Jesus
specifically stated that God hides the truth from the wise and prudent. (Matt.
11:25) He does this by speaking of spiritual truths using physical descriptions.
The spiritual implications then need to be opened to the heart by the Spirit. He
reveals the truth to those who come to Him as dependent little children.
(Jam.
The
wise and prudent dislike having anything spiritualized. They prefer to deal with
what they can grasp with their own intellect. This is the reason why Paul was
unable to speak of the deeper spiritual truths to carnal
people.
We
also recognize the danger of trying to spiritualize God’s Word in a way that
distorts the truth. With these thoughts in mind, we express the following
beliefs without wanting to be dogmatic. But as we recognize Jesus as the Second
Adam, we have to assume that He walked with God in the same way that the first
Adam first walked with God. Jesus spoke of the Father always being with Him; and
yet, no one was able to see the Father walking with Him. In effect, the Father
walked with Him by walking in Him.
We
therefore believe that the Garden of Eden, which is the Paradise of God, should
be looked upon as a spiritual type used by God to help earthly-minded
people—those who think in temporal terms—to better understand spiritual
principles. Before the Fall, God {who is Spirit} walked
with Adam in this world as He walked with Jesus. You might say that the heavenly
realms touched the earth. In heaven, everyone shares with God in His life
because He is omnipresent. When there was no darkness separating the heavenly
realms from the earth, the Divine Life that is throughout the heavens touched
the earth. The heavens and the earth were one with each other. There was no
darkness separating the two. God, who is Eternal Spiritual Life, walked with
Adam because Adam walked on earth in the heavenly realms, sharing with God in
His spiritual life.
When
Jesus brought “light” {the eternal life} into the fallen world, He penetrated
the darkness that had separated the heavens from the earth after the Fall. Once He had completely overcome the “spirit of the
world” by denying the self-originated form of life to the point of death on a
cross, He was in a position to share His overcoming life with everyone who
chooses to walk as He did. When man was no longer living “out from” himself, God
could once again walk in man.
We
now have an opportunity to overcome the darkness. We can walk with God in the
same way the first Adam walked with God before the Fall
and in the same way the Second Adam walked with God after the Fall. Our spirit
can be lifted into the heavenly realms where it is possible to share with God in
His eternal “zoe” life. God is then able to “dwell in”
us and “walk in” us as we live in this fallen world. This is the way of life
that every believer needs to lay hold of by faith.
For
ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and
walk in them. (2 Cor. 6:16)
But
God…because of His great love…raised us up to together, and made us sit together
in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Eph. 2:4-6)
And
this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in
His Son. (1 John 5:11)
Fight
the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also
called… (1 Tim. 6:12)
Now
that the barrier of darkness which had separated man from the eternal life of
God has been torn apart, we can overcome the world and enter into the Presence
of God. The veil that separated man from God has been rent. We can now live in
the heavenly realms and eat from the Tree of Life by sustaining ourselves on God
alone. As the Son consistently shared with the Father in His heavenly life while
walking in this world, we too are enabled to share with Him in the spiritual
blessings found in His eternal life. (Eph. 1:3) It is in this sense that He can
establish the firstfruits of the Paradise of God
within our eternal soul.
As
the living Father sent Me, and I live {in the eternal
“zoe” life} because of the Father, so he who feeds on
Me {the Tree of Life} will live {in the same eternal life} because of Me. This
is the bread which came down from heaven… He who eats this bread {by sustaining
their spiritual life on Christ alone} will live forever. (John 6:57-58)
To
him who overcomes {the world and the flesh-life} I will give to eat from the
tree of life {so they may sustain themselves on the Son’s eternal “zoe” life}, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.
(Rev. 2:7)
The
Son has given every believer access to the Glory that He shares with the Father.
(John 17:22) We can now become like Him in heavenly love. (1 John 4:17) And yet
the people of the world, and many deceived people in the church, have “changed
the Glory for what does not profit.” (Jer. 2:11) There
are earnest but deceived Christians who are still turning away from the Bread of
Life for the temporal food of this world. It is the reason why they are not
enjoying Christ’s heavenly Presence within their soul. And until they are
consistently sharing with Him in His overcoming life, they can expect to find
themselves periodically being beaten up spiritually by the
devil.
We
need to distinguish between life in the desert-testing period and life in the
land of promise. God only supplied His people with periodic wells of refreshment
while He was taking them through the wilderness. This is where He works to break
the self-sufficient spirit. He can only perfect His power through His children
when they have no confidence in the flesh and have begun to live wholly by faith
in Him. He therefore takes them through long dry spells to drain their cracked
cistern of everything that is self-originated. Of course, He sustains them with
the promises in His Word and occasionally takes them to special wells of
refreshment to build up their hope and to keep them from completely turning back
to a self-directed way of life. He wants to keep them encouraged so they will
fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on the eternal life that flows
without ceasing.
Unfortunately,
the “spirit of the world” and “the spirit of error” keep turning them back to
the ways of this world for their relief. As they keep relying on their own
sufficiency and the temporal pursuits and pleasures of this world for their
spiritual support, God is required to use greater measures of suffering. It is
not easy to cause someone to lose all hope in this world and die to their
self-sufficient spirit. The flesh-life is not easily weakened and prepared for
death. God therefore continues to scourge His children to take the strength out
of their flesh-life as He prepares them for the cross and a complete death to
the old self-originated form of life. (Heb. 12:6, 10)
Blessed
is the man who endures temptation {in the time of testing}; for when he has
been approved {when the mind has been renewed and he is fully submitted to
God’s way of life}, he will receive the crown of life {the Kingdom-life that is
held in the heavenly realms and can now be imparted to the soul} which the Lord
has promised to those who love Him. (Jam.
He
who has My commandments and keeps them {in the time of
testing}, it is he who loves Me…and I will love him and manifest Myself to Him.
(John 14:21)
But
may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ
Jesus {to share in His glory}, after you have suffered a while {in
dying out to the old flesh-life}, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle
you. (1 Pet. 5:10 Emphasis added)
God
never presses His children beyond what they can bear. He recognizes the need for
a careful balance between suffering and encouragement. He does not want anyone
to completely turn back to the world. But the special times of refreshing that
He supplies should not be mistaken for the life of promise. Christ has come to
supply the soul with an endless supply of His Living Water. “As the Scripture
has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” When He comes in
“the power of an endless life” (Heb. 7:16), His people “never thirst.” (John
4:14) Those who still experience an up and down spiritual life can know there is
a better life – the eternal “zoe” life – where it is
possible to consistently enjoy the indwelling Presence of the
Lord.
Thus
says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his
strength, whose heart departs from the Lord {to work out his own affairs}. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall inhabit the
parched places in the wilderness…
“Blessed
is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he
shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the
river, and will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green {because
the Living Water never fails}, and will not be anxious in the year of
drought {because the river of life continues to flow}, nor will cease from
yielding fruit… I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give
every man according to his ways {whether you are living by the flesh or the
Spirit}… (Jer. 17:5-10 Emphasis
added)
The
Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought {regardless of
the conditions around you}… You will be like a watered garden, and like a spring
of water, whose waters do not fail. (Isa.
58:11)
It
is in the wilderness testing period that God determines if we are willing to
become like Jesus. In this age of fulfillment {the New Testament}, God has
spoken to us through His Son because He is the target of our faith. We are to
become like Him in this world. And those who do not cease from their own works
and learn to yield to His way of life so that His “light” may be manifested
through them, will end up being like the foolish
virgins. They will come before the Lord, referring to Him as their Lord, but He
will insist that He does not know them. Their problem is that they never
permitted Him to manifest His life through the vessel of their body. Therefore,
they are not fit to enter into the kingdom of God
Can
you begin to see why we must choose today where we plan to live throughout
eternity? There are only two choices. Either we will choose to live through
Jesus in His light of life, or we will find ourselves eternally separated from
His life and in outer darkness where there will be misery forever. With this
thought in mind, we close this chapter with some thoughts from G. D. Watson. In
speaking of “A Gentle Spirit,” he reminds us of the absolute necessity of
yielding to the Spirit who was in Jesus. For “the wisdom that is from above is
first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good
fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” (Jam.
…Unless
we, from the bottom of our hearts, desire a gentle spirit, and then by the grace
of God determine that we will have it, it is not likely that we will ever know
its inexpressible blessedness.
It
is possible for us to desire sanctification [to enter into the life of promise],
and even resolve on having it, without involving the proper appreciation of
having a soul filled with all the meekness and gentleness of Jesus. It is a law
in the spiritual life that we get from God just about what we determine to have.
It is amazing how God watches and honors the deep, serious determinations of the
will of His creatures. Most men do not know that they determine to go to hell
[and this includes many in the church], but such will be proved to be the fact
in the Day of Judgment…
Every
advance step in grace must be preceded by first apprehending it, and then a
prayerful resolve to have it. Real gentleness is not a mere set of parlor
manners that we can put off and on; it must be soaked into every fiber of our
being, and must be drawn from a divine fountain.
So
few are willing to undergo the suffering out of which gentleness comes. We must
die before we are turned into gentleness. Crucifixion involves suffering, and it
is not a painted death but a real breaking and crushing of self which wrings the
heart and conquers the mind. There is a good deal of mere mental and logical
sanctification nowadays which is only a religious fiction…such a one goes forth
with a gay, flippant, theological prattle about the deep things of God; but the
natural heartstrings have not been snapped, and the Adamic flint has not been ground to powder…and the beautiful
self-constructed air castles have not been crushed to pieces. And not having the
real death-marks of Calvary there cannot be
that soft, gentle, floating, victorious, overflowing, triumphant life that flows
out like a spring morning from an empty tomb…
To
have a real gentle spirit there must not be the least secret feeling of anything
bitter, or sour, or severe, or combative, or dictatorial, or a sitting in
judgment, or religious braggadocio spirit. If we do not know how to suffer, then
we will never know how to be gentle.
