We Are Nothing

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We always have to remember that the Word of the Lord is our guide and our shield. He’s our buckler, and it’s always in Him that we triumph. Praise the Lord, who always gives us the victory in Christ. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even your faith. Jesus said, “I can do nothing of Myself.” You and I should always remember, that we as people, as individuals, cannot do anything of ourselves. Even if you went so far as to give your body to be burned, the Bible says that it would profit you nothing. So all of your efforts, whatever you may say or whatever you may do, profiteth nothing, and when you measure yourself to God, the Bible says that you profiteth nothing. The flesh profiteth nothing, and you are but flesh and bones.

So then, we are but flesh and bones, and we have an appointment with death. There is a time to be born and a time to die. You have an appointment with death, and there is nothing that you can do, for the Bible says that the spirit that dwelleth in you lusteth unto envy. That is to say, it’s always envious of somebody or something. If they seem to be somewhat in appearance, or they seem to be somewhat, as to having money or an education or a position or whatever, then you lust unto envy. Your spirit is always envious of them. Then, there’s the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, and the Bible says that the world thereof passes away, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.

I can do nothing of myself, and you can do nothing of yourself. We’re simply people that are born into the world to die and be thrown into a hole. Unless we’re translated, unless we reach that perfect place with God, as to His satisfaction, we don’t come out of that hole until a thousand years has expired, at the end of this world as to the millennium. The wicked dead live not again until the thousand years are finished, and we don’t come out of that hole unless we are Christians. For one thousand years, we lay in that hole, and then God picks up the wicked and makes them stand before Him at the judgment, and then casts them into the lake of fire.

So when you die, or lay down to sleep, you are a finished product as to what you’re going to be: whether thirty-fold, sixty-fold, or hundred-fold. You’re either wicked or righteous. In that day, God will let your spirit re-enter into your body, and then that spirit will stand before the God of spirits, the Father of spirits, and you will give an account for every deed that you ever did as an angelic being while you tabernacled in that house of clay. Not only will you give an account for every deed that your spirit has done while it tabernacled in that house of clay, but you will give an account for every thought that ever passed through your mind. Paul said, “God will judge the secrets of men’s heart by this gospel that I preach.” That’s why the Bible says that every thought should be brought into subjection to the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says that by our own words we shall be justified, or by our own words we shall be condemned, for whatsoever a man speaketh cometh from his heart Out of the heart comes forth either truth and righteousness, thoughts unto salvation and worship, or out of the heart comes forth evil thoughts of adultery, fornication, lying, and blasphemy. These kinds of thoughts condemn a man because they defile the man. The Bible says that ye are the temples of God, and if you think the wrong thoughts, then are you defiled, and if you be defiled, then the Bible says that God will destroy you, for the Holy Spirit cannot live in a defiled temple. You defile your temple by your thoughts if they’re unrighteous thoughts.

The thoughts of the righteous are pure. They’re more pure than gold tried in the furnace seven times. But if your thoughts aren’t righteous, then they are wicked, and the Bible teaches that good water and bad water cannot come forth from the same fountain. You either make the tree good or bad, because good fruit and bad fruit don’t come forth from the same tree. The tree is known according to its fruit, for its fruit is according to its nature. So, you cannot have good thoughts and bad thoughts. They do not mix. They do not come forth from the same individual. If you have bad ones, that means you don’t have good ones, and if you have good ones, that means that you don’t have bad ones. From the heart comes forth one kind of thinking and that’s all there is. That’s why the Bible says to do thy diligence to keep thine heart, for out of it comes forth the issues of life. As from the newspaper office comes forth the issues of the paper, and what is contained within that paper, and what is going on in the world of today.

Out of your heart comes forth the daily issues of what you are, what you believe, what you think, or what you are doing. A child is known by his doings. So, if it comes out of your heart, that is the issue as to the declaration of your life, whether good or bad. The Bible says to make the tree good, for it’s known by its fruits, and if it is not good, the Bible says that the axe is laid to the root of the tree, and that which is wretched is cut down. That’s why John the Baptist said, “The axe is laid to the root of the tree.” It was time to cut down the old tree of knowledge and do away with it forever, from Calvary all the way back to the garden where it got started, as to that old intellectual thing of death. It was also cut down, as to the future, of everyone that did not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, for they that are fallen from grace are under the law. It continues on until the coming of the Lord Jesus. This tree is cut down in the sight of God. It is corrupt and it is done away with, and it is to be gathered and thrown into the fire.

It was substantiated at Calvary, even as it was before the foundation of the world in the mind of God unto the elect. It was established when the veil was rent in twain, and it confirmed that the righteous were righteous eternally. They were righteous from Calvary right on out through eternity, and have always been righteous in the mind of God. God had preserved them even back under the law, who were the predestinated that could not come to their perfection without us, until that which is perfect had come, which is Calvary, as to when Jesus went down into the heart of the earth to them that slept to bring them perfection. In that our day had come, He that is perfect was then on the scene" and He that was perfect could go down to them" and His blood then would atone for them" and His Spirit would be in their hearts, even as it’s in our hearts today to make us all one.

As I said, as individuals, we’re nothing. We’re not each other’s master. We’re not each other’s lord. We’re not great and mighty and preeminent as some of us like to think, that we know more, and we’re farther along than somebody else, and we’re better than somebody else. Jesus wiped all that away when He dealt with the Pharisees and the scribes, rejecting their self-righteousness, and He made us all equal, and the equality was in His first declaration that you profiteth nothing. You are altogether vanity. All of you have sinned. All of you have gone your own way. All of you have done your own thing, and your thoughts are continually evil. The Bible says that God looked down from heaven and saw that there was none good, no not one.

So, He made us all equal. Then He came back with the Word of righteousness to those that would believe and receive His Spirit, and again, He made us all equal. He said, “It’s not of your works, nor of your righteousness, lest one of you might lord over another or, boast, but righteousness is of God. It’s of Me, and by what I am saying, I make you righteous, and what I say to one, I say to all.” God has perfected forever them that are sanctified, and sanctified them once and for all by the offering up of the body of the Lord Jesus at Calvary.

Someone would ask, “If that be the case, why is there thirty-fold, sixty-fold and a hundred-fold?” When the Bible says that there’s thirty-fold, sixty-fold, and hundred-fold, it has nothing to do with your righteousness. You are just exactly what He made you and that’s all. The Bible says that He hath dealt unto every man the measure of faith, and He dealt the measure of faith unto man according to their several ability. That is, whatever you are willing to surrender to, or whatever they are willing to receive. So your thirty-fold, sixty-fold, hundred-fold only has to do with your submission, receiving what He appropriated for you at Calvary, and whether you want to give yourself as to thirty-fold, sixty-fold, or go on with a full surrender to let Christ live in your life. It has nothing to do with you, not at all, not one tiny iota as to making you holy or godly or righteous as to your works, as to your efforts.

So then, you know that you’re nothing, and I know that I am nothing. We’re all even. We start off on the scale of nothing. Now, we look to Him who is everything. He is my redeemer, and He is my Savior. The Bible says that when He, my life, appears, I shall be like Him. He is my righteousness. He is my God. He is my everything. As long as I don’t think I’m anything, then I’m all right. As long as I don’t accredit anything to me, then I am in good shape. I accredit everything to Him, and realize that my comparison with Him is that I am a filthy rag. But if I accept His righteousness as to thinking on of His goodness, His understanding, and His power, then I am clean, and holy, perfect, just, and righteous in His sight.

All of this past thing of a Pentecostal life of, who’s good and who’s bad, and all this thing of the Baptist life, of once saved, always saved, and of this thing of the Catholic life, with the ritualistics counting beads and so many hail Marys, all that is foolishness. We don’t say anything contrary to Mary, for Mary is blessed. She made the statement herself, even to John the Baptist’s mother, said, “From henceforth shall all nations call me blessed.” And she is blessed Mary.

But the thing is, you can be blessed, for as she conceived of the divine seed of life and brought forth the image of Christ, as Paul said, “I travail until Christ be formed within you,” then you also can conceive of the divine seed and bring forth life, and you can be called blessed, for blessed are they that do the will of God. A woman said to Jesus (bringing things down to the natural level), when she saw this wonderful prince of a fellow, the Lord Jesus Christ, “Blessed are the paps that gave Thee suck.” He said, “Nay, but rather, blessed is he that heareth My Words and doeth the will of My Father who is in heaven.” You can be blessed if you want to be blessed, or you can be cursed. He said to the Jews, “I set before you a blessing and a curse. Choose whatever ye would.”

So, we know that we are nothing, and when we think ourself to be something, then we deceive ourself when we are nothing. We must think Him to be something, and we must think Him to be our life and our hope. We realize that we’re nothing but brethren. If we look on a brother and think that we might be more advanced than he is, or think that we have more skill and ability, then that means that we are less than our brother. We are far less than our brother. Our own thoughts have condemned us and proved us to be a fool, for only a fool would think like that.

But God’s way of life is that we are to submit ourselves one to another. When we say submit, that passes right through our minds and we think, “Now that’s what I do,” when you know you’re lying. You know you don’t do it. When it says submit, it means exactly what it says: submit. Just like it says to the wife: “Wives, submit yourself to the husband.” But she doesn’t do it and she won’t do it, because there is a rebellious spirit in her that’s not going to let her do it. That’s the flesh. She’ll always find fault with the husband, put him down to keep her from submitting. That’s her way of life.

And it’s the same way with the flesh. The flesh isn’t going to submit one to another because the devil is in it, and the devil wants preeminence, to lord over people. It’s always going to have that mind of its own. But when a person is born again, they die out to the flesh and they crucify the flesh. They do away with their own thoughts, of who they are and what they look like, and get away from spending their time as to try to polish up on what they know, and get down in the dust and realize that they’re nothing. In the sight of God without Christ, they have one title, and God gave that to Jacob when He said, “Thou worm, Jacob.” We are a worm. We are born the worm, and if we don’t pass through the stages of the metamorphosis to that beautiful, heavenly creature that’s called the butterfly, then we remain the worm. If we be the worm, as not to go through the stages as to the transformation, then that means we are of the devil and we are the viper. We are the generation of snakes that is called the worm. We must excel that. As in Adam all die, and the worm comes from Adam, through the fall, as to the mind of Lucifer, and his nature produces the worm.

There must be a terminal point in your life when that old cocoon breaks open, and when it does, there has to be on the inside a lovely son or daughter of God that has been born through the travail. This old cocoon breaks open when you accept the rent veil of Calvary. Your cocoon is broke, because He was the one that rent the veil in twain. When you become Him, and the spirit is separated from the old body of death when it is planted in the water in the name of the Lord Jesus, then your spirit, as to that heavenly creature, goes back to God who gave it, and the Bible says that in heaven, ye are as the angels. Jesus said, “You are equal to the angels and cannot die.” You have eternal life, for in the Spirit, there is life. In the body, there is nothing but vanity, problems and trouble.

As long as you have any plans for yourself, then you know that you’re of the devil. But a son of God’s plans are for God. This plan will take you to Calvary in self-denial, and take you to Calvary so that your countenance may be marred as His, more than any man, and to sacrifice and self-denial and hating your own life because you are of the worm. The Bible says that if you cannot hate your own life, to put it down, to mortify the deeds of the body, to equip yourselves with a mind to suffer for Christ’s sake, then He said, “You cannot be My disciple.” If there’s anything in your life that you cherish, that you love of your own life, whether future or past, that is associated with self in any way, you can’t be His disciple.

How do we do this? We grow into it like a little child. At the first, we don’t put these things away, but proportionately, we come into these things. And each day of our life we grow more into these things, and it’s required more that we put the worm under our feet, for the Bible says that we’ll bruise his head, which is your old intellectual reasoning. You bruise it by the Christ in you, by doing away with that old mind of Satan that came to you through Adam, that old veil of intellectual death and self-will, of reasoning and self pity and self-esteem. You have to do away with that, and in doing so, you kill the old worm and put him under your feet. The Bible says that the seed of the woman, as to the Christ within you, would bruise that old intellectual head of Lucifer that started with the tree of knowledge. The Bible says that the old worm would bruise your heel, because it’s striking at your soul, the foundation of your body.

Those intellectual thoughts are death to your soul, and if you are carnally minded, you abide in death, and if you have the love of the world, the love of the Father’s not there. You are in death and you abide in death. Though you be ever so religious, you are still abiding in death, because God is a Spirit and the flesh profiteth nothing. With all the Jewish ritualistics of that day, as the man said, “I fast, I pray, I do all those things,” God said, “Away with thee, thou who art self-righteous.” And when the other man said, “I am a worm,” as we would say, or “I am nothing. My God, have mercy on me,” the Holy Spirit said, “I am your life.”

To kill out yourself, to humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that He might exalt you in due season, is the way. But he that exalteth himself, as to any thoughts or plans of his own, the Bible says that God will abase him, for though thou climbest up into heaven, He shall cast thee down to hell. That is to say, you might enter into the heavenly world, as Satan did, through the days of grace. You might climb up there with your intellectual reasoning, as a religious thing, and even be a partaker of the benefits, and come to the knowledge of the truth, and even be partaker of healing, and even be a partaker of the ministry as Judas was, but the Bible says that you are a devil from the beginning and God will cast you out of those heavenly realms. When the blood comes off of the seat of atonement, when the days of grace are finished, you’ll be in your intellectual darkness, whether it’s religion or intellect or whatever it might be, and there won’t be any spiritual life in you. That’s why the Bible says examine to yourselves and see if you be in the faith, the faith by the hearing of the Word.

We could go on speaking of these things, to differentiate between that which is godly and not godly, that which is heavenly and not heavenly, and who are the children, the sons of God, the good tree and the good fountain, and those who are not the sons of God, the bad fountain and the bad tree with corrupt fruit. People confuse things and get things frustrated. Those things that you think have to do with your righteousness, have nothing to do with it whatsoever. It is only God having chose you, and you submitting, as to whatever submission you will for His use, and receive of Him what He has freely given without your works, without your effort. I say again, God so loved you before you ever came to God. While you were yet in your sins. He gave His Son to die for you. He saved you from your sins while you were yet in your sins, when you had done nothing, not anything. He said, “You didn’t choose Me. You didn’t seek after Me. I came to seek and to save that which is lost, and you are My chosen. I have chosen you in Christ.” So then, you have nothing to do with it. Before you were ever born, He elected you, that it might stand according to election. As it was said, “Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated,” when the children had done neither good nor bad.

Many times, we misconstrue things when we hear somebody saying something, and we, in our little finite mind, being so small in our understanding, feeling that we’re so great, that we start reasoning, and then we become an enemy to God, and the devil takes over our mind, and we think that we know something, being vainly puffed up by our fleshly mind, and then we fall into the snare of the devil. But I was saying some things lately to help someone understand, and because I said something about somebody and it sounded a little derogative, you can’t say that it is Satan accusing the brethren. John made the statement, “I’ll remember Diotrephes’ prating when I come.” Paul said, “One of themselves, even a prophet of their own said, ‘The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies’.” Jesus said, “You generation of vipers. How can you escape the damnation of hell?” John the Baptist said, “Ye are a generation of vipers. Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath of God?” Can you tell me that when those things were said, were they said about Satan, the accuser of the brethren? Was that Satan? Paul spoke of false brethren. So then, was that spoken about a true brother? The Bible says Judas obtained part of that ministry. Jesus said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan.”

You have to differentiate and understand what is being said. Somebody might say, “They didn’t say that about the true brethren.” Now, let’s go a little further. Paul said, “I blame Peter to his face because he was to be blamed.” He not only said it to the people about Peter, but he said it to Peter himself. See, you need to understand.

So, unless you have charity, you’re a sounding brass and a tinkling symbol. And some will accredit to themselves love and charity, when they’re some of the most contrary people, perhaps, in your whole congregation. Not understanding, being a novice, they will be lifted up in pride and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Going around, trying to be, as the world calls it, lovey-dovey, is not charity. Going around and never having a backbone to stand up and tell somebody that their mouth needs to be stopped is not charity. Going around and never having any strength in God, as to come against the wicked and the evil, that is not charity. Going around and compromising and weaseling out every time the battle gets hard is not charity. Charity suffereth long. Charity is kind. Charity vaunteth not itself. Charity is not puffed up. Charity thinketh no evil. Charity seeketh not its own.

But on the other hand, charity will take a sword and wield that sword until the blood runs up to the horses’ bridle. Charity will say, “You hypocrites, you scribes. All of you are hypocrites. You are a generation of vipers.” And charity says, “How can you escape the damnation of hell? You are whited sepulchres full of dead men’s bones, and your throat is an open sepulchre.” Charity reproves. Charity corrects. Charity is strong and mighty and powerful. Charity turns to wrath when you come to the knowledge of the truth and you reject it. God, who is love, God who is charity, becomes wrath to the extent that the judgments of God come upon those who reject the truth. In the Old Testament, He smote the firstborn of Egypt until all of them were dead. Moses, who had charity, said, “If I be a servant of God, let the earth open up and swallow these and let them go down into the pit quickly,” and they did. Was charity in the heart of Elijah when he said, “If I be a man of God, let fire consume these fifty”? Was charity in the heart of Samson, when he took the jawbone of an ass and slew a thousand men? Was it charity, as it was in the New Testament, in the hearts of the apostles, when Paul looked at that man and said, “You set to judge me after the law and smite me contrary to the law? You whited wall. God will smite you.”

And on and on and on. The love of charity and the great expression of charity. God will meet you as a consuming fire, and the Bible says that when you come to the truth and you reject the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for your sins, but only the fearful looking forward to of the fiery indignation of charity that shall devour his adversaries. Can you deny that God is charity?

What happens is we get vainly puffed up by our fleshly mind. We are a novice, and we’re contrary in our mind to the minister and contrary to the brethren and contrary to all correction. The Bible says, “I lay in Zion a stumbling stone of offense, and whosoever falleth upon Him or believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life, and if you fall on Him, ye shall be broken and God will not destroy you. But if you don’t fall on that stone, then the wrath of God will fall on you and grind you to powder.”

What we need to do is just submit ourselves to the Lord, and let the Lord lead us and guide us, and realize that we’re never, never going to get to the place to where we don’t need the instruction of God and the ministering of the pastor and the leadership. We’ll never be out from under the tutors, as to the instruction of the Holy Ghost and the five-fold ministry which is set there for the perfecting of your faith. Paul, who was the farthest along, said, “They who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me.” He was far enough along that he spoke over the heads of all the apostles and everybody else. But at the same time, he had to turn around and say, “Though I come to visions and revelation, I doubtless shall come to more.”

When he was on the ship and it was going down to the bottom of the sea, Paul didn’t have the answer until he went to God. He stayed fourteen days without food, and then he got some more tutoring, and he learned some more about things. Another time, he went up to the temple, and listening to somebody, he shaved his head to blend in with the others. He had found himself up there and was about to be stoned to death, when some advised him that if he would shave his head, everything would be well with him and they would accept him for a brother. But they didn’t accept him. They got upset with him, and especially for one that seemed to be a foreigner that he had brought with him, and they pounced on him, and it caused him many sorrows. Paul spent many years in jail because he was vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, thinking that he knew something when he didn’t know something. Finally, he said, “I count all as dung, and I’m determined to know nothing among you except Christ and Him crucified.” That’s the only knowledge Paul needed to have. Unless God revealed something to him, unless God told him, unless God sent him up, as He sent him up to conference with Peter by revelation, he just stayed where he was. He didn’t move until the cloud moved.

So, what you need to realize is that you’re never going to come to that day that you think you’re going to come to. If you do, that’s fine. The Bible says that when it comes to the right thing, it will be God speaking within you. It won’t be you sounding your horn, as we say. It will be the trump of God, for it won’t be you speaking, but He that speaketh from within you from heaven. The Bible says that seeing that these things happened to the followers of Moses, when he spoke up on the mountain, and the severity of it, if they received that kind of punishment, how much more severe shall be the punishment of them that turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven? It is said that it’s not you speaking, but He that speaketh from heaven.

It’s not a matter of you deciding to be an apostle, or you deciding to be a prophet, or you deciding to be a preacher. In the world we’re living in, traveling around the world, I find that there are all kinds of people who decide that they want to be a prophet, or a teacher, or a pastor. They decide what they want to be. But I tell you, not one of them that makes that kind of a decision is anything except a worm. That’s all. But it’s when God calls you to the ministry, as He did when He struck Paul down on the way to Damascus. It’s God making the choice. He went by and called Matthew, and He went by and He called Peter, and He went by and He called John and James. It’s when God gives you a calling, even unto election as being a Christian, that you are of His kingdom. If He doesn’t come by your way, if He doesn’t call you, if He didn’t predestinate you, then you’re nothing. You can’t make yourself anything. You can’t believe yourself to be something. You might say, “I’m a prophet,” but you may be a fool, because believing doesn’t work like that. You may have a head full of believing. If you believe there’s one God, you do well. The devil believes, too. He’s a believer to that extent. But he’s still going to be put in the lake of fire.

Believing doesn’t work like that. It’s by faith, and that faith is by hearing of the Word, and the Word says that none of those callings are given through repentance. None of those callings are given to you in any way, as to what you want to be or try to be, or fast to be, or study to be. It is faith by the hearing of the Word that said there is no such thing. When the faith in your heart brings you to an apostleship, or brings you to election, or brings you to the ministry, or whatever it might be, then that is faith as from the Word. The Word that said the things that I just told you.

So we read here in the book of Saint John chapter 14:

John 14:1-6: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself" that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest" and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.”

Or that is to say, Jesus, the Word, has been made flesh. God the eternal Spirit has been manifested in a human body, and I am that human body" and it has been made manifest in its entirety and in its fullness. He hath not given unto Me the Spirit by measure as He will give to another. He hath given unto Me Himself in His fullness. I am God. That’s what He was saying.

“If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.”

Now this is strange, because Jesus stood before the Pharisees and said, “You’ve never known My Father. You’ve never seen Him nor His image at anytime,” which means the Bible is right when it says, “The wicked shall not see when good comes.” The eyes of their understanding are darkened, and they never see anything good, not even Christ in a brother.

“Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” Jesus saith unto him,” now this is the Father talking, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father" and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?”

Have I been so long time with you, and yet your understanding is still darkened? Peter comprehended. He said, “Thou art the Christ.” Where did he see the Christ, because he was looking at Jesus? But the Bible says that He made in Himself both, twain, Lord and Christ, and here Peter was looking at the Lord, but he looked beyond the veil and thus the veil was rent and the door was open. Jesus went to Calvary, and Peter had the keys and he opened the door both to the Jews and to the Gentiles. The door that John saw opened at the end of the church ages was the same door that Peter opened. The voice said, “John, come up hither.” He said, “I saw a door open in heaven.”

“Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?” Jesus is saying, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.” That is to say, do you not believe that it is the Christ, even God, Himself, that is filling this human body, that’s interwoven with My very blood genetics, that it is God dwelling on the inside of Me doing these mighty works and speaking these mighty words, revelating the mighty things?

As the Bible says, their hearts burned within them as He opened the Scriptures, the Old Testament teachings, to them by the way. Or that is to say, concerning you and I, the Bible says, that this life of Christ may be made manifest in your mortal genes as it was in Jesus, to a full reward, or to whatever measure you would allow it to live in you. So are you the same body as the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, members in particular. So then, He says that He is dwelling in the will of God. “I do always the things that please the Father, and He, as a Spirit, dwells in Me.”

“Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also" and greater works than these shall he do" because I go unto my Father.” Jesus was saying, “If thou canst believe,” for the Bible teaches that all men have not faith. But He said, “If you be the elect, if you be the chosen ones, if thou canst believe on Me, you’re not limited to anything, for I have given unto you life in its fullness, abundant, filled up and overflowing.” “I have given you all things that pertain unto life,” the heavenly Father said, “In Jesus Christ, and if thou art one of the elect, for if thou canst believe, the works that I do shall ye do also and greater works.”

He was limited, while He was in His body, because of your unbelief, for the Bible says that many mighty works He could not do because of their unbelief. But when He goes to the Father and atones for sin, you will be perfect. There will be nothing that you cannot do, for there will be no limitations to you. If you can come to the fullness of the stature, to recognize that you are perfect in His sight, your faith can have the perfect freedom so that you can do all things. The Bible says that all things are possible to them that believe. And not only that, Jesus said that you can do all of these things, these great things, and you can become equal with the Father. No man shall be above his master, but by His blood atonement ye shall be made equal with God, and ye shall become gods that cannot die. He told them of the wonderful things that would happen when the blood was on the seat of atonement.

Do all things in His name, and whatever you ask in His name, He will do it. Say what you will in your heart, and it will come to pass. Decree a thing in your heart and it shall come to pass. Say what you will, don’t doubt, and it will come to pass. Ask the Father what you will. When you pray, believe that you receive it and ye shall have it.

But, you’ve got to come through the tutoring. You’ve got to come to the understanding. You’ve got to have it detailed to you, because faith is by the hearing of the Word, and the preacher is there to preach the Word, to perfect your faith. The Bible says, “We wish this, even the perfecting of your faith.” God has set the ministry there for the perfecting of your faith, or that is, to preach the Word, to detail it to you, that you might know all of your rights and benefits, and then you can have that perfect faith in Christ that will translate the church. Contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints of God.

So He says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also" and greater works than these shall he do" because I go unto my Father.” Being in church does not mean that you believe on Him, no more than the devil believes on Him. If you obtain part of the ministry, of the operation of God, no matter where it’s at throughout the world, doesn’t mean you are a Christian. Judas did all of that and stayed with Christ through the entirety of His ministry, and he obtained part of the ministry. It did not mean that he was a believer, as to Christianity. He was a devil from the beginning. When you do these things, it does not mean that you are a Christian. You may be there to get out of it what you could. Judas was trying to get out of it what he could. Even when he said something about the woman that used the spikenard, washing Jesus’ feet, he was very critical, because he had the love of money, and because he carried the bag.

You may go to church for social purposes. You may be there out of fear of being out in the world. You may be there because you want to know and learn and study, thinking that you’re going to manifest yourself to somebody as being a great prophet or a great preacher or a great person, and that you’re going to draw all kinds of admiration, which means you’re spiritually sick. A person that does that is spiritually sick. Even if they are a little babe, as a child of God, having come to some understanding, they are sick. They need to be tended to. Anybody that’s in God has enough understanding to know that their body is fit for nothing but to rot and to decay. Anybody that gets their mind on their flesh, and on their face, and on their future, and on making money, and on business, and those kind of things, they are blind and they cannot see afar off.

They do not realize that they are nothing in the sight of God but rottenness and a stench. He does not see you today with your so-called lovely face and figure, as to who you might think yourself to be, while men are lusting after women, and women are lusting after men. He doesn’t see that. He sees on down the road where you’re dead and in a grave, and the worms have eaten you and you’re nothing but rot. He sees beyond that, and sees the true Christian as an eternal body that has nothing to do with this old flesh, as to the body of this death that He buried when He buried the Lord Jesus. He looks beyond that and, if you don’t get beyond Calvary, your image is a bastard child image. When the morning comes, when the daystar comes dawning in the heart, that is to say the sunlight, the one that’s called the daystar, He said that He will hate and despise your image because it’s of Adam. It’s fleshly. All of your ambitions are fleshly. All that you’re going to do is fleshly. Your old mind is a carnal mind and it’s death, and it’s contrary to Christ, and it is a prick in the side of those that are sent by Him if they spare you. “If you spare any of them,” the Bible says, “they’ll be a prick in your side.”

So then, we realize a person is spiritually sick when they’re carnally thinking about their ministry, thinking about the great things that they’re going to do, thinking about their great face, their great mind, their great body, their monetary powers, and being famous. They are sick. But a man of God is like Elijah, like Moses, like Jesus, like Paul, like the others that gave themselves continually to self-sacrifice and self-denial. They’re looking for one thing and that is the will of almighty God. They equip themselves with a mind to suffer, and they seek only the Spirit so that the outer man may decrease and get out of its frivolous, ugly, evil ways of carnality, and the inner man may increase, so the Christ may show in the outer man. God is resisting him, and He will resist him, and the man that’s carnal will resist God, and the minister and that man will always have a cross every time they meet. He may not say anything. He may try to swallow down and act like he and the pastor are getting along real good, or he and the brethren are getting along real good, but he’s way out there, and the pastor and the people are way out here. He may be with them like Judas was. He may partake of the ministry. He may learn a lot of things, only in the end to find out that it’s detrimental and death to his soul, that all he was doing was getting vainly puffed up by Satan, to try to learn many things to use it for his own fleshly benefits.

But Elijah killed the body, and Moses killed the body, and other people, like Peter, left their wife and children and home and killed out everything to stay with Him day and night. These men loved the Lord. Men like William Branham left their families and lives to stay out in the woods, out in some cave all night, or going somewhere continually, living in a little room, fasting and praying, staying in some meeting somewhere. These people were people of God. It’s true that Brother Branham killed some animals. He had Indian in him, and God didn’t take the Indian out of him, and God allowed him, while he was out there, to kill animals. But his time was spent in meditation and in prayer, and God brought those animals to him, and he killed them almost right where he was sitting. It happened again and again. He didn’t go out there for those purposes, though he had the thrill of killing an animal because he was a hunter. Yet that wasn’t why he went out there, and some of his greatest experiences were there in the wilderness, as it was with John the Baptist. Some of the greatest experiences were there as it was with Elijah, and as it was the others that took themselves away into solitude.

Jacob was not a hunter, but he was one that loved God. He was one that stayed with God. Many times he was out in the wilderness. There were many times he was off by himself in the plains because he kept the father-in-law’s sheep and cattle. The Bible speaks of the cold ice or snow and the winter winds, of the things that befell Jacob and the sufferings and the heartaches that he went through. It was terrible. You can read it, and you’ll find it’s prophetical utterance, telling the life of Jesus that was shown in Jacob as he suffered out on the hillsides and on the mountains in the cold, and how that Laban mistreated him in changing his wages as many as ten times.

So then, if you have the idea that you’re something, then you are nothing. But when you submit yourself to your brother, really submit yourself to your brother in your thoughts, doing all things as unto the Lord, in that he is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, then you have done it to the Lord Jesus Christ. When you esteem your brother to be better than you are, then you are doing that as unto the Lord Jesus Christ, and God can control your life, as through the membership of His body, which is the body of the Lord Jesus in particular. Learn to submit yourself to your brother, and esteem yourself to be less than your brother. Look on the things of another in admiration rather than on your own face and body.

When you look in the mirror, realize that you are a wretched, bastard child. Realize that every time you look at that face, God despises it. When you look at your bodily image, recognize that you lift up the satanic mind of Satan. Satan does it to create lust in your body. Esteem all this as rot in the sight of God and as a worm in the sight of God. Realize that you are a bastard child and God hates your image. Learn to hate your own life, the things that you plan and the things you do. All that you’re looking for is nothing but the lust of the flesh, and all of your labor, what you think that you ought to be or going to be, what you’re going to buy, or going to have, is nothing but labor for the old worm, for the worm is on its belly, and all of its labor is for his belly because his belly craves it of him. All of this you are doing is for Satan, because Satan savors the things that be of the flesh, and all of your ambition is for the devil. Everything that you do will be contributed to the devil, unless it is something that God has anointed and God hath called you to do that is spiritual.

The Bible says to lay up your treasures in heaven, where thieves don’t break through and steal, where moth doesn’t corrupt. Wherever your treasures are, there your heart will be also. Sometimes, your treasure can be your face. Some men’s bodies are their treasure. They spend all their life building muscles. That’s their treasure. They can’t even keep their shirts on when they go to work because they want somebody to see their muscles. Your treasure can be in self-will. It can be in whatever you want to do.

In God’s sight, those people that are without, (and when I say those people that are without, it can be Judas that seems to be within, for all of them are within as to the blood on the seat of atonement right now), those that are not elect, the Bible says they are despised. These are God’s feeling toward them. He’s angry with them every day. He said He will pursue them until they perish from off of the face of the earth. He said that all of their prayers, their religious activities, are an abomination in His sight, whether they are in churches or whatever. He says that their offerings are abomination in His sight. He said that they are like the restless waves of the sea, ever casting their mire up upon the bank. He said they are wandering stars. They don’t have any light. They’re intellectually ignorant of the things of God and shall not see when light comes. He said that these are wandering stars for whom the midst of darkness is reserved forever. They’ve fallen from the light. They are in the intellectual darkness of their own stupidity, and the wrath of God abides upon them because of their unbelief. They cannot believe, because God has never given unto them the ability to believe, as the elect can, to true faith unto salvation.

So then, though the devil rules by believing, and man rules by believing in this natural era of today" yet, it’s all lying vanities, and it has nothing to do with faith that comes from the heart. We read a little further, and it says, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also" and greater works than these shall he do" because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever" Even the Spirit of truth.”

Now Jesus said, “I’m your comforter, but I must go away. And if I don’t go away, the Holy Spirit will not come.” He could have said, “I’m the comforter, and the Holy Spirit is My Spirit on the inside, and as long as I’m here, the comforter is in Me and it is your comforter through Me. But when I go away, this Spirit of truth shall come through Me, as to the sacrifice unto you, and actually live in your human body, to wit ,that God was in Christ and you’re His body.” The tabernacle of God in the earth, and Jesus atoned for you as the lamb, and Jesus Christ’s Spirit, even the Christ, the anointed one, lives inside of you, according to the measure that you will allow Him to be.

Some Christians are just little bitty babies. You’ve got a small measure of Christ, in that ye have been born again, but you’re a little bitty baby. You’ve never grown very much. You’ve never come into very much. God will bear with you. That’s your measure of the Spirit. And that measure of the Spirit can grow and increase as you, as Jesus, grow and increase in knowledge with favor of man and God, growing in knowledge and in the grace of God to the full measure of manhood or womanhood, to the full measure of the full stature of the perfect man Christ Jesus. But if you go so long, then you dwarf yourself. The Spirit may come to you and reveal things to you, but it will lift. If you dwarf yourself, it will lift, and you’ll never get that new birth. You’ve got to have Him on the inside of you. You’ve got to be born again, and you’ve got to grow, desiring the sincere milk of the Word, as babes in Christ that you may grow thereby, going on to the full measure, learning and growing.

The question was asked, “Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?” Jesus said,” I have to go away. If I don’t go away, the comforter will not come, because the comforter is My Spirit. And as long as I’m here, He can’t come.” So then, it’s expedient that He die for the remission of sin, and then the comforter can come. He will then leave His body, the blood dipped vesture, on the throne at the right hand of God, and the Spirit of Christ will come back into your heart as He did on the day of Pentecost. He’ll live inside the members of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the measure that you’re able to receive.

So we see that the tabernacle of God is among men. Not only as it was in Jesus, the fullness of it, when John saw the revelation of Him walking on the earth, but the tabernacle of God as the membership. And just as soon as the last member of those that are predestinated unto election is born into the world and acknowledge their election, that’s the end of the world. Jesus cannot come back until the last one is born into the world. And there may be some that are still just natural babies right now, that have never gotten old enough to acknowledge their election, and they may die as a baby. But if they do, then it’s positive proof that they were elect, because the Bible says that their spirit always beholds the face of the Father which is in heaven.

As the little children living, the Bible says, they can be unclean in the sight of God unless the mother and father are sanctified, as to God watching over them and protecting them. But as pertaining to death and departure from this world, because their little spirits never have come to accountability of sin, then it’s not required of them, for the Bible says to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not it is a sin. They do not know how to do good, therefore the Bible says their angel or spirit has never come out of the world of righteousness. The Bible says, “And they do always behold the face of My Father,” because they’re still in heaven.

So then, you see your calling and you see who you are. If you are one that has been so sure of yourself, with your worldly prestige to protect you and your name and the things of the world, to desire and want the things of the world, then you know that you’re not of God and not born again. If the love of the world’s in you, the love of the Father isn’t there. If your ambition has been to deny self in every way, to find Christ, then you know that you’re a son of God, and your calling is thereunto as the elect of the Lord. Examine yourselves and see if you be a believer of the Word, being in the faith. Many times, I stop and examine myself. The Bible says that when we do this, if we would chasten ourselves, we’d have no need to be chastened of God. If we’re not chastened, then are we bastard children. Every son that cometh to God is scourged. We submit ourself to chastening, as to fasting and prayer, surrender, and sacrifice that we might not be condemned with the world in the day of the judgment. Supposing that worldly gain is godliness, and you see somebody prosper, the Bible says, “From such turn away. You brought nothing into the world. It’s for sure that you’ll take nothing out of the world.”

Let’s submit ourselves and humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God that He might exalt us in due season. As a natural man or woman, ye are worms. But as the inner man, the Lord, ye are the Lord from heaven, even the second Adam, who has escaped death. Our wretched raiment of this human body that’s called the worm shall dissipate and be consumed and done away with. The Bible says that if this tabernacle, where this angelic being is dwelling, be dissolved, then there’s another tabernacle eternal in the heavens, not made with hands, even the tabernacle of the second Adam, the spiritual body. The Lord said, “I am in heaven.” We dwell in His body by the foreknowledge of God, and God sees us as a finished product.

So, give no place to the flesh. The Bible says that if you walk in the flesh, then ye shall die. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If you walk in the Spirit, in the mind of Christ, ye shall live. There’s a mind of the flesh. There’s a mind of the Spirit. If you walk in the mind of Christ, the pure mind, you are in the Spirit. If you have your own thoughts, as to carnality, then ye abide in death and all of your thoughts are about natural things.

When your mind is on your car, when your mind is on your wife, when your mind is on your children, when your mind is on your husband, when your mind is on anything that is natural, it is carnality. Paul said, “If others are partakers of the carnal things that you have, am I not the more a partaker of it?” That is to say, there’s nothing wrong with having the carnal things when your mind is not on them and those things are dedicated to God and God gave them to you because you sought the kingdom first. But anytime that you have your mind on keeping your good name, and you spend your time trying to do that, instead of seeking the kingdom first, or you keep your mind on automobiles, houses, lands, eating, drinking, laughing, talking, visiting, relatives, friends, neighbors, fishing, hunting, any natural thing there at all, then you are carnal to that extent and this will bring you problems. Let God keep your name good.

I spoke of Brother Branham once that he must get his mind off of his guns. He had so many guns in his den in Arizona. I said that he’s got to get his mind off of that or he’ll be in trouble. Then one day, one of them blew up and it could have killed him. He could have lost his life. Even though God made the allowance, yet there is a price to pay. It could be a heart attack. It could be a wreck. It could be sorrow. It could be one thing or another. Everything has a pay day. Everything. Whatever you do that’s not spiritual, it’s carnal, and if that is your mind, then you’re that much away from God, and you’re in that much trouble because to be carnally minded is death.

As it was said in the law, if you keep the whole law and offend in one point, you’re guilty of all. Anytime something is revelated to you as being carnal and you do not eradicate it or make an effort to get rid of it, then you are guilty of all. If you are doing it subconsciously and you’re not aware of it, the Lord will work with you as a babe until you get further along. But when you come to that place where you know, and then you won’t accept the deliverance from it, or conform to His way to bring in the mind of Christ to eradicate it, you’re in trouble with the Lord. He can give you an abundance of joy and jubilance in your heart and have life filled up and overflowing in such a way that you’ll be so grateful, that you’ll never want to leave Him out of your life again. To incorporate Jesus in your life is the right way.

So then, it’s up to you. Treasures are everywhere. The seas are full of pearls. The divers that go down into the deep receive the greatest reward, that pearl of great price. The Bible says, “When you find this pearl of great price, you’ll sell all that you have to purchase this field.” I can tell that many have never found this pearl of great price, because a child is known by his doings. I see that many have included too many natural things in their lives, affections, ambitions, desires, and goals. I know by that that they have never discovered the pearl of great price.

But they that have discovered the pearl of great price are willing to lay aside everything. They will not keep anything or have any reservation of heart toward themselves. They will give all that they have. They’ll give their face, their body, their minds, their hearts, their strength. They’ll give all of their efforts. They’ll give their business. They’ll give their wife or husband. They’ll give their children, even as Abraham laid his child on the altar, and as God did that with Jesus for an example. They’ll give their relatives. They’ll give everything. All of their visions in life for this one thing, and that’s the pearl of great price.

Someone would say, “Well, I want something for myself.” So, you get something for yourself. Solomon got something for himself. He said, “Now, who knows but what I’ll leave it to a fool?” He still had to leave it. You get it for yourself, and you think you’ve got something for yourself, but then you have to die. You forget that you’re going to die. It’s appointed unto man once to die. The treasure of your face is going to be gone. The treasure of your body, that you so esteem, is going to be gone. All that brilliance you esteem, as education and diploma, is going to be gone. That position as a dignitary or celebrity is going to be gone. You’re going to be the worm, to lay down in the dust to rot.

So you have nothing. That little bit of life that you reserve to yourself needs to be given to God. You need to utilize your abilities for God, that God may reimburse or refurbish, that you may continue in life. He that seeketh to save what little life that he has shall lose it. You will lose your own desire, your own ambition, your own way, your own thing. But he that is willing to yield that little span of life, to surrender his self-will, his contrariness, his evil, his stubbornness, his rebellion and give it to God, then he gains life unto eternal life.

Remember that you’re nothing. Brother Pike is nothing. No one is anything. He that thinketh himself to be something when he is nothing deceiveth himself, and I inform you that you are nothing. You are even as the dust. From the dust thou art, Adam, unto the dust thou shalt return. You are born of Adam and you are born of the dust and you go back to the dust. You must realize that you’re nothing, and you have need of a savior, and that you’re no good. You might have prayed. That doesn’t mean you are good. You might have fasted. That doesn’t mean you’re good. The Jews said, “Wherefore have we fasted and prayed and thou seest it not, or takest no knowledge?” He said, “You do it for your own ambitions.” But the thing is, in Christ, we are gods. In Christ, we are sons of God. In Christ we are exceedingly rich. In Christ we are eternal, without spot, without blemish. In Christ, we are everything, eternally everything. Without Christ, beloved friend, then are you nothing.

So let’s don’t deceive ourselves. Let’s surrender our spirit. Have a good spirit. Not an old whorish spirit, whether it be man or woman. Have a Christ spirit. A spirit of love and purity, a life, a spirit that’s clean, a spirit that’s godly. Don’t let your spirit get in the mind of self-will and self-thinking on the body, for the flesh profiteth nothing. It’s to be fed to the worms. Don’t get your mind on the world, to be in bondage to the beggarly elements, for when you are worldly minded, then your thoughts are of natural things and that is of bondage unto death. Keep your mind on holy things. Keep your thoughts in heaven. Keep your conversation in heaven. Let your words be holy. Let them be in heaven. Let your ambitions be in heaven. Let all of your drive be in heaven.

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and you won’t be worldly minded, and you’ll still have all the natural things of life. They’ll be added unto you. Not one good thing shall ye lack if you walk upright before God. But the minute you get your mind on any of those things, then are ye nothing. Then are ye a bonds child and in bondage to the beggarly elements of death, for to be carnally minded or to think on natural things is death. Rid yourself of every thought of your own mind until you can say with Paul, “It’s not me living, but it’s Christ.”

You can’t say that just because you get a religious streak, or you get a thought of turning over a new leaf, or because you’ve been religious and fasted a day or two or prayed, or because you’ve been with some religious group for ten years, that this means that it’s not you living but Christ living in you. You may be much alive. But when you actually lose all of your vim and vitality and vigor and all of your ambition, and when you completely die to self, and self doesn’t have any more rights, not even to one thought, then you can say, “I do always the things that I see my Father do. My Father and I are one. It’s not me living, but my Father within me.” You put the flesh on like a garment, and that’s the way it is.

Where is your mind? Is your mind in heaven? Is your conversation in heaven? Are your thoughts in heaven? Is your desire in heaven? Is your labor and ambition to lay up treasures in heaven? No wonder Jesus could say, “The Son of Man who is in heaven.” The Christ on the inside testified, “I’ve never entered into the flesh. I’m like the little child.” He said, “Lest ye become as a little child.” That’s because your spirit has never entered into the flesh as to the knowledge of right and wrong. He could say, “I’ve never entered into the flesh not one time, not one thought. I dwell in heaven. Though I walk in the body, though I’m in your presence, Nicodemus, as a human being and you’re looking at Me, I’m in heaven. As the Christ, I’m in heaven. As to what you see, I came from heaven as to the body. I leave that body. I lay it down. I go back to heaven.”

Folks, let me tell you. If you are elect, then you came from heaven because you were there in the foreknowledge of God. You’ve tabernacled in this body of clay, but you’re going to lay it down. You have laid it down through death by Calvary, and your spirit has gone back to God who gave it. That is to say, the part of you that sees and walks and talks, that inner you, has moved out of that little house and you’re dwelling in heaven. You have an eternal house. Jesus said, “A mansion that I go to prepare,” even His own body, as to a membership. That Spirit of life will dwell in that throughout eternity. As you’ve born the image of the earthly of Adam unto death, so shall ye bear the image of the heavenly of the second Adam unto life.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

Founder and first President of Jesus Christ’s Eternal Kingdom of Abundant Life, Inc.

Holiness Unto The Lord