"One of the outreachings of the natural, universal man is to be in union with God. Christianity brings us into union with God. Here is a point in this great truth that is utterly ignored: the ministry of Jesus at the right hand of the Majesty on High. Some of you are critical Bible students and if you have studied the Book of Romans you know the great argument closes with the redemption argument. You have probably said, like me, 'It is not all there.'
"Now the book of Romans from the third through the eighth chapters is the great redemption program. It covers exactly three days and three nights. The nailing of Jesus on the cross, His resurrection from the grave. I said, 'Lord where is the rest of it?'
"Like a flash of lightening I saw it was in Hebrews. The center around which Hebrews revolves is Jesus' ministry at the right hand of the Father. We see Jesus taking the blood and carrying it into the Holy of Holies, and pouring it out on the mercy seat. Only in the book of Hebrews is He called the great High Priest. That is His great ministry. He sat down. A man sat down. He had to be incarnate so a man could sit down at the right hand. He is sitting there as a mediator between God and man. He has a new ministry. He is there as the intercessor. He is there as the Lord. He is there as the head of the Church.
"A man. He simply had to become man for that reason. I want you to understand that He is perfectly man. He is perfectly God, seated there at the right hand of the Majesty on High. And that man can be touched with the feeling of our infirmity. He is our representative at the throne of the highest authority in the universe. He is there as our substitute and representative.
"My little girl said to me one day: 'Papa, I don't like this number work.'
"I said, 'Why don't you like mathematics?'
"She said, 'Papa, what is the use of it?'
"I said, 'Dear, you are going to use it all the time.'
"She said, 'I never use it.'
"I said, 'Suppose you had eight apples and I told you to give three to your chum. If you did not know anything about mathematics how could you tell how many three are?'
"By and by she said, 'Papa, it is some good, isn't it?' And she had courage to go on.
"You have the theory of redemption but you don't know how to put it into practice. Every time I go over these great teachings I get one step nearer the goal. So I am going over them again and again. My privileges and place in Christ become more real. The tremendous possibilities of the divine life are almost within grasp. Sometimes when the Word is unfolding itself to me it seems to me if I would close my eyes I could plunge into it.
"Christ is at once the spotless descent of God into men, and the sinless ascent of man into God. He was God coming down into man, and He did no violence to His Godhead when He united to man, but He is God. Being glorified as He took on man, He did no injury to man, but He magnified man by taking man on. It is God incarnate. It is God living on earth.
"Turn to John 14:8-9.
Philip saith onto Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
"Of course I can understand that Philip's eyes were not open yet. But after the Day of Pentecost then his eyes were open.
"I want you to hear what Jesus said about Himself. God was in Christ, wasn't He? An incarnation. God is in you, an incarnation--if you are born again. You are incarnate. God is in you. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. God is in you. He has committed unto us the word of reconciliation. (See 2 Corinthians 5:19.) As God was in Christ, so God is in you. (See John 14:23, 17:23; 1 John 4:15-16.) God is in you in two ways. Jesus is in you by imparting His nature. (See 2 Peter 1:4.) Second, in the person of the Holy Spirit. (See John 14: 16-17.) He is imparted to you, so you are an incarnation.
"The first time I saw it I stood before a mirror, and I said, 'Is it possible that inside of that suit of clothes there dwells a man in whom God dwells?' God has not only come in the person of the Holy Spirit, but He has imparted to me His own nature, so that God's nature has come in and dispossessed me of another nature, and imparted to me His own nature. (See 2 Peter 1:4.) And after He did that, then He said, 'I will live in you' (2 Corinthians 6:16, paraphrased). And He has come in. Oh, the miracle of the thing! The life of God is within me, the Spirit in me. We are members of the body of Christ. (See 1 Corinthians 6:17 and Ephesians 5:30.) That is an incarnation.
"If you could hear this every morning, and about noontime, and then at evening and again before you went to bed, after a while it would seep into you.
"A young man said to me: 'There is one lesson, identification, that thrilled me through and through. I laid your manuscript down and went about my daily business, but my mind kept coming back to it.' He said, 'I am going to read it over with all those scriptures every day.' And I wanted him to tell me why. He said, 'I am going to do it for this reason. It is not mine yet, it is not a part of me.'
"He said, 'I remember when I took up Latin. I studied it for two years before Latin became mine so I could translate English into Latin and Latin into English.' He said, 'Now I know about this incarnation. I know about this indwelling of God. I know my legal rights, but it is not mine yet in a practical way so I can use it. The devil has me at a disadvantage still, but I will stand before the devil just as Jesus stood before the devil yet.'
"That young man has the same life as Jesus had. He has the same Holy Spirit as Jesus had. Friends, you are a son of God. You are a partaker of the divine nature. That is incarnation. Plus that, you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. You have the nature of God in you. You are His child. You have the name of Jesus.
"After a little bit this truth will get hold of us, and after a little while it will master us. He says this is yours. All He wants of you is to go and act normal.
"Do you know what miracles are? Miracles that Jesus performed were God coming down out of His realm, the faith realm, down into the human realm, the reason realm, and doing things that were normal up there, but abnormal down here.
"When this thing that I am telling you, when the new birth fact becomes a reality to me, having received the nature of God, and when I reach the place quietly that 'Greater is He that is in you (me) than he that is in the world' [1 John 4:4], I will get this eternal life of God clear, and this indwelling presence of God, and the Name of Jesus, it puts me on a par with God. He says, 'All things are possible to God' (Matthew 19:26 and Luke 1:37, paraphrased). 'All things are possible to the believer' (Mark 9:23 and Matthew 17:20, paraphrased). The believer has the right to use the name of Jesus.
"If I could teach that to little children they would get it off the bat. Reason runs contrary to fact. Faith does not come out of reason. Both come out of your spirit. That is the reason that faith and reason do not work together. They are jealous of each other. Reason is always jealous of faith. Reason is always butting in on it all the time.
"When you and I learn the three centers of our being--the spirit center, the soul center and the body center--we will have gone a long way.
"You have eternal life, haven't you? You have become a new creation. (See 2 Corinthians 5:17.) You are His son, you are God's child. You are a life child. You are not just an adopted child; you are a blood child. You are a life child. You could be adopted. That would be legal. But you are His real, honest to goodness, child. (See Ephesians 5:30.)
"You know you have His nature. You know that is a fact. You do not have to believe that you are born again. You do not have to believe that the Bible is true, and that you are born again. You know that. You do not have to believe that you have eternal life. That is a fact. You know that. You do not have to believe that the Holy Spirit has come in. He is there.
"This is the process of elimination. You do not have to believe that you are a child. You do not have to believe that you have received eternal life. You do not have to believe that you are an incarnation. You have the Holy Spirit. Then all things are possible to them that believe. You are a believer because you are a Son. You are a child. You have received eternal life. You have the Holy Spirit and the name of Jesus. That means you are in the thing. To be a full fledged believer then all these things are possible to you. You do not have to try to believe it.
"You are in the family of God. You have the right to use the name of Jesus, just like a pass belongs to you when you work for the railroad. You are part of a definite system. You are in the family of God. You have a right to the name of Jesus. That is the pass. It carries you up into the Holy of Holies.
"Now another thing, beloved, you do not have to try and believe the Word, do you? That would be an awful thing for me to have to try to believe my own Father. How would I feel if I were to write to my little boy and say, 'Son, I am going to send you $5.00.' And then he would go to his mother and say, 'I want you to help me believe that papa will send me $5.00, I want you to stand with me in faith that I will believe that papa will send me the $5.00.'
"Do you know I would get a telegram from her if he would talk like that? She would say, 'John, you better pray for that boy. Something has gone wrong with his head.' There must be something wrong with us when we try to believe what He says. Let's stop all that baby business. In the name of Jesus Christ don't ever magnify the devil by letting him know you do not believe that book. Don't you ever lower the standard. Don't you weaken it. It is God's book. Of course you believe it. His people for ages and ages have believed it, and it has never failed.
"This is what we have done. We have sung unbelief. We have talked unbelief until we have robbed ourselves of our strength and Him of His glory. Are you an incarnation? If you are you are in the family and He is yours and you are in Christ.
"Now let us take the next step up. Now you walk in the realm of faith. 'We walk by faith, not by sight' [2 Corinthians 5:7]. Sight means reason. You walk by faith, not by reason. You are a faith walker. That puts you absolutely in the class with the Lord.
"Now Jesus was a faith worker. The Father was a faith worker before Him. Our Heavenly Father has done everything He has done by faith. When He wanted the earth, He said, 'Let there be.'
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear
--Hebrews 11:3
"All He had to say was, 'Let it be.' He said, 'I want you to come into being.' And Orion and Pleiades came into being. He said to the place where the North Star was, 'Let it be,' and it was.
"You are following in the footsteps of a God that says to the things that are not, and they become, and who says to the things that are and they stop being.
". . . Friends, you now have the theory of this thing. Now in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ you have seen the reality of it. You go out and let this reality govern your life.
"A fellow in California and his boy were working in the garden about two years ago. They had to dig up a stone and in digging out the stone they discovered a packet of gold nuggets, something like six or eight thousand dollars worth. The father said, 'Let's not say anything. Maybe this was buried here.' They dug around a little more, and the boy found about two thousand more, and they found they had a gold field, a limited one.
"There is none of you folks here but have a gold field. First, you have the nature and life of God. Second, you have the great, mighty Holy Spirit. Third, you are the son of God. Do you need any more capital to begin to do business?
"What are you? A child of God. You are in the family. You do not have to try to do that. You have the use of the name of Jesus. You have the authority in heaven and earth in the name of Jesus, and in the commission. (See Mark 16:17-18 and Luke 10:19.)
"You do not have to try to exercise authority. 'Whatsoever is bound on earth is bound in heaven' [Matthew 18:18 and 16:19, paraphrased]. You do not have to believe anything when you use the Name. 'In my Name you shall do it . . .' [Mark 16:17, paraphrased]. You have the use of the name of Jesus.
"You have a lot. You have all the authority there is in heaven. All you have to do is to go and practice it. You have the Holy Spirit in you. You do not have to believe anything. He is in you. He is speaking to you, 'Let me have charge of things now.'
". . . The triumph of the gospel is enough to make any man the wildest kind of enthusiastic optimist. The unifying of the nature of man and God is the crowning achievement of Jesus Christ. The reason for the cross was thus revealed. Man in God and God in man, one and indissoluble--one mind, one purpose, one effort, one power, and one glory."
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