...unless Jesus witnesses it to you, you would never believe it in the King James. So I'm the last person to say that this book, the Gospel of Thomas couldn't possibly be valid and I believe I mentioned it to you before I started preaching that I opened the book with an open heart, saying, Lord, if it's valid, show it to me. In my opinion, and I think it's a pretty experienced opinion, it's not valid. It's a gnostic document and not only do I believe it's a gnostic document, but if you read the introduction to it, the man who wrote the introduction tells you it's a gnostic document. So therefore, you have to ask yourself what is gnosticism? Does God receive gnosticism. Is gnosticism valid? What is the basic truths of gnosticism? And you have a lot to pray about, brethren. You have a lot to pray about. (question?) With regard to your first question; Is the whole book of Thomas no good? Well, portions of this book reiterate the true scripture, so whatever is of truth is good. My question to anyone who would want to continue reading this book is, if you can believe that the underlining spirit of the book is New Age or gnostic, then you would have to ask yourself why you would want to continue to read it? Because even if there are certain sentences which are good, it's the spirit that is behind the book that is important. And even if you,... if the spirit's in fact not of Christ that is written in this book, even when you read sentences that are true, you're receiving truth by a wrong spirit and it can't do you any good. When you read out of the bible and any truth that you receive, which comes forth from the Spirit of Christ; it's sown in your heart; Jesus said my words are spirit, my words are life and it's producing His life in you. Now if you pick up a spirit off the pages of this Gospel of Thomas, even the words which are true are being sown with a spirit that is not Christ. So you must ask yourself
why you would want to do that when you have a valid bible and other teachings and other cassette tapes and whatever. And that's between you and God. You have to ask yourself that question. Your second question; let me begin by saying I do not preach ultimate reconciliation. Ultimate reconciliation is a doctrine which explains how God will reconcile the all. I believe the scripture says that God will reconcile the all, but I do not believe that He'll do it in the way that the ultimate reconciliationists preach it. And I agree with you, that doctrine promotes passivity and it's a dangerous doctrine. I do not subscribe to it at all. Ultimate reconciliation teaches, to the best of my knowledge that every human being that every human being that has ever been born into this world system will have their bodies resurrected and will be raised up from the dead in Christ. I do not believe that. I believe that this creation is a spiritual creation. I further believe that these physical bodies that we live in are prison houses. I believe the scripture bears that out. They're dense, they're dark; you can't see through them spiritually unless Christ is added to us or if we see, we see through Satan's mind, the spirit of Satan. These bodies are torture chambers with opportunities
for Satan to hurt us, to make us sick, to wound one another. These physical bodies are the prison houses that we fell into. Job speaks about them. He says we fell into clay houses. We also read about it in one or two of the minor prophets. And they're not God's best. They're corruptible; they're vile; and they break. You see people walking around without arms, without legs, and without eyes. This is not God's best. I believe that which is being saved, the all that is being saved is the spiritual creation which God formed in the beginning. The scripture says; And God formed the man out of the dust of the earth, and I suggest to you that at that time, at the beginning of time, the man didn't look like we look now. He was a spiritual creation. Then the scriptures says He breathed the breath of life into the man. So that which is being saved, I believe, is that breath which is breathed into the man, that which is of God; that which came from God, which was imparted to the man that that man might live. And that substance of God is called spirit. That which is in man, which was breathed in at the beginning in each of us here, in this fallen condition is the spirit of man, also known as the human spirit. I believe the original creation had two parts to it; the breath of God, spirit and the clay of the spiritual earth. I do not believe that man was formed out of the kind of earth that exists in your streets here. They came around the corner; there were workmen building a building and they had dug up earth and turned over earth for a foundation. I do not believe that is the earth that man was made out of. I believe that we were formed out of a spiritualized earth because God is very high. And God is not physical; He's spiritual. So therefore, I believe, that all of the human bodies that have died throughout the ages fall into the category that we read about in the book of Jeremiah, where the Lord says He wasn't happy with the vessel so He marred it. He let the physical body die and He reformed it. And the way He reforms that which He's not not satisfied with, brethren, is through our children. I've seen many instances where people pass out of this world system; they pass out of this world system unconverted. There's even a Greek word to describe that. There are three Greek words translated death. One of those words, poneros, means to die unrepentant. In other words you pass out of this world system. This flesh goes back to dust. Your soul goes back to that original lump of clay that God formed the man out of and your spirit goes back to God. And I believe that until that last day, when Christ appears in the flesh of His people in enough power to preserve that flesh and make it permanent, make it incapable of destruction; incapable of disease; incapable of being broken; until that day we have a creation made out of spiritual clay, which is continuously being reformed until it appears in the image of the Father. Now for anybody here who is thinking that I'm talking about reincarnation, I do not believe in reincarnation. Reincarnation is a counterfeit of what I believe to be a spiritual truth of that which I've just described to you. Briefly speaking, reincarnation speaks about the resurrection of the soul, or the reincarnation of the soul, that your personality comes back in another person. Reincarnation is intimately associated with the doctrine of Karma, which says the evil that you do in this life, the evil that you sow in this life, you'll reap it when your personality is resurrected in the next life. This is salvation by works. You keep coming back until you get it right. I do not believe this. I believe we can never get it right. The only way you'll get it right is when Christ joins His self to your heart and converts your heart so that you don't die poneros, unconverted. What I just described to you; it's the multiple incarnations of Christ, the spirit man, the spirit man. It's the spirit, the breath that God breathed into this creation that is flowing through this earth. The Spirit of God flowing through the earth and because this creation died, the bodies and the souls that the spirit man is dwelling in, after a season dies. And therefore the Lord has arranged this creation to reproduce itself so that the spirit man can continue in the earth until the Father raises him from the dead thus enabling Him to give life to the soul and preservation to the man. And I will give you some scripture backup on this. And as always, if you reject it, I've no problem with you. You don't have to believe this if you don't want to. God likens this creation to a tree. The tree has roots which go deep under the ground. That's speaking about the unconscious mind of man. It has a trunk and branches which appear. The roots do not appear. They're buried. The trunk and the branches appear. That's man, whose personality is appearing and every tree has leaves, unless it's an evergreen tree, which I'm not speaking about, produces new leaves every season. The root abides, the trunk and the branches abide, but the leaves are produced as a new crop every season. They die and they fall off and they never rise again. And I'm suggesting to you, that I've just given you a parable describing this creation. This spirit abides. The soul abides even though God reforms it, but the leaves, this external flesh, appear only for a season. They fall off, they go down to the ground, they deteriorate; the minerals mulch down into the ground and the vitamins or the minerals in the leaves are sapped up by the roots of the tree and the substance of the tree puts forth new leaves. But in that last day, we're told in the scripture, that tree will produce leaves that will not die. A crop of leaves is about to appear on the tree of humanity that will abide forever and then shall be a healing unto the nations. So if I've just communicated to you what I believe, I'll be happy. Did I make myself clear to you? (question?) The Lord also told me that I didn't complete my answer to your question, so I would like to back up a little bit with regard to your question about passivity. The way I relate passivity to what I teach is this. Every man existing today will not be taken. If the man dies, his spirit will go back to the Father, but the personality, the individual today who is not received by Christ is likened unto a leaf that will never rise again. Therefore, we do have an incentive to pursue after Christ, to seek righteousness, to study to show ourselves approved if we would like to obtain eternal life. Because if we don't obtain it before we die, poneros, before we die unconverted, this personality will not rise again. It's the spirit which goes back to the Father, which is being saved. But this personality will not rise again. Did I make that clear? That's a hard word. We continue to live in our children. We continue in our children. As our children inherit our physical characteristics; our children inherit our emotional and spiritual characteristics; but I do not believe that if we die unconverted that we burn in hell forever. Nor do I believe ....(end of tape 2).
