YOU Are the Reward of the Cross

How can I say this? And how can the Spirit of God speak to you? That I might see as a people how rich in glory I am. Which would you rather have me do? Talk to you tonight about how rich your glory is, or to tell you how much you’re failing. Which would you rather hear? Which do you think is going to help you the most? Huh? The riches. And also, brother, freedom does the same thing. Okay. Jesus Christ wanted to make sure that what He said was true, that He could be a reality to a body of believers. And so, He said one other revelation, that the Spirit might give you not only the revelation but the experiential knowledge. Would you hold on to that? Because we’re going to talk about it the next time we get together, an experiential knowledge of this. There was a moment when God the Father drew within Himself, from all His being, and perhaps He sapped the universe He created, and He gathered unto Himself, He who created all things…there was this moment when drew all of Himself to Himself, and all that He is, He took a moment when He drew all the power that God is, and He put it into play. There was a moment when He took all of His power and put it into play. He held none of it back. It was the inexhaustible power of God, every molecule of it, being put into play at one moment. It was the greatest single display of the power of God in universal history. And what was it? The resurrection of Christ. The resurrection of Jesus Christ, when He made death alive. It took the entire power of God.

Now I feel so foolish; I really do. May God give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation into the reality of this fact. That, that same power has come into play again, and He has gathered it all up, and spoken to that little gal who sat in the back row and doubted. May God give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation and an experiential reality of the fact that that same power has come into being again, that you might, as a body of believers, not an individual, that you, the church, be raised from the dead. Amen.

Well, let’s turn the page and see what all this power did. What is the surpassing greatness, and this word is so powerful. It’s just greatness beyond greatness, beyond anything and everything, that’s surpassing greatness of the power toward you…the church. What fool who is a Christian would want to be anywhere except in the functioning body of Christ? That power works in her.

I don’t know what to say to you, but I would like to make one observation, and that is I watch brothers and sisters come into the church, and I watch them come in with all sorts of hang ups and guilt feelings, and I see them coming in all tied up in knots, and I don’t mean to get psychologically cured. Please don’t get that impression; I’ve never seen anybody psychologically cured. We’re going to be peculiar to the day we die. They are all tied up in knots about how much of a failure they are, and they’re not doing this right, and they’re not doing that right, and you come back six months later, and they don’t even remember they ever had the disease. I can’t explain that, but I can tell you for a fact it’s true that one of the great liberations of being in the church is that you lose your guilt, your sense of unworthiness, and failure. Do you know why? Because the power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead…is working only in His body. That power is not working in a Baptist church. That power is not working in a Pentecostal church. That power is not working in the organization you’re just now thinking about, or in this organization, which I hinted at a few minutes ago. His power is reserved only for that body of believers who are in an experiential reality of being the body of Christ.

Now listen to me here, Mike, and you listen to me, Daniel. That’s where you belong, and that’s where you’re supposed to walk. That’s how you’re supposed to believe, and that’s where you’re supposed to act. I didn’t even get to the point that I wanted to talk to you about tonight. I’ll have to do it tomorrow. I’m going to ask you to come in here tomorrow and help me because I really…what’s ahead is the most important part of all. When I finish that, I won’t say, “You ain’t heard nothing yet.” You will have heard it all. Will you help me tomorrow? Shall we leave it there? Let God give you a revelation, and then the experience of the fact that all the power of God that came together in one place to raise a man from the dead had never been done before is the power that works in you. But brothers and sisters, He didn’t just raise Him from the dead; that power kept on working until He lifted off the earth. He passed Babylon, and He passed the Roman Empire, and the Habsburg Empire, and the Ottoman Empire, and even the British Empire, and the American Empire, and He was raised up above all governments, and all dominions, and then He, continuing in the working of the power of God, was raised. And as He passed, as one might be in an open elevator, He passed the demons. He passed the kingdom of darkness on His way up. He was lifted above darkness and the kingdom of darkness, the highest of all unspiritual kingdoms.  And then He was lifted above Satan. And the power is still working. The power is working, and He is continually being lifted up until He is seated beside His Father, exercising all rule and dominion and power.

Looks like I am going to finish anyway, doesn’t it? So, I will finish. May God give you a spirit of revelation to understand this. That, that same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead and lifted Him above all principalities and powers and dominions and all names that are named or ever have been named or ever shall be named, that same power that seated Jesus Christ beside the Father, and that same power that crowned Jesus Christ ruler over everything…and I mean He rules. I mean, He rules, and I mean that He has nothing to fear. There is no spook show with Christ. The devil did it. (sarcasm) We’d better pray that the devil doesn’t get into this. The power that worked in Him to raise Him from the dead and take Him above all principalities, powers, and dominions, and names that will ever be named, and seated Him at the right hand of God the Father…that same power was given to the church in Constance. She, not you. A working, breathing, living body of believers.

I said to you earlier that I got as close to that as I know how in helping you, and I have left most of the work to the Holy Spirit, and God is my witness, this is true. That she got raised from the dead, and she is raised from the dead, and she passed the kingdoms of this world and watched them beneath her feet, including the Roman Empire and the German whatever, and even passed up America and Great Britain, and then above the demons and the fallen angels and the kingdom of darkness and the power of darkness, and came and was seated and is seated and shall be seated forever at the right hand of God the Father. May God give you a revelation that that kind of power is working in the church of Jesus Christ that gathers, and that has been…you got stewardship.

But now here is the mind-boggler. I am now the undisputed King; I have been raised from the dead by all power. All things have been placed under my feet. I serve the living God, and I rule. I am head of everything, but that doesn’t impress me as much as the fact that I, the Son of the living God, have been given my inheritance. The holy ones, who by the power of God have been lifted up with me and in me, I, the son of the living God, am impressed with my inheritance. Oh, there’s glory there, and the glory is rich, and she is seated with me, and I’m going to give her something as head. May God give you this understanding. As head of all things, He turned around and He, who won these things by the cross and the resurrection, and is, undisputed, crowned God and Lord of all things…He turned around and gave it to the church in Constance. You have the power of God working in you, a body of believers. You have been given dominion over all things, and you have been made ruler of the principalities and the powers in earthly and heavenly places. You…the church.

I want you to know something. I’ve been trying to keep that a secret from the brothers and sisters I work with, and there’s a reason. I don’t want them to play games with this.  I want them to do like the Lord did, when He said He healed somebody, and said, ” Don’t tell anybody.” I don’t want to see this as some foolish Pentecostal whatever display of…I want to keep this as close a secret as possible. I will come to Philadelphia one day and tell you that you rule the universe, for it has been given to you by your Lord. Denver…Chicago, you have the right to intervene in anything the Holy Spirit gives you and prompts you to intervene in, as a body of believers. That power works in you, and you have been given…Christ has given all these things to the church. It is really time that these things live on the earth again. If you think I started a little group of people who enjoy living with one another…you don’t know who I am. We’re here to fully grasp it all. This is what you have been given.  Now I’ll let you go to bed.

Lord, she can come to you boldly. She can come to you blameless. She can come to you as perfectly holy, and she can come to you seated on the throne beside the Father in you. She has been given all things by you. But you know, Lord, we don’t know that. We’re down here in what’s really a kind of dark hour. May your holy spirit quicken us, your people, and I don’t want to sound like a Baptist preacher, Lord, but I would really appreciate it if you would quicken this generation, or at least the one to come. To see you and to see us. I pray, Spirit of God, come and meet with my brothers and my sisters, and give us not only the revelation, but the reality of your riches and ours; of your place and ours. Lord, I’m not praying a religious prayer. I’m asking you to do this. Amen.

I would like to call an all-night prayer meeting right now for just a minute, for just a penny, but I’m not going to do it. I’ve kept you far longer than I would have ever dreamed. But when you come back into this room, I tell you what, let’s not have any music in the morning. I’d like for all of us to come back in here and start praying. Could we do that? Praying and singing. Would you try to hold on to anything you’ve heard tonight? Not everything…anything. Anything. Let’s come in here and lift our voices to the Lord. Shall we do that, and let’s…Lord, give Chicago, Lord, give Denver, Lord, give Philadelphia, Lord, give these brothers and sisters…I don’t want to come back here and see five or six people just kind of slopping around. I want to hear things coming out of your mouth and off your tongues that have never fallen off your tongue before. There are no conditions to what you have just heard. This is a work…completed.