The Two Are One

2/15/1995

Well, let me tie one more thing together about that nature of that leap. When Nick said, “How do you finish this sentence? The Father’s preeminent desire is the maturity of Nick or the maturity of Tim or Joel. No, the Father’s consuming desire, or preeminent thought, has to do with His church. Well, the thing I would have filled in the black with is, the father’s preeminent thought is His Son. But you see, there’s no difference. There’s no difference. If you can capture that thought, you have all the faith you need to sustain you. If you can just capture that one little thought, that the Father’s consuming zeal, His preeminent thought, is always about His Son and His preeminent thought, His consuming zeal is always about the body of Christ, the Church. When those two things line up in you heart and mind and you begin to truly discern the body, you’ve got no more problems. There is no competition.

What the Father’s after is the Son being glorified and manifested and freed to be all that He is, to reign over all the Earth. And you are that body. You are that Church. You are the Christ, is what First Corinthians says. Speaking of the Church, it calls it the Christ. I want you to see that the Father isn’t picking and choosing, and that when someone talks about pouring their heart into wrestling to present everyone perfect, fulfilling in themselves, all the sufferings that were lacking for the sake of the church. When they speak of being in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in believers. They’re not competing with their love of Jesus. It’s the same thing. It is Jesus. This isn’t just poetic terminology, that the body of Christ that means it’s like the body of a car. It’s a grouping that hangs together, or something like that. Really He is speaking in clear terms, again and again in the scriptures. When the Father looks down, the Father loves the Son. And we are that Son.

It’s a mystery. The mystery of incarnation is great. It’s a mystery, a fabulous deep mystery. That when you just look at yourself, or you look at a task or a movement, a thing to be accomplished, either of those things falls short of the Father’s mind toward it all, when He sees the body of Christ. He sees exactly what He says He sees. Putting on Christ. He is really, literally seeing His Son, and the Father sees His Son. The consuming thought on the Father’s mind is freeing His Son to be all that He was ever meant to be. Showing His love. Pouring forth His love. Pouring forth His gifts on His Son. Enabling His Son. Loving His Son. Caring for His Son. Communicating with His Son. Fellowshipping with His Son. Allowing the Son to put all the Father’s enemies under His feet. That’s why it says in Romans 16, “I will soon put all of God’s enemies under your feet.” Well, I thought it was under Jesus’ feet? Wasn’t that the prophesy in Genesis 3? In God’s heart and mind there’s something very spectacular about what we’re touching on. It’s not a competition. It’s not just loving the Bride instead of the bridegroom. All that stuff is very cheap.

If you don’t discern the body your going to view it as, “well I’m just in love with Jesus. And I just want to be consumed with Him, and all this other stuff is just getting in the way, all these people. All this trouble, all these difficulties, all these challenges, all these people just getting in my way of really loving God, and worshipping, and all that.” But you see, the Father loves the Son. And so do we need to love the Son. As the Father’s preeminent heart and mind, His consuming zeal is for His Son all His love is poured out on Immanuel, on His Son. So also is the Body of Christ. Because the two have become one. That’s God’s heart. That’s what drives us. That’s why all these things are wrapped together very tightly. It’s our consuming love for the Son that allows us to have a consuming love for one another and to not falter and to not be disappointed until His name is established and every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus is Lord.

Father, I ask that as your Son came not as the first Adam that brought physical life, but as a second Adam that was a life-giving spirit. We ask that you would impart a spirit of revelation to us that all of these things would be summed up in Christ in the purest, and the simplest, and the freshest, and most powerful way. That we would see that just as you desperately love your Son you also for the same reason, because the two are one, you desperately love your people, the church, the Body of Christ. And as we go through our daily issues of life, as we come up against obstacles and frustrations and various judgments rise up in our heart or inconveniences or things that we feel like are unfair, whatever those things may be. Father show us your Son. Show us what you see when you look on the Body of Christ. And help us to love the Son as you love the Son. And to function accordingly. To have a zeal that the Son be set free, to be Lord of Heaven and Earth, to be all that He was granted to be by your Promise, by your word.

Father, please sum all of these things up together in our hearts, draw them all up into your desperate love for your Son and how our daily affairs are very related to that and not a separate thing, not a competition in any way. Our love for the Body of Christ is not a competition to the love of Christ if we see it the way you see it. Father, please help us to see it the way you see it. Amen