Someone wrote concerned that we might be confusing ourselves with God. But in right understanding of what we have been given to say, there can be no confusion between the Lamb of God and those of us who are His in union with Him.  We continually say that we live only "by the Life of Another!" That is our continuous theme, now and forever!

The only way we come to know Him as ourselves, is by that same emptying described in that Philippian passage. Yes, there are those who say they are Christ, and take that in a completely wrong direction. Christ is servant; Christ dies for others; whatever Christ does, there is essentially nothing in it for Himself; He has nowhere to lay His head. He does not seek his own "rights." When asked by some to settle a dispute over property, He refused, and told them to "take heed, and beware of covetousness; for a man's life does not consist of the abundance of the things he possesses." That's the Christ we are referring to when we say He has come to be in us as one person with us. But I have known people who have thought it meant others should serve them, others should obey them, others should come and worship at their fount, rather than lead others to the fount IN THEM.

And we also must be emptied of our false consciousness of our own deity, which all of us are born with. This is the "vanity" the scriptures speak of, which we sometimes call "independent self." Whether in fear or pride, we worship ourselves and are our own fountain of life, until the True Light is revealed. So that is the deity (and the devil who gives it existence) WE must be emptied of, which is not, of course, the same deity the Son had to be emptied of -- though in a sense, it is tantamount to the same thing. What I mean is this. Though Jesus truly was the Son, He had to come in the humility, weakness and limitations of a man. Therefore He had to really BE that, not just pretend. So divinity had to go. For the Second Adam to overcome, He had to walk the way of the First Adam and redeem him in his humanity.

We have a false sense of self-deity from the lie of the devil, which of course Jesus did not, but He had the same temptation to that false sense of deity that Adam had, and just as Adam, Jesus had to walk it and overcome it as a man. Because it is MAN that God is after, to bring Him into equality with God, not only as God's servant, but as His friend. One is not equal with his servants, but one cannot be unequal with his friends. Or they are not friends. Jesus said we are His friends, and even more than that, that we are "one" in the same oneness of the Godhead, which has always been the original intent of the Godhead since before the Garden. (John 17:11; 20-22)

That's a big pill to swallow, but it is the truth.

Of course, only those who have known utterly their complete inward death to the false vanity are safe to live in that friendship. Otherwise, it goes to our head, you might say, and you end up with those who have grasped this concept only intellectually, "in the flesh," we might say, but not by the Spirit, who in our emptiness (humility, contriteness of heart, poverty of spirit, weakness, etc.) causes us to walk simultaneously in human weakness portraying in it the power of God. The former produces "lording over others," while the latter is manifest by a laid-down life.

Now, the truth is out there for all, and it can either be rightly used or misused. It is God who put the truth out there, knowing the danger. "With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt show thyself froward." (Ps 18:26) God knows what is at stake.

Therefore, we can only testify to the truth as we have been given to see it, and let the chips fall. In order to walk in the truth, we must know our false old selves and anything of that former confusion has thoroughly died and come to a final end, so that now He has risen in us in newness of life, living in completeness, manifesting Himself through the totality of our now redeemed and perfected humanity. We were instruments of the spirit of sin, but now that spirit has been expelled from us, and we are now fully and wholly instruments (tools, agents, manifestations) of the spirit of Life. From then on we take up His Cross and walk in it. However, it is possible to take the same truth, that God is in us all, and retain ourselves and refuse His cross, and therefore misuse it according to the pride of the flesh which is really the devil in disguise. And it is God who has determined it to be this way. He understands the dangers and the glories obviously far better than we do. But the dangers have to be confronted and discarded, to get to the prize. And the prize is Him and Him only, and what He is after  -- to bring "many sons to glory" -- by US!

There is no way formulate a workable (so much of me, so much of him) equation with "as He is, so are we in this world."  (1 Jn 4:17). We cannot "figure it out" on that level. It is not a mathematical formula, where x + y = z. It IS literally true and we can take that word as such, but it is walking by faith and not by sight. Still, however, that does not mean that it is true in the spiritual unseen world but not true in the temporal visible world. As one walks it, we realize the "oneness" is the temporal (visible) world as much as it is the spiritual (invisible) world. One doesn't figure it out by intellectual analysis or endless discussion, but plunges in by faith, and the Spirit teaches us as we go.

It is again, not an exercise of the intellectual understanding, to "see God in everything." That is an impossibility. This is not a palpable, sensible (of the senses) sight. Just as God is not palpable to the senses, and His truth is the same as He. Not of the "senses."

Because if it is truth, it is true in the same way, as God is true and truth. When we judge as a man sees, by the "outward appearance," that becomes an exclusive sight. The outward appearance is everything to us. It is only the outermost outside shell of things, and we judge everything by it, even the so-called "spiritual." Our eyes are closed to seeing through in EVERYTHING to its source, which is ALWAYS ultimately God in His perfect love purposes, once one gets past the layers of appearances.

But when our eyes see the truth that God is All in all, we "see" that the outward and the inward exist in the same oneness in God, that He fills it all with Himself and that everything accomplishes His will and purpose. So, when we are enlightened by the Spirit on this, we see no essential difference between inner and outer, invisible and visible, for it is all One in God, and we are One in Him also.

The only way to open our understanding is to plunge into God's truth (as He has shown us in some way) by faith, i.e., as a reality to be received by faith and lived today, entering His rest "today", saying it is so "today," as Hebrews exhorts and so sternly warns us.

The understanding will come, because we learn He Himself IS our understanding.

Therefore take this as your liberty and independence from the slavery of sin and self-absorption, which is the only true freedom. Whatever freedom there may be in nations in the world, it is a but dim reflection of this ultimate liberty in sonship to God. True freedom has nothing to do with politics or men's governments or policies. Jesus said His servants would not fight in that realm, because His kingdom is not of this world "or my servants would fight," He said.

As Paul wrote to the Galatians:

For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. (Gal 3:26-28) [I'll take a little liberty with Paul's thought: "There is neither republican nor democrat; there is neither liberal nor conservative; there is neither Catholic nor Protestant; there is neither black nor white; there is neither rich nor poor; there is neither American nor non-American: for all are ONE in Christ Jesus!"]

Surely we know no other liberty, save that which is found only in Christ Jesus our Lord. For the so-called "liberty" which men author and seek, is always bound in some way in self-seeking, because it cannot be any other way. There is no pure liberty except God's. It belongs to no political party, no nationality, no theory of government, no set of ideals, no code of ethics, no system of laws, no erroneously called "Christian" society or any other society based on religion or spirituality, nor in any other thing at all. Except it be found in God through Jesus Christ alone without any of these other things, there is no true liberty. It is a counterfeit liberty pumped up by rhetoric, buzz-words and emotional speeches, by fear-mongering emotion and dubiously "massaged" facts, fooling people that their cause, whatever it is, is just and true and given them of God, and gives them the right to persecute and sanction (or worse) their neighbors. God does not sanction such foolishness.

O Church of Christ! Flee these things! Return to your original liberty, and do not seek the things of this world! Give your time, energy, and fortune to bring the Real Liberty to men, and don't join with those who continually vomit fear, accusations, and hatred toward and for their brothers on the human tree! Do you not know we are all of one human tree? Do you not know all are your brothers and sisters? Do you not know when you hate anyone, despise anyone, demean anyone, speak evil of anyone, you do it to Christ? God didn't send these fomenters of hate and discord. They are false prophets. FLEE THEM!!!!

"Inasmuch as you have done it to the least of these, you have done it unto Me?"

The liberty of Jesus is to love. He came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them. The liberty of Jesus is to lay down our lives for the brethren, as God sees fit. We are not sufficient for these things, but He is sufficient in us to do what He has called us to do. The liberty of Jesus is not to take too big a part in the CONTINUAL (from the beginning until now) conflicts of men, but to be a testimony of love in the midst of them. The liberty of Jesus is to love our so-called enemies, turning them into friends if we can. Some we cannot, but the liberty of Jesus is not then to take up the sword and to "shock and awe" them by bombs and guns into submission. That is the way of the world and will always be the way of the world. Our "way" is Christ. Let us live the Christ we are. That is true liberty. Let us bear about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life of Jesus might be manifest in our mortal flesh. That is liberty. That is freedom.

So here in the USA we are about to celebrate our Independence Day. Let it not be about Thomas Jefferson and King George III, or Cornwallis' redcoats or the blue-suited soldiers of Washington, but for those of us in Christ, let our fireworks be a celebration of the real liberty which we have been given by grace -- the greatest liberty of all -- to have been made friends of God and joined with Him in His eternal purposes of love: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord."

Amen, and Happy Freedom Day!

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