'A DEEPER DEATH'
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Gethsemane is the door way into the death of Christ Jesus .
It is here, among the thorns and thistles, in the darkness of night, alone as the world around us sleeps, oblivious to our groans and 'bleeding' we become prepared and accustomed to Calvary.
Gethsemane is our stepping stone. This is where the 'will of flesh' comes under the agony of the One who went before us, and as the grey dawn of the darkest day known to mankind shrouds the earth, the will of flesh will lay slain to the will of the Father.
It is here one becomes 'dead to sin and alive unto God' and sin is no longer imputed unto him because he has become alive unto God and the operation of the cross and resurrection becomes an activated power in him to slay the old man and create the new man, Christ Jesus. You see when one becomes alive unto God he becomes alive to Jesus Christ in all that He was and all that He did, one here is made to be a 'joint-heir-partaker' of Christ, a member of His Body, of His flesh and of His bone, and of His blood.
As a member of the Christ-Body we enter into His death and resurrection and ascension. There is a journey here which few have found; It is the narrow-way spoken of in scripture that few will choose to walk.
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We find as did the apostle Paul, that the world its self is 'crucified unto me'.
Not only do we personally, body, soul, and spirit, enter into His death but our whole world goes with us! You see all we love and cherish, and hold dear in this life has been tainted by sin. Even the beauty of creation itself is marred by the sin which brings forth death in whatever proportion necessary.
The Lord Jesus brings us into the reality of His death to slay the old nature within us. And as the old life dies out a new life begins. We must, as the scriptures say; be clothed upon with Christ in His death and resurrection.
The door to eternity is through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ!
There is no other door!
There is a dormant power here which must become activated as one enters into the realms of being ' dead to sin and alive unto God'. We must enter Covenant with God and 'become' or rather, 'be made' a joint-heir with Christ; His death and resurrection and ascension must become 'my' death and resurrection and ascension; other wise I have no life!
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When one comes to truly 'put-on' Christ he puts on 'all' of Christ!]
There is no way we can put on a 'part' of Him! When the real Holy Ghost comes in through a spiritual baptism, He comes in 'fullness'! He comes in the full mantle of His death and resurrection and the full glories of His ascension! He brings all of this to you and to me to 'all who believe '!
It is by a 'spiritual baptism' that He comes thus, not just a 'filling'.
There is a major difference in a 'baptism' and a 'filling'. The prophets of old received many fillings before the 'baptism' ever came. One may be 'filled' with the spirit for a certain period of time to perform a certain work, but the 'baptism' will 'enfold and cover' you , it will separate and claim you and bring you out into the reality of being 'dead to sin and alive unto God'!
It is here, that sin is no longer 'imputed ' because you are blood covered by a Covenant with God! You must understand here that the 'real' Holy Ghost, is the seed of the Son of God and the full potentials of Christ are within the seed! We can allow it to mature and grow into His fullness 'in us' or we can allow it to become abhorted like the seed which fell on stony ground!
So many have been like the seed by the wayside, the fouls of the air have been allowed to pluck up and devour as spirits of selfishness, spirits of lust, spirits of greed and worldliness have devoured the seed once planted
The cares of this life have robbed us of our inheritance in Christ! The poor 'impoverished' preachers of this day are so ignorant they don't even know about the sprinkling of blood by our great high priest in the heavens!
IIf a convert should ask a simple question about the blood they are ridiculed and dismissed! The preacher, most of the time, knows nothing about the sprinkling of blood or the Covenant laws.
When one truly comes to believe, he is that very moment 'plunged' so to speak, into the reality and experience of all that Jesus was, all that HE did, or ever shall do! By the binding of an 'Everlasting Covenant with Him we have become His 'joint-heir' and as a joint heir we become one with Him. It was for this 'oneness' of the Headship and the Body of Christ that Jesus prayed for in St. John 17; 20/23. Jesus prayed here to the Father to make Him one with His many-member Body and anything less than this is not the true gospel.
The apostle Paul, whom God chose as a vessel to reveal His Son, declared that he was crucified to the world and the world was crucified to him. ((Ephesians .6;14) Whatever applied to the most beloved apostle also applies to each of us in full proportion to the death of Christ. The sprinkling of blood comes in the volume of His death in a life and death process. We learn to 'glory' in this death of Christ as did the apostle, for it is only here that we can know the reality of our 'kinship' with Him as joint-heir-partakers.
The apostle declared that he 'bear the dying of the Lord Jesus 'in his body'.
The human will must die to allow the will of the Father to come forth . The will of flesh will never take one to Calvary, so it must die in Gethsemane.
Jesus agonized in prayer until His sweat became as great drops of blood as the last of the 'flesh- will' died and He declared……..nevertheless, not my will but thine be done! The disciples slept as our Lord agonized alone! What! He exclaimed. Could you not wait one hour?
Today the religious world around us sleeps as the cross lays heavy upon us……the groans from Calvary are rippling through the Christ body as His death is activated in us as a powers to slay the old man of sin.
Thank God, resurreection power follows His death in us and we come forth a new creature. Many are still asking the Lord to heal every little pain and take away every little cross, they ask that He give them this and give them that to make their life easier. But this is not the way!
Jesus plainly said we must take up our cross and follow him. His cross is death to the old nature of sin. I hear so much……oh, don't you believe in 'healing' ? I'm afraid that I don't believe in the kind of healing you may be speaking of, the kind of sickness which is the result of sin in the member, or worse still, a sickness associated with the cross. We must know what we are praying for lest we make a mockery of God as so many in the religious world are doing. As the body of Christ groans to bring forth the 'man-child'( see Rev. 12; verses 2/5) and passes out from the feminine spirit of the Church out into the masculine spirit of the Son, the powers of life and death are operating concurrently within the body as the old is being folded up and laid aside and the new is appearing in us and around us, there is a great 'shaking' taking place which will shake loose all which can be shaken in order to establish that which cannot be shaken
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Today, the many member Body of Christ (the Covenant church) agonizes in this dark hour of midnight. The seed that was sown is no longer in the embryo stage of a 'babe in the manger' but is coming forth as a 'man' child of full maturity to rule the earth according to Genesis 1; 27/28.
Genesis 1; 27/28, corresponds with Ephesians 4; 11/12/13/ ) The full stature of Christ which is His body which fills all things ( Ephesians 1; 23).
This is the God-image man who is to rule the earth and subdue it.
We must follow Him (withersoever He goeth), into His death, and out into His resurrection and ascension. His footsteps can only be found as He tarried through out the dark night in Gethsemane and walked the Golgotha hill to Calvary and came forth out from the grave and ascended from the mount. We can only follow Him where He has gone.
We speak in spiritual terms here, because God is a spirit, and 'heaven' is a spiritual realm and not a geographical location up in the sky. The 'new-creature' which is created in Christ Jesus will be a creature of both flesh and spirit bearing the exact image of the Son of God. Thus full filling the scripture of Gen. 1; 27/28……..'let us make man in our image, both male and female, and let 'them' rule the earth'. The creature who bears His image is one who has passed through the sprinkling of blood and has come to be a 'living sacrifice' acceptable unto God. He is one who has born the dying of the Lord Jesus 'in his body' and has died daily in a priest hood ministry of the blood Covenant. Not every one who cries out 'Lord, Lord' will enter into the kingdom; Only those who do the will of the Father.
As the apostle said; 'I am now crucified to the world and the world is crucified unto me'. How did this come about you may ask; One is taken through this death process as he follows Him where He has gone.
Just as the apostle Paul, ' I bear in my body the dying of the Lord Jesus' as I bear the cross He has given. It is by 'this' process that the blood is always on the door post and a 'passover' is prepared.
We are coming into a time as it was in Egypt that dark night so long ago when the death angel passed over and touched every house where the blood was not found. Soon ( according to scripture), we will enter a time when the whole world will hover together under the shadow of the death angel, but there is a place where he cannot come, and that is the house with the blood on the door post.
Today we are approaching the time of the 1,290 days, which is the forty two months, the three and half years of tribulation which Daniel and John the revelator spoke of .
It is the time of the reign of the beaste, the rise of the anti-Christ.
It is also a time when the mother church goes into the wilderness and the sons of God come forth to rule according to Gen. 1; 27/28.
Wither we are aware of this or not, time and spiritual seasons are changing.
The world scenario has already begin to change; the wise virgins are now entering into the kingdom and the door is being shut.
The religious world has 'slept' through one of the greatest ages of awakening ever known to mankind as God has unfolded page after page of His eternal plan to those who were alert and listening and searching.
His chosen ones have 'suffered with Him' as He has made His death a reality in their life to slay the old nature of sin. They have recognized the cross in their lives and have rejoiced in the resurrection powers that followed it. Yes, all we have held dear has , in one form or another has gone into death with us, ((we are speaking spiritually here of physical things) because of our close attachment with life, all we have must become a sacrifice to God. Amen.
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