The ONE Thing God Is After in You: Understanding Your True Identity in Christ

Yes brother? Yes, there is. We have space-time. It’s a little bit of a problem, but you and I are believers, and we can be liberated from space-time, and I’m trying to liberate you from space-time right now, to take upon you that which is always the status of God. He is free of space and time. And yes, that’s one of the things I’m seeking to do, brother, and you’ll get there, because your spirit is free. Your spirit is free. Your head’s not. Oh, brother, this thing is nailed to the ground and can’t move, and you are dimensional. There’s length, breadth, height, depth, and that’s all that you’ve got. But your spirit is not shackled by places or times, and I thank you for your question or your observation.

Okay, let me just make sure we reread the whole passage about what you used to be. Did we cover 11 and 12? Uncircumcised, separated from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins. You formally walked according…oh, let’s get down to the dirtiest part of this: the lust of your flesh and the desires of your flesh and your mind, and you were just, by nature, the children of someone called wrath.

Let’s go ahead and put the rest of it in here. You walked according to the way that Satan directed you. Now, that’s not an individual; that’s a course of the world itself, and you were but part of it. You must understand that Satan is in control of this world, and he is a prince of the air, and all of you walked according to his will; according to his control would be a better word. What else did we leave out here? You were following the lust and desires of your heart and your mind. Well, now you know what you’re thinking? Gene, I’m still walking according to the lusts and desires of my flesh. No, you’re not. If you were, we’d throw you out of here. Not you’re not, you just think you are. This comes back to that everlasting headache. You walk around feeling guilty even when you haven’t done anything wrong.

I have a friend who is a minister, and he asks everybody in his church how many of them had sinned that morning before they got to church. Every hand went up, and then he started asking them what they had done, and they had no idea whatsoever. They just knew that by 10 o’clock in the morning, they had really done something bad. They didn’t know what it was. Paul, once more, says, “Formerly, formerly, formerly, you walked this way.”

There’s a big difference between walking a certain way and having the things that tempt you. I’m not going to get into that. I just want you to know that the brothers and sisters, all five of you, maybe six or seven, who gather in Constance, do not walk this way anymore. Something happened to all of you when you were purchased; repossessed by his blood. Now I just want you to do one other thing before we leave this: I want you to hold on to the word “walk”, okay, and hold on to the word “works.” Okay? Two words: walking and working. Now then, I’m going to leave your second state, then tonight, we will come to your first state, not your second and not your present, but your first state, and I’m not talking to you as an individual. I am talking to you as a people.

Now, brother, sister, go back home and see one person. I am telling you, there is deliverance in being the body of Christ; not just being in the body of Christ, but being the body of Christ and having a corporate mind that understands. Now, let me just explain. Daniel is going to cheat on…he’s a bookkeeper, and he’s going to cheat on the books, and he’s going to take some money, and he’s going to get caught. Okay? Do you understand this, Daniel? Terrible. Now, sisters, I want you to listen to this, because what I’m about to say I don’t fully understand. That brother is part of Jesus Christ. I don’t mean, I didn’t say he’s part of the body of Christ or the church; I said he’s part of Christ. I’ve got verses that will prove that. He’s part of Christ. He is still delivered from his former state.

Now, if he keeps doing this, you may have to throw him out of the church, but remember that you might…I don’t know what people who run gymnasiums do. I have no idea. Go into the locker room and take some money out of people’s pockets, I have no idea. Gerard, I’ve forgotten what you do. What do you do? Okay. You cheat on tests, and you’re Swiss, and I’m ashamed of you. You cheat on tests. Are you still in school? You cheat on a test. I’m raising this issue right now without giving you a solution, but I’m raising it. I want you all to remember you’re still one person. This brother is still part of that Ecclesia, and I’m going to tell you something else: he’s still not walking in his former ways. He may have slipped back into them, but he’s not walking there, and the blood of Jesus Christ prevails in that brother’s life. I am going to tell you something else: he is going to be miserable. You know why he’s going to be miserable? Because the Holy Spirit dwells in all of you. I didn’t say the Holy Spirit dwells in him; the Holy Spirit dwells in all of you. There is no place better to walk than to walk in the church, in Christ, because when you are in her, who is in Him, it changes your relationship to sin and trespasses far more than if it is you, the individual, who has sinned against the Lord. It’s worse, Danielle, than it would ever be alone. Keep that in mind the next time you do your bookkeeping, brother, and when you see all that money sticking out of your pocket, and you don’t have enough to pay the rent for your gym, remember what I just said to you. I cannot explain, and I do not understand, but I am telling you that you are part of a living, breathing body, and there is safety, a surrounding that is so healthy for you, the Christian. I don’t want to dwell on that very long. I want to remind you that you are one person who is in Constance, who was formerly a son of wrath, a son of disobedience, and a follower of the world and under the dictates of Satan, and that’s what you formerly were until the blood of Jesus Christ came and redeemed you.

We have only begun to see. I really don’t want to stop here. I want to go to your first state, but we’ll do that tonight. Okay, now, folks, do you have any questions? Don’t stay in your former state, and if that’s where you are, get out of it. The best place you can go is to the body of Christ. Anybody got anything they want to say? And by the way, you can disagree with anything I said. You can question it. You can doubt it. It doesn’t bother me a bit. You want me to clarify anything? Okay, would you like me to once more give you the verses of your present…? Did we cover everything? Did I get 2:13? We also got 1:7, did we not in the process? Yes. Okay. I’m happy.

Now then, I want you to find your first state, and I’m going to tell you something. You have never been outside of your first state, even when you were in your second state. That’s because you were in your first estate before you were in your second state, and you can’t get out of your first state, no matter what your second state is, because your first state transcends space and time: your second state does not. And besides that, you are no longer in your second state. Let me see if you can find your first state. You want a hint? It’s in chapter one; we have been in chapter two. Yes, brother. Oh, yes. And why am I not surprised, Peter? I think that is absolutely correct. Yes.

I probably would have mentioned this Friday, but if you want to go ahead, that’s all right. I might have forgotten. Yes, but that, to me, raises a higher level, and that is that Epaphroditus could not minister these things without himself having touched a worker and touched the church. I don’t think that we handle these things outside the experience of the church. I would add one more word. I like the word truth, but I will use another word too. I hope to heaven this will never be truth to you; I hope it will be reality, and I will mean to see that it becomes reality to you.