The True Gospel Comes by Revelation
You do not "figure out" the Gospel. You only know it when it is revealed to you. Moses was contemplating "Jethro," the increase and expansion of things, and went off on the tangent of God's hand in it. Then Jesus Christ revealed, "I'm doing it" (Exodus 3: 14, my translation).
I wanted, or at least I was told that I should ask for, the gift of tongues. I was told that Jesus would enable me to speak in another language if I gave him my lips. I had no idea how that would work out in practice, but I had heard several people (almost all, actually) at the House of Praise in Kaimuki speaking in tongues. So I was game and, kneeling to pray before a folding chair, I gave the Lord my lips and asked him to give me the gift of tongues.
Nothing happened, so I gave the Lord my tongue, specifically. Then I gave the Lord my whole jaw, my whole mouth, my larynx, my muscles, my breath, my volition to speak, my life, my future, any children I might have in the future.
Nothing happened. It was no use; I was REJECTED by Jesus. He wouldn't touch me with a ten-foot pole. Why? This was my "burning bush": I had to turn aside to investigate what this strange sight was--why Jesus was refusing to touch me.
And then I entered revelation, a vision of why I was rejected of God. I saw mud scooped from the earth made in to living man facing me; he turned around to look the same direction I was looking, and I wondered what this freshly made man must be thinking. Through his eyes I saw his hands and feet as he looked down. "I am a man," he thought. He looked at the soil stretching out before him to the hills in the distance. "This is earth. Day. The sun will set and it will get cold. I'd better find shelter in the hills."
His feet moved at a good pace, and soon the hillsides were immediate. "Maybe I can find a cave to be safe in. I had better find some firewood." We looked around for caves and firewood. "I had better find food, too. How do I know what plants are edible?" I wondered. I had to prioritize what I had to do before nightfall: Cave first or gather firewood? Gather food now or plant for food to grow for tomorrow? I had a lot of concerns to take care of, and I hustled off to do them as quickly as possible. I had become me, and I had to take care of "my" life.
"MY" life. The thought cut me to the quick. As the man, I had no life. I mean, he was living, but he hadn't had Life until he was imbued with God's spirit. As the human I had taken the Life God gave me and used it for whatever I had seen fit to do. I had been given Life by the grace of God . . . and I hadn't a clue as to what he had made me to live FOR. He must have had a reason to have made me and to make me live. What was the purpose for which he had intended me to fulfill?
I realized that I was in rebellion--rebellion as witchcraft. I had done whatever I wanted to do with absolutely no regard for what God wanted me to do. I hadn't even so much as thanked God for the Life. I HAD NEVER TURNED AROUND AND ASKED GOD, "WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?"
I could not make amends for the loss of 25 years, but I could stop my rebellion. I had been in control of myself, so self-lordship had to go! I knew I might fall flat on my face if I did it, but I cast all control of myself out of myself. THIS was the spiritual talent I had been sent into the occult to learn. In complete release, I floated. If I fell flat on my face or onto the floor as a blob of jelly, I did not care. I didn't concern myself with that. Everywhere I had control--I abdicated.
And I did not fall. I was overjoyed that he had caught me. I wasn't consciously holding myself up. I pictured myself kneeling not at a folding chair but at the side of a large felled pine tree. The Glory of God filled the open sky above me, and I acknowledged that He owned me: "You are glorious God. I am mud. Whatever you want me to do, THAT is what I will do."
The juxtaposition was clear in my head: He is Glorious God--I am a mud-man. And then a voice so faint and soft I could barely hear, "Remember this, and it is all right." All right. I was accepted.
Yes, I spoke in tongues from then on. You can not imagine the joy and appreciation and gratitude and adoration I felt in that ecstasy. But that is not my point. My point is that I still thought I was the mud-man. I am not. As I have gone over the course of the event in my memory time and time again, I remember imagining the imagination of the mud-man. I wasn't him: I BECAME him. I believe that I was the Life given to make him a living being: I am not the animated, I am the animator. At least the Life given that is my consciousness is, and THERE IS NO DIVISION. My dumb me and God are one.
THAT is the Gospel I received by revelation. That is the Gospel Moses received by revelation, and it is the Gospel message of the Bible. We are all one thing, and it is imagining. We were imagining pretty good, but not perfectly as the Ineffable. This is our improvement program. We were sent here to "die" here, to learn how to imagine perfectly as the Ineffable: "He consecrated for human beings to die one season, and after their death, one judgment" (Hebrews 9: 27-28, Victor Alexander's translation from the ancient Aramaic).
One judgment. Oh, how I want that. To imagine as the Ineffable. It is not the dying of the human's life; it is the dying of not-Ineffable attitudes. The Law is for learning the right ones, not for accruing possessions. A noble, comfortable, right life, fine. Investing thought for friends, wonderful. Investing thoughts for enemies, even better.
What if the church had even a clue as to what the true Gospel is. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Let's hope they find Jesus Christ, and it be revealed to them. Hey, let's imagine THAT.
I wanted, or at least I was told that I should ask for, the gift of tongues. I was told that Jesus would enable me to speak in another language if I gave him my lips. I had no idea how that would work out in practice, but I had heard several people (almost all, actually) at the House of Praise in Kaimuki speaking in tongues. So I was game and, kneeling to pray before a folding chair, I gave the Lord my lips and asked him to give me the gift of tongues.
Nothing happened, so I gave the Lord my tongue, specifically. Then I gave the Lord my whole jaw, my whole mouth, my larynx, my muscles, my breath, my volition to speak, my life, my future, any children I might have in the future.
Nothing happened. It was no use; I was REJECTED by Jesus. He wouldn't touch me with a ten-foot pole. Why? This was my "burning bush": I had to turn aside to investigate what this strange sight was--why Jesus was refusing to touch me.
And then I entered revelation, a vision of why I was rejected of God. I saw mud scooped from the earth made in to living man facing me; he turned around to look the same direction I was looking, and I wondered what this freshly made man must be thinking. Through his eyes I saw his hands and feet as he looked down. "I am a man," he thought. He looked at the soil stretching out before him to the hills in the distance. "This is earth. Day. The sun will set and it will get cold. I'd better find shelter in the hills."
His feet moved at a good pace, and soon the hillsides were immediate. "Maybe I can find a cave to be safe in. I had better find some firewood." We looked around for caves and firewood. "I had better find food, too. How do I know what plants are edible?" I wondered. I had to prioritize what I had to do before nightfall: Cave first or gather firewood? Gather food now or plant for food to grow for tomorrow? I had a lot of concerns to take care of, and I hustled off to do them as quickly as possible. I had become me, and I had to take care of "my" life.
"MY" life. The thought cut me to the quick. As the man, I had no life. I mean, he was living, but he hadn't had Life until he was imbued with God's spirit. As the human I had taken the Life God gave me and used it for whatever I had seen fit to do. I had been given Life by the grace of God . . . and I hadn't a clue as to what he had made me to live FOR. He must have had a reason to have made me and to make me live. What was the purpose for which he had intended me to fulfill?
I realized that I was in rebellion--rebellion as witchcraft. I had done whatever I wanted to do with absolutely no regard for what God wanted me to do. I hadn't even so much as thanked God for the Life. I HAD NEVER TURNED AROUND AND ASKED GOD, "WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?"
I could not make amends for the loss of 25 years, but I could stop my rebellion. I had been in control of myself, so self-lordship had to go! I knew I might fall flat on my face if I did it, but I cast all control of myself out of myself. THIS was the spiritual talent I had been sent into the occult to learn. In complete release, I floated. If I fell flat on my face or onto the floor as a blob of jelly, I did not care. I didn't concern myself with that. Everywhere I had control--I abdicated.
And I did not fall. I was overjoyed that he had caught me. I wasn't consciously holding myself up. I pictured myself kneeling not at a folding chair but at the side of a large felled pine tree. The Glory of God filled the open sky above me, and I acknowledged that He owned me: "You are glorious God. I am mud. Whatever you want me to do, THAT is what I will do."
The juxtaposition was clear in my head: He is Glorious God--I am a mud-man. And then a voice so faint and soft I could barely hear, "Remember this, and it is all right." All right. I was accepted.
Yes, I spoke in tongues from then on. You can not imagine the joy and appreciation and gratitude and adoration I felt in that ecstasy. But that is not my point. My point is that I still thought I was the mud-man. I am not. As I have gone over the course of the event in my memory time and time again, I remember imagining the imagination of the mud-man. I wasn't him: I BECAME him. I believe that I was the Life given to make him a living being: I am not the animated, I am the animator. At least the Life given that is my consciousness is, and THERE IS NO DIVISION. My dumb me and God are one.
THAT is the Gospel I received by revelation. That is the Gospel Moses received by revelation, and it is the Gospel message of the Bible. We are all one thing, and it is imagining. We were imagining pretty good, but not perfectly as the Ineffable. This is our improvement program. We were sent here to "die" here, to learn how to imagine perfectly as the Ineffable: "He consecrated for human beings to die one season, and after their death, one judgment" (Hebrews 9: 27-28, Victor Alexander's translation from the ancient Aramaic).
One judgment. Oh, how I want that. To imagine as the Ineffable. It is not the dying of the human's life; it is the dying of not-Ineffable attitudes. The Law is for learning the right ones, not for accruing possessions. A noble, comfortable, right life, fine. Investing thought for friends, wonderful. Investing thoughts for enemies, even better.
What if the church had even a clue as to what the true Gospel is. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Let's hope they find Jesus Christ, and it be revealed to them. Hey, let's imagine THAT.
posted by Daniel C. Branham-Steele at
2:20 AM
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