Finding Our Place in the Body

Hi, good to be with you again. I'm Brother Anthony, welcoming you to 'Bible Believers', where we focus on the PRESENT Truth - what Jesus is doing in this day.

Listeners' calls and messages are starting to come in, asking questions which provide us with a guide as to how best we may Spiritually feed those souls hungering after righteousness. Or help you to grow in the faith, because faith is counted for righteousness.

Jesus said, 'Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh indeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened'.

Notice that word is KNOCKETH, just constantly knock. If your motive and your objective, in other words, if your purpose and the way in which you're trying to accomplish that purpose are both according to God's Will, and you are abiding in His Word, ask what you will and it will be granted unto you. All you're asking for is the Word, and if you're truly born again, you are only asking for what you ARE.

Jesus is the Word, He's God manifested in flesh. The Bible says God and the soul that's joined together with God is ONE Spirit. So if you're a Christian, you're ONE with Jesus and the Father exactly as Jesus is ONE with the Father: by daith (or a clear UNDERSTANDING of the revealed Word of God), for a life lived by the Word is the Word expressed: Christ IN you, the hope of glory.

'What man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him? Therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them: for this is the Law and the prophets' (Matthew 7:7-12).

Here's where the CHURCH crowd have lost Him. We find Christ not in church buildings, not in groups of people, they lost Him when they left the Word. "If you ABIDE in Me and My Word in you, ask what you will; it'll be given to you. It'll be done for you, if YOU abide in Me and My Words abide in you," because It's God made flesh AGAIN in His saints, See? "If ye abide in Me and My Word in you, then just ask what you will, it'll be done for you." That's it. But today they're not abiding; they're this day a Methodist, tomorrow a Baptist, next day a Presbyterian; they haven't even come to the Word yet. "If My Word abide in you..." And the Word was made flesh and dwelled among us,... Hallelujah! Brother or Sister, that's so true, the Word made in your flesh, speaking through YOU (John 15:1-11).

First we must find that Word. What is the Word calling for today? Is It calling for a Reformation, or a world-wide missionary drive, or is It calling God's people out from worldly denominationalism into agreement with the fullness of the Word, for the manifestation of the Sons of God and the translation?

Are we at the beginning of the Book, in the middle, or at the very end? Anyone who is a genuine Christian will know these things of a certainty, because Jesus promised faithfully, the evidence of the new birth, or being a genuine Christian, is that the Holy Spirit will guide God's elect into ALL the Truth for their day, and show them things that will come to pass in their day (John 16:13).

If we don't know these things, how can we say we're Christians at all? Unless we know these things and can see them coming to pass in our lives, how do we know we're not just church members? And membership of some church does not make one a Christian.

So we have to ASK, SEEK and KNOCK if we expect to find and receive God's secrets. And unless we're CONSTANTLY in the Word examining our understanding and matching our lives with the Bible promises for THIS day, how are we going to know what to ask for? How shall we know what to seek after?

Christ is building His Kingdom on FAITH. But as Paul taught, the Body of Christ is not all nose, or all mouth, or legs. Like your body, It's made up of many different Members.

The Body of Christ is BORN just as you were born. You came into the Smith family or the Brown family by a BIRTH through holy wedlock. You didn't just JOIN your family. And you could not be born into your NATURAL family by the marriage of your grandparents or great grandparents, you could only be born into the family by the union of your mother and father. Neither can you JOIN God's Family. You have to be BORN into It SPIRITUALLY, and by faith in the Word spoken for YOUR day. Learning HISTORY, or the Word for a day gone by can NOT birth you into Christ in THIS day.

If Grandma IS a Christian, she was born into god's family by faith in the revealed Word for her day. The PRESENT Truth was NOT known when she was born-again. No more than Moses' Message was known to Noah, or Luther could have preached Wesley's Message. It was not REVEALED to them in THEIR day.

Grandma became a written epistle of the Word for HER day. It would be rather peculiar if she'd lived the Word for some BYGONE day, or if she'd acted out the Word God has declared for the FUTURE. Like you and I, Grandma had to recognize HER day and fulfill HER part of the Word.

But if Grandma WAS a saint, she represented part of the Body that is already made up. It's complete, finished! What gave Grandma the new birth WON'T work for YOU in THIS day. We've got to find OUR place IN the Book, just as we have to see Luther's Part, and what God ordained for Wesley and John the Baptist. Otherwise, how will we know WHAT PART of the Word is ALREADY fulfilled, and what God has ordained for US to fulfill?

Suppose we thought God was sending a world-wide revival. We'd be back in the Church Ages, and it wouldn't be right. We may have sought HIS Word for OUR OWN will. But it shows we haven't searched the Word for HIS will. There's NO revival promised for THIS day. God's Bible promised a 'falling away', an apostasy for THIS day.

God promised an APOSTASY. And He promised to send a PROPHET with a MESSAGE that would RESTORE the apostolic faith, FINISH the mystery of God, and call His elect OUT from ALL man-made systems into one-ness with the FULLNESS of the Word for the manifestation of the Sons of God and the translation.

God promised to DESTROY all life on earth in OUR day. SEEK and ye SHALL find. SEARCH the Scriptures, Jesus said, for in them you THINK you have eternal Life and these are they that testify of ME. These are they which said, the generation that saw Israel restored to the Homeland shall not die of old age until the Millennium is established. And Armageddon comes BEFORE the Millennium.

Yes, we're SO late in the day. And there's NOT one denominational church anticipating and preaching the Millennium.

God promised APOSTASY, not REVIVAL, for this day. We must ASK, and SEEK, and KNOCK for the faith. Learning is NOT good enough. We can have Bible knowledge and NOT have faith.

Now, you know me as a brother, a minister, and I know you as a brother or sister. We know Him as God, that unseen Person, by a gift called FAITH. Now God doesn't SEE me, He just HEARS my voice through the Blood of Jesus. He doesn't SEE me, He HEARS my voice. That Blood there is to represent what I ask. See? Then He HEARS my voice, but He SEES only the Blood. He doesn't SEE me, so I can't be DIRTY when I'm under the Blood. The Blood CLEANSES. See, He's the COVERING between me and God, and He promised, "Ask the Father anything in My Name, I'll do it." Do you believe that to be true?

How do we get UNDER the Blood? Get INTO Christ. But how do we get into Christ? By becoming a MANIFESTATION of the Spirit TODAY. How? By laying aside YOUR thoughts and allowing God's thoughts, which is His Word, to do what the Bible said It would do in THIS day. And if we're walking in the Light AS He is in the Light, we have fellowship with oneanother, and the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from ALL sin, or all unbelief in the revealed Word'.

When you are born-again, you and the Word are ONE. You're the SAME thing. So you can ask what you will and it'll be given unto you.

Jesus said, 'If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ASK Him' (Matthew 7:11).

Look how your earthly parent made ready for your coming before you were born. Just think of that. And your earthly parent, is only a TYPE of your heavenly Parent. "If WE know how to give good gifts to OUR children, how much more does your HEAVENLY Father know how to give good gifts to HIS children." Jesus spoke these words.

See, they made ready your coming. They made a little cot, got some little booties, and little clothes, and so forth. They prepared everything for you before you came on the earth. And Jesus has gone to make ready for our coming there.

But we'll only BE There IF we seek AND persist until we receive the Promises of God for THIS day.

Now notice: "In My Father's house are many mansions." Or to bring out a point. "In My Father's house are many KINDS of mansions." I don't believe that when we get to Heaven, that everybody will look exactly alike. I don't believe all will be brunettes, or blonds, or little, or all big, or all giants. I believe that God is a God of variety. The world proves that. He's got big mountains and little mountains; He's got plains; He's got deserts; He's got different things, because He made it the way He wanted it. And He made the seasons: summer, winter, spring, autumn. He made the seasons. It shows He's a God of variety. He made you in a variety.

But remember, these temporal gifts are only a type.

We know that Moses in building the tabernacle in the wilderness, made all things after the order of what he saw in Heaven. See? So earthly things only express what the eternal things are. And if this earth that we live in today, being so great, as we love it and love to live and breathe the air, and see the flowers and things, if this one that's DYING is only expressing one that's eternal, how wonderful will REALITY be?

When you see a tree struggling, pulling, trying to live, it means there's a tree somewhere that doesn't have to do that. When you see a man here, struggling to live, somebody in a hospital, or on a sick bed, or in an accident, struggling and the death rattles in their throat, and pulling and crying and screaming for life, what does that mean? There's a place somewhere; there's a body that DOESN'T struggle and scream for that. See?

Now, these are TEMPORAL gifts to us, these things, demonstrating that there's one which is eternal. The place that Jesus has gone away to prepare, the eternal one for US. Remember, the Bible said, "If this earthly tabernacle of our dwelling perish, or be dissolved, we have one ALREADY waiting."

Like a little baby, it's little muscles are twisting and turning in the mother. And you notice, you can take a woman, who is ever so foul, but when she's to become a mother, a little while before that baby's born, there's a kindness about the woman. Get around her. There's always something. She's more tender. Why? There's a little angel spirit waiting to receive that natural body. Just as soon as it's born, the breath of life comes into it; God breathes it in there, and it becomes a living soul. Now, just as this baby is being born, the spiritual body is there to receive it. And now, when OUR mortal body's dropped here in this earth, like the baby's dropped, there is an IMMORTAL body waiting to receive the spirit BACK into itself again.

Oh, what a great thing! We are now IN Christ Jesus (Amen!), Spirit babies, babes in Christ, children of God, waiting for the full deliverance at the coming of our Lord Jesus to receive us up unto Himself, when the body, this mortal, will take on immortality.

All things of this earthly life express things that are to come. Just as the body He gave you to live in only shows that there is one greater that's yet to come. See? If we have borne the image of the earthly, we also shall bear the image of the heavenly which holds none of the evils of the one in which we live now. Now this one does hold evil, sickness, death and sorrow. This body has got evil in it, and all this modern civilization that we live in is of the devil. You don't believe that? The Bible says it is.

We don't want to believe that, but the Bible plainly states that every government, every kingdom of the earth is owned by the Devil and ruled by the Devil. Jesus was taken by Satan and shown all the kingdoms of the world that ever would be; Satan claimed them to be his, and Jesus never argued with him, because Satan is the god of this world.

He said, "I'll give them to you if you'll fall down and worship me." He was trying to give them over to Jesus WITHOUT sacrifice. See? It was a bargain that he was going to make Him. But the world had sinned, and the penalty of sin was death, and He had to die. That's why God was manifested in flesh so He could take death upon Himself to pay the penalty.

It's absolutely freely paid! All of the debt's paid. It belongs to Him now. We're delegates of His Kingdom assembled here together in the Name of Jesus Christ, our King, seated in heavenly places.

***

'ASK, and it SHALL be given you; SEEK, and you SHALL find; KNOCK, and it SHALL be opened unto you: For every one that asketh RECEIVETH; and he that seeketh FINDETH; and to him that KNOCKETH it SHALL be opened'.

He careth for you, cast your cares upon Jesus, for He careth for you. It's the Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. Jesus is not WILLING that ANY should perish but that ALL should have eternal Life. It's there waiting for you to take hold of this morning. It's FREE and abundant, and It's for whomsoever will. You've just got to WANT It so earnestly that you're prepared to lay aside all other desires to seek HIS Will, and see THAT part of the Word manifesting through YOU.

Remember, if you ask anything in MY Name, said Jesus, I'll DO it. If you say to this mountain, be moved, and don't doubt in your heart, it'll be moved.

Now PLEASE don't get this radio station into trouble by moving the Blue Mountains to Manly. Remember John 5:19. Jesus couldn't heal the fly on the wall UNLESS the Father showed it to him in a vision or inspired it to His heart. Jesus was NOT a showman. He did NOT heal EVERY sick person He encountered. At the Pool of Bethesda was an impotent man together with HUNDREDS of others, waiting upon the movement of the waters. Jesus healed only that ONE man.

Jesus was under pre-eminence. He did ONLY what the Father showed Him and spoke ONLY what He heard from the Father. Jesus is OUR example. We're to bring ourselves under pre-eminence to the Holy Spirit in US. Remember, the Holy Spirit wrote the Bible, Jesus was empowered with the FULLNESS of the Holy Spirit. And He spoke ONLY by the Holy Spirit.

When WE are as yielded to the Spirit as Jesus was, we will remain silent UNTIL we hear from the Spirit. And during the manifestation of the Sons of God, what WE speak, God will do - even if He DOES have to move mountains. Because they will not be OUR thoughts we express; they will be HIS thoughts.

So, we lay aside ALL things, even our necessary meat, in order to gain the FAITH. REVELATION, the MIND of God in US. And to ABIDE in that faith and not go rushing off after our own bright ideas.

Now remember this. Christ in the True Church is a CONTINUATION of the Book of ACTS to THIS day. But the Book of REVELATION shows HOW the ANTICHRIST spirit would come into the church and DEFILE it, making it LUKEWARM, FORMAL and POWERLESS. It EXPOSES Satan, and reveals his works (the attempted destruction of God's people and the discrediting of God's Word) right down to the time he is cast into the Lake of Fire. He FIGHTS that. He cannot STAND it. He knows that if the people get the TRUE REVELATION of the TRUE CHURCH and what she IS, what she stands for and that She CAN do the greater works, she'll be an INVINCIBLE army. If they get a TRUE revelation of the TWO spirits WITHIN the framework of the Christian church, and by God's Spirit DISCERN and WITHSTAND the antichrist spirit, Satan will be powerless before her. He will be as definitely thwarted today as when Christ withstood his every effort to gain power over Him in the desert. Yes, Satan HATES revelation. But we LOVE it. With TRUE revelation in our lives, the gates of hell CANNOT prevail against us, but WE will prevail over them.

NOT by might, NOT by power, but by the Spirit of God: Faith!

Faith is like gold. One has to DIG, SEEK, ASK, PERSIST in It. Like the widow woman who needed to be avenged of her adversary and for a while the UNJUST judge ignored her. But afterward he said in his heart, "Though I fear not God, nor regard man; yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she wearies me".

So long as you are CERTAIN of your motive AND your objective, are ABIDING in His Word and His Word is abiding in you, PERSIST with God in prayer. He will answer, reveal the Light, and provide for your NEEDS. Not your WANTS, now.

James 4:2-8 'You LUST, and have NOT: you kill, and DESIRE to HAVE, and cannot OBTAIN: you fight and war, yet you HAVE not, because you ASK not. You ASK, and receive NOT, because you ask AMISS, that you may consume it upon your LUSTS.

You adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the ENEMY of God. Do you think that the Scripture says in vain, The MORTAL spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?

But He giveth MORE grace. Wherefore He saith, God RESISTETH the proud, but giveth GRACE unto the humble. SUBMIT yourselves therefore to God. RESIST the Devil, and he will flee from you.

Draw NIGH to God, and he will draw NIGH to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded'.

So let us SEEK those things that are ABOVE and NOT those things that are below. Ask wanting GOD'S Will. Seek HIS purpose. Let us not ask amiss but be sure we are asking according to HIS will.

***

I'm reading a book called, 'Advance Australia Where'? by John Smith. I'd like to share some of his comments on Mark 5. He calls it, 'the story of a lady with an identity crisis. If it had only been a problem with sickness (she WAS in need of physical healing) she would have had no embarrassment about asking Jesus to heal her. But she timidly sneaks up and touches the hem of His clothing and hopes like crazy no one will notice. Jesus notices, however, and calls her out in front of the crowd, and she comes shaking like a leaf.

This lady had had twelve years of chronic illness. It was embarrassing in nature - a continual menstrual haemorrhage - and in those days a woman with menstrual bleeding was regarded as unclean. Anyone who touched her, or anything she sat on or lay on, was unclean as well. So when she touched Jesus, He too would be unclean until evening. No wonder she didn't want anyone to know about it. Twelve years of failure, of doctors and paying bills and getting nowhere: Mark tells us that she had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and spent everything she had, but instead of getting better she grew worse. Her life was a failure by prevailing social standards.

The greatest CAUSE of inferiority is FAILURE ... and WE are often crippled by childhood experiences.

The ANSWER to an inferiority complex, or an identity crisis, or a poor self-image, is to KNOW the ONE Who ALONE gives identity to the universe. You will know WHO you are, and it won't matter what anyone else thinks. You can RESET your course in life, and LIVE.

When the lady with the haemorrhage sneaked up and touched Jesus, He said, "Who touched Me?" "What do you mean?" asked His disciples. "There are people crowding all around You".

"No", said Jesus, "I am not talking about people bumping Me around. Someone touched Me". Jesus kept looking around to see who had touched Him, until the woman came out in front of everybody. He didn't want her to go off physically healed but mentally looking at the ground. He wanted her to leave in FAITH and COURAGE and REALITY. So He said, "Daughter, YOUR FAITH has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering". He AFFIRMED her in front of the crowd for her FAITH. He assured her that she was NOT a beaten little woman with a horrible disease, and He sent her away in peace".

OUR identity is not based on our performance, but on what HE has made us. Society has sold us a massive lie. We ARE significant, HOWEVER we behave. That is WHY God judges sin - because it IS significant. "Your value is SO great," says the Father, "that My Son died for you". Not just to show us our sinfulness, but to show us our POSSIBILITIES.'

Anyone on the 'Net can call Bible Believers', 24-hours a day, seven-days a week. Freeware Bibles, Concordances, Books, Bible games and much, much more is available for download. Users may participate in Conferences with other believers across Australia and throughout the world, for the cost of a local call.

We have time to review only ONE letter from the BBS. It's a real loo loo. One might laugh were it not a matter of Life, or DEATH.

Here's what one person wrote:-

There are THREE Gods - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. I replied:-

Not according to YOUR Bible, Brother. You will not find a 'God the Son' in any translation. Jesus is the Son 'of' God, the first adopted or placed of MANY Sons. I am one of many others. Jesus is the FIRSTBORN of ALL the sons in the creation of God.

John 1:1-3, 14 teaches us that the Bible is the story of God changing His Form from the eternal Spirit ALONE with His thoughts by faith in the spoken Word, to the manifestation of those thoughts in the glorified flesh of His Family.

Jesus Christ is the beginning of the creation of God. The firstborn of MANY from the dead. And genuine Christians are joint heirs with Him.

I hope YOU can see the revelation. Firstly, there is NO such term in ANY Bible as God the Father, God the Son, or GOD the Holy Ghost- it is NOT there. It is PRESUMED to be there but it is NOT. And to PRESUME to interpret God's Word is SIN and death. Deuteronomy 18:20, 'But the prophet, which shall PRESUME to speak a word in My Name, which I have not COMMANDED him to speak... even that prophet shall DIE'. radio010.html

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