Chemistry With Christ

by Katherine Bell

Introduction

The deepest relationship available to human beings is that of intimate union with Christ Jesus. J. B.
Phillips elucidates this truth in his translation of verse 32 from Ephesians 5, “The marriage relationship
is doubtless a great mystery, but I am speaking of something deeper still – the marriage of Christ and
His church.”

What exactly does intimacy entail? The dictionary defines intimacy as the sharing of one's deepest
nature, that which is personal and private, i.e. one's secrets. It's the state of being “naked and not
ashamed” to use the language of Genesis 2:25, and its terms are those of transparency of heart and soul
before another. With Christ, intimacy involves a mutual indwelling. I John 3:24 says, “All who keep
His commandments [who obey His orders and follow His plan, live and continue to live, to stay and]
abide in Him, and He in them. [They let Christ be a home to them and they are the home of Christ.]...”
One comes to know God's personality, His nature, His desires, and higher ways. And in response one
defines and knows himself as he is in reality before Christ. Intimacy with Christ involves inviting Him
into the deep recesses of the heart withholding nothing. Those who have walked this way use words
like abandonment and full surrender to describe the way to the closest places in Christ. Letting Him
indwell one's heart involves allowing the Lord to fill one's being with Himself and then express
Himself through thoughts, words, and acts. One actually becomes, according to 2 Corinthians 3:3, “an
epistle of Christ...written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on
tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.”

The place of intimacy with Jesus is the place of having the heart's inmost needs met. One finds
belonging, eternal significance, and completion in Him. The New Testament actually says that, “our
physical body...was made for God, and God is the Answer to our deepest longings.”1 Colossians 2:10
adds, “Moreover, your own completeness is only realized in Him,...” When one is infused With God
Himself, one is filled with grace, light, and love. God's supernatural zoe life flows from the indwelling
Christ furnishing divine assistance for living. I John 1:5 reveals that, “God is Light; there is no
darkness in Him at all.” And John writes in 1 John 4:16, “God is love, and he who dwells and continues
in love dwells and continues in God, and God dwells and continues in him.”

Word Pictures

The Bible typifies the experience of rich intimacy with Jesus, also described as the fullness of the
Spirit, in its depiction of Canaan, the Promised Land. Exodus 3:8 expresses Jehovah's intent: “And I
have come down to deliver them out of the hand and power of the Egyptians and to bring them up out
of that land to a land good and large, a land flowing with milk and honey [a land of plenty]....” Egypt is
a type of the demonic world order the Lord labors to free us from. Milk in Old Testament times was a
necessity and food staple; it stands for spiritual nourishment. Honey was a luxury and speaks of
pleasure and satisfaction.

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In Deuteronomy 8:6-10, Moses presents the Land in greater detail and the conditions of entry into it.
“Therefore keep the commandments of Jehovah your God, walking in His ways and fearing Him. For
Jehovah your God is bringing you to a good land, a land of water brooks, of springs and of fountains,
flowing forth in valleys and in mountains; a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and
pomegranates; a land of olive trees with oil and of honey; a land in which you will eat bread without
scarcity; you will not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and from whose mountains you
can mine copper. And you shall eat and be satisfied, and you shall bless Jehovah your God for the good
land which He has given you.” These Canaan riches are types of “the unsearchable riches of Christ”
noted in Ephesians 3:8 and “the bountiful supply of the Spirit” of Philippians 1:19. The water brooks,
springs, and fountains stand for the flowing Spirit experienced in Christ. Jesus promises in John 4:14,
“But once a man has drunk the water which I will give him, he will never be thirsty again. The water
which I will give him will become a spring of water inside him, always welling up to give him eternal
life.” The idea is that of a continual flow. In a later section of John, Jesus adds, “If any man is thirsty,
let him come to Me and drink! He who believes in Me [who cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me]
as the Scripture has said, From his innermost being shall flow [continuously] springs and rivers of
living water.” And again in Revelation one reads of the spiritual life available in Christ as John sees
“the river whose waters give life, sparkling like crystal, flowing out from the throne of God and of the
Lamb.” The valleys and mountains are the varying circumstances the one who walks in the spirit
encounters. Paul expressed these vicissitudes in 2 Corinthians 6:4-10. “...But in all things
recommending ourselves as God's ministering servants should do: in much patience under trials,
bearing up and not losing heart or courage; in afflictions, in calamity and straits, in distressing
situations, in stripes inflicted by a beating with rods, in imprisonments, in the midst of political
instability, in labors to the point of exhaustion, in sleeplessness at night, in hunger, in pureness, in
knowledge, in long-suffering patience under ill treatment, in kindness marked by gentleness and
graciousness, in the Holy Spirit, in a love devoid of hypocrisy, in the word of truth, in God's power, by
means of the weapons of righteousness [offensive weapons] on the right hand and [defensive weapons]
on the left, by glory and dishonor, by slanderous report and good report, as those who are disseminating
deceit and yet true, as being a nonentity, obscure, without proper credentials and yet fully recognized,
as dying and behold we are living, as chastened yet not put to death, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing,
as poor yet making many wealthy, as having not even one thing, yet possessing all things.” Yet God
promises steadiness in the highs and the lows.

Wheat in the typology of Canaan stands for the incarnated Christ Who was crucified and buried to
multiply Himself. Jesus said of Himself in John 12:24, “Most assuredly, I am saying to you, unless the
grain of wheat, having fallen into the earth, die, it itself remains alone. But if it die, much fruit it bears.”
And barley, the first-ripe grain, signifies Christ as the first-fruits. Paul states, “But the fact is that Christ
(the Messiah) has been raised from the dead, and He became the first-fruits of those who have fallen
asleep [in death].2 Christ as the Vine produces new wine “which rejoices God and man.” 3 And Christ as
the True Vine of John 15 enables the branches, the believers who abide in Him, to produce the fruit of
the Spirit. [This fruit, or character of God, is defined in Galatians 5:22-23.] Judges 9:11 attests to the
sweetness and goodness of figs; we taste such sweetness when we eat of Christ. And pomegranates
teach us that when one experiences the riches of Christ, one experiences a life of fullness, abundance,
and beauty. The hem of Aaron's priestly garment had pomegranates and bells on it. The pomegranate
fruit with its many seeds signifies fullness of life. Both pillars at the portico of the temple, Jachin and
Boaz, had two rows of one hundred pomegranates around the nets of checker work (arranged like a
trellis) with wreaths of chain work covering the bronze capitals atop the pillars. Here, too, the
pomegranates with their seeds stand for the riches of the Christ-life. And in the Song of Songs,

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Solomon, the Christ figure, says to his lover, “Your cheeks are like a piece of pomegranate behind your
veil” i.e. your expression is rich in the life that is hidden. 4 In Song of Songs 4:12-14 Solomon further
extols his lover and again describes her using the pomegranate fruit: “A garden enclosed is my sister,
my bride, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with choicest
fruit; Henna with spikenard, spikenard and saffron; Calamus and cinnamon, with all the trees of
frankincense; Myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices.” He is enjoying her, a garden of all kinds of
plants with different colors which express her inner life and different fragrances which express the
Christ formed within. She is a beautiful lover to her Lord because she is rich in Him.

The olive tree of Canaan also typifies Christ as the one fully anointed with the Holy Spirit. Both
Romans 11:17 and Judges 9:9 mention the fatness of the olive tree, and Christ functioned in such
spiritual “fatness.” The milk and honey denote Jesus' goodness and sweetness. Milk comes from grass-
fed cattle, and bees make honey from the nectar of flowers. Animal life typifies Jesus as the Lamb Who
takes away the world's sin5 - mankind's Redeemer. Plant life speaks of Christ's generating life. He is the
true Vine; He is also the wheat grain that dies in order to bear fruit. 6

Canaan offered bread without scarcity, a picture of Christ as the bread of life. Jesus declared in John 6,
“I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall by no means hunger....” The Good Land's stones are
a type of Christ as a stone for building God's dwelling. The Father said of Jesus, “Indeed I lay a stone
in Zion as a foundation, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone as a foundation firmly established;...” 7
And Jesus is “the living stone, rejected by men but with God chosen and precious.” 8 Jesus is also the
top-stone of grace for God's building, His church.9 In the Old Testament era, men fashioned weapons
from iron and copper. In Christ we, too, wage a warfare with weapons that are “not fleshly but
powerful before God for the overthrowing of strongholds”10 in the reasonings of men. Christians dress
in an armor provided by God and fight in His power and might. 11 Iron also symbolizes Jesus' authority
to rule. In Matthew 28:18, He announces to His disciples, “All authority has been given to Me in
heaven and on earth.” And in Revelation 19:15 John prophesies that Jesus will “shepherd them with a
rod of iron.” Copper is a type of divine judgment. Jesus' feet are like shining bronze in Revelation 1
and Daniel 10:6. Feet here reveal His perfect walk which qualifies Him to judge the world. And finally
the mountains speak of the Lord's resurrection and ascension. Ephesians 4:8 testifies of our Christ's
triumphant arising.

Thus we see in Canaan's typology a graphic picture of the spiritual riches attainable in Christ. The
overcomers tap this wealth now in the church age, and ultimately all believers will enjoy Christ's
fullness in the New Jerusalem. John saw the finale, “the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of
heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband....Behold the tabernacle of God is with
men, and He will tabernacle with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with
them and be their God....[He] will give to him who thirsts from the spring of the water of life
freely....And He showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of
God and of the Lamb....”12 To him who thirsts is the precondition for receiving from the Lamb.

The Psalms also tell of what we can know when we surrender to the Holy Spirit. The overcomers are
the ones who so yield and thus experience a kingdom within, a kingdom of the heart. The Father prays
in Psalm 72:6, “May the reign of this Son of mine be as gentle and fruitful as the springtime rains upon
the grass – like showers that water the earth!” Abundance in the spirit is there for the taking.

In the New Testament, Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3:16-19 not only describes the extent to which we

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can experience the One Who indwells us but also the way to such fullness. The apostle calls on the
Father: “praying to Him that in the wealth of His glory He may grant to you to be strengthened in
power through His Spirit in your inner being, praying that your faith may be such that Christ may make
your hearts his home, praying that love may be that in which your life is rooted and on which it is
founded. I pray that in fellowship with all God's consecrated people you may have strength to grasp
how broad and long and high and deep Christ's love is, to know that love of His which is greater than
we can ever understand, for then your life will be filled with all God's fullness.” The Amplified
explains that the available “mighty power” is by “the [Holy] Spirit [Himself indwelling your innermost
being and personality].” And it is an experiential knowing of God's love that Paul is referring to. The
Amplified translation is again helpful: “[That you may really come] to know [practically, through
experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without
experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the
richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God
Himself]!” From these words we see that it is our very bodies that are to be “filled and flooded” with
the Godhead. We access this reality of God abiding within through faith. It is understanding and
functioning in God's love that brings us into the richest comprehension of the person of Christ. This
level of divine infilling yields the pleasure realm in God, a realm worth any price to attain as in it we
fully know the love and fulfillment we are designed for.

Theology of Mankind's Condition

Before a man is regenerated by the Spirit of God and reborn as the Father's offspring, his soul functions
as an independent person. He is dominated by the natural life of the soul, what Romans 6:6 identifies as
the “old man.” This is the “I” who is crucified with Christ: the independent life not the soul itself. The
outworking of the believer's crucifixion is explained by Paul in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified
with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ ... lives in me;
and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself
up for me.” The Amplified expands the word faith so as to emphasize the call to die to independence:
by faith means “by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in.” Now as beings recreated and
indwelt by the Lord, God desires that one's soul act only as an organ of Christ. At new birth according
to I Corinthians 6:17, “...the person who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.” The Holy
Spirit in union with a man's regenerated spirit is to control or govern the soul - the mind, will, and
emotions. In walking out this yielded obedience to the Spirit one comes to experience intimate union
with Jesus.

The Carnal Defined

Carnal life issues from the soul acting independently of the Holy Spirit. Synonyms for the word carnal
include fleshly, sensual, and animal. The carnal is the rule of one's lower nature. To be fleshly is to
indulge one's bodily appetites and lascivious desires. It includes worldliness. The word sensual may
apply to any gratification of bodily desire or pleasure but commonly implies sexual appetite absent of
the spiritual or intellectual. The animal is the physical nature apart from the rational nature.

The Bible gives us God's perspective on carnality. Ephesians 2:3 describes life apart from the lordship
of Christ: “...we as well as you once lived and conducted ourselves in the passions of our flesh [our
behavior governed by our corrupt and sensual nature], obeying the impulses of the flesh and the
thoughts of the mind [our cravings dictated by our senses and our dark imaginings].” And J. B. Phillips'

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version of Romans 8 says, “The carnal attitude sees no further than natural things. But the spiritual
attitude reaches out after the things of the Spirit. The former attitude means bluntly, death: the latter
means life and inward peace. And this is only to be expected, for the carnal attitude is inevitably
opposed to the purpose of God, and neither can nor will follow His laws for living. Men who hold this
attitude cannot possibly please God.” Such dominance by the carnal soul permits demonic footholds
within one's person. Bondage results, and the flow of the Holy Spirit is blocked.

The Father wants His children walking as spiritual men and women. However, many believers in the
first century and today continue to walk relatively unchanged. The Lord used Paul to confront the
Corinthians with their babyish carnal walks, “However, Brethren, I could not talk to you as to spiritual
[men], but as to nonspiritual [men of the flesh, in whom the carnal nature predominates], as to mere
infants [in the new life] in Christ [unable to talk yet!] I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were
not yet strong enough [to be ready for it]; but even yet you are not strong enough for it], for you are
still [unspiritual, having the nature] of the flesh [under the control of ordinary impulses]. For as long as
[there are] envying and jealousy and wrangling and factions among you, are you not unspiritual and of
the flesh, behaving yourselves after a human standard and like mere (unchanged) men?” 13 The
Corinthians' souls functioned out from under the governance of the Holy Spirit.

The Love-Rule of the Indwelling Holy Spirit

It's through the cross and our identification and participation with Christ in His death, burial, and
resurrection that we grow into functioning out of our recreated spirits now one with the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 5:25 terms it walking in the spirit. And Romans 6-8 outlines the truths new creatures in Christ
are to operate in. Paul writes in Romans 6:6, “Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with
Him in order that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin as slaves.” The
body here is the sinning instrument of the old man, the natural life independent of Christ. The soul
acting independently through the body expresses the sin nature or the flesh. The Father intends
something quite opposite of fleshliness for us. He wants us to be literally containers for His Son. God's
desire is that the personality and nature of the indwelling Christ actually infuse our personalities. The
promise of John 7:38 is a continual outflow of “springs and rivers of living water” i.e. the Spirit. God
desires to dispense to us this delicious life of Christ. Our part is a twofold response. Through faith we
“consider ourselves also dead to sin and our relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken
fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus,...”14 We also partake of Christ as our food, our life source, our
delight. In short Jesus must become our enjoyment, the One Who satisfies us.

Romans 7:2-4 is also a key passage in ordering our inner man. The fallen soul is a usurper; it desires to
be the head or “husband.” However, from Romans, we know that the husband or old man is dead.
Thus we are free to be Christ's wife. The verse reads “that you may be married to another, even to Him
who was raised from the dead that we should bear fruit to God.”15 In Biblical typology, the spirit
corresponds to the masculine principle and the soul to the feminine. The soul is to function submitted to
the Spirit in the same way that a wife is to function under her husband's headship. God's portrait of
marriage in Ephesians 5 is not only a blueprint for the union of a man and woman but also a type of the
soul yielded to the love-rule of the Holy Spirit now united with our regenerated spirits. Note the love-
rule in God's design for marriage in Ephesians 5:21-33, “Be subject to one another out of reverence for
Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One). Wives, be subject (be submissive and adapt yourselves) to your
own husbands as [a service] to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife as Christ is the Head of
the church, Himself the Savior of [His] body. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be

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subject in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and
gave Himself up for her, So that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water
with the Word, That He might present the church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or
wrinkle or any such things [that she might be holy and faultless]. Even so husbands should love their
wives as [being in a sense] their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself. For no man
ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and carefully protects and cherishes it, as Christ does the
church, Because we are members (parts) of His body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and
his mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is very
great, but I speak concerning [the relation of] Christ and the church. However, let each man of you
[without exception] love his wife as [being in a sense] his very own self; and let the wife see that she
respects and reverences her husband [that she notices him, regards him, honors him, prefers him,
venerates, and esteems him; and that she defers to him, praises him, and loves and admires him
exceedingly].” Our head or husband, Christ, dwells within and in our marriage to Him our mind, will
and emotions must come under His love-rule. Note from Ephesians 5 the selfless giving of our
Husbandman.

Interestingly, throughout God's Testaments, spiritual adultery or unfaithfulness to God is in essence a

coming out from under His love-rule. And such independence precedes physical adultery. In Romans 1,
for example, worship of the creature instead of the Creator causes God to give men over to impurity
and perversion.

Another Bible type pertaining to our inner man is that of the Tabernacle with its three sections: the
Outer Court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. Within our innermost being, the place where our
spirit is one with the Holy Spirit, is another Holy of Holies. The more we operate out of this spiritual
center, the more we experience deliverance from the soulish or carnal. In the Tabernacle's Holy of
Holies, only the Shekinah glory gave illumination. For us, when we flow in God's light we are freed
from the natural nature. We are to die to the soulish so that Christ's life can stream forth. Within, where
God dwells, is the seat of heavenly realities. And we are called to know the mystical and function as
heavenly beings. It is a truism that many remain Outer Court believers. Another group moves into Holy
Place realities. The overcomers, those who continually embrace the Holy Spirit's love-rule, experience
the Holy of Holies on the inside. Overcomers habitually commune and feed on Jesus. Their secret is the
full death to the independent self that they welcome; thus they directly live in increasing oneness with
Him.

The Posture of the Heart

Another key to coming into deeper, more intimate places in Christ is to posture one's heart according to
the Scripture's directives. Because it is a marriage union that we are called to, we can study passages
such as I Peter 3:1-6 for heart attitudes pleasing to Jesus. We minister to Jesus in reverencing him the
way a wife does her husband. The apostle teaches, “In the same way, you wives must accept the
authority of your husbands....how reverent and pure your conduct is. Your beauty must not be the
superficial beauty which depends on elaborate hair-styles and expensive jewelry and the wearing of
fashionable clothes. No! Your beauty must be the beauty of your inner character and personality. It
must consist of the beauty of a gentle and serene character, a beauty which the years cannot wither, for
in God's sight that is what is really precious. This was the beauty with which once upon a time
consecrated women, whose hopes were set on God, adorned themselves. They accepted the authority of
their husbands. It was in this way that Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him master. And you have now

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become Sarah's daughters....” The Amplified explains such bridal reverence well. To “be submissive”
to a husband is to “[subordinate yourselves as being secondary to and dependent on them, and adapt
yourselves to them].” The Amplified actually instructs us in reverence for Christ in its words for the
wife: “You are to feel for him all that reverence includes: to respect, defer to, revere him – to honor,
esteem, appreciate, prize, and, in the human sense, to adore him, that is, to admire, praise, be devoted
to, deeply love, and enjoy your husband.”16 Honoring, loving, and enjoying Christ are also essential to
our rising above a carnal experience into the fullness of life in the Spirit.

Another dimension of intimacy is the friendship relationship with Jesus. John writes that such
friendship is conditioned upon obedience. His Gospel states Jesus' words: “You are my friends
(intimates) if you do what I command you.” 17 Jesus teaches also that revelation follows this kind of
intimacy: “I do not call you servants (slaves) any longer, for the servant does not know what his master
is doing (working out). But I have called you My friends, because I have made known to you
everything I have heard from My Father. [I have revealed to you everything I have learned from
Him.]”18 The psalmist also understood the connection between being God's companion and being given
understanding of His Word. David penned in Psalm 25, “The secret [of the sweet, satisfying
companionship] of the Lord have they who fear (revere and worship) Him, and He will show them His
covenant and reveal to them its [deep, inner] meaning.” He added that the obedient ones would know
paths marked by steadfast love and truth or revelation. 19 The Father Himself promises a relationship of
favor for believers who consider His Word of great import. In Isaiah 66:2 the Lord discloses, “But this
is the man to whom I will look and have regard: he who is humble and of a broken or wounded spirit,
and who trembles at My word and reveres My commands.” Revelation is God's reward for attaining
intimate places in His heart in effect becoming His confidante.

Chemistry With Christ

The more Christ is formed in us, the more others see light on our countenances, hear truth and wisdom
from our lips, discern a different heart and even detect a different scent. 2 Corinthians 2:15-17 says of
Christians who release Jesus' life: “For we are the sweet fragrance of Christ [which exhales] unto God,
[discernible alike] among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing: To the latter
it is an aroma [wafted] from death to death [a fatal odor, the smell of doom]; to the former it is an
aroma from life to life [a vital fragrance, living and fresh].” The key to such a release of the Spirit is
faith. Faith here, too, can be thought of as dependence. In fact the Amplified expands the concept of
faith by expanding the word believe in John 7:38. This version reads: “He who believes in Me [who
cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me]...from his innermost being shall flow...living water.” The
word cleaves is of course a marriage term from Genesis 2:24 which states: “Therefore a man shall
leave his father and his mother and shall become united and cleave to his wife, and they shall become
one flesh.” Again the picture of marriage in the physical depicts the spiritual reality available to us. We
are to cleave to the Lord within. We are to die to every independent action of our souls. The more we
“lean on our Beloved”20 the more real He becomes in our experience.

Chemistry with Christ intensifies as we become more like Him. And the more like Him we become, the
more we will enjoy Him. Attraction is keener. Union is deeper and stronger. Also fascination with Him
and His ways with us increases. Doug Fortune writes in Dawning of the Third Day, “The Third Day is
the day that we are 'raised up' to a NATURE to NATURE relationship! Peter declares plainly that we
are '...partakers of the DIVINE nature.' (2 Peter 1:4) Two beings of the same nature can have a much

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closer, more intimate relationship than two of different natures. It seems that for most of Christendom,
we have thought that we possessed an entirely different nature than the Father, even an opposing nature
to His. Therefore our relationship could only develop as one of two beings of different and opposing
natures. Religion has forged a mindset in us that the Father is holy and we are evil. Such a mindset
clearly contradicts the Scripture. Does not God say, 'Be ye holy; for I am holy.' (I Peter 1:16)? Does He
not also say, '...if the Root be holy, so are the branches.' (Romans 11:16)? Obviously Jesus is the Root
spoken of (Isaiah 11:10), and He says, 'I am the Vine, YE are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.' (John 15:5) Friend, we
are '...partakers of the DIVINE nature,' and we are called to a NATURE to NATURE relationship.” 21 As
we crucify the old man, the independent life of the soul, we become by faith one nature with God. And
the degree to which we ingest and heed the Word, which is a feeding on Jesus and a leaning on Him in
written form, is directly related to the degree that we become “little Christs” or Christians in reality.

With intensified chemistry comes intensified desire for Jesus. One experiences yearning and
consuming hunger. The saint at times pants after the Lord. David, who so resonated with God's heart,
experienced such chemistry. He wrote in Psalm 42:1, “As the hart pants and longs for the water brooks,
so I pant and long for You, O God. My inner self thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come
and behold the face of God?” David again expresses his longing for His Lord in Psalm 27, “One thing
have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek, inquire for, and [insistently] require: that I may dwell in the
house of the Lord [in His presence] all the days of my life, to behold and gaze upon the beauty [the
sweet attractiveness and the delightful loveliness] of the Lord and to meditate, consider, and inquire in
His temple. For in the day of trouble He will hide me in His shelter; in the secret place of His tent will
He hide me; He will set me high upon a rock.” Alignment with the Word which is alignment with God's
heart and mind will cause us to experience the same desire that David knew.

David was on fire for God. He pursued intimate places in the Father. He confessed in Psalm 73:28,
“But as for me, I get as close to Him as I can! I have chosen Him, and I will tell everyone about the
wonderful ways He rescues me.” We, too, were designed to experience fire for the Lord. Proverbs
20:27 says, “the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.” And our candle is to burn for our Beloved God
as well. We, then, live being fully alive. We are to flow unrestricted with the life of God. And when our
souls wholly function as organs of Christ, we will be rich in ever-increasing zoe life, God's light, and
His love. We, also, will tell everyone of the Living God Who desires to dwell within.

Levels of Intimacy

The Word teaches us significant truths about coming near to God and the intimate knowing of Himself
that He longs for. From Jeremiah 24:7 we know that He is the initiator and we are the responders. The
Father professes, “And I will give them a heart to know (recognize, understand, and be acquainted
with) Me, that I am the Lord; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return
to Me with their whole heart.” He invites us in James 4:8, “Come close to Me, and I will come close to
you.” Ultimately we decide the level of intimacy that we want with the Lord. He proposes union and
spiritual marriage for us. However, Jesus taught in the wedding banquet parable that only a few would
prepare themselves to be His bride. He said in Matthew 22:14, “For many are called (invited and
summoned), but few are chosen.” Few will dress in wedding garments. Few will clothe themselves
with Christ. James charges us with the task of readying our hearts for intimacy: “[Recognize that you
are] sinners, get your soiled hands clean; [realize that you have been disloyal] wavering individuals
with divided interests, and purify your hearts [of spiritual adultery]. [As you draw near to God] be

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deeply penitent and grieve, even weep [over your disloyalty]. Let your laughter be turned to grief and
your mirth to dejection and heartfelt shame [for your sins]. Humble yourselves [feeling very
insignificant] in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you [He will lift you up and make your
lives significant].”22 When we are honest before Him, we see our great need to possess His nature – the
need to have Him formed in fullness within.

In the Word we see that the men and women who fed on the Lord spent much time alone with Him.
There they bonded with God as they waited before Him and listened to Him. They talked with Him.
They drank of Him. In Song of Songs 1:4, the King's lover cries, “Draw me! We will run after you! The
King brings me into his apartments [inner chambers or bedroom]! We will be glad and rejoice in You!
We will remember Your love more than wine.” Again the Scriptures use bridal imagery to teach us
about intimacy with the King of Kings. He wants us to know Him as a bridegroom and lover. And His
love yields more pleasure than anything sensual. Basilea Schlink writes in Bridal Love, “Jesus, who so
often says, 'Whoever loves Me...' 'Do you love Me?' is concerned about our LOVE! He is concerned
about a special kind of love. It is the love which is shadowed in the relationship between a bride and
her bridegroom; that is, it is an exclusive love, a love which places the beloved, the bridegroom, above
all other loves, in the first place. As a Bridegroom, Jesus has a claim to 'first love.' He who has loved us
so much wants to possess us completely, with everything we are and have. Jesus gave Himself wholly
and completely for us. Now His love is yearning for us to surrender ourselves and everything we are to
Him, so that He can really be our 'first love.' So long as our love for Him is a divided love, so long as
our heart is bound to family, possessions, or the like, He will not count our love to be genuine. Divided
love is of so little value to Him that He will not enter into a bond of love with such a soul, for this bond
presupposes a full mutual love. Because our love is so precious to Jesus, because He yearns for our
love, He waits for our uncompromising commitment. Wherever there are two alternatives, true love
always chooses Jesus.”

When we pursue a bridal bond with the Lord and begin to move closer, we find ourselves moving into
higher realms or levels in God. A detachment results as far as other relationships. We experience the
state of being closer to Christ than anyone else. We dwell in union with the Lord as we walk among
men. And Christ desires such a manner of relating to Him and others. Jesus wants us to function from a
position of being centered in Him. We are to stay in the vertical towards God even as we relate
horizontally to others. The Father designed us to feed on Jesus and be vessels infilled with His Spirit.
We must of necessity guard against emotional dependencies and the tendency to feed on other souls.
Those who desire the more intimate realms should let the Lord bring the mates and friends and be the
architect of all relationships. He will bring alliances that exist primarily to foster an ever greater
drawing on Him. God wants to sustain us with His embrace. It is predominantly in Him that we will
find love and security.

The Work of the Cross Within

We've touched on the truth that we share in Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. God arranges our lives
such that death to the flesh nature occurs as we choose an obedience that cuts across self-will. He
brings constant “crosses” to us. Jesus explained this dying process in Matthew 10:38-39, “And he who
does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever embraces his carnal or natural
life will lose the higher, spiritual life, and whoever loses or dies to his carnal life on My account will
find the higher life in the spirit.” To follow the Lord is to “cleave steadfastly to Him, conforming
wholly to His example in living and, if need be, in dying also” according to the Amplified Bible. To

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walk as Christ did, the source of our life must not be the soul. We must not be governed by “what I will
or want,” “what I think,” or by “what I feel” if we want freedom. Instead our source must be Christ, the
life-giving Spirit of I Corinthians 15:45. What He wills must trump. We must say yes to the mind of
Christ and be completely renewed in our thinking by God's Word. We must be dominated by God's
heart and experience His feelings. Christ is the Father's Pattern Son. He walked and discoursed and
lived in the freedom of dependence; He experienced perfect oneness with His Father. And we are to
copy Him. Our lives are to emanate out of a continual communion with the Lord within. The idea is to
live from the inside out though this will mark us as very different from worldly people, as well as
carnal churchgoers, around us who are living from the outside in. These worldly ones live in bondage
to the perceptions of their senses. They know not the Living One we have access to.

A word study of John 12:25 confirms that God is working a crucifixion in us. The verse in John reads,
“Whosoever shall seek to save his soul life (psuche)shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his psuche
shall preserve it.” The Greek term for lose is apollumi which means to destroy fully or cause to die. The
Greek for preserve is zoogoneo which means to engender alive or save from death. This way of the
cross, this way of death to the independent life of the soul, is the process by which God frees us from
ourselves.

God calls us to understand what He is doing through the cross and cooperate with Him. The
overcomers are such cooperators. And we can be among them, the ones who open their hearts to a deep
and thorough death to thoughts, motives, inclinations, bents, tendencies, attitudes, prejudices, and
habits of mind that run counter to the holy nature of God and His ways. They continually die to the
self-life in all its forms: selfishness, self-centeredness, self-importance, self-reliance, desire for
recognition, conceit, vainglory, self-worship, self-justification, rationalization, pride, and selfish
ambition, etc. With the overcoming ones, we can allow the forming of Christ within – our only hope of
glory.23

Paul likened us, the saints, to spiritual athletes running a race to gain a crown. 24 And in that identity, we
can lean into the crosses in our lives the way an athlete embraces physical training. A helpful daily
confession is “Lord, I take up my cross. I allow your breakings. I allow your dealings with me.”

Why must we undergo the much suffering and many breakings that accompany the Christian way? It's
because God must deliver us of control and hidden rebellion and a soul that wants its own way. God is
working to free us from inordinate self-love and bring us to wholehearted love for Him. The Father
allows pain and suffering so that we will press beyond the natural realm in our need to find the
transcendent, heavenly plane of existence in Him. In fact the wilderness struggles in the Old Testament
typify God's deliverance from carnal ways. And the wilderness time preceded the taking of Canaan.

There is a pleasure realm, a Canaan, we can know in our sojourn on earth. And it's an inward way that
takes us there. Paul wrote of this way in Colossians 3:1-3, “If then you have been raised with Christ [to
a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead], aim at and seek the [rich, eternal treasures] that
are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. And set your minds and keep them set on
what is above (the higher things), not on the things that are on earth. For [as far as this world is
concerned] you have died, and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God.” The word “above”
refers to the spiritual realm. Also a seat is a dwelling place, and Christ is now seated within us. Thus we
are directed inward to find the heavenly realm. To walk in two realms at once as Paul directs us, the
heavenly and the earthly, is to walk the way Christ walked among men. It is through this operating

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from an ascended, heavenly life that we will realize the fullness that is our inheritance in Christ.

Sowing to the Spirit

We are called to feed on that which will strengthen us in God: the Word and the Spirit. I John 2:5
teaches, “But he who keeps ... His Word [who bears in mind His precepts, who observes His message
in its entirety], truly in him has the love of and for God … reached maturity). By this we may ... (know,
recognize, and be sure) that we are in Him. To become a real “little Christ” is to become a walking,
talking “Word.” At the least every believer needs a working knowledge of the promises. Ingesting the
Word will cause us to actually become the race now being created anew that all of creation is groaning
to see. (See Romans 8:22). The Word stored in our hearts checks sin. As David wrote in Psalm 119:11,
“The Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” The idea is to allow the Word and
the Spirit's promptings to override the flesh. Romans 7:6 states, “So now we serve...[under obedience
to the promptings] of the Spirit in newness [of life].”

James teaches us about the power available from the indwelling Spirit in 4:5-6, “The Spirit Whom He
has caused to dwell in us yearns over us and He yearns for the Spirit [to be welcome] with a jealous
love. But He gives us more and more grace (power of the Holy Spirit, to meet this evil tendency and all
others fully).” The jealousy of the Spirit is a jealousy like that of a husband. We see also in I John 2:15-
17 the holy jealousy of God for our hearts. John writes, “Do not love or cherish the world or the things
that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the
world – the lust of the flesh [craving for sensual gratification] and the lust of the eyes [greedy longings
of the mind] and the pride of life [assurance in one's own resources or in the stability of earthly things]
– these do not come from the Father but are from the world [itself]. And the world passes away and
disappears, and with it the forbidden cravings (the passionate desires, the lust) of it; but he who does
the will of God and carries out His purposes in his life ... (remains) forever.” We have much to
overcome in that we are called to overcome not only the flesh, the world, and the demonic forces, but
also the carnal, western church. The overcomers, the spiritual ones, find a current of life that the
religious and the worldly in Christendom exist without.

As for warfare against demons, James 4:7 commands, “So be subject to God [submitted to the Spirit's
love-rule of the soul and body].Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you.”
The lesson is: give the adversary no ground, and you will know a victorious existence. Psalm 91
concurs. When we “dwell in the secret place” and “abide under the Almighty's shadow” i.e. live in the
place of submission to our Source, we will be inaccessible to the evil spirits. 25

In addition to warfare without, discipline is necessary to win the war within i.e. to prevail over the
flesh. Paul shares key truths for this inner war in Romans 8:12-14, “So then, brethren, we are debtors,
but not to the flesh [we are not obligated to our carnal nature], to live [a life ruled by the standards set
up by the dictates] of the flesh. For if you live according to [the dictates of] the flesh, you will surely
die. But if through [feeding on] the power of the [Holy] Spirit you are [habitually] putting to death
(making extinct, deadening) the [evil] deeds prompted by the body, you shall ... live forever. For all
who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” The disciplines are those of decreeing the Word's
truths over ourselves day in and day out and drawing on power available in the indwelling Christ. We
“cast down imaginations” and “bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” according
to 2 Corinthians 10:5. By decreeing the promises we actually “partake of the divine nature” and we
“escape...the moral decay (rottenness and corruption) that is in the world because of covetousness (lust

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and greed).”26 The light slays the flesh. Paul referred to this same practice in Galatians 5:19-21, “But I
say, walk and live [habitually] in the [Holy] Spirit [responsive to and controlled and guided by the
Spirit]; then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature
without God).” Verse 24 of Galatians 5 declares, “And those who belong to Christ Jesus (the Messiah)
have crucified the flesh (the godless human nature) with its passions and appetites and desires.” The
metaphor “to crucify the flesh” includes the thought of utter destruction accompanied with intense pain.
It's a hammering the flesh down with the Word - a forcing it to submit to the truth.

We literally sow to or build up ourselves in the Spirit through the Word, prayer, praise, and fasting. And
fasting includes not only food, but conversation time with other people, media and technological
overstimulation, shopping, etc. By contrast we sow to the flesh through watching TV and movies,
overindulging in food and sleep, coveting things, and permitting the tongue's sins (murmuring,
gossiping, slandering, lying). Paul taught that we must invest in our spiritual lives in order to realize a
return i.e. we reap what we sow. In Galatians 6:8, he states this spiritual law: “For he who sows to his
own flesh (lower nature, sensuality) will from the flesh reap decay and ruin and destruction, but he who
sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” And eternal life is the indestructible, zoe life of
God that we can flow in here and now.

The Word definitively contrasts the issuance of flesh vs. that of spirit in Galatians 5. What are the evil
deeds prompted by the body? Verses 19-21 answer: “Now the doings (practices) of the flesh are clear
(obvious): they are immorality, impurity, indecency, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger (ill
temper), selfishness, divisions (dissensions), party spirit (factions, sects with peculiar opinions,
heresies), envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like.” The Living Bible's list adds more insight, “But
when you follow your own wrong inclinations your lives will produce these evil results: impure
thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, spiritism (that is, encouraging the activity of demons),
hatred and fighting, jealousy and anger, constant effort to get the best for yourself, complaints and
criticism, the feeling that everyone else is wrong except those in your own little group—and there will
be wrong doctrine, envy, murder, drunkenness, wild parties, and all that sort of thing.” The next verses
point us to the Godliness we can know to the degree we draw on God: “But the fruit of the [Holy]
Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] is love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (an
even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness, gentleness (meekness,
humility), self-control (self-restraint, continence).” These lists challenge us. It's a principle that when
we see a promise or trait which we are not yet experiencing; we haven't gone far enough in obedience,
faith, and the knowledge of God.

Examples

The Holy Spirit often works in one area of a life at a time. The Lord will put you in situations that show
you your need of Him. You'll see the absence of the Spirit's fruit, and you will see failure from going in
your own strength. From my own life I share three arenas in which I've said yes to the cross and yes to
grace in order to increasingly attain Christlikeness. From them, I offer practical examples of how to
appropriate spiritual life. The first is patience vs. impatience, the second humility vs. pride, and the
third extending love vs. withholding love.

Patience is defined as bearing pains or trials calmly or without complaint. It is forbearance under

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provocation or strain. And it entails steadfastness despite opposition, difficulty, or adversity. Patience
encompasses waiting on God so as not to act in haste or in impetuousness. God calls us to wait for
things so He can establish His sovereignty and break our desire to be in control. I've learned that when
a situation first pushes me towards impatience, I must reckon impatience dead right at the threshold
where thoughts and emotions are surfacing. Then I must partake of the delicious life of God described
as the fruit of the Spirit. I often say aloud, “I draw on the patience of Christ within me.” And then I
choose to operate according to the Word I have stored which equips me with patience. I confess again
and again, “I run the race with patience,” or “Let patience have her perfect work.” In so doing I am able
to operate in Christ's patience by way of the Living Word even though I may not feel patient. As Christ
has been formed in me in greater degree over time, my emotions have increasingly lined up with the
person of Christ within as opposed to my old nature. Of course it was the failing of tests of patience
which caused me to store up verses pertaining to patience in the first place. God desires that we desire
to pass His “diagnostic tests” by just such storing of His Word.

One of the great producers of patience in my life was my Dad's old Dell Windows 2000 computer. We
used this computer for his eBay radio collectibles sales up until the fall of 2009. And as the computer
aged, it increasingly responded very slowly to my mouse clicks. I had to wait and wait for web pages to
come up and repeatedly had to re-boot the machine. But instead of allowing frustration and impatience
to reign, I perceived God's testing of me through the old machine. I replaced the thoughts of impatience
and the drive to hurriedly complete my work with verses which delivered patience. And over time the
over-the-hill Dell caused me to grow in patience. I learned to operate in God's pace and timing in
working with such a slow computer.

As for pride, we all have to war against it. And I admit I have labored much to see pride dethroned and
humility established in my heart. The Word teaches us that donning the role of a servant frees the soul
of pride. I Peter 5:5-6 instructs us, “Clothe (apron) yourselves, all of you, with humility [as the garb of
a servant, so that its covering cannot possibly be stripped from you, with freedom from pride and
arrogance] toward one another. For God sets Himself against the proud (the insolent, the overbearing,
the disdainful, the presumptuous, the boastful)--[and He opposes, frustrates, and defeats them], but
gives grace (favor, blessing) to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves [demote, lower yourselves in
your own estimation] under the mighty hand of God, that in due time He may exalt you.” From this
verse I've learned to confess at the first sign of any prideful swelling: “I wear the garb of a servant; I
am clothed with humility; I draw on Christ's humility.” Another helpful command is, “Soul humble
yourself before the Lord.” Sometimes I've found it necessary to force pride to bow to the Word through
repeating this command aloud over the course of a morning or afternoon. The Word voiced in faith will
prevail; it will accomplish God's purpose. 27

Because a root of pride or inordinate focus on oneself is often insecurity, I readily ask the Father to heal
any underlying insecurities when I experience pride. I've found this a very effectual prayer. It often
returns me to the place of humility. Also spending time praying for the needs of others brings swelling
in my own soul down. And confessing Philippians 2:3 out loud is also a very powerful antidote to
conceit. The verse reads: “In lowliness of mind I esteem others more highly than myself.”

Song of Songs teaches us that our hearts are the Lord's gardens. To have a suitable “garden” for Him,
we can ask Him to uproot any sin tendency that we see within. One of my prayers in response to the
presence of pride is “Lord, uproot pride, vainglory, and conceit.” Another is “Circumcise my heart; cut
away pride; go to its root.” Also I declare regarding pride that “Pride has been crucified with Christ;

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pride no longer lives, but Christ lives in me” according to Galatians 2:20. These prayers can be adapted
to any “weed” in the Eden that God desires to inhabit in each saint's heart.

Finally, entering into praise, heartfelt thanksgiving, and worship of God drives back any evil spirits
trying to draw attention to oneself or puff one up. Our default mode should be that of giving all glory
and credit to God.

I Corinthians 13 defines love as God defines it. And 1 Corinthians 14:1 directs us to “Eagerly pursue
and seek to acquire [this] love [make it your aim, your great quest].” Growth in love happens over time
as God reveals His love nature and heals the heart. A few disciplines foster such growth in love. The
first is the training of the will by continually confessing “I will” statements. I go against my natural
man by speaking over myself, “I will love the unlovely” and “I will love my enemies.” Also I direct my
heart before every gathering of Christ's saints by charging myself to “go low among the brethren, serve,
and wash feet” with words of encouragement and love. I've found that God promotes me as I go low.
And we know from the Word that He opposes ambition.

To operate in love when I do not feel love I speak within myself, “I draw on Your love for John or
Jane.” Also I ask, “Jesus, You love through me.” And I am growing in practicing thinking love thoughts
and speaking blessings over people. This exercise increases my experience of God's goodness. I also
cast down “imaginations” or mental pictures I may carry which don't agree with how the person is in
reality in Christ i.e. who and what they are like in Christ's finished work. This weapon washes my mind
and enables me to flow in God's heart for any person. We are all called to actively war to see one
another set free from bondages and dysfunction. And He has given us authority over demons and the
keys of binding and loosing with which to work. God so blesses our warfare labor.

From Ephesians 4:29-32 God reveals that withholding love grieves the Holy Spirit. Paul writes, “Let
there be no more foul language, but good words instead – words suitable for the occasion which God
can use to help other people. Never hurt the Holy Spirit. He is, remember, the Personal pledge of your
eventual full redemption. Let there be no more resentment, no more anger or temper, no more violent
self-assertiveness, no more slander and no more malicious remarks. Be kind to each other, be
understanding. Be as ready to forgive others as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.” Love calls us
to practice radical forgiveness. We are to release our debtors. We are to entrust them to the Father.

Final Thoughts

Proverbs 16:32 declares an important truth: “It's better to rule the soul than to conquer the city.” I've
learned in this taking of my own soul to keep a careful watch on my thought life. When I sense carnal
thinking beginning to block the flow of grace from within, I pray, “Lord I release You. Live and
function through me. Flow through me.” The mind is to serve the Spirit conjoined to our spirits. Our
spiritual man is to be the most developed part of us. And it's through the cross that spiritual increase
occurs.

Also I've learned to always listen for the Holy Spirit. This internal posture enables the Lord to lead me
moment by moment, hour by hour, and day by day. Furthermore I can steer my soul by my declarations
and confessions. Sometimes my soul needs this directing repeatedly; at other times just a few
pronouncements of truth will keep my soul in line with the Spirit. Though initially requiring significant

14
effort, this discipline of confessing the Word has become second nature with practice. And it enables
me to gain dominion over my soul.

Conclusion

When we fail to walk in the revelation of and experience the pleasure of union with Christ we begin to
stall in our ascent. We no longer live to know Christ – to experience God infusing Christ into us. We no
longer cooperate with God's forming of Him within. In time we see only through the lens of giving up
things. We resist the crosses put before us and eventually we slide into a religious state. The
overcoming life, though quite costly to the flesh, is a life of pleasure to the spirit. We can attain a realm
above the world, the flesh, the devil, and the Laodicean church though it is through much death and the
many crosses.

It's in the pleasure realm that we experience increasing chemistry with Christ. Hebrews 12:2 tells us
that it was for the joy of the prize of intimate marriage union with us that Christ endured the cross. In a
like way, perceiving the prize of intimacy and union with Christ will enable us to readily die to carnal
seductions.

The spiritual treasures found in Christ are much richer than material riches. They are higher, deeper,
and broader than the things of earth. In the spirit is deep fulfillment and eternal satisfaction. In Christ
we attain the mystical and the heavenly. In Him we find the fullness of the love of the Godhead – the
love we are designed for. David wrote in Psalm 16:11, “You have let me experience … the exquisite
pleasures of Your own eternal presence.” We, like David, can desire and pursue God. And God will
reward us with Himself.

Finis

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1 J. B. Phillips, transl., Letters to Young Churches, (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1955), 46.
2 Frances Siewert, transl., The Amplified Bible, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House,1987), 1342.
3 Frances Siewert, transl., The Amplified Bible, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1987), 297.
4 Living Stream Ministry Editorial Section, transl., Holy Bible The Recovery Version, (Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry,
2003), 1249.
5 Living Stream Ministry Editorial Section, transl., Holy Bible The Recovery Version,(Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry,
2003), 263.
6 Living Stream Ministry Editorial Section, transl., Holy Bible The Recovery Version, (Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry,
2003), 301.
7 Living Stream Ministry Editorial Section, transl., Holy Bible The Recovery Version, (Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry,
2003), 1318.
8 Living Stream Ministry Editorial Section, transl., Holy Bible The Recovery Version, (Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry,
2003), 814.
9 Living Stream Ministry Editorial Section, transl., Holy Bible The Recovery Version, (Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry,
2003), 1771.
10 Living Stream Ministry Editorial Section, transl., Holy Bible The Recovery Version, (Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry,
2003), 570-1.
11 Living Stream Ministry Editorial Section, transl., Holy Bible The Recovery Version, (Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry,
2003), 639-40.
12 Living Stream Ministry Editorial Section, transl., Holy Bible The Recovery Version, (Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry,
2003), 960-1, 967.
13 Frances Siewert, transl., The Amplified Bible, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1987), 1324-5.
14 Frances Siewert, transl., The Amplified Bible, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1987), 1305.
15 Robert H. Sculler, editor, Possibility Thinkers Bible, (Nashville, Camden, New York: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1984),
1237.
16 Frances Siewert, transl., The Amplified Bible, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1987), 1453.
17 Frances Siewert, transl., The Amplified Bible, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1987), 1236.
18 Frances Siewert, transl., The Amplified Bible, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1987), 1237.
19 Frances Siewert, transl., The Amplified Bible, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1987), 621.
20 Frances Siewert, transl., The Amplified Bible, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1987), 751.
21 Doug Fortune, Dawning of the Third Day, (McPherson, Kansas: Trumpet Call Ministry Inc., 2005), 126-7.
22 Frances Siewert, transl., The Amplified Bible, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1987), 1447.
23 New International Version The Holy Bible, (Colorado Springs: International Bible Society, 1984), 1022.
24 Frances Siewert, transl., The Amplified Bible, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1987), 1333.
25 Frances Siewert, transl., The Amplified Bible, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1987), 665.
26 Frances Siewert, transl., The Amplified Bible, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1987), 1458.
27 Frances Siewert, transl., The Amplified Bible, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1987), 813.