TOPIC: "THE MYSTERY OF THE GOSPEL"!!!

TEXT:  EPHESIANS 6:18-20 (Christ our All in All)!

(Vs 19): “And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel”.

Chapter one [Spiritual blessing in Christ]:  Chapter two [New life in Christ]:  Chapter three [Paul speaks to Gentiles about the dispensation of grace and the “mystery of Christ”]:  Chapter four [The unity of the Spirit]: Chapter five [The works of light and darkness / “mystery of Christ and the church”]:                        Chapter six [The Body of Christ putting on the whole armor of God and “the mystery of the gospel”].

What is “Gospel”?  “GOSPEL” means “good news”!  It is the “good news” concerning Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, the Son of the Living God!

The word “gospel” is derived from the two Anglo-Saxon words “God”, meaning “good”, and “spell”, meaning “tidings (news; information) or history”.

The “writings” of Jesus Christ gives you “His-tory”, but the “revelation” of Jesus Christ is Him revealing “My-story” (or His story)!

• Ephesians 1:15-18: Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:  the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.
  

WHAT IS A MYSTERY?  Mystery is from the root word muste’rion, meaning to shut the mouth; a secret or mystery (through idea of silence imposed by initiation into religious rites).  

But our entrance into the “gospel” is not by initiation of “religious rites”, but by belief in Jesus Christ the Son of God and birth into the Kingdom of God by His Spirit working in us through His wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, and the eyes of our understanding being enlightened to know our calling and heirship in Him!

[In the New Testament mystery denotes, not the English word “mysterious” (as something not understood), but that which, being outside the range of unassisted natural apprehension (ability to recognize the meaning of; to grasp; understand), which can only be made known by “divine revelation”, and is made known in a manner and at a time appointed by God, and to those who are illumined (enlightened[educated; instructed; informed; taught; edified]) by His Spirit]!     

• 1 Corinthians 2:6-8: Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect:  yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to naught:  but we speak the wisdom of God in a “mystery”, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory:  which none of the princes of this world knew (princes being “rulers of the world’s systems or governmental powers”):  for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 
  

Glory is from the Greek word dox’a, meaning to be very apparent (plain; obvious; visible; evident; manifest) as God in flesh form.  Jesus in His dignity (quality or state of being honored or worthy of respect and is to be greatly esteemed).  So one doesn’t have to die to “go to glory” as has been said, but we (the Church) are the glory of God in the earth because we are glorified through Christ and He is glorified in us!

• John 17:1: These words spoke Jesus, and lift up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
•  Vs 4-5: I have glorified thee on the earth:  I have finished the work which thou gave me to do.  And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
•  Vs 9: I pray for them:  I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me:  for they are thine. 
• Vs 10: And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
  

“MYSTERY” ordinarily implies “knowledge withheld”!  Its scriptural significance is “truth revealed”!  Terms especially associated with “mystery” are:  “made known”; “manifested”; “revealed”; “preached”; “understand”, “dispensation”!

• Colossians 1:25-26: Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation (a specific space of time in which God does a specific thing to fulfill purpose) of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God; Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but “NOW” is made manifest to his saints!  
  

2 Corinthians 4:3: But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.

Paul didn’t say, “hid FROM them”, then it would have been a deliberate hiding.  But he said, “hid TO them”, meaning there are those in the house of God whose spiritual eyes hasn’t yet come open to the revelation truth of God’s Word.  For many it’s because they refuse to let go of the traditions and doctrines of men.  But those that take the time to study the Word of God and allow the Holy Ghost to reveal the Word to them, they are freed from the bondages and clutches of Satanic religious order.

• John 16:13: Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:  for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak:  and he will show you things to come.
  

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 and dwelt among us.

THE WORD (log’os) something said (incl. the thought); a topic (subject of discourse), also reasoning (the mental faculty) or motive; the Divine Expression (Christ):  utterance; tidings (good news; gospel).

[“LOG’OS” denotes “expression of thought”]!  (Synonym) – Expression – [representation; symbolization; indication; statement; utterance; saying; appearance].  Meaning, the very “embodiment” of a conception or idea:  St. John 1:14: And the Word was made flesh:

was “made” flesh: Made from the root word (gin’omai) [to cause to be (“gen”-erate) [produced], ie to become (come into being); be assembled; be brought (to pass); be showed [made manifest]       

And dwelt among us:  (skeno’o) to tent or encamp, to occupy (as a mansion) or (spec) to reside (as God did in the Tabernacle of old, a symbol of protection and communion): / (ske’nos) a hut or temporary residence, in relation to the human body (as the abode of the spirit): tabernacle.                    [Skenos means the body as the “tabernacle” of the soul and the spirit]:  

• 2 Corinthians 5:1: For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens: 
• vs 4: For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened:  not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life); [stressing the nature of the body].
  

This was the fulfilling of the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14: Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son and shall call his name Immanuel.

• Matthew 1:21-23: And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS:  for he shall save his people from their sins.  Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, GOD WITH US.
  

The majority of humanity doesn’t know who they are.

God without man is Spirit without form or Spirit without a body!  God is Spirit!  If man is left out of it, God is Spirit, without a form!  God has always been Spirit throughout endless years of time before He makes man.  God chose not to be by Himself therefore He makes man.  What is man?  Man is the same Spirit (God) that takes on form.  But man has separated himself from God.  When man did this in his mind he fell into trouble.  Because man believes that he is a separate entity from God, he puts God out in the heavens, in buildings, on a cross around their neck, which is a mockery to His resurrection, they put Him everywhere except in man because he (man) has lost his oneness with God!  

The “gospel” is to awaken man, those that are asleep, out of the sleep of death he has been in. The “gospel” is to awake the consciousness of man so that he (male & female) can see his true existence.  What is man’s true existence!  That man is the God who had no form and He (God) takes on that form in man.  Man is God in form!  That’s why Jesus taught that you can do everything you believe you can do and nothing is impossible to him that believes.  It’s only God that all things are possible with, yet the scripture says, all things are possible to him that believes.  You are the visible expression of God!  Because of the concept that man holds in his mind separating himself from God he falls into all kinds of trouble, and the greatest trouble that man falls into is “death”.  Because when a man dies, that’s the time he really is separated from God.  But God did not create a man to die, He created man to live!  He created man to be eternal as Himself!  Genesis 1:11-12, everything was created to reproduce after its own kind.  Because God made man in His image, man is made after God’s kind.  So what God is, is really what we are.  We lost that knowledge which has led man into sickness, disease, poverty, old age, and death.  And none of these is from God!  

In the book The Wisdom of Solomon: 1:13-16: For God made not death:  neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the living.  For he created all things, that they might have their being:  and the generations of the world were healthful; and there is no poison of destruction in them, nor the Kingdom of death upon the earth:  for righteousness is immortal:  but ungodly men with their works and words called it to them:  for when they thought to have it their friend, they consumed to naught, and made a covenant with it, because they are worthy to take part with it.

Any tree that’s not planted by our Heavenly Father shall be rooted up (Matthew 15:13). He’s not talking about the elm, pine and oak tree, but any “idea” (thought; concept; belief) that’s been planted in man that didn’t come from God shall be rooted up!  That’s what the “gospel” is for to take out of man all these false ideas that have attached themselves to man and remove them so that man will be free as God intended him to be.                                                                                                              The greatest that man can realize or attain to is transcending (rise above; surpass) death itself by moving out of mortality into immortality, from corruption into incorruption, darkness to light, death to life, and that’s gospel.  

The gospel is to show man the way to leave mortality behind him, because mortality doesn’t come from God!  Man picked it up by the way, but God wants man to move on into his original state where he lives the abundant life!  

John 10:10: The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:  I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

• Wisdom of Solomon 2:23-24: For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity.  Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world:  and they that do hold of his side do find it.
  

Psalm 8:4: What is man that thou art mindful of him?  And the son of man, that thou visits him? 

Mindful is from the root word zakar’, meaning to mark (so as to be recognized), to remember; to mention; think; record.

I’ve explained in the above paragraphs what “man” (male & female) is.  That’s why God was so “mindful” of him so that he (man) would stand out from all of God’s creation to be recognized as God Himself, being marked with God’s own image after His likeness.

This first word “MAN”:  from the root word enowsh’, defined as a mortal; and goes to another root word anash’, meaning to be frail, feeble, melancholy, incurable, desperate, desperately wicked, woeful, sick: (suffering; miserable man).

Now you can understand why in Genesis 4:15 the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

This word “mark” is from the root word owth, meaning, (in the sense of appearing); a signal, as a flag, beacon, monument, omen, prodigy, evidence; mark, miracles, ensign(s), sign(s), token(s):  [represents something by which a person or group is characteristically marked or recognized] / it’s from another root word (uwth) meaning to come, to assent (agree; accept; recognize): consent (comply; yield; allow; come (around); give in).

Cain was still the son of Adam and Adam was the son of God.  Even though Cain had descended to the level of a mortal and killed his brother, he still bore the image of God being a man.  Yet the LORD knew the time would come that because of the “mark”, eventually Cain would “assent” (agree; accept; consent; come around; give in) and would yield himself back to God.

• 2 Peter 3:9: The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
  

Psalm 8:4:  So why was and is God so “mindful” of “man” or this “iysh” or “enoshe”, this frail, feeble, melancholy, incurable, desperately wicked; woeful, sick “mortal”.  It’s because God remembered Genesis 1:24 when He said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature”.  He remembered the state that “man” was in before He made him in his image and after his likeness.  He was a “living creature”, from the root word ne’phesh, a breathing creature, with vitality (bodily or mentally), a soul that needed God’s life in him, a person with a mind, a heart that He God would have to breathe upon, and refresh with His own  breath, the “ruwach” (wind, God’s Spirit but only of a rational being - its expression and functions), to give man eternal life, and His mind, so that he (man) could smell or discern, become keen or of quick understanding, so that man (male & female) would through God’s wisdom and knowledge of himself, would come to know that he (male & female) was God’s agent, ambassador, or representative in the earth living in divine health, perfect peace, having eternal life, and walking in dominion, power, and authority over everything that lived, moved, and creeped upon the earth.  God knew that it was only in Him, that man could live, move, and have his being – and man himself had to come to that understanding!

 “God remembered”:  Genesis 1:27-28: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him: male and female created he them, and God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it:  and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.

Psalm 8:4: And the “son of man” that thou visitest him? 

Son is from the word “ben”, meaning builder of the family name.  This second word “MAN” aw-dawm’, is different from the “man” (enowsh) in the first part of this verse!  This word “man” in this part of the verse means ruddy, a human being (an individual or the species, mankind,):  it means to show blood (in the face).  This “man” (male & female) Adam is a “special kind of man”:  one that had God’s blood in his face.  He was God’s agent, representative, or ambassador in the earth.  Man (male & female) was GOD materialized (produced; manifested; seen)!

God visited (paqad) man with friendly intent so as to oversee, care for, deliver, to keep, appoint, set, and enjoin Himself to man to bestow His dominion, authority and power upon him (male & female) and place him (man) (male & female) in charge of the creation. 

God knew that the time would come when He (God Himself) would “visit” man and His “visitation” would be to take on the very nature of man upon Himself by becoming man so as to bring man back into oneness with God Himself! 

• St. John 1:1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God:  (vs 2): and the same was in the beginning with God:  (14): And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us:
• Philippians 2:6: Who, being in the form of God:
  [Form coming from the root word morphay’ meaning to have the very nature the characteristics of a person or thing].
  Vs 7: Thought it not robbery to be equal with God:  but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:                  
  Vs 8: And being found in fashion as a man:
  [Fashion from sche’ma, meaning a figure (as a mode or circumstance), in relation to external conditions].
  He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
  Romans 8:3: For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.
  Hebrew 4:15: For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
  

What points?  The same “points” the Woman (the church) was tempted with and Adam partook of in Genesis 3 which caused the creation to fall, which were:              

• 1 John 2:16: For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.        
  

Genesis 3:6: And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

Vs 7: And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.     

The “eyes” that were opened were not their natural eyes, but it was the “eye” of the mind that caused them to focus on two schools of thought, that which was “good and evil” that came from the devil himself.  

• James 1:8: A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.
  

The vision of the “single eye” which they had before the fall that caused them to see God and experience life only, had ended!  

• Matthew 6:22: The light of the body is the eye:  if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.  Vs 23: But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.  If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness?
  

At that point they knew they were “naked”, not stripped of natural clothing, but stripped of the “robe of righteousness” God had dressed them in.  Contained in the “robe of righteousness” was their divinity, the light and life of God, wisdom, knowledge, perfect peace, divine health, dominion, authority and power!  The fall caused them to return to their humanity, the dust of death out of which they had been delivered! 

• 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.
• Revelation 16:15: Behold, I come as a thief.  Blessed is he that watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
  

The “fig leaves” they sewed together was the devil’s doctrine of religious order of that day that they girded themselves with and attached themselves to, which was typified by the aprons.      

Matthew 4 Jesus when in the wilderness was tempted in the same points as the Woman was in Genesis and Adam partook with her so as to keep fellowship with her (the church), and He (Jesus) conquered and overcame the devil in all of those same points and defeated the enemy.  And He has now given us that same power to overcome the enemy: 

• Luke 10:19: Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy:  and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
  

THE MYSTERY OF THE GOSPEL IS:  “GOD IS MAN IN FLESH FORM”!

• John 10:22-39: [the Jews try to arrest Jesus]:  “they took up stones to stone him” (vs 31):
   Vs 32: Jesus answered them, "Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do you stone me"?
  Vs 33: The Jews answered him, saying, “For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God”. 
  Vs 34: Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, I said, you are gods”?

It is not that man, made or is making himself God – It’s that God chose to make Himself man! 

What they didn't know was that He (Jesus) was God!!!

• St. John 1:1-2: In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God:  
  Vs 14: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.  
• 1 John 4:17: As he is, so are we in this world!!!
  

You are that which is seen of Him who is invisible! You crystallize the one who has no form!                                                                                                                                                     You localize the one who is everywhere!  And He is the one my heart is yearning for!

We bare the name of Him who is un-namEable!  Whose name transcends whatever name is named!

We are the dawning of a light that has no genesis!  We are the ones creation is waiting for!

• Romans 8:19: The earnest expectation of the creature (creation) waits for the manifestation of the sons of God.  (Not for Jesus to come back, He's already here - they're waiting for the Sons of God to stand up and be God in the earth)!
  

I am AND YOU ARE the living word wrapped in flesh and bone: 

• Ephesians 5:30: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.                                                     
  

I am filled with the spirit god!  We are the invisible god made visible!

The bible is the inspired written word of God – but we are the “living word” of God!

 I am the living word wrapped in flesh and bone:  I am filled with the Spirit God!

“The Spirit God” (not the Spirit “of” God): – men will accept the fact that God’s Spirit is in them, but they don’t believe that God is in them.                                                                                                              They have separated the two.  They have God’s Spirit in them but they have God out off beyond the blue.  

St. John 4:24: GOD IS SPIRIT, and there is no spirit but God!  The written word is written that it may “take form”!  St. John 1:14: the Word was made flesh!   It was the Word of God that took on flesh, and that flesh was Jesus!  The Word took on form, and that form was Jesus!  

When it says “the Word was made flesh”, that was said over 2000 years ago.  Two thousand years later we have the Word written in the bibles we have, and the Word has still taken on form and it is not Jesus, the form it has taken on is you and me.  We can now say that the Word is made flesh and you are the Word now made flesh and I am the Word made flesh!!  Or you miss what the bible is completely all about. It’s going to take more than “preaching the word” now in this age of the Holy Ghost we must “be the Word”!

• Ephesians 5:30:  We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
  

The 5 fold ministry and the spiritual gifts are not going to have much place if any at all in this 21^st century, because they were given for the perfecting of the saints, the work of the ministry, and to edify the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-13).  The “PERFECTING” is the Word made flesh!

Before Abraham was, you were.  God is before everything, and we were with Him in the beginning!  

• St. John 1:2: The same (that’s US) was in the beginning with God.
• (Vs 4): In him was life [Zoe]- (life in the “absolute”) [complete; perfect; thorough; positive; unrestricted; unbounded; full; supreme].   
  

Life as God Himself has and gave to the “incarnate Son”: 

• St. John 5:26: For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself:  
  

And the Son manifested this “Zoe life” in the world:          

• 1 John 1:2: For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.
  

 This is the “life” man has become alienated (not annihilated) from because of the fall:  (“eternal life”):      

• Ephesians 4:18: Having the understanding darkened, being alienated (isolated; estranged) from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.                                 But Jesus has restored us back to this “Zoe life” (eternal life) and we can have it right here and right now!!!
  

• St. John 3:15: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
  

St. John 1:4:  And the life (Zoe) was the light of men:  (vs 9): That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

This “light” is from the word “phos”, meaning, the shining of the “Alpha” light ray of God reaching the mind of man to enable him to readily understand that he (male & female) is more than a mortal and must by the power of God in him lift himself up out of his humanity back into his divinity that God ordained and placed him (male & female) in from the beginning! 

According to 1 Corinthians 2:14 man naturally is incapable of receiving spiritual light, inasmuch as he lacks the capacity for spiritual things.  

• 1 Corinthians 2:14: The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God:  for they are foolishness unto him:  neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
  

But in Luke 16:8 and 1 Thessalonians 5:5, we are called “children of light” (or “sons of light”).  

CHILDREN here is from the root word “huios”, connoting that one is so much like another that distinctions between the two are indiscernible.

• Hebrews 1:2-3:  God, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.  
  

Believers are called “sons of light”:

• Luke 16:8: And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely:  for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light:       
• 1 Thessalonians 5:5: Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day:  we are not of the night, nor of darkness.  
  

We are “children of light” not merely because we have received a revelation from God, but because in the New Birth we have received the spiritual capacity for it. 

• St. John 3:3: Except a man be born again, he cannot see (know; understand) the kingdom of God.
•  Vs 5: Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.  
  

We already know that “being born of water” is not water baptism, but it’s being reformed and regened by the Word of God!  

• Ephesians 5 (22-32) (speaks of Christ and the Church):  vs 26: That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.
  

And being born of the Spirit is taking on the new birth by the “inhalation” of God’s Spirit!  This is the same breath that was breathed into “man” in Genesis 2:7; the same breath that was breathed upon the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37:9; the same breath that Jesus breathed upon the disciples and filled them with the Holy Ghost in John 21:22; the same breath or wind that came at Pentecost and filled all the house where those in the upper room were, Acts 2:1-4.

The “breathing out” was the “exhaling” or “breathing out of God’s breath” into man to inflate or kindle (set on fire, ignite, excite or arouse) “divine inspiration” within man mentally and emotionally.  Man’s “inhalation” of God’s “divine inspiration” contained the “mind of God” giving man creative thoughts and actions of who God was to and in man and all that he (man) was to and in God!!!  Man (male & female) then had become the “form” of God in the earth, or the invisible God made visible, or the Spirit God made flesh in the earth!!!

This is why we need and must have Christ’s mind!   

• 1 Corinthians 2:16: But we have the mind of Christ. 
  [This word “mind” being (nous or intellect) – which is the ability to not only understand knowledge but also to accept the truth “that we are Christ’s body in the earth”]: 
• 1 Corinthians 12:12: For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all members of that one body, being many are one body:  so also is CHRIST: 
• Ephesians 5:30: We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones: 
• 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.                                                                                                            [This word “mind” is from the root word phrone’o, meaning to exercise the mind by mentally disposing or placing it earnestly in a certain direction so as to form a partition that will fence or enclose it into the spirit that will give us nothing but thoughts of “life”]. 
• Romans 8:6: To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  [Regardless of what’s going on around us or in relation to us whether “good or bad” we that have Christ’s mind know that it (the crisis or circumstances) is working for our good]!!! 
• Vs 28: We know that “all things” work together for our good, to them who are “the called” according to God’s divine purpose. 
  

• St. John 1:1: In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  Vs 2: The “same” (us) was in the beginning with God.
  Vs 14: And the Word was made flesh.
• 1 John 4:17: As he is, so are we, in this world!!!
  

We are not dated from the day we were placed in our mother’s womb, or the day that we were born.  We are dated back from eternity!!  The original name that we “bare” is “the Word of God”.  

• Revelation 19:13: And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood:  and his name is called “The Word of God”! 
  [We the Body of Christ is that “vesture” that has been clothed with the flesh of Jesus Christ or the Body that gives Him His flesh in the earth and has been dipped in His blood]!!!  HALLELUJAH!!!
  

Our parents gave us the names we have because they didn’t know who we were.   They didn’t know who they were, much less who we were.  The angel said to Mary, “Thou shall call his name JESUS and he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).  But that’s not who He was, He was Emmanuel, God with us or God in the flesh!!!  (1 John 4:17): As he is, so are we, in this world!!!

You are far more than what you are called by men – you are actually God, in flesh and bone!

This is the only way we can come out of the ideas of “humanity” and move back into the place of our “divinity”, by the reception of the truth of the mystery of the gospel!  

The “light” (the knowledge of God) must dawn (arise) in the dark place.  The dark place is in the “mind” of man.  The light must shine to dispel the darkness (ignorance; misery; death, etc).

Creation has been long awaiting a people with this knowledge:

• Romans 8:19: For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.                                                                                                                                                        Waiteth is from the word apekdech’omai, which means to expect fully or wait eagerly / also from ekdech’omai, to accept, take or receive in readiness of mind from some source the truth of the fullness of the gospel, that we can have the abundant life right here and right now!!!
  

What if each of us every nation of people under the sun were to take hold of one another’s hand and look at him or her and say, “You are that which is seen of Him who is invisible”, “you crystallize the one who has no form”, and “you localize the one who is everywhere”?  How do you think most people will react?  

The truth is:  “you are the invisible God made visible” and “you are the form of Him who has no form”!  

• 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.  
  

John 4:24: God is Spirit!  And He forms Himself as you – not just in you – but He forms Himself as you!  You are God made “form” or God wrapped in “flesh and bone”.                                          This is the truth that must captivate the heart of every man now in this 21^st century! 

• Ephesians 5:30: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
  

John 8:32: You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free!  

This is the TRUTH that will erase wars; hatred; bitterness. When every man looks on one another and see the invisible God made visible!!  Because God is love, and it is “love” that will erase hatred, darkness, and death!

God is Spirit but He made Himself flesh. Therefore He makes Himself visible as you and me. 

• 1 John 4:20: If a man says, I love God, and hate his brother, he is a liar:  for he that loves not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 
  

[The revelation in this is: “when I love you I love God also, because you are Him in flesh form”]!

• Vs 21: And this commandment, have we from him, that he who love God love his brother also.
  

So if you don’t love thE ONE which you see, there is no way that you can love God, because the one you see is God made visible!

The only God that we thought we knew was the one we imagined in our mind out in the heaven.  That’s why we must “cast down imaginations” (2 Corinthians 10:5) [which are reckonings; conceit; and reasoning that can lead to evil intent or reaction as a result of conscience].   

An IMAGE is a representation of a person or thing; a statue; a mental picture; a concept of a person or product, held by the general public.  So people that are thinking Jesus is coming back in a flesh body to deliver them have made Him into an image in their own minds.  They are worshipping the “flesh of Jesus” instead of worshipping God in Spirit!

• Romans 1:21-25: Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the un-corruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.  Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves:  who changed the truth of God into a lie, and “worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator”, who is blessed forever.  Amen.
  

John 10:30: (Jesus said):  “I and my Father are one”!

• Ephesians 2: (Paul speaks of the Jew & Gentile being made one):  Vs 15: Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace. 
  

What Jesus did on the Cross was, He unified God and man as one by bringing God to what man is and bringing man to what God is!

What “the gospel” is for; is to make you and me know that Jesus by His death takes of twain (two), God and man and make them one new man!!!  

• 2 Corinthians 5:19: To wit (know), that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.                                                                         
•  1 Timothy 3:16: And 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.
  [The “glory” Jesus was received into was not out beyond the blue, but in us, we are His glory]!
• John 17:9: I pray for them:  I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.  Vs 10: And all mine are thine and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
  

God who is Spirit was made flesh!  So God became what man is!  He was never flesh, He was Spirit, but He was made flesh!  It wasn’t to bring God down, but it was to unify (consolidate; combine; amalgamate; join) God’s creation back to Himself!  What Jesus did on the Cross was to take the man who could not help himself and bring him into oneness with God.  This is “GOSPEL” (good news)!!

The understanding man has is - “I’m all flesh”, so he serves his flesh.   Now God has to help man come into the knowledge of who he (man) is and who God is “as one”!!! 

• James 1:8: A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.
  

The “double-mindedness” of man is him thinking that he is only “human” and not knowing that he is “God”.  To be “single-minded” is to know that God and you are ONE!!!  And it’s only having a spiritual mind or Christ’s mind that can bring you into this understanding. 

• Romans 8:6: For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
  

 The mystery of the gospel is that in order for God to help man He had to become what man is and that’s flesh. But He (God) yet retained and maintained His identity as the Spirit God!!!  It’s God becoming what you are and you becoming what God is!

I like to use the definition of a molecule to describe our Awesome God!   Molecule:  the smallest particle of an element or compound that can exist in the free-state and still retain the characteristics of the substance:  or the smallest structural unit into which a substance can be divided and still retain its identity.  He (God) put on flesh as a man, but still maintained and retained His identity as Spirit!

Through Jesus’ ministry and teaching He said, “I am the Son of God” but the time came when He didn’t say “I am the Son of God”, He didn’t say “My Father and I”. 

 John 5:16-29: (The Son’s witness to the Father):                                                                             [The Jews sought to kill him, because He had healed on the Sabbath, and because He said that God was His Father, making Himself, equal with God]:  

•  Vs 17-18: But Jesus answered them, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”.  Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.   
  Vs 19: Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do:  for what things so ever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. 
• John 14: [The disciple Philip said to Jesus]:  Vs 8: “Who is this Father you are talking about” or “Show us the Father”:  Vs 9: Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?  He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?  Vs 10: Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?  The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself:  but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.  
  

John 5:30-47:  [The Father’s witness to the Son] (how the Father had sent Him):  

• Matthew 3:17: God said, “This is my beloved Son” 
  

So here stands “Father and Son”:  and this is as far as the church goes with that today – “I am the Son of God”.  

The church is willing to accept the fact that they are “the sons of God”.  As long as you are saying that, no one will criticize you – but when you come out with the truth of the fullness of the matter and say as Jesus said in John 10:30 “I and my Father are one” – they will stone you or try to as they did Jesus:    vs 30-35.  

When Jesus came here as Mary’s baby it was Father and Son – but when He (Jesus) in His consciousness came into the revelation of who He was it was no more two, Father and Son, as separate entities, but Father and Son made one new man!

Why didn’t Jesus start His ministry before He was thirty, raising the dead and doing all kinds of miracles? Because there was death’s in Israel, Palestine, etc .  Why did He wait till He was 30?  I’m sure He had compassion for people as He was growing into maturity.  But at this point He was only seeing Himself as Father and Son!  

He said, “Of myself I can do nothing, but it has to be the Father doing the work” (John 14:10).              

As long as I’m a Son I can do nothing, I have to keep looking to the Father.  But when He recognized the truth of Himself that I’m not a Son of the Father, but the Father and I are become one, two made one!  He sees Himself in a new light!  He sees His possibilities!  He sees what He can do!  He sees that He can change the elements and turn water into wine, raise the dead, even the wind and the seas obey Him!

Jesus read the bible through and through and He didn’t see truth in the bible, He saw it in Himself!  He saw Himself as Truth!  He didn’t see life in the bible, He saw Himself as life. 

If you have life you can lose it, but if you are life you can’t lose it, you can’t die, because you are life!  

• John 14:6: I am the way, the truth, and the life. 
  

 If you only see yourself as having life, you are seeing two, but when you know that you are life, two has become one.  

• John 10:16-17: And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold:  them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.  Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
• Vs 18: Jesus said, No man can take my life from me, I lay it down for the sheep.  If I lay it down, I can take it again.  This commandment have I received of my Father.
  

When the scripture says “heaven and earth will pass away” Mark 13:31, it’s not talking about the dirt or the sky going anywhere, it’s stating that “heaven and earth” will become one!  I pray you can receive this, “heaven and earth” was one in the beginning, Genesis 1:1: In the beginning God created the heaven (Christ) and the earth (Jesus).  The “heaven” was the God that Jesus was; and the “earth” was the flesh of man that God became all “one” in Jesus the Christ!!

If you only see flesh you’re flesh minded and that brings on death, Romans 8:6: To be carnally minded is death.                                                                                                                                                When you look at yourself you must see more than flesh, you must also see spirit.  Flesh is death.          It takes Spirit to make alive, Romans 8:6: To be spiritually minded is life and peace.  

We must recognize this!  It is what Jesus came to stop!  Jesus came to stop man from only recognizing his flesh and living poor just to please his flesh and disregard spirit!  This is what the whole “gospel” is all about, is for man to recognize and regard himself as being “one Spirit” with God!

• 1 Corinthians 6:17: He that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit!
• 1 Corinthians 12:12: As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, SO ALSO IS CHRIST!
  Vs 13: For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.   
•  Romans 12:2: Be ye transformed by the renewing of your, mind:  that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.  
  

THE MYSTERY OF THE GOSPEL IS THAT MAN CAN TRANSCEND DEATH AND LIVE ETERNALLY!!!

The “mystery of the gospel” - that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God, is to stop man from recognizing what he wants and walking according to the “ego” and stop always asking God for something – and to recognize his (male & female) oneness with God!  

We must move into the “knowing” that as we look into the mirror we don’t just see a flesh body, but we see God wrapped up in that flesh body!!  

• 1 John 4:17: As he is, so are we, in this world!!!

Pastor Gracie Perry