Colossians Part 3

Now, let’s say this is Christ. Okay, now, I’m a member of His body, and I am one with Him. Are you following me now? Leon, you are one with Christ, and you’re part of His body, and you’re one with Him. Does that make me one with Leon? The answer is yes. Leon, Oh, did I say Leon? Oh, I did that. I must have some obsession with Leon somewhere.  If Leo is one with Christ, I am one with Christ—Leo and I are one, we are one. And you only have to go to the book of John to find this out. Now then, I have a spirit. My spirit is really made up of two elements, my spirit and Christ’s spirit, and they become so much one that they are one. Now that’s also in the New Testament. 1 Corinthians: I have become, and you have become, one spirit with Christ, just one spirit. I have a spirit that was raised from the dead, but as soon as that spirit was raised from the dead, Jesus Christ came in and made Himself one with my spirit.

Now then, I have a spirit, it’s one with the Lord’s spirit, and this is how He relates to me. Maybe I need another brother. Brother, would you just step up here, too? I hate to get you off the floor there, but would you get just a little bit over there now? Would you put your hand on Pablo? And would you put your hand on Pablo? Okay, now then, I have a spirit that is one with Christ. Leo has a spirit that is one with Christ. And I get these two brothers mixed up sometimes. Is this Jose? All right. Oh yeah. Jose is one with Christ; he is also one spirit with Christ. You put enough of us around the Lord Jesus Christ, as we are here, you have a lot of people who have a spirit, and they share it with Christ, but you put those people together in Christ and one with Christ, and you have a corporate functioning spirit.

Now that is a mystery. You will rarely ever see that one spirit functioning in an identical way. But I’ll give you a couple of illustrations. Are you with me here so far? Are you? It doesn’t matter whether you agree with me. Do you understand what I’m saying? Nobody is stopping me now. Okay, would you sit down? A body of believers come into a room. They are going to have a meeting, and everybody in that room has a spirit. But there comes a moment when there is also one spirit in that room.

Now, have you ever been in a meeting in which the Lord took over? And I mean, everybody knew it was something incredible and something special. Do you understand what I’m saying? Have you ever had that happen to you? It’s awesome. And there’s nobody in there being left out. Everybody’s swept up into this glorious moment. Now, how many of you have had an experience like that in your life? The first time it ever happened to me was August 1st, 1950. I was 17 years old. I didn’t forget.  It was absolutely unbelievable, and it hit every one of us at one time. Now, have you had an experience like this, and you know it? Is it that small?

Okay, now then, have you ever been in a brother’s meeting when you have been dealing with a problem and you couldn’t get that problem resolved, when suddenly everybody in it knew the answer? Have you ever had that experience? You have not had that experience. You’re checking one another out here. You have had that experience. Have you ever had an experience when one brother spoke, and everybody knew instantly it was the Lord? This is what I mean by the church having a spirit, and I mean not an atmosphere, but she has a spirit. Brothers and sisters, if we had more time to be together, if I could have that month-long conference in which a meeting, not a conference, in which I held your feet to the fire for one month, got your spirits really tuned and functioning, and mine with you, you would find much easier to understand what a church what it means when a church has one spirit.

When a group of people is spending a great deal of time before the Lord, they become, in some ways, not all, of one mind and one spirit, and this is scriptural to have one mind and one spirit. This will not happen to us many times in our lives when it’s really evident, but we need to walk in the knowledge that the church of Jesus Christ has a spirit and that spirit knows the Lord and knows the Lord’s mind and come and work with him in that relationship. That’s about as good as I can do for you, brother. Okay, we’ve had two questions so far, and they’re both excellent. Does anybody want to say something? Alright. You sure? Would you feel free to interrupt me when I’m talking? You do, all right.

Today is December 28^th, evening, 1996. We stand on the threshold of a new year. We had a meeting on Friday night, December 27th. We had a meeting this morning, December 28th morning, and now we have a meeting tonight, December 28^th night. When you make those tapes labeled, will you not just put December 28th, you put morning or evening? And when you do put Gene Edwards, and don’t just put Gene Edwards, but put Chicago. And then, besides that, of course, I know you’re running out of space, put the word Colossians. And if you can figure out which part of Colossians we’re in, you can write that on there, but I don’t even know which part of Colossians we are in.

Now, then, who has part two? Second half of Colossians 2. Where are you? I think they stayed home. Alright, the first thing I asked him was if he had memorized it when I walked in here. Who’s the other person? All right, come on up here. Which one of you has, the Phillips? Okay, come up here and give us the Phillips. I want everybody to know I’m not standing here so I can get my mug on this. I’m standing here because I have the microphone. Yes, sir. Go right ahead.

Audience Member: Okay. I memorized it, and I forgot, and I started. So, I’ll just read it.

You sure you don’t want to look up every once in a while and impress us? Alright.

Audience Member: Okay, I wish you could understand how deep my anxiety is for you and for those in Laodicea and for all who have never met me. How I longed that you may be encouraged. How I long that you may be encouraged and find out more and more how strong the bonds of Christian love are. How I long for you to grow more certain in your knowledge and more sure in your grasp of God himself. May your spiritual experience become richer as you see more fully God’s great secret: Christ Himself. For it is in Him and in Him alone that many will find all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I write like this to prevent you from being led astray by someone or others’ attractive arguments. For though I am a long way away from you in body, in spirit I am by your side, watching like a proud father, the solid steadfastness of your faith in Christ Jesus. Just as you received Christ, so go on living in Him in simple faith, grow out of Him as a plant grows out of the soil it is planted in, becoming more and more sure of the faith as you were taught, and your lives will overflow with joy and thankfulness. Be careful that no one spoils your faith through intellectualism or high-sounding nonsense. Such stuff is at best founded on men’s idea of the nature of the world and disregards Christ. Yet it is in Him that God gives a full and complete expression of Himself within the physical limits that He set Himself in Christ. Moreover, your own completeness is only realized in Him who is the authority over all authority, the supreme power over all powers. In Christ, you were circumcised, not by any physical act, but by being set free from the sins of the flesh by virtue of Christ’s circumcision. You, so to speak, share in that just as in baptism you shared in His death and in Him are sharing the miracle of rising again to new life in all this because of your faith in the tremendous power of God who raised Christ from the dead.

Okay, thank you, brother, come on up. Now we’re going to find out which is superior, man or woman. (laughter)