"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God..."
UNION BY FUSION
Part 1
Some time ago I read the following report: "On the morning of November 1, 1952, an event took place which was to forever change our world. It happened on Elugelab, a small island in the Pacific, about one mile wide. On it were a number of buildings and weapons. Floating in the bay were several ships. Early that morning the first full-scale hydrogen bomb was exploded there and the island of Elugelab forever disappeared from this world. In its place was a hole in the bottom of the ocean, a hundred and seventy-five feet deep and over a mile in diameter. The buildings disappeared. The tanks and ships in the bay were totally vaporized. One who watched the event and sailed over the scene a few hours later, saw that the waters were perfectly clear. There was no debris, no sand, no material from the ships or buildings. There was nothing but a gaping hole in the bottom of the sea. The first fusion bomb had been exploded with a power equal to seven hundred and fifty times that which leveled the city of Hiroshima. The hydrogen age – the fusion age – began!
"It had been speculated since 1934 that such a thing as fusion energy or a fusion explosion was possible. Fission was first discovered whereby the heavy element of uranium was split in two. It was known, however, that it was possible to create energy in the way stars create energy, by taking the light element of hydrogen and fusing the atoms of hydrogen together into an atom of helium. That is the way suns create their energy. But it was considered entirely impractical and impossible because in order to produce this fusion it was necessary to create a heat of twenty million degrees centigrade. Such a thing was totally beyond the realm of possibility in 1934. After 1945, however, after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the possibilities became very real because in the center of an atomic explosion there is created for a moment a temperature of one hundred and fifty million degrees centigrade. So the possibility of fusion was again examined" – end quote.
I trust it is clear to all who read these lines what fusion is. It is a joining, a blending, an intermixture, a merging, an amalgamation, a unification of two or more items. It is more than an adhering. It is different from merely gluing something together. It is a commingling of the elements. We have come today to participate in an event of spiritual fusion, whereby we are told that we, being many separate individuals (atoms as it were), are fused together into one in Christ Jesus. "For we being many are one bread, and one body..." (I Cor. 10:17). "And the glory which You gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and You in me, that they may be made perfect in one..." (Jn. 17:22-23).
So we are talking about union by fusion. How does this come about? It comes about because of the white heat of the passion of Jesus Christ causing a spiritual fusion in three parts: First, the tremendous heat of the love of Christ, then the breaking down of the individuality and selfhood and the fusion of a whole new element, our spirit joined to His Spirit, making one spirit, one mind, one will, one nature, one purpose, one Elohim! Finally there is the release of the tremendous energy of Christ through the body. That is what Christ has called us to experience. That is what it means to be a part of the body of Christ – to be fused into Him who is the Head. "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (II Cor. 5:17). What does that mean – a new creation in Christ – old things passed away? It means that we are something that never really existed, yet we know that we existed before in a different form and state.
When you come to the New Creation you get into all kinds of paradoxes. Our Creator is a God of super-abundant generosity. Look at the universe and the world around you. His generosity is evident. He has given us more than enough air to breathe. He has given us water to waste. He has given us an earth with resources vast and unlimited. We have the moon to stimulate our romantic impulses and to decorate the night sky. In addition to the sun and moon, God has provided the dazzling planets for our wonder. Then He unselfishly filled the shimmering heavens with myriads and multitudes of countless twinkling stars. He could have given only a few hundred stars, but our super-abundant God MORE than filled the vast entities of space with them. The Bible states in Jer. 33:22 that "the host of heaven CANNOT BE NUMBERED." During the thousands of years before Galileo's invention of the telescope, such a statement was considered to be either false or at least a gross exaggeration. The stars uncountable? The universe, they said, was too small to contain that many stars! However, using such giant telescopes as the "200 inch" on Mount Palomar in California, astronomers have estimated that there are billions of billions of stars in the visible universe. More specifically, astronomers estimate that their number is equal to 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 or one sextillion. Is this an uncountable number? That is – the number that can be seen through the telescopes! But as far as man can see the universe stretches on and on into infinity – he has never discovered its outer perimeter. We therefore conclude that the term "uncountable" is indeed a very appropriate description of the number of stars in the universe.
Now God has produced this immense universe of suns, stars, planets and moons, vast galaxies composed of hundreds of billions of heavenly bodies. In all of its majesty, splendor and glory the fact remains that the totality of it is made of some mixture of less than one hundred elements. The scientist, Dr. Harry Rimmer, recorded the following incident. "The clearest discussion of this problem of the whence of physical matter was presented to us one evening by a little lad who perhaps did not realize that fools may ask questions that the wise cannot answer. In this case, however, he challenged our interest by the rather abrupt query, 'In all the whole world, how many different kinds of things are there?' His mother interrupted to say, 'You don't need to answer that question, doctor; I didn't know what he was going to ask you.' But we said that we would like to try to answer that question. Turning to the boy we said, 'Freddie, I don't know much, but I happen to know that. In all the whole world, the heaven, the earth, all the stars and suns and moons and planets, there are less than one hundred different things.' The boy looked at us in amazement and said, 'Aw, you must be spoofing me. I know there are more than a million, because I know a million different things myself.' Matching his seriousness with a like mien, we replied, 'Now let's examine this and see. You can't know a million different things, for in all the universe there are only ninety-six different things, which are called elements.' The lad shook his head with stubbornness and said, 'I know there are more than that!' Entering into the spirit of the argument, we said, 'All right, what is one of those things that you know?' Being in sight of the supper table, he said, 'Well, salt is one thing.' That one was easy. We said, 'No, Freddie, salt is not one thing; salt is two things. Somebody has taken a piece of metal called sodium and a piece of a gas called chlorine, and mixed the two things together. The result is what chemists call sodium chloride and we common folks call salt. But salt is not one thing; it is two things in combination.'
"'How about water? That's one thing!' 'No, water is two things. Two pieces of a gas called hydrogen and one piece of a gas called oxygen are mixed together, and they make water.' 'How about air? Isn't that one thing?' 'Wrong again. Air is always three things. Seventy-nine pieces of a gas called nitrogen mixed with twenty-one pieces of a gas called oxygen, and a tiny, tiny portion of carbonic acid gas, make up the simplest kind of air. Air is not one thing. It might be as many as twelve or fourteen things, depending on how close you live to a glue factory or a garbage dump!' The boy laughed with keen appreciation and said, 'Oh, I see! It is kind of like arithmetic, or like the alphabet.'
"That is the perfect figure of creation. The whole world of mathematics resolves itself into two divisions. First, we have the factors that men call the numerals. These factors are figures from one to nine, with the cipher added for convenience in multiplication. With these ten factors, combined with intelligence, we can solve the problems of mathematics, and arrive at the solution of the most intricate of these problems. Mathematics, then, is predicated first upon factors, and secondly upon intelligence to manipulate those factors! The science of figures would be utterly impossible without intelligence of a high order, capable of making absolutely innumerable combinations of the few factors. The universe, then, is a combination of factors on purely mathematical formulae. These factors number ninety-six. But factors alone cannot be resolved into mathematics. Intelligence is the more important element in the juggling and arranging of these factors. The entire physical creation is a solved problem in mathematics, for these various elements are combined in different proportions to make up all the intricacy of the physical creation" – end quote.
Ninety-six individual elements – and the almighty Creator takes of those ninety-six elements and joins them in innumerable ways by an omniscient pre-arranged plan to make everything that exists in all the unbounded heavens! Oh, the mystery of it! Oh, the wonder of it! Will any such terms as Spontaneous Generation, Struggle for Existence, or Survival of the Fittest suffice as an explanation for the majesty of the universe and the beauty, complexity and nobility of life? The question answers itself. Only an infinite MIND can be behind the origin and composition of matter. It is a wonderful fact that your body is composed of just twenty of those elements. One fifth of all the physical substances in the universe was used to produce the body that you inhabit on this planet. So when God makes anything on the material plane, He reaches into that storehouse of ninety-six elements and devises a formula, some measurement and process, to manufacture a new thing. The new thing is something that has never existed before, and yet it has been before.
There is a wonder beyond even this. These ninety-six elements we call matter. We now know that matter is primarily energy. We can agree to call it matter, if by matter we mean that form which energy takes so that we can see it, or hear it, or feel it. What is the nature of this substance that occupies space, and makes a visible, audible, tangible universe? Of what does it consist? Modern physics and chemistry find, first and basic in matter: – energy – vast, unknown, unseen, a primal thing, out of which all things in the physical universe come. Energy is not the result of the ninety-six elements – rather energy is itself the cause. Energy is first. That is self-evident. Second, modern physics and chemistry find, growing out of energy, embodying energy is motion – that great, unceasing, unresting motion of waves, of electrons, which fills and which is the physical universe. Motion, which embodies energy, is second. That is equally clear. Third, there are phenomena, through which motion touches the senses – light, sound, heat, hardness, scent, moisture, dryness – all the multitudinous impacts of motion upon our sight, hearing and touch. Motion issues in phenomena. This is the absolute order in matter. Energy is the source. It begets motion. It begets it perpetually. It embodies itself in motion. It works and acts through motion. Phenomena proceed from motion. They are the ways in which motion touches human beings. They reveal and interpret motion. But remember – all begins with energy.
It will be a wonderful day for you, dear one, when first your soul becomes enthralled with the revelation that God, before ever the world began or ever the ages were formed, looked forth from His temple of wisdom and omnipotence to chart with resolute care the course and purpose of all things. Your heart will throb as you read the opening proclamation of scripture, "In the beginning – GOD!" In the beginning of what? Not in the beginning of God, certainly, but in the beginning of His creation of all things, in the beginning of time, in the beginning of the orderly procession of the divinely destined ages. In the beginning stands God, omnipotent and omniscient, creating, sustaining and guiding all things and all people and all ages of time according to the purpose of His own will. No purpose ordained by God from the beginning can possibly go astray or be hindered by the efforts of devil or man. Oh, for the hour when creation will grasp the beautiful message, "From Him everything comes, by Him everything exists, and in Him everything ends!" (Rom. 11:36).
If God be the Creator of all things, then it must of necessity follow that GOD IS THE SOURCE OF ALL THINGS. We read the passage quoted above from Wilson's Emphatic Diaglott, "Because OUT of HIM, and THROUGH HIM, and FOR HIM are ALL THINGS, to Him be the glory for the ages, Amen." All things are out of God, all things are through Him, all things are for Him, and all things are unto Him, ending in Him. The clearest possible rendering is given by Goodspeed, "For from Him everything comes; through Him everything exists; and in Him everything ends! Glory to Him forever! Amen." The Bible opens with the simplest and yet most profound statement ever recorded by human hand, "In the beginning – GOD!" The sweet singer of Israel declared of Him, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God" (Ps. 90:2). Our God was the great active force, the cause of all that began to happen "in the beginning." How awesome the thought that there was a "time" when there was nothing – absolutely nothing – but GOD! There was no blue-green orb called earth, no silver-shimmering moon, no diamond-studded heaven of stars and planets, no angels, no devils, no man – nothing but GOD HIMSELF! There were not even the ninety-six elements out of which everything in the universe is constructed – there was only God. Paul caught something of the sublimity of this eternal and Self-existent One and wrote, "For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him: and HE IS BEFORE ALL THINGS, and by Him all things consist" (Col. 1:16-17).
Let me emphasize this wonderful and important truth: "He is before all things." This can mean nothing else but that God is not one of the "things." He is before all things. He is before all things. And just as majestic is the truth that "by Him ALL THINGS CONSIST." Young's Literal Translation renders this literally from the Greek: "Because in Him were the all things created, and HIMSELF IS BEFORE ALL, and the all things IN HIM HAVE CONSISTED." This means not merely that God existed before any thing, but that apart from Him no thing could have existed – He is the great CAUSE!
This raises an important and interesting question. If God was "before all things," then OUT OF WHAT did He CREATE the all things? When I was a boy we had a "Sunday School" definition of the word create. "To create," I was told, "means to make something out of nothing." That was a satisfactory answer at the time. To my young and unlearned mind it sounded altogether logical. After all, I thought, if God is God, and God can do anything, then surely it is no problem to God to make something out of nothing! But as I grew older and learned something of the laws of physics, I discovered a simple but demonstrable fact, namely, that out of nothing – nothing comes! Also, out of something you get no more than that thing is able to contain. You cannot take a gallon of milk out of a pint bottle unless you refill the bottle again and again. You cannot put a hundred dollars in the bank and take out a thousand. The man who seeks to take out of the bank more than he put in will find himself a recipient of free board and room for many months to come! This, then, is a fundamental point of natural law. We recognize that out of nothing, nothing comes. And even God, in all His omnipotence, does not violate His own creative principle, and MAKE SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING!
If there was only God, and absolutely no thing other than God, what kind of material did God have at His disposal out of which to construct all things? If you were standing completely alone, with nothing outside your own being existent, what material would be available for making something other than yourself? The answer is, of course, NOTHING! YOU WOULD HAVE TO MAKE THE "THINGS" OUT OF YOURSELF! And friend, this is exactly what God did. Now we can understand the full import of those words inspired by the blessed Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul: "Because IN HIM were the all things created, and Himself is before all, and the all things IN HIM HAVE CONSISTED" (Col. 1:16-17, Young's Literal).
God could not at that time make everything out of the ninety-six elements, because the elements are themselves the "things" created. He couldn't form the stars and planets of any combination of atoms, for atoms themselves are the "building blocks" or raw material of which "things" are composed; furthermore, atoms, with their electrons, protons and neutrons, are "things". Can we not see by this that God pre-dated and pre-existed the whole universe of atoms, elements, and compounds! It should be abundantly clear to any thinking mind that since God is before all "things", it was IN HIM that all "things" were created, and IN HIM all "things" were set together and arranged in order – the very source and substance of all "things" is GOD HIMSELF! OUT OF THE ENERGY AND SUBSTANCE OF HIS OWN BEING GOD BROUGHT FORTH AND CONSTITUTED ALL THINGS. So all these things we perceive on the physical plane are but projections of that which existed eternally in the energy which God is. In creation God takes of Himself, sets it in motion, compounds together, producing an effect that never was seen before – God Himself compounded in that unique and particular way.
THE FORMATION OF GOD
There is an interesting and significant statement in Isaiah 43:10. "You are my witnesses, says the Lord...that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am He: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me." Now, let us hear this! "Before me there was no god..." No god – what? "FORMED!" Before me! He didn't simply say, "Before me there was no god." It is not the existence of God that is in question in this passage. We know that God has eternally existed, from everlasting unto everlasting. He is greater than all, before all, and after all. The subject here is not the eternal existence of God, rather, the FORMATION of God. "Before me there was no god formed." It is interesting that the word "formed" is from the Hebrew word YATSAR meaning "to squeeze into a shape, to mold into a form as a potter, fashion, frame, make." In other words it means to produce an effect – a phenomenon. So God is saying that before Him there was no god that was squeezed into a shape, there was no god that was molded into a form. There was no god whose energy was set into motion to produce a phenomenon! There was no visible One made visible, no intangible One made tangible, no inaudible One made audible. There was no god that had produced an effect by which he could be seen, touched, heard, and felt – known and understood on the level of creation. So, "Before Me there was no god formed."
How did God become formed? What do we mean by "formed"? We mean that God projected Himself into an image – a likeness. All the ancient gods of the heathen had images – but they were dead images – statues made by men's hands. The pagans liked gods they could stroke and behold and form into little olivewood or stone incarnations. But our God was "formed" or given an image and likeness before any god! And independent of men's hands! So we must go back in history beyond any of the gods of the nations, beyond the gods of ancient Egypt, Assyria or Babylon. Let us go back to the book of Genesis. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. And God blessed them, and said unto them...have dominion" (Gen. 1:26-28).
More and more we are becoming aware of the wonderful fact that the book of Genesis deals largely in typical representations, that is, figures of spiritual realities, brought forth in the language and form of the physical world, the old creation, but pointing to that which is higher and grander, the NEW CREATION IN CHRIST JESUS. One cannot read Paul's epistles under the illuminating light of the Spirit without perceiving that he saw far more in Genesis than the mere letter. The creation with him is the figure of another work, which God accomplishes in every man who experiences the redeeming, transforming power of Christ. Says Paul, "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (II Cor. 4:6). Again, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (II Cor. 5:17).
It should be clear to all who have the eyes of their understanding enlightened that the apostle is showing how, just as God began to work upon this earth, when all was dark and without form and void, and worked upon it, step by step, bringing order out of chaos, light, warmth, life – vegetation and animal forms – until finally the image of God, the man created in righteousness, was seen to rule it all; so it is in the life of every man, darkened, unconverted, unregenerate, without spiritual form and void, lacking understanding, psychologically disoriented, living out his life in emptiness and spiritual destitution, without God and without hope in the world. What form or shape can be attributed to such purposelessness as a life without the Lord? Darkness hangs like a shroud over the soul that is dead in trespasses and in sins, a man stumbles blindly through life knowing not from whence he came, why he is here, or where he is going. But then! comes the life-giving wind of the Spirit of God, brooding upon the void, breathing into the chaos, and the Word of God pierces the darkness with this command: "Let there be light!" and there is light. It is when God says, "Let there be light," that the Spirit illumines our minds with the light and the glory of Himself, and it is only when the blessed Holy Spirit moves upon our lifeless souls that we are suddenly awakened from our long sleep of death in sin – and life, truth and reality spring forth within. Then, step by step, from one stage of development to another, the creative processes of God continue in the apprehended one until as a new creation in Christ Jesus the new man within is brought to maturity and rules every faculty within and power without.
In order to understand God's purpose for mankind we must return to His original order. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: so God created man in His own image..." In this text the fall is shown not to be man's normal state. Man today, like Adam, may be far from God, yet in his heart, as in the scriptures, a witness will be heard, saying that this distance is through self-will. He may live in sin and sorrow; but deep in his conscience he knows that such a life is in opposition to the will and purpose of his Creator. Therefore the man in God's image is shown before the fall – to confirm the voice that speaks to every human heart, and declare that though all men walk as Adam, sin and death are not a part of God's eternal order, but a mere temporary arrangement in the working out of God's great plan. Man's proper place is seen IN CHRIST, the last Adam, prefigured by the first Adam before he fell. Adam, in the image and glory of God, ruling all the works of God's hands, is the type of man in Christ, as God ordains him.
By such stature, nobility and rulership committed to Adam we get some idea of what sort of beings we are. One might be so impressed with the majesty of the silent, speechless mountain that lifts its white peak high above the clouds as to worship in silence at its altar – so suggestive is it of the Infinite. But what is a mountain, or a star for that matter, or billions of galaxies of stars and suns and planets and moons as compared with a man? They think not, they speak not, neither do they feel or hope or love or plan or build or have a duty or a destiny. Man is God's image and likeness! It is interesting to note that the almighty Creator fashioned and formed everything of nature throughout all the unbounded heavens and unto the depths of the earth and then, after completing and ordaining all, He gave us the true estimate of man's greatness and purpose when He said, "Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness: and let them have dominion." Man therefore is not only the most important creature on the earth, but the most important creature anywhere in the universe. Can we not see by this that Adam stood in the midst of the vast creation as the REVELATION OF GOD to it all. In man in God's image the invisible God became visible to the natural creation. God's purpose was to reveal Himself to His creation and bring everything everywhere into intimacy of fellowship and vital union with Himself.
Adam was God's special gift to the entire creation, from the highest heaven to the lowest hell. He came not from the brute ancestry, nor from the muck of some primordial sea, nor from the mire of the jungle but from the hand and spirit and breath of the Divine Creator. Time will not allow us to dwell on the glories of man in God's image, but Adam was perfect, pure and powerful. He was without spot or stain, taint or tarnish, pure in character, perfect in holiness, powerful in personality. He was the embodiment of all wisdom and knowledge. He was able to do on the morn of creation what no sage, scientist, or naturalist could do today. He found himself surrounded from the beginning with vast kingdoms of living things – fish, birds, animals. These were brought to him and at the command of God he gave them names. In the typology of scripture a name denotes a nature. Make no mistake about it, my friend, Adam did something greater far than merely classifying all the creatures which God had created in the world. When he "named" these creatures the wonderful truth is that he "natured" them – that is, he spoke creatively into them the nature that his mind of wisdom and knowledge conceived. Sovereignty and authority rested like a crown of glory upon the head of Adam the magnificent. He was made the Lord over all the creation of God to rule and reign as the visible expression of the invisible Creator. In him God was to be seen and known and touched by everything everywhere.
We are never told how long Adam lived in that wonderful Garden where the glory of God was revealed through him in dominion and blessing to creation, but that glorious reign of wonder and peace under the direction of a son in the image and likeness of God was but a dim figure of the day when a whole company of sons in God's image would reign in splendor over all things in all realms throughout all worlds and all things in heaven and in earth would be gathered together into union with God in His life and purpose. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the first and Head of this glorious company, and as typified and shadowed by the first man Adam He is the connecting link between God and creation – in spirit from God, in body from creation – the revelation of the invisible Father to the physical worlds. A God who is unseen and unknown, or who is only the product of inferences from creation, or providence, or the mysteries of history, or the wonders of my own inner life, the creature of logic or of reflection, is very powerless to sway or influence men or to affect creation. The limitations of our physical faculties and the boundlessness of our hearts both cry out for a God who is nearer to us than that, whom we can see and love and know. The whole world wants the making visible of Divinity as its deepest want.
Christ meets this need. How can you make wisdom visible? How can a creature see love or purity? How do I see your spirit? By the expression and deeds of your body! The only way by which God can ever come near enough to the material creation to be a constant power of eternal life and light and love is by creation seeing Him at work in a Man who is His image and revelation. Christ's whole life is the making visible of the invisible God. Christ is God speaking in a language all can understand. He is the manifestation to the world of the unseen Father. Jesus Christ in all His words and in all His works is the perfect instrument of the heavenly Father, so that His words are God's words, and His works are God's works; so that, when He speaks, His gentle wisdom, His loving sympathy, His melting tenderness, His authoritative commands, His prophetic threatenings, are the speech of God, and that when He acts, whether it be by miracle, by wonder, by transforming grace, by creative energy, what we see is God working before our eyes as we never see Him in any other creature or thing anywhere in the whole universe.
I do not hesitate to tell you that the name of God is Jesus. The Hebrew form of the name, Yahshua, means YAHWEH IS SALVATION. "God has highly exalted Him and has freely bestowed on Him THE NAME that is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth..." (Phil. 2:9, Amplified). The name of Jesus, or the nature of Yahweh as Salvation revealed in the man Christ Jesus, is higher than ANY OTHER NAME IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH – higher than Elohim, higher than Yahweh, higher than El Shaddai, higher even than the Old Testament El Elyon – Jesus is the only name before whom all things should and must and shall bow. So we say to creation, "Come and let us introduce you to God. His name is Jesus." But you cannot mean that seriously, you say. You don't honestly think that a Galilean peasant could really reveal to men and angels and demons the Creator of the world? Surely this sort of talk belongs to a bygone age, an age when man lived in a little world, with small ideas of space and time? Look up at the stars, and think of them in terms of modern astronomy, and you will see how absurd this is. The calling of the Creator by a pet name, is like trying to domesticate Mount Everest. That sort of thing was all very well before science came and taught us the real nature of the universe, and disclosed to us its unfathomable immensities; but surely now it is absurd? Knowing what we do why should we suppose that we matter more to God than a colony of ants matters to us, or that He cares any more for our troubles, sins, sicknesses, sorrows and death than we care for the squabbles of puppy-dogs upon the heathrug at our feet?
Let us pause here. The grand fact is that this Jesus of Nazareth, by the sheer force of His personality, has so impressed Himself upon mankind, and upon human history, and upon principalities and powers in the heavens, and upon spirits in the darkest underworld, and continues to impress Himself, that the only adequate description we can give of Him is that He is Emmanuel – God with us; that in the Man Jesus dwelt and dwells all the fullness of the Godhead, under bodily conditions. In Him all we can ever know of the invisible Creator becomes concrete, and therefore becomes powerful to save. If all this has been effected by one son of God revealing the Father to creation, what, I ask, shall be the result when a vast company of sons shall be brought to rule and reign in His glorious image and likeness over all the earth and throughout the vastnesses of infinity forevermore. Ah! What an Eden of God's glory shall be when judgment is given TO THE SAINTS of the Most High, when all the OVERCOMERS out of all the ages SIT WITH THE CHRIST OF GOD IN HIS THRONE even as He overcame and is set down with His Father in His throne, when SAVIOURS shall come upon Mount Zion to judge the house of Esau (flesh) and THE KINGDOM SHALL BE THE LORD'S (Obadiah 21). Then shall the earth be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Then shall all things in heaven and in earth be reconciled and gathered together into one in Christ. Then shall God be All-in-all.
You see, there is an image of God. There is a likeness of God. And before our God, there was no god who ever had a form, who ever had a likeness, and neither shall there be after Him. God is the God who is FORMED; the God who projects Himself into an image. Now the scripture says of Jesus, "Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God" (Phil. 2:6). Do you want to know what the form of God is, what the formed God looks like? Look at the Lord Jesus Christ and you see the form of God. "Philip says unto Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us. Jesus said unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet have you not known Me, Philip? He that has seen Me has seen the Father; and how can you say then, Show us the Father?" (Jn. 14:8-9). Further, the apostle Paul wrote to the saints in Galatia, "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be FORMED IN YOU" (Gal. 4:19). We're still talking about the formation of God. We're talking about a New Creation. We're talking about God reaching into Himself and taking a variety of elements out of Himself and compounding them together to produce an image that will reveal what He is!
The energy of creation is God. Creation is the energy of God in motion producing phenomena. This means that you as a person, a personality, are ENERGY. Energy has many forms, but it is not something that you can see or hold in your hand. You can think of energy as something that can make things change. For example, a moving object has energy because it can change things by crashing into them. Heat is another form of energy. It is a sort of motion, too – the disorderly motion of the tiny atoms and molecules that make up all materials. Heat energy can melt ice, changing it to water, and heat it more, changing it to vapor. It can run the engine of an automobile, jet plane or rocket. There is another kind of energy, called chemical energy. It is in the coal or oil that heats buildings. It is in the food that nourishes your body and keeps you active. There is atomic energy which can be set free from the atoms of some materials. Then there is the energy carried by light waves, called electromagnetic energy. It is the electromagnetic energy in sunlight that warms the earth. Light waves, streaming out of the sun, carry energy to us across nearly a hundred million miles of space. When the energy of the light hits the earth, part of it changes to heat.
Another kind of energy that we, the people of God, are aware of is SPIRIT ENERGY. In physics energy is known as the capacity for doing work. The Greek word for energy is ENERGEIA or ENERGO. These words are used in the Greek New Testament a number of times. Because of the association between "doing work" and "energy," the words are generally translated into English as "working." Since so much has been learned about energy in recent years it would now be better to translate these words for just what they mean – energy or energize. Let us look at a couple of scriptures. "That you may know what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working (energizing) of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead" (Eph. 1:18-20). Yes, it was ENERGY, GOD'S ENERGY, which raised Christ from the dead! The record further states that He was raised up by the SPIRIT of God! Not only did Paul say that it was God's energy that raised Christ up, but he went on to say in Eph. 3:7 that it was that same energy of God that transformed his own life and made him a minister of Jesus Christ. "Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working (energy) of His power." Then on top of this Paul declares that it is this SPIRIT ENERGY of God that is working within us to bring us unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. "From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working (energizing) in the measure of every part" (Eph. 4:16). Finally, this energy of God shall so work in us, shall so change us, that we shall be changed even in the atomical structure of our bodies, as it is written, "Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working (energizing) whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself" (Phil. 3:21). All spirit is ENERGY, and exerts a force, or influence, upon our lives. God is the supreme source of energy – the highest and purest form of energy!
The Holy Spirit is God's ENERGY FORCE. It is God's motion, action and influence in one measure or another upon, in, and through man. Yahweh accomplished the creation of the universe by His Spirit or ENERGY FORCE. Regarding the planet earth in its early formative stages, the record states that "The Spirit (energy force) of God was moving to and fro over the surface of the waters" (Gen. 1:2). Psalm 33:6 says, "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath (spirit) of His mouth." Like a powerful breath or living wind, God's Spirit can be sent forth to exert power even though there is no bodily or physical contact with that which is acted upon. Where a human craftsman would use the force of his hands and fingers to produce things, God uses His Spirit. Hence, that Spirit is also spoken of as God's "hand" or "fingers." Jesus told the Pharisees, "If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God is come unto you" (Mat. 12:28). But Luke, in recording the same event, expresses it thus: "If I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the Kingdom of God is come upon you" (Lk. 11:20). The Spirit of God is the finger of God, the working, the activity of God usward. How great is His working!
The invisible and powerful INWARD ENERGY FORCE that motivates and transforms our lives into the image of God is the HOLY SPIRIT. Only by the Holy Spirit are we guided beyond the outer senses, and beyond the letter of the Word, into the glorious and eternal reality of "the deep things of God," even all those things which God has in reservation for them that truly love Him, which the human eye has not seen, the human ear has not heard, neither has entered into the human heart to understand and appreciate. Each of the characteristics of God is a form of the energy of God, one of the elements of God. This energy is transmitted from the spirit into the soul and body to produce its power within us, just as electricity is transmitted from a battery to an engine to make it function in a certain way. When the "Spirit of Holiness" is transmitted into our lives and consciousness we begin to function in our personality in that characteristic of God's holiness, thus becoming holy. When the "Spirit of Wisdom" is transmitted into our consciousness we cease from our own natural reasoning and commence to act in accordance with the higher wisdom of God. When the "Spirit of Life" permeates our being even our bodies shall be quickened by His life within until this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality. Then shall be fulfilled the word which was spoken, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed" (I Cor. 15:51).
The Bible declares that God is LOVE. It doesn't say that God has love, but God IS LOVE. That is His nature. Did you know that love is energy? You won't have to think about that very long to realize that it is true. Love is a powerful force that can influence and CHANGE THINGS. Love is invisible, like the wind, but it is powerful! And love can be transmitted, invisibly, from person to person, even as light rays are transmitted from the sun to the earth. We read in Rom. 14:17, "For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." Do you believe peace is real? What does peace look like? Is it round? Is it square? Can you measure it? Can you buy a bottle full of peace, or a truckload? No! Peace is invisible, isn't it? And peace is powerful, isn't it? Peace is SPIRIT! And spirit is ENERGY! You can know when peace is present. You can sense peace, experience peace, speak peace, manifest peace and minister peace. How about joy? You cannot put joy in your pocket or roll it up like a wad of bills. Joy is SPIRIT! Joy is ENERGY! Righteousness is SPIRIT! Righteousness is ENERGY! Righteousness is attainable on this earth now because of the right spirit, the Holy Spirit, God's Spirit. I have good news for you – you can receive a new spirit, a new ENERGY FORCE, Holy Spirit, Holy Energy, and as a result attain a walk in righteousness. HOLY ENERGY – this is what God IS! God is revealing the energy flow of His life today through New Creation Men.
THE NEW CREATION – ONE SPIRIT
Great is the mystery and the wonder of it, but the apostle Paul explains in I Cor. 6:17 that "He that is joined unto the Lord IS ONE SPIRIT." One Spirit! He that is joined (fused) is one. We can easily understand this in the natural creation. Have you drunk a glass of water today? How many things is water? To us water is one thing, one item, one substance. But no – water is actually two things! Two parts of a gas called hydrogen and one part of a gas called oxygen are fused, and they make water. But water is not gas! When the two gases are mixed they produce an effect. You have something new, something different, something of another quality – liquid. God has used that simple principle of compounding to make everything that appears in the material creation. So now we can understand how it is that he that is joined or fused to the Lord IS ONE SPIRIT. I didn't get up this morning and tell myself that I needed a glass of H2O. It was unnecessary to bother with the chemical formula. I just knew that I needed a glass of water. If I never knew anything about hydrogen or oxygen it would make no difference. Water is water. God knows how He made it. Scientists discovered God's formula, but God invented it. You don't go into someone's house and ask for a glass of cold H2O. You just ask for water – the one item. In like manner it is no longer necessary to see God and yourself as two persons or two different items – for HE THAT IS JOINED UNTO THE LORD IS O-N-E S-P-I-R-I-T.
As I pointed out in a recent article – when the Spirit of God came in and quickened your human spirit, His Spirit and your spirit became ONE. One spirit – just as when a man is joined to a harlot they become one flesh – one humanity, male and female, Adam. Bible translators have found it difficult to decide whether "spirit" in some passages refers to the Holy Spirit or the spirit of man. The reason for this difficulty lies in the fact that in the believer the Holy Spirit and the human spirit are joined as ONE SPIRIT! So, when Paul says that if we walk after the spirit we shall live – does he mean the Holy Spirit or our spirit? The solution lies in the knowledge that we are one spirit with the Lord. When you look at the water or drink the water you cannot tell what is hydrogen or what is oxygen. In their combination they have formed a new substance – water. In the water the two are one. In like manner, such a united spirit makes it difficult for anyone to say whether this is the Holy Spirit or the human spirit. The two are compounded and fused as one. We may say it is the Holy Spirit, and yet we can also say it is the human spirit. Sometimes we make a beverage by mixing two kinds of juices – apple and cranberry. After it is mixed it is difficult by taste to tell what kind of juice it is. Is it apple or cranberry? We would have to call it apple-cranberry. In the realm of the spirit it is wonderful to see that the two spirits, the Holy Spirit joined with our spirit, ARE ONE SPIRIT.
Ah – Christ is in us today – but where is He within us? In what part? It is abundantly clear – Christ is in our spirit. There is no need to be vague and say, "Oh, the Lord is in you and the Lord is in me." The last verse of II Timothy 4 definitely states that Christ is in our spirit. "The Lord be with your spirit." The preposition "with" is from the Greek SUN which denotes "union." The Lord is in union with our spirit! There is a mighty working taking place within God's people – no more to have that duality – our spirit, His Spirit, but to be so fully merged into one with Him that HIS Spirit is mine, and my spirit, quickened by His Spirit, is swallowed up into His. "There is ONE SPIRIT," says the Lord (Eph. 4:4). That one spirit is neither the Holy Spirit nor our spirit – it is His Spirit joined with our spirit, the ONE SPIRIT of God in His sons and daughters. Whenever you move by the spirit, that is God moving. Whenever you speak out of the spirit, that is God speaking. Whenever you act by the spirit, that is God acting. It is not merely God moving, speaking, and acting through you – it is God moving, speaking and acting as you. It is you moving, speaking and acting as God! And it is the Spirit of God in you that is now speaking to your mind and heart, saying, "You are my son." The import of that word is now germinating in your consciousness. You are letting that precious mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus, who thought it not robbery to be equal with God.
Since there is ONE spirit I should not concern myself about upper case or lower case S's. It's completely irrelevant. It doesn't have anything to do with anything. He that is joined to the Lord IS. And what is he? He is the One Spirit. That's all there is. It's not my spirit. It's not His spirit. My spirit is not the One Spirit and, believe it or not, precious friend of mine, God's Spirit is not the One Spirit. The One Spirit is the one that is fused to the Lord. The One Spirit is my spirit and God's spirit in union. There is one spirit, just as there is one body. God is combining. God is joining. God is fusing. God is creating! God is mingling the elements in His heavenly laboratory, making a New Creation in Christ Jesus the Lord – something that never was before!
J. Preston Eby
J. Preston Eby
P.O. Box 371240
El Paso TX 79937-1240
All writings are distributed on a free-will basis.
(Brother Eby does not have e-mail service)
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