Church History Conference Part 3 – The Christian Mind: Older Than Creation and Found in Christ

Well, I cannot remember the future, can I? I am caught in space, something measurable. I am caught in time, something measurable, but that isn’t correct. I am the most unique creature in the universe. I am not a dog. I have not just body and soul. Nor am I God, who is only spirit. I am a hybrid of two realms. Are you hearing me? I am a hybrid of two realms. I have a soul and a body like a dog, but I have a spirit like unto an angel or even God. I have a spirit. I want you to remember this, brother. When God created man, man’s habitat was not to be this planet. Man’s natural habitat is not this planet. Neither is man’s natural habitat the heavens. Well, where in the world is it then? Man’s natural habitat was in a place where both heaven and earth overlapped. It matched the nature of man. The natural habitat of man is a garden, where out of the heavens there is a Tree. Where out of the heavens there is the River of Life. And yet, where things are visible, but where things invisible can be seen. That’s my place. That’s my destination. That’s my habitat. And I, as a believer, am headed once more for that garden someday, and that garden is not the heavens. That garden is not the earth. That garden has become a city. And the Tree of Life of heaven and the River of Life of heaven are both in that garden, now become a city, and that city is headed toward earth. It is a place where both realms meet and overlap, and that’s where I belong.

Now, in the light of that, listen to this. In the light of that scripture, of that fact, listen to the Scripture. All the riches of heavenly places, all the riches of the other realm are yours in Christ Jesus. I, too, have a spirit. Yes, Einstein. It cannot be understood why my body and my soul cannot remember the future, but my God remembers the future. My God is Spirit, and He envelops all creation from beginning to end. He is the All that surrounds eternity and time, but He has made me one-third spirit, and one-third of me has the right to be free of time and space. And it is possible for me, by entering into spiritual realms, TO THEIR FELLOWSHIP with Him, and sup with Him and lay hold of His mind.

10 years ago, I had an experience. I thought, well, this is it. I hung around. I didn’t die. Found out another way to fellowship with the Lord, and another way to fellowship with the Lord, and another way to join in that fellowship, and another and another. And a few days ago, just before I left home, I found another. Last night, I got into bed and did something I’ve never done before in my life. You want to hear what I did? There aren’t any stones down there on the front row, are there? I fellowshipped with the Lord next year. Not about next year. I fellowshipped with the Lord…next year. Now, my body didn’t leave the room. Neither did my soul, but I have a spirit that has the right to access with the Father and the Son. And they are free of time and space. I will tell you what I did. I just sat there next year. This is a nice place. What was the stock market doing, Gene? No, you don’t understand. There’s no doctrine in the Godhead. There are no physical events. Brothers and sisters, I can tell you what’s going on inside of God. It’s the fellowship of the Father and the Son and whoever else intrudes. So, I just sat there, next year, beautiful peaceful place, and I said, “Lord, I really thank You for that conference we held last year in Richmond. I did not know what Your purpose was then. Now I understand a little better, and it’s really wonderful. Lord, I praise Your name for what You did.”

Well, I want you to know that next year will be better than now. I said amen, I got in bed, and went to sleep. I can’t explain it to you. Well, you say, Gene, this is horrible, you shouldn’t do that. No, you shouldn’t do it because you don’t want to. I can do it because I have the liberty to. I’m going to tell you something else you can do. I’m talking very, very practically about spiritual things. How many of you really feel guilty a lot? Will you raise your hand? Just really, you have a problem with guilt. Come on. Come on. Let’s be honest. Come on. Come on. Okay. Alright. Let me try it again. I’ll try it another way. How many of you have a problem with low self-esteem? Let me see that. Oh, you big bunch of liars. You don’t believe your spirit’s free of time and space. You don’t believe that.

Now, this is a simple thing. I would encourage you to do it once. Just see how it works before you throw any stones. When did the Lord choose you to be His own? Say it really loudly. Okay. Now, the things I’m saying to you right now, very small things, but I’m trying to get your attention. Well, have you ever gone there? Well, let me describe it to you. I know I want to describe it to you.

There’s God, and there’s nothing else, and He’s All and within Him is the Son. The glory, the purity, is inexplicable. And deep within the Son: a mystery beyond mysteries. There is a place, as you pass by it, you come to a place of such holiness, and such crystal purity as human eyes cannot see, human mind cannot comprehend, and certainly would never describe. A place deep inside Christ. This glorious, holy thing deep within the very center of His Godhead, in the very center of His being. You know what it is? That’s you. That’s you marked off in Christ before the foundation of the ages. Well, I’d recommend sometimes just lean back in your chair, and you go get inside of Him and say, “Lord,” there in that place and say, “Lord, thank You for having marked me off and chosen me here. I thank You, Lord, that You have done this. Praise to Your name.”

I am trying to get you out of your Western way right now. I really want to encourage you to know that the brothers and sisters in the first century had a walk with Him that was both awesome and shattering. I’m going to mention two other things. I think the point I’m making is that there’s so much you can do to fellowship with the Lord, not in a thinking way, not in a doctrinal way, but in a living encounter. Someone gave me a precious gift the other day. It is Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all together, and it’s entitled The Autobiography of Jesus Christ. There’s nothing unusual about it except that He has been turned to “I”, and the Lord tells his own story. Can you follow that? It’s the first four gospels, blended into one, written in the first person.

I sat down and just got really quiet before the Lord, and I opened that thing. Just done this once, and in the stillness of my heart, my spirit, you call anything you want to, I don’t know, but I have a little practice at this. I sat down and began to read, then listened, and it was earthshaking to watch it go from “He” to “I”. And my Lord just spoke and spoke and spoke. No doctrines, no thinking. A fellowship with Him. A fellowship, in here, of something simple and something pure.

I’m going to go a little bit further. I have a book that I value above all others I own. I’ve had it for 10 years now. I probably read more from that book than all the rest of the books I own put together in the last 10 years. It’s called “The Life of Christ in Stereo.” By the way, it’s published by Multnomah Press, in case you’re interested. It is Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John blended together, with no single word from any of those gospels missing. And I do not read it. Rather, this is what I do. I sit down with it. Sometimes I just don’t make it; in fact, most of the time I don’t, but sometimes I make it. Sometimes, by his mercy, I’ll just try to clarify this. I don’t always do this, but I’ll tell it this way. Before I open it, I say to myself, Gene, you’re not in here to learn anything, you’re not in here to open this and see what you’re supposed to do as a Christian. You’re not here to listen, be obedient, or get under conviction; you’re looking for something else. I don’t know if anyone, no one else has ever done this, but when I open it, and it’s the life of my Lord, I forget about what He’s talking about to these people, and I seek to discover what’s going on inside of Him with His Father. Do you follow me? Why did He say that as it relates to His Father? What’s going on inside of Him? I don’t try to study this thing. I sit there, look, and listen, and sometimes I walk away shaking to my foundations at what is going on inside my world with His Father.

I’ve been in all kinds of Christian meetings, some of the most varied, with the brothers and sisters I have lived with. I’m going to try to describe some meetings. They’re all very different. Our meetings never depend upon preaching. Our meetings don’t depend upon a leader. Our meetings depend upon an encounter with Jesus Christ in a living way, a very living thing in spirit. A real, honest-to-goodness head-on collision with Jesus Christ. Not a drudgery of some kind of prayer. I am talking about a fellowship with Him. I’ve had the privilege of sitting in meetings with maybe a little singing; I haven’t been to many of these, and I’ve watched virtually every brother and every sister in the room do nothing but talk about their, I would say, time with the Lord, but it’s more than that. It’s deeper than that—an encounter with Him, a fellowship with Jesus Christ, living, real, and now.

Brothers and sisters, I do not remember ever having fellowship with the Lord…maybe it’s happened…But I don’t ever remember having fellowship with the Lord and coming out of that with something to preach. I don’t ever remember coming away with some new understanding of doctrine. I don’t even remember coming out particularly with any new spiritual insight. I have simply met my Lord. And I’ve watched a body of people do this day after day and week after week until my presence became virtually irrelevant.

I don’t know where the fellowship with Jesus Christ was lost, but when we lost it, we lost the Christian mind. And we have regained it from time to time in that other, that third little line down there; from time to time, we’ve touched it and touched it again, and something glorious has happened, and the exaltation of Jesus Christ that comes out of it, and the absolutely being overwhelmed, and immersed by personally encountering Him has done these awesome things in church history. It starts with Christ. It starts somewhere in here. Not knowledge, not physical things, not things that relate to this planet or time, but an encounter with Him in other realms or in here or wherever you want to put it; an encounter in Him. I think if I have anything to say to you, what strikes me the most is the simplicity of it all. The total simplicity of it all.