Sunday 19 May 2019 – Kobus Swart

Series: The Corporate Christ; Feast of Tabernacles; Spirit, Soul & Body; Unbelief

John 7:37 (NASB & TPT & Mirror); (Matt. 8:20); Matt. 1:20; John 1:1, 14; (Matt.3:17); Heb. 2:10; Isa. 9:7; Matt. 12:24 – Msg; 1 Cor. 12:12; Gen. 2:7; Gen. 6; Heb. 11:5; 1 Cor. 15:45; Heb. 4:8-15 (Mirror); (2 Cor. 3:6); Heb. 6:20 (Mirror); Rom. 8:14, 20-23 (Mirror)

Intimacy with God goes beyond mere information, new knowledge and principles; it goes deeper and impacts the heart and brings change. The Church of God in general is at its lowest ebb in centuries, even after a century of revivals and miraculous events. What are we waiting for? Another revival? We know we have to go beyond that. Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38 – NASB). God dwells in the innermost being of man, and it is from that core that we as the body of Christ must influence and impact the world. Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit. There is something on God’s agenda; there is something approaching that will come to those who are hungry and are in an intimate relationship with God, and who read the signs of the times.

All Messianic prophesies of the Old Testament referred to only one coming of Christ, the Messiah. However, we know there is a final stage. Jesus said, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Matt. 8:20). When Jesus was born, He was called Emmanuel, and He came to tabernacle with us (Jn1:14). At the age of 30 God recognized Him publicly (this is My SON!) when He was baptized by John (Matt. 3:17). Jesus was first raised by Joseph even though Joseph was not His biological father. He had to learn certain disciplines as a son. From that time on He began to function as the SON. He came to bring many sons to glory (Heb. 2:10). Of the increase of His government and of peace there shall be no end (Isa. 9:7). There is always a growth, a multiplication, an enlargement. Jesus did not lock things into Himself. He released it so that the world could be impacted. Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over (Matt. 12:24 – Msg). That was the heart of the Father for His Son. We are talking about the fullness of time, the last days; the consummation of the ages. The full stature is the corporate Son, explained in 1 Cor. 12:12, For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. Christ is a many-membered Body. That is the corporate Son in the earth that will impact the world.

*What is hindering the outflow from our innermost being? Why is the world not impacted by us as it should be? Let us go back to the beginning. Man was formed from the dust of the earth. Then God breathed into him the breath of life and he became a living soul (Gen. 2:7). In Genesis 6 things went seriously wrong; satan’s made efforts to create a super-human race by fallen angels having intercourse with the daughters of men, and the Nephilim was born. When this wickedness started to happen in the earth, things went wrong with man who was created by God, spirit, soul and body. When God saw the wickedness He said, “My Spirit shall not rule in man forever” (Gen 6:3)

I need the Holy Spirit in me, that inner man, that spirit part of me, to be ruled by the Spirit of God and not by my soul or my flesh. That is what the baptism or immersion in the Holy Spirit is all about. It is about coming to a place of ruling in my spirit, which can direct me. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God (Rom. 8:14). The sons of God are led by the Spirit of God, not by their souls or emotions.

How did Enoch get through this mess? He had a walk with God! It talks about an intimate relationship with God. He had such an intimate walk with God that God took him so he would not have to taste death (Heb. 11:5). By walking with God, Enoch rose above the sin nature and escaped the consequences of it. It should be possible for us in this age to rise above the sin nature and to escape death. Enoch is a type; he is the seventh generation from Adam; he is a type of the finishing generation. He rose above death. He must have done this by seeing the salvation through Jesus and His cross because there is no other way for man to escape the power of death except through the Cross. The question is: will the finishing generation manifest on the last (7th) great day of the Feast of Tabernacles? Tabernacles is the seventh feast – 7 the number of completion.

Here is the good news: So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). First He said, “My Spirit will not rule in man forever because of the wickedness”, but Jesus came and overturned the consequences of the fall. He became a life-giving spirit. It means His Spirit is back in those who are born again, to rule in us.

Joshua was called to lead the people of God into rest. For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God (Heb. 4:8-9). God’s rest celebrates His finished work. Whoever enters into God’s rest immediately abandons his own efforts to complement what God has already perfected. Labour to enter into His rest. Let us therefore be prompt to understand and fully appropriate that rest, and not fall again into that same trap that snared Israel in unbelief (Heb. 4:10-11. Mirror). The word ‘unbelief’ should disappear from our vocabulary and our mindset. Unbelief robs us of our rest. Get rid of your unbelief.

*God created man spirit, soul and body. First the body and He breathed into him and he then became a living soul. God became angry when mankind went off-track! Wickedness multiplied and God said His Spirit would not rule in man forever. Now we want that back because Jesus came as a life-giving Spirit. The message that God spoke to us in Christ is the most life-giving and dynamic influence in us, cutting like a surgeon’s scalpel, sharper than a soldier’s sword, piercing to the deepest core of human conscience to the dividing of soul and spirit, ending the dominance of the sense realm and its neutralizing effect upon the human spirit (Heb. 4:12 Mirror). The sword’s purpose is to stop/prevent the soul’s influence on our spirit. The soul is susceptible to all the influences of this world and if you are a soulish person, it will have an impact upon your spirit, except if you sit under a living Word that is living and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword. It will separate your spirit and your soul, and your soul will no longer influence your spirit. In this way man’s spirit is freed to become the ruling influence again in the thoughts and intentions of the heart. I want my spirit-man to rule, not my soul. The scrutiny of this word detects every possible disease, discerning the body’s deepest secrets where joint and bone marrow meet. (Heb.4:12. Mirror) Can you see what happens when your spirit has been impacted by a Living Word? It will even protect your body! That is what must have happened to Enoch. He escaped physical death, because he had an intimate walk with God. The moment we cease from our own efforts to justify ourselves, by yielding to the integrity of the message that announces the success of the cross, God’s word is triggered into action. What God spoke to us in Sonship (the incarnation) radiates His image and likeness in our redeemed innocence. This Word powerfully penetrates and impacts our whole being; body, soul and spirit. (F. Du Toit) What is divine health? It starts by having a healthy, connected spirit to God. The soul is no longer my boss. I want to be a spiritual man; then my soul will be healthy. The soul is quite an intricate part of us. The whole person is thoroughly exposed to this scrutinizing gaze. Every creature’s original form is on record in the Word representing God’s desire to display His image and likeness in man. (Heb 4:13 Mirror)

On the great and last day of the Feast of Tabernacles there are going to be explosions of rivers from our innermost being. It will go from our spirit, through our soul, our body and it will impact the world. What is coming from your innermost being? In the message of the incarnation, we have Jesus the Son of God, representing humanity in the highest place of spiritual authority. That which God has spoken to us in Him is His final word. It is echoed now in a declaration of our confession. As High Priest, He fully identifies with us in the context of our frail human lives. (Heb 4:14,15)

We have the same privileged access as He has, as the order of Melchizedek. When we talk about the five-fold ministry, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers – the gospel cannot just stop there. It cannot stop with the apostolic season. There is the next era, that is the order of Melchizedek to which God is inviting us, and Jesus is the forerunner for us into the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 6:20-Mirror/NASB).

Jesus came to bring many sons to glory. When it says “all creation” God did not only create planet earth. It talks about the universe. The whole of the universe is in travail to see the manifestation/revelation of the sons of God. What does it mean to reveal something? You unveil something that already is (exists). Who are we? We are sons of God that must be unveiled. We ourselves feel the grief echo of their groaning within us while we are ready to embrace the original blueprint of our physical stature, to the full consequences of sonship (Rom. 8:20-23-Mirror). That means immortality; that means overcoming death!

Do we have that intimate walk with God? Where are our priorities? What we already participate in as firstfruits of the Spirit will bloom into a full gathering of the harvest. That is the final harvest! The glorified physical body, also the full realization of everyone reconciled in Christ, it was His delightful resolve to give birth to us. We have been conceived by the unveiled logic of God, the word of truth. We lead the exhibition of His handiwork, like firstfruits introducing the rest of the harvest He anticipates. (Heb 8:23 Mirror)

You have to deal with unbelief! You can have an intimate relationship with God! How can you enter into rest when you are unbelieving? Do not give up that hope which is a basic part of faith. Without hope, faith falls apart.

The perfect One has redeemed us, spirit, soul and body. The entire universe is on tip-toe – waiting…

Why do I focus on the Feast of Tabernacles? When the disciples invited Him, Jesus said He said He was not going. However, after they left Him, Jesus went in secret (Remember Acts 3:21 MSG). In the midst of the Feast He stepped into the Temple and began to speak, and all were amazed. The world is waiting to hear the Word of Christ from the Temple — the Body of Christ. They want to hear that corporate voice, like the sound of many waters. But what do we have? Networks, denominations, division, isolations. In the midst of the Feast of Tabernacles, He wants to tabernacle in us and through us. On the last great day, “He who believes in Me, from His innermost being will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38). This is not just about another revival… This is about impacting the world with Christ.