We thank You for such a firm gospel, written in the blood of Christ and inspired by the Holy Spirit through the pen of Paul. Teach us how to live on new ground.
Help us now in these days, as we are together, to find that higher ground—a plane, a plateau—we have never been on before. Help us, Lord. Help me; strengthen me; help us all. Give us patience and a hearing heart.
We pray in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
Noah, great job. Wait, wait, wait—you are not through yet. Oh, you are going to take the guitar? Okay.
So young, though, already to be a wise guy. Well, look at that.
Well, it is good to be with you. By the grace of God, I am here. Yeah, I think this is the fifty-first conference I have held here in the summer. I do not know where time has been.
You get a different perspective when you sit in the back. For one thing, I can fall asleep and you do not notice. But I see a lot of fidgeting going around—fidgety, squirming, wormy-squirmy—the heebie-jeebies. So I always try to figure out exactly what is going on. Why do people have the heebie-jeebies?
Well, I realized, of course, if you just look around, that a few years ago John and Mary Ann went to this place to figure out what chairs we should sit in, and they found these Russian torture chairs. You know, if you actually fall asleep, the back snaps right off and you go right back.
I know most of you will have protracted back problems for the rest of your life. That is one reason you are squirming a little bit, probably. The fact of the matter is, most people who get up to go to the bathroom do not really have to go. They just cannot stand it anymore.
Now, some of you, I realize, probably do not have enough tush padding. I do not know how else to put it. For me, I am endowed. Some people just have to get up: “I have got to go to the bathroom.” Why? “I have no tush padding.” Well, I feel sorry for those of you with such terrible things going on.
For the girls, it is so much easier. I mean, everybody fidgets, but the girls do that five-finger baton-twirl thing with the pen. The guys always go—well, I have not had girls do that. There is something about those fingers. Take that pen and go bloop, bloop, bloop. You know how you do it. It is amazing.
And some of them spend the whole time on their hair. From behind, you can see it. They are working it, turning it around. They have these little suspenders on their wrists; they are down there doing this. You know, that will waste an hour of time right there. Meanwhile, the guys are just—you know—they wish they had a small tush.
No, no, no. You know what? I figured out why you are squirming, and it has to do with what we are talking about.
There are two roads that look a lot alike. One is what is conventionally called the Christian life, and then there is the Christ life. Maybe they sound pretty much the same, but there is all the difference in the world.
The Christian life, as it is known so often today, is quite boring, I find, frankly. It is boring and predictable. You know that Aunt Sadie is going to pray the same prayer that she prayed last Sunday. You know that Charlie is going to ask for number 346, his favorite hymn. We have it every week.
The preaching is predictable. The praying is predictable. The mishmash and fellowship is predictable. The potatoes are predictable. It is just Christianity—boring, a lot of times weak.
It is sort of like the difference between Saul and his army going against Goliath, and David. David had the Christ life. Saul and his army, they were just good Christians.
So when Goliath was coming out of his tent every day—“Heh, heh, ha, ha, ha! Send out one guy. Let’s have it out.”—there was Saul. He was as big as Jim Box, the biggest guy in the camp, with all this huge armor on. All these warriors were dressed up, but they had no power. They ran away every time. They always blew retreat.
They ran into Saul’s tents saying, “We are going to build a better strategy than this.” But David had Christ life in him. He said, “What is this guy saying? How dare he say that?”
There is a whole lot of difference between David and King Saul. There is a whole lot of difference between just being a Christian and living the Christ life.
You do not have to fidget with the Christ life. There is a lot going on. The Lord is speaking, the Lord is challenging, and you are in a dialogue. In the Christian life, there is no dialogue going on. You are hearing some stuff.
So I want us to see that, because my responsibility is to talk about Christ in us. It makes all the difference when you discover that it is true. The fact that you are saved is already there, and most of you do not know it, or you do not live out of it. That is the Christ life.
And so we live in some kind of a shadowland, where we are saved but we are not living in the vital life. I hope we can get through into some truth, and the Lord will speak to your hearts and you will understand.
Let us turn to three portions of Scripture. One is John 14, where Jesus is virtually describing the Christ life to His disciples, who had been with Him for three years. To tell you the truth, we will look at it a little later: the disciples did not understand what He was talking about.
We all know these verses. Let us look again: John 14, beginning in verse 16.
“And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may be with you for ever,
even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth Him not, neither knoweth Him:
ye know Him; for He abideth with you, and shall be in you.
I will not leave you desolate: I come unto you.
Yet a little while, and the world beholdeth Me no more; but ye behold Me: because I live, ye shall live also.
In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.
He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me:
and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself unto him.”—John 14:16-21
Judas—not Iscariot—said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said:
“If a man love Me, he will keep My word: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.”
—John 14:22-23
The Christ life.
Now turn to 1 John 5, verses 11 through 13.
“And the witness is this, that God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life.
These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.”—1 John 5:11-13
And let us turn, as a marker, to Colossians 1. This is very familiar—verse 27—where Paul is trying to tell the new Gentile Christians the basis of their Christ life.
He talks about a mystery that had been hidden in past ages but was now manifested to His saints:
“To whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
—Colossians 1:27
Christ in you, the hope of glory—the Christ life.
The Christ life is what you see in the book of Acts. The Christ life is growing. These saints were called disciples of the Way because they were marching to a different drummer. They were all agreed, and they were marching together, but they were marching as hearing something.
Their life was fresh, living, sacrificial, dangerous, noble, and glorious.
In the Christ life, you have the use of the name Jesus. And when you use the name of Jesus, there is power, healing, help, and saving power. That is the Christ life. They used the name of Jesus at the right time, in the right circumstances, and the Lord came through.
They had power in prayer, and the Word of God, it says, in the Christ life among the saints, increased and multiplied. The Word of God multiplied in the saints. The Christ life—what a wonderful life.
It is so different from what most Christians live. Most Christians live on the outside of things. Christianity is mostly outward: people telling you to do this and do that, and do not do that—a bunch of rules and stuff like that.
Outsiders who are not believers can caricature Christians pretty well, because they are very predictable. Everybody looks the same, dresses the same, talks the same. There is always a very outward thing.
My wife and I had a Russian family staying with us at our cottage in the Poconos in Pennsylvania. Three things converged in the woods there that were very interesting.
It happened to be a weekend when Orthodox Jews came up from Philadelphia and took over the hotel right next to our house. They take over the whole hotel. Now, they are Orthodox Jews, so they cannot do any work on the holy days, or they would be breaking the laws.
Before they get there, they take the latches off all the doors so people do not have to turn the latch, because that is work. They also set the elevator up so that it stops on every floor, opens and closes, goes to the next floor, opens and closes—all day long, all night long. One, two, three, four, five, seven, eight, nine, ten, nine, eight, seven, eight, nine—right, right, right, right down—because if they push a button, oh, God forbid.
They have all these little legalistic things they do. They bring in kosher chefs, kick out the regular chefs, have their own staff, and have their own food, because they are doing everything and do not want to say they have done anything wrong.
It is like God is looking down and saying, “Oh, look at those guys. They are being holy. They are not pushing buttons.” I cannot get over how people think God is tricked.
My wife was reading a novel about turn-of-the-century New York City. The Jewish bakers hated to go through all the rigmarole of the week of unleavened bread, where you had to shoo out all leaven and all the flour in your house. Well, that is a catastrophe for a baker.
So what they did on the day before the Feast of Unleavened Bread—this is true—is that the Jewish baker sold his bakery to an Arab for one week and then bought it back at the end of the week. And God looked out: “He is a good Jew. He has no bakery with leaven.”
You know, what are we doing? Christians are just as bad.
So we went down to Amish country, but these Russians had never seen that before. We were in an Amish house, and the girl gave a lecture: “Well, you know, I cannot have…” The girls have only two things of clothing—but actually nowadays they have a closet; do not tell anybody.
They are not allowed to use electricity. They cannot drive a car or use anything with gasoline. But when the women want to sew something, they go down to a place where they can sew on an electric machine. Then, just before they get through, they go back and use their little pedal machine to finish up. And God looks down: “Oh, what a holy sewer.”
I cannot get over how people think God is tricked. Then the guy who cannot use a car uses a horse and buggy—clip-clop, clip-clop. The guy wants to go somewhere, so he calls a cab, because you can ride in somebody else’s car. You just cannot have one.
My Russian friend had gone up to Syracuse the Sunday before, where he spoke in a Slavic Pentecostal church. As he was getting ready to leave, the man taking him said, “Taras, would you put on a jacket, please?”
“Is it a jacket?” Taras is bigger than Jim—about six foot six, a big guy. He said, “Yeah, you see, because we believe that men should not show their arms with a short-sleeved shirt. It is unholy.” I am not even going to tell you what the women had to wear.
But Taras said, when he went down to Amish country, it was the first click he had: “Just like Amish.”
This is Christianity: people trying to do their best, trying to be their best, but it is all external. Where is that Christ life? How did it get so disjointed? It started out as Christ life, and it became Christianity.
If you are part of that weak and diluted-down brew called Christianity, get to the Christ life.
How did it get so disjointed and disconnected? Well, let us go back, because we have to go back to God’s purpose in creation to understand what has gone wrong, even among Christians. Let us turn to Psalm 8, a very familiar psalm. It talks about Jesus. It talks about man.
The starting point for understanding the Christ life is to ask the question David asked: What is man? That is the first place we need to go to understand what is going on here.
David writes:
“What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?
And the son of man, that Thou visitest him?
For Thou hast made him but little lower than God,
And crownest him with glory and honor.
Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands;
Thou hast put all things under his feet:
All sheep and oxen,
Yea, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
Whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.”—Psalm 8:4-8
What is man? David describes this amazing personage, full of glory and full of authority. The first thing he says is that man is lower than God—or lower than angels, depending on your translation. Of course, man is on this earth, flesh and blood, and there is a limitation to living on earth.
It is not like angels can kind of fluff around. I mean, I would have preferred to be an angel, so I could come up to Toronto and just go, “Whoop,” up in the air. Would it not be nice to cross the border and just say, “Excuse me”? Save a lot of time, you know what I mean, if you were an angel. They have the better shot when it comes to transportation.
But man is man. You are flesh and blood, and you are on this earth, so you are lower than the angels. Yet the very next statement is this: “My man, the man that I create, the man that I purpose to create, is crowned with glory.” A man crowned with glory—that was what man was supposed to be.
Now you are saying, “Well, that is what Jesus is.” That is right. But Jesus was the first man, and now God is looking for men—which means men and women—full of glory, men with authority over all the animals.
Last week, the little Russian girl went upstairs to her room, and suddenly we heard a shriek. I thought there were zombies or something. She was screaming, her dad ran upstairs, and it was a daddy longlegs. So much for authority over the beasts.
Well, what happened? What has gone wrong here? Man is supposed to say, “Sit still, spider. Kneel.” It has all been lost.
To understand this, we have to go all the way back to Genesis 1:26, with a few other places in Genesis 5 and Genesis 9. But one verse will do.
Here is the clincher, the thing that is really key:
“And God said, Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.”
—Genesis 1:26
There is a correspondence between God and man, and this makes absolutely all the difference as to what man is really supposed to be. This is God’s normal man. This is the way God created man to be.
Here is the key to the whole thing: man—that is you and me—from our very creation was meant to be indwelt by the living God.
You are not a normal man, according to God, unless you are indwelt by the Spirit of God. You were meant to have body, soul, and spirit.
Now, of course, you think, body, soul, and spirit—well, spirit is independent of God. It is part of who I am, and that is true. But that spirit is like a router that needs to be quickened by the life of the Holy Spirit.
So man was meant to be a dwelling place of God, to put it simply. That is why he had authority over all the animals, all the birds, and the fish.
Remember when Jesus said, “Okay, fish, come on up,” and John and Peter’s net was full? Well, He had authority over fish. Do you? Some of you cannot even eat fish, can you?
But that authority is derived. What do I mean by derived? Why did Jesus have such authority? He was a normal man. That is why He walked on earth: so we could see what a normal man is.
Why did He have authority? It was derived authority, because He was submitted to the Holy Spirit. What the Holy Spirit spoke to Him gave Him authority. When He spoke, things had to obey Him.
Here we are: body and soul. Your soul has your mind, your emotions, and your will. All of that should be energized by the Spirit of God. It was in Jesus’ case, and in David’s case when he faced Goliath. The Spirit energized his body and soul, and he fought gloriously and with authority.
But authority is derived, based on submission to the Holy Spirit. And glory is also derived. It is not as though we have glory in ourselves.
When the tabernacle was built and ordered perfectly, and every piece of furniture was in its place, the glory of God came down. There is a picture of what man is supposed to be: body and soul in order under God, living by that lampstand of the Spirit within, so that His glory shines in you.
Man is supposed to be glorious.
I am sorry I did not read Calvin for years, because I am not so hot on some of the TULIP doctrines of Calvinism and stuff. I always thought Calvin was a little bit of a religious prig. But when I started reading Calvin in more depth, I realized something Calvin has that I have never read in another theologian.
The reason he believes man has so totally fallen in depravity is because no one talks about the greatness and genius of mankind like John Calvin. Man was created to be a genius creation, unique in every way. Can you imagine? Filled with God, with body and soul reflecting God’s righteousness—the way man was meant to be.
As a matter of fact, let us talk about righteousness for just a minute. Think about glory. What did Paul say to the Gentiles? “Christ in you” is your hope of glory.
Now, I do not see any shinies yet. I see a couple of people who have got a little glow. But the shine comes as the Holy Spirit can come through you—fill your spirit, speak through your mouth, think through your mind, and will through your will.
Brothers and sisters, there is a goal there: to be a glorious son. It all has to do with rediscovering this creative center and allowing the Holy Spirit to get hold of that center for you.
Let us look at Romans 8:10. Here is something else in this line of thinking that we should add.
“And if Christ is in you, the body indeed is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness.”
—Romans 8:10
Did you notice all the “ifs”? “If you abide in Me, and I in you”—if, if, if, if. There is something to discover there. It is not automatic.
Now, even our righteousness is derived. Are there any righteous here? No, not one. God alone is righteous.
How many of you have been in my theology class and heard me explain what “God is righteous” means? It is fourfold. Any of you remember? I have only shared it twenty-two times in the last twenty-five years. Lord, please give them a mind, because I have forgotten.
God is righteous. It means four things, which is why He alone can be righteous.
All right, what human being here is going to claim to be all right, always right, always does right, and always makes it right? Nobody.
But guess what? If Christ Jesus lives in you, His Spirit makes you righteous. In other words, by His Spirit, you actually start doing things right. You start thinking right and living right.
There are these righteous acts that you do as you are being prepared to be the bride. They come out of a life within, expressed through your soul and out through your body. But the whole key is that inward, hidden life deep within.
That is why we go to Hebrews 2, where the writer quotes Psalm 8. He asks, “What is man?”—a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor, with authority over all the animals.
Then, in Hebrews 2:9, he says:
“But we behold Him who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor.”
—Hebrews 2:9
We do see Jesus: the first Son to do everything right; the first Son through whom the glory shines; the first Son to whom all power and authority are given. This is the first man through, but He is not to be the last man through. He wants to bring many sons to glory.
This involves a process that starts at the heart of your life, in your spirit, where His Spirit comes and wants to lead you into all the truth of this.
Only Jesus is glorious, authoritative, and righteous in every way. God perfectly shines through Him. John said, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us … and we beheld His glory” even while He was on earth.
Now you and I have this same kind of challenge ahead. But the first thing I want you to see is that man is made up of body and soul, but in his spirit he is meant to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. That is what makes man different from animals.
Animals have body and soul, but they do not have a spirit. They are hardwired with instinct. You can train your little puppy, your cute little tiger, and your killer whale, and they will listen to you most of the time—but they are hardwired by instinct.
One day you will be swimming in the ocean with a killer whale, and he will be all friendly, taking you for a ride. Then he will say, “Hey, you know, I think I will take you down twenty thousand leagues.” Then people say, “I cannot understand it.”
People say, “Oh, look at that little tiger. It is so cute.” You stay away. He is hardwired by instinct. You may tame him and say, “Here, I have got to feed you Cheerios. You do not need to eat meat anymore.” You can fool it for a while, but when they smell meat, they are going for you.
You are different from an animal. Do not let these biology guys kid you about this. You are not hardwired by instinct. You are meant to follow the life of the Spirit of God. That makes you completely different.
All right, now we have to talk about the contrast: the results, because man is a sinner. Let us turn to 1 Corinthians 2:14.
“Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged.”
—1 Corinthians 2:14
This “natural man” is literally, in Greek, the soulish man. So now we have the normal man. Who is the normal man? He has a body and a soul fired by the Holy Spirit inside his spirit. That is normal man. He is glorious, full of authority, and he does righteousness.
Now the natural man is fired by the soul. His spirit is not functioning in a living way. Because we have sinned, our spirit has died. We rely on our souls—our gut, as we call it; our instincts. But it is your mind, your emotions, and your will working through your body.
This is what Paul calls the natural man: what a man does by nature. He says, “I know what I have done. I have my rights. I am doing good. I am helping others. I am going to heaven.”
Dead men say a lot of things, but he is just a natural man, a soulish man. He does not have the Holy Spirit, nor his spirit alive in him, to know truth from falsehood. He is living in a kind of darkness, and everything he does is an action out of self.
If you mention things about the Spirit, which Paul does throughout 1 Corinthians 2, the natural man does not understand. “What are you talking about—Spirit? That is foolishness.” Paul says, “No, it is wisdom from God. Do you know what God has prepared for those who love Him?” “Ah, foolishness. I know what God has prepared for us. I am making a million dollars.”
Man thinks spiritual things are foolishness. If they are religious at all, they say, “Give me some rules. Get all that spiritual mumbo-jumbo out of here. Give me the rules. How many times do I have to go to church? How much do I have to give? Give it to me. Come on—rules, rules.”
“I want to live a good outward Christian life. Do not bother me with this matter of the Holy Spirit leading you. That is just a whole bunch of baloney.”
They have no idea how much God is offended by our self-life. Christians do not either. We do so much out of ourselves, and we think it is righteousness. Actually, God says, “Sorry. It did not start with Me. You have gone your own way.”
All actions become self-righteous, and we work out of darkness. That is why, when we get saved, it is so important to turn to Ephesians 4. Something very important happens to us that enables us to put aside the old man and put on the new man.
There is a verse between putting off the old man and putting on the new man in Ephesians 4—verse 23:
“And that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”
—Ephesians 4:23
The key to leaving the old man and living out of the new man is that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Something has to be renewed.
Do not be conformed to this world. Do not let your mind be conformed to this world, but let it be transformed; let it be renewed, that you might know what the will of God is.
There is a darkness we have to come out of. As our minds are transformed, we realize, “Whoa, the Spirit is saying. The Spirit is saying. The Spirit is leading me into all truth.” Jesus said, “I am going to send the Holy Spirit in you. He is going to lead you into all truth.”
Sure enough, light comes and you see: “I need to take that step. The Holy Spirit is telling me.” It is a whole other life, instigated by the Holy Spirit within.
You might say, “Well now, why is man made this way?” God is a genius Creator. He created you just the way He wants you, and you are created absolutely dependent upon the Holy Spirit. Do you know that?
To really live—to live the Christ life and live in freedom—you have to be absolutely dependent upon the Holy Spirit. That is the way He made you to tick.
You can say, “How come an iPhone needs a battery?” Well, it just does. Unless you are going to plug it into the wall, then you always have to make calls by the wall. An iPhone has a battery because that is the way it was made. Man needs the Holy Spirit because that is the way man was made.
We cannot tick properly unless we have the Holy Spirit. The reason is larger, if you grasp the larger thing.
God’s idea in creation was a big explosion of love, where God created a universe so that everything in the universe could manifest the glory of God and the wisdom of God. Even the stars of heaven and the animals are there to manifest something of God.
But then He put His centerpiece into His creation when He created man. He said, “Now man is going to be My centerpiece, because here is a man, flesh and blood, just like the animals and creatures of this world, and yet this creature is totally different because he has a body and a soul, but he has My Spirit.”
“Go in there in that garden, Adam, and eat all the life you want, because it is life that you need—the tree of life, the Spirit of life. That is what you need. That is what will make you glorious. That is what will make you a man.”
God’s created purpose for man was wonderful. He was to be an outward tabernacle for God to shine His glory. You and I are to be the tabernacle of God here on earth. That is exactly why we were created.
In the larger scheme of things, all the earth one day would reflect the glory of God. But man is the centerpiece, and of course Jesus, the Son of God, is to be the centerpiece of that.
Yet this is a whole other story. Christianity today has lost this life of Christ within. It is an outward thing so often. It has lost its vital connection.
Christianity is like a new Judaism, where we tell people, “Okay, now you are saved. Now do the best you can. Here are some rules. You do this. Try, try.”
There is a famous woman who wrote, “Give of your best to the Master, give of the strength of your youth.” You know that song? Wonderful song. But you should know that the woman who wrote that song came to the end of herself and let the Holy Spirit rule in her life.
When she tells you to give your best to the Master, she is not saying, “Give the best of your soulishness, of your human zeal.” It is you as a living sacrifice, with the Holy Spirit in you. Give that to the Master and let Him use you.
The famous devotional book by Oswald Chambers is My Utmost for His Highest. Do not dare try to serve God and please God by your utmost—your utmost energy. But we all try.
Nobody learned that lesson more than Oswald Chambers, who wrote that book. He came to nothing until the Holy Spirit filled his life. He could not give any utmost. He could not even give puny for His highest.
God is so high. God is so wonderful. You cannot give Him your utmost until the Holy Spirit comes into your life and begins to change that thing. Then you find you can give your utmost for His highest.
We latch onto human activity and human intention: “Imitate Jesus.” When churches are built, they are built according to models.
Church planting today is another word for apostles. They even change the vocabulary. They build according to certain models. I remember back in the Jesus Movement days in California, some saints decided that God wanted all Christians to live communally in a commune—share all you have in common, share your car, your everything, your pajamas.
It was a disaster. You cannot live as one unless you are filled with the Holy Spirit, or you will be blown apart with divisions, fights, and all this stuff. So forget starting a Toronto commune. It is not going to work out.
Here is the fact. Let us get the bad news solidly before us: Romans 14:23.
“But he that doubteth is condemned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith; and whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”
—Romans 14:23
Christians do a whole lot of things that have nothing to do with faith. They are trying to do something. Here is the problem: the problem with doing right when you are doing it on your own is that it always ends up wrong. Doing right ends up being wrong.
I am for you doing right. I am not saying go out and murder somebody or raise havoc. I am glad there are people in this world trying to do right, even though they are doing it by outward circumstances and for the praise of men.
My father was saved when he was forty-eight years old. He was a psychiatrist, and everybody thought he was living nobly and everything. But the first thing he said to me after he got saved was, “You know something, Dana? I have been a psychiatrist now for more than twenty years, and people have applauded me for my help to humanity and all that.”
“But the fact of the matter is, I have done it all for myself, for my own ego and praise. Those days are over. I have given God my practice if He wants to take it away.”
That is somebody who realized that even things that look good depend on what the source really is.
Even people who try to do things right end up doing things wrong. But for most Christians, it is because they do not know any better. All they have is this kind of shadow Christianity. They do not know the Christ life.
It is kind of like a portion of Scripture I like, in Deuteronomy 12. All right, let us turn to that Scripture. Keep turning the Scriptures. I hear the leaves flying, and now I hear everybody asleep. Come on—Scripture. The only way I know you are awake is if I hear the angel wings fluttering—just the pages.
Moses is telling the children of Israel about their life beforehand and what their life should be like once they get into the Promised Land. He says in verses 8 and 9:
“Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes;
for ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the Lord your God giveth you.”—Deuteronomy 12:8-9
There is a typical Christian right there: just like the book of Judges, doing right in your own eyes. “I think I should go to church. I think I should give nine percent. I think I should do this. I think I should do that.”
Moses says, “You shall not do what we are doing here today, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes, for you have not as yet come to the resting place and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you.”
You are acting this way because you are walking in the wilderness. You do not know your inheritance and the life that is yours. It is the same experience with Christians. They are doing the best they can; they are doing what is right in their own eyes. But it is not right.
They are meant to have life—an inheritance in Christ. They are meant to walk into Jordan, into the rest of faith, and into the Promised Land, where we live out of this life of Christ within.
Christ in you, the hope of glory. There is your starting place. There is where the connection needs to be made: down there in your spirit.
Christianity can be very weary and discouraging. Christianity’s best batteries wear out. People get discouraged and depressed.
Thirty-five percent now of ministers who have present posts in various churches are leaving the ministry, because Protestant Christianity is losing its cachet in the United States. I cannot speak for Canada.
It is so rewardless and tedious. When you are a pastor, so many things are heaped on you—expectations, this and that. They are doing the best they can, and they are burning out left and right. Burning out—thirty-five percent, ladies and gentlemen.
They do not know where they are living. They do not know what to do. They do not know how to change. They have a kind of culture idea. So many churches have a culture idea: “This is our model. This is the way we have done it for years. This is the way we are going to do it.”
It is so dead. You can sense the inertia, this whole thing trying to grind out another week. You feel like the elders up front are trying to get some kind of generator going.
Today we have the modern church. As old things die, a guy comes up with a new gimmick. Maybe it is a hot rock band, with lights, mirrors, and smoke. People say, “Hey, now this is cool. This is really living.” No, it is not. It is just some man’s idea of how to win your attention for a while.
Believe me, once you have rock-band smoke and mirrors for ten years, you will say, “Okay, what is next?”
Man comes up with all different kinds of things. I was a Baptist pastor for a while, and they had all kinds of cunning things. Baptist pastors said, “Come on Sunday to church,” and they would bring by a Brinks armored truck with a million dollars in cash and put it up in the stadium stands. Everybody could see a million bucks.
Now people have seen a million bucks, so they do not come anymore. They have to come up with a new gimmick: “We are going to have a raffle for a car,” whatever it is.
Christianity is going the way of the dodo.
The Christ life is the way into fullness, life, joy, and becoming what we were created to be from the beginning.
Why do we not go back to the beginning, as it were, finally? Let us go to John 3 and see how it all begins. I know this is kindergarten stuff, but hey, we are in kindergarten.
John 3, verses 3 through 8. Here is Nicodemus. Of course, he was a Jew, but for the sake of comparison I am going to say he was a good Christian—until he met the Christ life. He did not know what to do.
“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus saith unto Him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born anew.
The wind bloweth where it will, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”—John 3:3-8
The first thing that has to happen in the life of anybody who is going to enter into the Christ life at all is that you have to be born again by the Spirit. This life needs to come into you.
“Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal zoe.” Now, you know the word zoe. It is a popular girl’s name nowadays, is it not? Anybody here named Zoe? All right, let us name somebody Zoe.
Zoe is a Greek word for life, but it is not animal life, as in Latin animus. It is not psychological life, as in psyche, soul life. This is zoe life.
“I came that you might have life, and have it abundantly”—zoe life. That makes all the difference. Have you got a zoe in you? Are you born again? Do you know the zoe in you?
It is a life from heaven. You are reading 1 John, so let us look at 1 John for just a second. Oh, the zoe life—what a wonderful life.
All that John talks about from the beginning of chapter 1 is the Word of zoe. The Word of zoe came down, and we touched Him and handled Him and understood that He is the zoe.
The Father and the Son have had zoe from eternity, because zoe is uncreated life. It has never been created and never had a beginning. It has always been there.
Zoe life has now been given to us as well, so we can fellowship with the Father and the Son through this divine zoe forever and ever and ever. As soon as we come into that life, it is eternal life. It never perishes. It never goes away.
Have you entered into the zoe yet? Something happens inside. It is a life. Something makes a difference.
Let us look at one more passage in John 14. I realize this is a difficult concept to really grab hold of, because we are talking about Christ in me and Christ in you. To be honest with you, the disciples did not understand it either, if that is any consolation to you.
Jesus was getting ready to go away. Of course, He was going to Calvary, then up from the grave and up to the Father’s throne. He was going away.
The disciples had been with Him for about three years, or less, depending on when they joined Him. But they were so outward. They did not understand this inward dynamic of the Spirit of life at the center of your being.
When Jesus said, “I am going away,” all they could think about was outward things. “Where, where, where are You going?” He said, “I am going to build a house for you.” “Where is the house? Where is the house?”
He said, “Well, you know the way.” They said, “No, no, we do not know the way. What are You talking about? Where is it—Kalamazoo? Detroit, Michigan? Where? Where is the house? How many stories are on the building?”
Jesus was talking about something spiritual. All the disciples could grasp was something outward. That is all they were used to. They were used to following and walking with the outward Jesus.
Jesus had to astound them with things they would only understand later. It was time for Jesus really to go. How do you make the change? How do you get these disciples of milk and babies into a life in the Spirit?
Here is what He says in John 14:16: “I am going away, but I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.”
“Now wait a minute. You have been our Helper. Why do we need another Helper?” “Because I am going away.” “Oh, well, okay. Who is this Helper?” “The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him or know Him. But you know Him, because He abides with you.”
“You remember when you went and preached in the village and cast out demons, how you felt the Spirit with you? Remember that Spirit—how He helped you? It was almost like Me being with you, even though I sent you out two by two and was not with you.”
“But the Spirit—you remember how He was with you? Now He has been with you, and notice the end of verse 17: He will be in you.”
The disciples all said together, “What? Duh? Who?” They had hardly any idea what He was talking about. “I am going away, but I am leaving somebody with you.” “Okay.”
Let us go through this carefully. On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit came down upon them, and people could see the outward life of the Spirit. But what the disciples experienced was the inward connection of the Holy Spirit within them, which became the director of their lives for the rest of their Christ life.
Jesus says, “The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him or know Him; but you know Him because He abides with you, and He will be in you.” Then Jesus immediately says, just to confuse them, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
What does He mean? “I am going away. I am sending the Spirit. He is coming to you, so I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you.” Wait a minute—which One is coming?
He goes on a little more in verse 19: “After a little while, the world will not see Me anymore.” Well, no wonder—Jesus is going up to heaven. “But you will see Me.” Wait a minute. How will we see You, Jesus? You say You are going away.
Do you not realize the Holy Spirit shows us Jesus? Peter, James, and John saw Jesus when the Holy Spirit was there. They heard Jesus’ voice when the Holy Spirit spoke. They remembered Jesus. They knew Jesus was with them, even though He said He had gone away, and indeed He had.
Not only that: “You will see Me.” Then He says, “Because I live, you will live also.” “Wait a minute, I am already alive.” Oh, no, you are not. Because I live in you, you shall live.
There is a whole new source of life in you. I am coming, and He is coming to dwell in you and give you life. You are operating out of a new system now.
If you are not sufficiently confused, let us go on. Verse 20: “In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.” You should put this on the back of your shirts. You have that “abide in Me, and I in you” thing on the front; here is the back of the shirt.
“And that day you will know: I am in My Father, you are in Me, and I am in you.” Duh. Huh?
Here is the circle of the Father. He says, “Now I am in the Father. Now you are in Me. Now I am in you.” “Wait a minute. You were up here.” “No, but you are—”
Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you understand the mystery. You are dealing with the life of God, and it means basically this: it is not just the Spirit who comes to dwell in you; Christ comes to dwell in you. It is not just Christ who comes to dwell in you; it is the Father who comes to dwell in you.
You cannot separate Them. They are three amigos. You do not get the Father without the Son. You do not get the Son without the Spirit. If you grieve the Spirit, the Father is grieved and the Son is grieved. It is a package deal.
But it is an inward thing, so it is called spiritual. Others cannot see it, but you can see it, because in that day you are going to be engulfed in a life that you are going to be in, and it is going to be in you.
Then verse 21 says:
“He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself unto him.”
—John 14:21
Wait a minute. The Father is going to be there disclosing Himself, but Jesus is going to be there disclosing Himself. Judas—not Iscariot—says in verse 22, “Huh?”
So Jesus says in verse 23:
“If a man love Me, he will keep My word: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.”
—John 14:23
Father and Jesus will make Their dwelling place in him. How? By the Holy Spirit. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: all living in you, and you living in Them.
This is a whole new life, but it has a whole new center. It is not for your life anymore to live out of your own soul, your own will, your own mind, and your own emotions.
Those things are strong, but now the wireless has come on, and your router is responding with pulsations—all the little dots. The Spirit is talking to you, coming through your soul and your body. It is a whole new life, but you have to follow the wireless connection.
You are made to live by the Spirit of God.
We have a great treasure within us, and Jesus shares it in such a profound way. You and I will never fully understand this thing, but I am telling you right now that God the Father lives in you.
He is the love aspect of the triangle. You remember 1 John 4:16? At the end it says:
“God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him.”
—1 John 4:16
That is talking about God the Father. Do you know God the Father lives in you? You need to start singing that song, “Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary,” because God the Father is living in you, and He is the love part of it.
Jesus is living in you, and He is the relational One in you. Right now, in this present time, what you need is to get to know Jesus better and better and better and better. Through getting to know Jesus, you get to know the Father and you get to know the Spirit.
The Spirit is designated as the functional Indweller. So you have a loving Indweller. Who is that? The Father. Whenever you need love, bingo—the Father is right there.
The Son, Jesus, is the relational Indweller. He is the One saying, “Come unto Me. Talk to Me. Talk to Me. I will talk to you. Get to know Me.” We need to get to know Jesus. He is the indwelling Jesus, the relational Jesus.
Then there is the functional Indweller, the Holy Spirit—God Himself—keeping you, quickening you, restraining you, organizing circumstances, and doing all kinds of things in your inner life to produce in you a normal man.
Let us look again at these verses, because I have two questions. In 1 John 5:11, here is my first very basic, simple question. I do not know if you understand what I am saying.
Maybe you live in Walla Walla Land, where everything is Christianity—externals, trying to be good, trying to do this, trying to do that. La, la, la. Or maybe you are living the Christ life and on the borders of the Christ life.
We have to start at the beginning. Here is the verse to think about in 1 John 5:11:
“And the witness is this, that God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life.”—1 John 5:11-12
Now, my question to you is this: Do you have the zoe?
Or let me change it, because it is the same question: “He who has the Son has the zoe.” Do you have the Son?
You may not remember the date and the hour that you got saved, but do you know the Son of God lives in you now? Can you sense that life in there? It is zoe.
If you have the Son, it does not matter how you got the Son—whether it was at a revival, quietly in your room while you were reading Scripture, or when your mom was praying for you. But at some point, the Son came in.
Here is the testimony: He who has the Son has zoe. Once you have zoe, brothers and sisters, you are in, because that is the life that needs to begin to come up through your soul and your body.
It is the life of God Himself—the zoe. He came to give you abundant zoe. Do you have the zoe? It is a very important question.
There is a second question similar to it, in 2 Corinthians 13:5:
“Try your own selves, whether ye are in the faith; prove your own selves. Or know ye not as to your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you? unless indeed ye be reprobate.”
—2 Corinthians 13:5
Test yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. All right, are you ready for the test?
“Examine yourselves, or do you not recognize this about yourselves: that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” Is Jesus Christ in you?
Paul says, “Test yourself on this.” Do not be blasé about this whole question. Do not say, “Oh, well, I believed the sinner’s prayer,” or, “I came forward one time,” or, “I was baptized when I was thirteen.” None of that—a bunch of baloney—unless you have Jesus.
Test yourselves. Examine yourselves. This is very important. I do not want anybody to be fooled into thinking you are going to heaven because you made some kind of decision way back when, if you cannot tell me that you have Jesus Christ in you.
I say, “Do you have zoe?” If you do not have zoe, all this stuff we are talking about this week—of you abiding in Him and Him abiding in you—amounts to nothing. You will not get anywhere with it.
It starts with this: Is Jesus Christ in you? Have you asked Him in? Is He, the Son of God, in you? Do you have His zoe?
If you do, then do not look back. Let us march forward and let the Holy Spirit come through our lives—body, soul, and spirit—fully sanctified for all His glorious purposes.
But this is a test and a starting point, and I want you to ask your heart. I am not trying to scare somebody out of salvation. I do not want you to be scared.
I want you to ask yourself where you really stand, because I see too many phony Christians. I do not mean here.
I see so many Christians—you look at their eyes and it seems like the lights are not even on. Talk about Jesus: they do not really care about Jesus. Talk about spiritual things: they do not really care about spiritual things.
They just want a career, they want to get married, they want to make money. That is all they want. It is just totally in themselves.
I tell you what: if you have Jesus in your life, there is something bubbling in you. Even if you are struggling with your faith right now, and struggling because of some sin in your life, that does not mean Jesus is not in your life.
It means you have got a fight on your hands, and He is going to win, because He does all things right.
The first question is: Is Jesus in you? Paul says, “Test yourself.” Do not be fooled by some outward thing right now.
In 2 Corinthians, Paul is talking to people who were fooled by false apostles who were very charismatic externally. Paul says, “Do you not realize what is really going on here? Do you realize things are evaluated spiritually and not outwardly?”
In our lives, what is your life? Something outward? Or have you got a core right there of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in your life—and zoe?
Thank God for zoe. We are going to talk about it some more next time, Lord willing.
So, Lord, we just want to bring this matter to You. As all of us gather for prayer tonight and tomorrow morning for devotions, as we carry on through this week, Lord, if there is anybody here who does not have that zoe life—that life from heaven, that life that quickens, opens our eyes, enables us to breathe spiritually, and sense spiritual things—O Lord, convict them.
Give them the faith to come to Christ, believe in the Son of God, and receive that testimony of His life within them. Lord, do not let anybody escape in this matter that You are trying to touch and convict, even in these days.
For those who have just barely begun, we want to stop and give You thanks that You have placed the life in us that is destined to grow into glorious sonship.
O Lord, we pray that You will help us learn to release that life and to do all that glorifies Your name. We pray in Jesus’ name.