Experiencing God and knowing it is capable because of the uniqueness of the human brain which enables man to know, to appreicate, and to revel in the life of God. Correspondingly, you cannot have one without the other, it also allows man the possibility of thinking too highly of himself.
The storyline of the life of man is nothing more or nothing less than the conflict between first man Adam and second man Adam (to use the words of Paul, the greatest spokesperson for Christianity other than Jesus Christ himself). Experiencing God as it is meant to be is within the struggle of the mind of man. Paul in writing to the church in Corinth recorded
And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly (1 Cor. 15:45-48).
In representing first man Adam, Paul used in the original language a term that corresponds to the Hebrew “breathing creature” in the creation story of man (Gen. 2:7). When man was created, God breathed his life into the unique, the only one of its kind, brain of man. Mysteriously, the human cells of man’s brain began to function as a living mind. This unique characteristic of man, a brain sufficient in size and matter to enable it to think about its thinking, sets man apart from all other creatures in the created world. Experiencing God gives man the glorious opportunity to experience and to know that he is experiencing God. Correspondingly, you cannot have one without the other, it also gives man the potentiality of thinking too highly of himself.
Failure of experiencing God as it was meant to be.
In another letter by Paul, this time to the church in Rome, he stated that this mind of man guided by its own fleshly impulses could actually become the adversary to the ways of God:
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity [original, hostility, but when used as a noun, adversary] against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God (Rom. 8:5-8).
Earlier in his Roman letter, Paul described in detail how this mind of man created to enabled man to have an intimate, personal relationship with the life of God actually degenerates to become worthy only of death. Paul first stated that “the just shall live by faith (Rom. 1:17),” meaning that ultimately man can be just in his actions when he recognizes and lives in the knowledge and faith that the life of God, as manifested in the once dead but now alive Jesus, is indeed the beat of his heart and the breath of his lungs. Man is just when he lives in “second man Adam,” the quickening Sprit of life. It is how experiencing God was meant to be.
After stating that the just shall by faith, he revealed what happens to man when he begins to think too highly of his own opinions. Although all men have experienced in their lives, in the words of Paul, “the eternal power and Godhead,” “they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened (Rom. 1:21). Every child born into the world with the unique brain of the human species will soon begin to turn to its own thinking to solve the challenges of its existence. Unwittingly, sooner for some than others, they eventually begin to trust their own reasoning capability as the source of their direction in life. Mysteriously, man can not even go astary unless he is first experiencing God. This simple fact mean that man often hold the truth of the life of God as the essence of their life in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18): “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them” in the beat of their heart and the breath of their lungs (Rom. 1:19).
Once the downward road has begun, it is not long until the mind of man professing itself to be wise becomes as a fool in the worship of the creature more than the creator (Rom. 1:22-25). In the freedom that God has given the mind the capability to think, it is not long, with the lost of divine influence, until man turns to vile affections between the creatures to find the inherent longing for acceptance it craves (Rom. 1:26-27). Eventually, not wanting “to retain God in their knowledge” the thinking of their mind will actually become useless (reprobate) in producing the life they so desperately seek (Rom. 1:28).
The rich, full, contented life of being loved and loving in the quickening Spirit of “second man Adam” is foolishly forsaken for the craving impulses of “first man Adam.” Again, in the words of Paul, it is a life that is sadly
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful (Rom. 1:19-31).
Paul would add, “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them” (Rom. 1:32). Man, as all men will do, fall prey to the fleshly impulses that are evil within his own mind. He is not experiencing God as it was meant to be.
Failure in experiencing God is always in the fleshly exercising of the human mind.
For example, when Jesus told his disciples that “he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things . . . and be killed, and be raised again the third day” (Matt. 16:21), evidently, Peter heard only that Jesus must go to Jerusalem “and suffer many things . . . and be killed.” For Peter “took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee” (Matt. 16:22). Jesus immediately turned to Peter and said, “Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men” (Matt. 16:23).
With the word savourest meaning in the original language, “to exercise the mind, that is, entertain or have a sentiment or opinion,” the exercise of Peter’s mind had taken him into becoming an adversarial opponent to the plan of God for the life of Jesus. The misguided zeal of Peter to attempt to prevent Jesus from being taken to his death by the will of God the Father caused Jesus to say to him, “get thee behind me, Satan [original translation opponent]: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.”
In the statement of Jesus to Peter, he revealed the struggle of all men in their attempt to experience life: the thinking of his mind will either be on “the things that be of God” or on “those that be of man.” It will, indeed, be a conflict between the quickening Spirit of second man Adam and the fleshly impulses of first man Adam. In fact, this struggle would give rise to the ultimate absolute in the life of all men: “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit” (Rom. 8:5).
Example of the failure of experiencing God as it was meant to be in found in the church of Thyatira of Asia Minor.
This great truth is the subject of the message to the church in Thyatira. John recorded the words of the risen Christ to the church, ” And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass . . .” (Rev. 2:18). As we will see, this message to the believers in Thyatira is all about the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire.” As John recorded later to the church in Thyatira, “all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works” (Rev. 2:23). With “his eyes like unto a frame of fire, the quickening Spirit of the last man Adam knows what is in the “reins [original, “inmost mind”] and heart” of man. With this insight of every man’s heart, the Son of God will then “give unto every one of you according to your works [emphasis added].”
One of the great mysteries of life is that the rich, full contented life that everyone desires is not about your work. It is about the Son of God’s work in and through you. John, again, would record the words of the risen Christ to be sent to the church in Thyatira, “he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations” {emphasis added] (Rev. 2:26). Life is really all about whether your mind will either be on “the things that be of God” or on “those that be of man.” Your eyes will either be on your works or his works.
The Son of God does have eyes that see all and knows all and “his feet are like fine brass” (Rev. 2:18). Jesus sees all and his feet are sufficient (“like unto fine brass”) to walk you through anything that may cross your path. In fact, what the risen Christ actually said is “he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations.” The original word that is translated into English as nations means “a race (as of the same habit),” of which the root of the word is a verb meaning “to be used (by habit or conventionality).” In other words, since the original word nations can be translated, and is, as customs, people, tribes, nations, heathens, or Gentiles, if you keep (meaning, “to watch, to guard”) the Son of God’s work in and through you unto the end, he will give you power over the customs, the people, the tribe, or the nations. Whatever culture brings your way, his feet, “like unto fine brass,” can walk you through it because he actually carries you through it. In essence, it is Christ who does the walking in your life. It is Christ that is the enabler in experiencing God.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me (Gal. 2:20).
This is a powerful truth for all true believers. The one like unto the Son of man, the risen Christ, has promised if you keep (guard) his work until the end he will give you power over the culture, over the people, over the nations. In addition, he has also promised that you “shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers” (Rev. 2:27). This is not to say that you will be able to beat them down with a club. But, it is to say that you will be able to shepherd (original word that is translated rule) the situation as a shepherd with his staff.
Your staff will not be of wood, but of iron assuring you of the capability to shepherd, to guide, as needed. The culture, the people with their bad habits will not be just cracked or broken into several large pieces but “as a vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers (shatter into small pieces). This is true not because the power is within you, but within the Son of God who walks for you. In every situation that comes your way, there is a power source working behind the scenes in which the heavenly Father has promised the Son that all things will be put under his feet:
And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father (Rev. 2:26-27).
The message send to the church in Thyatira began with “I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first” (Rev. 2:19). The One whose eyes are like a frame of fire was able to see the work that was going forth among the believers in Thyatira. Not only was there great acts of love being manifested (service) among the believers but that charity was increasing with the passage of time: “and the last [the works they were experiencing] to be more than the first.” The believers were manifesting great faith and great patience in the “Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass.” They were experiencing their life in the quickening power of “the last man Adam.” They were experiencing God as it was ment to be.
Alas, even with the glowing words of praise and encouragement, all was not well in Thyatira. There would be some living in the fleshly impulses of the first man Adam:
Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
There was probably not a woman actually named Jezebel in the church at Thyatira. There was, however, a real woman among the believers claiming to be a prophetess teaching and seducing the servants of God. This woman was probably called Jezebel because of her erroneous teaching to the believers that was similar to the destructive Jezebel, Ahab’s idolatrous and wicked queen, in the Old Testament.
Ahab, at the time, was the king of Israel (1 Kings 16:31) who met and married Jezebel. She was raised in Sidon, a commercial city on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, known for its idolatry and vice. He brought her to the city of Jezreel, a city that served the God of the Israelites, Jehovah. In which, Jezebel became a tyrant, dominating her husband, and decided to turn Jezreel into a city that worshiped the pagan God, Baal, a Phoenician god.
Being the real power behind the throne of Ahab, she was able to influence the king to erected a sanctuary for Baal and supported hundreds of pagan prophets (1 Kings 18:19). Although the prophet Elijah defeated her prophets, through the fire of God descending from haven (1 Kings 18:38), it would still be sometime before she would come to her end. Jehu, anointed by the prophet Elisha to be the king, became the eleventh king of Israel by overthrowing the son’s of Ahab. At Jehu’s command, Jezebel was thrown out of a window of the palace to her death. She was trampled by the horses and eaten by the dogs as was prophesied (1 King 21:19). When the dogs had finished, her skull, feet, and the palms of her hands were the only things left to be buried.
Did the believers in Thyatira catch the similarity of the destruction of Jezebel in the Old Testament with the destruction of those who opposed the victorious believers in the New Testament that would fall “as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers” (Rev. 2:27)? If they did, they probably took special notice of the warning given to them by the risen Christ:
Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
Understanding the correlation between the actual Jezebel of the Old Testament and the false Jezebel in Thyatira would also cause them to understanding more keenly the blessing of the promise given to them: “And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron . . . even as I received of my Father.” Then, he stated, “and I will give him the morning star” (Rev. 2:27-18).
Notice the contrast in the Son of God saying, I will give unto every one of you according to your works” (Rev. 2:23). To those who fall into the trap of the doctrine taught by the false prophetess they would be cast “into great tribulation. However, those who “have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden:
And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden (Rev. 2:21-24).
What is the meaning behind the statement, “that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols?” How would what she was teaching that was seducing the servants of God actually be involved with the “depths of Satan?”
Paul, once again, reveals this mystery in his letter to the Romans. He wrote,
Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband (Rom. 7:1-2).
Notice, the key phrases, “the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth,” “the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth,” and “but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.” He is laying the foundation that the law (any injunction by which we would attempt to live) will rule (“hath dominion”) over us as long as we are alive. Of course, that law would lose its dominion over us if we were dead.
With that foundation laid, he further explained about the woman who had a living husband. “If the woman would then be married to another man,” he stated “she shall be called an adulteress.” She would be called adulterous because she had prostituted her relationship with her true living husband. Paul, then gave the key point of this allegory concerning the law having domain over a man. He proclaimed, “but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man” (Rom. 7:3).
The next statement of Paul revealed that the real point of this dialogue is not about a relationship between a man and a woman. He wrote, “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead . . .” (Rom. 7:4). This lesson is about a relationship between a believer and Christ. It is about the believer being dead to the law that he “should be married to another.” It is about experiencing God as it was meant to be.
Experiencing God as it is meant to be is always when the things of God become our focus.
The word that is translated married is the key to the whole tutorial. It means in the original language, “to cause to be, that is, (reflexively) to become (come into being).” The question is, “What is your cause to be?” Are you attempting to come into being by the law? If you are, then that law (any injunction in which you are attempting to find life) will rule over you. Sadly, in our misguided zeal to live by our opinions (any law), like Peter who “savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of man, we become an opponent to the plan of God for our lives. We fall into the “depths of Satan” in becoming a misguided adversary to God. We have been seduced away from the very One we so desperately want to experience.
If your cause to be is “even to him who is raised from the dead,” you are becoming one with the quickening power of Christ, the second man Adam. Breaking the bondage of our misguided opinions, becoming dead to the law, is only by “the body of Christ.” This is not so much a reference to the physical body of Christ as it is a reference to the complete body of work that Christ has done for us: his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, his return to us in the quickening power of the Holy Spirit. The purpose of being set loose from the law of first man Adam is “that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” Being married to Christ, we do indeed become a new creature living in the quickening power of the last man Adam.
The implication of this great discourse of Paul concerning the relationship between a man and a woman, the relationship of being bound by the law and being set free from the law, is that the relationship of a believer with Christ can be prostituted by the attempt to keep the law. Of course, the attempt for man to keep any law will always be by his own effort. Thus, John recording the words of the risen Christ to the church in Thyatira would write “And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations” (emphasis added). Being married to Christ is the enabling power that overcomes all customs, all cultures, all people, all tribes, and all nations.
The error of which the woman Jezebel was teaching and seducing some of the believers in Thyatira was not associated with sexual sins between men and women. The committing of fornication and the eating of things sacrificed to idols are correlated to the prostitution of the believers’ relationship with Christ. Some of the believer were being led away from Christ by listening, by consuming, by eating the “food” she was serving. If you are working hard for Jesus, you will never be experiencing God as it was meant to be.
In essence, their relationship with Christ was being corrupted by their own fleshly efforts (their works of law). Thus, the absolute given by God to all men, “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit,” assures that the risen Christ “will cast her into a bed” that she herself has made. Moreover, “them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation.” The proclamation of judgment is even more damming, “And I will kill her children with death” (Rev. 2:23-24).
The deadly mix of law and grace (the mixing of the works of man and “his works”) is the reason why any person, any local church, or any demonization will eventually lose the once vital, animating, quickening power of the risen Christ (second man Adam) unless repentance is a common occurrence among the believers. Attempting to live in first man Adam will always cause your children, what you attempt to produce, to be killed.
The damnation of mixing law and grace is severe, but the promise of fidelity in the marriage of Christ and the believer is profound: “as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden” (Rev. 2:24). The admonition becomes clear, “that which ye have already hold fast till I come” (Rev. 2:25). Know that while you are holding fast to your fidelity to Christ that the risen Jesus, the one “which searcheth the reins and hearts,” will give you the “morning star” (Rev. 2:28). Hold fast, the morning will always come. The lesson to be mastered is simple: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”
