Winona Conference Part 4 – Here’s the Truth of You in Christ

Now you ask, does the Christian life suddenly change for us? No. The root and base of our Christian faith is in that fellowship, in that beholding, in that loving, in that receiving, in that living by the life of the Father. If there is any change at all, it is simply this. What the Father was to the Son, now the Son is to me. Do you understand? I’m sure you do. I behold Him, I receive His life. I fellowship with Him. I live by His life. Paul did not say, Christ, who is my life. Read it. It says, Christ, my life.

And when you read the words, “and He shall give us eternal life,” that’s not talking about how long you’re going to live. That’s talking about a species, that’s the life of the Father. His life is identified as the life that is eternal. And we are given that life. And John 10:10 does not say, we are going to get rich and prosperous. I have come that you might have my Father. And I’m not going to give you a little of my Father; I’m going to give you my Father in abundance. I have come that you might have eternal life, and that you might have eternal life in abundance. I have come to give you my Father, and the life by which I live by the Father. Jesus Christ lived by the Father’s life, and you live the Christian life by living by the life of His Son, which is simply entering into the fellowship of the Godhead. That which went on for all eternity long before creation has now penetrated creation itself and come into this sphere, and Jesus Christ did not change one thing when He came to this Earth.  He walked around fellowshipping with His Father.

The disciples were not entranced with His teachings; they were not entranced with the way He lived or His sharp answers. They were staring at Him because there was something going on inside of Him, and they knew it, and nothing had ever been going on inside of anybody else. And they watched Him in fellowship with His Father until the Father and the Son and the Spirit came into them, and they had been very practiced at watching to the point that they now knew how to fellowship with an internal God.

Are you following? I’m sure you are. Say yes, whether you are or you’re not. Well then, listen to this verse of scripture. This is an apostle speaking. I John, verses 1-3. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life, the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us, that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

Now he explains why he declares this, we declare this Christ to you, so that you might have fellowship with us, us apostles who lived with Him, and then He says, and let me explain, where our fellowship is, the apostles, our fellowship is, say it with me,  with the Father and with His Son, the Lord Jesus. Now, what were the apostles doing? Reading their Bibles, praying, and living a good life? Not going to movies and not smoking, and dancing and chewing, and running around with those who do. No, I am declaring Him to you, Him who we handled, Him who we touched, Him who we held, that you may have fellowship with us, with me, John, the beloved, and oh yes, my fellowship is with the Father and with the Son.

Now that’s an old man writing. He’s not talking about something physical. He’s talking about something…what saints, what? Internal; internal. Therefore, that which was in the Godhead was passed down to this planet and continued in the form of human flesh inside the incarnated eternal Son, now on this earth, being called Jesus the Christ, and because He is Jesus the Christ, and that has not changed. The fellowship goes on.

Now it has been passed on to John and the other apostles, and the fellowship is going on inside of them. Can you see the lineage here? But it’s stopped there. It stopped there. (NO) I’m always deeply impressed by the experience my Lord brought into this realm. And I cannot believe that when He brought it into your life, He changed it. No, Linda, I don’t think the basic taproot of the Christian life has changed for you.

Know that you will know Him the same way that Peter and John knew Him after the resurrection.   The same way that He knew the Father when He was captured here in space and time, which is exactly the same way that He lived with the Father in the Godhead in the Trinity, for all eternity past. That is the secret to the Christian life. Because it’s the secret of God the Father and God the Son, you can’t push the Christian life any further back than that. We’re talking of origins; we’re talking of the fountainhead; we’re talking about taproots; we’re talking about headwaters, the beginning of the Christian life.

I have already made it clear what I believe about the church. I have not said that you need to go there on Sunday morning. I didn’t make that statement, did I? I have actually poo-pooed that. I have poked fun at it. But I have said instead that you have to live in the community of believers in order to know the Lord. That’s far more than going to church. I have taken a strong stand for the church of the Living God this weekend.

I would not say tithing. I would not say yours, but you. I would say that evangelism is for the entire body of Christ, as a gathered people. And I will not dethrone Scripture one place. I hold it with all the respect of any man who has ever lived, and yes, I believe in the verbal inspiration of Scripture. And I believe it is inerrant, but I will put my Lord above it every time.

And I will tell you this: those who make the Scripture the center of their faith invariably are disobedient to that Scripture.  And those who make Christ the center of their faith are always more obedient to the scripture.  Men and women who have made Jesus Christ the center of their lives rarely ever build church buildings, encourage choirs, build pulpits, and many of them refuse to sit in pews; they get in trouble in their obedience to the scripture.  And they get in trouble with those who put the scripture central.

Now I don’t know how I could have been more clear, and you can quote me on everything I said in the last minute. And I’m going to say one more. I will put my understanding of the scripture, of the New Testament, up against anybody on this earth today, and I will probably lose to some men, but I don’t take a backseat in understanding or obedience to, nor respect for, Scripture. But Jesus Christ is my life, and I cannot live the Christian life by prayer, Bible study, and going to church, and I’ve got millions and millions of people who will witness to that with me.  My hope is Christ, as Christ’s hope was His Father, and my business is to know Him.