We could have another word of prayer, just for a second.
Lord, we know You have placed Your life in earthen vessels. For Your life and the light that is in You to come forth, the vessel needs to be broken. Lord, shatter this vessel. Lord, that in weakness, that in inability, that in humility, Your life might break through and bring life and light from Your Word to Your people, that You would have what You are after in us. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Well, Enoch certainly started us off on a good note this morning, bringing us the power to see the power released by faith—Jesus bringing His life into a situation, in the circumstances of this world, which He does for each one of us, by the way, as His life is able to overcome.
And then Josh reminded us of God’s demonstration of His love: that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. Really, that is kind of the whole message, but I am going to expand on it because there is something I think the Lord wants us to see.
His dying for us made the way open for us to enter into a relationship which God purposed for Himself.
There are many names related to this thing we refer to as the new creation in Christ Jesus. Jesus Himself called it the kingdom of God, and the Old Testament refers to it as the New Jerusalem or Zion.
What is it? What is its nature? Does it have a definable character? These are all questions I hope to bring some light into as I share what I have been shown in reading and studying, and as the Lord has opened His Word to me.
My hope is that the Lord will gain ground in His kingdom, that we could see more clearly the length, the breadth, the width, and the depth of His love for us, and the fullness of God that is in Jesus Christ.
These terms—new creation, New Jerusalem, kingdom of God, Zion, and others less mentioned—attempt to give us a picture, to define the nature and character of a spiritual relationship between God and man.
This relationship is made effective for us by the finished work of Jesus on the cross and the ratification of the new covenant by raising Jesus from the dead. God Himself ratified the new covenant by raising His Son from the dead.
Jesus not only was raised from the dead, but He was seated on the throne beside God the Father. Oh, He is there. That finished work.
And I am going to share more in a little bit. Right now, we see this relationship that God has for us is both now and future.
This new creation, in some senses, we see dimly. We do not have a lot of clarity on it, and yet this life is in us. It is distorted by physical being, by the corruption that is in this world. But in the new creation, the new creation is incorruptible. It cannot be corrupted because it is all Christ.
In that finished work that He did on the cross, His perfect life was sacrificed that we might have His perfect life live in us, and that we by faith might live in Him—in a union between man and God that was made possible only by the faithfulness of our Lord Jesus and His finishing the work that He was sent to do.
You know, God finished His work in the garden. Jesus finished His work on the cross. And the Holy Spirit is completing the final work in each one of us as we walk with the Lord Jesus.
So God, in the foundation of the world, in the counsel of the Godhead, made a plan—a plan for God to have a relationship with a created being. But that created being was to be just like Him.
He cannot really have a relationship with something that is not like Him. And in the garden, in the very beginning, He had a relationship with Adam. That is what He was after, and I will talk about that in a minute.
So this plan has been made known to us. We have come to know about what God’s plan is for us by His revelation in the garden, in the Old Testament, in the life of Christ on the earth through the Gospels, and in the rest of the New Testament through the working of the Holy Spirit.
So, in a lot of different places, we see pictures of this new creation that God wants for us to enter into, and He has made it possible for us.
God has left the shadows and types of His plan which, when seen in the context of the book of Hebrews, reveal the absolutely wonderful and complete work of establishing and finishing a living relationship between God and man through the person and work of the Son of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
So I do not have time to go through all of the Old Testament, Isaiah, and the Psalms, where there are a lot of references. I just mention that in passing.
But we need to become aware of the immense importance of apprehending what God has done by sending His Son to accomplish His purpose of having a relationship with a people. We need to apprehend that. When we see the effort that God went to, and what He has done to make it possible for us to have a relationship with Himself, it is awesome.
That relationship is with a people—a people after His own heart, a people who have been conformed into the image of Christ, who have His nature and character, with whom He might be able to truly fellowship in oneness.
Well, what I want to share is a tall order, and we really just need the Holy Spirit to give us light. I need Him to help me in the sharing and help us all in the understanding and seeing, so that we can see with spiritual eyes.
When we see the Lord as He is, not what our religious self-life wants Him to be, then we will be transformed into the image of Christ, which I believe is what we all desire in our hearts.
This thought came to me: if we could, would we just flip a switch that would flip us over into the image of Christ, to be like Him? Would we take that easy route?
If we did, we would feel like an alien had taken over our body because we would not even know what had happened. It would not be us being transformed; it would be something different. But thank God, that is not the way He did it.
Christ laid His life down on a cross, finished His work, and left us an instruction to follow Him.
We follow Him with the cross in us, as we take care of our ideas, our preferences, our likes, our dislikes—all of the things about our self that make us very self-centered. And we realize that Jesus was not self-centered.
Jesus was thinking about us the whole time. His life was to accomplish the Lord’s work on the cross, that His Father might have a relationship with a peculiar people.
And He sends the Holy Spirit to lead us and asks us to surrender our self-life to death by way of His cross.
We get to choose the kingdom we serve. And may God, by His piercing light, help us to choose to spend more time actively fellowshipping, working, praying, and living in the manifest life of Christ in this new creation we have been given.
Now, I am going to go through the revelation of this new creation in three views, with the third view having two parts: the original uncorrupted garden, the life of Christ in the four Gospels, and the revelation of the new creation after Pentecost.
In that last part, there are two main themes: Christ in us, the hope of glory; and we have been placed in Christ. We died with Him and were raised with Him, and are in Him, seated beside the throne of God.
In Genesis, beginning at the last verse of Chapter 1 and throughout Chapter 2, there are a number of verses which describe the condition of the creation after the sixth day.
Genesis 1:31
And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.
And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Then, going on into Chapter 2, we see in verses 8, 15, and 19 that God planted a garden, placed man into that garden, and gave him some instruction for cultivating it, keeping it, and naming all the animals.
In verses 24 and 25, we see the result of God giving a wife to Adam: for this cause, man is to leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. They are to become one flesh.
Now, this is notable as to the union of a man and wife, as to being one with each other. In Christian marriage, we know that we are one objectively at the time of marriage. But this oneness must be worked out experientially so that the oneness is also known subjectively.
This process is part of our experience that works His life into us. We learn how to die, really, because we have to lay things down. We have to learn about each other, to become so one that we really know each other. God’s desire is for us to seek that same oneness with Him.
So the garden was given to man. In this garden, he and God were to have relationship and fellowship. Man had some responsibility in bringing this garden, with all its potential, into a fullness that did not exist at the time of its planting.
Think about that just for a minute. It was perfect, but it was planted. There had been no harvest. Man entered into that garden to cultivate it, to take care of the plants, to watch it grow up to a harvest, and to keep it.
Now, he did not know what he was keeping it from, but he was instructed to keep it. We find out later he was supposed to keep it from those outside influences that had come down to attack it. And we know that in that way he failed.
Now, in this view of the actual physical creation, how is it a picture of the new creation? There are several things which we can say about the garden being a picture, and there are some significant differences too.
Just as the first creation was perfect at the time of creation, so is the new creation perfect. Christ has finished the work He was sent to do, and God raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand. Man did nothing.
Man did not have to do anything in the new creation either. He did not do anything in the old. It was a gift. Man had simply to believe that Jesus was Lord and be saved; then, in the new creation, he was placed into it.
Every provision for man in the first creation was provided. Everything in the new creation has been provided through Jesus Christ. The first creation had the opportunity to choose to eat from the tree of life. In the second creation, the entrance into the creation is the tree of life. It is Jesus, provided for us.
In the old, the first creation was corruptible and dependent on man. The new creation is incorruptible and depends only on Jesus Christ, and on His life in us being manifested.
Only those who have the life of Christ within may be able to manifest the attributes of the new creation. This is the secret which was hidden in parables: only those who could see could understand.
So from the beginning, working through the Bible, God and man reveal many aspects of the new creation. Hebrews is a very good place to start looking, as we have noticed many times through our study of Hebrews over the last few months. It is all through Hebrews.
So that garden is just a picture, but from the very beginning, the whole Bible is pointing us to see what God is doing. It kind of confirms in our heart that He knew what He was doing, because we can look back over a long period of time to see the things He did and to see how they relate to us coming into a new creation, a new relationship, where we are like Him.
Now, I skipped the Psalms and Isaiah, but I just wanted to use that from the old. There are plenty of other references. But now I would like to talk about Christ when He was on the earth.
There are some Scriptures that He said which reveal more about this kingdom, and this kingdom being not just some later point, but being related to a relationship through Him now.
I am going to be sharing verses. They are not in a particular order, and I am going to read them. I am kind of glad they are not being put up, because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
So, for the Holy Spirit to be able to really speak, I am just trying to speak the Word of God in such a way that light comes and there is a dawning of this thing that He has done for us. And it will change us.
Matthew 12:28
But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then is the kingdom of God come upon you.
In the presence of Jesus, when He, by the life within Himself, takes the authority given Him by the Father and exercises it, the kingdom of God is manifested to those who see it.
If you see it when the Lord is operating in a brother or sister’s life, and you see that life manifested, it is a testimony of the life of Christ. When you see someone who is completely changed from a heathen to a godly person over the course of a lifetime, you know that there is a life in that person that is way different than the life he came into this world with.
You know, Jesus said to His disciples that they would cast out demons too. But they did not do it quite yet. But after the Holy Spirit came, they had the same Christ-life in them, and that same Christ-life is in us who believe.
Whenever that life manifests itself, it is visible to everyone around us.
Mark 1:15
The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe in the gospel.
This is the entrance to the kingdom—the new creation. Well, the kingdom is at hand. All that is needed is to repent and believe that Jesus is the Son of God who was sent to save the world.
Jesus made the way. Faith in Him is all it takes. Do you believe He is who He said He was? Did the Holy Spirit enlighten your heart to know that that is a true fact?
If you know that is true and believe it in your heart, the entrance to the kingdom of heaven is yours.
Mark 9:1
Truly I say unto you, There are some here of them that stand by, who shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God come with power.
Now, I am sure that probably confused a lot of folks at the time He said it, and it would not surprise me if there were folks today who do not understand it.
But the point He was trying to make is that this new kingdom, the manifestation of the life of Christ, and that power of the Holy Spirit being allowed to manifest the life of Christ, occurred on the day and ever after the day of Pentecost.
So on that day, those who had not died yet—which was not a very long time—could see the kingdom of God. They could see the operating, manifest life of Christ because it was operating through the disciples.
You see it very clearly in the second chapter of Acts, when Peter preaches by the power of the Holy Spirit. I mean, that brother is quoting Scripture. That brother had gone from casting lots to figure out who was supposed to be the disciple to preaching the gospel from the Old Testament by the power of the Holy Spirit. What a change. What a change.
Matthew 13:33
The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened.
Now, I do not want to break anyone’s theology about leaven, but I have to tell you that this leaven right here is not bad. There are a lot of places where leaven is bad, but this leaven right here is teaching us about how the kingdom of God grows.
You know, if you have ever baked bread with yeast, there is a process that takes place. The yeast is entered in, and the yeast is touching the host, the flour. As it touches that, it is extracting sugar. It takes the sugar out of the flour and changes the flour from flour to bread—or bread dough, as it were.
But there are two by-products: alcohol and carbon dioxide. Well, the carbon dioxide is what makes little holes in the bread. So how is that like the kingdom of God?
Well, the Christ-life in you, by the Holy Spirit, is the yeast. When your life of Christ touches an unbeliever, and that unbeliever sees that life of Christ and sees that it is so radically different from what they think about, they realize that life is worth having. They want that life, and all of a sudden they are attracted to that life. And they get saved.
So what happens immediately? Immediately, that soul is saved by that encounter with the Holy Spirit, with God Himself, through you. And so there is another soul.
Well, you still have other souls that you are touching that are going to be converted. But then there are a whole bunch of souls touching that new one, and now that life starts pouring through that new one to others.
This growth process continues until the Holy Spirit is no longer here and the Lord has come back.
So, as long as we are here, present in this life, there is the opportunity for the kingdom of heaven to be manifested in the spreading of the gospel, in the sharing of the good news, in the release of the life of Christ, in the transforming work in us that affects those around us to the point that the whole loaf is converted.
That is really what God’s purpose is. He wants a people after His own heart, and He has provided every mechanism for it. His life is the life that He wants us to have, and He has given it to us. Will we enter into it?
That particular verse is the verse that I spent some time asking the Lord about a couple of years ago, and it really started me looking into this kingdom: What is this?
Because when He shared it, I knew about yeast, and so it made sense. He made it living to me that this is what is going on. This kingdom is now.
A lot of times, I was thinking that the kingdom was some far-off thing that was going to happen someday in the sweet by and by, but that is not true. This life of Christ is now. It is living. It is active. It is working. And it will continue to work if we get out of the way.
Mark 9:47
And if thine eye cause thee to stumble, cast it out: it is good for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell.
Well, literally, I am sure that is not to be taken literally. I think there is a different message. As I looked at it, this is what the Lord gave me, and if it helps, that is good. But I would like to share it.
If your earthly visions and thoughts cause you to stumble, throw them out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye on the things of God than having double-minded vision and be cast into hell.
Well, I am not writing the Bible. I am just saying that is what He gave me. If it helps, that is good. But it made sense to me when He shared that with me. He just gave it to me. Sometimes I just write them down.
Mark 4:11
Unto you is given the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all things are done in parables.
The ability to see spiritually is a miracle every time it happens. God has to do something divine, something that is not an experience of our natural man, for us to see.
Sometimes we sit in darkness because we have never been told that our blindness can be healed by the Lord opening our eyes. Sometimes we are blinded by the enemy.
Whatever the case, if the desire of your heart is to see Jesus, then the God who delights in revealing His Son, in His time, will open our eyes. He knows when we are ready, and He knows His timing. Jesus will be there at the right time to open our eyes.
It is a miracle every time we see more of Jesus because it is divine revelation. Maybe through an instrument of the Lord who is a gifted speaker; it may be another believer; it may be a book; it may be the Bible.
But the Lord is able to open your eyes to see things that others do not see. Maybe they just do not have a heart to seek to see.
But He says that if we seek, we will find Him. We need to have hearts that seek Him, and seeking Him means spending time looking.
If you have ever lost anything and it took you more than a couple of minutes to find it, did you just let it go and say, “No, I am not going to worry about it”? Or did you spend the time looking for it until you found out where you put it?
Well, God is not hidden. He wants to be found. But we have to do a little searching sometimes, and we have to ask Him to open our eyes.
Mark 14:25
Verily I say unto you, I will no more drink of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.
Here is Jesus one more time proclaiming resurrection life. Resurrection in the new covenant is ratified and proven effective by the Father. Where Jesus is, the kingdom of God is right there.
That resurrection life overcomes death, despair, and destruction. That overcoming life is ours.
Luke 9:11
But the multitudes perceiving it followed Him: and He welcomed them, and spake to them of the kingdom of God, and them that had need of healing He cured.
Jesus’ teaching on the kingdom is teaching about Himself, what is available, and what will be available to them. But at the same time, He is showing them that His life has power over the sickness of sin and the corruption that came into this world.
Healing is a sign that Jesus is alive and well. His life heals. If you have been saved, you have been healed from the corruption of this world. You have been healed from the penalty of sin and death.
Salvation comes when you believe on Jesus, and all the things that were coming to you are gone because you are a new creature, a new creation. This is a new life. It is a new kingdom. It is a different kingdom. It is a unique kingdom. It is divine.
And in that kingdom, there is a relationship that is so immense and so beyond that I believe we will spend an eternity learning about it.
As I wrap up, the kingdom revealed after Pentecost has a few Scriptures that I think we will find very useful. Many of them in the first part are from Hebrews, and the rest are from Ephesians—both books that we are intimately aware of and read often.
But there are some verses that reveal the new creation, the new kingdom, and the New Jerusalem, and I think I will share those.
As we review these verses, bear in mind that this is yours objectively by faith, believing the Word of God; and this is all yours experientially, or subjectively, by faith in living in the light of this Word.
When you have that light, your life changes because you live in obedience to what you have seen—not because it becomes a law, but because it becomes your life. You realize that this is your life. This is who you are. When that light comes, we are changed because that light is Jesus.
Hebrews 3:6
But Christ as a Son, over His house; whose house are we, if we hold fast our boldness and the glorying of our hope firm unto the end.
We are His house. We have become the temple of God in earthen vessels, containing the light of the world.
Hebrews 4:9-10
There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God.
For he that is entered into His rest hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.
We enter His rest. His work is finished. We have a rest. We have a very comforting, peaceful rest.
When Jesus rested in the boat and that storm came, Jesus was resting. The disciples lost their rest. They did not have the faith to know everything was going to be okay. If you are with Jesus, you are okay.
Well, that life of Christ, when that storm comes, will be there for you. You might get shaken to the core, but the root holds. It might be loosened a bit. Your faith may be slipping a little, but it holds.
It holds because the life of Christ wins. And the root that was loosened becomes stronger. So the next storm that comes, it will not loosen quite as quickly.
Over the history of our lifetime, as we go through the trials of this life, that relationship of being rooted with Christ becomes stronger and stronger. Our confidence is stronger, our certainty is stronger, and our faith is stronger because we have experientially beheld what He has done.
It becomes ours, and we hang on to it, because once you have something from the Lord Jesus, it cannot be taken away from you. In the end, it will not be shaken, and it will not be burned up.
What you have of the life of Christ in you, that He has shown you, that has become you, is in the kingdom for eternity. You may be translated into a spiritual body, but these things Christ has given you are yours. He has given them to you, made them real to you, and you have lived your life because of them, because they have changed you. Those things go on. They press through.
Hebrews 5:10
Named of God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
The only point of that verse is to say it is a new order. It is a new life. Melchizedek had no past, and Jesus, the High Priest, is of a new order.
Hebrews 9:11-12, 14-15
But Christ having come a high priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation,
nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.
How much more shall the blood of Christ, Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
And for this cause He is the mediator of a new covenant.
I am sure in the study of Hebrews you gave this careful consideration, but in light of the new creation—the perfect tabernacle, you and me, forgiven of sins, our conscience cleansed from dead works—here we see this new creation manifested in the people of God.
Now, if this is true in the fullest extent, how should we serve the living God? I think we should take note of this question and ask Him next time we have a prayer meeting, and see what He says. How should we serve the living God?
I think He will tell us. If the Spirit reveals what Christ has done here in a living, spiritual way, we will be a very different people from those around us in the world.
We will have the fruit of the Spirit, noted in Galatians, as the expression of us individually and also in every meeting we have joined together with His people—no matter if they do not believe exactly like we do, or we do not believe exactly like they do. The fruit of the Spirit: they will be known as God’s children.
Hebrews 10:19-25
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus,
by the way which He dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh;
and having a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed with pure water.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not; for He is faithful that promised:
and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works;
not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day drawing nigh.
The new and living way is the way of the new creation—not by works performed in flesh, but performed by Jesus through the flesh, as we are led by the Spirit in the works He has prepared for us to walk in.
Now, if there appears in front of you an opportunity for good work, an opportunity to love, I really do not think that we are to simply encourage someone else to do it. It says to encourage one another in love and good works.
Well, we could all encourage each other and nothing would be done. So I think we really have to enter into seeing that it is not just a message for us to encourage one another, but we ought to get to it also.
The Spirit here is the expression of the life of Christ in encouraging each other and entering ourselves into love and good works.
Hebrews 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto Him; for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that seek after Him.
I must say this again and again: the entrance to the new creation, and the growth in revelation, character, and nature, is all by faith.
If you do not believe God answers prayer, you will have a hard time entering into prayer. If you do not believe that He delights in revealing Himself to His children, you will have a hard time seeking Him.
But if you believe that He rewards those who seek Him, then you will act on that. That faith will become action in your life. You will spend that time. You will say, “I do not have to watch that television show,” or, “I do not have to do the dishes right now. I want to seek the Lord this morning.” We will get the dishes later.
And in the last one, if you do not believe that He is, well, I hope you will consider what the Spirit has been speaking to you and ask Him into your heart, confessing Jesus Christ as Lord.
You know, it all revolves around that first simple entrance into the kingdom: you believe that He is who He said He is.
But everything else, all along this road, is entered into by faith. It is made real by the working of the life of Christ in us.
So, even after a while, that life of Christ becomes evident. Our faith is really strengthened because we see what the life has done in this brother and that sister as we go through our life together.
We are encouraged because we see that the Lord has not given up on the least of us. I mean, there are those who are light-years ahead of me, but yet His life did not give up on me.
He held me until it was time to show me something, and it changed me. It is inexplicable. You know, the Lord loved me.
So, if you have the opportunity to choose Jesus, there is a kingdom waiting for you. There is a new creation waiting for you. God has made a way for you to go through every storm of life.
And He brings you safely home to Himself, because He is the goal.
Hebrews 12:22-24
But ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels,
to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than that of Abel.
Well, right there: the New Jerusalem, Zion, all of what we are talking about. We went through that Friday night, and we kind of went through it a little faster than I would have wanted to because I had really spent some time there.
This is a time for a short commercial break. T. Austin-Sparks’ book Ye Are Come Unto Zion gives a really detailed picture of the Old Testament revealing the New Testament, revealing this new creation.
Sparks did a great job, and he has done several books on Zion. It became one of the things that he really felt the church needed to know, and he spent a lot of time revealing it.
But in that revelation, he is also an encouragement. He wrote this little devotional called The Daily Open Window. Karen and I got together in the morning this week—Thursday, Friday, and Saturday—and we read those devotionals together.
Every one of those three readings was such an encouragement to my heart because they were spot on to what we are talking about. They are just short devotionals, but they are spot on about what the Lord is really doing.
If you need a devotional, Steve might have one or two. Rosemary bought a whole bunch of them and had them everywhere, and she gave them to everybody she knew because she loved that book. God bless her.
If he runs out, get with me, and I can tell you they are free. You can just order them and he will send them to you. It is just an awesome devotional. So anyway, so much for that.
Hebrews 13:14
For we have not here an abiding city, but we seek after the city which is to come.
So, while aspects of the city are present now—the things of Christ are eternal to us—the revealed city in its fullness is yet to come. It is something we do look forward to.
Ephesians 1:18
Having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.
This new creation is His inheritance. And when we see the riches of the glory, we will also know what is the hope of His calling. He gets the glory, and we are glorified in Him.
This perfect people, who have been transformed into the image and likeness of His Son—these are the people after God’s own heart.
Yes, we struggle now. Yes, it is dim. But there is a glory. There is a glory in seeing the lives of people transformed. There is a glory in seeing the Lord Jesus meet someone right where they are.
There is a glory that becomes revealed when you see the life of Christ in action—working, loving, sharing. It is all His inheritance. It is glorious.
Ephesians 2:6, 10
And raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them.
Here, in plain language, we see that we are in Christ. We have a calling, a purpose, that in the Spirit is functioning now, directed by the Holy Spirit, with our position in heaven in view.
Ephesians 2:15-16, 20-21
Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; that He might create in Himself of the two one new man, so making peace;
and might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.
Being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief corner stone;
in Whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord.
Ephesians 3:14-19
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father,
from Whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward man;
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God.
There are four dimensions because the spiritual is just as real as the physical, but it is measured in depth.
It took a while for me to get this. I asked the Lord about it a lot, and it dawned on me that this new creation does not exist in our physical world of physical things that are measured in length and height.
But there is a spiritual reality. There is a new creation that, in the fullness of God, encompasses it all. That fullness is in Christ, and we are in Christ. That fullness of God is being filled up.
So the kingdom of God is the manifestation of Christ’s life being revealed in us to the world. And more than that, it is His future state, where Christ’s life continues to be revealed to His people.
Because of our physical presence here, the life is seen. It is dim, partial, and contradictory, but when it is seen, it captures people. It is beautiful, desirable, and wonderful.
There is an unspeakable joy that is present even when the circumstances of this world would seem otherwise. Because this is proven true to each one of us individually over our lifetime, from the point of salvation to now, we cannot help but press on.
When we look at this from the self-life perspective, our view is despair, death, and destruction. But when we look at it from the kingdom point of view, and we see Jesus getting the glory of overcoming life, the power of the gospel is like that.
The fruit of the Spirit is the manifestation of the life of Christ in us and results from Christ being given throne in our heart. As He increases in us and we decrease in running the show, He begins to shine through.
I am reminded of the Scripture: we are earthen vessels which contain the light of the world. Remember the story of Gideon. The light only shone through when the vessel which contained it was broken.
There is only one way for this reality to come out. A truly surrendered life given to our Lord Jesus will have a power from heaven that is unknown to this world. A surrendered life is a life of relationship.
In this new creation, God has made a way for us to have supernatural strength to weather the storm. In some cases, the power will calm the storm. In others, it will bring us safely to shore, though we may not have anything left but the shirt on our back.
But we press on because this life in us has a purpose He has given us. When the storm comes, it might knock us all the way down, but we get back up. We do not give up because we cannot give up.
This life propels us on. This life keeps us and protects us. Yet we do still go through the storms of life, but He is with us, and we are grounded and rooted in Him.
Do we know yet the prize that awaits us as Christ? Do we look around us in despair at the conditions we see? Look up. Our deliverance is at hand.
Ask the Father, in Jesus’ name, to let you see His Son. He delights in revealing Him. You see, the reality of the new creation is Christ, and the fullness of God is in Him. You are in Him by faith.
We were freely given the gift of eternal life. The free gift of God is Christ in us, and we in Him. By faith you are saved.
Each of the promises of God that we are taught by the Holy Spirit is also ours by faith. We cannot obtain the benefit of any promise until our life is lived out believing that the One who promises is able to deliver that which was promised.
Are we living for what we can have and do in this world, or do we see what has been prepared for us to walk in as the result of our study, work, and fellowship, bringing an increase in the kingdom of God?
These are the things that we should consider. So we think about an introduction to the kingdom of God that we have been brought into.
The Lord has done it all. He has made every provision for us to have all that He wants, and He has given it. He has given us Himself.
What we will at least do is ask Him to help us be willing to be broken, help us be willing to take up the cross, and be willing to spend the time seeking Him. He will meet us. He will meet us in every way.
Because He has already really done it, and He wants us to have that relationship that the Father so desired from the foundation of the world. Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, we do thank You for Your Word. We pray, Lord, that Your Word would accomplish the work for which You sent it. By faith, I received it. By faith, I deliver it. And by faith, Lord, may You have the kingdom, the new creation that You created. In Jesus’ name, amen.