You Cannot Live the Christian Life — Christ Lives It Through You (July 1988 Part 2)

You get sleepy, you don’t know what to pray, your mind wanders. I think this morning you did not get sleepy. Your mind did not wander. And you did wander, and you did not wonder what to pray. Is that not true? Is that true? Then we got over a lot of problems, didn’t we? See, you already are doing really great. You’ve got over the three biggest problems there are in praying…except one. I have a friend whose name is Babs; I wonder if any of you know her. I think she lives in Georgia or Alabama. Alabama. Does anybody know Babs? Babs was with me for one week. She said something I’ll never forget; she quoted Pogo. Babs met the Lord in a very living way and just turned her life completely around, and in the relationship of all that I’m saying to you here today, Babs said, “I have met the enemy, and he is me.” And I don’t know, but in our fellowship with the Lord, the biggest problem we have is me. The best way I know how to illustrate what I’m suggesting you do is to ask you a question. Have you ever had an experience? This experience? You’ve got a huge problem, and you want God to help you. You need money fast, or you’ve got something else. You’ve got to have help fast. You need a ticket, an airline; you’re hurt or something. And then you touch the Lord Jesus Christ, and it’s got nothing to do with your need. And suddenly the need is meaningless, and yet the Lord has not done anything for you in relation to your need.  Have you had this experience? Yes, you have. Yes. Alright, I think most of us have. Well, this is the same thing. It’s to forget you, remember Him. And if you touch Him, that’s the main thing. It’s not you getting your needs met. It is, in fact, sacrificing that privilege, that right, that inheritance, or that habit that is a large part of opening us up to another realm.

If you have your Bible, let us open to Psalms 23. I need my space time here again; I’m going to make it larger. Okay. Psalm 23. When did it take place? Somebody who is totally ignorant here, not the nine people. When did Psalm 23 take place? Come on, tell me. You don’t know. Well, it took place probably when David was being chased by Saul. There’s David. Alright, you got it. That’s where it took place. Right? Right. We’ve got a problem here, folks. Here’s God. Here’s the Father and the Son and the Spirit. Here on this timeline, right here, is the Lord Jesus, and here you and I are. That’s you right there. And here is the experience of Psalm 23; the first time it ever happened. But it’s the first time it has ever happened in human history. It’s the first time it has ever happened in space and time where mass exists, but there’s no time in space out here…but the Father and the Son are out here. Is it possible that it happened first to the eternal Son here? Can you understand that it might have happened right here on earth to Jesus Christ first, before it happened to David back here? Can you understand that? Could you possibly comprehend that? If you cannot comprehend that, I have failed completely. You don’t understand that; you do understand that. That God is here. He’s here. He’s here. He’s here. You know where He is right now? He’s helping Moses cross the Red Sea. That’s where He is right now. You know where else He is right now? He’s celebrating the banquet of the marriage. You know where else He is? He’s right here with you and me. You know where else He is? He’s raising Jesus Christ from the dead. You know where else He is? He’s right out here. See, He’s free of time and space. This is why He gave Himself a very unusual name.

I just can’t stand it every time I look at that. I just, and it even gets more amazing when he says…you see…I am, I am. Not, I’m going to be, I am. Not as I used to be, I am. And not I used to be, but I am. Not that I’m going to be, but I am. Not that I wish to, but I am. I’m here. I’m here. I’m here. I’m here. I’m here. I’m here. I’m here. I am. And so is His Son. Always there too. I am telling you that when He stood on this earth, He was everywhere. He was I am. He was “I am who I am.” You’re not 50 years old, and you have seen Abraham. Before Abraham was born, I am. Before Abraham was born, I am. I am. I am. I am.

I’m going to give you another sentence I want you to repeat. I will never have a spiritual experience that my Lord has not first had. I will never have a spiritual experience for what my Lord has had before me. You try to poke holes in that. It can’t be done. Sinning is not a spiritual experience; remove that, and I tell you there is nothing you will ever know or have experientially experienced spiritually but what He has had it first, and that’s true of David, too. I have never had a spiritual experience, but what my Lord has had before me, okay. I have never had a spiritual experience but what my Lord has had before me. Therefore, Psalm 23 does not belong to David, and Psalm 23 does not belong to me. Psalm 23 belongs to the eternals. Psalms 23 has been let loose in all realms. Psalm 23 is a reflection of an experience of the Father and the Son. When did it first take place? Maybe there. Maybe there. Maybe at the end, maybe at the beginning, and maybe when Christ was on the earth. You want to hear my theory? I believe Psalm 23 was here. And I believe that Psalm 23 was right there just before the Lord was born. And I believe that Psalm 23 is right here when absolutely everything is over. That’s what I believe. Psalm 23 has wings, but it belongs first of all to my Lord.

So let me see if I can, in some small way, enter into His fellowship, not my own. Alright, here is a prayer. It’s about halfway between the mountain of me and not me or no me. I’m up in the morning, tomorrow morning, and I’m with a brother or a sister. And we begin to take this, and we say, “Lord Jesus, the Father was Your shepherd when You were on earth, and You never wanted. He gave you rest. Lord, You drank of Your Father; He was your water. And Lord, while You lived on this earth, just like we’re living on it, He kept Your soul. Oh Lord Jesus, what glory. Every day, You were led by the Father to glorify His name. He was and is your righteousness. You walked through a valley, and it was the shadow of death. Lord, You weren’t afraid because Your Father was with You. Father, Your rod comforted my Lord. Father, Your staff comforted my Savior. Oh Father, You prepared a table for Jesus Christ in the presence of His enemy, and His enemy had to stand there and abhor it. You have made Father, You have made Your Son the anointed King. And You have made Him Lord over all. His cup overflowed. His cup is overflowing. He walked with Your goodness and Your loving kindness. He dwelt in You as even now He dwells in You and will dwell in You forever and ever.” Were you in that prayer? You were not in that prayer. Does that mean you won’t touch the Lord? No. Is there some possibility you might actually benefit from this? Yes. Why? It took me out of it. Because it took you out of it. That’s right. A little bit. Not totally yet, but you really weren’t all that involved, were you? And you got a sight, a glimpse, a distant glimpse of their fellowship and their experience with one another.

Here’s what you ladies are going to do. All of you listen. And you’re going to get up with this sister in the morning, either before breakfast, or you’re going to do it after you return from breakfast, and you’re going to open Psalms. Which one of you is the oldest? You’re the oldest. You’re going to take verse one. You’re going to read it. First of all, you’re going to sit there before the Lord till you get a little bit calmed down. Okay? Alright, you’re going to read it, and you’re going to express it to the Father or to the Son. Just do it. And if there’s more that comes out than you thought would, just let it flow out. You’re going to take verse two, but if something she says really gets you excited, you say it to the Father or the Son. But then you take verse two and you address the Father or the Son, whatever. And you’re just going to sit there while she takes verse two, unless something strikes in here. And then you tell Him whatever you felt or sensed or emoted. I don’t care if you have feelings. It’s all right with me. You can have feelings. And then you’re going to take verse three and you’re going to take four. You’re going to take five. You’re going to take six. You’re going to take seven. You’re going to take eight. And then tomorrow morning in the morning meeting, you’re going to tell me what happened. And then if you’ll tell me what happened, I’ll tell you how to press this all the way to the other mount. Okay. Alright, now, did you get that? You’re the oldest one, so you start with verse one, but anything that sparks you, express it, but then you take verse two, then you take three. Now, don’t you dare sit there and wait a long, long time. She won’t know what happened, and don’t be that kind of friend; that drives me crazy. Here I jump into verse one, and I’m through, and nothing happens over here. And if you can’t do anything else, read the verse and just change it to out here, and you nine people are going to meet over here, and I’m going to give you advanced work, alright? Now, that’s your assignment.

Now, church in Waterloo, this is all we can do in one weekend, but I want you to know if we can pursue this for several weeks, week after week, then it gets in your life and it gets in your spirit and it gets in your view of the kingdom and into the scripture and it gets into your tongue, and when brothers and sisters are sitting around talking about…and they sound just like Ephesians 1 or Colossians 1 or John 14 or 15 or 17…then you know something incredible has happened. Alright, now you’d better ask questions. See, we only stayed here an hour, didn’t we? What does that mean? Somebody’s got a question over here. And you have a question. Yes, sir.

The armor. Yes, it’s all plural ‘you’. It should be translated, “y’all.” Go ahead. Don’t you understand that the passage of scripture says, speaking of the church, ‘ You are the new man’? We are a corporate human being. The Greek says you’re the new humanity. You, the church, are a new species. You belong to a new creation. It is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are a corporate entity. We, together, stand against the enemy individually; I cannot. There is no such thing as individual warfare against Satan; There is only the warfare of the church. You become a community, a body of people. You get to know the Lord together, and church life will organically come up out of that. And you live longer and longer around Christ, in Christ, and get to living out there, and something will begin to unify you that has nothing to do with doctrine, sectarianism, gimmicks, elitism, or any kind of this tomfoolery. It will be a union of spirits. You will be brought together as one man. As one man, you will wear the armor of God to stand against the enemy on this earth. That’s not my task; that’s the task of the church.

The one new human, the one new species. We do not belong to this creation. This is Adam’s creation. I am a new universe, a new galaxy. I am a new creation with you. That’s what the church is. The church is the firstborn. He’s the firstborn of the new creation. The church out here, beyond, when all this is gone, the church will be that new creation, and all this will be over. And right now, she is sojourning in the old creation. The old creation will leave, and she’s going to be the only species left. She is going to stand in two realms: a new earth and a new heaven. She will be in a city where she is that city. He is in her, and she will be in eternal fellowship with Him. And right now, she’s just visiting here and putting up with this mess until it’s all taken away. We are the new creation as a corporation. Yes, sir.

Audience: So, what you’re saying is that individually we overcome, but it’s as a result of the ekklesia that we overcome that individually.

I don’t ever remember having overcome anything in my whole life. I really don’t.

Audience: Like how you overcome sin, how you overcome…Oh, I don’t…attacks of the enemy upon your life as an individual.