By D. K. Henry

October 9, 2001, Tabernacles

Genesis 1:26, “And Elohim said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”  This verse is a prophetic statement of Yahweh’s plan of creation.  

It is a two-step plan that includes, first the natural and afterwards the spiritual. 

Yahshua spelled this out in John 3: 5&6.  John 3:5, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born of the water (natural birth) and of the Spirit (capital S, a person) he cannot enter the kingdom (family) of God.”   

Translation; 1, Except a man be born into the natural he cannot enter the natural realm; there is no other method of entry.

2, Except a man be born of The Spirit (a person, Yahweh is a person) he cannot enter the spiritual realm.

Yahshua then confirmed this in John 3:6, “That which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of Spirit is spirit.” 

We barely understand the forces behind the formation of a natural embryo.  God told Jeremiah, “before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee.”  Yahweh forms our flesh in the natural.

 The formation of the spiritual embryo is still a hidden mystery to most all. 

He forms the spiritual embryo within this tabernacle of clay and when It is fully formed it will be released (birthed) into the spiritual realm.  This tabernacle of clay is the womb that Father uses to form the new creature.

 Science is the art of discovery.  Scientists spend a lifetime in the discovery and unraveling of laws, forces and processes, which Yahweh put in place at the very beginning.  In this discovery process scientists are often amazed at the beautifully designed laws and structures that they uncover in their quest for knowledge.  When they look at and take apart a single cell of your body they are amazed at the design but often ignore the designer.  All of these things were designed, created and hidden by the Creator at the very beginning of time but we went nearly six thousand years in total ignorance of the very existence of many of these laws, and we were still using horses and buggies when I was a child.  The first person who said that the world was round was forced to recant or die.  After his great public recantation he was quoted as saying, “but it is still round.”  As new things were revealed in the natural, change became acceptable and we moved from the horse and buggy to putting people on the moon in less than one hundred years.

 We are faced with a similar situation in the spiritual realm.

 Genesis 1:26, “And God (who is spirit), said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion.”  This, was a prophetic statement and as of the present time only one man has been completed in the express image of the Father’s person and the process of birthing into the spiritual realm is still little understood.  It is a two-step process and we here are still in the natural, the first stage. 

 At the Cross of Christ we received forgiveness for our sins.  We were washed in the blood of the Lamb and cleansed. We were justified and made acceptable in the sight of our Heavenly Father so that we as individuals might approach unto His throne of grace.   The curtain between the holy and the Most Holy was rent; we can now approach unto the throne.  Christ did this for us and then he gave us the Power to Become.

 We did not receive spiritual Life at the Cross but the Power to Become is the right of discovery for entrance into the spiritual realm.  Christ said, "It is finished." meaning all of the spiritual laws forces and processes are in place and are available for our discovery for entrance into the spiritual realm and eternal life.  These processes were finished at The Resurrection.   But He also said, “strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matthew 7:14.

We have to search for that gate.

 The apostle Paul calls that gate a mystery and that it is hidden.  See 1^st. Corinthians 2:6-10, “Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect/mature: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes (theologians) of this world, that come to naught.

  7, But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew: (Satan and his workers) for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

 9, But as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.  But Yahweh hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”

 John 5:25, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is, when the dead (spiritually dead but still walking around) shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.  For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.”  He is talking about giving you and I spiritual life.

 In this verse he is saying that everything is now in place for you to receive eternal life.  The call is going out and the right of discovery will be given to those who hear, to those who are listening and respond to his call.

 Remember Yahshua’s previous statement concerning John the Baptist being equal to the greatest prophet and still the least in the kingdom was greater than John.   What he was saying was that the process for obtaining spiritual life was not yet available for us; that he, himself, was in process and that the process had to be completed in himself before he could extend it on to us and to John.  That process became available for us on

Resurrection day in the Upper Room.  The gateway into the spirit realm was opened in the Upper Room where the process that I call spiritual gestation began in the lives of those who were present; and it continues in others until today.

 Revelation 3:20, “Behold I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come into him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”  This is a personal relationship; the talk goes both ways.

 He is saying the time of discovery is now and I will initiate the discovery process, I will stand at the door of your heart, I will knock at the door of your heart, and I will speak to your spirit; then it is your turn to hear and then discover just how to open that door.

We do not automatically become living sons of God when we receive him into our lives at the Cross.  There is no transfer of life at The Cross.   At The Cross, he says, you have been forgiven, you have been cleansed, you have been redeemed from sin, now you can come to my school and receive instructions.

 This is not learning about Messiah, or about the kingdom of God, this about becoming a part of it.  This is not about carrying a message; it is about becoming that message which is life eternal.

 This is about change, real change.  It is about changing things within your being; you will become aware of a new force within your being that is beyond your control.  It is the process that will change you from a mortal flesh and blood person plagued by a nasty carnal nature into a man of the spirit in the image and likeness of our savior; who walked a very special walk ahead of us and he became a man of spirit.  His statement to us was, “take up your cross and follow me.”  He is talking about following him into the eternal realm.

 At first we are sinners and we meet Christ as our savior at the Cross, then we become sheep and Christ becomes our shepherd, and many of us stay right there contented; then we become a servant, and Christ becomes our master and we follow him in obedience and many of us stay right there; then we become a wife and he becomes our husband.  Romans 7:4, “that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.”  That fruit is more than the fruits of the spirit; it is a new creature, a member of the first fruits company, a man of the spirit.

 Then he meets with you behind closed doors, where he says, Receive ye the Holy Spirit and a new creature starts to develop within your being; and if this new creature is nurtured, schooled, and watered by the Holy Spirit it will ultimately develop into a copy of it’s father, our Messiah, and you shall become as he is.  You will note the development of some of the fruits of the spirit but those are by-products of the development of the spirit man.

 Accepting Messiah for what he did on the Cross; and we all agree that he did it; and then we come to the understanding that Yahshua yielded to the will of Yahweh who did it to him and through him, and when our turn comes we will yield to that same will.

 Accepting Messiah for what he did on the Cross- is as far as most preachers, teachers and Christians go; they respond to the message preached by John the Baptist and by Peter, repent and be baptized every one of you for the remission of sins.

 And this is a very necessary first step.  We go that far and unload our burden of sins and feel so relieved that we think that we have arrived, and most preachers will tell us that we have arrived when actually we have only returned to the starting gate.

 At The Cross we receive reconciliation, forgiveness, we confess our sins and are washed clean in that sin cleansing flood.  Then if we have sufficient faith we are justified by faith and try to live good clean lives before our God.

 This is all very necessary and even though we have found a degree of peace in our spirits we have not as yet received life.

 Believing is not enough for obtaining spiritual life this side of the grave.  There are two classes of true believers; those who believe and work at it and lead good righteous lives, and those who believe and have received the seed of life and are processing it this side of the grave.

John 11:25, Preachers take this verse and apply it to the natural and use the first half of it at funerals and throw the other half away because they do not know what to do with it.    It has nothing to do with natural life or natural death; it is all about entering into the spiritual realm. 

 John 11:25, “Jesus saith unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: (spiritual life) he that believeth in me, though he were dead, (spiritually dead but still walking around) yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth (present tense) and believeth in me shall never die, believest thou this.” 

 Notice that this one sentence describes two different true believers; they have both been to the Cross and have been forgiven, reconciled and washed clean in the blood of the Lamb; number 1 believes; but is still spiritually dead and is walking around with a promise that at some time in the future he/she will receive eternal life, very possibly at the marriage of the Lamb.  The other believer has already received the seed of life and that seed is being processed within his/her being here on this side of the grave.  They will both go into the grave and on resurrection day the living one will be birthed into the spirit realm as a spirit man conformed to the image of Messiah; while the other believer is still looking for a marriage encounter.

 Receiving spiritual life now is an all-new and different discovery channel that starts with developing a personal relationship in the spirit.  The resurrected Christ is a spirit being and we have to develop a close personal relationship in the spirit with him.

 1 Timothy 2:5, “ For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus.”  He is a man, a man of the spirit walking in and out of the spirit realm and one day he will judge the world in righteousness.  See Job daysman

 See Acts 17:30,”Because he (Yahweh) hath appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man (that spirit man) whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.”  Christ is judging his firstfruits now, and he will judge the others later.  If you are in the first fruits company you are under his judgment now.

 When you first meet him in the spirit he will tell you wonderful things and make blessed promises to you, and you will think that you have arrived.  Then later he will search your heart and plant the seed of life in a very special meeting, and then you will feel surely you have arrived.  I have always been intrigued by Mary’s statement concerning her experience when the Holy Spirit overshadowed her.  See Luke 1:49, “For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.”  That was an unforgettable experience. 

 After the seed is planted then he will start the perfecting process and you will then realize that you have not arrived, but instead you have been enrolled into a survival boot camp where only over-comers can survive.  You will have to give up your own will and accept his will.

 During this perfecting process you will remember all of those promises that he made and the blessed things that he told you during the night hours; and you will repeat them over and over to yourself to strengthen your faith because now he is running a boot camp for over-comers and he is a top sergeant who demands perfection.  His commands can be sharp and his rebukes very pointed as he presents you with trials and furnaces of affliction that will make you a vessel perfectly fitted for the masters use.  The furnaces of affliction will force you to seek his face on your knees in tears; this always causes you to love him more.  It is a spontaneous reaction, he drives you into him bosom and you feel his love and it makes you love him more.

 Every time he crushes you and makes you cry great tears he is really opening your understanding in the discovery mode.

 Now we say, “In him we live and move and have our being”.  When we live in him we still identify with ourselves; but when we identify with him.  When he comes into us, he comes in like a flood, a river of love that floods our entire being and we feel like a woman who has been properly loved.  You will cherish that feeling long after the event.

I would love to tell you about the graduation celebration from his boot camp but I cannot, as I have never been there and I have not arrived; I can only tell you about how the furnace of affliction can make you love him more.

Now we say, "In Him we live and move and have our being".  When we live in Him we still identify with ourselves; but when He lives in us we identify with Him.

Blessings, 

D.K.
 

October 9, 2001, Tabernacles