First, we must come to an understanding of what a family truly is. I will initially try to bring concepts of family to our understanding and then discuss the pattern that God has established. When the word "family" is used, the word immediately brings into focus a very small grouping - mother, father, children, which is the concept of a traditional family. The culture in the USA is currently trying to redefine family as all those who dwell in a house together. This broad definition permits the "family" to include then, as "mother and father" two lesbians or two homosexual males as parents for children. This definition is not tenable with the Christian faith.

Family can mean close blood "relations." Who are they? Those close to the immediate relationship of the mother and father of the children. As an example, the brothers and sisters of Joe and Mary Anyname are close relations by blood to the children of Joe and Mary. I have seen in some small churches a "relations" division when decisions have to be made. Decisions based upon relations and not scriptural principles are disoriented and ungodly. Nevertheless, "blood relations" as the saying goes are "thicker than water." The concept of "relations" as family pictures a family in a small circle.

Some, in past times called a family a "clan." A clan consisted of a group of individual families all with the same last name. There would be a patriarchal head, generally an older male who led the clan. This is a larger "circle" of family. In this year of 1998 clans are not as predominant as they once were, but our movie/TV culture brings this into remembrance with the history of the Scottish clans. In the USA, March 17^th is considered St. Patrick’s Day. Here we see people of a national descent, Irish in particular now, who gather together to demonstrate their love for their ancestral home. This celebration is "clan" oriented because if you were to wear "orange" rather than "green," it would be offensive to the "green Catholics" since the "orange" represents the "Protestants." In the broad sense of the word "clan" it includes an enlarged lineage.

Others consider "family" all those of the same race - Black, Caucasian, etc. This as a concept enlarges the concept of family in the sense that it is no longer just a "clan," but at the same time this belief that family is "race" separates people from people. Although "race" includes more than "clan," it too causes division between people. Some people will fight for the sake of the "clan" or "race" without understanding the principle of what is the right thing to do. Decisions are made many times even on a "national" basis (an enlarged "clan" concept) as to what is good for that nation at the expense of another nation. Since I am a US citizen, I can state that the US has done this numerous times, but in all fairness so has every other country.

There are probably more descriptive terms, but I believe that these few words (family, relations, household, clan, race, nation etc.) create a picture for us to draw from as we look at God’s Family. God designed this world with a purpose and a plan in mind. Genesis 1:26 and Genesis 2:7 are believed, by some, to be two creations. What these "scholars" fail to realize is that the word "Adam" and "man" are exactly the same in the Hebrew and have the same meaning. In fact, out of 542 times used, the word is translated man/men over 529 times. This word "Adam" has a broader definition. The first man created (Genesis 1:26) was the spiritual man. Genesis 2:7 is the man of the fall, who was made earthly, a little lower than the heavenly. This divisiveness of the heavenly man and the earthly man is ended when man comes to Christ. For the two become one in the new creation man. Everything is summed up into one new man.

God’s design for family is not based upon race, clan, blood relations, households, etc. God’s definition of family is based upon union with God, oneness, etc. God does not see divisions. He sees that He is all in all (1 Cor. 15:28). God sees that the shed blood of His Son has created the end of divisions before divisions began (Rev. 13:8). He is the true Vine. We are the branches. The branches are part of the whole Vine. There is only one Creator, One Savior, who has caused us to be one Savior grafted into Himself from creation. Galatians 3:28 states that there is no division.

Where the Old Testament uses the word "Adam" or "man" it refers to the unity of one - mankind. This is reaffirmed in the New Testament where in Romans 5:12 - 17 it states: "Wherefore by one man sin entered into the world…passed on all men…for if by one man’s offense death reigned…" Adam is the word used to collectively represent all of us. God has the purpose of oneness without division. Therefore, the Adam man has to be removed because sin causes division. While we may be like Him now, we yet shall be like Him, John states. We shall come into the power of one.

God sent His Son to act collectively for all of us. Again this is the unity of one. Romans 5:17 states: "For if by one man’s offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ." The truth expressed here is that Jesus Christ destroyed the division between all of us because of our clannishness, our nationhoods, our closed family concepts. Christ delivered by His sacrifice all peoples - red, yellow, white, black, etc. into the glorious liberty of one. Paul writes in Galatians a further clarification of oneness with God which is inspired of the Holy Spirit. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ." Have you considered deeply the ramifications of this?

The truth of this verse just quoted is in the salvational work of Jesus Christ. Jesus did not die for some, but rather died for all creation. Creation is God’s family. He is the Savior of all men, especially those who believe (1 Timothy 4:10). The one Son, the only begotten of the Father is Jesus Christ who took all the sins of world unto Himself, removing every divisive, self-worship drive that man has.

There is no Jew or Greek in the kingdom of God. One could believe this to mean there is no national division in the brotherhood of the kingdom. That belief would be correct. You are not a citizen of your country any longer, because you recognize your life is hid in God through Jesus Christ. Your kingdom is not of this world, but from your mother Jerusalem, which comes from above (Hebrews 13). We might add that the concept of Jew/Greek is not limited to nationality. For the Jewish religious/secular culture has to be removed just as the Greek religious/secular culture must be removed to enter into Christ (1 Corinthians 1:23).

Jesus was a cross-cultural man. We also must be able, in Christ, to fit into all cultures without any problem. To manifest Jesus in our life requires a work of God into the nature of the person. If you are from the USA, I ask whether you would be comfortable eating blood gravy and crickets over dumplings? Would you be willing to sleep in houses where cockroaches run over you while you sleep? If you have problems with that, then you are not in Christ. For in Christ Jesus we can do all things. You become cross cultural. You do not try to change a man’s culture, but you try to reveal a higher order so that his differences will crumble in the presence of God. Do we see the man Jesus destroying anything on the natural plane? The answer is no. Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But Christ revealed a higher order.

In Christ there is no national basis; rather it is cross-national. In Christ there is no religion but a revelation of Christianity (a Christ life revealed). Christianity is not Judeo-Christian. It is Christian. The gospel of grace removes any law by making it spiritual rather than carnal/legalistic (Romans 8:2, 10:4, 13:10, Galatians 2:19). Neither Jew nor Greek means that the life of God removes all concepts of the secular and religious cultures. This is why true Christians have fellowship one with another regardless of language, race or nationhood. This is why the world fears Christians who are dedicated. The power of one, the power of unity with God and each other is explosive. There is no other power than that which is His.

But this verse goes further. There is "neither bond nor free." In Christ, we cannot see a person’s position in the natural. If we see someone with the natural eye, we hold them to the plane of the natural. We see Jesus! We see everyone in Jesus! It elevates them, it sets them free to be His creation from where they are in the natural. The church system sees everyone unsaved as "sinners." Jesus saw everyone as a "saint." I see no "sinners;" I see people as growing "saints." I do not see them "sinning," but rather I see them in Christ, already delivered from the bondage of death. I come to all to give life, impart life regardless whether they are "bond" or "free" on the natural plane.

In many of the eastern congregational churches of the past, a family bought a pew. It had their name on it and only the family could sit in it. The more illustrious would be able to purchase the "front" pews due to their position in society. In some cases women sat in the balcony and the men sat downstairs. Oh, what vanity of a religious nature! Division, division. In Christ there are no paid seats! While seating may occur like that today, a true Christian will not hold back from another.

Where I worked was a "white-collar" type of job. These people felt superior over some "blue-collar" workers. How is that? Each job has honor. Each job is looked upon with dignity as it brings glory to the Father. My parents were upset when I married "below my class." My dad was a business owner and I married a plumber’s daughter. I understood that there would be "cultural" differences. But in Christ what difference does it make? Joyce and I are a testimony in 1996 of 25 years of marriage. Why? Because we found our life in Christ and did not let the differences of our upbringing destroy what God put together.

In Christ there is no "bond nor free." In the world those positions exist. They probably will exist for some time to come. But what has that to do with you and me? Our kingdom is not of this world, so although God may place where He will in the natural position of bond or free, it should hold no significance for us, but rather be an opportunity to bless creation wherein we live. Credibility of the Christ life, the power of one, is seen where you live it out. The beauty of the body of Christ is that the hand has a different position than the leg, but the hand crosses over to help the leg put on a pair of socks. The Christ life goes beyond the limitations of the position of bond or free and assists. God is not a respecter of position.

"There is neither male nor female" in Christ. In the natural there will always be male and female. It is a natural creation. Yet, scripture declares there will be no male nor female in Christ. How so then? In the book, The Mystery of Marriage by Mike Mason he states that God is now opening up man again and placing the woman back into Him. Adam had Eve separated out of himself, divided, because Adam did not know the power of the unity of one. Deuteronomy 6:4 states: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD." Adam was made in the image of God but did not know the image of God. The plan and purpose of God in creation is to have all things be one with Him. Since, power, dominion, procreation, creation and marriage are all eternal covenants of Genesis given to Adam, these covenants were to teach Adam how to weave everything into one.

Scripture declares in 1Corinthians 1:10: "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." God seeks to have everyone be in unity, which is what a marriage of Adam and Eve is to produce, with Eve going back into Adam from whom she came. But Paul still saw the church as "… yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?" (1 Corinthians 3:3). Yet Paul goes on to say in 1Corinthians 11:18-19 "For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you." Note that some have entered into union, and that the saints would not know it if there were not divisive ones there also. Everyone is in the process of maturation in God.

There is no "male nor female" is not talking about the natural order of things! It is talking about the true spiritual order that God has established. Romans 16:3, 7 shows that there were women apostles - Junia, Priscilla. How so? First, in the natural order of things, the women walked in God’s divine order with their husbands. It was because of their walk with their husbands whom they saw as Christ unto them, that God elevated them to a position of ministry. Here is a principle of God: Follow the order of God in the natural and He will allow the spiritual to take place. These women were submissive to their husbands as unto Christ. This developed the Christ nature in them. The husbands were submissive to Christ and aided the development of the Christ nature in their wives. Because the men in the natural were submissive to God, then God could use the spiritual man in the women to come forth in ministry! Then the natural man (the women’s husband) would be silent - ie the flesh, and allow the Christ to speak, and allow that apostolic ministry to come forth.

Here it is then! No male nor female. What consternation to the church system! A woman in the natural being an apostle. They cannot accept it because they look with the natural eye. God would not allow it if the man and woman had not developed the relationship of union, the power of one with God and each other. The union in the natural based upon God’s principles allows the spirit man to come forth out of either vessel. What a family affair God does have!

God’s family is not based upon the natural. It is not based upon sex (male or female). It is not based upon position in the world (bond or free). It is not based upon culture or religion (Jew or Greek). God’s family is based upon the spiritual. God is not limiting His family to just the "saved" but rather sees all in Christ. How often some of the "saved" act "holier than thou" over the ones who do not yet know the plan of God. Such carnality by the "saved" reveals that the crucified life of Jesus Christ has not entered into its fullness yet in that person.

The idea of "male nor female" is even larger than what we have discussed. The soul is always represented as female in the scripture and the masculine represents the spirit. The church is feminine and Christ is symbolized as the husband, masculine. The church must forsake its name, and take the name of another. It does. It leaves the carnal mind, that soulish realm and partakes of the mind of Christ, that spiritual realm. Then the church has changed its name and has the same last name, so to speak, as its husband. The two have become one. If there is to be neither male nor female, then the soulish nature is removed and the spiritual is also removed because each one has passed from death into life ("zoe" not "bios" life). They become a divine messenger (an angel) because they are not given in marriage any longer but rather are now a heavenly creation where the two have become one new creation man.

God’s family is all inclusive. Jesus died from/since/at the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). His death and resurrection reveal the power of one, the power of God to save, justify, forgive, establish, remain. The family of God is not confined to "us four and no more"(mother, father, son, daughter). God’s family affair is so inclusive that it is not exclusive. Having the 99, the shepherd went out to find the one that was lost. Not that the 99 were unimportant, but the 99 understood the shepherd’s leaving them for the one because they too once were lost. The 99 rejoiced at the departing of the shepherd because it brought them into remembrance of how great it was when He brought each of them into the fold.

"And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them" (John 17:10). Jesus was speaking here of the twelve who were the firstfruits. Now that the Lord has ascended, the church is to be the firstfruits unto the world. Jesus goes on to say in verse 21: "That they may be one; as Thou Father art in me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." The plan and purpose of God is to create one new man in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17). As there was one man in Adam who sinned (Romans 5:17), as there was one man Jesus who saved us from sin (Romans 5:17), now there is one new man (2 Corinthians 5:17) by the power of one, the unity of one with God. God has a family in the process of creation. Everyone is living in either Adam or Christ. But all shall come into the knowledge of Him.

God is not divisive. God is one. He has called us out of darkness into the marvelous light that we should show forth the praises of Him. That we should be a lamp set upon a hill, a light that has the Mount of Esau destroyed under us (Obadiah 21), a beacon of the glory of God drawing all men unto Him Who shines forth out of us. The rivers shall flow up the mountain; the glory of the Lord will be seen in the high places as Life calls up the deep to the top of the earth. There will be no more sea, no more masses of people unsaved (Revelation 17:15 shows that the sea is people in scripture). All death is swallowed up into life by the power of one, the Lord our God who alone is one God.

In mathematics, one is a very important number. It is the foundational number from which all numbers are created. One is the beginning as well as the ending. In Isaiah 46:11 God says He declares the end from the beginning. One is the end of things as well as the beginning. 1+1 does not equal 2. It is a larger revelation of 1. 1 adds to 1 making 1 larger, more inclusive. If 1 added to 1 is 2, then we still have division and separation with individual identity. One plus 1 is ONE. 1 is a whole. It is complete. 1 divided by 1 gives an answer of 1. It cannot divide itself!! The power of one cannot be defeated. ½ divided by ½ gives an answer of 1. Man separated himself from God, and God separated His Son from Himself for the sake of man. So, man divided by the Son of God creates a union again. Jesus by separating Himself from His Father and offering Himself as the sacrifice for mankind caused the reunification.

"One" removes all differences. One excludes anything divisive. There is no other "number" with which it can divide or harmonize. Let me proclaim it now - there is no death, but rather it is a deception we must be delivered from. When we are delivered from ourselves, we enter into union with Him "…and calleth those things which be not as though they were"(Romans 4:17). Because union sees the complete picture, it sees no divisiveness. It sees oneness.

The power of one is so strong that it removes all other gods before it! The first of the ten commandments is fulfilled because the power of one excludes any other God. The Lord our God is one. Yet, the truth of that needs to be enlarged even further. One marks the beginning. Everything that has a beginning began with God. Therefore, we must realize that nothing begins without Him, and we must seek the Kingdom of God first, since there is only one kingdom. Luke 2:14 states: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." From the realm of "one" there can be glory ascribed only to Him, from whom all things were made. In seeking His kingdom first, we are taking care of the power of one; we are establishing the kingdom of God on the earth without division.

There can be no "bond nor free, male nor female" because we see Jesus. What a freeing thought, and if it controls your life, you liberate people from the bondage of corruption. Remember what man considers as freedom is truly rebellion, divisiveness. True freedom is submission to the power of One and recognizing your place in Christ Jesus. Salvation begins with God. Redemption begins with God. Life begins with God. All these and more begin out of the One who is God. There can be no other truth, yea, even life. Mark 12 declares that there is One God and we are to love Him with all our "heart, soul, mind and strength." This brings everything divisive in us into the focus of one, the One we love which immediately destroys that which divides.

"Before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside Me there is no Savior."(Isaiah 43:10-11) "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:12) There is only "one." Yet, all religious people (including some deluded Christians) believe that they can save themselves by their own works. Hinduism believes that you progress in your life by your works. Shintoism believes that duties must be accomplished to please your ancestors so that you might have a good life. The Roman Catholic church preached indulgences (paying for previous saints to get them out of purgatory). All these things are works. This would make billions of people their own god. We cannot save ourselves by our works. There is only One who can save us, and that not of ourselves. The power of one is the strength of itself because it is not divided. Our God is one. He is the ultimate, the most glorious, the most powerful, the Almighty, the Everlasting One, the Eternal, the Light of lights, etc. Every title, every description reflects the concept of the power of one.

"All things were made by Him; without Him was not anything made that was made." His plan was to bring everything back into Himself in the fullness of time. "And when all things shall be subdued unto Him (Jesus), then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him (the Father) that put all things under Him (Jesus) that God may be all in all." When all the carnal nature of man is removed, that nature which is divisive, that nature which sets itself up in the temple of God as God, then there shall be One. All things will be brought back together into Him who begat it out of Himself to begin with.

Now we know that "there is one body, and one spirit…one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all." (Ephesians 4:4-6) There is only one. We are His body, individually and collectively. We lie to ourselves when say we have a personal destiny. He purchased us with His Blood. He redeemed us out of the earth that we might be a heavenly creation. He has led us out of captivity but captive to Him. Anything that presupposes that we are separate or apart from God is death, Adamic, foolish and carnal. As I am fond of saying: "There were two men in the world, but one is dead. Long live the King."

Carnality divides. Spirituality edifies. Carnality seeks control. Spirituality gives up control and trusts. Carnality seeks self-fulfillment. Spirituality is altruistic. Carnality goes after self-gratification. Spirituality seeks the glory of God. The nature of God is to create, build, restore, sustain. This is the power of one.

He has removed every "partition between us, having abolished in flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of the twain one new man, so making peace." (Ephesians 2:14) The Amplified Bible states Ephesians 2:14 in this way: "For He is [Himself] our peace - our bond of unity and harmony. He has made us both [Jew and Gentile] one (body) and has broken down (destroyed, abolished) the hostile dividing wall between us." God is gathering together by removing barriers between men. Hear and understand. Some Christians bomb abortion clinics. This is divisive. God would seek to love the people into the kingdom. By bombing and demonstrating Christians present a divisive front to the world and cause the world to pull back. Jesus came to save and set free. He did not stand against anything but stood for everyone. When one comes into union with God and into the power of One, the revelation of the inclusiveness of all through the cross of Christ is enlarged and revealed in your life.

The power of One removes all partitions. Religious people build partitions. Religious people build walls called denominations. Families, Clans and Countries all build walls. But Christ removed the wall between us and God. He tore the veil and opened the way that we can come boldly to the throne of grace. He has provided the way through Himself that we can walk together, as we look on Him.

Marriage is a union between two different individuals. These people can use their differences to manipulate the other and satisfy their selfish desires which will lead to the destruction of the marriage and will scar themselves. On the other hand, they can build with their differences by using their character to strengthen each other, seeking to edify with their differences. Any failure in a marriage is because of some selfish desire on the part of a spouse(s). The purpose of marriage is to create one new person out of the two. The cost is total. Marriage is the land upon which the nature of God is found; where weapons of self are turned into plowshares; where differences become attributes of the new person formed of the two; where the frontier never ends but changes daily to enhance the revelation of the new creation.

God understands divorce. He went through divorce Himself (Jeremiah 3:8, Romans 11:20-24). He understands the pain, the hurt, the agony. He loved and was not understood. He loved and Israel went after someone else who Israel thought was prettier, better, etc. He still remained faithful. He offered forgiveness and still tried to re-establish that which was lost, realizing that full trust could never again be complete. Yet, Israel went after a multitude of other gods. She forsook her birthright and sold it for a moment’s pleasure. For those of you who have experienced a divorce, you understand the pain God went through.

But the power of One, the very foundation of God’s Family Affair, is greater than anything that seeks to divide. God is in the process of fulfilling His plan for the Ages. Nothing can separate Him from the purpose He has set before Him. No household, no clan, no nation can divide or separate us from the love of God which is assembling Himself within all.

When does a man become a father? When he has produced a mature son. Our heavenly Father produced a mature son, Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. The seed of the incorruptible one, Jesus Christ, has begotten us. But He has produced sons and very few fathers. Paul even writes that we have few fathers (1 Cor. 4:15). How can there be so many "sons" and so few fathers? What causes the astronomical number of abortions? Why do so many sons fail to become fathers?

Some sons mature and create "bastards." Abram received the life from Melchizedec, that third realm, that place of Tabernacles, and yet produced Ishmael, a son of the flesh. Abraham heard God’s voice (Genesis 12) and left Ur of the Chaldees but did not follow the voice of God completely. He was supposed to leave behind his father and kindred. But Abram took them with him and God then had to separate the relationships from him. This is called selective hearing by Abram. He wasn’t totally cured of that disease – the old Adamic nature. God spoke to Abraham about the promise of a seed, a son, who would be the blessing of the world. Abraham waited. Nothing happened. He tried to help the prophecy along by going unto Hagar and producing a seed rather than waiting for the son from barren Sarah. Hear and understand. He had the word to stand on. He had the seed, the life in himself to do this (even God had said so). Abraham had the right seed but the wrong timing and the wrong woman.

Abraham was to produce a divine seed who would be the child that would lead the people of God. In his anxiousness to create the plan of God, this man followed the flesh. The remnant seed in this hour can ill afford to produce an Ishmael, a son of the flesh. Even though Abraham received life from Melchizedec and walked in the way of faith as Hebrews declares, it was not enough to keep him from producing after the flesh. The key is to wait for God to fulfill His word without our help.

Consider another story. David went into the Tabernacle and ate the bread, the life of God, and still produced a bastard son from Uriah’s wife, and the son died. Here was a man after God’s heart. He like Abraham was blessed in that he could eat the bread that was reserved for priests. He could walk into the Tabernacle and live, which was only allowed for priests to do. He was called of God to establish the kingdom of Israel. David knew that he was to produce a seed that would reign in the kingdom. He knew it was to be Uriah’s wife. But instead of waiting to see how God would bring it about, David decided to help along the situation. David like Abraham before him was called and had the seed to produce. David had the right woman, the right seed but the wrong timing.

Consider another story. Israel, a type of the church that corporate body of Christ, in the wilderness ate of the manna, a heavenly bread, and produced a bastard son, a golden calf. Called out from Egypt, led by the Spirit into the wilderness (even as Christ - Matthew 4:1), the people refused to wait on God as Moses sought Him. They proceeded to build a golden calf to worship. They had to have something visible, something they were able to touch. They were the seed of God in the earth, a people called by His name. They were able to produce a literal kingdom. But spiritually they were bankrupt.

So, in reality as far as God is concerned, when some sons produce Ishmael and do not change their ways, as Abraham changed, then they are not fathers. True fathers produce children after their own image! True fathers produce sons after their own likeness. True fathers are able by the Spirit of the living God to inculcate their "life" into their sons. That is a true father.

Three times in the scriptures we find that men have partaken of the heavenly life, the realm of paradise and each has produced a life on the lower plane. You may possess the revelation and the life of sonship and reconciliation in Christ Jesus and still produce a bastard that cannot inherit. The key is where and when you place your seed. Abraham had the seed and in placing it in the wrong vessel, he produced a mighty man that God did bless. David had the right vessel but the wrong time and the child died. Israel had the wrong time and the wrong vessel and died in the wilderness. So only Joshua and Caleb remained pure.

Today, 1998, I see many over the last 25 years who have seen the message of sonship - Romans 8:19 and the preciousness of it, and those who have seen the life in the message of reconciliation - the salvation of all through the blood of Christ, who have produced no spiritual children. They have remained excited about being a son but have not matured to being a father. They are so glad about being in the Father’s house and being His son, like their elder brother Jesus that they have not matured. We are to be fathers, not sons. Being a son is just part of the process but not the end result.

A mature son hears his father speak. In Genesis 38:9-12 God tells Onan to go in unto Tamar and give her his seed so that the family might continue. Onan faithfully goes into his deceased brother’s wife. Has relations and before the seed can be planted, pulls away spilling his seed on the ground. Verse 10 shows that the Lord killed him. Consider this verse very carefully. Note that it was Judah, the father, who sent his son Onan unto the bereaved wife. Onan means "strong" in the Hebrew. Judah of course is a type and shadow in the scripture of Jesus. Judah sent his son; Christ is sending His sons to His bride, even as Judah sent Onan to the bride of Er. But Onan pulls away. He pulls back from creating life.

Onan wanted to do things his way. Onan wanted to go unto his own wife. He did not want to go unto the bride and place a seed. Christ has called us to go to the church and cause her to become pregnant with the seed of Himself which He has placed within us. He has called us to produce after His kind. Isaiah 62:5 states that the sons are as a bride to Christ that they might receive His seed. When they do they become one with Him, that power of one. The sons identified with Christ, become masculine and seek to find a wife. But it has to be a wife of the Lord’s choosing.

Perhaps it would be beneficial if we looked at the Lord’s prayer for a moment in relation to this story. Jesus had taught the disciples how to pray before. They did not need to know the "how to." They had felt the power of Jesus’ prayers. They had prayed and received results before, but He was praying on another level. They wanted to pray like He prayed. We must remember that these disciples had followed John the Baptist and they knew how a prophet prayed. So, Jesus was trying to reveal something to them. In chapter 5 we see earthly relationships clearly outlined, but in chapter 6 of Matthew we find that the Lord is trying to teach the disciples spiritual relationships. So, Jesus starts out with "Our Father...." Note that the prayer is concerned with God’s plan and purpose. It seeks to fulfill and satisfy God’s needs over personal needs. The prayer asks something for God - that His name be hallowed in the earth (Green’s literal states"..let be sanctified Your Name") and His kingdom come. God’s wishes must be realized over our wishes. Once G. Campbell Morgan said: "There is only one motive that produces rightness of action and that is a recognition of Divine authority and a desire to be well pleasing to God."

Onan did not recognize His father’s wishes over his own. Onan had the seed to accomplish the will of the father. Onan had the life in the seed to produce a child. Onan’s failure was he didn’t recognize the plan and purpose of God. There are some sons of God in the land today who do not see a need to plant seed for the kingdom. They have not matured from sonship to be fathers. To be a father requires a laying down of your sonship role. When I was young, my dad owned a construction company and had about 300 men working for him. I was dad’s son. Some of the men gave me dirty jobs to do, just because I was Mr. Weller’s son! Others played up to the fact that I was Mr. Weller’s son. It was fun being a son. No responsibility. No accountability. I could play the role, but all decisions were not mine. The benefits of being Mr. Weller’s son were great.

But God wants fathers. It is perfectly normal to be a child and then to be a son. It is not normal to be a retarded son. For a retarded son is one who never becomes a father, never matures. Physically mature, having all the capabilities to be a father, looking mature to the nature eye, the son is spiritually incapable of performing.

While God has had his remnant throughout the ages, what is called "latter rain" by some began in 1948, and a word on sonship was preached as never before. Bill Britton was a trumpeter of the message. Shortly it will be 50 years since then. This is a critical year for those who have claimed to hear the message to begin to go in unto the bride, have children, establish the birth of the kingdom. God doesn’t want heirs, He wants joint-heirs. He wants spiritual people to come into a place of union with Him and to learn the ways of the Father by being a father.

I am sure you remember Barabbas. Pilate said he could find nothing wrong in Jesus and wanted to let him go, but the priests would have none of it. So, Pilate thought if he offered the good man, Jesus, in comparison to the derelict Barabbas, the people would chose the good. Wrong again. They chose Barabbas. The Jewish custom is that a name is an identification of the person’s nature. Barabbas means "son of the Master." They chose a "son" rather than choosing the "Father" (if you have seen Me you have seen the Father). They chose immaturity, carnality, and impotency over maturity, spirituality and life. They chose a man to deliver them by a fleshly means rather than a man who could deliver them by the Spirit. We can only see the immaturity of a son after we become a father.

The year of jubilee, that 50^th year is upon us from "latter rain." We must not identify with Barabbas any longer. It is time for the prodigal son to state: "I will arise and go to my father." (Luke 15:18) For he had sinned against his father and stated, "I am not worthy to be called by thy name." The true sons must arise, resurrect out of the ashes, the dung heap of carnality and flesh. They must leave the flesh plane and come into the nature of the father.

Maturity does not mean physically leaving a home of mom and dad and establishing your own apartment. No, maturity means spiritually leaving a home to become self-sufficient. Living because of yourself. The living creatures were self-existent ones, they lived off themselves because they were life. A son leaves home when he understands that he is one with the Father. Since he and the father are one, life flows and he is able to go out and take on the day!

How many times we have heard it said that a man marries a woman so that she can "mother" him. It is true. But the corollary to that is a woman marries a man so that he can "father" her! A woman does not understand the "father" nature of her husband because of the deep seated concerns and fears she has. A woman is motivated by security, for the most part. It is difficult for her to break up housekeeping and move leaving friends, "home" etc. For a man, it is not a problem because within himself he knows he can find another job. A man in every cell of his body realizes that he can produce life wherever he wants. So job changes, territory changes, etc. are of no consequence to him. The woman needs to recognize this fatherly nature. A true fatherly natured man will recognize the woman’s need for security and prepare her for the change. A man needs to recognize the fatherly nature in a woman, too.

In the Song of Solomon, we find that the woman identifies her mate as hers - 2:16. "He is mine and I am his" she states. But the fatherly understanding of the man comes into play. He knows that the woman still is clinging to her identity and not to his (sort of like the liberated person of today that has a hyphenated last name Smith-Jones or just keeps her name regardless). A father could demand but a father doesn’t have to because he knows that life will be produced. So the beloved waits and in 6:3 we find she states: "I am my beloved’s and he is mine." There is a difference here. He is no longer hers foremost, but rather she is her beloved’s with a condition that he is hers. But the father waits. He knows change is not done yet. In 7:10 she states: " I am my beloved’s and his desire is for me." No more "he is mine." A true father is able to produce oneness in a marriage. It may take time but the end result is there.

You can tell whether you are in the spirit of the father or the flesh by considering the verse of Matthew 8:20. If you are concerned for what you eat, where you sleep, etc. then you are in the flesh nature - whether a physical man or woman. You are in the nature of the Father when you know that the life of God dwells in you, and you can produce life no matter where you are.

Whether subconsciously or consciously, a son leaves home and takes with him what he has learned about becoming a man. He leaves knowing he can and will make something out of nothing! Assuming most men are like me, I left home after college and within one year was married to Joyce. My first two jobs were part-time in order to provide for the family of two. We could have had food stamps, but the program didn’t exist then. In a man there is an ability to produce life and we rose from that level together. Just as God created everything out of Himself, so each man creates security for the woman - house, home, cars etc. out of himself. The man works (by the sweat of the brow, Genesis states) and through his efforts that have been programmed into his nature by God, he provides the necessary things for the security of his spouse and family. This is producing out of oneness. This is the power of one.

American Express Travelers Checks has a saying: "Don’t leave home without it." The implication is that you should take what is yours with you safely, securely. A son begins to become a father when he moves out of his father’s house, but that does not make him an adult yet. The process, however, has begun as you begin to become a father when you start breaking away. The prodigal son was always a son who had not come to maturity. So he took what was his and squandered it but in the process learned about being a father through what his father revealed to him. There comes a time when we stop being so carnally minded and excited that we are "sons of God." There must come a time of fruition when we come of age. It is not in the future either but right now, today. Can you sign the Father’s check? Not as a minor. God wants maturity like those who have left home and are able to stand and eat life out of their own bucket instead of having to be fed. A son still has to be fed by the provider, the father. A father nature provides for himself. So how is your walk? Are you eating of the living Word in yourself yet?

When does a man become a father? When he becomes a daddy. We are not talking about having a physical child birthed, which makes you a "daddy." It does not. Many men can create children in the heat of passion but that does not make them a daddy. Many men can be biological fathers, but it takes a real man to become a "daddy." A father becomes a "daddy" when for the purpose of unity, he lowers himself onto the plane of the child in order to communicate to the child. A real "daddy" identifies with the problems a child faces and offers what the child needs. A father can tell a child one thing but a "daddy" shows relationship with the child. Three times the word "daddy" is used in scripture. Each time with study will reveal great truth - Mark 14:36, Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6.

A man, not a son nor a child, leaves his father. His leaving is premised upon having a "wife." This man has left his home because he searched over the earth and found a wife. He has found himself! For a man loves his wife as himself, Ephesians 5 states. That is why no man could beat his wife because he is beating himself. A man leaves home when he has found that which complements himself. A compliment fills in the holes, the weakness in the vessel.

A man leaves home because he has the provider nature in himself. The seed must be released from his vessel in the proper way. Not only is man built in a physical way to do this, but the natural is emblematic of the spiritual aspect too. When a man finds a wife he finds a good thing! He has found a place that is receptive to his ideas, his creative powers and is willing to produce the results for him. What a commitment is that compliment! Apply this spiritually too. A spiritual man (whether a woman or man naturally) is full of life. This spiritual man must produce life in the feminine - the soul.

The Hebrew word for "father’ is [‘ab’] pronounced "awb." The meaning is manifold and includes the following: (1) father of an individual, (2) of God as a father of his people, (3) head or founder of a household, group, family or clan, a patriarch, (4) ancestor, (5) grandfather, forefathers, (6) originator of a class, profession, or art, (7) producer or generator of benevolence and protection, (8) ruler or chief.

One who is called to the image of God is to be a father. Eventually a grandfather. Eventually a patriarch. A patriarch is one who is of the family (patri) and a ruler (arch). Abraham was called to be the father of nations. This was a spiritual word that has to be fulfilled in the natural. For all of God’s word became flesh - Jesus. So now, even the word proclaimed to Abraham became flesh - Issac. So it is to each of us individually to produce a son, a Seth. Spiritually and naturally. You, as a saint, have the privilege of creating a dynasty that can encompass the world. It is my understanding that if 12 people just led 12 people to the Lord today and each would continue to lead a person to the Lord as well as those converted doing so, in 29 days time the world would be Christian! All you have to do is father 29 people. As Paul cried, there are few fathers.

As our series has progressed in "God’s Family Affair," we must realize that there is only one God. There is no other. The power of one is complete. When we see opposites, we are not in the Spirit but in the flesh of carnality. As an example, we find in Exodus 13:21 that the cloud was by day and the fire was by night to lead them. The glory of God would reside over the tabernacle. It appeared as light (fire) at night and a cloud during the day. There were over 2,000,000 people following that cloud every day. It was a large cloud.

What did the people see? Some saw a cloud. Some saw the fire. Exodus 14:19 notes that an angel of the Lord moved from the front of them to the back and so did the cloud. Hmmm. Could these be one in the same? Ponder that. Verse 20 states that the cloud stood between the Egyptians and the Israelites. The cloud "along with darkness, yet it gave light at night. Thus the one did not come near the other all night." This one "thing" was darkness and light at the same time. Perhaps you have seen the symbol of the yin and yang. Two symbols, one reversed from the other, are connected and balance each other. The idea is to see two in one.

But God sees only ONE. God never sees division because He sees the end from the beginning. The outcome is summed up into Him. When God sees Adam, He sees Eve in Adam. When the spiritual man looks, he sees union, oneness. When the fallen nature looks, it sees two. Let us consider again, the pillar that was fire and a cloud at the same time. When you are in the fire of affliction from the glory of God, you are identifying with the Adamic, fallen nature. Since you feel the fire, you are not in the Christ nature, although all things have been given to you. Yet, if you are in the Christ nature, the pillar of fire, that same pillar, becomes a pillar of a cloud, smoke. When you are in the Christ nature, that which is fire to the Adam is the cloud of witnesses to the saints! Ponder that.

The person who brings you the fire, the messenger of God, the minister of the flame of fire (Hebrews 1:7), comes to remove Adam from your appearance of Christ in you. If you are in that deception of Adam, this minister appears as a vessel of fire to you. But, if you are rooted and grounded in Christ, then you see a cloud of witnesses coming your way. This witness testifies of life unto you and encourages you to enter into the cloud, the glory of God. Well, glory! Do you see the one? To one it is life. To another it is death. But in reality they are the same; it just depends where you are living - in the fire or in the glory.

So it is with the Spirit and the Soul. In reality they are one. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 states: "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." The spirit (pneuma) and the soul (psuche) and body (soma) comprise the individual. In 1 Corinthians 15:44 it reads like this in the Greek: "it is sown in a psuche soma (natural body) and it is raised a pneumatic soma (spiritual body). The key to understanding is that the Greek "sarx" refers to the flesh, the skin (Romans 6:19). The Greek word "soma" has a greater meaning than the physical body. It speaks of the 2 Corinthians 5 spiritual body. But as we note in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 the word "body" is soma. We note that the soul in 1 Corinthians 15:44 refers to the soul in a soma. There is a body within the physical body. A house within the house.

The psuche body is spiritual in contrast to the sarx body. The psuche body is carnal in contrast to the pneuma body. Eve was spiritual as long as she was one with the Spirit (Adam). When she separated she became feminine and thereby less spiritual, but not totally fleshly either. It was Adam’s place to bring Eve into a oneness again. It was Adam’s ministry as the spiritual man to bring the spiritual woman into a place with him so that she would not be carnal.

God removed from Adam (Adam means mankind; it is not a literal person’s name) his spouse and she was named "woman." It does not mean "Woe, man!" Yet, why would God not create the two separate from the beginning? What was the purpose of making Adam asexual (meaning having both sexes within the vessel) if God were going to separate them? The answer is that Adam was created in God’s image. He was complete in Himself, even as God was.

God produced all creation out of Himself. We find that El Shaddai means the Fullbreasted One, a female manifestation of God. Jehovah reveals God as masculine. Both natures are found within the Creator. We do not need theologians to tell us to call God "Father/Mother God" because it is already found in scripture and understood by spiritual people. God created Adam with the same ability, but Adam did not know that ability was in himself. Adam had to "get in touch" with his other self. Unfortunately, we still see in this world that Adam does not have a clue of what God is trying to teach him! Adam cannot be complete until he restores the woman back into himself.

Of course, there is another reason for the separation that took place in Genesis. When Adam was separated into Adam and Eve, he began to know the separation the Father went through when the Son left the presence of God to become Jesus on the earth. For just as Jesus came out of the Father, birthed out of God, if you will, so Eve was birthed out of Adam. Yet, Eve was still of Adam. Consider Job 2:5 "But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh…" Satan says to God of Job. This is not talking about Job’ literal skin nor his literal bones. In the Hebrew tradition this means Job’s wife (bone of his bone) and his children (flesh). Note in the next verse God told Satan to spare his life but his wife and children were open to be touched. We find that the children were lost, but in the last chapter God blessed him with 10 more children.

The Lord has said that we are "bone of His bone" as it states in Ephesians 5:30 "For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones." It is important to note the similarity between the word "soul" and "spirit" in the New and Old Testaments. Sometimes the meanings of the words are almost indistinguishable. We as ministers have tried to make the distinction between the two clear when in reality we have confused the picture more. For you see God has a different plan. The two were one in the beginning. The two should never be separated. When they are separated, they appear almost the same because the two should be one! The spirit/soul discussion is a discussion of union not of division.

Ecclesiastes states that the spirit goes back to God when someone dies. The soul dies and does not exist. But some state that the soul goes back also because of the similarity of the definition of spirit and soul. In truth, if there were not a divorce, that would be true. For in true union that is the way it should be. But sin has entered into the picture.

When Eve heard the word of God (secondhand hearing is not experiential life) from Adam, she did not understand. Therefore when she was approached by the serpent to challenge her understanding, she added to what God had said. She added " neither shall you touch it." She took a word of life and lowered it down to a rule, a ritual, etc. Eve added "touch" which is part of the deception of the five natural senses (we suggest reading George Hawtin’s book on the five senses). Since she had not understood what Adam, the spirit, was saying, she interpreted it her own way. Eve was deceived because she did not seek spiritual understanding of the thing she did not know and because she thought she was being spiritual.

Consequently, the spirit must save the soul! Adam, representing the Spirit, realizing that he had to be one with Eve, i.e., married to her he stepped across the line. He fulfilled Galatians 6:2 of bearing one another’s burden. He lowered himself from the realm of the Spirit into the realm of the flesh so that he could deliver her from death. He bore her reproach so that he could fulfill the word of God unto her that she was the mother of all living. Even so did Christ for us. He died for us, bore our reproach so that we could be cleansed as His bride.

Who is this woman, this Eve? She is able to produce two sons, Cain and Abel. She is able to produce life and death through these two boys. The tongue speaks forth life and death also as James states, and it should not. But the end is that life is produced, Seth. For out of Eve came life and death, but the death was not the victor. Death (Cain) was vanquished. Like Julius Caesar, Seth, was the statement of Veni Vidi, Vici (I come, I see, I conquer). Eve having produced death was also given the promise of producing the one who would deliver us. Seth was a mere type and shadow of the Coming One, Christ Jesus. God does not want duality to be produced - Cain and Abel. God wants wholeness, oneness produced - Seth. There can be no division in the body of Christ. There can only be unity and union. Therefore God has designed a plan for the removal of the fallen soul, that carnal mind, that Eve.

Yet, before the total victory of Christ, each person must come face to face with Eve. Each person must rise up in the Spirit of Christ and bring down to destruction the woman who has controlled our minds, wills, desires and emotions. For she has cried out to us. "And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man saying, ‘We will eat our bread, and wear our apparel; only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.’" (Isaiah 4:1) The carnal mind seeks to attach itself to a spiritual man so that it can justify its existence, destroy the spiritual man, and create a religious person. Death hopes by attaching itself to life it can remain for a season longer than allowed.

As one reads Isaiah chapters 1-4, we see an unfolding plan of God. Jerusalem has to be destroyed; a sinful nation has to be destroyed; the proud have to be destroyed. The priesthood, that religious woman, will be stripped and the nakedness of her corruption revealed. All this occurs before the Virgin of Chapter 6 is revealed, the one who bears in her the Christ nature. This orderly progression goes along with the book of Revelation. Before the Manchild can be born in its fullest sense, the woman, that harlot has to be destroyed.

Chapter seventeen of Revelation brings about the judgment of the ‘great whore’ who sits on many waters (see Revelation 17:15 - water represents people). Yes, this whore, the one who causes the church to fail, is the carnal mind that seduces us away from the path of the just. She plies her trade in the ways of economics - houses, cars, etc. She plies her trade in the way of religion - traditions, rituals, deeds, etc. She plies her way in desires of the flesh - sex, lusts, etc. A many faceted woman is this Babylonish nature.

The people of the world drink her wine, her life force, not realizing it is addictive. The carnal mind initially is like a simple drug - marijuana. Seems harmless enough. But its addiction leads to oblivion. Reality checks out. Deception checks in. Desire for deeper highs occurs and cocaine follows. So the carnal mind works first as a little fox and then grows to be a giant.

Oh, this sensuous woman attractive to look at cries out like the Sirens of the Iliad. Their enticing voice draws the righteous Aeneas ever closer to doom. But except for the grace of God, we too would fall to the pleasantries of the Sirens - that carnal nature, that soulish woman. BUT GOD has called us to a place in Him that cannot be touched. We can be kept from the sins of the carnal soulish, feminine mind (1 John 5:18 Amplified quote).

This woman, this carnal mind, this soulish fiend, is the mother of harlots (17:5). She creates abominations in the earth (17:5). These are the abominations that God hates: (1) A proud look, (2) A lying tongue, (3) People that murder (4) A wicked heart, (5) Feet that run to wickedness, (6) A false witness, (7) He that sows discord among the brethren. This woman is the mother of all these abominations. She is alive in the church as well as in the world. She is drunk on the blood of the saints that she has killed (17:6). Saul killed Stephen. He was of the woman, but blessed be God who delivers us all from this nature.

Historically, the seven hills (vs. 9) have referred to Rome and to the Roman Catholic Church according to Luther and others of the Reformation. For this is the harlot that has daughters - the denominations of the Protestant Churches. The woman is a religious soul, a religious mind. It feels comfortable in the realm of rituals, traditions, etc. A normal woman (a real person) according to psychology is motivated by the need for security. The carnal woman that we are talking about has the same tendencies and therein is the problem. The soul feels a need for security and instead of looking unto its mate, Adam, it looks to things (rituals, traditions, etc.). This looking to "things" is an easier way. For "things" do not challenge you, talk back, require time and effort. The facade of the "things" looks good but in reality is an empty cover.

Joshua 7:21 states: " When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver….I coveted them, and took them; and behold they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent and the silver under it." Eve was the earth, Adam was the Spirit. She came out of him. The Babylonish garment is hid in Eve, the earth, as well as the goodly things of the world. The carnal mind desires all these things. Joshua had only one answer. He took Achan to the valley of Achor (7:24) and he was stoned to death and the place was called "the place of trouble" (Valley of Achor). The soulish woman must be destroyed and has been by Christ at the cross.

The fallen nature cannot be coddled. It cannot be placated. It cannot be tolerated. It cannot be allowed. It must be removed. The whole book of Revelation (see our book Unmasking the Book of Revelation, 160 pages) is a revelation of the spiritual man rising up in the house and destroying the woman who has slept with many. Fornication will no longer go on in the house of God (our bodies) as the spiritual man casts out the concubine and her seed and remains with the wife of his youth.

Each individual has male and female in them. Sometimes the person is spiritual (manly) and sometimes he is carnal (womanly). God would not have it so. He wants us to become one and not two. He does not want us divided, for a house divided cannot stand. He wants us to accept the new mind that we have in Christ and live in it rather than sleeping with the enemy every night. We must recognize that our first wife is dead. Sleeping with the dead is a sin - it is necrophilia (see our audio tape on the same). We cannot have relations with the dead. Our God is the God of the Living!

The other is the god of the dead, Osiris, the Egyptian god. We must leave Egypt and forsake our living with death. The purpose of the wilderness, the desert, is to give us a barren, clear land so that we can see the difference between our efforts and the efforts of God. The desert is void of the ability to sustain human life. God, in the wilderness, was trying to help the Israelites to become spiritual by identifying with their spiritual man rather than the woman with whom they had formerly lived. Some could not give up the addiction and died in the wilderness. The soul that sins dies - Ezekiel 18:4. BUT GOD has given us His Soul (Isaiah 53:10), that He might be our life. Behold we live and do not die.

The battle in the book of Revelation is the victory of the Lamb. The spiritual man overcomes and removes the whore, the harlot from the city of God. All diseases, all desires for the fleshly way are removed because Adam, the spiritual man, rises up and comes forth as the propitiation of our sin. So let the man in your house rise up and deliver you.

John 3 talks about the "born again" experience. It has a deeper meaning then just salvation. Jesus tells Nicodemus "…I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus states to Jesus "How can a man be born again when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born again?" As we look on these the scriptures with a spiritual eye, we can see another understanding. Nicodemus was a spiritual leader in his time and place. He even came to see Jesus because he sensed the spirit. But the understanding of Nicodemus was that of the woman. He saw a re-entering of the natural womb. The carnal mind, that feminine thinking, always lowers spiritual thoughts even as it tries with all of its heart to be spiritual.

Jesus was trying to talk to Nicodemus of the Father’s birth. Note Jesus said to "see" the kingdom you must be born again - He did not say that you could "enter" the kingdom. In verse 5 Jesus explains it more fully so that Nicodemus could enter in. Jesus states : "Except a man be born again of the water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." The beginning of the Father’s birth starts with the birth out of the woman - salvation. But the second and third experience must also occur - the water and the Spirit. These speak of the baptism of the Holy Spirit which is Pentecost and the Spirit which is the Feast of Tabernacles, the third experience. Man must be birthed out of the womb of the woman. He must leave the realm of the flesh, the woman, before he can bring deliverance to her.

Adam had to realize that Eve’s sin, deception, separated her from him but not from his spirituality. He then, within his spirituality, stepped across the line and bore her sin so that she could be free to birth the Christ, as a woman did thousand of years later. Then Jesus bore our sin so that we could come out of the woman. Now is the time for the firstfruits of Christ to come forth birthed out of the woman (the carnal church) to deliver the church. For those who have come into the birth of the Father, that three-fold birth (born again, water and Spirit), now can be fathers also.

Who is this woman Eve? Where did she come from? What is her purpose? The first use of the word "woman" is found in Genesis 2. The Hebrew is "Ishshah." This means she is from man (ish) and shah meaning wife, married, one. However, the same word is translated as fire/sacrifice in many cases.

The soul, that carnal nature which is at enmity with God is feminine. It must be offered up; it must be slain. In order for this to occur, Jesus Christ came forth from God and offered His soul for sin (Isaiah 53:10). The pure woman (the soul) was offered for the harlot woman of Revelation. The pure mind, the mind of Christ was offered for the carnal mind. The pure is victorious and replaces that which is soulish. "For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise’...but to those who are called...Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God’" (1 Corinthians 1:18-24)." He who was the wisdom of God was offered for us. In Genesis 3:6 Eve states: "...tree was good for food (lust of the flesh), was a delight to the eyes (lust of the eyes) and that the tree was desirable to make one wise (pride of life)." Eve sought to replace Christ who is wisdom with the wisdom of herself. The soul sets itself up as god and establishes its own rules and regulations. This same soul (Eve) cannot keep her own rules and regulations and thereby fails in her own religion. This false wisdom is the carnal soul, that harlot, of the book of Revelation.

Proverbs 8 speaks of wisdom and what she can produce. "Those who diligently seek me shall find me." "Before the mountains were settled, before the hills were brought forth; while He had not yet made the earth...I was beside Him"(8:25-30). Before Adam, the earth, was created the pure soul, that pure woman existed. Christ who is wisdom was before it all began. He offered Himself before He created everything (Revelation 13:8) so that the harlot woman, that carnal mind was destroyed. Note in these verses that before anything was brought forth on the earth - trees, hills, mountains, etc. the life of God was, the wisdom of God was.

Our life was hid in God through Christ. Do not be deceived. God will not be mocked. This deception of the carnal mind producing trees of self-righteousness in you, producing mountains of carnal wealth that has no substance and shall rust away. For before the earth was, Wisdom (Christ) was establishing everything in righteousness. The harlot has to fall, and has already fallen. Every hill, every mountain that is brought forth is from Him. Consider Proverbs 8:30-31 which states: "Then I was beside Him as a master workman and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him, Rejoicing in the world His earth, and having my delight in the sons of men." For He, Wisdom, Jesus, delights in the sons of men causing mountains, hills, trees to be established; whereas, the harlot causes destruction. He, who is the true Wisdom, causes our earth, this body, to break forth with creation. He causes us to establish plantings of the Lord - trees of healing, trees of righteousness, and men walking as trees (Mark 8:24).

Ishshah, the word for woman, has in its meaning a sacrifice needed because the person "who sins against me (wisdom) injures himself; all those who hate me love death." (Prov. 8:36) The harlot needs to be delivered by the word of truth. The woman is so subtle, a counterfeit. Consider the harlot: "And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names" (Rev 17:3). The blood of the saints she killed covers her. Consider the church. The church is covered by the scarlet blood of Christ, who bore our burden (Christ, a beast of burden if you will) and the church is carried off into the wilderness (Revelation 12:14) on wings of an eagle (12:14). The church is protected and carried by the sons of God (wings representing the third heavens and the reigning of the Son). Note the similarity between the two - the harlot on a beast of scarlet, the church carried by Christ and His blood. Even the harlot is carried into a wilderness. The false religion and the true religion are very close in their "look." We must fulfill Hebrews 5:11-14. We must be able to discern by the Spirit of Christ in us so that the real soul might have pre-eminence. Truly, there is a need for a sacrifice for us or our soul will reign in infamy. The woman needs a sacrifice of the right kind - the One who brings deliverance. "Who is this coming up from the wilderness, like columns of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense..." (Song of Solomon 3:6). It is the Lord, who offers Himself up as an acceptable sacrifice - offering His soul for ours. Then we who were soulish shall be changed into the image of the spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:45).

The duality of two women in the same house causes a war. For each woman wants to run the house the way she desires. Each cooks differently, cleans differently, washes differently etc. So in this spiritual house which you are, there are two women - the harlot, that carnal mind, who has eaten of the tree of good and evil which is death, and the mind of Christ which is seeking to establish the kingdom.

We have entered the third heavens and reside there when our spirit and soul have entered into a union. At that point we no longer live by the standards, the rules and regulations of Eve, that carnal mind, who rules in the outer law after the spirit of death. No, my friends, our life is governed by the internal integrity of the Son who has risen in us for our soul lies down and allows Him to cover us. It is at this point that we pass from law into Grace.

As we come to the knowledge of Him we become immune to the laws because He lives our life. He cannot be influenced nor can He be forced upon by any natural or mental means. He reigns. As we submit and allow His mind to dwell in us and reign in us we can deliver others who come to us with the struggle of the two women.

While we were in Eve, Christ in us was silent. But once we entered into His presence in us having found the kingdom of God within we come to a state where error does not touch us for it did not touch Him (John 14:30) and our life is Him. 1 John 5:18 in the Amplified reads: "We know [absolutely] that any one born of God does not [deliberately and knowingly] practice committing sin, but the One Who was begotten of God carefully watches over and protects him - Christ’s divine presence within him preserves him against the evil - and the wicked one does not lay hold (get a grip) on him or touch [him]." Note that the person who dwells in this realm is in a place where the enemy cannot touch him because Christ protects him. Oh, that the church would enter into that understanding!

In conclusion, Adam was called to save Eve, for the woman is saved in childbearing. It is the death of Eve in us that causes the Christ in us to come forth. When we are separated from her placenta and we no longer take nourishment through the umbilical cord, we are alive in Christ.

Necromancy is forbidden in the Old Testament. It is talking to the dead, generally through a medium guide (current day language - channel). We need not to talk to Adam for Adam is dead. Necrophilia is having a sexual relationship with a dead body. The church has been practicing necrophilia also. We have been trying to sanctify Adam’s dead corpse, make that corpse holy, by causing Christ to be seen in it. It cannot be done. Christ must be seen through it but not of it. We have been placing the seed of God in the wrong place.

A dead body cannot produce life even if seed is placed in it. God has called us to the place where He (that Spirit in us) will place His seed in our new mind (mind of Christ), and it will and is producing a manifestation in the earth. As it was in the beginning, the earth was without form and void and God spoke (seed went forth) and life began coming out of the earth - life in the sea, life on the earth. Even so now the Spirit is speaking and the mind of Christ which is in you is receiving. You are the planting of the Lord. The carnal mind (Eve) cannot receive the things of the Spirit, but the mind of Christ can. God has come up out of the wilderness for as Song of Solomon 3:1-2,4 states: "On my bed night after night I sought Him whom my soul loves; I sought Him but did not find Him. I must arise now and go about the city; in the streets and in the squares I must seek Him whom my soul loves...when I found Him whom my soul loves; I held onto Him and would not let Him go..." The mind of Christ can only love one - God. Eve loved another. But thank God that our mind is being renewed daily (growing in love daily) by beholding Him who we are. When Joyce decided to marry me twenty-five years ago, she left her maiden name and assumed mine. Is it not time that we realize we have His name and not our previous one?

It is only as we have a union in our own personal life that we can have a union with our natural spouse and that is the only way that we as married couples can bring a union in a family. It is union of families that bring forth a church, a local expression of Him. Then the body of Christ corporately throughout the world will reveal Him and the kingdom of God will be seen - Jesus. Then mankind will see a many membered body individually whose spirit, soul and body are governed by the Spirit. That is the kingdom of God people seek.

The creation has many parts and our booklet, Kingdom Covenants, reveals the seven covenants found in Genesis 1. Every book in the Bible is merely a clarification of the book of Genesis. Genesis is the seed that produces all the other books of the Bible. It is therefore important that we grasp the depth of the creation effort of God and the sha- dows and types in the first few chapters, especially as they relate to this series of messages on the Father, Mother and Son.

When Jehovah thought about creation, He manifested Himself as God (Elohim). For in creation everything is related to God, not to Jehovah. God is a lesser manifestation of Jehovah since it is limited to creation. Our call to be sons of God is a limited manifestation, since it too is part of the creation, this natural order of things. What we shall become when released from this order is yet to be seen. However, there will be many millenia before such would occur. El Shaddai, El Elyon, El Gibbor, etc. are all names of God that deal with the natural order of things and thereby are manifestations that we come to know and understand which should lead us to the I AM which is the ultimate, timeless, unbounded nature of the Lord.

So, when God says "Let us make man in our image," He is talking about the image that would be found in the creation, the natural creation. Jesus Christ was the image, the natural image, in whose likeness we are to be made. Adam’s creation was to teach him about God’s nature so that Adam could create out of himself exactly the very nature He was and God is. Without even knowing it, Adam was already fulfilling the plan that God established from before creation began by learning of the creation that came out of him - woman and how to bring unity.

"All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being" (John 1:3). God produced, fathered everything out of Himself. In effect, every tree, fish, water droplet, etc. was a thought (seed) which He placed into His mind (female, womb) and conceived and produced it in the earth. There is a saying "whatever the mind can conceive it can achieve." The mind cannot, for the mind is not God but the mind will achieve because the Spirit of God has moved on it. So, God was both male and female. He thought it and He produced it. Adam created, in the image of God, was also male and female until the female, Eve, was separated from him. God separated Eve from Adam so that Adam would understand a spiritual truth. God wanted Adam to be the receptacle for Himself. God wanted to impregnate Adam, for the earth (out of which Adam was made) was without form and void. Even as a woman today has as a type and shadow an emptiness (a womb) and a void (vagina) that must be filled, so then God sought to fill the earth with Himself.

Adam then had to come into the understanding of oneness. By understanding Eve, he could understand God. Ever since creation Adam has been trying to place Eve back into Himself, for his wound from which she was removed cannot be healed except that it would be of the same flesh, bone of his bone. Marriage is living in the divine glory of God because God has sought to bring all things into Himself (1 Corinthians 15:28). Adam in knowing Eve as Himself would begin to know God from whom he had come out from. I remember when I saw Joyce, my wife of over 25 years, the first time on our wedding night. Her bodily beauty I will never forget for it is emblazened upon my mind. Such is the marriage of oneness with God that you fall prostrate before Him in the revelation of such glory. Suddenly one is presented in three-dimensional physical beauty and love emanates from you and devotion follows. Adam saw Eve and said "bone of my bone." He was pleased for he had never seen another human before and yet, though she was of him, she was different.

When are we really the happiest? When we step out of the old nature and identify with the true nature of the Lord. Marriage is the ultimate encounter because we rejoice during the ceremony that we are laying ourselves down for the other person. There is such joy, peace, etc. that occurs at this time. From marriage we are to learn the very heartbeat of God. Real love found in marriage is a revelation from God. For that person who marries has set a plan before himself/herself. Marriage is a vision of the future - of two becoming one and continually walking on the path before them. In essence the vision, the plan, is a revelation which is worked out in the spiritual and the natural.

God had a plan. He wanted to have a relationship with man (Adam). His commitment was to the marriage, the plan, regardless of the failings or the successes. Adam, sensing the same understanding from God, sought out Eve. Regardless of her failing, he took her sin upon himself so that she might through childbearing bring deliverance from death. When Adam partook of the fruit which she offered him, he was not deceived. He knew what he was doing. His identification was with her, even as Jesus Christ’s identification was with us. He stood naked as she did because he knew that he could not produce the seed, but seeing down through the ages he covered himself because he saw, Christ, the true seed bringing deliverance. He covered himself because he could not produce. But in reality the man he saw, Christ, was himself. God said in 3:10 of Genesis "Who told you that you were naked?" God never saw Adam separated from Him. God never saw a divorce between the two of them. It was the carnal mind of Adam that caused the separation. It was the flesh, which hinders. God saw Adam in Him. God’s love to Adam was the example of a faith walk that deliverance and restoration would come (Acts 3:21). From this Adam knew that his love for Eve would also bring a deliverance for her. Unknowingly perhaps, but I think not, Adam was walking in the relationship with God in type and shadow.

True love attacks pride and removes all evidence of self. Eve, by adding the few words "or touch it" to the word of God (Genesis 2:17, 3:3), revealed her pride which let her be deceived (1 Timothy 2:14). Why did Eve feel the need to assert herself to the serpent when she already was in a loving relationship? I believe because she did not know the depth of love (for God is love) that is the depth of God. Eve heard the commandment second-hand from Adam because God gave Adam the command before Eve was created. Not knowing the love of God personally, she easily fell prey to the carnal nature which tries to prove itself.

Eve believed three things about the tree.(Genesis 3:6) "It was good for food...delight to the eyes... and desirable to make one wise..." These three are the same as 1 John 2:16 - lust of the flesh (food) the lust of the eyes (eyes) and the pride of life (wise). Eve, not knowing the love of God but only hearing about it from Adam, tried to in her own mind to create a belief structure. Eve cannot create; she can only reproduce. Adam can create; he cannot produce. So she usurped Adam’s role.

Let me quote 1 Corinthians 1:18-22 "For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." Here we see that Jesus was the wisdom of God. Eve, by seeing the tree of knowledge as a means to wisdom removed Christ from the center of her universe and established herself as the antichrist. She became wisdom to herself. In effect, not knowing God (Adam knew God, she heard second-hand), she needed to find a god. So who would be better than herself? Ah, yes the soul, that seat of the will, emotions etc. was a law unto herself.

The soulish nature is very subtle. In order to help the disciples get out of their carnal nature, Jesus took them into the wilderness (Matthew 14:13-21). Here the people came. The people left their cities (their wealth, their means) and came to hear. Jesus preached spiritual life to them first. Then having compassion on them for it was a long day, He wanted to take care of their natural need (Note the church which is carnal feeds the natural need first - singers, soulish attractions, etc.). He tells the disciples to provide (14:16). They are at a loss. They do not think there is anything in them to provide from. Mark 6:37 brings out it would cost 200 denarii or 200 days wages to provide the food (remember there were 5,000 men plus women plus children).

Christ was trying to teach the disciples that what they had from the small boy - five loaves and two fish - was sufficient. The amount of Christ that you have is all you need to have! He took the disciples and the people to a place where Adam could not provide. A good preacher or even a businessman plans his location, time, and deliverance for maximum results. Jesus did the same. He had the disciples in a place where they had to depend on the five loaves and the two fishes, and yet the soulish nature of these men could not recognize the sufficiency of Christ.

Yet, Jesus still had to get their attention. Somewhat like a Missouri mule these men were. To get a Missouri mule to do something you must get its attention first - hit the animal in the forehead! Jesus caused a little boy to provide because the men could not see. A child shall lead them. The child gave out of what he had and it was enough to feed over 5,000 men plus women and children. A child never sees the problem but walks in what he is. Oh my, the soul is so carnal because it does not know who it is.

It is interesting to note that in John 6:4 that this feeding occurred at the time of the feast of Passover. Passover is full of life. It is sufficient to reveal Tabernacles. When the Israelites left Egypt they journeyed to Succoth and stopped there in the wilderness. They celebrated Passover at Succoth. Succoth is the Hebrew word for Tabernacles, the third feast, the third experience of a Christian.

Mark 6:39-40 brings out that the people were to sit down in groups of 50’s and 100’s. Read 1Kings 18:4 and there you will see a correlation. Obadiah saved the prophets from Ahab. Jesus was doing a type and shadow of the past here. He was separating the people from their cities, their religious ways, the ways of Ahab, and placing them in kingdom order. Yet, the disciples could see none of this, for Eve is carnal and a god unto herself. The people were the same way. The blind leading the blind shall both fall into the ditch. We must depend on the child within, the Christ child that is being birthed by the Spirit. Who is the Christ child within - it is the mind of Christ.

Love is spiritual warfare. God wanted Adam to love Eve so that he could know how to love Him. Love destroys every prideful bone in a person. It removes all semblance of self from each participant. Marriage is a commitment whose fruit is a selfless life. It is like the old story of the girl with beautiful hair who has it cut to bring a watch chain for her love, and he in turn sells his watch to buy her a comb. My what love we do see. Love creates the haven from all selfish elements. Adam sells his relationship with God in order to give his love to Eve. Adam by bringing Eve back into himself, accepts her faults and covers her with his love as Boaz covered Ruth, as Christ covered the church.

Commitment is when you place all "your eggs in one basket." When God created Adam that is exactly what He did. God was committed to His plan through Adam. I am sure you have been counseled not to put all your eggs in one basket. Yet, consider all the successful people you know of in the world. Were they not totally committed to their one goal? Madame Curie lost her life for the sake of discovering radium; Napoleon’s passion was to rule the world and he did; Columbus had a vision about the new world... and on it goes. Those who put their eggs in one basket are highly successful. Marriage is like that too.

Our spirit is to woo our soul, redeem our soul and cause our soul to prosper. We see a lack of accountability in the USA. No one wants to be responsible. Blame is placed on everyone else except yourself. Christianity is about accountability. We accept the responsibility of our sins and rejoice over a Savior who delivers us. He gave Himself for the church (a marriage relationship). Our spirit is committed to the soul because the Christ nature is always committed, but it is the soul that goes a whoring, even as Israel went a whoring after other gods. It is time for the spirit of Christ to arise and hold the soul accountable for its actions.

Our life is hid with God in Christ. As we recognize who we are in Him, we can come forth out of the old nature revealing the new nature. Marriage holds each other accountable (judges each other). We run from that judgment and leave a marriage, or we force another to leave rather than face ourselves in the mirror. Denial of a problem with self is the reason for divorce. There can be no true intimacy without accountability in a marriage. Adam and Eve are a type and shadow for us to learn from. We have to learn to make ourselves vulnerable ( even as Christ Jesus was) in order for us to be known intimately. Agape, God love, requires that we bare all that we are so that the other can rise up in Christ and bear away our sin. Who is that open in their marriage? Few and far between. But it is this goal that the walk of faith requires. We must allow our Spirit pre-eminence so that it can free the soul from its pride of self. A man must help his wife in the same manner (vice versa too) and the church must help the world.

God gave His only Son in love to us. It is the love of the Father that enables a marriage to succeed. For this love acts like a shield to the couple. How so? The love of God covers a multitude of sins. True love allows the vicissitudes of life to be of no effect. Love takes the darts of each other and turns them into plowshares. True love removes the fear of rejection. Adam knew Eve did the wrong thing. But he silently partook of her sin so that she might have life. Yes, he did tell God that "that woman you gave me" caused his situation, but as a type of Christ, it was not said in derision but as a man who bore the sin himself so that she might be saved in childbearing.

I come from one world and Joyce came from another. We did not merge the two worlds in our marriage nor did we keep our own individual worlds. We built a new one, forsaking the worlds we had known. The truly spiritual man will realize that creation was made for man, but man was made for the Father. As Amy Grant’s song speaks - he has the "Father’s eyes." We are to see with the eyes of a father, the eyes of understanding, the eyes of the plan unfolding, the summation of all back to the Father.

What a great vision for a man to see with the sight of God in him. The problem is that the sight of man outside of God does not humble the man. We must forsake the man outside of God for the finished work of the Spirit. God has not given us an eye with double vision. We must see with a solitary eye. The spirit must see through the soul and be seen through the soul. It cannot be a murky vision; it cannot be nearsighted; it cannot be farsighted for the eye is the light of the soul. The two must become one. God’s family affair is an unconditional family with all members accountable for their place.

Adam, representing the spirit, was accountable for Eve, the soul. He redeemed Eve by bearing her sin. The spirit is well able to deliver the soul. The Father of the household is responsible for the result which is coming forth to fruition, to a blossoming, to a fruit picking time. It is the Father ministry in us causing the spirit to marry the soul and produce the child to be seen, the fruit which the world craves to see.

This small series is just the foretaste of the depth of the marriage of the spirit and soul. Seek Him and know that only Christ exists. There is only one. Those who have realized it is only God that exists are now developing in the relationship. Some struggle with the duality - the old and the new nature. We rejoice in those that do for it is God removing the duality by revealing it! Eventually, the spirit and soul unite and there is no more duality but only the cognizance of the Lord. This is the marriage that a son leaves home for and seeks to be a father to produce. I have heard it said by psychologists that a honeymoon is great and the second honeymoon starts to occur when one is married thirty-five years. The couple seems to enter a new plateau. A better understanding of oneness. So it is in this walk also.

There is only one God. Every man created by God has set himself up as God whether knowingly or subconsciously. But because God is merciful, loving and faithful, He had a plan. God shut up man in his dis- obedience (Romans 11:32), reckoned all me dead (Romans 5:15-20), and through the manifestation of His Love (Jesus), God has mercifully provided a Lamb without spot or blemish to free us from our sinful, self-ish nature. Christ died for all (1Corinthians 15:22), especially for those that do believe (1 Timothy 4:10), but nevertheless for all.

In order to reveal this love, God has chosen us, the church, the body of Christ, the living epistle, read of all men to be the manifestation of His Love. It begins with each of us individually as we accept Christ as our personal Savior (feast of Passover), accept Him as the Holy Spirit as He fills us with the gifts of 1 Corinthians 12 (feast of Pentecost) and finally when we come into union with Him (feast of Tabernacles). It ends when we manifest Him to our own family (spouse, children). For they are the fruit that the world will see and partake of which will cause the world to come to the knowledge of Him, as the waters cover the sea.