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.

Series: The Corporate Christ

Sun am 27 May 2018 – Kobus Swart

Eph. 1:10 (Phillips); Eph. 5:25-32; Matt. 16:13-20; John 12:20-25 (MSG); 1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 4:13; Heb. 2:9-11; John 17:21; Rom. 8:19-22; Acts 1:10 (MSG); Acts 3:21 (MSG); (John 7:10-15); John 14:13-14, 18-20 (MSG); Matt. 8:20; Eph. 4:15-16; Zech. 10:1; Heb. 10:24-25; (Matt. 23:39)

For God had allowed us to know the secret of his plan, and it is this: he purposes in his sovereign will that all human history shall be consummated in Christ, that everything that exists in Heaven or earth shall find its perfection and fulfilment in him (Eph. 1:10 Phillips). The word ‘consummated’ in Christ is a deep word. When a couple gets married, their marriage is consummated in intimacy. When Paul talks about husband and wife, he is referring to the marriage between Christ and His church (Eph. 5:25-32). Being consummated in Christ also refers to being completed in Christ. In the Afrikaans Bible, it says “om verenig te word.”

Jesus spoke to Peter personally, who had the revelation of who Jesus was (Matt. 16:13-18). The meaning there is ‘Petros’, a chip of a rock. He says, “You are Peter and upon this rock”– not upon Peter. This is where we have to see the difference between the individual and the corporate. A rock consists of a lot of stones or chips in one corporate rock. So, this is referring to the plural and not the individual. He builds His Church on the corporate but every individual in the corporate body must have an individual revelation of Jesus Christ. God’s vision is not centred so much on the individual, as on the Church, nor are His mighty works done through the single member, but through the body. We have to realise that the days of the super man or woman are over. If you take this wider, God is not going to necessarily select an individual church to rise up above the rest. God is concerned about His Church – the Church of Christ – the body of Christ worldwide. That is where God’s heart is. However, we must understand the difference. When Jesus spoke more of the individual than of the community, it was because the first thing necessary was to restore true individuality, without which true community is not possible. He spoke a lot about the individual because it is very important that each individual has the revelation without which the true community it is not possible. The community needs the individuals before they can be a community. There is the difference between individuality and individualism. Individualism is a problem: it means you isolate yourself as “I know everything.” That is an ego trip.

Listen carefully: 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 (John 12:24 MSG). A grain of wheat is single – an individual; for it to multiply it has to die. Jesus is the pattern Son and He gave us an example. The individual in us has to die to become part of the corporate expression. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal (John 12:25 MSG). Jesus sacrificed His personal body on the cross. He was the SEED that was planted to reproduce Himself, now called the body of Christ.

After the death and resurrection of Jesus, we talk about Christ in the following way: 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 (1 Corinthians 12:12). So Christ is a many-membered corporate body. This should be at the heart of every one of the five-fold ministries operating in the body of Christ to bring the body to the unity of the faith till we all come unto a perfect man. That perfect man is a corporate man (Eph. 4:13). This is the full stature of Christ. Presently too many are still building their own networks. We are called and mandated to build and bring everybody to the perfect man – the full stature of the Christ. I know it is not an easy job, but by the Holy Spirit, it will have to be done.

Through that inner integration, that holiness which is wholeness, we are liberated from self-centeredness in order that the Head of the body can share with us His body consciousness. Jesus is body conscious. There are two extremes we must avoid. One group emphasizes bringing individuals to Christ. There is nothing wrong with bringing individuals to Christ and discipling them. The tremendous emphasis placed by the New Testament writers on the relationship of the individual to Christ justifies us in doing the same. It is not just preaching to the crowd and getting a crowd response; we have to work with individuals, but it cannot end there! We must move on the see the individual’s integration into the body. The other extreme is people becoming overanxious to explore external unity without first being concerned with the spiritual condition of individuals. Each individual must have a revelation of who Jesus is, and then that integration must take place into the local body. If people have a true relationship – a living union with Jesus Christ – they will also have a living relationship with each other. I want to encourage greater and more depth of fellowship amongst us. We have to see that integration of the body of Christ.

One of the major purposes of Jesus dying and being resurrected was to bring many sons to glory (Heb. 2:9-11). When will the world believe the gospel? What the world is seeing now is thousands upon thousands of churches and denominations. Where is the demonstration of the corporate body of Christ? Is the world only seeing individual Christians? That does not mean you cannot be salt and light in your community. This must be one of the primary burdens of Jesus, His most powerful intercessory prayer: “Father make them one, as You and I are one so that the world may believe” (John 17:21). The world will be sceptical as long as the Church is divided, as long as believers are not integrated into the life of Christ.

We are actually talking about the beginning phases of the second coming. We constantly postpone things, but we need to realize something is busy unfolding. The Feast of Tabernacles is busy unfolding. What the prayer of Jesus means is an interpenetration of God and man. That is what the world will see, and then they will believe. That is why even creation is groaning to see the manifestation of the sons of God, meaning the Son in the sons. It is a corporate expression of the Christ in the earth. Even creation is groaning! (Rom. 8:19-22).

People could see and touch Jesus in His earthly ministry and eat with Him, before the crucifixion. Only those in His immediate environment could see Him. Jesus was one person in one place. That changed when He was taken up. People can see Jesus now wherever they are on the earth. He is no longer limited in one physical place in one physical body (Matt. 23:39; John 12:20-25).

They stood there, staring into the empty sky. Suddenly two men appeared – in white robes! They said, “You Galileans! – why do you just stand here looking up at an empty sky? This very Jesus who was taken up from among you to heaven will come as certainly – and mysteriously – as he left” (Acts 1:10 MSG). That word “mysteriously” says it all. Many people think Jesus was taken into the outer universe where heaven is. No, He was taken into a cloud and the possibility is that He was taken into the cloud of witnesses. That cloud is not millions of miles away – it is another dimension. That cloud is here! For the time being Jesus will remain invisible (Acts 3:21 MSG). That is what happened at the Feast of Tabernacles when Jesus remained invisible. He remained out of sight, until the middle of the feast when He stepped into the temple and started speaking (John 7:14). There is a lot of prophetic significance in that picture.

“I will not leave you orphaned. I’m coming back. In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you’re going to see me because I am alive and you’re about to come alive. At that moment (that moment is now) you will know absolutely that I’m in my Father, and you’re in me, and I’m in you” (John 14:18-20 MSG). That does not refer to two thousand years, or however long it might take. The truth is that God’s heart is to be integrated with His Church (His body), and He has given another helper, the Holy Spirit, to facilitate it. The Holy Spirit has a function; the Holy Spirit will share Christ with us. Jesus said, “He will not speak on His own initiative, He will take of Me and will share it with you” (John 14:13-14). When He says “you” He does not mean you alone, but you as a group. In that day we will know that the prayer of Jesus is fulfilled – oneness has become a fact to be seen and witnessed by the Gentile world. But He will not lay His head on that which does not represent Him and does not have the same DNA (Matthew 8:20). This is where the delay is. Jesus is looking for somewhere to lay His head, in other words lay His headship, over the body of Christ, of which Jesus is the head. That means, what is missing is growth – spiritual growth. For you and me to grow, we need to be in a spiritual environment where there is Word, where there is Spirit. You cannot grow if you are in a place somewhere alone. You have to die first, and then come alive. Growth means from the blade, to the ear, to the full corn. That spiritual growth is also called development. How can people develop if they only feed on milk? Your baby will never grow if all you give him is milk. There is a stage for milk, but then we need solid food and meat.

Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supply, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love (Eph. 4:15-16). There is the final picture. That is how we get to the perfect or the corporate man, and then the world will believe when they see that. Seeds planted will grow, and then they will get to a stage where they desperately need rain for the final maturing process – the latter rain. I believe the body of Christ at the moment is in desperate need of rain – the latter rain – the final maturing process (Zech. 10:1). Let us pray through whatever resistances there are in the spirit realm. We want to see an outpouring of spiritual rain.

In the charismatic season, God poured out His multiple gifts of the Spirit. Unfortunately, these varieties of gifted persons ended up building their ministry around the gift – a prophetic group, or an apostolic group, or an evangelistic group. It is diverse and there is nothing wrong with it, but that is not the final picture. All things must be consummated – things in heaven and earth – must be consummated in Christ (Eph. 1:10).

From many must come ONE: all of the variety of gifts must bring forth Christ – consummated in Christ. We all have varieties of gifts in the Spirit, but do not build a ministry around that gift; bring it into co-operation, into the corporate Christ. We must awaken to the fact that there is still something needed in the body of Christ. We need to see a corporate baptism.

Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. How? With personal interaction! Not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near (Heb. 10:24-25). It cannot just happen on a Sunday morning. We need to have fellowship in the week as well, and that is why we strongly recommend that you each one find a place in a home group, where you can stimulate one another to love and good deeds. Do not neglect the fellowship and the assembling of yourselves. Encourage one another and all the more when you see the day drawing near. The world wants to see that church is a corporate family.

Let us not delay the final phase of the second coming. Let us prepare and long for that appearance. He will come in the same mysterious way as you have seen Him leave. He is coming for a (corporate) Bride without spot or wrinkle!