“THE FORM OF GOD”! (Part 1)

Text: Philippians 2:5-6:

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God.

Form (web): (n): shape; general structure; the figure of a person or animal; a mold; a particular mode, kind, type, etc.; arrangement; style; a way of doing something requiring skill; a customary or conventional way of acting; ceremony; ritual; condition of mind or body; fashion; to train; instruct; to develop (habits); make up; constitute.

Form (Greek) (morphe’) [through the idea of adjustments of parts]; shape; (fig) nature / also from the base of the word mer’os, meaning a part or portion of the whole.

• John 13:8: Peter said unto him, “Thou shall never wash my feet”. Jesus answered him, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part (mer’os) with me”.

Wash is from the root word nip’to, meaning to cleanse. Synonyms for “cleanse” are: (n) pure; spotless: (adj) unadulterated; sterilize; white.

The word “white” in the definition of “wash”, denotes the “righteousness of God”, which is what we become through and in Christ Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:21: For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

When Peter got the revelation, he said: (vs 9): “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head”.

• Revelation 14-15: His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters

Why were His head and hairs white like wool as white as snow? It denoted the purity of Jesus being the perfect sacrificial Lamb of God that died for the sins of the world. His eyes as a flame of fire, denoting the brilliance and glory of God that His people become in the earth:

• Hebrews 1:7: And of the angels he says, “Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire”.
•   Proverbs 15:3: The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.   [We are God’s eyes in the earth as well as His hands and His feet].
• Revelation 1:15: And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

We (God's people) are God’s “feet” in the earth! We must go through the furnace (of the fire of purification process) to make it into the place that Jesus Himself was and is in, which is perfection.

                                          

Another definition of wash is “ablution” (a type of baptism or emergence, (dip) [to rise as from a fluid; to become visible or apparent; evolve]: submerge (to place or sink beneath the surface, as of water).

• Luke 12:49-50: I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished?

This is the baptism of the “fire of the judgment" of God, which is the fulfillment of:

• Psalm 16:10: For thou will not leave my soul in hell; neither will thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Also Acts 2:27.
• Romans 6:3-4: Know you not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

That’s because we’ve been raised with him. Raised (egei’ro) (the idea of collecting one’s faculties): to waken, rouse (from sleep, from sitting or lying, from disease, from death; obscurity; inactivity; ruins; nonexistence); rise; rise again; raised again; lift up; stand. So when the “Head” (Christ) of the body got up, He got the body (us-the church) up with Him!!

• Revelation 20:6: Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
• (Back to): Revelation 20: 4-5: And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.

“This is the first resurrection”: [Those that overcome the systems of men]! Those that get hold of the revelation truth that the fullness of Christ is in us right now and we are already overcomers of sin, death, hell and the grave – and we are God's ambassadors: (2 Corinthians 5:20): Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us:  we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God:  we are God's priests and kings: (Revelation 1:6): And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen: (Revelation 5:10): And hast made us unto our God kings and priests:  and we shall reign on (over) the earth (right here and right now - not up beyond the blue)!!

Resurrection in this verse (Revelation 20:6 / John 5:29) is from anas’tasis, meaning a standing up again, a resurrection from death; it’s a (moral) recovery (of spiritual truth); rising again.

•   John 5:28-29: Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

The “graves” here are not those out in the cemeteries, but these bodies that we live in and are held in by the spirit of death due to the lack of knowledge of the Word of God.

• Ezekiel 37:12: Therefore prophesy and say unto them, “This saith the Lord God; behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel”.
• Matthew 23:27: Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
• Luke 11:44: Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.
• Romans 3:9-20: (the guilt of the world before God – this includes religious order): Vs 12-13: They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable: there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips.  

God said in Hosea 4:6, "My people are destroyed for the lack of knowledge".  Jesus said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free” John 8:32.

When we come into the knowledge of who God is in us and who we are in Him, then we can walk out of these “graves” into the marvelous light of life and immortality, right now, not beyond the blue!!

(Exam) [Luke 16]: (Lazarus and the rich man):

• Vs 22: And it came to pass that the beggar died (Lazarus - Jesus), and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s (the Father) bosom: the rich man (Pharisee - religious people) also died and was buried:
• Vs 23: And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments and sees Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom.

“Hell” here is not down in the center of the earth or the ground. It’s from the root word “ha’des”, meaning “unseen” the place of departed souls.

[This place is in the “spirit realm” which is all around us and can’t be seen with the naked eye].

• Vs 24: And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

This “rich man” is a type of people who wants to live by the law or traditions of men and will not accept the truth of God’s Word in its fullness when He sends it to them and will fight against “the messenger” because of the “message”.

•   2 Timothy 4:2-4: Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

But look at what God said would happen when people do this:

• 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12: And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God (not the devil) shall send them strong delusions (imposters), that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

When God sends someone to His people preaching and teaching the fullness of the Gospel, and they don’t receive it, He will send them someone (an imposter) that will preach and teach them what they want to hear or what they’re use to, a “you will overcome one of these days when you get to heaven message”, when we can have the victory “in heaven in Christ” (Ephesians 2:6), right here and right now.

• Luke 16:24: And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

What the “rich man” was saying is this: “Jesus, while I was in my flesh body, I wouldn’t receive what you were teaching me but now I’m ready for you to “dip” (baptize me completely, right now) with your “finger” (power) with “water” (into your Word) by your Spirit and “cool” (breathe on me and refresh, replenish, revive) me from my “tongue” (language of unbelief and deliver me from this world of iniquity) that I am “tormented” (grieved; distressed) in by this “flame” (fiery blaze of judgment)! (These are definitions of these words from their root words).

• James 3:6: The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.
• Hebrews 12:29: Our God is a consuming fire.

The “fire” is actually “God Himself”! Fire does two things, it will “purify” or it will “consume”. When God sends His Word out to His people, if we receive it, it will burn in us for “purification”, or if we reject it and fight against it, it will burn in us for “consumption”! As for the “rich man”, he was already “damned” before he went into the spirit realm because he didn’t believe the Word the Lord had already given him while he was in that flesh body. It’s just that when he died the “hell” or condition he was already in, he took it right into the spirit realm with him.

• St. John 3:17-18: For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved. He that believes on him is not condemned: but he that believes not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

That’s why we need to get hold of the “truth” of God’s Word now!

• Luke 16:25: But Abraham (typifying God the Father) said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime received thy good things, and likewise Lazarus (Jesus) evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
• Revelation 21:8: But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

In Genesis 37, Joseph dreams and his brothers envied him because of the dream, and they threw him into a pit and Midianites came along and lifted him out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver, and they brought Joseph into Egypt. He became Prime Minister under Pharaoh. No man could lift his hand or foot without Joseph’s permission (Genesis 41:44).

This was the move of God to preserve life for his family which became God’s “son”, whom God called Israel, after Jacob successfully wrestled with a man at the ford of Jabbok, Genesis 32:28-29, and obtained a blessing. Israel means contending for God; striving for God; who prevails with God; ruler-ship with God. We (His people) now are God’s Israel, not the Israel over in the Middle East!

Exodus 19, after God had brought the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage and they had come to Mt. Sinai, vs 6, God said in relation to Israel, “And you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shall speak unto the children of Israel”.

Israel had become God’s wife, but she became rebellious and began worshipping idol gods. 1 kings 11, Solomon, King of Israel takes foreign wives and God raise up adversaries against him. Jeroboam Solomon’s servant turned against him because Solomon built Millo, and repaired the breaches of the city of David his father. Solomon made Jeroboam ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph, because Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor. As Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem the Prophet Ahijah found him and caught the new garment Jeroboam had on himself and rent it into twelve pieces.

• Vs 31-33: And he said to Jeroboam, “take thee ten pieces: for thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, Behold, I will rent the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee, but he shall have one tribe for my servant David’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel”: because that they have forsaken me, and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in mine eyes, and to keep my statutes and my judgments, as did David his father”.

 In 1 kings 12, after the death of Solomon, Rehoboam was to be made king of Israel, but by forsaking the counsel of the old men and took the counsel of the young men that said, “Make the yoke heavy on them, but lighter unto us”; and say to them, vs 10-11: “My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s loins. He chastised thee with whips, but I will chastise thee with scorpions”, the kingdom was divided. There were ten tribes north, Israel, with Jeroboam as king, and one tribe south, Judah, with Rehoboam as king.

There are those that still believe that God is going to bring the twelve tribes back to Israel and Jesus is going to set His kingdom up in Jerusalem. NOT SO!  The "kingdom" which is "power" (1 Corinthians 4:20): "peace, joy, and righteousness in the Holy Ghost" (Romans 14:17), is already established (verified; secured; installed) with us!  The Kingdom is already here!

• Luke 17:20-23: And when he was demanded of the Phairsees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, "The kingdom of God comes not with observation:  neither shall they say, lo here:  or, lo there:  for behold, the kingdom of God is within you".

In Jeremiah 3, God was married to Israel but because of her adultery God put Israel away and gave her a bill of divorce. Even though God had sent judgment from the north, vs 27: For thus saith the LORD, “The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end”.

God has always had a remnant and He has always had a plan. God’s Israel now is not over in the Middle East, but it’s all over the land, those that believe in “Jesus the Christ”! God had already told Abraham, Genesis 12:2: I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. Vs 3: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curses thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Genesis 17:7: And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.

 

This promise wasn’t made to Abraham after the natural stock, but it was to CHRIST!

• Galatians 3:16: Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is CHRIST.
• 2 Corinthians 5:19: To wit, that God was in Christ (not Abraham), reconciling the world unto himself.

To reconcile means to adjust (to change so as to fit; to regulate; to adapt one-self). Adapt means to adjust to new circumstances.

• Philippians 2:7-8: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
• John 1:1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: vs 14: And the Word was made flesh.
• Romans 5:17-19: For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification to life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Our being in the “form of God”, is not just because we have on flesh which makes the invisible God visible, but “form” is from the root word “morphe”, meaning nature. Nature (Latin is natus, “born”): the essential quality of a thing; essence; inherent tendencies of a person; kind; type. That which is “inherent” is that which exists in someone or something as a natural and inseparable quality. So God had to make adjustments within man so that he (male and female) would be acceptable dwelling places for Himself. That’s the importance of taking on the “new birth”.

• St. John 3:3: Jesus answered and said unto him, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again (regened by God’s Spirit and become who He is in the earth as Jesus was – God in flesh form), he cannot see (know or understand) the kingdom of God”.
• John 3:5: Jesus answered, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water (the Word) and of the Spirit (the very breath of God), he cannot enter into the kingdom of God”.
• Colossians 3:9-10: Lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.

 Exodus 25:1-9: [offerings for the tabernacle]: vs 8-9: And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell amongst them. According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall you make it.

Sanctuary (miqdash’) a consecrated thing or place; a palace, sanctuary (of Jehovah); holy place; hallowed part / (qadash’) to (make, pronounce or observe as) clean: to ceremonially or morally sanctify; hallow; dedicate; prepare; consecrate; appointed; purified; wholly. The word qadash’ means to be set apart for the work of God; to be holy.

• Acts 7:48: Howbeit the most High dwells not in temples made with hands.
• 1 Peter 1:5: You also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
• 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
• Revelation 21:3: I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

That was the purpose of God in Genesis 1:26: And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”: vs 27: So God created man in in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Even then God wanted a place to dwell and that place was in “man”! So God didn’t only form man in His image outwardly only, but also inwardly!

• Galatians 4:19: My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.

CHRIST is christos’, the anointed, the Messiah or Jesus.  CHRIST is also chrio, through the idea of contact; to smear or rub with oil, to consecrate to an office of service: anoint. CHRIST is also from, chra’omai meaning to handle; to furnish what is needed; give an oracle; light upon; to employ or to act toward one in a given manner; entreat; use.

We can’t do anything without the “anointing”, because it’s the “anointing that destroys the yoke” Isaiah 10:27.

An “oracle” among the ancient Greeks and Romans, was the place where mediums or deities were consulted; a person of great knowledge. Oracle is from the Hebrew word debiyr’, defined as the shrine or innermost part of the sanctuary: the place from which God speaks. It’s from another root word dabar’, meaning to arrange; but used of words, to speak, commune, pronounce, utter, command, subdue, teach. [Dabar’, means “to speak or say”].

• 1 Kings 6: [Solomon’s building of the temple]: vs 19-20: And the oracle he prepared in the house within, to set there the ark of the covenant of the LORD. And the oracle in the forepart (from paniym’, meaning the face) was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height thereof: and he overlaid it with pure gold: and so covered the altar which was of cedar.

A “cubit” was equivalent to eighteen inches – 20x18=360, which is the degree of a perfect circle. God has always spoken, is now speaking, and always will speak in perfection from eternity to eternity because He is a perfect God! In other words, God has spoken and demonstrated Himself in perfection in all three manifestations of the Godhead: God the Father in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ the Son between the Old and the New, and the manifestation of the Holy Ghost in the New Testament that’s now in the Church. And because we are God's “oracles” (mouth pieces) created in His image and after His likeness, and He does speak from “within us”, and being in the “form of God”, we too can be perfect as He is perfect.

• Matthew 5:48: Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

In addition to this the Ark of the Covenant was overlaid with “pure gold”. The same as the candlestick was in the tabernacle that Moses constructed under the instructions of God. The candlestick was the only piece of furniture that was of “pure gold”! Other pieces were overlaid with pure gold, but the candlestick which is the church, which we are, was made of “pure gold”. The pure gold is the “divine nature” of God Himself that takes us over for His glory!

•   2 Peter 1:3-4: According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
• Revelation 3:18: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou may be rich; and white raiment, that thou may be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou may see.

The candlestick is the Church, which we are, as Christ’s Body. And to confirm that we are Christ’s Body and the Church is the candlestick, let’s see what the Book of Colossians and Revelation says about it:

• Colossians 1:18: And he is the head of the body, the church (which we are): who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
• Revelation 1:20: The mystery of the seven stars which thou saw in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels (messengers) of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou saw are the seven churches.

So for people that don’t believe that they can be “perfect” while they’re in their flesh body, they will never make it to the plateau spiritually that God has ordained for them. But Jesus said it and I believe it, and that settles it for me!

•  (This is Jesus talking): Matthew 5:48: Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

This word “perfect” is from the root word “tel’ios”, meaning complete in labor, growth, mental and moral character; come of full age as Jesus Himself was. This is what God the Father has ordained for us, the Body of Christ to do:

• Ephesians 4:13: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
• Hebrews 10:14: For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.

So when we step out in the “form of God with His face” preaching and teaching the fullness of the Gospel of God’s Word as His oracles, ambassadors, representatives in the earth, we don’t have to be afraid of their faces (the religious Pharisees, and Sadducees of today) because God is with us:

• Psalm 81:10: I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide and I will fill it.
• Jeremiah 1:8: Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD.
• Luke 21:14-15: Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what you shall answer: for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.

We must be “oracles” that will fulfill Isaiah 58:1: Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins.

• 2 Timothy 4:2: Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. •
• Vs 4: But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of your ministry.

This is how we show the "form of God" in the earth for His glory!!

Pastor Gracie Perry