Christification Pt. 2

[Music] Thank you for listening to this message from Damon Thompson Ministries. [Music] Let's kind of talk about where we left off yesterday and we're going to dive more deeply into this crispification idea. But I want to start with the three things or three categories and maybe this could be a little bit of a pop quiz for you. I said pop quiz and Bryce just broke out sweat just bent and formed the bottom of his lip. So a little bit of a pop quiz and that is I talked to you about the reason man exists, the purpose of man's existence. You remember this from a couple of weeks ago? The reason man exists, the purpose of man's existence and the outworking of both reason and purpose. So the reason it's important to review that is because we're going to go a lot more deeply into those things conceptually today. So again, the reason man exists is to dwell in the rest of our atrocity that we could use the word abide. Mino is a fixed state position of joint participation. So again, a fixed state position of joint participation. This is the word that the apostle John uses continually throughout the gospel of John specifically in John 15 where he says, "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you can ask what you will." He talks about the vine and the branches and the importance of abiding or remaining again in a fixed state of joint participation. Dr. Toil would translate that word, go on to translate that word in the Mirror Study Bible as seamless union. Seamless union. So we're going to talk again about the reason we exist is to dwell in the rest of the property of perfect love. To dwell in a reciprocal cycle of giving and receiving perfect love. That's your reason. Now, the purpose for your existence is christification. The purpose of your existence is for you to move into your prehorizant intention which is to be conformed some more foes into the image icon of the weas of the Son of God. Jesus being the archetype. Jesus being the ultimate pattern of what existence is supposed to look like. And we're now coming to understand, and this is where we'll dive a little bit more deeply today. We're beginning to understand not just what we were saved from peril, but what we were saved for christification. So that's a general overview of the reason and the purpose. Now, the outworking of reason and purpose is so that the kingdoms of this world would become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ so that the knowledge of the glory of God would cover the earth as the waters do cover the sea. And I will go on to add this as well until we see the realization of the prayer we've been praying for 2,000 years, which is your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as in heaven. The kingdom of God and the will of God to rule earth the way the kingdom of God and the will of God currently rule heaven is going to be the outworking of reason and purpose. And I'll say this that it will not be God's reason and God's purpose that brings about the fulfillment of the prayer on earth as it is in heaven. It'll be you and I operating the fullness of our reason and purpose which will then qualify through the the declaration of Acts 3 that once we have reached a state where we have repented and been converted sins being blotted out, then Jesus who has been held in heaven until apocotostasis the restoration of all things is then released to come and deal with according to 1 Corinthians the last enemy that is death. Are you getting the general overview of this? So again, let's think about it. The reason you exist is to dwell in the reciprocity of perfect love. The purpose of your existence is crispification that you have predestined to morph into the image of the archetype, the ultimate pattern, the first born son, the outworking of reason and purpose then being this idea that you and I have been predestined to be conformed into the image of his son. Those he did for no, he did predestinate to be conformed into the image of his son that he might become the archetype, the first born among many brethren. Jesus is not just a son of God, he's the first born pattern son of God and until you and I get as acquainted with the pattern as we were designed to be acquainted with the pattern, we'll keep copying substitutes and we may become successful Christians but we'll never become the manifestation of the image and likeness of Christ. And Romans 8 is not waiting for the unveiling of the church and it's not waiting for the unveiling of Christians. Romans 8 is waiting on the unveiling of the sons, the weas, the fully mature sons who now carry the image and likeness of the Father. Remember that Jesus got in trouble with the Pharisees when he called himself God's son. Why? Because in their world to call yourself son was to make yourself like the Father. In their world you would go on to say it would be to make yourself equal to the Father. What Jesus was equal to the Father because he was consubstantial, right? We learned this. This is a homo-usius that Jesus is co-equal and consubstantial with the Father. Now what we'll talk about a little bit further today is the hypostatic union, the hypostatic union meaning that Jesus was fully God while at the same time being fully man. That is important because it is our gateway to Christification. Jesus was not just the expression of the image of the Father. Jesus, now listen to this, Jesus was the expression of what it meant in God's eyes to be fully human. And God's eyes, what it meant to be fully human, is imaged in Jesus. Now we've learned, and this is important, you can't overstate it, we've learned that you can't see the Father without seeing Jesus. Not ultimately, you may have theophonies, you may have moments where you go through the Old Testament and people were able to envision the Father and what we would call a theophony, but that's not the same thing as the incarnation of the Word of God. The ultimate expression of God is revealed in Jesus. How many of you are coming to believe that? If you've seen me, you've seen the Father and Him dwells the fullness of the God head bodily, He is the express image of the Father. We're coming to believe that. He also imaged forth exactly what a human being is supposed to look like when he doesn't buy into the assumption of separation. Shazam. He also imaged forth exactly what a human being is supposed to look like if that human being succeeds in not falling into the assumption of separation. Jesus never believed the life separation. He took the life separation to the bottom of the abyss when he's in the garden of Gethsemane and comes out on the other side, not declaring my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, declaring, "Aaba into your hands, I commit my spirit." What is that? That's a successful trip to the bottom where he never came into agreement with Adam's delusion. He felt the fullness of Adam's assumption of separation, but refused to buy into Adam's lie and assumption of separation. Therefore, he was able to redeem the human race, watch this, and see us at the right hand of the Father. It's not simply the Son of God seated at the right hand of the Father. When Steven is being stoned, he sees the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the Father. So Jesus is there at the right hand of the Father still manifesting. This is big, Hippostatic Union. He's at the right hand of the Father, fully God, and at the right hand of the Father, fully man. How do you know this? When Daniel looks into the heavens and sees the ancient of days, there he finds the Son of Man. It was always in God's will. T.F. Torrance would say it like this. It was always in the will of God for Jesus to represent vicariously all of humanity. So he would call this the vicarious humanity of Jesus. If you want to go deeper into some of these thoughts, T.F. Torrance, J.B. Torrance, these are the two sentinel minds that help frame minds like Baxter Kruger and many other ones from Scotland. They were highly influenced by my name, George McDonnell. If you're looking for a book list, I know every time I say books, Amazon Box shows up at my house for Spencer orders every book that we list and then he gets delivered to the house and he goes and reads it in my yard in a camp chair with no shirt on. That's what that's kind of what our life looks like at this point. So when we begin to understand that Jesus represents humanity at the right hand of the Father, back in redeemed innocence, we now know that our mediation between humanity and God is no longer Adam. The mediation between humanity and God is now Jesus Christ. How do you know that? The New Testament teaches us that we have one mediator between God and man and that mediator is the Lord Christ Jesus. How many mediators do we have? If we have one, we don't have, if we have Jesus, we don't have Adam. But the hyper legalistic evangelical world in the West has kept Adam in position, Jesus, dethroned him from. That's why it was the title of Baxter's book, Jesus and the undoing of Adam is genius all by itself because we recognize that Jesus did not just come to give you some blood that could be applied to your life so that you could go into heaven and not hell. What Jesus came to do, listen to this, is reconstitute the human race in himself. He reconstituted He instituted the human race in Himself. And He said, "I am going to come create not just blood for them to be saved, I'm going to come create a new line for them to descend from." That's why the genealogies are not wasted times at the beginning of two synoptic gospels. Matthew's not wasting his time when he says there were 14 generations from here to here, 14 generations from here to here, 14 generations from here to here. Why does all of that matter? First of all, it's a pattern of 3/14 which makes six sevens which is a pointer towards Jubilee. That He's literally coming in the series of sevens to show us that He's moving us into the ultimate Jubilee. A Jubilee that Jesus declares is not just accessible for Israel, but it's accessible for all of the human race. There goes my glasses. It's accessible for all of the human race. And when we come to an understanding of that, we begin to understand that what we're doing, watch this, in our joint participation in union, in our worship, in our abiding in the reciprocity of perfect love, we are doing way more than trying to become morally superior creatures. We're trying to become Christlike because moral superiority has historically led to fairsackel thinking. Now I want to be morally perfect in the eyes of God. That's a longing of my heart. However, I used to aim at that and not have a necessary revelation of Jesus. Would you all say that's true for yourself? I aimed at holiness as if it was the goal and missed the Holy One being revealed to me by the Holy Spirit and then saying, "That's the pattern I'm after right there. I'm going to consume the Lamb." And so we talked a little bit of Friday night and we mentioned it a little bit again yesterday about how we have to make the shift from simply beholding being the means of becoming to beholding being the gateway to consumption. And that's a word we're going to use a little bit today. That beholding is a gateway to consuming. Once you've begun to behold him to the point that you're fascinated, you're going to want to desire more. It's built in you to desire more than a view. It's built in you to desire an engagement that leads to an intimacy that begins to ultimately lead to reproduction. Y'all hanging? All right, is this okay? This is going to help you. So let's look at two Greek words we've been looking at for saved and then we're going to add the Hebrew today as an additional. So you could do this on your pop quiz too. The Greek verb for saved, sozo. The Greek noun for saved, soya. The verb for saved, sozo, the noun for saved is soya. The verb again, sozo means to rescue from great peril and to heal until one is ultimately made whole. A healing that is unto wholeness. The picture I would give to that to use of the ten lepers. Nine were healed, one was made whole. How did nine get healed and only one made whole? One returned back to the patterned son and began to worship at the feet of Jesus which is more than receiving healing. And I'm going into the ten lepers story right now and I'm going to do probably a several week series where I'm looking at the ten lepers story to get a picture of how to help people understand the difference between sozo and soya. But also to understand the difference between our Western definition of saved and a biblical definition of what it means to be saved because you would say all nine were saved but I would say one got really saved because his illness led to wholeness. And many are given the blood, they're given the breakthrough, they're given the healing and they take that as if they've received the whole package and they miss that what you got when he touched you was an invitation, not a period. The touch of God is an invitation into a lifestyle and one of them engaged in the lifestyle while the other nine went about enjoying the breakthrough and we're going to help bring you into a revelation of what the engagement is supposed to look like so that you cannot settle for something short of your purpose. Your purpose is not to hold a microphone because very few people holding those look like Jesus. Your purpose is not a stage, that might be a way in which you help bring others into their purpose but your purpose, understand this, is to be transformed through communion into the image and likeness of Almighty God until we could come into agreement with Peter's statement that you and I are a holy nation where a royal priesthood, where a peculiar people, there a chosen generation and what are we called to do? Show forth the glorious wonders of God. You are glorious wonder number one. The glorious wonder of God through you will not just be the people that are healed, it'll be you becoming whole. God's aim for you as wholeness and the love of God will aim judgment at anything in your life that is not of love's kind. That's why love works. Love, when love comes after something, first of all understand that I invite the judgments of God because they are aspects of his love. God, a father chastises the ones that he loves. I invite that discipline because that discipline is unto me becoming as whole as he designed me to be. That's the only reason I've ever disciplined my children. That's not true. Early in their life before I was fully rooted in this revelation, sometimes I discipline my children because I wanted them to make me look good in public. I repent to the two of them and here I only got two of them but but they all because earlier in their life, sometimes wanted them to conform to an ideal because of how it reflected on me. That's not how an authentic father does things. An authentic father only brings discipline so that it helps them move into the fullness of what it is that they've been designed to be and do in the earth. So I've repented and made those changes and believe God will even redeem the time and the mistakes I made by trying to get my kids to conform because I didn't know how to open myself up until we could connect. Now we're getting connected at this stage of life where they want to please me not because of how it makes me look or how it makes them look but because they trust me that I'm in their life to help them become everything that they were designed to be which is in the image and likeness of Jesus. Christification. So again, the verb that we're using for saved is so Zoda means to rescue from great peril and to heal ultimately unto a state of wholeness. The noun which is so terria and this is important. Let me get, I want to make sure I get this right. I would say that for me so terry, so terrio which we get the word so teriology for our doctrine of salvation. I would say that it is a comprehensive rescue brought about by way of the outworking of the intention of Jesus for our life. So why is it a noun because it's a comprehensive, why is it a noun? It's a comprehensive rescue. What is a noun is a person, place, thing or idea. It's a difference between a verb. So we're saving the ring from being thrown, right? But we've saved the ring for another occasion, both mean the ring hasn't been saved and both concepts are present within that story of those 10 lepers. The heart of God was for all 10 to come into a place of wholeness. How many of you see that expectation in Jesus' response? Were there not 10 healed like he didn't know? But he's saying in essence he wants to know where are the other nine? What are the other nine doing? Because my anticipation was when they recognized they had been saved from leprosy, they would then want to engage in a level of intimacy with the one who had rescued them from leprosy. But I found out not everybody wants to engage with the rescuer, meaning just want to be rescued. And that's why we've settled for the blood on the doorpost and we've not moved into the consumption that's necessary for us to fulfill the invitation unless you eat my flesh and you drink my blood you have no part with me. Does that mean the other ones weren't saved? Does that mean the other ones weren't fed? Does that mean the other nine weren't healed? Does that mean later on the other nine lost their healing though? He's saying is there anybody that wants more than new skin? Is there anybody that wants to eat a heart until you have the right heart and eat the eye until you have the right eye? You go into Exodus 12 and you find this Passover narrative and you find the simple instruction given that there to put the blood of a spotless lamb on the doorpost and of the frame that way the death angel passes by that's all that's told them up regarding the blood. But you go into detailed instructions of what they have to do in order to eat the lamb. You got to find the lamb, you cannot eat the lamb raw, you cannot eat any of the meat that has been boiled. The entire thing has got to be roasted over fire and you've got to roast the head and you've got to roast the feet and you've got to then go in and begin to eat the parts of the lamb that may not be palatable to you. What I've always liked to point out over the years is all of the lamb was intended to be consumed in the presence of fire. Can't be eaten raw and can't be boiled. The hot water and raw is not going to work. It's going to take fire. We need a group of people that have a fiery passionate love for the lamb and the way you get a fiery passionate love for the lamb is stop settling with the idea that you've been touched and turning go back to his feet until you get so obsessed with him you have to have more. don't believe in long engagements for multiple reasons of which your age you can probably figure out. But one of the other reasons I don't believe in long engagements is I believe if you've worked the process through spiritual authority to lead you to an understanding as to whether you're supposed to marry this individual and once that's been determined then you begin to move forward. Why? Because once you have begun, once your heart's turned toward a broad, broad-grim relationship it's not going to work for you to just stay a part contractually. It's time to come together and many of you are in union to come together in a level of intimacy that moves you beyond simple engagement. It moves you into the bridal chamber. It's you being scooped up and carried into the house of wine and ravished by the love of God and then you say I want to abide in that place where that union is now the part of, is now the way that I do life. And I'm coming into that understanding of my own life and it is transformative. It will judge things in you that are absolutely not sin. It'll just start judging things in you that are not Christ-like. And if we've made the standard moral excellence instead of the image and likeness of the sun then we may stop over here under the heading of morally behaving better yet we're still judgmental to people. We're morally behaving better yet we're still gossip and we're morally behaving better but we're still caddy. We morally behave better but we're still jockeying for position. We're morally behaving better but we'll still tear this person down if it'll build ourselves up and you start looking at this and you're going, "Yeah but there's no Christ-likeness in that." And the goal is not moralism. As Inti-Write would say, "Moralizing our anthropology is not the way to moving into the fullness of what we were designed for. Immoralized cultures not where transformation comes. It's a Christ-like culture where transformation comes." And much of the problems we're in even in a political sense as a nation is where we are trying to regulate morality and force people to make decisions that are not of their heart. And so we're saying you can do this and you can't do this and some states you can do this and some states you can't do that and our nation you can't do this and our nation you can't do that and we're missing that liberty is not about somebody telling you what you can and can't do. Liberty is about being under the control of the Spirit. For where the Spirit is Lord there's liberty. It's under the Lord's leadership of the Spirit. That means you may not go across a line here. You may not go across a line there. That's okay as long as you stay under the sway of the Spirit where he can say to you, "You crossed a line right there and I want to come back and I want to help you to understand that this is the way you were designed. How many of you remember the little boy and Obvious child who would not go to his rabbinical studies but instead he would go climbing the tree and swim in the river." Remember this? Climb in the tree and swim in the river and they were fearful to turn the child over to the great rabbi because they did not understand that judgment was love but it was once the boy was held in the arms of the great rabbi that he said yes to his rabbinical studies and then on the way home stop to swim in the river and play in the tree. The Father's not looking for you to live a life where you don't swim in the river and climb the tree. The Father's looking for you to live a life where you do those things with him not in order to escape him. All right. We get in there? So when we talk about the concept of salvation in the Hebrew Yasha is the Hebrew word again. Salvation in Hebrew Yasha the verb in Greek, sozo, the noun in Greek, so terria but in Hebrew which is what we've not talked about yet is Yasha and it means to save, liberate and be delivered and that word found itself into the culture of the early church unfortunately because it's the only concept of salvation, Israel knew. Israel's pattern looked like this, move into idolatry, end up in war, be taken captive, be subjected to slaves, turn back to God and pray, God raise up a ruler, call a judge. A judge would come in and liberate Israel and Israel would celebrate that God had liberated them and moved back into idolatry which would lead them back into war which would lead them back into captivity which would lead them back into slavery which would lead them right back into praying for another judge, for God to raise up another judge so that they could be delivered and you see this pattern over and over again. So when Israel said saved they meant rescued from an oppressive nation. What did they want Jesus to do when the word of God was incarnated and came on the scene? They wanted him to save them from their oppressors. That was their definition of salvation and when he comes with an invitation to wholeness they're not interested in being whole, they're interested in being free from wrong. They're not interested in being whole, they're interested in being free from wrong and I'm afraid in the Western church we're not interested in being whole, we're interested in being rescued from hell. So why the whole idea of evangelism is make sure people don't go to hell but what if the biblical idea of evangelism is to introduce people to a path of wholeness where hell is not even a relevant subject for most of them anymore? I know that's a lot. You all okay? All right, I'm fine that you're quiet by the way. I don't die. Men thing and it's not, it's not, it's not quite, it doesn't do it for me the way it seems to do it for some other people. So I'm, I'm okay with you being quiet. I didn't come in here to get shouted at. I got, I'm, hopefully, whatever. Hopefully the affirmation came when God was speaking things to me in the secret place, not in you shouting back at me when you're here. I don't think Jesus got near as many shout, especially when he said things and like unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, I don't think they're going, now that's a word, man of God. Oh, Lord, no, I don't think he got a whole lot of that. I think he got people picking up stones. That's the sound he heard the most. Possible said true revelation is biting sharp, provocative and ever present threat to the status quo. If what you're hearing doesn't threaten the status quo, it's not revelation. It may be a sermon, but it's not revelation because revelation has provocation built into it. God is going to say some things that are going to go against the grain of the way you think and that's where repentance takes place. That's where metanoia becomes this great gateway to wholeness. I think the degree to which people move into wholeness is directly proportionate to the way they continually engage with the idea of metanoia. When you stop doing metanoia, you've picked the spot on the path to wholeness where you can go no further because just when you think you've got it figured out, he introduces a nuance of his nature that is so discordant with the way you want to be as a human being that it requires you to change the way that you think. But in that, you get to move into his predesigned intention for wholeness. So Israel had this word, "Yallshod," which means to save or to liberate or to deliver. That got into the nuance of the early church until the fathers knew it was essential for them to begin to speak the language of theosus. The reason they begin to speak the language of theosus is because they saw the church beginning to migrate toward what are the benefits of salvation instead of what invitation is built into the revelation of salvation. You get it saved from versus save for. So the language that I gave you earlier was having an orthodox satariology. I'm coming to mean something completely different when I say I'm saved because I understand in the sense of having been rescued from peril, my salvation is in the past tense. In the context of being set apart so that I could become the image and likeness of God in Christ in the earth through another human being is a salvation journey I'm on. So it's safe to say you are saved and you are being saved. Say, "From peril done." Nobody in this room needed Union University to save you from peril. You come to something like this because you are hard-wired by the goodness of God to believe you are born to manifest such a measure of wholeness that you become a vibrational frequency of wholeness in the earth that literally can walk into stormy situations and settle them simply by being present. And very few can do that. But it's going to begin to be that group is organically going to begin to be added to more and more and more until you become what Jesus called in the Sermon on the Mount Peacemakers. You become ambassadors of Shalom. Shalom means way more than no war. Shalom means wholeness. And so Jesus is saying, "I'm going to make you an ambassador of wholeness. How are you an ambassador of wholeness? You have nothing else to give. Instead of giving brokenness and trying to make that become wholeness, you start giving wholeness and then you're qualified through the way of authority to give away something you're in possession of. Am I whole? I'm whole-er. And I rejoice. And I wanted you to get that yesterday. So wanted you to get that is rather than being so frustrated with where you're not start to celebrate where you are. You will not pick up new territory in shame over how little you've progressed. You'll only pick up new territory when you stop to rejoice over the steps you've done. you've taken, even if sometimes they were two steps forward and one steps back or one step forward and two steps back, you rejoice that you're still on the path. Thomas is in the room while unbelieving, but his victory was he was in the room. Come on man. And if you and I can get that, his victory was he never let anything rooting out of the room. I don't believe the way that you all believe. Matter of fact, I don't want to believe the way that you all believe because I don't want to be hurt and disappointed the way I was hurt and disappointed when I believe the way that you believe. So y'all keep doing what you're doing. I haven't got any of this figured out. I don't know where my life has headed, but I'm here and I'm going to keep showing up here and I'm going to keep believing that God is good and I'm going to keep believing that He's for me and I'm going to keep believing that He has a glorious future for me. I'm going to believe that He has pre-horizon to me. And in that, you begin to, you find yourself moving into this place of holiness and you won't be able to say it's my self effort. What did you do? All I did was praise. All I did was stay still. All I did was worship. Your way is so much better. All I did was, all I, and be afraid of any leader that has a model for success. That's the best way to say it. Be afraid of any leader that has a model of success that doesn't start with all I did was. It has to start with all I did was. Paul said, "I am what I am by the grace of God." And if Paul can take his resume, put an X over it and write the word grace on the other side and say, "I choose grace over my resume." Paul only lists his resume in order to sound silly. That's literally the Greek nuance of the words he uses when he says, "I was Hebrew among Hebrews. I was circumcised on the eighth day. I was zealous for the law. I studied under a gammelial. I was a Pharisee among Pharisees." He says, "I would be a fool to boast in these things as the actual language." He says, "Here's my stupid resume that looks so impressive to you guys. But I am what I am by the grace of God." And I'll take that resume and I'll say, "Here, if you want to play around with resumes, that's on you." But I'm going to stand over here on the grace side and say, "I am what I am by the grace of God." All I did was praise. And sometimes you need grace to stay still. I see people when they get in a press and they wiggle. And they physically wiggle. It's amazing to watch someone intention when you're a leader that's been doing this for 30 years because you're able to look at people and you can see them physically having a difficulty just staying still. But Israel had to stand still in order to see the salvation of the Lord. Once at the Red Sea, that's why the most powerfully trained army in the world is on your heels and you don't have not one weapon and you're traveling with a crowd of mostly women and children and you've got the greatest trained chariot and chariot tears and soldiers in the world on your heels. And God tells them, "Stay still." And everything in you is going, "No, you run." And they go, "No, you stay still because you have to be still," the Psalmist said, "and know that I'm God." And so something in you going, "I don't know where I'm going to go when I leave Union." You didn't know you were coming to Union to Loha-Lacca because it wasn't a thing until Loha-Lacca. So just enjoy that he's been faithful to get you to this point and don't miss out on being present in this moment because you're future tripping on what's going to happen in your life after this. I'm just going to tell you that from a Father's standpoint, you stay here as long as you want to. You stay here and get married here. You stay here and have children here. You stay here until your children go to legacy academy and you can stay here until you're a teacher in Union University. I think that would be absolutely glorious because you're just going to say, "I am not going to fall under the pressure of trying to figure out my life from this point forward." He was faithful by grace to bring me to this place. He'll be faithful by grace to take me to the next place. Last thing he wants you to do is be so stressed out about what's next that you miss what you're in right now. This is glorious. Come on. This is glorious and only getting more glorious. So we're going to go now into some understanding of how this concept of theosis or what I'm terming christification actually works. I'm going to give you homework. I'll give you a pop quiz. I don't know if anybody passed it or not, but I gave you a pop quiz. The pop quiz is reason purpose and the outworking of reason purpose. The next part of reason purpose and the outworking of reason purpose is what. What is the already not yet for man? Christification. What is the already not yet of the kingdom? Apocotostasis. What is the already not yet of the cosmos? The already not yet of the cosmos is Eden. So again, the already not yet of the man. Christification. The already not yet of the kingdom. Apocotostasis. The already not yet for creation is Eden. Everything is on a path to see those three things come to pass. They all revolve around the man who is willing to do what it takes to become whole. And the man willing to do what it takes to become whole to surrender and yield to the measure of grace is necessary, is positioning himself to be an agent of transformation that advances both the kingdom and at the same time transforms the cosmos. You say it again. The man in christification will be used to advance the kingdom while at the same time transforming the cosmos. Creation again is groaning and trovelling for the manifestation of the sons of God, Romans 8. So here's your homework. Live at least for this week, maybe for the rest of your union life here in this first year. I want you to dive deeply into three chapters. John 17, Romans 8 and Ephesians 1. I believe if you'll take those three chapters and then become a threefold chord that's not easily broken. Something of Christology is present there, something of the kingdom is present there, and something of the transformation of the cosmos is there. And you'll find when you get into Ephesians 1, that as much as you were pre-horizon to be conformed into the image of his son, you were also pre-horizon for adoption. That means you did not listen to this. You didn't get yourself here and you'll not have to get yourself there. You didn't get yourself here. Every great story should start with all I did was. Every leader worth following should be all I did was. Anybody that thinks they've got the formula downpacked, downpacked is probably moving toward a moralized anthropology and not moving toward the expansion of the kingdom by way of the manifestation of the image and likeness of his son. Are we good? I keep checking on you all, are we good? All right, so I'm going to read to you now. This is a book and it's called "Faeosis." And this is Archimandre George of the Abbot of the Holy Monastery of St. Gregorius on Mount Athos and it's written in 2023. It's absolutely a fantastic book. And when I list these books, I understand that there's never a book that I'm blanketly endorsing every word. Know what I expect to write one that somebody would blanketly endorse every word. They're going to be nuances of things you don't agree with, but you don't throw the baby out with the bath water as a great analogy. You eat the meat, spit out the bones, whatever analogy you prefer. So we're going to start right here. Now this is a lot, so say brain, brain, engage. Talk to your brain. Let your spirit tell your brain to engage. Not thank God that it's been recorded. You go back and listen to it when you're not so tired. In the Old Testament we find many just and virtuous people, but the full union with God, the theosis only becomes possible is only achieved with the incarnation of the divine logos. All right, everything else is a theophany and the theosis that we're talking about, the walk with God was possible. Enoc proved it, but enoc was taken off of the planet because he did not have a path toward theosis. So all he got was more union with God in heaven, which is amazing and he never had to taste death, which is also amazing, but he did not have a path towards theosis because he did not yet have the sun. And the sacrificial system was able to deal with sin, but the sacrificial system was not able to bring about theosis. It took Jesus ending the sacrificial system and under teaching us to understand that God did not take pleasure in the sacrificial system according to the Psalms. He did not take pleasure in the sacrificial system. He desired mercy, not sacrifice. Jesus told him to go study and see if you can figure out what these words mean. All right, here's your here's your purpose language, ready? The purpose of the incarnation of God, if the purpose of man's life, this is the purpose of the incarnation of God. What is the purpose of the incarnation of God? The revelation of the divine logos leading you on a path that I'm calling christification. This is the purpose of the incarnation of God. Not the incarnation of God. Why do we need the incarnation? Forth aosis. For christification. Because Jesus can be very humanly murdered as an infant and let's take away the sin of the world because he's a perfect lamb. But Jesus didn't die as a baby. Jesus was tempted in every way like as we are yet without sin. What did he do? He refused to buy into Adam's delusion. And Adam's delusion was not what takes root in the mind of a two year old. Adam's delusion is what takes root in the mind of a 22 year old and a 19 year old and a 26 year old. Right? And so he said, I'm going to defeat that fully. And so it required the incarnation for us to move into Christification. If the purpose of man's life, listen to this, was simply to become morally better, there would be no need for Christ to come into the world, or for all of these events of divine providence to happen. For the incarnation of God, the cross, the death and resurrection of the Lord, and all that we Christians believe to have happened through Christ, the human race could have been taught to become morally better by the philosophers, by the righteous men and teachers or by the prophets, all of whom could have taught man to become morally better. And they did. We know that Adam and Eve were beguiled by the devil and did not want to collaborate with God any longer. What a great word. Did not want to collaborate with God. They desired to become God's not through humility, obedience or love, but through their own power, their own willfulness, egotistically, and I love this word autonomously. God knows if you eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil eyes, if you understand it, be open, you'll be like God. Well, they already were like God and they were on the path to becoming more like God, but now they're trying to figure out how to be like God without God. What can I eat that will help me be who I want to be without having to engage with God? And the problem with Christification is there are no shortcuts. There's a get to it quick recipe for pretty much everything on the planet, but not Christ's likeness. It's a long path, friend. It's a long path. So we know that Adam and Eve were beguiled by the devil. They did not want to collaborate with God. They desired to become God's not through humility, obedience and love, but through their own power, their own willfulness, egotistically and autonomously. That is to say that the essence of the fall is egotism. Never had I had that thought before until I read this and everything in my spirit went that's exactly right. And could it be that the root of all sin is egotism? Think about this is to say that the essence of the fall is egotism. Thus by adopting egotism and self assertion, they separated themselves from God. Now where did the distance come from? They separated themselves from God. The distance wasn't on God's end. Remember he showed up for the walk. And enot, if the separation's on God's end, then how does enot get what enot gets? enot gets what enot gets because enot fails to fully participate in Adam's delusion. Instead of attaining fahosis, they attained exactly the opposite spiritual death. As the church fathers say, God is life. So whoever separates himself from God separates himself from life. Therefore what is the root of death? The root of death is our distance from the father. What will restore us back to everlasting light communion with the father? Death was a secondary consequence of distance. You can say death was a secondary consequence of sin, but what did sin create? Sin created a delusion that created a distance. Adam is only susceptible to the delusion by a cause of sin, but through sin and delusion, he's now distance himself from the father, which has moved him away from the whole source of all that is life. Therefore all that is life begins to be undone in the life of Adam. You and I in Christ are supposed to get more than a prayer to repeat so that we can die and go to heaven one day. We're supposed to find the pathway back to God so that we can find the pathway back to everlasting life so we can see an absolute reversal of the fall and we can become a regenerated, new created people carrying a new creation gospel into a world that has been subjected to death because of its distance from the father. I'm going to make a really dangerous statement. There is one mediator between God and man, the Lord Christ Jesus. There's one mediator between God and this planet, you. Romans 8 says, "Creation's watching you." And at your apocalipsis, where we get the word for the book of Revelation, "at your unveiling creation begins to respond." Why? Why? Because God set up creation to be ruled by image bears. It's evident in the beginning God's initial and ultimate idea was for mankind to rule the planet and mankind's created in the image and likeness of God. And mankind is engaging in a level of intimacy that is bringing about not only sustaining the image that was present in them, but the growth of that image being present in them until they are able to look at creation and say, "If you want to know what the Father, Son, and Spirit look like, look at me because I look like the Father, Son, and Spirit." And Jesus is not just coming to give us blood on the door pose. Jesus is becoming the lamb that we can consume until we have the heart of the lamb, the eye of the lamb in the ear of the lamb, the feet of the lamb. You get this, right? All right, I know this is a lot. I know it's a lot, but this is why you're here, right? Instead of attaining the theosis, they attained exactly the opposite spiritual death as the church fathers say, God is life, so whoever separates himself from God separates himself from life. Therefore death and spiritual necrosis, eye, physical and spiritual death, are the outcome of the disobedience of the first created. Strong language. We all know, listen to this, that the consequences of the false separation from God through man and to carnal, bestial and demonic life. The brilliant creation of God fell seriously ill almost to death. And I would say without the incarnation, it would have ended in death. That's the Athanasius' great statement. What was God being good then to do when he saw his creation, lapsing into ruin and on the path to non-existence? It was to show up in wrath with a definitive "no" to the loss of the image of God present in the man and the fall of the beautiful creation that God had given. The wrath of God said, "No!" My creation will not lose the image and my creation will not lose the image and the cosmos will not lose her glory. And we've been on a path back to a glorious creation under the government of a glorious creator and seeing a glorious cosmic reform begin to take place in the earth. I'm sorry about that. You'll be okay. Let's get your blood pressure checked as soon as you can. Run by CVS on the way home, put your arm in that cuff and just make sure you're going to be okay. All right. So this is important, right? The consequence of the fall separation from God through man and to carnal, bestial demonic life, the brilliant creation of God fell seriously ill almost to death. What had been made in his image, that's in quotations, in his image, was darkened. Since the fall of man no longer has the qualifications he needs to proceed to the theosis. Since the fall, I'm sorry, since the fall man no longer has the qualifications he needs to proceed to theosis. I believe that statement to be true. Without the incarnation there is no path to theosis. There, there, it doesn't mean there's not a path to communion but it means how can we operate in Christ's likeness without having sin Christ? So we thank God for the incarnation not just for the cross, amen? So all of that being said is to say this, thus there is a need for a new root for humanity. To be finished with the Adam root, creation needs a new man who will be healthy and able to redirect the freedom of man towards God. This new root, the new man is the God man, Jesus Christ, the son and logos of God. Logos is one of the Greek words for word, Rema and logos. This new root is where we get the English word logic. Jesus is the logic of God. Jesus is precisely what God has to say about himself. He is God in flesh. There's your hypostatic union. This new root, the new man is the God man, Jesus Christ, the son and logo of God who incarnates to become the new root. The new beginning, the new leaven of humanity. That is one of our favorite phrases in the world. We just want to hit the table again. He's the new leaven of humanity. How did the fall work? Like leaven. Remember after the fall we talked about Muthuseles living to be 900 years old after the fall? Well I thought the fall ended in death. It did. But the leaven had not worked itself into the culture fully yet. And now Jesus is the new leaven that is far superior than Adam. And if Adam's leaven worked effectively without it requiring any faith, what should the leaven of Jesus look like with you and I walking in faith, walking in wholeness and making the decree? Adam's leaven worked beautifully in me without me warning it to. Not y'all. Y'all amazing. I'll tell you what I have. Adam's leaven worked beautifully in me without my participation. What should Jesus' leaven be doing in me with my participation? First of all, the leaven is superior. Secondly, the leaven now has an active participant inviting the leaven to fully do what only that leaven can do, which is transform me into the image and likeness of God. If you'd quit agreeing with the idea that you're filled with Adam leaven and you'd start coming into agreement with the truth that you're filled with Christological leaven, then you could all of a sudden start to expect I am becoming more like Christ because there's 11 in me that cannot fail. How do I know the 11 can't fail? Remember the two things that were the kingdom? Seed and 11? The Bible said the seed is incorruptible. The seed cannot be exposed to corruption. Adam's seed was corruption. The seed of Jesus is incorruptible. Therefore it's going to work in you. You just have to stay in an environment where the seed and 11 are receiving what they need to receive in order for you to become who it is that you're intended to become. And don't get frustrated with yourself over a short sample size. You're doing better. You may not feel like you're doing better today, but let's look at the sample size. Let's shift the sample size from how good you did this week to who you are now compared to who you were five years ago. And who you're going to be five years from now compared to who you are right now. Then you can all of a sudden get really excited over the idea that although my progress is more gradual than I wish that it was, it is in process and it cannot be denied and it will not be denied because I'm filled with the 11 of Jesus. Sweet Lord, this fires me up. Me and Jimmy are fired up. I know it's shocking that Jimmy be fired up. So here's the idea. Let's look at this again. This is incredibly important. The logos of God becomes the new root, the new beginning and the new 11 of humanity. St. Gregory of Nazionz and the theologian says in his theological writings with the incarnation of the logos, a second communion between God and humanity is realized. The first communion was in paradise. This was broken. Man was separated from God. And I would say on man's end, then all good, the all good God then provided another second communion, which can no longer be severed. A union of God and men. The second communion of God and men happens in the person of Jesus Christ. The God man, we're going to have a little bit further. Can you all hang a little bit more? The God man Christ, the Son and Logos of God, the Father has two perfect natures. Again, we're talking about the Hippostatic union, divine and human. These two perfect natures are joined without change, without confusion, without separation and without division in the one person of Christ. Let's read it again. The man, the God man Christ, the Son and Logos of God, the Father has two perfect natures, divine and human. According to the famous definition of the fourth holy ecumenical sign out of Calcidian, given under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to summarize the definition, forms the whole theological armory of our Orthodox church against Christological heresies of all kinds throughout the ages. Here's the statement. So we have one Christ with two natures, divine and human. Now, because Christ is the eternal God man through the Hippostatic union of the two natures and the person of Christ, human nature, listen, human nature is irrevocably unified with the divine nature because God is eternally God man. That's the vicarious humanity. Jesus is not sitting at the right hand of the Father, now disconnected from the Hippostatic union. He's sitting at the right hand of the Father as still the fully God and still the fully man and not only is he sitting there and we'll say this and I'll let your brain take a break. He not only is he sitting there, you're sitting there with him. Whether you feel like you're sitting there or not, you're sitting there. Why? Because you didn't choose to get there. He put you there. He carried you there. Paul said it like this to the church of Ephesus in chapter 2, you get to this one after you really dive into chapter 1 and the way I want you to. You have to quicken who are dead and trespasses and sin, where in times pass we walked according to the course of this world, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work within the children of disobedience, among whom we all had conversations and days gone by, fulfilling the lust of the flesh and of the mind but God who is rich and mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, has seated us together, watched this in heavenly places, where's the place, the right hand, in Christ Jesus, who's the person Jesus? You are in Christ at the right hand of the Father, now. And sitting in this room behind a white table, now. That's why you need to understand the hypesthetic union. I use this analogy, you can't do it right now because the tables are set up, but I use the analogy of the two types of carpet here. And so, you know, which side of the carpet am I on? Well, you're actually living both worlds. You actually live in the kingdom realm or the heavenly dimension and you live on the realm of earth. What you're intended to do is you're intended to get your blueprints from the superior dimension and bring that pattern into the inferior dimension until the inferior dimension begins to mirror the superior dimension. So what you're doing is don't get your blueprints from here. Be not conformed to this world. Remember that? Be not Susque Matizo to this a on. Don't allow yourself to settle for the inferior pattern of this age. What you're intended to be is you're intended to be conformed into the image and likeness of his son, predestined to be conformed into the image and pattern of his son. So what you do is you go into communion and you receive the pattern for what you're supposed to look like. As you receive the pattern for what you're supposed to look like, you realize that you're big invited to also get the blueprints of how that dimension works and how that dimension is nuanced and what that dimension looks like. And you get the pattern and say, I'm supposed to be like Jesus and the world I live in is supposed to look like the heavens where heaven is always plural in the New Testament. It was never intended to represent just one distant place, but it was meant to represent a realm of ideals. There's an idealistic realm that you are an ambassador of and as you become like Jesus, like Jesus, you bring your world with you when you come. When the king came, he brought the kingdom. This is the way it worked in Roman times. If a Roman official was going to travel to a non-Roman land, he would send apostles, what they were called, he would send apostles beforehand. And the apostles would go beforehand and they would set the world up that he was visiting to look like the world he came from. And those apostles were considered the order of apostle comes from a naval term that means the first ship to arrive on the shore. So they would send apostles ahead. It wasn't originally that's not a religious term. Originally it was a term that apostles would be sent before a king so that when the king got there, he would actually step into foreign land and it would look just like the world he came from because he had sent others to get that world ready to mirror the world he's the most comfortable in. Guess what you are now. We are the advanced team that's been sit ahead to make this world look like heaven. So when Jesus returns with his father and the spirit, they step into a world that looks just like the one that they just came from. So we're going to continue to see the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our god and of his Christ until Jesus starts feeling so at home here that he starts with visiting places like here and he says, "I inhabit the praises of my people and I'm used to praise in this realm and when they start giving me praise in that realm that looks like this realm, I'm going to then inhabit what I'm experiencing in this realm, the way I have it inhabited that realm." And then all of a sudden this place starts to look like are we in heaven or are we on earth? The reason heaven is still better than earth is because you and I have failed to engage in Christification. It will not always be so. God will not come set up his eternal kingdom on the earth and it be inferior to what's going on in heaven. And although Jesus is the one that deals with the last enemy death according to 1 Corinthians and comes and sets up the ultimate kingdom for the Father, Son and the Spirit, by the time he shows up on the scene, this place is going to look so much like heaven you're going to be confused as to whether you're here or there. And the veil is so permeable, many of you will learn to travel back and forth between here and there in the meantime and every time you come back you're going to offer the world a new set of blueprints as to what this is supposed to look like. That's not just about being weird and going into portals and dimensions so you can come back and be seen as hyper mystical and spiritual. It's about inheriting blueprints from another dimension and lag them out on the table and saying, I know what this church is supposed to look like, not because I modeled other churches doing church well. I know what this church is supposed to look like because I go into the dimension to receive the blueprints. That's why throne room worship is so huge here and oftentimes even though people want me to preach and teach all the time and want the other sons to preach and teach all the time, we don't always do that because I don't have as much of a model for people sitting and learning in heaven as I do for people learning through adoration and intimacy. Adoration and intimacy will instruct you in a way that a preacher or teacher never will be able to regardless of the level of revelation that they have. So all I'm trying to do is teach you so that you can receive more information and revelation as necessary for you to engage more with the throne so you can go find the ultimate blueprints not only for what the earth is supposed to look like but for what mankind is supposed to look like. And from there we get the fulfillment of Romans 8 that all of creation is on tippy toe and she's groaning and surveilling for the manifestation of the sons of God that according to Ephesians 1 you have been predestined for that adoption. The leaven of Jesus is in you and the hotter the environment the more the leaven does what the leaven was designed to do. You want to speed up the process of becoming like Jesus, become a worshipper. You want to slow it down, become a theologian. I've been both. If you want to speed up the process of becoming like Jesus, become a worshiper. You want to slow down the process of becoming like Jesus, become a theologian. The most dangerous thing you can ever be in life is an expert. I feel the glory of the Lord. I spent years trying to become an expert, but intimacy is an ongoing process. I feel the glory of the Lord right now. I just set somebody free because you may not have what you feel like is the intellectual acumen necessary for you to become a theologian. We are near or not here. We are not here to raise up theologians. We're here to raise up burning worshippers who are obsessed with the lamb and say if nobody else wants to eat his eyes I do. If nobody else wants to eat his ears I do. If nobody else finds consuming his heart appealing I find consuming his heart appealing. One of the things that is so interesting in Exodus 12 that would have gone against the hybrachusdom of the day. Exodus 12 in the Passover is cook and eat the organs. They were not allowed to eat organ meat. But when you start eating what other people think is illegal, you'll start changing in a way that people will never change as long as they're just trying to do the minimal. You're not designed for the minimal. You eat the heart until you have the heart. Eat a carrot until your skin turns orange. Jesus until your compassion for hurting people is so overwhelmingly high that people you used to call enemies. You don't call enemies anymore. You call them brothers and sisters who don't yet know they're in the family. And it's my job to let them know just like in Ephesians 1 I was predestined. I feel the glory all of them. Just like in Ephesians 1 I was predestined for the glory. They're in Ephesians 1 2 and they were predestined for the glory. And I don't care if they're Muslim. I don't care if they're Hindu. I don't care if they're a terrorist. I don't care if they're homeless. I don't care if they're homosexual. I don't care if they're liberal. I don't care if they're democratic. I don't care if they're on death row. According to Ephesians 1 they were predestined for adoption and you and I are going to come announced to the world. You have been predestined for adoption. And if you want life to go away you could never imagine life going surrender to who Jesus wants to be on the inside of you and become a worshipper. I challenge every one of you to give the rest of your life to become a worshipper. But worship more than you read. Here listen to me. Worship more than you read. Worship more than nobody. Worse following reads more than they worship. Don't get this stuff in your head. Get this man in your guts. And when this man is in your guts and this man's guts are in your guts you'll be changed in a way that is beyond anything you can ever think or imagine. Aaron please can you get on the keyboard sweet. Say, little core of it. I'm the glory of the Lord man. I would you just engage right now to the best of your ability. Just allow the Holy Spirit to draw you into a place. I'm telling you that he Jesus is saying come consume me today. He said you've been beholding me. Now it's time for you to consume me. It's time for you to take the next step. You have seated me in Christ at the right hand of the Father and I will take advantage of that opportunity every moment of every day. God every moment of every day I want to take advantage of the opportunity that I have been seated at the right hand of the Father in the lap of God. I'm marking you for a mystical journey. Levi I hear the Lord saying that of you. Son I have marked a mystical journey out for you. You don't have to look like anybody else. You don't have to think like anybody else. You don't have to want what other people want and other people don't need to understand you. You are finally in a group of people that value you and love you and I say go for it. You have a mystical mantle on your life to bring some blueprints into the earth that I has not seen and here has not heard. Come and let the fire of our communion today calls the 11 of Christ's likeness to just begin to run through every part of our being. The fire of devotion. He started the fire. He just asked you to sit around it to engage with the fire of devotion so that the 11 of Jesus can begin to run wild through every cell of my being. I want the 11 of Jesus to run wild through every cell of my being. If you need to find a place around the altar obviously you can do that. Sometimes God moves in your heart so big you can't even stay in a chair. Kick, stay behind the table. Welcome you to do that. Oh you were made for more. Lord I'm done aiming at moral perfection. I'm going to aim at Jesus. (gentle piano music) ♪ I want the voice like mini rushing waters ♪ ♪ Won't the eyes like fire ♪ ♪ The feet like brass ♪ ♪ And the voice like mini rushing waters ♪ ♪ I hear that I want the eyes that are like fire ♪ ♪ I want the feet that are like brass ♪ ♪ And I want the voice that's like mini rushing waters ♪ ♪ Woo ♪ ♪ I want the eyes like fire ♪ ♪ I want the feet like brass ♪ ♪ And I want the voice that's like mini rushing waters ♪ Can you sing that, Aaron? ♪ I want the eyes like fire ♪ ♪ I want the feet like brass ♪ ♪ And I want the voice that's like mini rushing waters ♪ (gentle piano music) ♪ I want the eyes like fire ♪ ♪ I feel it ♪ ♪ I want the feet like brass ♪ ♪ And I want the voice like mini rushing waters ♪ ♪ I want the eyes that are like fire ♪ ♪ I want the hair like me ♪ ♪ I want to feel it like this ♪ ♪ And the voice like mini rushing waters ♪ ♪ Woo ♪ ♪ Woo ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ I want the eyes like fire ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ I want the eyes like fire ♪ ♪ I want the hair like me ♪ ♪ I want the feet like this ♪ ♪ And the voice like mini rushing waters ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ The eyes like fire ♪ ♪ I want the hair like me ♪ ♪ I want the feet like brass ♪ ♪ And the voice like mini rushing waters ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ I want it all ♪ ♪ I want it all ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ The eyes like fire ♪ ♪ I want the hair like me ♪ ♪ I want the feet like brass ♪ ♪ And the voice like mini rushing waters ♪ ♪ I want to know ♪ ♪ I want to know ♪ ♪ I want to know ♪ ♪ I want the eyes that fly ♪ ♪ I want the hair like ♪ ♪ I want the sweetness ♪ And the voice like many words And I wanted oh Oh Oh, oh inputs, he has an open look, oh. Oh Galo Oh, oh Deus the fruit of the girlsau Oh how, oh Doritos ♪ And the voice, many waters, I want to hold Him. ♪ ♪ I want to hold Him. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Lord, ask the Father. ♪ ♪ I want to help Him. ♪ ♪ I want to see the His. ♪ ♪ And the voice, many waters, I want to hold Him. ♪ ♪ I want the eyes that I've heard. ♪ ♪ I want the hair that I've heard. ♪ ♪ I want to see like grass. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Thank you for listening to this podcast. Our goal is to make as many messages available for free as possible. But if you've been impacted today and would like to sew into our ministry, please visit our website at DamonThompson Ministries.net. ♪