How much Tavistock Institute has shaped our world ?

 

 I do not know where the original can be linked to, and my software deliberately degrades
copies of originals slightly, but the message is still very clear.

Jeanette Archer is from a Satanic Ritual Abuse background and is one of the voices on 50 Voices ( Next Post) Her story :

"The Tavistock institute is where a large amount of my MK mind control programming took place. Klaus Schwab was my handler at the Tavistock and was very much in charge of the torture and training of the super soldier children. He was “papa” to me (the series, Stranger Things was very much based on practices at the Tavistock) he was extremely measured with every task. He used electric shock to control me, amongst other things and pretty much ran the show at the Tavistock. The experiments that went on there were horrific. It is an extremely evil place where children are continually brutalised and murdered. It would be a happy day for me to see that building burn 🔥"

The All of Life concept

 Crowley writes spell books. So you think you are reading them at the surface level of meaning , but other hooks are happening .

Witches use a whole host of "means ". Animated writing . Writing that others can't see .

Do you see that while there is a power of God to do freaky things , the sheer power of God that the devil tries to emulate , is that every natural thing is a prophecy in plain sight ?

I will repeat that .

Every thing in our life is a direct prophecy of something .

God going on is this CENTRAL SOURCE LIFE .

IT DOESN'T HAVE TO LOOK LIKE ANYTHING .

IT IS .

To even have existence building his own separate throne , everything the devil does must be to the left or right of God's life .

If he stays too far , then it must be done in extreme shadows , hence the word occult . Why ? Because we , whoever we are , are repulsed by the devil's extremes , having come from God ourselves . We haven't come from God as Jesus who is the Second Person of God , came from God . But nevertheless we are creatures of His design , and are repulsed were Satan to reveal who he is and the depths of his works and thoughts . 

So he has to hang around pretty close to where the action is . That's what Revelation 12 is saying .

He hangs around seeing what's next .

He hangs around waiting for the Next Manchild . The next thing conceived and brought forth from God .

What I'm trying to get over is the " work " of our generation . It's been exceedingly subtle .

God said to us " set up a way in the wilderness for multitudes to walk upon "

The parable of the servants in the field says that one portion of things , is very visible , external service . Then there's the service at the Master's table until He is satisfied .

Jesus Himself , as a Man did things in this order .

First 30 years , very outward service , including local carpenter  

Then He entered into ministry " serving the Master " at table . When the Father was satisfied . The work of the Cross . The " it is finished " at the Cross. The willingness to go ahead in Gethsemane . " Nevertheless , not My will but Thine be done ....etc 

God the Father raised Jesus , to make Him Lord and Christ and put on servants garb to serve His Son , as Jesus , now Name above all Names , is given as Head to the Church .

Jesus is doing two things .

To the 7 billion in the world , people of faith and no faith , He is doing a mega , massive version of hiding His Face like Joseph did , and getting the brothers to do an operation WHEREBY THEY UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY DID TO HIM .

THE MILITARY CALL IT OPTICS .

We across the earth have to see what Genesis 3 is .

What a crock Satan's lie is .

That there's nothing that truly exists outside of God .

So that all learn life on this planet .

We have to see that .

Each and everybody personally , intrinsic to us .

As we are going into the kitchen , we have to learn if it's God doing it .

If we are with friends we have to learn love ....if it is God doing it .

If we are bringing up kids , if it is God doing it .

If we are selling , when it is manipulation , and when it is God wanting the person to have an item .

If we are addressing an item of politics .....basic administration .....whether God is in that policy .

People have to see if for themselves .

This TOO is the meaning of " Surely as truly as I live all the world will be filled with the knowledge of My glory as the waters cover the sea".

So there's the Romans 1 in creation aspect of glory .The sunsets and the oceans  and the high glorious mountains etc 

There's the hidden away at the Master's table aspect of glory , serving Him in praise until He is satisfied . I spent , along with many charismatics , my teens , and twenties doing that , leading in worship and writing songs , and learning to extemporise on flute , classical guitar and then a bit on keyboards before the Throne in worship gatherings . Dave Tomlinson did his apostling of early house church groups across the North of England as a late teen and into his twenties , but then he knew there was something we were missing .

Norman Grubb and his wife Pauline came to the same conclusion a whole generation prior as they served as missionaries .

David learned about the four stages humans pass through from M Scott Peck . Norman learned about the last three stages mentioned as 1 John 2 in the Bible .

So a whole generation of us have been learning Galatians 2.20 in whole of life for the last 35 years or so . Its like an extended meeting where the same Holy Spirit directs us to do things ....it's just a much longer meeting .

If we get too caught up with finding Jesus as an emotion , as a felt Presence .....we miss jumping in with both feet holding our nose .....and believing that the same God who directs meetings , is well able to direct the whole of life .

This is something of the " cut off " that the Fisherfolk made from the early charismatic part of their lives and serving the new movement in Britain from Yeldall Manor in Britain , to when , if any of you recall , they disappeared off to a Scottish Island to find themselves further as an all of life community .

Betty Pulkingham wrote the Book " Celebrate the Whole of it ". It's very significant that she wrote this book because she was the trained musician . And like me jacking in the role of just being a musician she was making a whole of life statement .

This was the point I was making in the sentence that I included Adam Michael Kranichfield .

The devil never made the transition .And if you've ever led in worship and tasted the collective power of leading worship as I have , you sort of understand the choice the devil was faced with .

And he chose the wrong choice .

There's a whole generation of charismatics who have got bored with the charismatic scene , or sensed it's missing something , and they have left the arena !!!!

Now is the danger moment . Will they find the Truth ?

Or will they go and find the squiggly animated writing ? Will they be like Solomon , led into the seduction of the deepest darkest rituals of black magic and controlling 72 demons or whatever , which has now become the central lore of Freemasonry , and Kabbalism and Crowley , and trying to create transhumanism and being a part of the Beast system .

Jesus was inserted right there , Into that very lineage of evil some 2000 years early . He was inserted into the Beast system , the one Nebuchadnezzar tasted for 7 years then confessed that God was the glorious Potentate , and not him at all . Jesus was born in a beast feeding trough in the House of Bread .

The whole Feast system is built around Bread .

The Feast of Tabernacles is built around the Feadt of the outpouring of the Water .

And its built round the Feast of Ingathering .

And the framework or Infrastructure is flimsy 4 Wood tabernacles with a roof with holes in .

It's a safe infrastructure to bring people into .....But it's NOT THE THING . ITS NOT A STONE TEMPLE .

Because THE THING is flesh and blood Jesus in you and me .

So , yes there's gifts of the Spirit , and extraordinary things . Yes ,there's going to be the Presence of God like you won't believe  ....

But the carrying Acacia box base is buying the field of mud , to get the treasure .

That's the point I was trying to make .

We are in the middle of something way higher than trying to get high , or some Crowleyan spell like writings ,or witches animated writings on stones in the mountains , where like Mount Hermon there is a portal and Jessie Czebotar says there are many under the earth waiting to be raised .

Lift up your heads o ye Gates etc 

We aren't in a charismatic middling realm .

Pentecost isn't the final destination, it's the eating of Bread . It's letting Jesus form Himself in me .

When I was in adultery , my desperate mum contacted her previous reverend who was our minister in Berkhamsted Methodist Church .

Maurice Cartledge was always born again but now he was part of the new move getting baptised in the Spirit. He knew David Tomlinson , so he contacted him . Dave contacted Alan Vincent ( father of Rachel Hickson by the way) and Alan came and investigated us  . At the time we were walking correctly .

But one day a few months later , we fell just once more . Once more and the very next day like the prophet on King David's doorstep , Alan , who was from about 15 or 20 miles away , was at the door asking us point blank ......

Or me , more precisely ....because that was the chain of people set in motion by my Mum .....

Did you commit adultery ?

And so it is , 46 years later I am here on the South Coast and not in the Herts and Bucks area , where Alan and Eileen drove me , where God could re establish my life .

There's something better than the charismatic / Pentecostal message and it's Romans 12.1-2, whole of life worship , and placement , and 

BEING ON LOCATION FOR GOD .

We put on the congregation what we don't do ourselves

Jorge ref.to founding apostle Jorge Pradas   of Rios De Vida International ministries of Quilmes Buenos Aires 

 

As in the Natural Realm , So does the Kingdom Build

Click the film clip below to hear what the picture above describes .

Jonathan's New book The Mechanics of Miracles

Healings are for all to move in

Jonathan Brenneman writes

I went to a church service last night, hoping to have some fellowship with friends, hoping they would go out or something after the meeting. I left frustrated. It was good for a church service...good songs, a more biblical message than most...

But it was another show. No fellowship. Little supernatural manifestation of God's grace. It would have been much better to stay home and spend time with my daughters.

As my understanding grows of how rich and how generous God is, I am increasingly becoming convinced that if the church doesn't have revival, it's because that's not what the church wants. If the church doesn't have God's grace manifesting supernaturally, healing, powerful prophetic words, people being set free from demons, people laughing with the joy of the Lord and weeping because they want their lives to reflect God's holiness, and all kinds of other manifestations of God's grace, it's because that's simply not what the church values.

God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. What revival has ever come without a message that offended some, requiring humility to receive? Read the instructions for Christians meetings in 1st Corinthians 11-14. The meeting included a meal, and every member flowing supernturally in God's grace with the various manifestations of the Spirit. Anything less was failing to discern the body of Christ and one member saying to the others "I don't need you." Read chapter 12 and tell me how a spectator event or one-man show is not in disobedience to these instructions. Chapter 13-the goal is love or we are like a noisy gong or clanging symbol. (Currently it usually feels like an event to hype the people up and keep them needing the people who get their tithes, keeping those people in control, growing the organizations' power and numbers....not really about the church edifying itself.)

Chapter 14, all can prophesy, if a revelation comes to someone else let the first one sit down and allow one or two other prophets to speak. And who are you to say women can't speak...did God's word originate with you? Finally, let everything be done in an order that facilitates the operation of the whole church as one body, with no member being left out.

If we dishonor any member of the body of Christ, we dishonor Christ. If Jesus wants to manifest himself in some way through anybody and our regular Christian meetings don't facilitate that, then it is as if Jesus showed up but we didn't have room in our program for him. When most members are doing nothing to build up the whole body of Christ in our meetings, it is as if the body of Christ in that place is paralyzed.

This is just one example of how it is pride that is keeping the church from revival. Scripture's commands are clear. Romans 15 says you are brimming with knowledge and able to instruct each other. Colossians says to teach and exhort each other. Hebrews says "By this time you should be teachers."

That is not to say we can "NEVER" have a big meeting with a special speaker, or that there isn't a context for it. Jesus and the early church had big meetings, but they were mostly evangelistic, not for regular fellowship or discipleship. There are times when a visiting speaker comes who is building up the church, we have a special meeting, that's totally legit.

But many church communities have NO context in which they obey the Biblical instructions for a regular meeting. Even the small groups and weekday meetings are often like miniature church services, spectator events.

Humility receives corrections and obeys. Pride says "We do it this way, it really isn't so bad." I'm finding locally that many people just want to do what they've done before, they think they are rich but they are living in spiritual poverty. They like their church services and then when people aren't edified and don't find God's grace flowing or any opportunity to obey Jesus in their meetings, they call those people "unchurched."

They think they can do church fine. There's no dependance on the Holy Spirit, saying "Holy Spirit, help! We can't do this without you! It's no good if you don't move, touch people, and do what only You can do! We yeild to You." They don't have revival because they don't want it, and they would have it if they did. Some of the very people in that service went to a restaurant with me and saw the whole staff receive prayer with everyone in need receiving healing miracles....but they don't have that happening in their church services and they are happy with the way it is. Some of them have seen us pray for people outside of church services and they fall on the concrete under God's power, no emotionalism. They have seen that, they know it's available. Why don't they have it in their church services? They Holy Spirit's work and what only He can do is not what is valuable to them. It's not what's important to them. They have their pastor and their program.

So by now it's so hard to even sit through their program, especially if they sing songs about wanting revival and I know they don't.

If we aren't having revival, then pride needs to be confronted, and it is going to offend some people. There is no revival without repentance. There is no change without first recognizing that you need change, that you are poor, blind, and naked if you're doing it on your own power, and that you are helpless without the Holy Spirit. And then there is no change if we do not change. God says "Listen to my reproof, and I will pour out my Spirit on you."

Price hack: The Mechanics of Miracles is now available as an audio book. The Audible Book is 8.99 by itself, but if you have bought the kindle version first, which is currently on the 99 cent promotional launch price, Amazon gives the option to add the audible book for $1.99. You get the kindle and audible book for 2.98 rather than just getting the audible book for 8.99!

Enter a "new normal" of God's glory and miracles! After experiencing thousands of miracles over the last 19 years, missionary Jonathan Brenneman shares nearly 100 supernatural testimonies and a detailed study of how God’s invisible Spirit manifests tangibly in power among us.

“I probably have more than two dozen healing works on my shelf published in the last few years. Some of these works are quite good, but I don’t think any of the authors have gone where Jonathan has gone. I would consider him an expert on this topic.”

-Pastor J.D. King, Author Regeneration: A Complete History of Healing in the Christian Church

@highlight @followers

Without a Vision People Perish

 

From Deacons in Early History to God's Ekklesia Blueprint

 https://preparingyou.com/wiki/Deacon

A brother sent me this link which describes the way we got to some of the structure in our churches.

I sought to set forth the sort of pattern we have in the gospels ,Acts , the new churches and the Protocol descriptions of Ephesians 4 and 1 John 1.

Jesus is forming Himself in us . We do what God has us doing . If you read the history excerpts here they have already departed from what the gospels and Acts and the letters are about . You can see how it was but a hop step and a jump straight into Catholicism . 

 Step one is Jesus at the brazen altar ....our watery funeral and then being baptised in the Spirit to be functioning priests 

 Step two Is our new inheritance , being able to gather as this new thing in the earth called Ekklesia , Body under one Head ,as led by the Holy Spirit 

 Step Three Is whole of life living following the Holy Spirit . Which is both unity of the church and living Galatians 2.20. The Holiest place emblem is the acacia box mercy seat with three forms of developed Word The Law of the Spirit of life ...the tablets Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word from the mouth of God . Manna The Spoken Word of faith . Instances of Declaration . The almond stick . And in and around us is the Khavod glory which God has to do . He makes of us ministers of fire who speak God's Word or ministers of healing and deliverance . Partly grown Word in us looks like the disciples trying to haul in the biggest nets ...... This is the pyramid shape of denominational , evangelical and charismatic churches. Full grown word is people who have gone into the ground and been raised , and start finding each other and flowing as groups of ministries . The End product of Word is psalm 122, a City compact together . It's not socialism , like a bunch of Mark types that haven't been into the ground yet . It's circumcised ministry that never allows the holy Word to be swept aside by an illegal cup of tea. 

 http://www.thethirdlevel.info/2014/04/gracebookintimacy-and-disobedient.html

In Christ: Article 3: by John Stevens

 New Testament Greek: ἐν Χριστῷ translated as ‘In Christ’ Milk or meat?

https://www.unlessaseed.com/blog

‘I could not write to you as spiritually mature but as fleshly, as babes in Christ…I fed you with milk not solid food…you are still fleshly…and are behaving like mere men.’ 1 Cor 3v1-4

‘Though by this time you should be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary lessons…you need milk, not solid food…solid food belongs to the mature…let us go on to maturity’ Heb 5v12-14; 6 v1

It is late August. Apples are almost ripe. Blackberries are softening, a little sour and hard, plums are turning deep purple, and the ripe ones taste sweet.

Babies are born with perfectly formed organs. The heart beats and the kidneys are hard at work. The parents, of course, hope that, in time, the baby will learn to walk, talk, eat from a spoon, run, and become literate, numerate, and physically coordinated. Into teens, and particular abilities, personality traits, likes, and dislikes become strong features, all developing into adulthood. By the late teens and early twenties, the teenager has become an adult, able to live independently of parents.

The process is invisible. It is a mystery. All we know is, that given the right food and growing conditions, all living organisms mature. We also know that abuse, trauma, various medical conditions, and poverty can severely disrupt, halt, or prevent the process from reaching the end goal.

In the New Testament, there is a similar expectation for believers to reach spiritual maturity in Christ; and warnings that the process is not automatic and spiritual growth can be halted.

The process towards spiritual maturity may be a mystery but, just as the observable symptoms of physical, mental, and emotional immaturity are sometimes plain to see, the New Testament writers – Peter, John, and Paul – all write to churches where they have detected developmental problems.

Birth

In Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, he says:

‘Unless one is born again…of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven’ John 3v1f

Jesus was repackaging the message of the New Covenant as prophesied by Jeremiah and Ezekiel that God would remove our stony hearts and replace them with new fleshy hearts, a new spirit, and His Holy Spirit.

Babies are born with perfectly formed organs. The heart beats and the kidneys are hard at work

When someone is ‘born again’ they are a babe in Christ. Everything is fully formed. The new heart and spirit are fully functioning. On day one as a believer the communion between the Holy Spirit and the person’s new spirit has begun. Radical changes can take place from day one. But moving on to maturity is another matter!

New Testament illustrations

• Discipleship – a disciple is like an apprentice, learning various skills, ways of thinking; it’s an information and formation process. The disciple becomes like the master.

• Little children, young men, fathers.

‘I have written to you, little children because your sins are forgiven…I have written to you young men because you are strong and the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one, I write to you fathers because you have known Him who is from the beginning’ 1 John 2v12-14

• Mere men, fleshly, spiritually mature

‘I could not write to you as spiritually mature but as fleshly, as babies in Christ…you are still fleshly…and are behaving like mere men.’ 1 Cor 3v1-4

• Foundations – ‘let us move on to maturity not laying again the foundation’ Heb 6v2

Point 1: Mere men, fleshly, spiritually mature

The apostolic letters from Peter, John, and Paul all address ongoing problems occurring in the churches. In Romans, Paul addresses the division between Gentile and Jewish believers. In both letters to the Corinthians, he highlights the factions and particular sexual sins as evidence of immaturity. In Galatians, he warns of the dire consequences of retreating from faith to legalism.

John is tackling a sensitive church issue where there has been a breakdown in the relationship between John and Diotrophes, a leader who ‘loves to have the pre-eminence’ 2 John 9 and has barred the apostle John, the close friend of Jesus, from the church!

Peter’s two epistles end with a charge to ‘grow in the grace of our Lord’

It is Paul’s response to the church in Corinth suffering with factions following certain personalities and preachers that sheds some light on spiritual maturity. The church situation is not unlike our own day with the body of Christ divided denominationally.

Mere men/Natural man – Paul is writing to believers reminding them that they are not mere men. You were, he says, but now you are ‘born again not just of water (natural birth) but of the Spirit (spiritual birth)’

Fleshly believers, babies in Christ – flesh here doesn’t refer to ‘skin’ but to human abilities intricately woven into our souls: our ability to reason, to be sensitive emotionally, and to make decisions; summarised as mind, emotions, and will. These are believers, but who have either never learnt, or forgotten, or are wilfully ignoring the Spirit, relying on their own abilities to live, love, and find liberty. Their decisions over money, sex, and associations are based on preference rather than the voice of the Spirit of Christ. Such believers are mimicking their pre-Christian state and are acting like ‘mere men’.

flesh here doesn’t refer to ‘skin’ but to human abilities intricately woven into our souls

To summarise: these believers are ‘soulish’ living from their own abilities and preferences, the symptoms are division, factions, and sexual immorality, rather than ‘spiritual’ living from the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Spiritually mature – in the New Covenant the relationship between the believer and the living God is restored and underway from day one. Progress is entirely by grace – a free gift, freely given – and via the communion between the believer’s new spirit and the Holy Spirit.

Learning to ‘walk in the Spirit’ is the way ahead. Jesus likened this to a fountain: ‘If you knew the gift of God…He would have given you living water…whoever drinks of the water I give will never thirst…it will become in Him a fountain of living water…’ John 4 v 10-14

The soul may be a good servant but it’s a lousy master. Our minds, emotions, and wills, are amazing; they are not inherently evil or inferior to our spirit, nor are our bodies – but we become spiritually mature when led by the Spirit in every aspect of life, not just Christian meetings!

The church in Corinth had begun to switch from the Spirit to ‘wisdom’:

‘We speak wisdom to the mature, yet not the wisdom of this age…not in words which man teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual with spiritual but the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned’ 1 Cor 2 whole chapter

Point 2: Not laying again the foundations

There is some humour in these illustrations!

It’s easy to forget with the seriousness of the subject matter, but the sight of a teenager or adult still suckling milk only from his or her mother’s breast is as shocking – and funny – as watching a homeowner, periodically, dismantling a perfectly good house, digging up the foundations and starting all over again. Madness! It’s the stuff of comedy.

And yet, whoever wrote the epistle to the Hebrews was saying just that! He was watching a church reexamining the foundations and never building on the foundations. The point is twofold: firstly the foundations are perfectly adequate, they don’t need digging up and relaying - but if you insist on relaying them, remember what they are.

The foundations are perfectly good – they pass the builder’s regs and the surveyor’s report. And they are ‘living foundations’ in operation 24/7 in the life of the believer. They are neither consigned to the past (e.g. conversion to Christ) nor to the future (e.g. the day of resurrection or judgement) but are eternal and, therefore, to be in operation continually.

1. Repentance from dead works and faith towards God

This is not the repentance and faith required to become a believer, it is a living word, a description of what it is like to be spiritually discerning. In this case the ability – from the Holy Spirit – to discern between dead works and living works. Dead works are not necessarily ‘sinful’ (e.g. adultery, murder, theft) but anything that your new spirit does not ‘witness’ with the Holy Spirit.

2. Doctrines of baptisms

Those in Christ should have been plunged into the Messiah (baptised into Christ), baptised in the Holy Spirit, and baptised into the body of Christ. Our water baptism symbolising these baptisms but spiritually these three baptisms are one drama being seen in three dimensions and serve as living foundations upon which to build.

The believer should be operating 24/7 out from Christ Himself, the power of the Spirit, and their living place as a living stone in the body of Christ.

3. Resurrection of the dead

Paul says of God: ‘God, who gives life to the dead’ Rom 4v17. This is a general statement but its application in this instance is the birth of Isaac, the ‘son of promise’ from Abraham and Sarah in their old age: ‘Abraham did not consider his own body, already dead as he was about 100 years old and the deadness of Sarah’s womb…being fully convinced that God was able to perform what He had promised’ v19-21.

When Jesus spoke of the resurrection he said: ‘Truly I say to you the hour is coming and now is when the, dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live…do not be shocked, the hour is coming when all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation’ John 5v25-29

‘Abraham did not consider his own body, already dead as he was about 100 years old and the deadness of Sarah’s womb…being fully convinced that God was able to perform what He had promised’

The New Testament is a radical message. It says that before we are placed ‘in Christ’ we are dead, in a grave, and unable to lift ourselves up, into life. But that, in this state, when we hear the gospel – the voice of the Son of God – if we have the same faith in the word of God as Abraham, we are raised to life. Now. It is the story of every person who finds faith in Christ.

There is also the promise of resurrection at the end, on the last day. And that Jesus’s bodily resurrection was a ‘first fruit’. That day is coming, but these foundation stones are living stones, they refer to the 24/7 experience of being led by the Spirit. In different circumstances we are faced with the voice of the Spirit saying ‘x’ whilst our mind looks at the ‘facts’ and concludes ‘x is impossible,’ Abraham looked at his impotent body and his post-menopausal wife’s body but believed the word of God even though it contradicted the facts.

4. Eternal judgement

Again it is important not to consign this foundation stone to the past ‘He who believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgement but has passed from death into life’ John 5 v 24,25 or entirely to the future day of judgement ‘the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ’ Rom 2 v 16.

This is a living word that each believer builds on – his or her ability to ‘compare spiritual with spiritual’ and to grow in the ability to live a life full of spiritual discernment in every circumstance.

Conclusions – and solid food?

None of us who are ‘in Christ’ can avoid the call to maturity. How the Holy Spirit brings about our maturity in Christ is an even deeper mystery than scientists trying to unpick the various stages of physical maturity. Spiritual maturity is an invisible process – invisible to others but known to God who looks on the heart.

There is a time element; the natural world shows us this with plants and animals reaching physical maturity along fairly predictable timelines, but mental and emotional maturity doesn’t always coincide with reaching physical maturity. Many enter adult life with a mature physical body but a sense of mental or emotional incompleteness or limitations.

Spiritually, those in Christ who have received the Holy Spirit are born into a new trajectory towards spiritual maturity. The spirit-Spirit communion with the promised ‘fountain of living water’ affects our souls and bodies and, therefore, every part of life: family, friends, work, interests, money, sex, and associations – our neighbours.

What is the ‘solid food’ that Paul and the writer of the letter to Hebrews call us to eat?

A cursory look at the letters to the churches whether written by Paul, Peter, or John can be divided into two halves.

The first half is devoted to doctrine – substitutionary and inclusive atonement for example -whereas, in the second half, the authors are usually saying, ‘OK now you know what God has done for you through the death and resurrection of Christ, now that you know that you are forgiven and a child of God, in Christ and Christ is in you, now you know that you were crucified with Christ and have been raised as a new creation in Him, now that you have received the gift of the Spirit…now that you know the A,B,C of the gospel, out you go into the world.’

What is the ‘solid food’ that Paul and the writer of the letter to Hebrews call us to eat?

The second half says: back to your families, your friends, your workplaces, your churches, and into your callings, gifts and ministries from the Spirit…overcome here, get some victories in the world under your belt as John’s ‘young men’ who overcome the evil one being strong in the word.

Then you are on the path towards being a ‘father’ who knows God who is from the beginning, living in the world with an eternal perspective, abiding in the ‘I am’, like Jesus.

The final ‘I am’ statement in John’s gospel Jesus states ‘I am the vine; you are the branches’. We’re back to the mystery of watching apples ripen on the tree, or here in John 15, to grapes maturing on the vine. As long as we as branches are in Christ, our destiny of maturity is inevitable…as long as we let the Father the gardener approach us with His two knives.

‘My father is the gardener, He cuts off every branch in Me that does not bear fruit and prunes every branch that does bear fruit so that it can bear more fruit’ John 15v1,2

The cutting out of dead branches is ‘repentance of dead works and faith towards God’ in operation: something that may have born fruit in the past is now ‘dead’ and needs to be excised; the knife is out. Similarly, if we are bearing fruit, the wisdom of the Father is to prune, to cut back fruit-bearing branches for the sake of producing better quality fruit.

Babies and infants in Christ are prone to getting very upset at this discipline of the Father just as natural small children get upset because they cannot see the bigger picture. Equally young men will fight and resist the Father as the gardener, wielding the knife. ‘Can’t you see the fruit, Father?’ or ‘With your life within me, I know this can live and bear fruit!’. But a father in Christ understands the whole picture, understands the Father’s wisdom, and has faith that, no matter how the Father wields His knife, it will be to produce more fruit.

In Christ : Article 2 by John Stevens

 Note from Chris Welch.....I dont like saying as Christ because of His totality. But I love that He would humble Himself to manifest as us.....we are Christ branches in His vine

Now, I can swim. If you threw me into the sea, I would not sink but float....

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In Christ: Article 2 New Testament Greek: ἐν Χριστῷ translated as ‘In Christ’ – ‘Christ in us’ or ‘Christ as us?’

‘I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I know live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who love men and gave His life for me’ Gal 2v20

In this verse, Paul summarises the substitutionary and the inclusive nature of the sacrifice of Christ and combines them with Christ in us.

But Christ as us?

A friend of mine, Chris Welch, has used this ‘as Christ’ variation on ἐν Χριστῷ, for some years.

My initial reaction to ‘as Christ’ was to question its basis, after all, the Greek doesn’t support the translation! Worse, it felt arrogant…a horrible feeling…particularly if you’re steeped in British culture of needing to appear modest at all costs.

On reflection though, ‘as Christ’ might not appeal to the literalist in me but it does to my poetic, interpretative side, so, in Article 2, I want to explore the doublet ‘as Christ’ and its corollary ‘Christ in our form’ without departing from the biblical text.

Point 1. Paul’s two-step revelation

Paul’s dramatic encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus is well known. What is less well appreciated, is that there is an undisclosed time delay between the risen Jesus Christ being revealed TO Paul and the later revelation of Christ IN Paul:

‘When it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me…’ Galatians 1 v 16

Paul’s ministry as an apostle and his many letters refer to ‘Christ in you’ or ‘in Christ’. This revelation profoundly affected his life and sense of calling: in one letter, to the church in Ephesus, Paul writes ‘in Christ’ 35 times and in his letter to the church in Colossae, Paul writes:

‘I became a minister…to preach the word of God, the mystery…hidden for ages…but now revealed…Christ in you, the hope of glory’ Col 1v24-27

Point 3. The body of Christ

Our biological bodies are made from trillions of microscopic cells. Each one of those cells is alive and each has a different function.

My name is John Stevens. All my cells are alive with my life, all my cells are ‘in John Stevens’ and ‘John Stevens is in’ every cell. So each cell is exhibiting life as ‘as John Stevens’ i.e. the life of John Stevens in its own form, functioning according to its calling and design as a liver cell, or colour receptor cell in the retina, or a humble skin cell.

We all have our specific functions in Christ.

The life of each cell is not independent of John Stevens, but part of John Stevens. It is not the full John Stevens, but it has no other identity than John Stevens, so, to say we are in Christ, and we live ‘as Christ’ is not saying we are the Christ, that would be blasphemous, as well as ridiculous, but that, by virtue of being ‘in Christ’, we participate in and exhibit Christ’s life. We do all things ‘in His name’ just as all my cells do everything ‘in my name’.

‘…the church…is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all’ Ephesians 1v22,23

Therefore, it is perfectly correct to say that, since we are in Christ, and Christ is in me, we are ‘as Christ’ in the world; Christ is incarnated in all who are in Christ. C.T. Studd, a missionary to Africa in the late 1800s and early 1900s, famously said: ‘I want to see Jesus running about in thousands of black bodies and purified hearts.’

As a child, I learnt how to sink in water. I couldn’t swim. Much as I tried to copy the arm movements of others my body headed down not along

Christ in our form, ‘as us’ is how the New Testament sees us individually in the world and corporately in His body, the church, the body of Christ.

In the first century, not long after the resurrection, believers earned the nickname ‘Christians’ meaning ‘little Christs’; meant, at best, as a nickname and, at worse, a derogatory insult but it is a profound truth.

Point 3 Going on to maturity

As a child, I learnt how to sink in water. I couldn’t swim. Much as I tried to copy the arm movements of others my body headed down not along.

What was wrong? The water? Had I lost my buoyancy? No.

Somewhere along the line, I learnt to trust that the water would hold me up. It was a shift from fear to faith. Moving on from fear to faith in various areas of life is transforming. No more so than with Christ.

Many do not believe they can live the Christian life, riddled as we are with imperfections, weaknesses, fears, ambitions, and sin. But when we shift to ‘seeing’ that it is Christ who holds us up, and that, for His life to manifest itself in our experience, is not dependent on our efforts but His life alone, we can make progress.

Now, I can swim. If you threw me into the sea, I would not sink but float. Am I an Olympic standard swimmer? No. In fact, I am a very limited swimmer, but I can swim, and if I had lessons and practiced, I would undoubtedly improve.

It is the same in the Christian life.

We have to learn to switch from relying on our inner resources as if we can live independently of Christ and learn to ‘walk in the Spirit’ as the New Testament calls it. In other words, we live life from the starting point of communion between our new spirits and the Holy Spirit (see Article 1).

When Paul wrote to the church in Corinth it had several moral faults: sexual immorality, social class distinctions, and competing factions are mentioned in his letters. In his analysis of how this could have occurred, amongst believers, he wrote:

‘I could not write to you as spiritually mature but as fleshly, as babies in Christ…you are still fleshly…and are behaving like mere men.’ 1 Cor 3v1-4

Fleshly, or carnal, as in some translations, here means they were genuine believers, but imitating ‘mere men’ i.e. those without Christ living in them; living according to their soulish abilities to think, feel, and act. He compared this to being like a baby, they hadn’t learnt to live and grow by a spirit-Spirit communion, to be led by the Holy Spirit.

To the Hebrews, the same problem is encountered:

‘Though by this time you should be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary lessons…you need milk, not solid food…solid food belongs to the mature…let us go on to maturity’ Heb 5v12-14; 6 v1

We are all disciples and learners. We all have L-plates.

Conclusion

Christ as us, Christ in our form?

Just as it requires faith in water to hold you up before you can swim, we must believe Christ is living His life in us and therefore ‘as us’.

We are all disciples and learners. We all have L-plates.

If the Apostle Paul needed time for God to reveal the mystery of ‘His Son in me’ or ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory’, maybe we do? But once it has been revealed – for example take Galatians 2v20 – we can begin to ‘swim’ and become more accustomed to thinking of ourselves as ‘little Christs’ not relying on our ability to mimic Christ’s life, but for Christ Himself to live out his life as us, in our form.

Next and final Article: Milk or solid food?