Present at the Birth (Part 2): Viewing Through His Eyes

It is not always easy to understand what the “all” is, or what to do to react to it. That’s something within our spirits, and it is a real test, because there are major questions that come up: Is this something I’m supposed to fight or accept? Is this something that, you know, some bum comes in and says, “I’m going to live with you.” Kicks off his shoes, lies down on your sofa, and you say, All things are from God. And there he is. You’re going to keep him for the rest of your life and support him. I don’t know. I think if I were you, I’d talk to some of the other brothers. But all things are from him….at least for the time you got him there in your house, he came there; it is from Him.

Alright, all things are from him. What else? What’s the rest of the verse? All things are through Him. That means that everything that ever happened passed through Him before they got to you. The passage to you was God. From Him, through Him. He permitted them into your life. If you please, they are spiritual, for they have passed through God. The content of them has the mark of God on them. If you have eyes to see, whatever it is that is in your life, it passed through God to get to you. The means was God. The origin was God. The means was God.

Now then, here’s the most incredible thing. All things are to Him. Now, can you follow me? All this is not negative; some of it’s positive. We think immediately of the negative, but there are the positives. Here is God. It originates with Him. It comes from Him. It comes to you with His fingerprints on it. It is a spiritual thing. It is His permission. It’s His origin. And its passage is from Him. It comes into your life, and something happens because of something that was from Him and through Him. Something happens to you because it was from Him and through Him, and guess what happens? Whatever that thing is that happens returns to Him. Yeah, say hallelujah, brother, sister, say hallelujah, do you know what it means it means? It begins with Him, it goes to you, and it comes back to Him as glory to Him. He is glorified in whatever it was that went out from Him, was by His permission and granting, and it is returned to Him as glory for Him.

Now, brothers and sisters, it is this kind of a mindset that I would bring to this fellowship of believers, that all things are from Him, through Him, by Him, and to Him. Hallelujah. Say Amen. Now, are you willing to be baptized into such a body of believers who look up and say, Lord, no arrows pointing toward me. Everything pointing toward You; from You; through You; to You. Stay with that verse. It will help you. Stay with Job chapter 1. It will help you. And Job chapter last—whatever that is, chapter 251 or something like that. You know the conclusion of Job? The conclusion of Job is—if you’ve ever read The Inward Journey, you know what the conclusion to Job is—and that is that when God made a crocodile, He did not ask your opinion on how to do it. And He did not care to have your opinion. And if you had offered it, He would not have listened. And how a crocodile is made was not affected by you nor your needs. Anytime you look at a crocodile, you just think, God did that without me. He didn’t consult me, and I didn’t make him; He did it all without me. And brother, everything that comes into your life is like that crocodile. He didn’t consult you, and like Job, who did not know what was happening in the heavens until the day he died; he didn’t know. You’re not going to know either. But all you can do is stand back and say, Lord, all things are from You, through You, and to You. Say it with me. All things are from You, through You, and to You. Praise the Lord.

Well, we’re just going to look at some of the God-reference things in life. Okay, let me see what else I have here. Let’s—oh, there are just so many. We’re going to stay here all night long. Maybe I should get you to help me. Let’s go to 2nd Corinthians. 2nd Corinthians 15. And just—we’ll read these really quickly. Make that 5:15. Alright. And He died for all, you and me, that’s the fellowship of the gospel. That we should live no longer—no longer live unto themselves—ourselves—but for Him who died and rose again. You no longer live for yourself, but for Him. I don’t want you to look at that in a negative or some sort of punishing way, that He was so good to save you and forgive you of your sins, therefore you’re in debt to Him forever. Not at all. If you have risen from the dead, then the inclination that is there and that ought to be cultivated in the house of God is that you live unto Him. That you live unto Him because you are alive from the dead. We’ll just keep going through these.

I like verse 13, too. If I am beside myself, who’s it for? If I am beside myself, it is for God. Again, brothers, I just wish to encourage you to think in terms you have not before. That it is for God. That is for God. That it is unto Him. Let’s go to 1st Corinthians 1:30. And by the way, for those of you…I’m going to tell you what we’re going to do when this conference is over. You all know what we’re going to do when this conference is over? We’re going to meet…I’m going to be here for a while…we’re going to meet two, three times a week, probably. We’ll meet in such a way that half the fellowship can come one night, and half the fellowship can come the other night. And we’re going to start with the book of Galatians. Always the book of Galatians. But we’ll take one book a night, and we will try to find whatever verses or passages we can that are unto Him and not unto us. And then I’m going to show you what to do with them, because, brothers and sisters, they need to sink deep into your soul.

We’re running out of time here, and I don’t know what to do about this. I guess we’re going to save this for the next message. We may have to extend this conference a couple of weeks. I tell you what—let’s go to Ephesians. Ephesians 3, verse 2. If indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you, that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery. And by referring to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men, but has now been revealed to His holy sent ones and prophets in spirit, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ through the gospel.

Now, skip down with me just a little. Verse 8. To me, the very least of all the holy ones, this grace was given to preach to you the unfathomable riches of Christ and to bring to light what is the fellowship or the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be known to the rulers and the authorities in heavenly places—through whom? Through whom?

I want to read that and emphasize it because I want you to know that things come through not only Him, but through His bride. And the mystery is made known on this earth by means of—say it. Now, I’m not using the word church—by His bride. Say it—by His bride. Alright, which was according to the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulation on your behalf, for they are what? They are what? Here is a reference away from you that is really unique. Paul says, “I suffer; you get glory.” Now that’s wonderful. But now, can you turn that around and know that not just apostles suffer? Do you suffer? Will you suffer? Alright, then, who will get glory? Say it—just anything, it doesn’t matter. The church? Alright, if you suffer, who will get glory from that? Know what this passage says. It may be, if you suffer—who gets glory? What does the verse say? If I, Paul—the tribulation I’m going through—it is for your glory. Brother, if you suffer, I’m going to get glory from that. How do you feel about that?

You know something? A little brother came to visit us, and he didn’t know it at the time, but that town was just about to bury me. A few days before he got here, the fellowship that I was a part of was the headlines on the front of the newspaper. And there were editorials. Can you believe this was happening in America? Editorials demanding that we be removed from the community. Little brother got up and told his story. I didn’t suffer what he went through, but brother, I tell you, his tribulation rebounded to my glory. When he left, I didn’t care if syrup went to a dollar a sop. As the saying goes, I could have charged hell with a water pistol.

And last June, I saw Brother Prem again. I was going through it. I was not in the middle of it this time, toward the end of it. And Prem sat down and shared with me the story he told this morning of how he lost a building in downtown Kathmandu. That was his suffering. I had just lost—almost exactly in the same situation, almost identical—just another country, half a world away. It was his pain. It was my glory. It was healing for me in his suffering. Isn’t that wonderful? Praise the Lord. You’re going to suffer, and I’m going to be strengthened. I’m going to suffer, and you’re going to be strengthened. And my tribulation will turn out for your glory, and your suffering will turn out for my glory. And the church will get glory from your pain and tribulation. Are you willing to make that kind of a church the place where you live and breathe and have your being and die? This is the only invitation I’m giving.

Let’s look at Colossians. It’ll help us in just a minute. For in Him all things are created—both in the heavens and on earth, visible or invisible—whether thrones or dominions or rules or authorities—for all things have been created—how? Through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the ecclesia. And He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything, for it was the Father’s good pleasure. All things have been created through Him. Now, here. Let me take this right here. This is created. This is created. Where did it come from? It came through Christ. Okay, let’s look a little bit further. And it was created for whom? For Christ. What are you running around here wanting Christ to be for you? You were created for Him. Oh, brothers, can you change everything? That was created through Christ. That was created for Christ. Then why don’t you come to that which He is head of, the body? And let Him have that which came to Him and through Him. I’m coming to the body because I am for Him.