Introduction to the Deeper Christian Life Part 2 (July 1988)

The Father gives the Son life; the Son has life and thereby lives. The Father loves the Son with the love of the Father; the Son returns the love that is the Father’s for Him. It all originates with the Father. Now then, if you can see that divine activity, what is the Son doing? He is receiving and returning. And then look at the Son living the Christian life by one other means. He is beholding His Father. I always, always, always behold the face of My Father. Incredible. Now, He didn’t just do that here on earth; He did that a long time ago in the eternals. Now wrap that all up, and you have the fellowship of the Godhead. The Father’s life to the Son, the Son returns that life to His Father and lives by means of it. The Father loves the Son; the Son takes that love and returns it to His Father. The Son beholding the Father as the Father beholds the Son. That is the fellowship of the Godhead. The communion, the fellowship, the love, that is the Christian life going on between two or three.

Then He came to earth, and the Father indwelled Him, and He lived by that same life, and He kept on beholding, and He kept on living by that life, and He kept on seeing and hearing, and He kept on fellowshipping in here. Now, a very important statement, I’m going to ask you to repeat it. What the Father was to the Son…let me do it again…what the Father was to Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is to you. All right, we’re going to say it one more time, then you repeat it. “What the Father is to Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is to you.” Let’s say it. What the Father is to Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is to me. The Father indwelt Jesus Christ on this earth; Jesus Christ indwells you. The Father gives the Son His life; the Son passes that life on to you. The Father fellowships with the Son; the Son has passed that fellowship on in you. The Father is a realm where He is everything. He brought that realm inside His Son, and the Son has passed that spiritual realm, His life, His spirit into you.

Now, here we go again. We haven’t mentioned going to church, tithing, reading your Bible, or praying. We’re talking about how the first two Christians lived the Christian life, long before creation. That’s going on right now. Now, this is so important. Can you believe that’s going on right now? The fellowship of the Godhead is going on right now. Do you believe it? If you believe it, say ‘Amen.’ Do you believe the Father and the Son are fellowshipping with one another by means of the Father’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Wind, the Holy Breath? You believe that? Amen. I do, too. Where’s it going on? It’s going on out here. But there’s a door. Now, let me tell you what’s on the other side of that door. You see my door? Let’s open it. You want to open it? Well, it’s kind of hard to say. That’s not a bed. What’s on the other side of that door? You might say that through that door, you enter into our realm, like an angel might step through that door and come into our realm. But for the believer, there’s a door. And you know what’s on the other side of that door for the believer?

I am going to now draw a masterful drawing for you. I’m not good at this at all. I’ve never been able to successfully do this. The only way I know how to do this is to kind of do it this way. Here he comes, folks, the third Adam. That’s a human being. Now, I’m going to give Him…this is his body. You got it? I’m going to give you a soul. You’ve never seen such a soul as this. I don’t know how to draw a bowling pin; it would look like a bowling pin. Something like…I don’t know. If I could If I could put a bowling pin in here, I would say that’s His soul. I’m just going to do this. There’s something here. That’s His mind up here at the end of His soul. Here is His emotion down here near the heart. And right where His neck is, we’ll put the will. Mind, emotion, mind, emotion, and will, but now I’m going to draw that door around. We’re going to open that door. And here’s what we see. Here’s what I want you to see. That’s what you see: the human spirit. I’m going to do that again. I’m going to do it in another way; I’m just full of creativity here. What you see is the human spirit. Alright, here’s the eternal realm. And I’m going to give you this man from…I’m going to give you this man from…oh, man, this is going to be awful. Man, this guy is really sad looking, isn’t he? Okay, there you are, fella. Well, you look terrible.

Here is His spirit, and here is the door. And here is what really is. Here is what it really is. Here is His spirit; His redeemed living pulsating spirit, but here’s what I’m trying to show you. There’s the door, and it’s like this. There’s His spirit, right? And there’s the door, but it’s really like this. I’m trying to tell you that an eternal realm is following you around. Lousy, lousy concepts, but I’m desperate here. This means, though, that this believer can step into His spirit, and after he has stepped into His spirit, what can he step into? Oh, be careful now, I’m looking for something better than that. He steps into His spirit; what can he step into? I’m sorry. Say it. What? He can step into real Christian life. That’s good. Let’s hear another one. I like that. He can step into Christ. In fact, that’s the only way he’s going through that door: in Christ. You can’t get there any other way. A little bit more. He steps into and becomes part of the fellowship of the Godhead. That’s where we’re going to go. That door opens, and when that door opens, I don’t know how to draw an open door; when that door opens, it opens into your spirit, and your spirit opens into, not where angels play, but where God is and where He fellowships with His Son.

This is when I am in spirit. This is where I walk. I walk here in this realm that is Him. Wherever you have been brought before, I would say my heart is to bring you here, and you have a right to be there. Again, I would have you be so impressed with this passage of scripture. I’ll tell you where it is after I read it. Of course, it’s one of my favorites. (Ephesians 1:3) Blessed be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies that are in Christ. Blessed is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will give you the blessings of the heavenly realms that are in Christ. Blessed be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given you every blessing that is here, that is in Christ.

Now I’m going to tell you that the whole thing hinges on “in Christ.” I want to go ahead and read this. And again, I realize that some of this for some of you is review, but for some of you, it is new. God created space-time, began it here, and ended it here. The Lord Jesus came right about here, but He was also out there. And John walked with the Lord. Peter walked with the Lord. Do you see John and Peter walking with the Lord? I’ll tell you what, I’m just going to make that two…no, I’m going to leave it three. There’s Peter and there’s John walking with the Lord. And they’re fellowshipping with Him. And who’s He fellowshipping with? The Father. They’re having church life here, saints, in its embryonic state. And they have opened for you a picture of how you’re supposed to live: you’re supposed to live with other people who are also fellowshipping with the Lord. That is the church. You are to live with people who are fellowshipping with the Lord. and you’re fellowshipping with him also. But the Lord left them; now there are only two of them. Now the fellowship has ended, has it not? The fellowship has not ended. But He is out here enthroned somewhere in glory. They’re down here, caught in space and time. Is that not true? Only their soul and body are captured in space and time; their spirit is still free to roam here. Just believe it’s true. Don’t ask questions; believe it. You Pentecostals have been mysterious about your tongues for so long, and the first time we heard about you scared us to death, didn’t you? Wow. Spooky thing. Well, now it’s time…it’s time that you Pentecostals sat out there and wondered for a few minutes.

Here are John and Peter. Now, does the fellowship end? No. Where is it? It’s in them. The fellowship is inside Peter and inside John, which has given them the freedom. Their spirits are out here where He is. Now, that’s the best I can do. But the question is, Gene, did you think that up? Is that something you got out of the telephone directory? Listen to an old, old man sum up everything I’ve said. What I and Peter and the others, but let’s just say I and Peter have seen and have heard, we proclaim Him to you. And there’s a reason we do that, so that you may have fellowship with us. We proclaim Christ to you. Why? So that you can be redeemed, so your spirit can be made alive, so you might have Christ in you, so that you might go on walking and growing, that you may have fellowship with us. We declare these things that we saw and heard. We declare Him who we saw, Him who we heard. We declare Him to you. And we do it so that you may have fellowship with us. Church. Here, put your hand out, sisters, would you? You, all of you. Here. Come on. Now, the four of us are having fellowship with one another. You’re having fellowship with me. I’m having a fellowship with you. You’re having fellowship with me, but you’re having fellowship with her. You notice? And you’re having fellowship with her. And she’s having fellowship with you. You’re having fellowship with her, and her, and me. Is that not true? I believe that it can be scientifically proven that at this moment we are all having fellowship with one another. Praise the Lord.

That I declare these things to you that you may have fellowship with me, and you can then have fellowship with one another. That’s because the fellowship is in you and in you and in you and in me, and by that fellowship we have the means to fellowship with one another. But the fellowship begins outside of us and from some other place. And now we have fellowship with one another on the basis of what we have fellowshipped within us. That is the interface where two realms touch. That was the garden; it will be the new Jerusalem and is the koinonia of the ekklesia. It is the fellowship of the gathering of His body. It is the foretaste of the new Jerusalem and the aftertaste of the eternals in the past. Now, you got me? We’re fellowshipping with one another and with Him. Him and me, Him and you, Him and you, Him and you, and Him and us. And our experience with Him and our experience of Him with one another as the church, and it isn’t nothing else, the church, and all this other stuff is a bunch of garbage. And I don’t mean that lightly because I don’t just go around fellowshipping with you every once in a while. My life, in the city where I’m living, the place where I’m living should be totally and utterly committed to you now and forever until the day we die. I mean, it is a firm lifetime commitment. The church is not an option in my life, nor in yours, and it is that place where heaven and earth meet to be an inhabitation for those of us who belong to both realms. It is our home and His. Praise the Lord.

Now that’s all right here in this verse. Him whom Peter and I have seen, Him whom Peter and I have heard, Him we declare to you, that you may have fellowship with us. And indeed, our fellowship was once with the Father and long ago was with His Son Jesus Christ. Say no. Say no. No! Wait a minute. Yes, He fellowshipped with the Lord when He was here. Now the Lord is gone, and He is an old man. Jesus Christ is not here physically, and yet this man has the audacity to say that which Peter and I have heard, that which Peter and I have seen, we declare unto you that you may have fellowship with us. So, we’re in the church together, and indeed, Peter’s fellowship right now and my fellowship right now is with the Father and with His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We live out here. We have gone to that place for the Father and the Son fellowship. Brothers and sisters, say, “Praise the Lord.” Praise the Lord. And that’s as clear as I can make it. I can’t get any clearer than that; the rest you will have to know for yourself experientially. Well, in a practical way, do you have any questions? Practical questions at this point. Still the same question, don’t you have a sister? You think I don’t know, don’t you? You think I’m not going to tell you, don’t you?

You have stepped into Christ. How about that? How about giving up the biggest problem in the Christian life? Let’s give up you. How about leaving you out entirely? I’m going to sneak up on this, and I’m going to ask you tomorrow morning before our meeting, you’re going to take Psalm 23, and I’m going to give you a new way…we’re inching up on this slowly…we’re inching up on this…we’re going to give you yet another place to stand about halfway between those two mountains. The mountain of I and the mountain of “no me; no me whatsoever.” Me and no me. Alright, that’s the first time I’ve given those mountains a name. Me and no me. About halfway in between those.

Now, how many of you were in the conference last summer or have been in a past summer’s conference with me? Will you raise your hand? I want to get some hand counts here. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. After this meeting is over, I want you nine folks to come down here, I’m going to give you something special to do. Okay? The rest of you, I want you to get up in the morning, either before breakfast or after breakfast, and before the meeting, we’re going to go through Psalms 23 again. This time you’re going to do it with someone else, and we’re going to remove you to a large extent. To a large extent.