Christ Is ALL - Chapter 9
ONE POWER
"Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power."
Jesus, the spiritual lawgiver, said that the first and greatest commandment
is; "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your
soul, and with all your mind" -Mat. 22:37. Moses, the natural lawgiver,
gave us the law; "You shall have no other god's before Me" -Ex. 20:3. God
is Power. God is the creative Power of all that is, and there is not any
other Power over which God has to fight. Jesus fulfilled the law of
commandants, but it still stands before us: Thou shall not believe in any
other Power before Me. Thou shall embrace the only Power with all thy
being. In His Holy Presence is the fullness of Power. If we would lay down
all the other powers that we believe in, powers that we have been
conditioned to believe, we would break through the barrier of "this world"
into "My kingdom" and see the discords of the appearance world disappear.
To believe in other powers is to have other God's before Him. Every
power/thing that we ascribe power to is an idol before God; and it steals
from us our ONEness with Him. In Isaiah we read: "I am the First and I am
the Last; Besides Me there is no other God." -44:6. Over and over again in
Isaiah we find him declaring by the Spirit of God that God is the only
Power, that there is no other God. "For I am God, and there is no other."
"There is no God besides Me." "I am God, and there is none like Me." There
is only One Power, One God, and He is within you. "Surely God is in you,
And there is no other; There is no other God." -Isa. 45:14. There is no
other God than the One that is within you . . . no other Power.
Of whom shall I be afraid if God is who He says He is? If I am in fear than
I am not believing the scriptures. I have no consciousness of God within
me; no consciousness of the Power within me. Fear not, "I have overcome the
world." Do we believe? Jesus taught; "do not worry about your life"
because He knew that there is only One Power; and those who would seek that
One Power would find spiritual harmony in life.
Adam submitted to the belief in two powers--the lie--the power of good and
evil, thinking it would make him like God. Mankind has been suffering under
this delusion ever since. In trying to make himself God he believed in two
powers, became double-souled, and fell from his conscious union with
God--the One and only Power. Man is now under sin-consciousness, which is
self-centeredness--a belief in a selfhood apart from God.
Jesus didn't have this problem. He did not see two powers of good and evil
He only saw One Power, the Father within, and He lived His life out of that
realization. Jesus didn't judge after the appearances of good and evil, but
would judge after the Father's standard of what is right. Jesus knew who He
was, who He was in, and who was in Him. He knew that it was the Father in
Him doing the work, and that of His own personal self He could do nothing.
He understood that the so-called powers of "this world" were not power, and
that only God is power. "Jesus answered, 'You could have no power at all
against Me unless it had been given you from above.'" -John 19:11.
In the presence of an illuminated consciousness, a Christ-consciousness,
there is no other power. We see what looks like power, it hits us in the
face and feels like power; but Jesus said to "resist not evil" for He knew
it was not really power. Ignorance of Truth is what is destroying us, not
some power of evil. If we believe in other powers, so it will be unto us.
When we believe in a lie it is real to us until we find out that the whole
time it was really a lie, an untruth. Lies and rumours have ruined people's
lives for centuries, but when the truth is revealed the innocent are set
free. Falsehood is the main reason for all the discord and error that takes
place in our human experience. We must come to the knowledge of The Truth
of Being in order to bring about a change in our experience. The more we
recognize Truth the more harmony we will experience.
We are seated with Christ at the Father's right hand, yet we suffer from all
the unbelief that we still have within our consciousness. The good news of
death and resurrection in Christ is the power of God to save us from this
world of sin and death. The power that death held over mankind was
destroyed in the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. Jesus came to
destroy the lie that had the power of death, and He did. By passing through
all that death had to offer He abolished death, and brought Life and
immortality to light through this good news.
Man has exchanged the Truth of God for the lie of a selfhood apart from God.
He worshipped the created thing rather than the Creator who made him. He
worshipped his own selfhood, believed himself to be a god, believed in two
powers, rather than the One God of all. Now the Adamic mind is under all
the temporal powers of good and evil, and until he grows up into the Christ
in all things he will suffer under this belief.
To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and
peace. To some degree we all still suffer under this illusion of the carnal
mind. The carnal mind is the mind of flesh. It is the natural mind of the
Adamic race. The carnal mind does not believe in One Power, it believes in
all the powers of the fallen consciousness. Duality is another term that
speaks of what I am saying. This dual nature is but a belief in a selfhood
apart from God that stems from the spirit of error. If we are one with God,
and we are, then there can be no other selfhood than His Selfhood. The
Spirit of Truth must reveal this to us because our belief in another
selfhood is an idol that stands between us and our demonstration of
Spiritual Reality. Like Solomon and his many heathen wives so we have many
beliefs that are idolatrous to who we are called to be. Solomon allowed his
wives to separate him from his relationship with God. He became tolerant of
their idols, and in so doing, separated himself from his God. In the end
Solomon did not know who he was, his consciousness of God was lost. Those
foreign wives were a power other than God and it cost him greatly.
The principalities and powers of the human consciousness are temporal powers
based upon the lie, and are not power in the presence of God. God is
present in you, to will and to do, if you can acknowledge Him in the midst
of you. To be spiritually minded is to see through the belief in two powers
and see the One Power as God of all the earth. "The earth is the Lord's and
the fullness thereof: All the earth is Mine." Who shall separate us from
the Power of the Christ? There is no other Power before Him, and He is
within you, and within me.
"It is time to wake up to Reality. Every day brings God's salvation nearer
than the day in which we took the first step of faith." -Rom. 13:11, Phil.
It is high time to awake out of the sleep of the Adam dream. When we awake
to God's standard of Right we will not miss the mark any longer. We need to
wake up to this truth: "There is no authority except from God" -Rom. 13:1.
There is no other Power than God in the midst of us, within our
consciousness. "Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise
from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." Ephesians 5:14, KJV. The
light of Christ is shining within our consciousness and decreeing that "I AM
the only Power, I AM God Almighty."
"We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that THERE IS NO OTHER
GOD BUT ONE. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on
earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there is one God,
the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus
Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. However,
there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the
idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience,
being weak, is defiled." 1 Corinthians 8:4-7, NKJV.
Consciousness is defiled when it believes in another Power other than God.
Out of your consciousness comes your expression of life. You won't commit
any crime, or sin, that is not within your consciousness. It is not what
enters into a man that defiles him, but it is what comes out of
consciousness that defiles him. The reason that Paul said that the message
of the death and resurrection of Christ is the power of God, is because he
new that that message would change your consciousness and then it would then
change your life.
The natural man is born in sin-consciousness, under the curse of th
universal carnal mind. The spiritual Man is born into Christ-consciousness,
with the blessing of the Mind of Christ. Unfortunately, putting on the New
Man does not come as easy as the "old man" came to us. The carnal mind,
which believes in two powers, is the mind of the human race. It is a
universal mind that dominates all human thought. The carnal mind is death:
"In Adam all die." The Adamic mind of the race consciousness is where all
discord, falsehood, evil, sin, and death make its entrance into the human
experience.
All the so-called powers of evil are not power in the presence of the
Christ. Why? Because the Christ sees through the lie and sees only the
Reality as it exists in God -- TRUTH. And it is knowing this Truth that
sets us free. The Truth does not set us free of discord; it is KNOWING the
Truth that sets us free. We have to know Truth like Adam knew his wife, and
she gave birth to a son. Intimacy with Reality is what I call this: "As
Truth is known (intimacy with Reality) you are set free." In our
relationship with God we come to know Him as the ALL; the One Power, and
this then dispels the illusion, the hypnosis, of the carnal mind. We must
consciously recognize no Power but One...God. The consciousness of One
Power is what does the work: It is what goes before us to make the crooked
places straight.
Part of Paul's prayer in Ephesians one is that we would "know the exceeding
greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of
His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead;
and set Him above all rule, authority, and power, and every name that is
named in this age, and the ages to come." The Power that raised Christ
Jesus from the dead is the Power that we have within us. The question now
arises...Do we believe?
"The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the all-glorious Father, will give you
spiritual wisdom and the insight to know more of him: that you may receive
that inner illumination of the spirit which will make you realize how great
is the hope to which he is calling you--the magnificence and splendour of the
inheritance promised to Christians--and how tremendous is the power
available to us who believe in God. That power is the same divine energy
which was demonstrated in Christ when he raised him from the dead and gave
him the place of highest honour in Heaven--a place that is infinitely
superior to any command, authority, power or control, and which carries with
it a name far beyond any name that could ever be used in this world or the
world to come. God has placed everything under the power of Christ and has
set him up as supreme head to the Church." Ephesians 1:17-22, Phil.
God is One; God is One Power; and that Power is Divine Energy. The divine
energy of God is within us, within our very being, within our
Christ-consciousness. If we would line up with that Truth, like the
tumblers in a lock, we will open up and be set free from all limitation,
fear, and all the evil that goes with a sin-consciousness.
There is only "one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all,
and in you all" -Eph. 4:6. And all that we suffer from is our lack of
understanding, our ignorance of the Truth of being, for the human mind is
devoid of Truth. Therefore, we must come into agreement with Truth and let
it have its perfect work within our consciousness, and then in a moment, in
a flash of inspiration, we will be changed. We will see who it is that we
really are, and that there are not any other powers to which we have to
submit ourselves. I am not saying that we won't have to deal with problems,
we will, but we will have some REAL answers to those problems. We will set
creation free. Jesus had problems. He had five thousand men, and their
families, who were hungry. He also had a Real answer: A spiritual answer.
Can you imagine what would have happened if He would have let the disciples
deal with that problem in their human wisdom? One said: "I have two fish
and five loaves of bread; but what is that among so many." That is as far
as human wisdom, human power, could go. But Jesus' recognition of the One
Power, the Father within Him, was the answer. Jesus didn't do it. He said
he could do nothing, so I doubt He even tried. He just looked within
Himself, saw the Father, the One Power, and then let the manifestation of
Truth take place. They even had leftovers. Do you begin to see the Power
that is within you? Do You?
We are alienated from the Life of God because of ignorance -Eph. 4:18.
Sure, we have the Life of God within us, you can't be one Spirit with God
and not have His Life, but we are not expressing that Life like we should.
Jesus said that we are the "light of the world, the salt of the earth." We
should be showing forth that light, that Light of Christ. Whatever you ask
the Power in the nature of Christ He will give you. "We are one."
Recognition of what's true of you in Christ, in your inward-Man, your true
Self, causes your outward experience to change, or to be conformed into that
image.
"In conclusion be strong--not in yourselves but in the Lord, in the power of
his boundless strength." Ephesians 6:10, Phil. The power and strength that
we have has nothing to do with us personally, it is in the Christ within us.
We are "light in the Lord," and should "walk as children of the light." We
shine as lights among a perverse generation. Do we? We should! And we
can. We just need to "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ
Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal
with God." -Phi. 2:5,6. My New Creation inward Man is equal with God by
virtue of my being in Christ. As a man thinks....in his Soul so is he.
When we begin to think and respond with the Mind of Christ, in our Soul will
be Christ: And that Christ in our Soul will be expressing Himself as our
individual being. We are joint-heirs with Christ, which puts us on equal
terms with God. All that is true of Christ is true of me, but I have to
believe without doubting for it to come into manifestation.
"Yet it is in him that God gives a full and complete expression of himself
in bodily form. Moreover, your own completeness is realized in him, who is
the ruler over all authorities, and the supreme head over all powers."
Colossians 2:9,10, Phil. Your completeness is in Christ, the all power that
is in you, and there is to be a full and complete expression of Him in the
body. This will happen through you as you learn to relax in the Truth of
being. The hope of the glory of God being manifested through you is Christ.
When Christ OUR LIFE is manifested then we are manifested with Him, made
visible, in the glory of God's magnificence, excellence, pre-eminence,
dignity, grace, and majesty.
We are told to "put on the new nature which, by constant renewal in the
likeness of its Creator, leads to a fuller knowledge of God. In this new man
there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised,
foreigner or savage, slave or free man. Christ is all that matters for
Christ lives in all." Colossians 3:10,11, Phil. The new Self that we are is
renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created us. We are
renewed (made new) in knowledge according to the image, and likeness, of
Christ. Christ is all of who I am.
"I stand amazed at the fathomless wealth of God's wisdom and God's
knowledge. How could man ever understand his reasons for action, or explain
his methods of working? For: Who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who
hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be
recompensed unto him again? For everything began with him, continues its
existence because of him, and ends in him. To him be the glory for ever,
amen." Romans 11:33-36, Phil.
"For this reason we also, from the day we first received these tidings, have
never ceased to pray for you and to entreat that you may be filled with a
clear knowledge of His will accompanied by thorough wisdom and discernment
in spiritual things; so that your lives may be worthy of the Lord and
perfectly pleasing to Him, while you exhibit the results of right action of
every sort and grow into a fuller knowledge of God. Since His power is so
glorious, may you be strengthened with strength of every kind, and be
prepared for cheerfully enduring all things with patience and
long-suffering; and give thanks to the Father who has made us fit to receive
our share of the inheritance of God's people in Light. It is God who has
delivered us out of the dominion of darkness, and has transferred us into
the Kingdom of His dearly-loved Son, in whom we have our redemption--the
forgiveness of our sins. Christ is the visible representation of the
invisible God, the Firstborn and Lord of all creation. For in Him was
created the universe of things in heaven and on earth, things seen and
things unseen, thrones, dominions, princedoms, powers--all were created, and
exist through and for Him. And HE IS before all things and in and through
Him the universe is a harmonious whole. Moreover He is the Head of His Body,
the Church. He is the Beginning, the Firstborn from among the dead, in order
that He Himself may in all things occupy the foremost place. For it was the
Father's gracious will that the whole of the divine perfection's should
dwell in Him. And God purposed through Him to reconcile the universe to
Himself, making peace through His blood, which was shed upon the Cross--to
reconcile to Himself through Him, I say, things on earth and things in
Heaven. And you, estranged as you once were and even hostile in your minds,
amidst your evil deeds, He has now, in His human body, reconciled to God by
His death, to bring you, holy and faultless and irreproachable, into His
presence;" Colossians 1:9-22, Wey.
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and
the End." -Rev. 22:13.
ONE POWER!
Sentient BEings
Christ Is ALL