Resurrection Life

Within ancient Hebrew culture, a true son was the image of his true father in the way he behaved. Why? Because the life of the father dwelt within the heart of the seed or son to bring forth fruit after the father’s kind. As we have already seen, in Hebrew, the name Satan or adversary means literally the snake that surrounds and devours life, or simply the murdering snake. That is why Jesus said in John 8:44 that the devil was a murderer from the beginning. Murder is the destruction of life and is the devil’s mark, signature or calling card. In John 17, Jesus described Judas as a son of destruction. Why? Because the devil is the original destroyer, and Judas was instrumental in destroying Jesus’ natural life; he betrayed Jesus with a kiss. Judas agreed with the lies of the devil and gave the devil the authority or legal right to dwell within his fallen simply superior marvellous me prideful murderous heart. That is why Judas behaved the way he did; he bore the fruit of his evil father’s kind. In the same way, Cain was a son of destruction. Why? Because he was the original son of man with a wicked pride-poisoned fallen heart who murdered Abel, his brother. There is a difference between authority and power. Authority is the legal right; power is the absolute strength. Originally, God obviously had absolute power but limited authority upon the earth because God gave authority upon the earth to Adam. When God originally created Adam, God breathed himself into the house of Adam’s heart. Adam was the original Son of God. Why? Because God dwells by his Holy Spirit within the words that he speaks to do what he says and say what he does. Because God breathed himself into Adam’s heart when he was created, Adam became a God-breathing being and bore the name the Son of God. Both Adam and God originally had dominion or authority upon the earth because God had authority or dominion or reign within Adam’s heart. God was Adam’s first and only love. Both Adam and God lost that authority upon the earth when Adam sinned in the garden of Eden; he gasped the eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit out of his heart and became a slave of simply superior murderous not marvellous sinful pride, Satan’s puppet king. When God became a man in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, all of this changed. That is why Jesus said in Matthew 28:18 that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Jesus has all authority in heaven because he is God. Jesus has all authority on earth because he is the Son of Adam (or man). As we have seen, the son is the image or reflection of his father because he bears fruit after his father’s kind. In the genealogy of Jesus, Jesus is described as the son of Abraham and within ancient Hebrew culture for Jesus to be called the son of Abraham, Abraham had to have been fathered by God. Abraham was a reflection, an image, witness or foreshadowing of Jesus the son of God who is both Yehovah his God and Yeshua (or Jesus) Abraham’s son.  The same is true of David. David was a reflection, an image, witness or foreshadowing of Jesus the son of God who is both Yehovah his God and Yeshua, David’s son. As the Son of Adam or man, Jesus has the right or authority to have dominion upon the earth. As the Son of Abraham, Jesus has the right to receive Abraham’s promised blessing; the gift of God’s unmerited and unearned sovereign grace or blessing of his Holy Spirit poured out on the Day of Pentecost. As the Son of David, Jesus has the right to the promised throne, crown and kingdom of his father David. As the Son of God, Jesus is the image of the invisible God like Adam was before he sinned; his heart is filled with the eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of the paradise of God’s fatherhood. The devil knows pride-poisoned sinful nature off by heart because that is what is in his heart. The devil appeals to people’s pride and evil lusts to inspire them to sin, but when they do, he accuses them before God and demands the right to legally curse them for what they have done. It was the devil who inspired the people of Israel to crucify and kill their own God and King in the person of Jesus. However, Jesus interceded for the transgressors who murdered him and rose from the dead to forgive them. The devil has no legal right to accuse before God those who have repented from the pride that shed Jesus’ innocent blood on the cross, have taken that blood to heart, have not only been forgiven, but transformed by that same blood into becoming the Sons of God. God sees them as sharing in Jesus’ corporate identity as the Son of God, and God does for them what he did for Jesus; God reigns supreme within their hearts and therefore releases within them the undeniable power of resurrection life. It was this resurrection life that healed the body of Jesus and rose Jesus from the dead, exalted him to the highest place in universe and gave him a name that is above every name. It is this same resurrection life that enables the true followers of the real Jesus, those that become like him in his death, to be inspired by the eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of the paradise of God’s fatherhood to live forgiven, healed, redeemed and crowned with love. It is their journey on the highway of holiness which brings them increasingly under the corporate covering or umbrella of Jesus’ anointing, the power of the Holy Spirit. Through the power of the blood of Jesus that their pride shed on the cross, this grants them the true salvation of overcoming victory in every aspect of life. As the eyes of their humble hearts are opened, they increasingly share in Jesus’ identity as the Son of Adam, the Son of Abraham, the Son of David and the Son of God. They share in his past, his present and his future. They share in his Father, his throne, his crown and his destiny.

In English, the word resurrection is based upon the Latin resurgere which means to rise again. In Hebrew, the word used for resurrection was amad which means to stand or endure like a pillar. In Greek, the word Jesus used for resurrection was anistemi which means the same thing, to stand or be upstanding. For the Hebrews something upstanding was good, strong, secure, faithful, trustworthy, honourable, just, righteous, happy, straight and true. In Hebrew, a word used for fall was naphal and means something fallen, garbage or rubbish thrown down, dead, ruined, useless, twisted, crooked, dishonest, unjust, unfaithful, insecure, unhappy, untrustworthy and false. Apart from the grace of God, this is the natural state of the fallen human heart, but this is often hidden because of God’s blessing. In John’s Gospel, John describes a family that Jesus loved and who were descended from both Abraham and most likely David. Martha was probably the eldest, she had a sister named Mary and a brother named Lazarus. They lived in a village called Bethany that was quite close to Jerusalem, and Jesus often stayed with them when he was in town. They loved him because they knew that he loved them. However, one day, Lazarus became sick. Indeed, his sickness got worse and worse, so bad in fact that the family sent a messenger to ask Jesus to come and heal him. Jesus had left Judea because death threats had been made upon his life. When Jesus was told that Lazarus was sick and needed help, he waited two days before responding. Then he told his disciples that they were going to return to Judea. His disciples were surprised because the Jews had attempted to stone Jesus. Jesus said to his disciples in John 11:14-15 “Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless, let us go unto him”. Thomas said to his fellow disciples in John 11:16 “Let us also go, that we may die with him”. It says in John 11:20-24 “Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house. Then said Martha unto Jesus, “Lord, if thou had been here, my brother had not died. But I know that even now, whatsoever thou will ask of God, God will give it thee”. Jesus said unto her, “Thy brother shall rise again”. Martha said unto him, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day”. Martha heard the words of Jesus with her natural ears and quite instinctively had a natural faith or trust in Jesus. However, the eyes of her heart were still dim, and she did not establish or take to heart the supernatural living words of the eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God that Jesus spoke. Martha’s natural hope of resurrection was a reference to Daniel 12:2,13 which says “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt….but go thou [Daniel] thy way till the end be: for thou shall rest, and stand [resurrection] in thy lot [inheritance] at the end of the days”. She naturally thought that Jesus was possibly talking about that. Jesus responded to Martha’s confused unbelief with a question that encouraged her to establish as truth Jesus’ supernatural words. Jesus said John 11:25-27 “I Am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in [from within] me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Believe thou this?” She said unto him, “Yes, Lord: I believe that thou are the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world”“. Jesus had already said in John 5:24-27 (YLT) “’Verily [in Hebrew “amen”, faith, truth, pillar or support], verily, I say to you—‘he who is hearing my word, and is believing [establishing] Him who sent me, has life age-during, and to judgment he does not come, but has passed out of the death to the life. Verily, verily, I say to you—There comes an hour, and it now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those having heard shall live; for, as the Father has life in himself, so He gave also to the Son to have life in himself, and authority He gave him also to do judgment, because he is Son of Man’”. And so, Jesus asked that the stone in front of Lazarus’ grave was removed. In an act of absolute unmerited sovereign grace, He then commanded in a loud voice that Lazarus should come forth out of the grave, and he did.

Within ancient Hebrew culture, when Lazarus was dead, he was not in Hades, the underworld, or realms of the conscious dead because there was no such place, nor was he in heaven (see John 3:13). This was to happen later. When Lazarus was dead, he was simply asleep in the dust of what Psalm 88:12 describes as the land of forgetfulness, sheol or the grave. If anyone had asked Lazarus what death was like (no doubt many people did) he would have said something like there was absolutely nothing there, my mind is completely blank, that is all I can remember. In Hebrew, the word Lazarus is Eleazor and means God is my helper. Lazarus was dead, as such the credo of his I believe pride could not shackle the grace of God. For Lazarus, the only thing that was good about him and the only thing that was left regarding him, was the grace or corporate covenant-covering or blessing of the unmerited favour and love of God promised to Abraham and his true heirs. Everything else was not just as good as dead, it actually was dead. This is why Jesus waited two days before going to help him. Lazarus’ death was the perfect platform upon which the glorious and unmerited sovereign blessing and grace of God could stand. God really was Lazarus’ helper. By an act of undeserved sovereign grace, Jesus stood upon the platform of God’s glory and rose Lazarus, as a glorious Son of God, from the dead. Why? Because Lazarus was an heir of the blood covenant promises that God had sovereignly spoken to both Abraham and David, and God was Lazarus’ shield, defender and very great reward. Lazarus was under the covenant-covering or umbrella of Abraham’s blessing.

Like the prodigal son, Lazarus, and indeed Abraham were a type or foreshadowing of the ekklesia of God. Lazarus was called out of death, Abraham was called out of the authority and power of his natural born pride-poisoned life that was dead to God and passed down through the generational seed line from Adam, the original prideful sinning father. They are like those who, by the election of sovereign grace, are brought to their senses and come home. When Jesus said, Let those who have ears, let them hear, they hear because those who belong to God hear what God says. Within ancient Hebrew culture to hear meant to obey. They are called by the unearned blessing and unmerited grace and truth of the living word of God spoken with eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood to come forth. They are called out of the Mystery Babylon of the natural life of fallen devil-indwelt emptiness self-worship and self-adoration handed down from Adam, and into the upstanding power and revival life of Jesus’ resurrection. For the Hebrews, their hope was resurrection out of death – the revival of being able to live again (see Matthew 27:52-53), not remaining dead forever in the fairy-tale castle in the sky. King David said in Psalm 16:5-11 (YLT) “Yehovah is the portion of my share, and of my cup. Thou dost uphold my lot. Lines have fallen to me in pleasant places, Yea, a beauteous inheritance is for me. I bless Yehovah who has counselled me; Also, in the nights my reins instruct me. I did place Yehovah before me continually, because—at my right hand I am not moved. Therefore, has my heart been glad, and my honour does rejoice, also my flesh dwells confidently: For Thou does not leave my soul to Sheol, nor give thy saintly one to see corruption. Thou cause me to know the path of life; Fulness of joys is with Thy presence, Pleasant things by Thy right hand for ever!” For David, his God was Yehovah (I AM), who remarkably was also born as his son Yehoshua (Yeshua, I AM YOUR SALVATION, or Jesus) and David prophesied Jesus’ (the Son of David) resurrection and his own. That is why it says in Psalm 110:1 (YLT) “The affirmation of Yehovah to my Lord [Adon]: ‘Sit at My right hand, Till I make thine enemies thy footstool.’” When David said, my Lord, David was not talking about God the Son because within ancient Hebrew culture, there was no such person. God the Son is from a different people group, age, culture and tradition and only exists within the fairytale realms of culturally Greek established religious goat-commentaries.

It says in Hosea 6:1-2 (YLT) “Come, and we turn back unto Yehovah, For He has torn, and He does heal us, He does smite, and He binds us up. He does revive us after two days, In the third day He does raise us up, and we live before Him”. Resurrection life is where the living word of God Son that was originally spoken by the eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of the paradise of God’s fatherhood into Adam (the original Son of God) when he was created but was then divorced out of him at the Fall, is remarried or reunited with the hearts of the Sons of God through Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. Jesus said in Luke 20:34-36 (YLT) “The sons of this age do marry and are given in marriage, but those accounted worthy to obtain that age, and the rising again [resurrection] that is out of the dead, neither marry, nor are they given in marriage; for neither are they able to die any more—for they are like messengers [angels]—and they are Sons of God, being sons of the rising again [resurrection].” The father of lies teaches that being worthy is based upon the right tradition of the church establishment: prayers, ceremonies, doctrine, rituals, incantations, creeds, beliefs, spells, theologies, offerings, teachings, sacrifices, rites, articles, beliefs or observances. However, those who are inspired by the election of grace to live in the undeniable power of resurrection life before they die will be accounted worthy to be part of the First Resurrection. They become sons of the resurrection out of the sleep of death, and Sons of God, forever. Why? Because of the new covenant. The new covenant is when the blood of Jesus on people’s guilty hands changes their nature to be like his when it is applied by the Holy Spirit to their proud but penitent hearts. Jesus’ blood takes away the original prideful sinning nature of the simply superior marvellous me Cain that nailed Jesus to the cross and instead imparts a new contrite or circumcised heart, a new spirit or life’s breath, and the Holy Spirit dwelling within people’s redeemed hearts. That is why Jesus said in John 5:28-29 “… for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his [the Son of man or Adam] voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation”. The false prophets of established church history teach that puffed up pride-poisoned religious hypocrites who strain a gnat but swallow a camel are considered conceptually righteous and good by God if they believe in the creeds, dogma and religious articles of the church establishment. This is deception. Paul said in Colossians 3:1-6 “If ye then be risen with Christ [the Anointed One], seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil desires, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God comes on the sons of disobedience”. God’s final judgement is based upon relationship and not religion, upon behaviour and not beliefs, upon fruit and not imaginary faith. According to Jesus, people live what they really believe and behaviour in life will become inheritance in resurrection. That is why Paul said in Colossians 3:23-25 “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that does wrong shall receive for the wrong which he has done and there is no respect of persons”. The established religion of hand-me-down church tradition has no inheritance in the kingdom of God. Inheritance is not part of the goat-theologies, creeds or traditions of the church establishment.

In 2 Corinthians 6, Paul was concerned that the Corinthians had received the blessing or grace of the unmerited and unearned favour of God in vain. In Greek, the word used for vain was kenos and meant emptiness. They had come under the umbrella or covenant-covering of the unmerited grace of the anointing of God’s Holy Spirit, the blessing of Abraham. They had experienced the upstanding revival life of Jesus and had encountered resurrection power. However, Paul was concerned that the father of lies was attempting to dethrone the crown of the heart-changing anointing and blessing of the eternal life’s breath (or Holy Spirit) of God’s fatherhood by replacing relationship with a religion of tradition. Having been part of the ekklesia or called out ones from the Babylon of the pride and the fallen emptiness of self-worship, without the saving anointing and blessing of God, their previously pride-poisoned self-admiring loveless hearts would once again be puffed up. This would have been with eternal emptiness of what became the marvellous religious doctrines of the established church: out-of-context scriptures, misquotes, theologies, traditions, hypocrisy, and the pride of simply superior self-worship indwelt by the father of lies. This became the established orthodox way of the marvellous Cain. The danger was that by being disrobed of their wedding garments, emptied of God, and robbed of their identity as being part of the corporate totality of the Son of God the Corinthians would simply be left a salvation based upon the work of intellectual or conceptual faith in religious tradition and not the trust of a Father-Son relationship with God. This would have been a debateable salvation of traditions, beliefs, and scriptural sounding words divorced of God’s presence and incredible life-changing power. If this happened, they would become, like the church of Laodicea, mere talkers, fakes, and imitators, once again robed or wrapped in the shroud or grave clothes as types of dead Lazarus and without the glory and undeniable revival power of resurrection life. Behaviour in life would become inheritance in resurrection and there is no repentance in resurrection. They would stay like that, forever.

In 2 Corinthians 6:2 Paul quoted from Isaiah 49 and said to them (YLT) “In an acceptable time I did hear thee, and in a day of salvation [victory] I did help thee, lo, now is a well-accepted time; lo, now, a day [today] of salvation”. For Paul, the gospel or good news of the true salvation or overcoming victory was today, not after he was dead. Salvation meant being sovereignly inspired to live a changed or victorious life of the very same anointing of the upstanding resurrection power of divine life that reanimated the dead body of Jesus when He rose from the dead. For Paul, this was the not self-congratulatory imaginary intellectual traditional theory of the theoretical triumph of fictitious fantasy faith of the church establishment. The almighty power that raised Jesus from the dead was sovereignly at work within Paul. By the election of grace, Paul shared Jesus’ corporate identity as the Son of Abraham, Son of David and the Son of God. This same undeniable resurrection power, the eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of the paradise of God’s fatherhood inspired Paul to no longer bear Satan’s fallen murderous prideful image but instead be upstanding and faithful in all things. Unlike the church establishment, Paul talked of showing great patience in affliction, of being in need and great distress and yet carrying on. He talked of beatings and imprisonment, of riots, labours, being attacked by wild beasts, shipwrecked, sleepless nights and going without food, all for the sake of the good news that the anointing of the overcoming power of resurrection life can once again be rocked within people’s hearts. Paul talked of purity of heart and understanding, of living in love and kindness inspired by the inbreathed and living word of God’s truth (or Holy Spirit), the breastplate of righteousness and the weapons of faith and love, in his left hand and his right. He talked of honouring others but being dishonoured himself, of being slandered but giving others a good report, of being considered a deceiver yet always being true, of being a nobody yet notorious, of dying but somehow living on, being beaten again and again and yet not being killed. He talked of being sorrowful yet always rejoicing, of being poor but making others rich, of having nothing yet possessing all things. This has absolutely nothing to do with the established religion of church tradition. For Paul, everything apart from Jesus had gone to nothingness, helplessness and ruin. Every thought of advantage for himself was on the decrease in order that the Anointed One that dwelt within his heart could increase. Paul was inspired by sovereign grace to live in another state, where all things were done under the power of the eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of the paradise of God’s fatherhood. These things were the fulfilment of the covenant blessings promised by Yehovah God to Abraham and his true heir, Yehoshua (Jesus). These things revealed Paul’s identity as a Son of God and a heavenly man together with Yehoshua. God had freely accepted Paul into the Beloved to the praise of His glorious grace. As such, God recognised Paul as being freed from the pride that nailed Jesus to the cross and humbled like Jesus in his death and as such released to him the power of Jesus’ upstanding resurrection life. That is why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15: 10 “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me”. This undeniable resurrection life was the true salvation of overcoming power for Paul who chose to die every day to the self-admiring pride of his natural fallen heart. This is why Paul says in Philippians 3:10-11 “That I may know him [Christ, the Anointed One], and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead”.

So, what about you? Someone once sang, it’s life’s illusions I recall, I really don’t know life at all. What does living in the undeniable overcoming power of resurrection life mean to you? For established church losers, their religion is an intellectual pursuit, and words like resurrection, salvation, anointing, or in Christ Jesus are just natural words of eternal emptiness. They are an illusion spoken by the natural breath of the blind guides educated beyond their understanding by the hand-me-down traditions and intellectual propositions of the church establishment. For them, they don’t really know life at all. Life is just another show, and unless they encounter and are changed by the real Jesus, they will remain losers forever. For the Sons of God, words like anointing, salvation and resurrection are supernatural life-giving words of the eternal life’s breath of God’s fatherhood spoken into their hearts by God’s Holy Spirit. That is why John said to the Sons of God in 1 John 2:27 “But the anointing which you have received of him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall abide in him”. The Sons of God receive the same life-changing and heart-changing anointing that Jesus himself received. They abide or dwell within him, he lives, abides or dwells within them. Through the abiding presence of the eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood within the habitation of their hearts, they live with all their sins forgiven, all their diseases healed, their lives redeemed from all destruction and crowned with love and tender mercies. They have seen life and love from both sides. Once they lived for the satisfaction of their marvellous me lusts and the simply superior pride that nailed Jesus to the cross. But having the eyes of their hearts opened to see what their murderous sins did to Jesus, they were humbled, forgiven and healed; now they are the Lord’s anointed, true Christians or anointed ones. They live in the true salvation of the undeniable overcoming power of resurrection life, first the blade, then the ear, then the full head of corn or wheat in the ear. The live in the presence of Holy Spirit power where overcoming victory in every circumstance of life is absolutely guaranteed. They really are in Christ Jesus. They are winners forever. You can be too.

Prayer: Dear Father, thank you that you came as the man Jesus the Messiah to establish Sonship for the Sons of God. I would like to be a Son of God together with Yeshua. In the name of Yeshua the Messiah, by an act of your sovereign grace, please inspire me to have an all-consuming lifestyle of absolute and implicit obedience to the personal call and living word of promise spoken to into my heart by your Holy Spirit. Please bring me under the cover, umbrella or anointing of your Holy Spirit so that I will be able to bring you glory by living free in the undeniable power of resurrection life: forgiven, healed, delivered, redeemed and crowned with love.

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