ERSKINE HOLT -- February 1, 1994 - Purcellville, VA

I'm not only glad to be here tonight, I'm glad that my better half is with me. Honey, would you stand up or raise your hand or do something. She hasn't traveled with me too much in the past few years and so it's a treat for her to be with me.

The last time I was here -- was it August? This will be on the humorous side, but in Peru we have a cappucino place, an ice cream called the "Cuatro D" which means "Four Ds" and there had been four bachelors that we've been pushing for a long time. One of them was a member of the House of Representatives in New Hampshire. His name is Dean Dexter. We finally got him married off. And then there was another fellow named Dennis Bolduk (phonetic sp.) that was dragging his feel and I pushed him until he went with me to Colombia and God got a hook in his jaw and he came back and decided to go to Peru. Then in Peru one of our interpreters was a girl named Mary Soul, who speaks both English and Spanish. He took one look and Dennis was gone. So, in October -- on October the 10th we had a marriage ceremony in the Episcopal church in Lima, Peru and Raoul Arcy was the one that performed the ceremony. But, that wasn't valid because they didn't have all the paperwork. So, we had to bring them back and have a second marriage in Laconia and this was valid. Well, while Dennis was falling in love with Mary Soul, prior that time another brother who had been traveling with me named Dave Stevens -- he was out in Iquitos in a little Bible school out in the boonies and he fell for Giovanna. Giovanna was of an Italian background girl and she held him off. So, he backed off. But just recently he got a letter from Italy and in the letter she said, "I made a mistake." So, letters came fast and furious and Dave is now in Italy. There's only one fellow left of the four Ds and that's a fellow named Don Rumbol and we believe it's about time for him to find his better half. Amen.

God has been good to us especially in Peru. Of all the countries that I've labored in I think Peru gives me the most satisfaction. Whether it's in the upper levels of society or the river people on the Amazon, it doesn't make any difference. There's an openness that you just don't see in this country. Everybody who has gone feels the same way. We got back in October in time to attend that conference in Atlanta, which I think is a wonderful thing. God is bringing people back together again who had walls for a long time.

When we had our New Year's conference there was one word that came out strong and that was "forgiveness" -- the necessity of forgiveness, but tempered with the idea that you cannot really forgive unless you have the right relationship with God. So, the first relationship must be vertical. Get reconciled to God and then you can be reconciled to people. And it was very strong and God was with us during that retreat.

Prior to that time I felt definitely led of the Lord to go to Guadalajara. I have a friend there who is a teacher in a school called the Cristo Amundo. My daughter complained a little bit because she said, "You don't have the money." But I said, "The Lord told me to go and He will supply, someway, somehow." Well, God had given us a new group of people in Southern Pines, North Carolina and when we went there for a service they gave me enough money in one service to take care of the Guadalajara trip. I remember sending the check back to my daughter and saying, "Ha, ha." If God calls you, God supplies. Right now we're waiting to go back to Peru, but the cash flow hasn't come in yet. But, God will do something about it.

We went down there specifically from our own angle to confirm ministries and impart spiritual gifts to these young students, about 75 of them, very on fire for God. But, about mid-week the Lord said, "Do you know why you really are down here" and I just had a conference -- "Lord, I think I'm here to do what I've been doing." He said, "No, there's something else you're supposed to be doing."

Now, I want you to turn with me to the second chapter of the book of Ephesians. I am not going to be homiletical tonight. I'm just going to share. If you recall me teaching even the last time -- and we've talked before along this line -- in the three stages of the church the first stage is a household, family. That's where a lot of people are is in family. In the family you have people of all different age levels. You have problems. You have people. Where you have people, you have problems. But, in the second stage where the church is to grow into a temple in the Lord, I want you to notice the wording -- verse 20 -- "And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. Jesus Christ himself, being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building, fitly framed together, goeth into a holy temple in the Lord." And the Lord said, "This is the real reason why you are in Guadalajara. You are here to emphasize the fact that the real foundation of the Church is Christ. It's not meetings. It's not songs, especially those songs that are a part of it. But, your job is to teach people that the only foundation that can really be laid is the same one that Paul talked about." He said, "No other foundation can be laid than that which is laid, which is Christ." And with the emphasis upon the person of Christ.

What the church has done over the years has given lots of knowledge about Christ, but it's not the same as the person of Christ. The Scripture that bears this out is the words of Jesus in John 5:39-40 where he's talking to the Pharisees and he said, "You search the Scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life and they are they which testify of me and you will not come to me that you might have life." Life is not in the Scriptures per se. It's in the Christ that the Scriptures talk about. He will use the Word to speak to us. God has been giving insight. I'm learning more and more the all sufficiency of the Lord Jesus. One of the things that he began to deal with me on was in line with what I gave the last time and the summation -- God when he gave me my two new eyes with implants, not healing in the normal sense of the term. But, he gave me one of the best doctors in the country for eye surgery and blessed me now with two eyes that used to be very poor -- without glasses 20/600 and that's not very good. That means you have a six foot radius and then everything else is a blur. I know have 20/15 vision in both eyes. I'm no longer nearsighted; I'm farsighted and I can use the cheap reading glasses that you get in the drugstore to read with now. I used to take my glasses off to read, but now I have to have them because I've become farsighted.

At the same time, God said to me, as you recall the last time, "I've given you two new eyes in the natural, but I want to give you spiritual eyes." And that's exactly what God has been bearing down on. The Scripture is the third chapter of the book of Revelation where one part of it says this -- you don't need to turn to it unless you wish to see it -- "Anoint your eyes with eye salve that you may see."

Now the strange thing about the word "anointing" -- there are three levels, if you really search the Greek you'll find there are three levels of anointing that are mentioned in the word of God. There is one level that is the poured on anointing, which is the thing that you have when you initially get filled with the Holy Spirit. You gush. It's outward. It's just all over you. That's the first step. Then there is a rubbed on anointing which is not quite so visible. Then there is the third anointing which is the rubbed in until it's invisible. It just doesn't show up. The only two places where that is found is Revelation 3:18 and I John 2:27 where he talks about the "abiding anointing that is truth and no lie and teaches you what you need to know."

What God has been saying to me recently is the fact that we've come to the place where we're going to have to start living by faith and we're going to have to learn on how to draw on that anointing that is within. What we try to do is to praise the Lord until something comes upon us. Our tendency is to sort of gradually work it up. It's not that that's wrong, it's just the fact that there's a better way and that way is the way of faith. Without faith it's impossible to please God. God wants to be praised. But, we've had things sort of backwards and we praise in our realms of feelings until we feel real good and then we begin to move in the Spirit. What God is saying is you should be in the Spirit most of the time so that it's easy to move into the other realm because the divine order, according to the Apostle Paul, is "I will pray with the Spirit. I will pray with the understanding also." He puts the praying in the Spirit first. "I will sing with the Spirit. I will sing with the understanding also."

Now I know that in a mixed audience like you have when you come together, say, on Sunday you have to follow the Scripture. You can't have a wholesale demonstration of praying in the Spirit. But, we should be praying in the Spirit all the time.

I'm in my 52nd year now of ministry and if there's anything that I hold dear to my heart it's the gift of tongues. If I have any anointing at all it's come from that. God taught me a long time ago, don't stop talking in tongues. I warned about the limitations that you have in an open meeting where unbelievers and ungifted are present. But, all the time walk in the Spirit, to pray in the Spirit, to sing objectively and to sing subjectively in the Spirit. When you pray in tongues the Bible says, what? "My spirit prayeth." Are spirit needs to be exercised. One of the reasons why there's been a sort of a letdown in the operation of the gifts of the Spirit on a more wholesale basis in the church is because there hasn't been enough seedbed in the Spirit. We have substituted for it a soul realm that is anointed, but it's not quite the same. There is anointed praise, but anointed praise is not quite the same as worshipping in the Spirit.

We shared a long time ago with you about the fact that we felt that in 1982 God gave us the divine order in Lima, Peru when we were ministering that you pray to receive. You praise to give to the Lord, but when you worship it's a desire to be one with Him. And the highest form is worship is absolute silence. "Be still and know that I am God."

So, God pushed me to magnify the Lord Jesus. He has been teaching me now for the past year and a half or two years a divine order in our own being. That is that God wants to get to our spirit first and then that will motivate the soul realm and then finally the body realm because it's the spirit of man that God speaks to. We think sometimes it's soul, but actually he speaks to the spirit.

This scripture over in 1 Corinthians 2 is one that I think people ought to look at frequently because it's a principle. Verse 11. "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. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God."

In Proverbs 20:27 it says, "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord searching in the inner parts of the belly." In other words, God operates through our spirit and begins to reveal the things that need to be carried to him in prayer and things we need to study about. But, it comes through the spirit first and then comes into our intellect. And that's the reason why that even children can be blessed at a service when they don't understand a solitary thing that's going on, but God can minister by the Holy Ghost to their spirit and establish them in a way that you wouldn't believe. I remember my youngest daughter -- I used to put her to sleep -- with all the girls I used to put them to sleep by speaking and singing in tongues and God would minister to them. Of course, my youngest daughter Angela was filled with the Spirit when she was three. It did something for her -- did something for her. She wasn't old enough to understand, but you don't have to understand. God has a language -- a Spirit language that goes beyond words. It can be expressed in words, but it doesn't have to be. God can in a moment of time give you something by the Spirit that's real and you can't say, "He said this or said that" it's just you know what you know. So, God has been dealing with me along that line.

When I first got saved I had a desire to know God. I wanted to know all about Jesus. I wanted to know all about the Holy Spirit. We shared before, we were a frustrated individual because we were trying to apprehend God intellectually. I read all the books I could get my hand on and it never worked. The thing crystallized. The one thing I mentioned in this latest pamphlet I'm putting out on the Godhead -- it crystallized when I was teaching in a school in Zion, Illinois and one of the students said, "When we get to heaven who shall we see?" And I said, "You'll only see the Lord Jesus Christ." And the Spirit fell on the school and I taught for four solid hours. God crystallized all the things and put them together and I've never forgotten them. I had them in my heart and I was able to put them down on paper and that's what I've done.

But the whole thing is a magnification of the role of Jesus in everything. We have underestimated him. Christendom as a whole thinks of Jesus as the man of Galilee, the Savior of the world, which he is. But, a lot of it is historical. Spirit-filled people know better than that. They know the Bible speaks about the anointing. It talks about the Christ of God. It talks about the spirit of God that dwells in us. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His."

But, in the past few years God has been going beyond that and He's saying you're going to have to get a bigger vision of the Lord Jesus. He's more than your Savior. He's more than your healer. He's more than your baptizer. He is the Lord. And we emphasized that the last time when we were here. And that means we emphasize his deity.

Turn with me to Acts 2. I'll be skipping around. There is an order -- and I saw something just recently. You know how you can have a truth intellectually and then it becomes real by the Spirit. Chapter 2, verse 22. "You men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God, among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him, in the midst of you as you yourselves, ye also know." Then he begins to talk about the fact that this one -- this man Jesus Christ -- was foretold in the Old Testament through David. Verse 32, he magnifies this Jesus the man. "This Jesus that God hath raised up." In other words, he was resurrected. "Whereof we were all witnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost."

The man Christ Jesus as a man received the fullness of the Holy Spirit. He was limited on earth. He could only do that which he saw the Father do. He said, "Of mine own self I can do nothing." But when he was exalted and when he received the promise of the Holy Spirit, he said, "All power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore ..." Jesus was fulfilling the law when he was on earth. But after he became exalted he began to fulfill the divine purpose for which he has come upon the scene. And that is to bring everything under subjection -- everything. Because he must rule and reign until every enemy is put under his feet.

But Peter was very careful to not stop there. He said in verse 34, "David has not ascended to the heavens, but he sayeth himself, 'The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand til I make thy foes thy footstool.' Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made or declared that same Jesus whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ" -- or both Jehovah and Messiah.

And then emphasis of his lordship has been a passion with me in the past two years that I can't get away from. He is Lord. We haven't really begun to tap the potential that's in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now the Bible teaches that Jesus has two roles. Number one, he came to save the world. He was sent by the Father to die on the cross to save the world. The other mission that he had was to reveal the Father. Jesus made a declaration in the 17th chapter of John where he said, "As the Father has sent me, so send I you." We have a job. Our job, number one, is to save the world. That responsibility is squarely laid upon the shoulders of the church. We say we need to pray that God will save souls. God is saying to us, "You need to preach the Gospel and get people saved. It's your job to get them saved."

The 17th chapter of John is a very good commentary on the fact that though Jesus died for the world, he did not pray for the world. He prayed for his disciples because upon them rested the responsibility of getting the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

Then in the development of the epistles you find that Paul is always revealing that. Jesus was always talking about it. He wanted to reveal the Father. Scriptures like, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man comes to the Father but by me." These are Scriptures that the heart of Christ is to reveal deity. It's always that way.

It was during this last trip to Guadalajara that God began to show me that the eternal purpose of God is to have as much fellowship with us as He possibly can have. We are not gods. So, God has had to create an in between state called the new creation where we can have the fellowship that will gladden His heart and gladden ours. John put it this way, "Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son, and we write these things anew that your joy may be full." But God knows our frame. He knows we are but dust. He knows how carnal we are, how natural we are. So, he's first approaching us as the man Christ Jesus. And then step by step we learned that when Jesus died he became a quickening spirit so that the spirit of Christ now can come and be in every Christian.

But, God doesn't want to stop there. He wants to give the revelation that Jesus Christ is the star of the Bible -- from Genesis to Revelation he is the star. You have a whole lot of concepts that try to minimize the role of Jesus from the deity standpoint when the Bible clearly teaches that he not only existed as God before the incarnation, he was God even after the incarnation because the book of Isaiah teaches that, "A virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us." We normally don't think so much of Jesus as God. It's because God honors our hearts rather than our thinking. We just don't try to analyze. But, when you dig into it, you find out that it's important to confess him as Lord, not just as an initial stage of salvation, but a whole way of life. He's Lord of every situation.

Did I share the last time I was here with you about my girls up in Alaska? Do you remember about a house? They moved from Juneau to Anchorage and bought a house and then after she was up there for a while -- I mean, before she went up there, she was in Juneau for a while then she was given this offer in Nome at double the salary. I called upon some people that know how to get a hold of God and one brought had a vision of a cage and I got a no-no from the Lord. Then a little bit later on she had the offer from Anchorage and this time the same people and a lot of others gave an affirmative answer. It's okay. So, they bought a house and it's simply fantastic the way they got that thing started. They couldn't sell the house in Juneau, but they leased it to the Coast Guard for $1,400 a month, which is enough to pay for the house in Juneau and a little extra to go on the new house that they got in Anchorage. And how she swung that thing -- $110,000 home, four bedrooms and two and one half baths, sitting on top of a hill in the Eagle River. It's fantastic the way God has blessed.

But it shouldn't seem that way to us because the Lord can do anything. And more and more I am convinced that we have sort of let him down. We lean on something else when it comes to certain areas and he's saying, "I'm the Lord of everything, not just things that are religious. I'm the Lord of everything."

I don't know whether I told the story last time, but a long time ago when I was with the denomination, I was supposed to start a church in Indiana and I was getting nowhere. The party that let me have the land to put my tent on -- I was holding a tent meeting -- she finally said, "I've got a sick dog. Can your God heal my dog?" I said, "Yes." So, she brought the sick dog over and I laid hands on the sick dog and prayed for the sick dog and God healed the dog. There's a church today in Hartford City, Indiana because that sick dog was healed. Normally God doesn't heal sick dogs, but he can do anything. We limit the Holy One of Israel. Amen.

What I want to do tonight is to magnify the Lord Jesus Christ in certain Scriptures. I want you turn with me first to Ephesians, chapter three, beginning with about verse eight. Keep in mind the divine principle that God taught from Titus 3:4-6, that God always operates through the Son -- always. From the very beginning He's always operated through the Son. He continues to operate through the Son. "My God shall supply all your needs according to his riches and glory" -- how? "By Christ Jesus." Amen. It's always that way. Here in Ephesians 3 Paul says in verse 8, "Unto me who is the least of all saints is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles" -- or the sinners -- "the unsearchable riches of Christ and to make all men see what is this fellowship of the mystery." What is the mystery? I want you to turn to I Timothy 3:16. "Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." Notice the emphasis? There is a mystery. And a mystery is something that can only be revealed by divine revelation. You don't get this out of a concordance. You have to get it from the Spirit.

God was manifest in the flesh. The miracle was God was manifested in a form in the Old Testament, but this is different. When Jesus became flesh he had the limitations of flesh. He did not consider himself equal with God. He said, "My Father is greater than I." He gave the commandments to the apostles by the Spirit, not because he was deity. How a God could lay aside his deity and become a little baby! That is a mystery. How did he lay aside his deity and not lean on it? Yet there was a time that came when he had to accept worship because he was God and he couldn't deny that. But, for 33-1/2 years he didn't lean upon his deity at all. He was a man who grew in favor with God and man.

Now Ephesians teaches this, "To make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery." Whether you know it or not, the thing that binds us together is not because we believe with our heads. It's because the Spirit of Christ is in us. It doesn't make any difference whether you're in a meeting here or whether you're eating a hamburger down at the Burger King. There can be a flow of the Spirit because the Spirit of Christ is in you. There's a mystery here.

People who really believe don't have to do a lot of things to have fellowship. It's automatic. It's just wonderful to be together. You can talk about the Superbowl or last night we were playing a game of chess. It doesn't make any difference. There's the mystery of the fellowship.

We become so afraid of the god of this world that we forgot a principle -- that over everything is the Lord. "He upholds all things by the word of His power. By Him all things consist." To me Jesus is wonderful. How God could do what he did is something.

Let me read verse 9 again -- "To make all men see what is the mystery of the fellowship, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ." Here we have the divine principle -- God operates through Christ.

In the third chapter Titus beginning with the fourth verse it says, "After that the loving kindness of God our Savior toward man appeared, not according to works of righteousness to which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost which He, God, shed on us through abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord." Basically God is the Savior. Deity is the Savior. "God so loved the world." And what I'm finding out now is that God is pressing us to move enough into God that we have the heart of God for the world -- not for sin, but for the world. God loved the world and we're supposed to love people just like God does. You don't have to love the sin. You hate the sin. But, you have to love the world. But the tendency has been for the church to sort of pull around the robes of self-righteousness and say, "I want nothing to do with the world." Well, the Bible says we've got to do with it. We're to be lights in the midst of it. We're not to be partakers of its sin, but we're to be lights. Jesus said, "I'm the light of the world. You're the lights of the world." But, we haven't shined too much out here. We've shined mostly in our little groups. As we said the last time, that's only part of the story. God is preparing us to catapult us right back into the place where we came out of, that we might be the lights because they haven't got a chance without us -- not a chance. We are the means by which the world is going to be saved. He said, "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel." Okay.

Verse ten sort of winds it up -- "To the intent that now" -- not tomorrow, not yesterday -- "To the intent that now under the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God."

The manifold wisdom of God is a person. In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. God wants the people to see his son glorified. Now, that's scriptural. In II Thessalonians 1:10 it says, "When He comes" to be what? "glorified in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe because their testimony among you is believed in that day and that day is now." We're to glorify the Lord within us. He wants to come and be glorified in us and this is only preparation for the climactic coming of the Lord that everybody talks about -- the rapture and so forth. The Bible tells us that we have to have a coming of the Lord within, who will confirm us through the end that we be blameless in the day of the Lord.

In I Corinthians 1 beginning with about verse five -- and it goes on to make that truth. It says, "You command no gift waiting for the coming of the Lord." And that word is apocalypsa, which means the "unveiling, the revelation of the Lord" -- "who shall confirm you to the end that you may be blameless in the day of the Lord." The day of the Lord is the climactic day -- the winding up of everything. But, the coming and the glorification of the Lord in the saints is not the same as the climactic. It's a preparation.

I think that's the reason that God has been impressing on me in the past ten years especially, tell people to magnify the Lord inside. Sanctify the Lord in your heart. "Be ready with an answer for those who ask you the reason for the hope that lieth within you." It's God working in you both to will and to do of Hid good pleasure. Paul said, "They glorified God in me."

There has to be an inward revelation of the Son of God. You can read about it and accept it intellectually and still not have it. It's got to be real. It has to be experiential.

So, God wants to make known His wisdom to the church. And he states very plainly that God created all things by Jesus Christ. We shouldn't be amazed at that scripture. "In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God and everything that was made was made by Him." We need to give him credit for that. And sooner or later, as we said the last time, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Jehovah -- to the glory of God the Father.

In my search for truth about God, about Jesus and about the Holy Spirit, one of the things that God revealed to me and very, very early was the fact that God the Father -- God from that standpoint -- is absolutely invisible. In Exodus chapter 24, beginning with verse 9, I believe -- "Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. They saw the God of Israel." They saw a form. "And it was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone , and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink."

Now, that is a declaration of the Old Testament. They saw God. It says they saw under his feet heaven in its clearness.

But, John 1:18 makes a declaration that has to be explained. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." No man has seen God at any time. The King James says, "the Son of God, which is in the bosom of the Father, hath revealed him." The revelation of deity comes from the Son -- comes from the Son.

So, I began to remember scriptures that God had given me. Genesis 15:1 -- "The Word of the Lord came to Abraham saying 'I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward." In other words, the Word came -- not the Lord said. The Word of the Lord said. He who is in the form of God in the Old Testament and thought it not robbery to be equal with God because he was God. He said, "I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward."

The other day I had to go to the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. It was bad. It's been 30 and 25 below. My friends that I was staying with, they were worried. They said, "You shouldn't go alone." I said, "You belittle my Lord. He can take care of me." And they received that. So, I went by myself. It was kind of tough, but I felt like He'd take care of me. Fog -- it was terrible. When I got back, they were up waiting for me. They didn't go to bed. But, if you really believe He's the Lord, you can go anywhere and He'll give his angels charge over you. He'll protect you. You have to believe that. Amen.

So, the Old Testament is filled with pictures. Who do you suppose it was that Jacob wrestled with? He wrestled with the Lord. The Lord in a form that could be seen. The Bible is filled with it. He was in the lion's den with Daniel.

In the New Testament, he himself declared before Abraham was what -- the I Am. The I Am of the Old Testament is not the Father. That's not the emphasis. Jesus said, "I am the I Am." "Before Abraham was, I Am." And you begin to get a new appreciation of this one. Everything revolves around him. And God has been speaking specifically to me -- Jesus is the God of our dimension. He is the God with whom we have to do. He is the one that Thomas said, "My Lord and my God." He recognized deity and we've got to start recognizing that he's more than a savior in the sense of the man that went to the cross. He's more than that. He is deity. He has combined with humanity as the messiah. "The first man Adam was made a living soul. The last man Adam has become a quickening spirit." In the union between humanity and divinity, Christ has become the __196_______ head of the new creation.

But the purpose of all that is to introduce us to another truth and that is that he is God. You don't have to go up to heaven to pull him down. You don't have to go to hell to lift him up. But, what does it say -- "The word of faith is nigh thee even in thy mouth and this is the word of faith that we preach." Why does he say that? Because the Christ of God is in here and he's not only the Christ of God, he is God too. Mystery. How can you do this? I don't know. But, I know the reality of it. He is God. Amen. And he's working and the whole thing is to move us from the humanistic concept to recognize that he's pulling us as fast as we can take it toward a recognition and the appreciation of his deity.

I told the story here to this group, I think some time ago, about a star. I'm sure I did. The star of Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion. I was up north traveling with a fellow from the Pentagon, reading a newspaper article where some teacher had said that there is a star in the constellation of Orion called Betelgeuse that is so big that if you took our entire universe -- our sun as it is with the planets in orbit if they are -- if it were possible for you to just take our universe and move it and put it in the star of Betelgeuse, our universe would only be a speck. It's mind boggling. When I saw that, the Lord said to me, "I've got Betelgeuse in my hand." He upholds Betelgeuse by the word of his power.

Just recently it was brought home again to me when I was reading the newspaper coming up on this trip. They had a picture of a star cluster way out there in space. I don't know how many light years. Way out there -- before and after Hubble was repaired. And the second picture was clear. The Lord said again, "I've got that cluster in my hand too." We haven't realized how big He is.

In the sixth chapter of II Corinthians is something you ought to underline in your Bible in red or blue or something to make it stand out, where he said "Ye are the temple of the living God. As God has said I will dwell in them and I will walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people." Where is God tonight? The one he wants us to know. He's here in us. We way, well, it's Jesus in me. It's Christ in me. Same thing. Jesus and Christ and the Lord -- they're all one and the same. They're not three different people or three different personalities. It's the Lord.

I am seeing a potential that I have never seen before. Some of the things I can't talk about because I don't think it's time. But, there's something about Jesus that we need to learn and that is he's a million times more than anything we know at this time. If all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in him, then there's nothing that he doesn't know.

I was kidding some fellow the other day. It was all messed up with the computers. I said, "You've moved into computer coma." Jesus is the God of the computer. He knows all about computers. He allowed men to find out about computers. He knows all about stocks and bonds and finance and psychology. There isn't anything that he doesn't know.

The Bible says, "To him that believeth all things are possible." I'm still holding out myself personally. It may never happen, but I'm holding out for it anyway. I have been caught to other countries in the spirit in times past. Not a lot of times, but I've been caught. I'm waiting to be translated totally, spirit, soul and body. What a blessing that would be. I wouldn't need a cash flow. Philip was caught to Azodas. We can be caught up. Sadu Sindar Singh, the great Hindu mystic, was caught up in the spirit, body, soul and spirit, and transported during the monsoon periods across places. Sister Robinson, who founded the Faith Homes in Zion, Illinois, many times she'd be speaking in the middle of Chicago and she lived in the outskirts. It would be too late to catch the bus -- they called them gitneys back in those days or a streetcar. She'd say, "Lord, take me home." She'd close her eyes and pray and wake up in front of her apartment. He did it for Sister Robinson. He did it for Philip. He did it for Sadu Sindar Singh and there are countless others that we haven't heard about. Why not us? He is the Lord. He is the Lord.

Turn with me to Revelation. John the Beloved is told by the Spirit to come up. The spirit realm is not geographically located. The spirit realm is right here, right now. A lot of people think that heaven or someplace is out near the north star. But, actually the spirit realm is an entirely different sphere. He said, "Immediately I was in the spirit." And when he got in the spirit he saw the things that were really important. "Immediately I was in the spirit and behold a throne was set in heaven and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone and there was a rainbow round about the throne like unto an emerald."

Now, if you will recall this will remind you of the teaching that I gave a long time ago that when white light shines through a quartz prism the light rays are refracted and that which comes forth is a spectrum, right? Here he's talking about a rainbow. Rain will do the same thing. Rain acts just like a prism. It breaks down the light into its glory.

A long time ago I thought that this was the Father on the throne until God taught me you can't see him. He is invisible. And he's everywhere. In order to see God the Father you'd have to be God yourself and we are not God and never will be. We are humans that have been blessed by God, but we are not deity. Jesus was. He was the Word made flesh.

It talks about the elders. Verse five "Out of the thrones proceed lightnings and thunderings and voices. There were seven lamps afire burning before the throne which are the seven spirits of God."

This establishes the divine principle that God operates through the Son, that which emanates which is the Holy Spirit. The seven-fold plenitude of the Holy Spirit. It's not only here. It's in the fifth chapter. Job began to weep because no one was counted worthy to open the book. In verse five one of the elders said to him, "Weep not. Behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David." This is human language here. "Hath revealed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof and lo in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb, as it had been slain" -- and notice again -- "having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth."

Again, it's God revealing himself or deity revealing itself through the Lord Jesus Christ as the glory of God. It's interesting to note that the last state of the church is to be glory. When you read Haggai, you know right away that the state of the last church is a church full of glory. Glory speaks of God's divine nature, not just his power. Oh, there's power because God can't deny himself. But, the thing he emphasizes is glory. The house will be filled with glory in the last days. That means character.

I'm persuaded that what's coming is going to be an emphasis on divine character beyond anything we've ever seen. Not divine power to prove something, but divine character because we love God so much that He manifests himself to us. I'm not expecting a revival of what I've seen before, though I've been blessed. I'm expecting something new. And there is no limit.

When I first got saved God gave me this thought -- "I am greater than anything I do because what I do depends on what I am." So, the Bible is very clear. He that comes to God must believe that he -- what -- is. Not that he does. That he is.

In the 22nd chapter -- this is moving now into the time when it's all over. I trust all of you believe that things are not going to continue as they are forever -- that this thing is going to come to a screeching halt. There comes a time when God says, "I've had enough. The thing is finished." Well, it's all finished and this is a picture of eternity. In the 22nd chapter of Revelation, "He showed me a pure river of water of life clear as crystal proceeding out of the throne" -- singular -- "of God and of the Lamb." It's speaking about deity. It's speaking about humanity. The lamb speaks of humanity. God speaks of deity.

Verse three -- "There shall be no more curse, but the throne" -- singular -- "of God and the Lamb shall be in it." And this is the thing that has always thrown me. "His servants shall serve him" -- not them, him. Now we have the privilege of having fellowship with the Father and the Son that our joy may be full. But, when it's all over, it goes back to a unity that's beyond our comprehension. "His servants shall serve him and they shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads."

One of the final things that I have in the pamphlet that you'll be seeing sooner or later is the Star of David. How many have ever seen the Star of David? If you've ever looked at a Star of David, it's two inter-locking equilateral triangles. It's been said that the Jewish people believe that the inverted triangle is the lamb -- the Messiah -- body, soul and spirit. And when he comes he will reveal the mystery of the other triangle. But, God revealed by his Spirit a long time ago that what you have here is the throne of God and of the Lamb. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one triangle. The deity -- because God is one. He is not three gods in agreement. That's tritheism. "Here, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God."

For purposes of redemption God has revealed himself as Father, Holy Spirit and the Son. But, in the end it's not so. "There shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it and his servants shall serve him. They shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads." The awesome unity of the Godhead as revealed through Christ is the eternal state.

What God gave me a long time ago was a new look at the fifth chapter of Romans that relates to this right here. Now, the Bible says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. And when was the Lamb slain? Before the foundation of the world. Before anything the Lamb was slain. So, there was something there. In Romans chapter five -- I'm just sharing some things with you that have developed and crystallized over the years. My Bible is torn right at this place. I want somebody with the King James to read the fifth chapter and the 14th verse. 'Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come."

Who is the figure. There's been a general teaching that Jesus made himself like people. Now, the Bible says that he took upon himself the form of a servant. But, I believe that God gave me a bona fide revelation when he says "When man was created, he was created in the image of the eternal Son, who was already there in eternity." Notice, man is something like Jesus. Jesus is not something like man. In his eternal glory there is a figure that looks sort of human -- full of glory, of course. It describes him over in the first chapter of the book of Revelation -- with eyes like fire. I'm emphasizing a point. The eternal throne of God is the throne of God and of the Lamb together -- not two thrones.

In the 72nd Psalm -- one of the scriptures God gave me a long time ago that I've never forgotten -- "His name shall endure forever. His name shall be continued as long as the sun and men shall be blessed in him: and all nations shall call him blessed." But, in Hebrew it says "His name shall endure forever. He shall be as the Son to continue his Father's name forever." In other words, God the Almighty is channeling himself through the Son in eternity. We are the recipients of that blessing.

Jesus is a priest forever as a lamb after the order of Melchidizek. But, one of the revelations of priesthood was the fact that the priest should reveal the problems of man to God. But, there's another angle of truth. The priest is also an interpreter of God to man. I take it from what the scriptures teach about things to come, that Jesus Christ will still have the role of a Melchidizek priest in eternity, revealing the awesomeness of God. There is no end -- no end.

Our mind boggles down when we think of God as such. Suppose you go a million light years out into space. What do you find? God will still be there. You go another million light years. He'll still be there. Where does it all end? Nobody knows. It's mind boggling. But the thing that thrills me is that same God that created everything, that died for everything, that is consummate in everything, actually, literally lives in here only we don't realize it the way we should. We're still putting it out here somewhere. He's here. We are the temple of the living God. The God who wants to prove he's alive lives in us. And where two or three are gathered together there is a special sense in which he is with us.

Here's the thought. In Isaiah 9:6, a scripture that a lot of people quote -- Isaiah 9:6 -- note the words. "Unto a child is born and a son is given." I think to me the son here is not the same as Jesus Christ the firstborn from among the dead. It's predicting that a child will be born. But, unto us a son is given. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son."

Well, that brought up a question in my own mind. When was Jesus begotten? Colossians, chapter 1 -- speaking of Jesus, verse 15, "Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature." He predates every creature. He's the firstborn of every creature. "For by him were all things created that are in heaven, that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things are created by him and for him. And he is before all things and by him all things consist." Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Back to Isaiah 9:6 again. "Unto us a child is born and a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called" -- and then it names all of these names. "Wonderful" -- the word wonderful actually means secret. His name shall be called secret. "Counselor, the mighty God" -- is he? It says he is. "The mighty God." "The everlasting Father" -- the word everlasting Father can also be translated "the Father of the ages" which is a time language. "The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no more end upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgement and with justice from henceforth, even forever."

Yet you know and I know that Jesus as a man, his reign comes to an end. In I Corinthians 15:24, "Then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father..." He gives it up. "For he must rule and reign until all enemies are put under his feet." The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. And then it makes some very emphatic statements. "For he hath put all things under his feet." Who did that? God. But when they say all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is accepted which did put all things under him. That's God. God is not under the feet of Christ. God has put everything under his feet. "And when all things shall be subdued under him, then shall the son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him that God may be all in all." Everything came from God. Everything is going back. And Jesus is the one by whom all this thing took place. That's the reason he gets all the glory. And while it appears that he is in subjection to the Father, the scripture teaches very conclusively that he has been given a name that's above every name and that in eternity he will be ruling and reigning with the Father.

One last scripture that we have alluded to in times past and it's another mind boggler and it's the third chapter of the book of Revelation and the 21st verse which talks about Jesus as a king upon his father David's throne and Jesus as God, ruling and reigning eternally. 3:21. "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne." What throne is he talking about here? He's talking about the throne of his father David. "Even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne." Talking about another throne.

And the mind boggling thing that it says here is the fact that Jesus is saying, "I'm ruling and reigning now on my father David's throne, but I'm already in eternity having overcome." He didn't sit down with the Father until he puts everything under his feet and turns it back to the Father. Then he becomes a part of that. As a matter of fact, and this is one step further, I got it long years ago from Rotterham's translation of Hebrews 1:8 where the Father is speaking to the Son and Rotterham says it should read, "Thou art a throne." Now the English version is "Unto the Son he saith, 'Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom." But, Rotterham said it should read "Unto the Son he saith, 'Thou art a throne for ever and ever."

And I recognized even then that there could be a truth here because a throne is more than just an object that a potentate sits on. It's a seat of power. He's got that power whether he's seated on a physical throne or not. And it makes sense because the Bible indicates in other scriptures that God is going to rule through the Son forever. So, he himself becomes a throne. I said to the Lord there must be something to corroborate if that's true. He gave me Isaiah 22:23, "And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place" -- that's Calvary -- "and he shall be for a glorious throne to his Father's house." In other words, the throne of God is Christ in you and God sits as a ruler on that throne and rules through that throne. God rules through Christ. He is the throne of God.

I get excited. I wish I had words to describe the thing that God has given me inside. I can't express it in words. But, if I'd let go, I'd blast this roof off. I'd give a Texas cheer. Amen.

We need to be acquainted with the Lord in a way like we never have before and to give him credit that he really rules, that he really has all power, that he really is God, that everything exists because of him. Not just in words, but in actual living relationship. And the one thing that the Lord has sort of emphasized in my own life is "You've got to eat me. As I live by the Father, you live by me. Not knowledge about me. You have to live by me. I am the living bread." The meat of the Word is Christ himself. The milk is knowledge about him. We need him. Amen. We need to get acquainted with him.

I'm getting reacquainted all over. I can remember when I first got saved, he was so close. I'd be walking down the road and I'd say, "Jesus, I'm so glad you saved me" and I felt the warmth of him walking beside me. Then I went to seminary and there was a big gap. I got a lot of knowledge which I later had to lay aside. Now, it's coming back to that simplicity again. Hallelujah. You are God and you live in me. I don't understand it, but I love it. Hallelujah. Let's bow our heads.

Father, I thank you for the revelation of Jesus Christ that you're giving this hour. And we have received him as Lord in these last several years. We don't see the fulfillment of what that means. We see it sort of dimly. But, you've put a certainty in our hearts, a passion that we should begin to see the greater works, not only in the matters of healing, but as we become lights in the midst of the world, we reveal to the world that we serve a god who is God, who can do anything. He is not limited. There are no limitations, only our faith. So, increase our faith, oh God, that we might please you. Help us to really believe. Hallelujah. More than believing, to know in whom we have believed, to have that revelation knowledge that he is what he says he is. Hallelujah. We bow before you, oh Lord, knowing that you are what we read about in the Book and a lot more and we ask for further revelation as we are capable of receiving it. Whatever you show, Lord, don't let us be lifted up in pride with what you show us, but may it be a humbling experience. I thank you personally, Lord, for letting me live to see this day. Hallelujah. Deliver me, Lord, from my intellect. Deliver me from the past. Help me to put things behind and help all of to put things behind and to press for the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Give us a new appreciation of who it is that lives in us. Hallelujah. Thank you Lord for Bill and all of those that work with him in this church that's always been very special to me. God, I pray that they shall will not be one whit behind the revelation that you're giving in this hour, that there will be a burning desire in the hearts of the people to know more about this one who created everything and died and rose again to come back in the spirit form to live forever in us. Make us a habitation of God through the Spirit we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah.