Dwelling IN God

Wayne Matthews

October 30, 2010

Split Sermon

The title of this second split sermon is; Dwelling In God.  Most of us would say that we basically understand when God states, “He dwelt in Christ.”  Christ said, “The Father is in Me.”  By this we understand that God’s Word, His mind dwelt in Christ.  We also understand that God dwelt in Christ by the power of His holy spirit, which Mr. Wrozek covered earlier today.  You’ll be quite surprised.  Mr. Wrozek and myself didn’t discuss it, but it’s amazing, very encouraging to me because the topic that was dealt with is about God’s spirit and that’s what this split sermon is about.

This truth of God being in Christ can be better understood by the fact that God uses words like ‘light’, ‘life’, ‘truth’, which dwelt in and abide in Christ.  But do we understand what it means when Christ said, “I am in the Father.”  Over the years I’ve looked at many of these scriptures, particularly through John 14 right through John 17, and to be true to myself, I could understand when God says, “I will dwell in you.”  We are God’s dwelling place; but what about... How do I dwell in God?  or How do I dwell in Christ?  And I really must say I have never really grasped much of that in my life.

Christ said that the Father dwelt in Him.  He said, “I am in the Father,” or “You in Me and I in You.” During Passover we read that; and I think generally it sort of goes over our head. I’ve thought about it a lot, and thought how can I better understand this, it’s a spiritual matter?  I want to look at answering the question; How can we be in Christ?  What is the evidence that we are in Christ?

Now to explain it, for me, sometimes I have to take things back to a physical concept or an analogy, so I want to use one; and it’s not necessarily perfect in its analogy but I wanted to do it so I could understand it.  And I dwelt on this for a while trying to better understand it. So I looked at the human mind.  Now the human mind, for today’s topic, we’re going to say it’s black, it’s dark; and within that there’s these black electrical charges.  We know the human mind is pink and has electrical charges which they can see.  So this mind that we have is black; and in it there’s black charges going on.  They are called thoughts or thinking.  So when we’re thinking, which hopefully everyone in the room is thinking, there are black charges going pzzzt, pzzzt, pzzzt, pzzzt – that’s called thinking!  Thoughts! Now Satan broadcasts black electrical charges – pzzzt to a mind that receives it, black electrical charges – pzzzt, pzzzt, pzzzt, and it receives it.  And unless you’re called, it’s willingly!  So these charges are going on in our mind that’s black.

God calls us. Now, what is the beginning of a calling?  A beginning of a calling is light.  God’s thoughts, God’s thinking is light; and so God places an electrical charge called a thought – spiritual in nature, can’t be seen – into this black mind and a piece of light sparks across this black mind.  And it’s called God’s thinking.  So we, when we’re called, have this charge, this white charge going across; we begin to ‘see’ the truth; because without this white light, from God, God’s thinking, we cannot ‘see’ truth!  We cannot ‘see’ spiritual matters, it’s impossible!

The natural mind is hostile to God.  So this spark comes... and then this mind begins to see truth, begins to see something spiritual and it’s drawn.  God in His power draws and we start to see; and then, of course, we want to share it with someone else.  But their mind has black charges going all over the place.  We say, “Can’t you see this white light?”

“No.”

Now you’ve all experienced that.  So this light comes from God, truth comes from God, life comes from God and it’s like a light.  I’m trying to put an analogy here to comprehend God’s mind.

So Satan broadcasts this dark thought and we receive it; but God places truth, His spirit into the mind and the spark changes.  Now as we get called we then are drawn into the truth, then we have a choice.  We have to make a choice.  The blackness of our mind wants to think carnally, selfish; it cannot love the way God loves, it loves selfishly.  God places His mind into our mind, thinking – then we have a choice.  Mr. Wrozek was talking about yielding.  We have a choice!  One way or the other.

So the Word is the thinking of God.  I’m just putting it into a way of understanding it.  When it says, “The Word of God,” the revelatory thought is the revealed thinking of God – how God thinks.  Now we can’t think like God unless God dwells in us, or gives us that spark, that light, that life, the Word of God.  It’s impossible!  So it’s God’s mind in us that gives us life.

When Christ said the Father was in Him, He was stating that He had the thinking, the thoughts of God in His mind.  He thought like God thought about matters.  So for us, we’ve got two ways – there is no grey in the middle.  We’re either thinking like God about a subject or a topic...or we’re thinking our own natural thoughts. And that’s the choice we have in life once called.

So how do we think?  Unless we agree and think like God, we are thinking selfishly.  Now the natural carnal mind can’t see that; it cannot see.  It’s the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; the good is what we think is good – but only God is good!  Only God can put ‘good’ in us through the power of His holy spirit; right thinking.  It’s right thinking!  So the natural carnal mind cannot think righteousness, it cannot think rightly.  Only God can!  So the only way that we can is if God places His spirit in us.  So when the laying of hands, which Mr. Wrozek said was a gift – the gift is the ability to think like God!  Isn’t that a marvellous gift?  Amazing!  We have the ability, not of ourselves, calling from God – God says, “I will give you the gift on the Day of Pentecost.”  What did He give them?  The gift, the ability to think like Him!  And it’s then that we have a choice.

So we, brethren, have the ability to think like God.  And when we don’t... we’re thinking with this dark electricity shooting across the brain.  Turn to Isaiah.

Isaiah 55:8 -  cutting into the thought process, but For My thoughts, this is God; My thoughts/My thinking are not your thoughts, so My thinking is not the way you think – talking about man; they’re totally different.  ...nor are My ways... Now, what are ways?  Ways are a product or an outcome of thinking.  It’s the result of the way a person thinks.  So, My ways, the way that we act, For your ways are not My ways, in other words, we are so far apart from God that one is blackness and one is light!  They’re completely apart.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a cave.  I managed to have the blessing one day to go down about a hundred feet into a cave and they turned all the lights off.  And actually you can’t describe what darkness is – there’s nothing, there’s no light; it’s just total.  There’s no sensation of knowing how far your hand would be in front of you... there’s just nothing.  Well, that’s the natural carnal mind.  The natural carnal mind has nothing; it doesn’t have God’s thinking.

So God says clearly here that My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Eternal. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.  My thinking... it’s totally different.  So it’s only through God’s spirit, God’s thinking that we can love.  It’s only through God’s mind in us that we can love one another; and we’ll get into an aspect of that.

So it’s about a difference of thinking.  God’s thinking is different.  An example: we by nature (the black mind with the black electricity going across the top, the darkness and Satan influencing it), can only think by prejudice. That’s the only way the mind can.... it’s just the way we are.  We’re prejudiced.  That’s the way we think.  Now whether it’s where you live, whether it’s race – yellow, black, white, whatever; we are prejudice by nature.  So why is that?  Because we want to measure things...that we want to be better.  We want to be better!  We are prejudice in a lot of things; the way we dress, our height, our weight.  We just are by nature.  And God says, “Well, My thoughts aren’t like that.”  Do you know why?  God can stand back and say, “Well, do you know what?  I created all this!  I created all the colours!  I created all the races; they’re MINE!”  It’s just a totally different way of thinking.  But we all measure things and work it out.  But God can stand there and say, “Whoa, whoa, whoa... I created it all!”  So we just don’t think like God does!  God is not prejudice!  He’s not biased towards a race or colour or anything because He created it for the purpose of Elohim!  But we just don’t think like that by nature, we just don’t think that way.  So there’s a total difference in the thinking.

I want to run through some points.

- Wisdom in the Bible is thinking like God; they’re the thoughts of God.  So when we show wisdom (not of ourselves), it’s the thinking of God on how to handle a matter.  So when we’re wise it’s simply God’s spirit; we made a choice, God’s spirit works through us, the white light... we now think like God does on a matter.

- Righteousness is thinking and then living like God; righteous actions.  But of ourselves we can’t do it – has to come from God, it has to be God’s spirit in us that does the works.

God uses terms to express the way He thinks, like Word, wisdom, truth.

- What’s truth?  It’s the way God thinks.  Truth is the way God thinks.  What are we saying when we’re not in unity of doctrine?  We don’t think like God!  Pretty clear really, isn’t it?  Unity amongst the brethren... if there’s division in the Body somebody is not thinking like God!

- What is love?  Love is the way God thinks, so when there’s division in the Body and someone isn’t loving another person, somebody is not thinking like God.

They’re simple terms, but it’s reality for me.  It helped me a lot to understand my thinking.  Because if I have ill will toward another member in the Body I am not using God’s spirit, I am not thinking like God!  Simple.  Straightforward.  For me it was anyway.  The way God thinks is revealed by a way of living, a way of life, which we lead.

- Character; what is revealed in a person’s character, is the revelation of the way one thinks or is thinking.  So you can say, “That person’s got ‘good character’.”  In the definition of human terms it could be different... but if you’ve got God’s character you have good character because character is just simply the revelation or the manifestation of what’s going on up here in the thinking.

So if we have God’s thinking, we have good character, we think like God.  But to the world we’re lunatics...but that’s fine.  But we think like God!  We have the capacity to think like God.  We have the capacity to think like God!  Amazing!

So character is the outcome, what is revealed by a way of thinking.  This way of thinking reveals or is reflected in all that God does – His actions/the way God thinks - the revelatory thought, the thinking of God; how God thinks.

So I want to go through some points here:

- The Word that comes from God is the revelatory thought; it is His thinking.

- The Word is the very thoughts of His mind, the way God thinks; which is light, which is truth, which is life.

- The Word is that which originates from God’s mind.  It actually comes from God, the way His thinks; and through the laying of hands we have the impregnation of God’s spirit into the mind.  We now can think like God; we really can.

God’s mind, His thinking was given life in and through Jesus Christ.  God’s thinking was placed into the mind of His Son, Jesus Christ – God was His Father.  God’s Word, His thinking, was manifested by the way Jesus Christ lived and the words that He did.

Remember in John when Philip said, “Show us the Father and we’ll all be happy.”

Christ says, “If you’ve known Me, you’ve known the Father.”

And he says, “Well, just show ...reveal Him.”

Well, if you met Jesus Christ His thoughts and His words and His actions was the thinking of God.  It’s about a mind; it’s about a spiritual matter.  It’s not about the physical sight.

Jesus Christ was the revealing of the way God thinks – how God thinks about a matter.  The way of love; Jesus Christ showed the way of love, which is a way of thinking.  Love is just simply a way of thinking; it’s the way we think towards something.  We think towards others on different levels.  God loves His creation; He thinks towards it to the benefit of it, no ill will; always what is best... “How can I work with this person to get them into My Family?”...to give them the choice to come into God’s Family.  That’s how God thinks.  We don’t.  We tend to put people down.  The darkness of the mind and the thoughts aren’t always light.

Christ thought the way of love, justice in judgement.  We don’t necessarily have justice in judgement.  We’re partial in judgement.  We were saying something before – How many people drive eleven hours to come here to be told how bad they are?  God’s people do, because we want to learn.

In scripture it says, ‘Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God’.  How?  Because of His thinking.  If you had met Jesus Christ, you’d have met God’s mind, the way He thinks.

God tells us that His thinking is life; and this is what it’s about.  Once we begin to have God’s spirit dwelling in us we have life in us – true life with the potential to be given everlasting life... that we will one day continually think like God and the darkness of the mind will not be there.  We’ll have a mind of light.  We will think righteousness.  That’s what God desires in us.  He desires to live in us, to dwell in us.  He desires to place His mind into our mind and for us to choose His way, that's something in life we don’t (choose His ways). I know that we all have choices and sometimes it’s not as obvious; but as we grow longer in God’s Church, we are faced with situations where the choice is very obvious.  We know that this way is God’s way – we just know; because God’s placed it in our minds and we know that the other way is wrong.  But we do choose...and not all the time do we make right choices.

But fortunately through the power of God’s spirit the spark stays alive to the degree of the ability to repent.   Will you repent?  God shows us the sin through the power of His spirit. Choice! Will we repent?  Do we want the continual light coming into the mind?  Do we want the thinking of God to continue to flow in us, out to the benefit of others?  That’s the choice we have.  And when we repent, we simply admit that we thought a different way than God did.  When we think differently than God we actually disagree with God.  We actually argue with God because we choose to think our way.

So God places truth, right thinking, into our minds by a calling and then the laying of hands – through that process.  Then it’s a matter of ongoing conversion, an ongoing process.  So here you’ve got the mind that’s dark, darkness.  God is trying and working with us and hopefully we will make the choice that eventually more light will come and dwell in here... and eventually there’s less darkness and there’s more light and more light and more light.  And yes, the flow can and does stop... when we sin.  When we repent the light continues so that in time the mind will have more light than darkness.  That’s called conversion.

Repent means ‘think differently’; that’s what it is, ongoing repentance called conversion, a change of thinking.  And in the end God will guarantee that one day our minds will be light... when we’re changed.  Prior to that the black electricity will be there; but as Mr. Wrozek said, it’s about watching that black electricity, being aware of it and cutting it off - making that decision.  It’s just a process of thinking.  Repentance is a change of thinking, rejecting our own thinking and accepting God’s.

The glory of Jesus Christ was that He thought like His Father.  He was full of grace and truth.  Often in scripture it will talk about ‘the glory’ of Jesus Christ.  What’s our glory?  Our glory is when we think like God!  That’s our glory!  That was the glory of Jesus Christ!  He thought like God on every topic – unity and oneness.  That was Christ’s glory.  We either think like God or not.  We either think like God or we don’t – it’s straightforward, one way or the other.

So how do we dwell, live in, God and Christ?  What does it mean, ‘I in you and you in Me’?  Let’s look in John 14. Where else would we go? You know the scripture Mr. Wrozek covered which was, ‘let this mind be in you... let this thinking be in you’.  Think about all subjects, all topics the way that God does – and in the Church today God has revealed His thinking in a way far beyond what we even imagine – far beyond what the Church has had before.  God has revealed His mind and it’s on the website.   It is!  You want to know how God thinks about a matter?  It’s on the Church website, and if we want to think more like God then go to the Church website, start listening to sermons and read the topics and everything on that website... that is the revelatory thought, the thinking, of God!  It’s been revealed to us and the world knows nothing – because they’re in blackness, it’s meant to be, God’s purpose.  There’s no light going out there to them – they can’t.  They have to be called first.  But we... how can we neglect so great a salvation?  How could we when God’s mind is being revealed to the Church in a greater way beyond our imagination!

John 14, we understand most of it... I won’t say all of it by any means.  Scripture... we see things, true?  It’s like the last four Truths that were given; when God decided to reveal more then we see.  What’s that seeing?  We understand how God thinks about something.  We see scripture... “Ah, that’s how God sees... that’s how God thinks about it.”  So when we see spiritual matters or we see sin in ourselves we see spiritual matters, we see how God thinks about it.

I know often we say: What are the Commandments?  The Commandments are the way God thinks.  That’s how He thinks!  So to come in unity with God, to have the same mind as God we would naturally obey them.  So anybody who doesn’t keep the Sabbath... they can’t think like God.  It’s a process of thinking.

So God has revealed His thinking to the Church beyond any other time – 57 Truths.  So if we ever desire to think more like God... the website and the Truths.  Go through the Truths on our knees and God will reveal His thinking, how He thinks about a matter.

John 14:1 - Let not your heart/mind/thinking be troubled: because they’re worried; it’s a way of thinking, you believe in God, and this of course is a belief not just about that God exists, but to believe what He says.  Do we believe what God says?  So if you do... if you believe what God says, Christ said, believe also in Me. Why would He say such a thing?  Because He had the same mind, same thinking.  So to believe in Christ we believe that He was our Saviour, our Passover and we believe exactly what Christ said; we actually believe what He said, not only that He existed, but what He said.

In My Father's House, the Church, those that God has called and given over to Jesus Christ, the Temple, are many mansions: of course, places of dwelling.  So places of dwelling... we are where God dwells.  God is desiring to place His thinking into our minds.  That’s what God desires!  So that we can benefit by thinking rightly.  That’s the benefit.  We are so blessed!

When we bear fruit...  What is bearing fruit?  Spiritually.  Somebody says, “Oh, go to Galatians 5:22 and read the fruits; love, joy meekness...”  Well, what’s meekness really?  A way of thinking!  Meekness is a way of thinking.  And we think the way God thinks. When we’re meek we actually know our true value because we believe God, we understand the purpose of life; therefore God gives us meekness in the mind.  Because if God doesn’t give us meekness in the mind what dwells there?  Darkness and pride!  One way or the other; we’re either meek and think like God about ourselves, how we see others and ourselves, particularly ourselves, or we’re elevating ourselves against somebody else: light and darkness, two ways of thinking.  But only God can give light, only God can give humility, only God can give meekness, only God can give love, only God can give joy.  We can’t do it of ourselves; it has to be God placing His thinking into our minds so that we think like Him.  And when we think like Him we can think peace!  We can think love to others!

So in all of that the warning is; if we don’t think peace, if we think any ill will to another member in the Body of Christ, God’s children that He loves.  What right do we have to hold anything against another person?  What arrogance, what pride we have!  I do it; I’m talking to myself as much as anything.  What stupidity does [Wayne] have to hold anything against someone else that God calls and who God thinks towards in a way of mercy, desires them to be in Elohim?  Who am I to hold anything against another member in the Body.  And I know that if I do I am not thinking like God!  I’m just simply not!  But then it takes time, that’s normal, that’s human nature and the darkness dwells all too often.

... if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, or am coming again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.  So in other words, Christ can live in us if we have that thinking.  That thinking has to be here.  So if God is dwelling in us, Christ is here because He’s in our thinking, we’re at one.  So when it says, “I in you and you in Me,” what it’s really saying is we have God’s mind, we have Christ’s mind.  So the only way to be in Christ is to have God’s spirit in us; we’re at one; we’re in unity – one way of thinking.  So when Christ says, “I am in the Father and the Father in Me,” we think exactly the same about everything so we’re at one, total unity, oneness, one spirit, one mind.  So are we in Christ?  We can only be in Christ if God the Father and Jesus Christ’s spirit dwells in us – the same mind.

So when we agree with Christ we’re in Christ; His thinking’s in us and we agree with Him, we believe Him – everything that He said.

And where I go you know, the way you know.  And we think... “We don’t know the way?!”  Well, the way is; think like God, have God’s thoughts in our mind – that’s the way.  We think like God, we’re on the right path, we know the way.  The way is spiritual, the way is thinking and living like God would, the way that He does.  We become at one with God.  The way is Christ living in us – same mind, same thinking; that’s the way.  And Thomas said, Lord, we do not know where You are going; and how do we know the way? If you’re only thinking physically, it’s not making a lot of sense.  In reality it wasn’t overly meant to for Him at that point; but it’s for us.  We actually know the way. Jesus says to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father, except through Me.  So we come to the Father by a calling, the spark of light that we can now think and know what sin is.

What God does in a calling is reveals ourselves – sin.  God reveals sin to us.  Outside of that we can’t see sin in ourselves.  And as the light gets more and more and at least 10% of the brain changes; we’ve got a bit more chance of sin in ourselves.  And as we go longer; and those that are in the Church for a long period of time...where light is they see more sin and you see more of the darkness.  Because when we’re first called we think we see a lot of light; but the reality is we don’t see the darkness.  I hope you understanding what I’m saying there.  Because as we go longer in God’s Church, God reveals the darkness to us and we go... hmmm, well...  And then after 40 years you see more of the darkness because you see more of the self; but it’s the power of God that does that.

We come to God through Jesus Christ.  There can be no relationship with the Father unless sin is forgiven.  So ‘the way’ is through Christ. If Christ is in us, dwells in us, the truth dwells in us.  In other words, we think like He does.  If Christ and the truth dwell in us life dwells in us; we have life because that spark of light is in us.  This is how we are in Christ and Christ in us.  We are in Christ when the truth dwells in us – that’s how it actually happens, it’s through that.

John 17:17 - Sanctify them/Set them aside by Your truth: set them aside by the way they think.  Now we’re set aside because we do think differently.  We all should know that – yes?  We do think differently than those in the world because we often, not always, think like God, whereas the world can’t.  So we’re set aside because we think differently.  We think more like God than others at this point in time because they haven’t been called to it.  We are set aside by truth, by Christ living in us.  The evidence that God is in us is by the way we think.

Often people say, “How do you know when someone’s being called?  Or how do you know when this person’s being drawn by God?”  Because of the way they think. We can see truth in them because of the way they think and if they won’t listen to the thinking of God when you’re explaining something... because when we’re explaining something of God, the truth, we’re just simply transferring God’s thinking to them and they’re either going to accept it or they’re not.  One way or the other.  And if they can’t accept the thinking of God, God’s not there.  If God was there they would accept the thinking of God; because it requires that spark.  It requires God’s mind for them to receive God’s mind.  Same thing.  God’s spirit requires God’s spirit to receive God’s spirit, to understand it; because you can’t see spiritually unless we have God’s spirit, unless we have God’s thinking on a matter.

Verse 18 - As You have sent Me into the world, even also have sent them into the world.  And that was to live God’s way of life, to stand out as different.  Well, I often say in the Melbourne congregation it’s a badge of honour to think like God, to stand out as different.  When you’re reviled, why would we revile back?  They haven’t got a clue what they’re talking about so they can call us idiots; you name it, they can belittle us and mock us; but if we’ve got God’s mind on it we agree with God, they don’t know any different and their time will come.  And when God calls them and they think like God, or begin to think like God, they’re going to do what I did many years ago and hang my head in shame for the things I said and did.  And they’re going to be given the opportunity to go before God and repent and forget it – don’t bring it back up ever again.  Well, that’s a hard process in itself, isn’t it, because we often relive sins.  But they’re going to have the same potential.

So when people mock us and belittle us... its like when Paul and those were scourged and they were thrown in jail and they were beaten and they went out joyful!  They suffered for Christ!  What an honour, what a blessing!  Are we any different brethren?  What an honour!  What a blessing to be called and have the ability, by God’s great mercy to all of us, and all of us know we don’t deserve it!  We’ve done nothing to deserve any of this.  But what a great blessing and great love God has shown to us that He decided to call us, uniquely, at this time – of all time, this time, and place His spirit in us so that we can think like Him.  And out of all the thousands of years, 6,000 years, how many people have had the ability to think like God?  It’s staggering...absolutely staggering!  What a blessing!

Verse 19 - And for their sake I sanctify Myself, that they may also be sanctified by the truth. So we’re set aside by this truth, by this way of thinking.  We are different.  I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word: in other words it’ll be preached; God’s mind would be preached out to others and in time those will be called in the future.

Verse 21 - That they may be one; same mind as God.  So when we’re at one we have the same mind as God, we think the same as God does.  ...as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, total unity; same mind, same thinking; that they also may be one in Us:  so the only way that we can be in God the Father and be in Jesus Christ is to be at one with God.  We have to be in unity with God.

God in Christ, Christ in God and the truth was in Jesus Christ – they had the same mind; unity of spirit and unity in truth, in doctrine.  So whenever we find ourselves not in unity with the teachings of the Body of Christ, the Church of God, we are not thinking like God.  Now it should be a warning to check that thinking, no matter what it is, even small.  Small things develop into large things if we don’t check our thinking.  We are to be of one mind - no variance.

Verse 22 - And the glory which You gave Me, What was that glory?  God’s mind, the ability to think like God – that’s the glory. I have given them; the ability to think like God; that they may be one, just as We are one:  So that’s how we can tell.

The truth is the proof that we are in God and God is in us.  So if we believe the truth we know that God is in us and we are in God.  We are dwelling in God if we believe the truth because God’s placed it in our minds and we believe it – therefore we are in God.  We are in Christ and Christ is in us; and God is in us because of the way we think.  If we live the truth, God is in us and we are in Him.  So this thinking is manifested by the way we live, the way we choose to live, to the glory of God.  And all the glory goes to God!

I John 2:3 – Now by this we know that we know Him, so virtually saying by this, by this we know that we know Him; How do we know God?  Well it’s the way God thinks.  We know the way God thinks so we can say we know God because we know the way He thinks.  ...if we keep His commandments.  So if we’re keeping the commandments we’re thinking like God does about a matter, in the spiritual intent of them.  The commandments reveal how to love, how to think towards others; that’s what the commandments do.  They reveal how we should be thinking towards others and towards God.

Verse 4 - He who says, I know Him, someone who says, “I know God.”  In other words, “I know how God thinks.”  That’s what we’re really saying.  When we say we know God we’re actually saying we know how God thinks about a matter. He who says, I know Him, and does not keep His Commandments, is a liar, I love this scripture. It’s so black and white isn’t it?  Because anybody who says, “I know that I love God.”  ...and won’t keep the Commandments – God just says, “Look, you’re just a liar.  Your mind is just so dark, it’s in blackness, haven’t got a clue.  You don’t know Me?!  You don’t know how I think?!  Because if you say you know Me you’d be keeping the Commandments because you think like I do!  What’s best for you...” ...and the truth is not in him. In other word, God’s mind is not in him.  So anybody wants to argue about any of the Commandments... Why would you bother?  because they don’t think like God.  If you’ve got God’s spirit and you start to negotiate or try to convince somebody who hasn’t got God’s spirit, how stupid is that?  Really, when you think about it – how stupid.  Surely the signal will go... psht.  No use saying anything more here – God hasn’t granted them the gift of repentance like He has so mercifully to us.  We don’t look down on them, we rejoice at God’s creation.

And often I sit on an airplane flying around...long way coming over here; but I sit in a plane and I think, “You know, there’s only Chris and myself here; and we know this truth.”  It’s very humbling... like you think, “Whoa... Why us?”  You all go through the same... “Why us, all the way over in Melbourne, Australia?  Why did God call us?”  It’s... just...well, words can’t describe...  you just think, “Well, I know me!  I know me and I think... hmmm...”

Verse 5 - But whoever keeps His word, God’s word, truly the love of God is perfected: or is exercised by it, in him; By this/by obedience, we know we are in Him.  So it’s by obedience to the Commandments that we know we are in God, that we’re in Christ – because we think the same.  God’s placed His mind in us to think that way.

Verse 6 - He who says he abides/dwells in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.  They’re so clear aren’t they?  In other words... if we say we are in Christ, we need to be thinking and living... and the outcome of the thinking is we will live the way Jesus Christ lived, we will do the same things, we will think the way He thought about matters.  We will live the truth, we will walk in the truth, we’ll believe God, we will be in unity of doctrine.  We will walk in love for God and man; there will be no ill will to a brother. That’s actually a very powerful statement; and I know God is revealing more and more to this particular era of God’s Church, this period from the end to the return of Jesus Christ, from the end of Laodicea through to the return of Jesus Christ.  This period of time God has revealed to the Church more and more and especially in the last lot of Truths that we would walk in love for God and man and there will be no ill will to anyone else.  That is so powerful, because the only way this can be achieved is God’s spirit, God’s thinking must be in us.  So we will think differently.

If someone so called ‘offends’ us, because we shouldn’t be offended; because if we thought like God we wouldn’t be offended.  But if we do take offense, we’re not thinking like God.  It’s not thinking like God thinks.  Why would we be offended?  Don’t we know ourselves?  Don’t we really know ourselves?  That if someone said something derogatory or put me down in any way... why would I take offense – because it’s true! It’s true... and maybe I haven’t seen it yet because God hasn’t given me the ability to see it!  Why would I be offended?  Maybe I should just go away and think, “Hmmm, they probably had a point.”

Verse 6 – So he who says he abides/dwells/continues in Him, in God, ought himself also to walk just as He walked.  So we will think like Jesus Christ.

I John 2:9 - He who says he is in the light, now the light is the truth, which is the way God thinks; in Christ, it’s the same, and hates his brother... so if we’ve got something towards somebody else, is in darkness until now.  You know that black part of the mind, that darkness with the black electricity is still active.  Now this is God saying this!  Still active!  So if we’ve got something against anybody in the Body... it doesn’t matter who it is; family... ANYBODY...something is wrong with our thinking!  We do not think like God towards a brother!  Tragic that we have that ability and that we will harbour stupid things against each other and lift ourselves up and defend to the death because I’m right!  If we could only hear ourselves... it’s just stupid thinking!  Who are we?  Well, if we understand what we really are when God shows us... we would be a lot meeker, a lot humbler.

I was saying to somebody driving around.  I said, I am really thankful (it might have been Johnny), I am so thankful that Wayne Matthews hasn’t been recorded like David, because I don’t know whether I could cope!  I know that’s pride.  That’s pride, true?  That’s pride, because you think... “Whoa – you’re revealing all this stuff...”  I am reasonably thankful, most of my life is only known by my wife and myself – because see, we’re all the same though, let’s be real.  Let’s be real!  We are all the same!  We all have the same capacity; we all start off with the same darkness in the mind!  And it has capacity for GREAT EVIL!  And I mean GREAT EVIL! And the more we see this...  and I actually understand why people do certain things, I really do, I see it because I know probably I’d do a bit more, or worse than what they do because I’ve got that capacity; and it’s only by God’s mercy, through the power of His holy spirit that I can think like God.

What a blessing!  What a unique blessing out of all the history of 6,000 years of man; I have the blessing, you have the blessing, of the ability to think like God.  And if you want to think more like God pray about it, ask (I won’t get to the scripture), but the scripture says; ‘Ask and you’ll receive.’  Ask what? Not for a new car.  Ask what?  Ask for the mind of God!  Ask for the mind of God on EVERY TOPIC!  Every topic ask for the mind of God and I know where you’re going to end up.  On the Church website.  God feeds through sermons.  You know when people say, “Oh, I’ve got this...” honestly, go and listen to a sermon.  And everyone hears differently.

The amount of electricity in our minds, the white light today is at various levels.  Some people are hearing certain things and other people are hearing more things – depends on what God is doing with you.  And we don’t elevate ourselves up or down.  If God gives three talents – great glory to God, thank you for the mercy that I even have one talent.  God gives seven?  Greater onus on the one with seven – bigger responsibility!  We’d best be labouring with the seven... best be labouring with the seven!

So everyone understands differently because God has a role for everybody, an outcome for everybody that’s different for everybody.  So, some have different levels of talents.  There’s talents in the Body of Christ that sometimes I look and think... “Amazing talent!”  And then if I desire that talent spiritually... best go and pray about it; and God in His mercy may grant it.  He may not.  But God’s desire is to give.  God wants us to what?  Think like Him.  That’s God’s desire.  God’s desire is that we think like Him so that one day at a certain point we will think like God and the blackness won’t be there.  We’ll never think everything the way God knows in knowledge, but we won’t be able to sin.  And roll on that day!  Because as God reveals more of the darkness of the mind... it’s a wonderful thing.

Can you imagine the ability not to sin?  Imagine going out for a meal and not being able to sin.  That’d be a lot for me!  That would... true?  My wife says, “You never shut up talking!”  And then I go home and I think, “I hope I didn’t say that...”  And then the next day... “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...”  It’s who I am.  But imagine that?  Imagine having a whole day where you didn’t think ill will to somebody or pull somebody down or speak ill of somebody else or whatever.  Isn’t that something to look forward to?  I can personally say I am looking forward to that day, I really am.  It’s going to be a way of thinking that thinks no ill will to anybody, that understands what God’s plan is for everybody.  God’s desire is that everybody ends up thinking like Him – everybody.

I John 2:9 – He who says he walks in the light and hates his brother is in darkness to now.  I hope we can see that more clearly.  It’s a way of thinking.  If we hate our brother, we’re not thinking like God.  He who loves his brother abides in the light, dwells in the truth; in other words, they’re in Christ.  So he who loves his brother... it’s powered by the way God thinks.  God’s put it into our minds.  We think like God, we love our brother, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates, or has ill will toward his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, he’s self-deceived. He’s deceived himself; he’s still in darkness.  But of course the black electricity is saying, “I’m doing pretty well here.”  It’s the natural carnal mind because it can’t see light; it justifies itself because that’s all it can do.

So he who hates his brother, has ill will to, is in darkness, this should scare us brethren!  This should scare us because it’s revealing a lot about ourselves, because he’s in darkness.

‘I in you, you in Me.’ We are in Christ when we love our brother.

So what’s the evidence of you and me dwelling in Christ?  You know people say, what’s the proof, what’s the evidence?  Whether you love one another.  If we love one another and have no ill will we are in Christ, Christ is in us, we are in the Father and the Father in us.  Isn’t it beautiful?  Don’t you think?  Isn’t that a marvellous, wonderful thing?  That’s the proof!  That we love one another no matter what people say or do, we’re forgiving, we love each other.  We want the best for everybody because we want to see each one of us IN the Body of Christ IN God’s Family in the end – IN Elohim!  How wonderful!! Don’t you desire that for everybody?  That’s proof that God dwells in you, you in Him and we in Christ.

In the end all wrong thinking will be destroyed.  In the end, all wrong thinking will be destroyed.  So when we have ill will towards somebody else... and the scripture says, ‘let this mind be in you which was also in Jesus Christ’.  Let this thinking, this love... there’s no ill will.  Let this love be in you.  Let this truth be in you.  Let this thinking, the way God thinks, be in you.

So the Father was in Christ.  God placed His thinking thoughts into Christ.  Because of this, Christ was in the Father, at one with Him.  Christ thought like God.  The Father is in us, in the mind, His thinking in us through the power of the holy spirit.  Because of this we can be in God and in Christ.  We can think like God.  We can love one another.  So it’s only God’s thinking in us that can actually enable us to love one another – irrespective of anything else.  We can love one another.  It’s possible!

When we don’t love one another we dwell in darkness.  When we are in Christ spiritually we are in full unity with God because we think like Him.  We have the spirit of truth dwelling in us when we think like God.  We are in God when the truth abides in us.  We are at one with God and Christ when we agree with God.

So to be in Christ, ‘I in you,’ means that we have God dwelling, God’s mind, God’s thoughts, God’s thinking in us by the power of His holy spirit.  The evidence that we love one another is that we have God’s spirit: so one enables the other.  So if we have God’s spirit, we are now able to love one another.  The evidence is: if we’re in Christ and in God, the evidence (which we need to burn in our brains)... the evidence that God is in us...  Someone say, “How do you know you’ve got God’s spirit?”  Well, good question!  God says the answer, if you love one another I’m in you, you’re in Me, you’re in Christ, Christ is in you.  One way of thinking!

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