Manifesting God's Life

Manifesting God's Life

by catcmo2006: A Servant Of God

In this teaching I want to share with you some insight that God has shared with me, concerning the purpose of man in the earth, which is to manifest the life of God, that is, to make our invisible God, visible. God placed man here for that purpose. If man does not fulfill that destiny, then he does not fulfill the purpose for which he was placed in the earth . . . Man’s destiny is to manifest the life of God in the earth.

Let’s just ask God to open the eyes of our understanding . . .

Lord . . . as Paul prayed in Ephesians, we implore you to open the eyes of our understanding that we might know, Lord, the hope of your calling, the tremendous principle that you have set before us. This is the mystery hidden from past ages, yet revealed in the end times. And that mystery is that you have placed your life within your creation in order that your creation might be able to see you. Make it real to us, in Jesus name. Amen.

• THE IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE

Okay, I hope you have your Bible as we go through this teaching. The first idea that I want to set forth presents the most astonishing paradox that I have ever seen in the Scriptures. It seems to be a contradiction in terms, but it’s very exciting.

First let’s look in 1^st Timothy chapter 1 verse 17. It says: “Now to the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God be all the glory forever and ever, Amen”. This verse is a proclamation which states that God is invisible. Realizing that God is invisible is absolutely mandatory in order for you to understand what is being said in this teaching.

Then in the Gospel of John 1:18, it says “No one has ever seen God but God the only son who is at the Father’s side has declared him (or made him known).” Then in 1^st John, this fact is stated again. In 1^st John 4:12 we read “No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.”

So far we have seen very clearly in the word that God is invisible. If he’s invisible, then he can’t be seen. Therefore, it would be proper to say that no one has ever seen him, and that’s what it says here in the Gospel of John and in John’s first epistle.

In 1^st John chapter 4, what is being spoken of is how that we need to love one another, and starting in verse 7 we read “dear friends, let us love one another for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love, does not know God because God is love”.

That’s what this passage is about, loving God. And if you don’t love, then you don’t know God because God is love. Now look at verse 9 “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.”

This is how God showed His love among us; He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Now notice verse 11 and 12, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. “

What is being said here is that since God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. But please take note of this. No one has ever seen God, however, if we love each other, then God lives in us and His love is made manifested in us.

Now, we’ve seen that God is not visible. However, we’ve seen that although He is not visible and has never been seen at any time, Jesus the Son declared Him or made Him known.

There has been a great deal of teaching by others on manifesting the life of God. In this teaching I have to share with you about our hand that is the object of this lesson for us in seeing what God means for us to see within us and to understand it,the whole object was to be like a glove: that is, we’re the glove, and He’s the hand. When the hand moves, the glove moves. So the glove in a sense manifests the life of the hand.

Okay, now, Jesus manifested the life of the Father, and made Him known, so that people could see the Father, although God is not visible.

But what does it say about Jesus? Let’s look in Colossians 1:15 at one of the most amazing statements that appears to be a contradiction in terms. There are no contradictions in the Bible, but it seems like one. In Colossians 1:15 and the verses that follow, Paul is speaking about the supremacy of Christ above everything, and he says about Christ - and just think about this - that “He is the image of the invisible God” . . .

Now, Selah! In Psalms when you see the word Selah, it means pause and think about it. This would be a good place to Selah. He is the image of the invisible God. Well, if something is invisible, it doesn’t have an image, it doesn’t have a likeness, that’s what invisible means, at least that’s the way we think of the word ‘invisible’, right? Yet Jesus is declared to be the image of the invisible God. So His purpose on the earth, among other things, was: 1) to make God visible, 2) to be the firstborn among many brethren in order that 3) He would bring forth a body of people who would make the life of God visible in the earth.

So now we have seen that God is invisible. He cannot be seen. And even though he cannot be seen, Jesus is stated to be the image of Him who is the invisible God. Therefore His purpose, among other things, was to make God seen. And in His ministry you recall how that when Thomas says, show us the father, Jesus said, in effect, I’ve been showing you the father as I’ve walked among you for three years. That’s what I’ve been doing. When you see me, you see the father, for I have been declaring him, I’ve been making him known. I have been allowing you to see what the invisible God looks like.

Okay, now. Back to the Scriptures . . .

It says in Colossians 2, verses 9 and 10: for in Christ all the fullness of the Deity or the Godhead lives in bodily form. We have received Christ, not part of Christ but the fullness of Christ. In Ephesians 1:23 we are told that the church, His body, is the fullness of Him.

Now think about this. What we have stated so far are things that seem to be contradictory because we see that God is invisible, yet Jesus is the image of the invisible God. I don’t know about you, but that’s enough to bring a giant question mark to your mind.

Since God is invisible and, therefore, cannot be seen, and yet Jesus is stated to be the image of that invisible God, then this brings up a big question: How can something that is invisible be seen? But that is just what Jesus did – He made God to be seen. That is the way He was described, as the image of the invisible God. Now, the Scripture says that in Christ dwelled all the fullness of God, this invisible God we’re talking about, the God who cannot be seen.

Can we take hold of this and grasp its significance? God’s plan is to place within man the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Christ) in order that God can be manifested in the earth.

It should be noted that even though people talk about being Spirit-filled, you can’t be Spirit-filled without being Father filled and Son filled. That is because God is a Trinity. You can’t separate the Spirit from the Father or from the Son. God is one God, we don’t have three Gods. We don’t have the Spirit here, the Father there and the Son somewhere else. It may seem that way as we read the Gospels, but these must be understood in the light of the Trinity.

We are not polytheists as the Muslims accuse us. We don’t worship three Gods, we worship one God; one God, manifested in three persons. That’s the Trinity. Nobody can understand it. We don’t need to understand it. But we do accept the Trinity as a fact and it is incomprehensible to our minds.

However, it must be realized that when you receive the fullness of the Spirit, you receive the fullness of the Father and the fullness of the Son. For in Christ the fullness of the Godhead dwells, and it says in verse 10 of chapter 2 of Colossians (NIV), “…and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.” We do not receive a part of Christ; we receive the fullness of Christ.

• THE INVISIBLE GOD CREATES A VISIBLE UNIVERSE

Before the worlds were framed, God existed, He always existed. There never was a time when God did not exist. God is from everlasting to everlasting.

Before the galaxies were thrown out across empty space, before the earth was made, before anything was made, there was God. And He was invisible. Well, that makes sense because there was nothing for Him to be visible to.

But now God creates the visible universe, the visible galaxies. He creates the galaxies and the galaxies of galaxies. We cannot even begin to understand the vastness. Astronomers now are talking about universes of universes. They are now discovering way out beyond our universe, other universes, and universes of universes.

The scope of what God has spread out across space and time, what He has made, is astonishing. And all of this is the visible universe, that is just now becoming visible to astronomers, although it has always been visible.

So, we have an invisible God, who has created a visible universe, then in the middle of that visible universe, He created our solar system, our sun and our earth. It was upon this earth that His objective was to play out in the fullness of time an incredible drama.

On the earth He creates an atmosphere where animals and people can live. We read about this in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. He creates all of the living things in the world, the animals, the birds, the fish and so forth.

All through chapter 1 you find, “and God said . . .”

ü let there be light,

ü let there be an expanse between the waters,

ü let the waters under the sky be gathered into one place,

ü let there be lights in the expanse of the sky, the sun and the moon.

Furthermore, God said, let the water teem with living creatures. And God said, let the land produce living creatures.

All through chapter 1, this invisible God creates a visible universe and a visible earth filled with visible creatures, to which He is invisible. Although He created them, He cannot be seen by them.

Then in verse 27 we find one of the most powerful things that I have ever read - “. . . and God created man in His own image. . .” Now think about this for a moment. He doesn’t have a material image. We just finished reading that He is invisible. If something is invisible it doesn’t have an image, it doesn’t have a likeness in the sense that we normally use those words.

In chapter 5 the same statement is made again. When God created man, He made him in the likeness of Himself. Well now, again, if God is invisible, He doesn’t have a likeness, He doesn’t have an image. Yet we know that this is the word of God we’re reading here, it’s all true. And so, obviously our minds find it difficult to understand how an invisible God can have an image or a likeness. But we’re beginning to see a great mystery here.

I find all of this tremendously interesting. Jesus is the image of the invisible God. But how does anything that is invisible have an image? The Bible says no one has seen Him at any time, but Jesus has revealed Him, manifested Him, made Him known.

Okay, now notice what chapter 11 of Hebrews says about Moses. Let’s begin with verse 25, reading from the NIV. The Word is talking about Moses saying that he chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Then, in verses 26 and 27, we read that he regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ of greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead for his reward. Then we read, by faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. But now look what is also says about Moses. “He persevered because he saw Him who is invisible”.

Isn’t that an interesting statement? He saw Him who is invisible. Now what’s going on here? Is He visible or invisible?

If He’s invisible, how did Moses see Him?

If He’s invisible, how did He create man in His image and in His likeness if He doesn’t have an image or a likeness?

Don’t you find this tremendously thrilling . . . “the image of the invisible? This seems to be a contradiction in ideas for our finite minds. It is something which we find very difficult to grasp. But if we can somehow lay hold of this, we are going to be able to see some clarification on what the manifestation of the life of God in the earth is all about.

So then, since Moses saw God who is invisible, then there must be some way, some dimension, some paradigm in which the invisible can become visible. And this is what we want to focus on in this teaching.

All right, now, God is not visible, no one has seen Him at any time yet Christ has made him known (declared Him).

Jesus is the image of the invisible God. In Jesus is all the fullness of the Godhead, and we have the fullness of the Godhead in us for we’ve received the fullness of Christ. Because when we received Christ, we did not receive part of Him but all of Him.

At this point, we are beginning to see the progression . . .

Moses saw God who is invisible.

Then we see that man was created in the image of God although God is invisible and therefore doesn’t have an image.

I realize that I am being repetitive. I am doing so on purpose in order to emphasize this incredible idea that no natural mind can even begin to understand. It must be revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.

• The Great Mystery

So, look back in chapter 1 of Colossians again. When you read this chapter, as you get down to about the 24^th verse, Paul begins speaking about what he calls a great mystery. Then he makes reference to this “mystery” from verse 24 towards the end of the chapter. Further, he says in verse 25 and following, that he had been given the stewardship over this idea that he calls ‘a mystery’.

Now what is a mystery? A mystery is something that is not known or understood. I would call it a mystery as to how you can have an invisible God, who has a likeness or an image. That’s mysterious.

I would call it a mystery how that no one has ever seen God at any time, yet it says about Moses that he saw God who is invisible. Isn’t that mysterious?

Now Paul in speaking about this mystery says that it had been hidden from ages past. That means back in the ages of the Old Testament. Peter says in 1 Peter 1:10-12 that way back then the prophets, and even the angels, wanted to look into some of these things. Furthermore the Word says regarding Paul, that the mystery, which was hidden from ages past and was being revealed in his day, that this mystery has to do with what Paul called “the glory” . . .

“To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Col. 1:27 (NKJV)

Now let’s think about the glory for a moment.

There is a difference between the glory of a thing and the thing itself. For a case in point consider patriotism. This is an idea or a principle. It is a thing.

The manifestation of that thing might be parades on the 4^th of July with drums beating and bands playing. With these you have the glory, the manifestation of the thing that we call patriotism. You see this in the parade, when all the guys put on their soldier suits and march down the street and all that. These outward manifestations are not the thing we call patriotism, but are a manifestation of it.

A better example might be plant life. The plant is the thing, but the flowers that blossom in all of their beauty would be the glory of that plant life. So there’s a difference between the life of a thing and the manifestation of that life. The life is not visible. You can take a plant and tear it open, and get down there in the very depth of it, and dissect it. But, tear it all apart all you like, you still cannot show me the life. Point that out to me if you will. Where is the life? You see, you can’t see the life because it is invisible, but you can see the glory or the manifestation of the life in the plant through its glorious blossoms, its fragrance, and possibly its fruit. So then, there’s a difference between the thing and the manifestation of that thing.

Paul in this section is talking about a great mystery. Let us go back to the creation where God just spewed out the galaxies by his breath. He simply breathed them out. He said “let there be”, and there was . . . life on the earth, seas teeming with life, the land teeming with life. This is His visible creation . . .

• But who is going to rule it?

Well, the only one who has the right to be a ruler over all of that creation would be the one that created it. Isn’t that true? Wouldn’t that be fair?

No one else really has the right to be the ruler - to be the king - other than the one who created it.

God has a sovereign right to be the king because He created it.

The problem of it is, He makes this vast creation; but the creation can’t see Him - because He is invisible. And how, then, is He going to rule over the creation when the creation can’t see Him?

So this brings us to the reason why He created man and to the heart of this teaching.

We see that God creates man, and there are two things about man that are notable in chapter 1 of Genesis. First, He tells man to have dominion over the creation that He has made. He says to Adam, rule over the fish and the birds and the animals, the plant life. But second, although man is to rule, he does not rule by a sovereign right, for only God has the sovereign right to rule. Man rules by delegated authority. Man’s authority is delegated to him by God. That is, God says to man, “You are to represent me. You are to rule in My name, on behalf of Me”.

So He creates man in His own image. Furthermore, God gives to Adam the unique privilege to choose to be joined to God. The angels, who were created spirits, were not given this privilege. He creates man as a spirit, with the ability to choose, just as God is Spirit with the ability to choose. God did this so that He could fellowship with man, but more, so that man could properly represent Him. Of all the created beings, only man is like this.

That is to say, He made man so that man could be the visible image of the invisible God, in order that the creation could see what God is like. So, the purpose for making Adam was different from the purpose for making all of the animals, the birds, and the fish and so forth. It was different from God’s purpose for creating angels. The purpose was that Adam, who was in God’s image, could allow the creation to see God!

The creation could see Adam. He gave the animals their names, He ruled over them. But he ruled over them by allowing the life of God that was in him to be manifested to the creation. So the manifestation of God’s life is what this dominion is all about.

But then comes the tragedy of the fall. Man gave away his authority and his dominion. He turned it over to Lucifer the rebel, the arch-enemy of God. In order to remedy this, the Bible declares that in the fullness of time God sends another Adam, the second man, the last Adam. Jesus is called the second man; he’s called the last Adam. (1^st Cor. 15:45, 47)

Although He was God He came to be a man, fully man, but a man in total dependence upon God. This is what the first Adam might have been, a man in total dependence upon God.

He could have been a container of God’s life and allow that life to be manifested in the earth. That is what the first Adam was supposed to have done. So now we get down to the essence of . . .

• What Christianity is all about

What are we here for? What is our purpose on this earth? There are untold thousands of people in this world that do not have the foggiest notion of what it’s all about.

What is it all about? What are we here for? Is there a purpose? Do I have a purpose?

Most people kind of muddle through life with no sense of purpose or direction, wondering, what am I here for, what am I doing?

But the purpose that God put man here for is that man was destined to be a container of God’s life, a habitation for the Presence of the Lord. Man was to receive eternal life. Eternal life is not related to time, for eternity doesn’t have time, eternity doesn’t just mean a long time. Eternal is the quality of the life, not a description of the length of the life.

God is called the eternal God, the eternal Spirit, the ancient of days. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. God is the Eternal one. Therefore, when you talk about eternal life, you talk about a quality of life. God’s life.

We receive Life from God when he breathes into us. On the first occurrence of His manifestation to the disciples after the crucifixion, Jesus appeared in a closed room where they were, and He said, “Peace be unto you.” And it says that He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

He breathed upon them; and that is exactly what God did to Adam. He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and Man became a living being. He became a living being who was a spirit.

The whole idea of Christianity is that man is to receive the Eternal Life of God. Why? Just so we can be happy and blessed and go to church and do church things? No. Why then? It is because the whole creation out there is in the “bondage of corruption.” It is waiting for God’s sons to come into the full manifestation of God’s Eternal Life so that the whole creation may be delivered into the glorious liberty of the Children of God.

Liberty is freedom! It is freedom from decay, from corruption, freedom from bondage!

• God’s Purpose

I’m going to close out this teaching by picking up on the previous thought by going to Romans chapter 8. I believe that this will tie it all together. By the way, there was a part in Colossians that we didn’t read when we talked about the mystery that was revealed in Paul’s time. This is the part where Paul said that God had made him a steward of the mystery. He said the mystery is this: that Christ is in you, and that’s the hope of the glory.

The glory that he is talking about is the manifestation of God’s Life. The whole creation groans and travails for the glory to come forth and radiate that Life and rule over the creation.

Jesus 2000 years ago fulfilled this in seed form. They tried to take Him and make Him a king, to sit on a throne on this earth, and He would have no part of that. That is because He was destined to be the firstborn among many brethren.

He was destined to be a seed planted in the earth so that out of the earth would come forth his ecclesia, His church, this glorious body of believers that would be filled with all the fullness of Christ, who is the fullness of the Godhead, in order that the Church can manifest the Eternal Life of God. Then this universe, which is in decay and corruption, will have a visible ruler who is the image of the invisible God. We read about this in Romans chapter 8, verse 18. Paul says, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

Let’s think about that verse. Paul was going through tremendous sufferings. But he says that those sufferings are not worth being compared to the glory that is going to be revealed in us. Not to us, but in us. The glory is to be revealed. A revealing is an outward thing, yet the revealing of the glory is in us. And he goes on to say in verse 19, “For the creation . . . waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.” That is, for the sons of God to come into the revelation of who they are. All creation groans and travails. It goes on to say that “the creation was made subject to bondage”.

When was the creation made subject to bondage? When Adam fell, God cursed the serpent, God cursed the woman, and God cursed the earth. The curse was upon the earth because Adam sinned. God said to Adam “Because you sinned I curse the ground, and no more will it just bring forth fruit easily, but you will have to till it and by the sweat of your brow will you bring it forth”.

And so there is a curse upon the creation, and the creation brings forth weeds, and briars, and thorns, and thistles, and deserts, and it tends to corruption. If you just turn it lose and let it go, it will tend towards corruption and decay, it will not tend towards production and beautification.

But the whole creation groans and travails for God’s sons to come into the full manifestation of the Eternal Life of God that is within them. So now, can you see the idea of what God’s redemption is about?

God is not visible, yet He made a visible creation over which only He could be the rightful king. But He has delegated that kingship to man, whom He created in His image, to be His representative ruler. That means that man who is visible, can contain the invisible Life, the very Life of God, that invisible, glorious, marvelous, wonderful, Eternal Life that is God’s own life.

You were not born again of corruptible seed but of incorruptible seed, not by the will of man, but by the will of God (1 Peter 1:23). We have received God’s own life. We have received the fullness of Christ and now God has a means whereby He can bring forth a body of people upon the earth to show forth His life.

In this way His purpose from eternity will be fulfilled. For it was from eternity that the lamb was slain. From the foundations of the world God saw the fall of man, and the lamb was slain in the mind and heart of God, so that at the end of the day He could bring forth the man, the corporate, many-membered man, who would be filled with the life of God - the corporate man who would manifest that life. That’s your destiny.

The fact that you are reading this message indicates that God has been making these truths real to you. There may be just a few people through whom God is going to shout this message. God will proclaim this word to every ear that can hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. He is going to make known that He intends to bring forth His life in the earth until His Life fills all the earth. “. . . For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:9 NKJV)

You don’t receive God’s Life just so that you can go to heaven when you die. You don’t receive that Life just so that you can get healed when you’re sick, You don’t receive that Life just so that you can get this, and get that, and get something else.

All that may be wonderful. I’m glad I am saved and don’t have to go to hell. I’m glad I can make heaven my home. I’m glad I can get healed if I am sick; that is all wonderful. However, that is not the primary idea. It might seem very important when you’re really sick to get healed, but it is not central.

God’s idea is to bring forth a corporate body of believers that will contain His life in order that this body of believers, as one man, as one corporate, many-membered man, will be able to do what the first Adam did not do. That is to manifest the incorruptible, uncreated, Holy, Eternal Life of God and take dominion over the creation

In the closing days of this age, God is bringing forth that corporate, many-membered Adam to manifest His Life and deliver this creation from the bondage of corruption. The whole creation groans and travails for God’s sons to come into full manifestation in order that they, going forth in this earth during a millennial reign, can speak the creative word of God and bring forth life in all of the creation. . . life from the trees, life from the flowers, life from the animals, because only Life can call forth life.

The full teaching from the resurrection story proclaims to us God’s ultimate resurrection. This is when the corporate Christ that is within us in prenatal form, in a form that’s growing within the womb of the church, ultimately will be birthed. The water of the Word will break and the birthing will come forth. That is, the birthing of this corporate man whose destiny is to rule the nations with a rod of iron. Is that not exciting?

That’s what Christianity is all about, and that’s what God’s teachers who are bringing this end-time, third-day message are saying. If you are not fulfilling the purpose of manifesting Christ’s life, you are not fulfilling the reason and the purpose for your life in the earth.

You are on this earth for one reason and one reason only. Everything else is marginal. The job that you go to, the work that you do, the things that you are involved in, as important as they might be, they are important only in a peripheral sense, but the heart of the matter is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Hallelujah!

Let us pray: Our father, as we bow before you we praise your name, Lord, for we feel the excitement of such potential. O Lord, we live in a world that has been decaying and deteriorating for decades, for centuries, for millennia, going from bad to worse. And yet we know that there is a cry coming from the creation, groaning and travailing for your Life, which you have planted within your people to call forth a deliverance of the captives, to set the captives free. Lord, we can’t set anyone free until you set us free. You began to set us free the moment, Lord, that you bought our liberty with your death on the cross, your resurrection, and your ascension. On the cross you started this work and, according to your Word, you who have started a work, will complete it. Set us free. Everything within us cries out to be free, totally free, so that we can speak the word of freedom to this whole world and this whole creation. Let it be! Make it so! In the Name of Jesus.

LET IT RISE
Holland Davis


Let the glory of the Lord, rise among us, let the glory of the Lord, rise among us.
    
Let the praises of the King rise among us,
    
Let it rise.

Let the songs of the Lord, rise among us, let the songs of the Lord, rise among us.
      
Let the joy of the King, rise among us,
     
Let it rise.


Oh - oh - oh, let it rise.

Oh - oh - oh, let it rise.

repeat above 1X



repeat above 1X

(c) 1997 Maranatha Music