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Spirit of the Word - Covenant Eschatology - Introductory Note - New Stuff
THE
SEED IN EVERY MAN
by J. Preston Eby
THE
SPIRIT IN MAN
Deep within every man there is a
secret sanctum where dwells the mysterious essence of his being. This
inmost reality is that part of a man which separates him from every other
living creature and makes him uniquely mankind. This deep hidden
power is what it is of itself independent of any
other part of the man’s complex nature. It is the man’s “I Am,” a gift
from the I AM who created him. The deep-in human
entity of which we speak is called in the scriptures the spirit of man.
“For what man knoweth the things of
man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth
no man, but the Spirit of God” (I Cor.
Most people on earth have forgotten their
beginning. But the scripture is clear. “And God said, Let us make
man in our image, after our likeness…and the Lord God formed man of the dust of
the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a
living soul. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God
created He him” (Gen. 1:26; 2:7;
Wonderful words were spoken at the very dawn of
civilization, recorded in the oldest book of the Bible, which state simply and
powerfully the reality of man. “There is a spirit in man: and the
inspiration of the Almighty giveth them
understanding” (Job 32:8). It is something great in man, Elihu conceives, that he is spirit, and, because he
is, is capable of being inspired. He is not here speaking of Adam
as he was in the primordial glory of Eden, nor yet of regenerated man in this
wonderful age of the Holy Spirit; but, speaking thousands of years ago in the
present tense, he magnifies man as being able to be inspired, just because he is
spirit. And it is God, who likewise is spirit, that
inspires him!
Can we not see by this that the very being of man has a
God-ward or divine side, being related constitutionally to Him.
The testimony of scripture is incontrovertible that there is a spirit in
man, or what is the same, the fact that we are, as
being spirit, permeable and inspirable by the Almighty!
The word “spirit” means literally, breath, and denotes a
quality of life because, in the case of the spirit in man, God is able to
breathe Himself into it and through it. The word “inspiration,” as used
here, denotes the act of inbreathing. Anyone who is inspired is
“breathed into,” visited internally by the power of life, and so quickened in
mind, raised in intelligence, ennobled in nature, and empowered in
ability. In this way Bezaleel was inspired when
he “was filled with the Spirit of God, in wisdom and in understanding, to
devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in
cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving timber” (Ex. 31:3-5).
Anyone is inspired just as far as he is raised internally, in thought, feeling,
perception, or action, by a divine movement within! It is God’s Spirit
quickening our spirit, and thus bringing a change, a release, a raising so that our spirit may function as it was designed
to function. This is what Jesus described as being “born again,” the
spirit that already existed as the offspring of God being brought forth, just
as a flesh baby is brought forth into the world, into a new realm, a new level
of identity, a new consciousness, a new expression, a new ability, a new
standing, new rights and privileges and inheritance! We all understand
that a baby’s life does not begin at the moment of birth — it is simply released
into a new dimension where it can attain to its full potential in that
realm. Thus it is with the new birth! Our spirit did not originate
at the moment of our new birth — it had to already exist or it could not have
been born! That which is thus “born” of the Spirit is spirit!
It is this capacity of being spirit that qualifies man as an inspirable
creature.
This reveals man’s capacity for God; to experientially
know the presence of God, to let in the divine nature, to entertain the eternal
Spirit witnessing with his spirit, to be energized by Him and filled with His
glory, in every faculty, feeling, and power, being a vessel and channel for the
life of God, to think His thoughts and do His works. Thus, “the Spirit
beareth witness with our spirit that we are
the children (offspring) of God!” (Rom.
In that long ago beginning God “breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). Now all the animals and
beasts of the field are also called “living souls” in the creation story in
Genesis. But there is a difference! Let the fact be imprinted
indelibly upon our minds that none of these became a “living soul” by the inbreathing
of God! God did not Himself breathe into the nostrils of cattle,
lions, elephants, birds, fish, cockroaches, or any other creature. Their
“breath of life” is of an inferior quality to that of man. The breath of
life of the animal kingdom is merely the oxygen of our lower atmosphere.
They are, therefore, a creation of God but are unrelated to God. The
breath of life in man, however, originates out of the very spirit-essence of
God Himself — inbreathed — thus, when a man dies his body returns to the
dust from whence it came, but his spirit returns to God who gave
it! (Eccl. 12:7).
In Genesis 1, God speaks of adham
(male and female), and only adham as being
made in His image. The point is emphasized by repetition. As
humanity’s story unfolds through subsequent chapters, we discover that what
makes humans different is a quality called “spirit.” None of the rest of
earth’s creatures possess it! By “spirit” the Bible means relationship
with God, and the capacity to be aware of God, to communicate with Him, and
participate with Him in His great and eternal purposes. Worship is
the key evidence of the spiritual quality of the human race, and the
universality of worship is evidenced in altars, temples, priesthoods,
sacrifices, rituals, prayers, praise, and religious exercises of all
kinds. Burial of dead, use of tools, or even architecture and the arts do
not qualify as evidence of the spirit, for non-spirit beings such as birds,
beaver, elephants, chimpanzees, and a multitude of others engage in such
activities to a limited extent. But no animal worships! There are
no chimpanzee or ape altars, temples, priesthoods, or prayers of any
kind. Only man worships! Only man is a spiritual being!
Only man is aware of God! Only man has heard from God! To
worship is as natural for man — any man, saved or unsaved — as barking is for a
dog! Oh, the mystery of it!
Douglas Wilson once wrote, “There has been a very sore
cry in a great many of our hearts. There has been a cry that has risen
from the very depths of our spirits. It is a cry to know the Lord, even
our God! It is a cry to be one with the Lord our God. It is a cry
to be with our God even as it is written that ‘he that is joined to the
Lord is one Spirit.’ We have not understood from whence this deep
cry comes. We have not known the depths from whence it came. But
the Lord knows, for He put it there and has caused it to come forth. Is
it not written that ‘deep calleth unto deep’?
So is it then not written that the depth of man calls unto the depth of
God? And the depth of God also calls to the depth in man! The
earth is filled with the call of God and the call of man. The call rises
up into the ears of God and He hears it, for He has put the call within us.
“The Lord would have us know that from the very
beginning, when He brought man forth out of the dust of the earth and gave unto
him of His own breath, His own Spirit, then He put a depth in man that was
equal to the depth of God. For do we not know that if God lives in us,
and if we are the temple of the living God, then the depths that are in us must
equal those depths that are in God? Else we could not contain God, neither could He dwell within us as our life.
“But the depth that God had put in man became darkness
unto man. So man knew not this depth. Man deemed himself to be but
a created being of God. Man did not know the depths of his nature!
He knew not that which was deep within him. For to him the light had gone
out and no longer moved in the depth of his life. Unknown to man the
light was shining dimly and man was only faintly aware of it. Yet there
was to come a day when this light would begin again to be
manifested!” — end quote.
Recently I heard one “kingdom teacher” make the following
statements: “I want to say a word to all the spooky people out there who
believe in pre-existence, in having had some kind of spiritual life in the
bosom of the Father before the world began. We were not there — HE was
there! The reason I am telling you this is because there is a
teaching that goes around the camp of sonship people
which suggests that you were there with Him at that time. I can’t take
the time today to point out to you how that is not true, and it defiles the
truth. It corrupts the truth because God said to honor your father and
your mother. Do you know why? BECAUSE THEY ARE THE ONES WHO GAVE
YOU LIFE! That’s the first commandment with promise. My life did
not begin in the beginning or before the beginning. God might have
thought about me, He may have known that I was going to come forth, but in due
time I came forth from my parents” — end quote.
This dear brother simply lacks spiritual
understanding. He supposes that the whole life of man derives only from
his earthly parents! He must never have read the scripture wherein we
read, “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh
unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord,
nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him: for whom the Lord loveth
He chasteneth, and scourgeth
every son whom He receiveth. Furthermore, we
have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them
reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection
unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few
days chastened us after their own pleasure; but He for our profit, that we
might be partakers of His holiness” (Heb. 12:5-6, 9-10).
Someone says, “Oh, yes, God is the Father of the spirits
of all those who have been born again.” Yet the scripture cries out, “O
God, the God of the spirits of all flesh” (Num.
That our spirit came out of God, we know, for we read,
“The burden of the word of the Lord for
What revealing light of revelation Jesus gave when He opened
the truth about the origin of both man’s flesh and his spirit when on that
star-studded night long ago He explained to the questioning Nicodemus, “That
which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born
of the spirit is spirit” (Jn. 3:6). This
in my opinion is one of the most profound and awe-inspiring statements in all
scripture. According to Jesus, my earthly parents are the parents only
of my flesh, for that which is born of the flesh is flesh. That’s all it
is! On the other hand, God, and only God, is the Father of my
spirit, for that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Spirit begets
spirit! And God is the God and Father of the spirits of all flesh!
How could we ever think of God as the Father of the flesh? He is the
creator of flesh, of the physical, but He is the Father of SPIRITS. “God
IS spirit,” so He could father nothing less than spirits. As Father He
puts the same life-force into His children; and this life-force is that which
animates the flesh so that the body without the spirit is dead (James
That is what redemption is all about! It liberates
us from the flesh consciousness of the natural-minded man and brings us again into
the conscious awareness of our Father and that we are spirit, the
offspring of God. We are being made like Him because we are of His same
substance. Speaking to His disciples and to the multitudes Jesus once
said, “But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you
are all brethren. And call no man your father opon
the earth, for ONE IS YOUR FATHER, which is in heaven” (Mat.
23:8-9). Need I remind you that these words were
spoken to men under the law; Jesus had not died or risen again, the Holy Spirit
had not been poured out, nor was the new covenant in effect. He informed
every one of these people that they ALL HAD ONE FATHER AND He is “our Father,
which art in heaven.”
That wonderful prayer Jesus taught His disciples, which
we call The Lord’s Prayer, begins with the words, “Our Father which art in
heaven.” Until men recognize by the illumination that the Spirit brings
who their Father is they remain lost and dying in the dense darkness of the
carnal mind. Spiritually, they are no different than the adopted child
who has never been told he is adopted and has no
concept of who his biological parents truly are or where he came from.
Our Father is not the one who gave us our physical life in the womb of our
earthly mother. The only reason Jesus would tell the vast throng gathered
around Him, “Call no man your father upon the earth, for ONE IS YOUR FATHER, which
is in heaven,” is that we all must recognize that our life did not begin
with our physical birth. Our true Father is not a man upon earth, but our
Father who is in heaven! Can we not see by this that our life did not
begin on earth — it began in heaven! Nothing could be plainer than
this. Over and over again Jesus taught the multitudes about their “heavenly
Father.” Just look up the word “father” in Strong’s Concordance and see
how many times in the four Gospels Jesus told the people that
God was their Father! Once we know who and where our Father is it
is easy to understand where our life began and from whence we came. Our
birth, our beginnings were with God! God is our Father. Aren’t you
glad!
The heavenly Father is Spirit, in the Spirit state known
as heaven. As spirit, we know Him as our very own Father, and the only
substance of our true being. We find ourselves coming alive to Spirit, to
God. This is what Jesus has accomplished redemptively
for all men through His blood! The fact that we are spirit is the very
basis of Christ’s redemptive work. It is not the coming of His Spirit
into us that makes us God’s sons, but the apostle plainly said that “because ye
are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts,
crying, Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6). We no longer feel strangers to our
heavenly homeland! God has redeemed us, renewed us, delivered us, and in
His Son made us to be again who we truly are!
One of the greatest needs for understanding among
believers is in this area of comprehending the relationship of all men to
God. Paul expressed it on Mars Hill, saying, “The God who made the world
and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines
made by man, nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything,
since He Himself gives TO ALL MEN life and breath (spirit) and
everything. And He made from one every nation of men to live on all the
face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of
their habitation, that they should seek God, in the
hope that they might feel after Him and find Him. Yet HE IS NOT FAR FROM
EACH ONE OF US, for in Him we live and move and have our being…for we are
indeed His offspring. Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to
think that the Deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, a representation by the
art and imagination of man” (Acts
Paul is not talking here about born-again Christians, he
is speaking of the fact that there is a spirit in man — in all men — and God is
the Father of spirits, the God of the spirits of all flesh. The one
Father of all spirits is but one Spirit. Thus all spirits are related and
unified in Him. We easily forget the human birth of every man and all
these earthly relationships, races, cultures, and characteristics when we
recognize the One Father from whom we all came. In Old Testament days it
was a great discovery of truth for people to realize that “The Lord our God,
the Lord is One.” In the days of many gods this was a great
revelation! In our day, however, most of the civilized world recognizes
the truth of the oneness of God. The problem now is to awaken people to
the truth that the One God is the Father of the spirit of every man! This
is among the deepest and most precious truths of scripture. No star that
shines in the firmament of revelation is more clear or glorious than this; no
truth ever dropped down upon our earth from the heavens of God’s Spirit is more
full of significance. This Fatherhood
gives meaning and a tenderness to this life of ours,
and is the very foundation of the value of man’s life, and reveals why Jesus
came from the heavenly realms to redeem all men by His own precious and divine
blood!
THE VALUE OF
EVERY MAN
The grandest of all
truths is that CHRIST IS THE IMAGE OF GOD! If you want to know what God had in
mind when He said, "Let us make man in our image, and after our
likeness," you have only to look at Jesus Christ. That is what God
meant! "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost
(who know not who or where they are): in whom the god of this
world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of CHRIST, WHO IS THE IMAGE OF GOD, should shine unto
them" (II Cor. 4:3-4). "In
whom we have redemption through His blood…who is THE IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE
GOD, the firstborn (prototype) of every creature" (Col. 1:14-15).
His dignity is still further elaborated in these words of the writer to the
Hebrews: "Who being the brightness of His glory, and the EXPRESS IMAGE OF
HIS PERSON…being made so much better than the angels" (Heb. 1:3-4). The
Amplified Bible reads, "He is the…expression of the glory of God — the
Light Being, the out-raying of the divine — and He is the PERFECT IMPRINT AND
VERY IMAGE OF GOD’S NATURE…taking a place and rank by which He Himself
became…superior to angels."
How totally
inadequate do our words become in the light of words of such wonder as these!
Jesus is the prototype of what God intends man to be. He is God’s
finished product, God’s perfect man; what every man should be and ultimately
will be. We will only understand the majesty of man in God’s image when we see
Jesus as THE BEAM OF THE DIVINE GLORY, and THE OUT-RAYING OF GOD’S PERSON.
Jesus Christ is the express or exact image of the Father’s being, the
perfect imprint and very image of God’s nature. The allusion here is to the
impression made in ancient times by a seal on molten wax; and as the image made
on the wax is the exact representation (though on another substance) of the
die, so is Christ the precise representation of the Father in human flesh. And
thus He was able to say, "If you have seen me, you have seen the
Father."
The life of Jesus is
the life of God transmuted into the form of our human life, so that we may see,
touch, hear, know, understand, and experience the very being and nature of God
in human terms. The natural mind cannot understand such a truth as this, but
this is what God meant when He said, "Let us make man in our image,
and after our likeness." CHRIST is the image of God and God meant for
every man to look and speak and act and be just like Jesus Christ! Can you not
see the mystery? This is the value of man’s life in redemption, for God
sent One who was all that man was meant to be to purchase us — not to harps and
golden streets and fluttering wings in some far-off heaven somewhere — but back
to relationship with God as sons in His very own image.
As we consider the
wonderful advent of man created "in the image of God" we can only
conclude that this is a SPIRITUAL MAN brought forth out of the very
spirit-substance of God almighty, and bearing His own divine nature, character,
power and attributes. The image of God is the nature of God reproduced in man.
Thus, man is the true image of God! The divine nature was best and fully
expressed in the man Christ Jesus who shined upon mortals the truest revelation
of God and lifted man’s sights higher than their poor thoughts would allow.
Jesus revealed to men their true origin, heritage, and destiny. He came to show
man what man really is, was intended to be, and through redemption and so great
a salvation shall be — THE IMAGE OF GOD. Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the
beginning and the end, the first and the last. In Jesus Christ you see man as
he was in the beginning, and as he ever shall be world without end — THE IMAGE
OF GOD WITH DOMINION OVER ALL THINGS.
We have come to the
most sublime of all truths. The beauty of these celestial realities is found in
the fact that all Jesus did He did "for us" — not in our place, but on
our behalf. A musician demonstrates the beauty of the music he teaches in
order to show the learner the way by practice as well as precept. This was the
precious import of our Lord’s sinless life and of His demonstration of power
over the whole flesh realm, including death. Our heavenly Father demands that
all men should follow the example of our Lord and Master. In order to enter the
kingdom of the heavens, the anchor of hope must be cast beyond the veil of this
carnal, dying realm into the Shekinah into which
Jesus has passed before us; and this advance beyond the law of sin and death
must come through the joys and triumphs of a people "led by the
spirit" who are "the sons of God" as well as through their
sorrows and afflictions.
It is by facing the
enemy in the crucible of experience and by the authority of the spirit that
victory is snatched from the jaws of defeat. Each and every test in our lives
is an opportunity to prove for ourselves and demonstrate for those about the
triumph of the spirit over the flesh. That is how Jesus did it!
He knew that He was not a physical man possessing a spirit. He understood
clearly that He was a spirit encased in a body. Therefore His spirit must have
dominion over His flesh, not the other way around. He lived, spoke, and acted
by the life of God in His spirit, even the Father who dwelt in Him. Step by
step, battle by battle, victory upon victory we also ascend into the heights of
the kingdom of heaven (spirit), the image of God, and the dominion restored in
man!
One can never
comprehend the length and breadth and height and depth of God’s great plan of
creation and redemption until first he understands that Jesus Christ is the
revelation of the value of every man. In the mysterious mists of Eden
God breathed into man the breath of His own divine life and prophesied of this
man that he would be the image and likeness of Himself, and in due time would
take his place in the Father’s great kingdom with dominion over all the works
of His hands (Ps. 8:3-9; Heb. 2:6-9).
There is a story
about a little piece of wood that once bitterly complained because its owner
kept whittling away at it, gouging it and making holes in it. But the one who
was cutting it paid no attention to the stick’s protests. He was making a flute
out of that piece of ebony, and he was too wise to stop when the wood
complained so bitterly. The man said, "Little piece of wood, without these
rifts and holes, and all this cutting, you’d be just a stick forever — a
useless piece of ebony. What I am doing now may seem as if I am destroying you,
but instead it will change you into a flute. Your sweet music will charm the
souls of many and comfort sorrowing hearts. My cutting you is the making of
you, for only thus can you be a blessing in the world." The meaning of
this little parable is clear: That flute, whose music blended so sweetly in the
orchestra, was made a flute only by the knife and file that filled it with
rifts and holes which seemed to be its very destruction. But the purpose of the
master was the cutting away of the outward form so that breath could flow
through it. The breath upon the wood created a melodious sound which made it an
instrument to the praise of God. Ah, the Lord is shaping us, my beloved,
cutting away the denseness of our outer shell with its darkened understanding,
making rifts and holes in the way that seems right to the natural man, that the
in-breathed spirit of life from God may sweep through our earthen vessel,
producing the image of God, that His glory might be revealed in creation. Isn’t
it wonderful!
This divine
potential lies in the spirit of every man and shows the value of
man’s life. Some do not believe that the seed of God abides in every man,
but I do not hesitate to tell you that every man has within him a spirit
as well as a soul and a body, and the spirit of every man
originated with God and came out of God. If every man is spirit, soul,
and body, then where else did man’s spirit come from? Are you going to tell me
it came from the devil? When the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us we learned the true dignity of man.
The wonder is not that God could stoop so low but that man was created so
high! It was because of the value of man’s life that Jesus came and
took our nature. The sinless Son of man reveals indeed what a fall man has
suffered, but shows what a destiny is his, when once the image of his Creator
has been restored. Why lift a sot from his gutter to care for him and
rehabilitate him and bring him to God? The reason is that man has in him some touch of the eternal and therefore must be saved; and
some ultimate tide of compassion moves us to save him! His salvation is not
merely from his drink, from his lust, from his sin and
bondage and hell; it is salvation unto all his awesome potential as a
child of the Father in heaven! It is this divine value of man’s life
that brought Jesus from the portals of glory to save him! Is this not what
Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son teaches us? It was a son that the
father saw afar off, and ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him and killed
the fatted calf and put shoes and a robe upon him and called all his kingdom to
feast and rejoice with him. His son had come home! Man is the offspring
of God and is meant to be the head of creation. THAT IS THE VALUE OF MAN’S
LIFE!
Can man who has sunk
so low be raised so high? Consider with me the destiny of one muddy road.
The clay, left long enough, hardens into a sapphire. The sand becomes by
refraction of light an opal. The soot is a diamond in the rough. And the water
when it freezes, is a snow-white star. Ah, there is a
finer destiny for muddy humanity, but you do not see it in our raw state! Only
the mighty pressures and processes of God’s redemptive dealings can transform
the murky elements into the essence of divine beauty, glory and power! And
this, dear one, is the answer to Job’s piercing question, "What is
man, that Thou shouldest magnify him? and that Thou shouldest set Thine heart upon him? and that Thou
shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every
moment?"
Sin-cursed and
sin-broken, sick and weak, murderer and prostitute, proud and arrogant, mean
and vindictive — all that is humanity! But is that the value of mankind?
What is the value of human life? JESUS is the value! For just such humanity
there was the Man from
It would do us all a
world of good to take inventory of our attitudes — how we see men. I fear that
we would be both surprised and disturbed to see how often we view men out of
our carnal minds rather than with the eyes of our heavenly Father —
the Prodigal’s Father! Oh mystery of mysteries! Jesus went to the cross
not only to take away our sins, He went there for the good in man, to
redeem it and restore it into the image and likeness of God. The deepest
mystery of all is that God is multiplying Himself in man, and is
bringing Himself into a new dimension. There is a MAN seated upon the highest
throne of heaven. Not an angel, not a cherub, and not even merely a spirit —
but a MAN! That man is still clothed in the body that walked along the shores
of
The dwelling place
of a son of God is in the Father and the dwelling place of the Father is
in the sons. The sons are the out-raying of the Father’s substance and
the perfect imprint of His nature in human form. I never enjoy trying to see
pictures where no picture exists, but it is plain to an understanding born from
above that ultimately all men will be manifest sons of God, for
Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, died and rose again to save and
redeem and restore all men to God as His very own children. The Prodigal
is all men! Jesus is the firstborn of every creature! That will
be the glorious consummation of God’s ages-long purpose to make man into His
image and after His likeness. Nothing short of that can suffice. Only then
will God be ALL-IN-ALL!
The words came to me
some time ago, the startling and remarkable expression Jesus made when He stood
in the earth and declared, "I am the bread that is come down from heaven,
that if a man eat of it, he shall never die. I am the living bread. I am the
bread that is come down. I am the bread that is become personified in a body of
flesh upon this earth. I am the bread that is from heaven." Immediately
the question came to mind — Why was He the bread that
came from heaven? Why did He say, "from
heaven"? Why did He not simply say, "I am that I am," or "I
am the bread that your Father has provided on the earth"? This is
reminiscent, of course, of the manna that came from heaven, the food that God
sent from heaven to the children of
As I mused within
myself concerning this mystery, the inspiration of the spirit commenced to
articulate within me the wonder of this great truth. It came to me so powerfully as an illustration. Consider with me for a
moment a group of astronauts who are soaring away from earth to a strange
planet in a distant galaxy. While traveling on their journey through space
their spacecraft develops a serious problem, and they are forced to land on an
unknown planet in a far away solar system. The name of the planet is Timur. Having landed, they realize they are stranded! They
know nothing of this world into which they have descended. As they step out of
their spacecraft they discover a very hostile environment. Everything there is
inhospitable to them. All vegetation on the planet is toxic to their system.
They cannot eat or drink anything, for all is death to them. They cannot
breathe the atmosphere. Everything militates against them.
Soon, the
realization dawns within their consciousness that their resources are finite.
Some desperate action must be taken. They contact earth about their
predicament. Their government agrees to dispatch a rescue expedition. A second
spacecraft comes from earth and in due time lands on the planet Timur. This second group of astronauts
step out of their ship and say to those who are stranded there in that
world, "We are the men who have come from earth. We have the bread that is
from earth. We bring the water that is from your homeland. We bear that which
is not hostile to you, for it is from your own world. The food we bring is
compatible with who you are and what you are. It is biologically adapted to
your constitution. We have come from earth and we have the bread that is your
bread, the drink that is your drink, that which pertains to your state of
being, which will sustain you, energize you, quicken you, and give you
expression of who and what you are. We have the bread that has come from
earth!"
Can we not see that
the bread from earth was the bread from home! Let there be no doubt in the mind
of any man that Jesus came from heaven and descended into this earth realm,
into our darkness, into our limitations, into our bondage, into our ignorance,
into our sin, into our false identity, into our distorted perceptions, into our
natural life, into our carnality, into our physical, mortal sense of being. He
stepped, as it were, out from His spacecraft and proclaimed to lost men,
"I am the bread that is come down from heaven! If a man eats of this bread
he will live and not die, because I am the bread that is come from the realm
that you came from. I am the one from your homeland, out of your true
habitation! I am the one sent from your true world, the world of Spirit, the
world of the Father, the world of divinity, the world of eternity. I am from
that world, and I have come to speak a word into you! The
words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.
These words are adapted to your constitution and pertain to the realm from
whence you are. I am the bread that has come from the heavens, and when you eat
this bread, when you receive this word, when you are energized by the Spirit of
Life that I am, you will live and not die!"
Now we would ponder
briefly on "our spirit" contrasted with "His Spirit," for
Paul declared, "The Spirit Himself beareth
witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God" (Rom.
8:16). And again, "God is my witness, whom I serve with my
spirit in the gospel of His Son" (
Are we so blind that
we cannot see the impossibility of our awakening ourselves? We cannot quicken
ourselves, nor can we regenerate ourselves! The very idea is idle and
senseless; for the plain reason that being regenerated is the same as having
inspiration — it must originate out of God as a work upon our spirit.
The precise thing needed is to be raised out of the separated, self-centered,
blind ignorance of the carnal mind by the sovereign intervention and
penetration of the Holy Ghost. Are we then going to lift ourselves by our own
bootstraps, stand up out of our grave of darkness, sin, and death by our own
volition? Can the dead raise themselves? Are the ignorant capable of
instructing themselves? Do the blind open their own eyes? A baby does not even
birth itself! Regeneration is a renewal that consists of the inbreathing
of God’s Spirit, effecting union with His life. "And you hath HE
quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins: wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience…even when we were dead in sins, (HE) hath quickened us together
with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:1-2,5-6).
Ray Prinzing once said it so aptly, "Strange indeed the
past theology of man. The corpse is floating upon the water and we throw it a
life-rope and tell the corpse that if it will grab hold we’ll help to pull it
in. What nonsense! He is dead, he can’t grab hold of
anything. The man is DEAD IN TRESPASSES AND SINS, his back is toward the light,
he is all enwrapped with self-rebellion against the Lord, there
is no light in him at all. Then we are supposed to call out to this one totally
dead in trespasses and sins, ‘Come to Jesus!’ How can he come? He’s dead to all
spiritual life, he has no power to turn around and walk towards God. Then we
blame him for not coming to Christ for salvation! How foolish! But now, if a
mighty one overtakes him, and light is brought to this one in darkness, and
life is given to them, then shall they respond and serve Him.
"When they are
covered with the love of God, there will be no need to tell them what sinners
they are, and knock them down a little further into the mud. ‘A bruised reed
shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench, till He send forth
judgment unto victory’ (Mat.
"Praise God,
His mighty ones shall flow out with love and life unto all men. They won’t
condemn the sinner and tell him to clean himself up. They won’t cry to those
who are dead to come and receive life. They shall TAKE LIFE to those who are
dead, they shall bring help to those who are weak and undone" — end quote.
We know a little
about the Holy Spirit but we have known very little about the human spirit
because it is buried, concealed deep beneath the shell of our soul and body.
Every man has a spirit, but the outer realms of soul and body, the flesh life,
cover it up. The living Word of God comes as a sharp, two-edged sword, to
pierce our soul (carnal mind) in order to break it away from the spirit
"For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of
soul and spirit…" (Heb. 4:12). Only the living Word of God can do
this! Some people entertain the erroneous notion that all the divinity they
will ever need to know lies inherently within their own spirit. They recognize
no godhood outside of their own spirit. The testimony of scripture, however, is
clear, "What? Know ye not that he which is joined to an
harlot IS ONE BODY? For two, saith He,
shall be ONE FLESH. But he that is joined unto the Lord, IS ONE
SPIRIT" (I Cor .
The analogy is drawn
from a man joined to a woman — these two, joined, are ONE FLESH. "One
flesh" denotes one whole, specific, particular individual. It does
not mean two of the same kind. It is two making one. We
all understand how it is that a man is not a whole man, nor is a woman a whole
person! They each are distinct and complementary aspects of Adam’s life. Adam
was created both male and female (Gen. 1:26). Only in the joining of man
and woman do we truly have ADAM. In like manner, he that is joined to the
Lord is ONE SPIRIT! Adam, male and female, is the representation of the
nature and being of God. God is spirit and man is spirit, yet we are each
distinct and complementary aspects of divine life. The idea that each of us
inherently contains within our unquickened spirit the
full attributes of deity is a lie of enormous proportions. Only the joining of our
spirit with His Spirit makes man ONE SPIRIT or A WHOLE SPIRIT! This
is what Paul means when he says, "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the
Spirit, IF SO BE THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELL IN YOU. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of
His" (
There are many works
of the Holy Spirit within our spirit. Teaching — When HE the spirit of
truth is come, HE will teach you all things and lead you into all truth. Quickening
— It is the spirit that quickeneth,
the flesh profiteth nothing. If the SPIRIT OF HIM who
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, HE that
raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by HIS
SPIRIT that dwelleth in you. Begetting anew — Born of water and of the Spirit. Dwelling — The
SPIRIT OF GOD dwelleth in you. Leading — As many as are led by the SPIRIT OF GOD, they are the sons
of God. Strengthening — Strengthened with might
by HIS SPIRIT in the inner man. Witnessing — The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit. Revelation — God
hath revealed them unto us by HIS SPIRIT. Gifts — For
to one is given BY THE SPIRIT the word of wisdom…faith…healing…working of
miracles…prophecy, etc. All these worketh that one
and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as HE will. Transformation
— We are all changed into the same image from glory to
glory, even as by THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD. Sonship
consciousness — God hath sent forth the SPIRIT OF HIS SON into your hearts,
crying, Abba, Father. Sealing — Sealed with
that HOLY SPIRIT of promise. Confidence — Hereby
we know that HE dwelleth in us, by THE SPIRIT which
He hath given us.
The Spirit of God is
able to perform all these actions, and many more, within us just because we
are spirit. God can act omnipotently on all
created things, as things. He can penetrate all central fires and dissolve or
change every most secret atom of the universe, but it cannot be said that these
things receive Him. "To as many as received Him, to them
gave He power to become the sons of God" (Jn.
Only man, of all
God’s glorious creation, can be penetrated and lighted up from within by the
mind of God, to have an understanding of things unseen by the inspiration of
the eternal Father, in one word, to be spirit, and have the consciousness even
of God, as being irradiated, permeated, filled, ennobled, glorified by His
infinite Spirit and His divine fullness.
Oh, that all men
everywhere might see the origin and constitution of our human life as
spirit, with its Author and Creator! In the original scheme of existence,
it was purposed that man should be complete, and, as it were, infinite in God,
by reason of his perpetual participation of God. This is the true and normal
state of man! In that normal state man was to be a continually inspired
creature, conscious always of God as of himself, living and moving and having
his being in the radiant essence of the Father. Paul said that only in
Christ are we complete. "For in Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in
Him" (Col. 2:9-10).
The Emphatic Diaglott says, "In Him dwells all the fullness of the
Deity bodily; and you are replenished by Him."
The Amplified Bible
reads, "In Him the whole fullness of Deity continues to dwell in bodily
form, giving complete expression of the divine nature. And you are in Him, made
full and having come to fullness of life…you too are filled with the
Godhead."
J. B. Phillips
translates, "It is in Him that God gives a full and complete expression of
Himself in bodily form. Moreover, your own completeness is realized
in Him."
Finally, Kenneth Wuest renders, "In Him there is continuously and
permanently at home all the fullness of absolute deity in bodily fashion. And
you are in Him, having been completely filled full with the present result
that you are in a state of fullness in Him."
This great truth, on
the other hand, reveals clearly the true idea of man’s fall. When the Holy
Spirit of truth unveils your eyes and your mind is renewed, you realize that you
are a spiritual being and that you have always been a spiritual
being. When Adam was lowered out of his pure spirit existence and
entered this physical world, he came into a realm of darkness and death. The
life of the spirit dwelt within him, yet encased within the womb of the outer
flesh. Thus, there were two ways set before mankind — the way of life in the
spirit by living in union with God through the tree of life, or the way of
death by walking after the flesh in union with the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil. The fruit of the tree of life would constantly invigorate man’s
spirit in the knowledge and strength of divine existence, whereas the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil would invigorate man’s flesh in the knowledge
and power of the outer, physical, carnal world. The serpent offered Eve the
power to be "like God" or the personal sense of "godhood."
"God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof, you shall be as
gods, knowing good and evil." And after the woman
and the man partook of that realm of sense-consciousness, self-determination,
and fleshly wisdom, God Himself acknowledged that they had indeed become "as
one of us, to know good and evil" (Gen. 3:22). Yes, they had
become AS GOD! They had assumed a state of GODHOOD! The only problem was that
it was a godhood in the wrong realm! It was a godhood of independence from
the life of God, not a Godhood through union with God. Man became a
self-created god, a self-centered god, truly the god of this world, but
not the expression of the divine nature. The Spirit of God which had been in
union with man’s spirit fled, and man’s spirit sank low into the hidden depths
of his being. A long night of darkness, sorrow, sin and death ensued!
Let us understand
the paradise of God with the tree of life in its midst! The tree of life is
mentioned very simply in the opening chapters of Genesis. It was IN THE MIDDLE
— that is all that is said about it! "And the Lord God planted a garden
eastward in
But — like the tree
of life — the other tree also STANDS IN THE MIDDLE! In
the middle. Death. Within! In
man’s very nature. One of man’s inherent potentials was to know Self as the center and source of his life. But Self would not bring life, it would mean death. Man could
make the world , the outer physical realm, his soulical senses and bodily appetites, his center. Death
dwelt in that center! How do we know that sin is "in the middle" just
as life is "in the middle"? Jesus understood it! He explained it!
"There is nothing from without a man, that
entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him,
those are they that defile the man. For from within, out of the heart of
men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts,
covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy,
pride, foolishness: all these evils come from within, and defile the
man" (Mk. 7:15,21-23). These inspired words carry us right back to the garden of Eden! There were two trees in the middle. Life and
death were in the middle! Two trees in the midst of
the garden of man’s experience and being. "For
they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that
are after the spirit the things of the spirit. For to be carnally
minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life…"
(
In the two trees of
life and death in man’s middle the Holy Spirit points out man’s LIMIT. In these
two trees is contained the BOUNDARY set by God upon man from the beginning.
This LIMIT declared how low a man could fall and how high a man
could rise. Man could fall as low as the tree of death, the carnal mind, the
realm of the flesh could carry him — unto the whole dreadful realm of darkness
and death in which is contained every sorrow, tragedy, pain, trouble, sickness,
hatred, strife, heartache, ignorance, fear, and torment known to man; or, he
could rise as high as the spiritual mind, the realm of the spirit could carry
him — unto the eternal and incorruptible life of God in which is contained all
the joy, peace, righteousness, love, faith, wisdom, glory, and power of GOD
HIMSELF!
What fathomless
bounds are contained in this LIMIT! Man, by walking in the spirit, can rise as
high as God in the realm of His life, or by walking after the flesh can sink as
low as the devil in the world of darkness and death. Neither of these realms
are illusion; they are both realities! What a LIMIT! And man was
destined to fall as low as he could fall and rise as high as he could rise. The
totality of man’s experience is to be found within this limit established by
God for man. All that both death and life are would ultimately be experienced,
known, and demonstrated by man. This is his limit. This is his territory. This
is his destiny. Both realities are in the middle! Within
man. One or the other is every man’s center, the sphere of his
existence. But mark it well — both cannot be the center of any man’s
life! He who eats of the tree of life will find that the death realm has no
more dominion over him. And he who eats of the tree of death will discover that
he becomes alienated from the tree of life — driven from the garden. Thus, both
trees, both realities are in the center of man’s life, but both cannot be
the center of his life! "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die:
but if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall
live" (Rom.
The tree of life in
the midst of the paradise of God was truly "in the world" but not
"of the world." The life of this tree was right within man, the life
of God in his spirit, and man’s spirit was not of this world, not formed of the
dust of the ground, but breathed into his nostrils by the Father of spirits.
"God breathed into his nostrils the spirit (Heb.) of life."
The glorious life of Christ on earth is the essence and reality of the tree of
life in the midst of the paradise of God. This tree of life within man had
absolutely nothing to do with the realm of earthiness of man’s soul and body,
for it was heaven’s own divine life breathed into man.
In the tree of life God invited man to find Him as the center and source of
life!
As George Hawtin once pointed out, by the tree of life man would be
full of light, abounding in heavenly wisdom and knowledge, fearful in power and
dominion, ethereal as a spirit and shining in the image of God. The fruit of
this wonderful tree would indeed make man radiant with the resplendent glory of
God as was Jesus, the second man and the last Adam, at the transfiguration,
whose face shone as the sun and His raiment was as the light. In this tree of
life the effulgent perfumes of the heavenly realm would be fragrance and life
to man’s nostrils. He would taste spiritual realities and touch heavenly
things. The wisdom and power of God Himself would be wide open to him and he
would walk in the presence and glory of celestial realms. The gates of that
realm would never be shut by day or by night. Man would need to eat of no
other tree nor drink of any of the waters of earth.
Man would have "meat to eat" that no other creature in heaven or
earth knew of and "water to drink" that none other had ever tasted.
The heavens would be opened over his head and he would walk in the glory of the
presence of God in
This was the glory
of the tree of life in
This is the
dimension missed by those in so-called Metaphysical Christianity, New Age, and
New Thought philosophies who suppose that their unregenerated,
unquickened spirit represents their full divinity and
godhood. Not so! Only "he that is joined to the Lord is ONE
SPIRIT." The unregenerated, unquickened
spirit of man is indeed spirit, the offspring of God. But it is not a whole
spirit! Apart from union with God’s Spirit through the baptism in
the Holy Spirit as recorded in the book of Acts, the spirit of man is weak
and unable to function as the supreme power of man’s life. "I indeed have
baptized you with water: but He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost"
(Mk. 1:8) "And (Jesus) being assembled together with them, commanded them
that they should…wait for the promise of the Father…ye shall be baptized with
the Holy Ghost not many days hence…ye shall receive power AFTER THAT THE
HOLY GHOST IS COME UPON YOU" (Acts 1:4-8). "And they were all
filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as
the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:4). "Now when the apostles
which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they
sent unto them Peter and John: who, when they were come down, prayed for them,
that they might receive the Holy Ghost; then laid they their hands on
them, and they received the Holy Ghost" (Acts 8:14-17). Then we read of
how Peter went by revelation to
I speak the truth
when I suggest that not one in a million of New Age, Metaphysical, and New
Thought adherents have received any such supernatural experience in the Holy
Spirit! The fact is, they have not even met Jesus
Christ as SAVIOUR! Nor have they experientially appropriated the CLEANSING
POWER OF THE BLOOD OF CHRIST! I also speak the truth when I say that men whose
spirits have not been quickened by HIS SPIRIT are motivated and controlled by
the intellect of the soul (carnal mind), rather than by the life of the spirit.
That which they perceive as their "inward Christ consciousness" is in
reality just the awesome power of their soul life! Just as a man or
woman, without a mate, is not a whole person, and therefore missing a
dimension of human reality, so the spirit of man which has not experientially
been joined to the Spirit of God in a supernatural union of life, is lacking in
its spiritual ability and capacity. It is this very condition that spawns the
whole system of "intellectual religion" which is pawned off and
misinterpreted as spiritual life!
There is an even
deeper mystery to this tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. They appear as two trees; yet in reality there was only one tree, with
two sides, two aspects, or two dimensions. It is stated so simply in these
words: "The tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil" (Gen. 2:9). There was one tree, and yet
two trees! The tree of life is Christ — the living Word of God. The
profound truth is that in
Paul makes these two
trees, these two words, very plain when he writes, "Who also hath made us
able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter,
but of the spirit: for the letter killeth,
but the spirit giveth life. But if the ministration
of death, written and engraven in stones, was
glorious, so that the children of
I firmly believe
that the Bible is the word of God; however, when we know it only as the
letter, it kills. Laws, rules, regulations, doctrines, creeds, outward
ordinances, forms, ceremonies, facts, literalistic interpretations of man,
natural concepts, carnal understanding of the written word — there is no life
in any of these! There is only death. The dead letter of the word produces dead
sermons, dead churches, dead forms, dead meetings, and spiritually dead
believers. Yet, the "letter of the word" is still the word of
God! But there’s no life. Moses preached the law, the law was from God, the
law was the ministration of death written and engraven
in stones, and everybody that received the law died. It was the
ministration of condemnation. It had the power to condemn men, to judge
them, to punish them, to tell them what they ought to do — but it possessed no
power to give them life! It was a word of God, but it was the letter of the
word. It was a word without life. It was merely a type, a shadow, a symbol of
reality.
THE TREE OF THE
KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL IS THE LAW! By the law, Paul says, we know sin. The
knowledge of good and evil is the letter of the word! All the preachers who are
out there telling men what great sinners they are, and how they need to stop
sinning, threatening them with damnation is they don’t stop sinning,
are feeding their hearers from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
This letter of the word killeth, but it’s still a
word of the Lord! It is the word of the Lord on a lower level, stripped of its
life and power. But the other side of this tree, this word, is the WORD OF
LIFE! THE TREE OF LIFE IS CHRIST, THE LIVING WORD! There are two words, yet
they are the very same word on different levels. One is shadow, the
other is substance. One is outward symbol, the other in inward life. There are
two trees, yet they are but two sides of the same tree! Adam’s
sin and fall consisted in his choosing to live a carnal life on the earthly
plane, even a religious life, subject to the restraint and
regulation of the external law of a carnal commandment, instead of living the spiritual
life on the heavenly plane by the Living Word of God!
Another precious
insight was shared in a letter to me from a friend of many years, Connie Asbill. She wrote, "Several years ago, I was sitting
in the back yard of my house when suddenly a tree that I had looked at
numberless times burst alive with a truth. During its formation, the tree had
split so that it was growing in two different directions. For me, that split
tree became the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In it, I saw the tree
of life struck by lightning and split right down the middle to make the tree of
life the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Why struck by lightning? Well, I
would have been at a loss myself to explain why that impression had formed in
my inner eye if it had not been plainly followed by the words of Jesus when He
said, ‘I saw Satan fall as lightning from heaven.’
"As I
contemplated this, I saw the word and the life split: the word turned in one
direction, the life turned in another. This, to me, became a picture of the
beginning of the ‘double minded man who is unstable in all his ways,’ and,
again, of that condition lamented by David, in spirit, when he prayed, ‘Help,
Lord, for they speak with a double heart.’ At this point there came a breach in
the spirit of man — a breach that I think we can see portrayed in the parable
of the prodigal son. There were two sons: one which remained with the Father,
that is, never left home; the other which took what was his through the Father
and turned it downward toward the animal side of life. Now, of course, we have
heard this story used from the pulpits to call sinners home to God and to give
recognition to those faithful few who remained unsullied in the church. And
there is that application, for some among us do remain unsullied from the seamy
side of life while others among us do wallow in the pigpen of human degradation
and deprivation.
"I am
convinced, however, that the deeper meaning refers to that which occurs inside
all of us, for there is a part of all of us, I think, that has remained with
the Father and there is a part of all of us that has split away to flow in the
opposite direction — to feed upon the dust of the earth, to identify with the
instincts and emotions of the body, and thus to bring the word that is
transmitted from the Father’s house, where the other part of us has remained,
down into the earth with us. We feed on the husks (forms) of truth when that
part of our spirit that has turned downward toward the animal nature filters
the word through ego, through unrestrained desires, through fear, through
carnal expectations, all of which imprison it in externals. This gives rise to
the law of carnal commandment, which is nothing in the world but the
truth of God changed into a lie (Rom.
"I am convinced
there is a part of us that never left God. We have always been there, which is
why the kingdom has always been at hand. And I am convinced that it is only as
we expand our understanding until we can see how that can be that we can begin
to woo the heart back to the true meaning of that Word which has always existed
in the heavens. The prodigal son is that portion of the spirit that was split
away when lightning struck the tree in the midst of the garden of the soul.
What fell in the fall, of course, was the understanding. When Jesus talked
about salvation, He used the Greek word sozo
which means to make whole. As I see it, the saving of the soul is the
healing of the soul through a healing of the spiritual breach. The soul, of
course, is the battle ground of conflicting thought, conflicting desire,
conflicting emotion, where Jacob the deceiver (the prodigal son) wrestles it
out with the angel of the Lord (the word of God) to make peace with his brother
(the son that never left the Father’s house)" — end quote.
This
"split" has happened to all of us, and that is why we need to be RE-conciled, RE-newed, RE-generated,
RE-surrected. Think about it! The lost, sin-blighted,
unbelieving world lives a spiritual life not unlike the lowly caterpillar.
Caterpillars do not live very exciting lives. They are, indeed, to be pitied!
They never travel very far and when they do tremendous exertions are required.
After all, what sights do they see down there groveling in the dirt? Ah —
caterpillars live very limited, morbid lives! The story is told of two
caterpillars, however, making their way laboriously across the muddy earth,
when one of them looked up and spied a butterfly fluttering by. As he watched
this butterfly dipping and flitting around in the sky, and being picked up by
the breeze and carried off into the ethereal blue, he turned to his companion
in the mud and said, "You’d never get me up in one of those things!"
Yet — right within that caterpillar was the very life which would one day bring
a metamorphosis and carry him into the heavens. But he didn’t know it!
At the fall of man,
we lost our identity. We are all here by choice, and have forgotten why we
came! In Christ God is now giving us back our true
identity, and we are waking up to our true nature. "Wherefore
he saith, Awake thou that sleepest,
and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light" (Eph.
From out of
eternity, before time began,
In the bosom of the Father, while the morning stars sang
I shouted for joy while beholding His great plan,
God’s purpose on earth, His election in man!
A story I once read
illustrates the truth of our journey back into the fullness of Christ. It
concerns a peculiar case of creeping paralysis recorded in medical records
about a hundred years ago. The man afflicted lost his eyesight to begin with.
Then hearing left him. Then followed by slow degrees the loss
of the sense of taste, of smelling, and of feeling. Finally he lost all
power of motion. He was perfectly helpless. All avenues of approach to his mind
were entirely blocked. He could breathe and even speak to the world. But the
world could not speak to him, for there was no open avenue of communication. He
was dead to the world apparently. But one day it was accidentally discovered
that there was one spot on his cheek which was capable of feeling. By tracing
letters on that spot his friends could at last speak to him, and thus a
connection was established between his little world and the great world
without. But that was merely a beginning! A most strange phenomenon took place.
Slowly, ever so slowly, by stimulating this one spot of sensitivity, an
awakening and process of rehabilitation was begun and the day came when the man
was fully restored. Oh, yes! God has come to us by His Spirit and has touched
our spirit in that small susceptible spot of divine life where we yearn after
Him and, like the prodigal in the pigpen, we have begun to come to
ourselves!
It is doubtful that
in all the scripture any subject is more prominent and yet surrounded with such
mystery as the truth concerning the spirit in man. Now let me share with you a
further truth concerning the life, or that spirit which was breathed into each
of us. Many scripture passages, and the parables of our Lord, call it a
"seed." The Bible uses the illustration of a seed to tell us who we
really are! You see, to tell a person in a darkened state of mind, bound in
sin-consciousness, in their present weak and frail human condition that they
are the manifestation of God on the earth, would be absolutely impossible for
them to fathom. If they did understand such a concept, they would receive it
into their carnal minds, become puffed up and egotistical, distort, misapply,
misuse, and abuse it, becoming even a worse devil than they are.
The seed of God is
in every man, and the life of that seed is the spirit of man. But you
meet the drunk on the street, you see your unconverted, worldly-minded
neighbor, you rub shoulders with the people of the world, you watch the evening
television news, and you don’t see God in anybody! That is because God in every
man is a seed. A seed doesn’t do anything. It just is. It can lie on the
shelf for fifty years and never express a thing! You see no action, no
manifestation of the life within; all you see is the outer shell which reveals
nothing. Seeds have been found in the tombs of
Can we not see by
this that the spirit of man is indeed the seed of God but it is buried in,
encased by, the outer man of flesh, the carnal understanding, and the natural
consciousness. Just as a credit card or a cell phone must be activated,
the spirit of man must be activated! Until it is activated it is not a living,
pulsating, energizing, ruling, growing power in man. It must be germinated,
quickened by the power of the invigorating rain of God’s Word and the warm
sunshine of God’s Spirit! Once our spirit is quickened by God’s Spirit, it
springs forth into new birth. And that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit — it doesn’t become spirit when it is born, it already was
spirit before it was "born" just as a flesh and blood baby already is
flesh and blood before it is born! If the seed of God in man were not
spirit, the offspring of God, it would not be quickened into God-like-ness by
the act of re-generation!
Let there be no
doubt in the mind of any reader of these lines that WE DID NOT BECOME SEED BY
REBIRTH — WE WERE SEED AND THEREFORE WERE REBORN, FOR ONLY THAT CAN BE RE-BORN,
RE-NEWED, RE-GENERATED, RE-SURRECTED, AND RE-STORED WHICH ALREADY EXISTS. It is
not simply that sin has made a necessity for God to do something new, but
rather that sin had diminished and darkened something old, which needs to be
restored. The recreative and reconstructive work of
the Holy Spirit is grounded on the primordial nature of the spiritual life in
man. Men are made to be divinely inhabited, to live in eternal inspiration and
conscious union with God. To be "in the spirit" is the heritage of
every man, his original and normal condition, his light, his strength, his
glory. Because we are seed is the reason we can be quickened! In
non-seed there is nothing to quicken! And it is not the flesh that is being
quickened, but the inner man of spirit!
Hold this carefully
in mind. Now take the next step. To redeem means to buy back. It
restores to the original owner and state. Jesus, by His
death, the shed blood, BOUGHT BACK HIS OWN. He bought back every son and
daughter out of His loins. You never were anything but a son of God! You never
were a pig or a dog or a devil or a mere human animal. That is impossible, for
every kind of life produces the same kind and there is no change of specie. As
we came out of the loins of God into this existence on earth, there had to come
a day when we would hear His voice, and hearing that voice become aware of our
Father calling us, and recognize that we are the sons of God. We heard His
voice and we cried out, as did the prodigal son, "Save me, oh, my Father!
I am returning to Thee." The Father’s promise is sure, as Linda Musgrove
has articulated in her beautiful song (available on cassette or CD from Stacy
and Linda Musgrove,
I’ll take you back
to where you were in me
Before the fall of man;
I’ll restore your soul, I’ll reconcile your heart,
I’ll give you back your true identity!
I’m removing the veil from your eyes
So that you can clearly see;
You will be with me in
On this earth you’ll walk with me!
A son of God can go
a long time before he is awakened to the fact of his sonship.
In fact a lot of God’s children are like the story of the baby eagle that was
hatched out under a hen. You know that the eagle is a type of the sons of God
who live and soar in the high places of the Spirit. Well, a farmer took an egg
from an eagle’s nest and he placed it under a hen. In due time all the eggs
under the hen hatched out. The baby chicks got along fine with the mother hen
but that little eagle could not figure out the clucking and scratching for food
in the manure pile. He managed to make a living but he was pretty confused
about it all. But one day, from way up in the air the mother eagle that had
laid the egg spied that little eagle on the ground. She swooped down with
tremendous speed and screamed at the top of her voice for him to fly up to meet
her. He had never heard an eagle cry, but when he heard that first scream
something in him stirred and he longed to launch out toward it. But he was
afraid to try. Again that mother screamed for him to arise in the wind and
follow her. He screamed back that he was afraid. Once more she called out,
screaming that he try. Beating his wings he hurled
himself into the air, and answering the cry of his mother, he soared off into
the blue skies. You see, he always was an eagle! He acted like a chicken for a
little while but he could not be satisfied. But when he heard the call of the
great eagle he came to his own place. And once a son of God hears the cry of
the Spirit by the Word, he too, will realize who he is and run to the great
eagle who begat him to be seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We are
"being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by
the word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever" (I Pet.
I freely confess
that I believe in the reconciliation and restoration of all men to God. I have
to believe it, because if the seed of God is in every man, every man must
hear the voice of the Son of God and live. "Marvel not at this: for the
hour is coming when all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and
shall come forth…verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now
is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear
shall live" (Jn. 5:25,28).
The seed of Christ
is in every man, but God has an appointed time for that life to be revealed.
And how is it revealed? You take that seed, you plant it in the earth, and in
the appointed time God sends two elements that will produce a revelation of
Christ out of that person, in his time. I don’t care who the man is; there’s a
time, an appointed hour. God sends the sun of His illumination, and the rain of
His quickening life, He rains upon that seed and shines upon that seed, and
there is a stirring of that life on the inside, and suddenly the shell which
concealed the life begins to burst. The revelation of the life that is in the
seed comes by the removal of the outer part of the seed. The inner life is
released. The genetic code is intact. Everything that plant will ever be is
right there in the seed! When the life springs forth all that hindered is
broken asunder. Every step of the revelation of Christ is an unveiling! God
removes the outer, and when it is gone we behold the power, beauty, and glory
of the inner life. Some of us were in churches, in denominations, and God began
to stir us. The life of sonship was already there.
All God did was break open the cocoon that we were in, so that the thing He had
planted in us could come forth, stretch its wings, and fly away into the
heavens of God’s Spirit. Oh, the wonder of it!
Some years ago I
received a tape from Bob and Charlotte Torango which
spoke powerfully in my spirit.
There was no history
of this in my family, but it happened. Very gradually over nearly sixty years,
that bone kept moving by microscopic measures toward the center. Finally it
began to compress my spinal cord, at the base of the brain stem. Symptoms appeared
which I contributed to age and arthritis. Eventually, overnight, I developed
very serious symptoms. I awoke one morning with pain and weakness in all my
extremities, coupled with involuntary movements of both arms and legs. I could
barely walk, and at times collapsed. An MRI showed that my spinal cord had been
compressed to the thickness of a ribbon. The neurosurgeon told me that if the
damage had not been done so very, very slowly over many years, I would have
already been either dead or quadriplegic, but my body had kept compensating for
the damage until finally it could compensate no more.
A brain surgeon
performed the surgery, going trans-orally (through the roof of my mouth) into
the area of the brain stem and cutting away the bone, releasing the pressure
from the spinal cord. The doctor informed me that I should at least partially
recover from the near-paralysis and other symptoms, but that he could guarantee
no progress beyond one year. Well, let me tell you something. There’s a seed
in my earth! You see, at the time of my illness I earnestly sought the Lord for
healing. We have experienced the power of God in healing and miracles! In my
early ministry, in the days of the great healing revivals, the Lord performed
mighty signs and wonders through my word. This time, however, the Lord spoke
right out of my spirit and plainly said, "I’m not going to heal this. You
will have the surgery!" When I received that word from the Father, He also
gave a peace, peace that passes understanding, peace so deep that it cannot be
fathomed. When I was wheeled in for a surgery that was the equivalent of brain
surgery, there was no fear nor apprehension
whatsoever, I wasn’t even nervous. I was able to laugh and joke with the nurses
until I passed out. And, my friends, I have continued to experience progress in
my physical condition far beyond what the doctors promised — progress every
year since 1995! And while I don’t put a great premium on this physical,
earthly realm, I will not be at all surprised when my change comes and all
the effects of the spinal cord injury and the surgery disappear!
Now, why do I relate
this? Because what I had was a congenital anomaly. It was a condition I
had from birth, from before birth, even from before conception, hidden away
somewhere in the seed (genetic make-up) of my parents who conceived me. You
see, we are prone to look at our whole carnal, human state as a congenital
condition. We think we are like we are because we were born that way! We
say, "I was born in sin. I was born alienated from God. I was born dead. I
was born Irish, and I do have a temper! I was born an alcoholic, I was
born homosexual, I was born lustful and over-sexed, I was born prideful, I was born with my foot in my mouth." That’s how we see
ourselves if we look from the earthlies, with a
carnal mind!
When you look from
the heavenlies, however, you see something else! You
came into this world out of the bosom of the Father! Before the Creator formed
you, He knew you. He didn’t know you in your present physical form as Joe Smith
or Sally Brown, but He knew you as spirit. God spoke to you about His
plan for your life before ever you were formed as an embryo in the womb of your
mother. Paul states it so clearly when he says, "Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as He hath chosen us in
Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love" (Eph. 1:3-4). The Amplified Bible reads,
"Even as He chose us (actually picked us out for Himself as His own) in
Christ before the foundation of the world."
Never doubt this reality for a moment — the only way God could have loved you, chose you in Christ, and picked you out for His own before the foundation of the world is that you truly existed in and with Him before the appearing of the worlds. Nothing can be plainer than that! Yet we have supposed that we were just recently, in this life, apprehended of God to sonship. I thought the work of God began in my life sixty years ago. Now I find that the thing God is doing with humanity began in eternity! It didn’t begin in time. It began before the ages were framed! God loved me, chose me, knew me, counseled with me, and picked me out for His unique purpose before the foundation of the world. My origin was in God! God begat me of Himself as spirit before He exhaled me as spirit into a very unique body upon earth. THUS, I WAS BORN INTO THIS WORLD WITH THAT CONGENITAL CONDITION — A SPIRITUAL BEING HAVING AN EARTHLY EXPERIENCE! And so were you, precious friend of mine, and so was every man who has walked planet earth. We were born this way. We were born with a spirit, as well as a soul and a body. We came into this world with a God-ward side, with the instinct to seek after God, with a yearning after Him.