Living in the Invisibles (Part 1): How to See the Unseen in Christ

So much more has happened in the invisible than in the visibles. There is so much more that is in the invisibles that’s in the visibles. And truth lies in the invisibles, not in the visibles. Now, you’ve heard me speak on this a lot, but we’re just going to keep on jacking it up here. The invisibles are not fettered by the visibles. That’s why those who, in the past, could look into the future and see us. Now, I think they’re kind of unique people. They could see us in the future. They could see into the future, and then they welcomed us, which is rather odd. It’s almost as though they expected us to turn around, look at them, and see them who are now invisible and say to them, “Hi”. We are not separated by time at all, and thanks for giving us such a warm welcome. As surely as they saw us, they expected us to see them. Brothers and sisters, I am talking to a group of Christians about compressing time until it is so small that we could wander around at the beginning and the end, and where we are, without feeling like we have moved very far. Like an accordion, we’re going to compact time. Are those good words? Can that communicate? We’re going to “compact time.” That’s one thing we’re going to do, and we’re going to talk like time is compacted. That they really weren’t all that far away from us, and that those in the future are not very far away from us. We’re going to compact time a great deal.

Then we are going to treat the invisibles… this is number two; that was number one. Number two, we’re going to treat the invisibles as though they were visible, and we are going to treat the invisibles as though we had complete access to them. We’re going to treat the visibles as though we not only had complete access to them, but also made ourselves accessible to the invisibles, and the invisibles made themselves available to us. Now, above all, we are going to treat the invisibles as though their greatest content was Jesus Christ. That it is not thrones or principalities or things like that that are also invisible, but that the great proportion of that which is invisible is Jesus Christ. And then I’m going to add an “us in Him.”

Now I’m going to go just a little bit further. We are going to treat the invisibles as though we understood them as clearly as God does. (laughter) At least as clearly as we understand God’s understanding of the invisibles. We are not going to look upon things visible, but we are going to remember that they were made out of the invisibles and that they can be seen. We’re going to treat them as though we can see as clearly as God sees what really is. That we’re going to just pretend… we’re going to take our place…no, we’re going to have faith. By faith. Brothers and sisters, come to this by faith. By faith. Thank you so much. By faith, we’re going to know as much about what? The invisibles and their relationship to the visibles, as much as God knows. If we have to say “at least”, we’re going to say at least where it really counts. Where it really, really counts.

We are not going to give in to the unreality of the visibles. By the way, this would, we’re not going to get into the unreality of the visibles; of that which we can so easily see. We said that earlier in a different way. We’re not going to…I don’t know what I said. By the way, please go back and rewrite all these things, because these are points, and this is where we’re taking our stand as a people. Well, Gene, isn’t that kind of asking a lot? Yeah. You know what it is? It’s asking as much of you as was asked of the Christians of the first century. I am absolutely convinced that those people, by some kind of ministry within the body or by those who ministered to them, did exactly what they did, because it is exactly what they did.

Okay, we’re going to speak of the invisibles as though they were visible. We are going to speak from the invisibles as we look into the visibles. We are not going to be impressed with the visibles; we’re going to be impressed with the realities in the invisibles. We’re going to lay hold of the timeless aspects of the invisibles. We will speak of the past as though it were the present. We will speak of the future as though it were present. And we will speak of the present invisibles as though they were present in the visibles. We are going to speak from the invisibles, looking at the past visibles as though the past visibles were in the present, while we are in the invisibles. We’re going to stand in the invisibles and look at the future, seeing it as though it were in the present visibles.

You may not be able to understand what I’m saying, but you have heard me say that we were marked off in Christ before the foundation of the world. You know you’re standing in Christ now, and you know where you will be in Christ and what Christ will be in the future. But we’re going to do something I don’t know that anybody’s ever done before: we’re going to stand in the invisibles where there is no time, and we’re going to look at those past, present, and future things, and we’re going to force them into the visible present as though they were all presently taking place or have been accomplished in our present time.

This is…you know what this is? This is the mystery of God. Brother, these are His mysteries. Now, I want you to know I don’t really know much more to say to you than this. I’m out on the outer edges. Gene, would you please give us an example of anything? Yes, I’m going to request something from the brothers and sisters who gather in St. Cloud. I’m going to ask you to do everything you can in your daily vocabulary with the other brothers and sisters, and don’t do it with anybody else because they’ll think you’re nuts. I’m going to ask you to seek out in every way that you can turn your mind and spirit, or perhaps I should say your spirit and your mind, to speak of things as they really are. I will give you one illustration. When you’re in meetings and start sharing, I know this might be uncomfortable at first. I’m going to ask you to do this for at least a year. Actually, I want to ask you to do it for two years. I don’t want it to become a ritual. We will stop it someday…but to force you into where God really wants you to be.

Every time you start to share, I want you to start by saying, “I am a holy one.” I’m going to ask that whatever else follows, that it be the hallmark of your sharing in the meetings. “I’m a holy one”. Now you can expand that a little bit and say, “I’m holy”, or you can say “I am one who is holy”, or you can say “I am one whom God has made perfectly holy”, and that’s how you’re going to have to start your word, and you’re going to…you know what that means? You’re going to speak from the viewpoint of the invisibles because brothers and sisters, that simply isn’t true in the material world, but it shows what little significance your Lord places on the visibles. That it is to Him something He made out of the invisibles. All truth and all reality lies in the invisibles, and in the invisibles, you are a holy one. Therefore, in the visible realm, you are also a holy one.

And who are we? We are those who see physical things, visible things, from invisible places. We treat the invisibles as though they were first place, that they were real, and things that are material as insignificant, at least we’re not going to stop eating, or you know things like that. I don’t mean that, we’re going to be very, very practical, but we’re people who see that the visibles is made out of the invisibles. And we see the invisibles. We see them. When we look at the material, we see them as “those who are invisible”, looking at the visibles. Invisibles say that you are holy. Therefore, by Henry, you are holy. Well, Gene, what shall we say to these things? Let’s all say, “Hallelujah.” Praise the Lord.

Now, I want you to know something. I’m not only taxing you, but I’m also taxing me, because I’ve never done anything like this either. But I want you to know that I’ve had it in my heart to do this for at least 20 years, and when that person said they’re not spiritual, I just said to myself…I didn’t say anything. Something in me clicked, and we will remain unspiritual. We’re going to fail at praying and all that stuff, but brothers and sisters, we’re going to look from the unseen. When we speak, we’re going to see things as they really, really are. And from the invisibles where we are, we look great.

Sister, if we can do this, if we can pull this off just a little bit, we can raise an illustration and an exhibition to God’s people. Heaven knows what it might do to us, but this world is just full of Christians walking around here believing that they are not worthy. Oh, but Gene, we are unworthy. Yes, and if we keep on looking at that, we’re going to keep on being unworthy. I confess to you now, here and now, we are unworthy. We are unspiritual. We are sinful, but that’s all made out of things, materials. From the invisibles and from God’s viewpoint…I’m trying not to use that word too much, because that’s not where we’re going. We’re going to reality, where things are real. In reality, none of that is true, and brothers and sisters, if we walk in that reality, I know it will change us walking around in this unreality. I cannot think of anything that would encourage some poor woe-begotten believer who cannot feel worthy than to be subject to a constant bombardment of reality. It might not make him any more worthy, but it might make him give up feeling so unworthy, and maybe one of those people resides in St. Cloud. It is even possible, perish the thought that I would even utter it, that one of those people might even be in this room.

Brothers and sisters, we’re going to cure this thing. I’m not going to say once and for all. Maybe just once, and never before, since the first century when these brothers and sisters tossed this stuff around like it was just water. Just the most common of things. They constantly tossed it around on one another. Now, how do y’all feel about this? React to this. Anybody reluctant? Nah, let us be fools. Let us be God’s comedians, and let us do the ridiculous, and let us find out what it is like.