The Pool Beneath the Ripples

Seeing these days that the meaning of being a son of God, as the scripture says we are if we are redeemed, now are we the sons of God, is that we are in an awareness of a permanent unity within us, between himself and ourselves. The basis of our being people is, it's not we, it's he. It appears to be we, it's he.

As Paul said, not I live, but Christ liveth in us. On the basis of a permanent awareness. When there is that permanent awareness, we've learned to see where we as persons fit, as we've taken the place in the cross with Jesus, having been cut off from the old independence of the self, and the old concept of the self-development of the self, and we've seen how we fit as the branch to the vine, as the body to the head, or the vessel which contains the living water, and we've come into the consciousness that this is our permanent relationship.

And then in that permanent relationship, where it has become a fixed awareness to us, we come out and live a perfectly natural life. We're just ourselves, thinking, willing, acting selves. Yet we really know it isn't we.

There's this inner fact which is constantly a fact to us. It isn't really we, it's he. So we're living a normal life, appearing to be normal people, but the word that Jesus says is being fulfilled, ye are the light of the world.

But he's the light, not we, except for the unity. He's the light, we're the non-light. He says, ye are the light, on the basis of the permanent unity.

So it's our natural living, speaking, acting, it's really he acting by us. And then we know how, in our humanity, in this disturbed world around us, as we're pulled out in different directions with fear, or doubt, or depression, or hurt, or dislikes, and so on, we've learned to accept that is what our humanity is, but to say, no, that's not what I really am. What I really am is Christ in me.

And I transfer my temporary awareness from the thing which is hurting me, or disturbing me, or depressing me, or making me feel weak, or whatever it is, I transfer my recognition from that fact to him in me, then he who is the power, and the life, and the love, and the fullness, all flows. And he manifests his strength through my weakness, his courage through my fears, his love through my natural unlove, his fire through my coldness, and so on. And we learn this is the life of the Son of God, where it's the Son dwelling in the Sons, or the Father dwelling in the Sons, in a unity.

The basis has to be a fact, a fixed permanency, not something which is repeated in and out. As much a unity as a vine and a branch are a permanent unity, or a head and a body are a permanent unity. That's why the witness of the Spirit is a necessity.

Because the witness of the Spirit gives us a permanent inner awareness. We have the inner awareness, we can live outwardly forgetting, but this is the inner fact, at any moment we can return to recognition. We find the simplest word of faith is the word recognition.

And the other word about faith has a little question of doubt. When I say I believe, I say I believe because I'm not quite sure, so I believe. I say I affirm, well I want to encourage myself to believe it says, so I affirm.

To recognise is just recognising a fact. It isn't believing a fact, it's just recognising a fact. It doesn't take me a great deal of difficulty to recognise I'm standing in this room, I just am standing in the room.

So recognition is the simplest term for faith. And the basis of this life is eternal and major recognition. I, I, I? No, it isn't really I. It's this living God, living Christ himself in me, expressing himself by me.

And we're living the free life on that basis. Now as we consider together these facts concerning, as revealed to us by God's word, what an eternal son of God is, we move on now to the third phase, which we may say is the purpose of being a son. We originally said we need to look into what is life, how do we live it, why do we live it.

We're thinking a little now about why do we live it. So the Bible presents us with a third stage, or third phase, or third grade, whatever word you like to use. The commonest, clearest presentation of that in the scriptures probably is the one that John writes in his letter.

Where he subdivides the people he writes to, he says I write unto little children, young men, and fathers. You find that in the second chapter of 1 John. Infant, adolescent, adulthood.

Now there are some startling differences between those three. And he explains to us on spiritual terms what he means by infant, little child, young man, father on a spiritual basis. And he states here that the meaning of little child is totally dependent on his parents.

He doesn't know what's happened to him, he's just dependent. He's totally dependent on people outside himself, his father and mother. So it says a little child in Christ is just dependent on the fact that Jesus died for him, shed his blood for him.

And it says here therefore he knows his sins are forgiven for Christ's name's sake, and he knows the father. His relationships are external. He died for me, so my sins are here, my sins are gone in his name, and I know the father.

That's the first infant stage of the new birth. Then he says we pass on to the adolescent stage. Now adolescence on a human level is a fermenting stage.

Why? Because an adolescent has to get free of his parents and be himself. He's got to discover adequacy in himself. So adolescence will almost be a fermenting stage.

You kind of have to put your elbows into your parents around you to get clear, get some room to find yourself. An adolescent is a person who finds his own adequacy. Technically speaking, an adolescent is one who's mentally graduated, physically matured, as opposed to having enough ethics to be able to live a life.

I'm talking on a human level now. It doesn't work very well, of course, by self-effort, but that's the earthly standard. Now the spiritual adolescence has this difference.

Instead of finding his own adequacy, he finds the adequacy of Christ in him. As a little child, he finds the adequacy of Christ for him, took his sins away, reconciled him to God and his father. The spiritual adolescence has found not a Christ for him, a Christ in him.

So it says the adolescent is the one who becomes strong, not because he hasn't got the strength, but his humanity contains the deity who is the strength. And so he with the strength expresses himself in him, and Christ's strength is made perfect in our weakness. So this is the full son stage we've been talking about, when the unity has taken place, the recognition of Christ, the real person, living our lives.

Then you move on to the third stage, which is spoken of as fatherhood here. A queer phrase is used here about fatherhood, spiritually speaking. All it says is, I want that you follow us because you've known him since the beginning.

That's a queer phrase. Do you understand? Knowing in the Bible, always being mixed with a thing. It doesn't mean having a mental knowledge, it means you become part of it.

Like, I know music mentally, I don't know music in me. I know carpentry externally, I don't know carpentry as a carpenter knows it. So one thing is to know a thing a little externally, another thing is to be part of you.

That's the knowledge about being part of something. So a father is one who is part of him who is in the beginning, part of him who is in his eternal premises. Now what's the significant importance? It's this.

The big leap between adolescence and adulthood is implicit adolescence is for the development of the child, adulthood is for others. When we pass out of adulthood, we cease to be those who are being built up and educated to fit us. We become people who minister to others.

We bring up our family, earning our wage, contributing to our society. Christ, of course, contributing Christ to the world. So the father is the outgoer, where the infant of the adolescent is the intaker.

So there's a big jump between the three, between the first two and the third. Now that's the big jump of the third stage. It's put in many forms in Scripture.

I won't spend too much time, except just to mention them. We had that little song on the ascension, you get it there. The difference between crucifixion, resurrection and ascension.

Now there's one letter of the Bible which majors on the ascension, that's the Ephesian letter, Ephesians. It almost bypasses the crucifixion and resurrection and goes on to the ascension. It says he was crucified and risen, then it says according to the exceeding greatness of God's power which raised him from the dead and set him in his own right hand in heavenly places far above all principalities and powers.

That's why we don't bother about the devil, he's way down here somewhere. In Jesus Christ we're far above the devil and all his workings. Far above.

Seated him in heavenly places far above all principalities and powers and so on. And then it says he seated us with him, as we saw in the song. Now there's great significance in this.

The simple significance is this. When you sit down at the end of a day's work, it's the indication you finish that day's work. So you go home and you sit down and have a good supper or something.

That doesn't finish your day's occupation. You don't get up and do something else instead. You don't sit down to do nothing.

You sit down to clear the day's job and take on the evening's interests. So sitting down doesn't mean you become a do-nothing, it means you become a do-something-else instead. That's all.

And so, spiritually speaking, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was the marvellous completion of our deliverance. In his death, representing us, he cut us off from sins. And the indwelling spirit of sin, which had possessed us, cut us clean off in his death.

In his resurrection, he brought into us, representing us, into that body came his own Holy Spirit. So his Holy Spirit comes into us to receive him. So that completes our full salvation.

So we now become people, as we say, who have come into union with Christ, so it's not we living, but Christ living by us. That settles our need, our infancy and adolescence need. Now, Jesus Christ left that behind.

Seized on the throne. Why? Because out from the throne goes the Holy Spirit to reap the harvest. Out from the throne goes the Holy Spirit to reap the harvest.

Now he's outgrown into the world. That's why it says, when he ascended up on high, he laid captivity captive. He took the devil's captives, laid them his captives, gave gifts unto men, gave the Holy Spirit to men, and then gave the various gifts by which the body of Christ can be built and completed.

So we've become part of that body, and now we're part of the body that built us through the world. So, you see, the essential place is the outgrowing place. Same as the father area, the father condition is the outgrowing condition.

Whereas the crucifixion and resurrection is the intaking place, which we leave behind. So, you see, we move in a very high spot, where we become cooperators with God. You see, in our childhood days, we're always hanging on to God, getting from him, getting from him Jesus Christ and so on, hanging on him.

When you're in the sonship, you forget that, because he's hung on to you now. You're part of him, and you cease to be a person always talking about hanging on to him and hanging on to you. You're co-bred with him for others.

You're co-water with him for others. You're co-light with him for others. That's the difference.

He was our bread, we're bread for others now. He's our light, we're light for others now. He's our living water, we're living water for others now.

So what we're saying is, I say, a very radical understanding. The whole meaning of the being of God is a person's only existence is others. He exists for others.

We've proved that all along. That's why he's called a lamb. That's why Jesus gave himself without limits for our salvation.

God is fulfilled by fulfilling his universe. Now, we've come up into God level. We're called gods.

The Bible says we've become gods now. We've come on to God level. We're part of a vine.

The vine gets the fruit for the world. It isn't the branch that gets the fruit, it isn't the vine that gets the fruit, it's the world that gets the fruit. A head has a body.

He can fulfill his jobs in the world by his head, by the body. Now, do you see the point? It is this. If you have become a son of God now, you're a son of God.

You've been justified and you've been unified. You're in him now. Now, every single thing that ever happens to you in the future is for others, not for yourself.

You're part of a god for others. That's all you are. For time and eternity, you cease to be a person in which things happen for yourself.

It happens to concern you. You are part of a person for others. And every single thing that happens to you in life, whatever form it may take, it isn't really for you at all.

It's the Christ that gets himself out through you in some form to others. That's a revolutionary concept. You see, we're so weak and so human, we're always saying, why has it happened to me? Why have I had this loss? Why have I got this sickness? Why, why, why, for me, me, me, me, me? That actually is a danger of prayer for healing.

Most healing is selfish. Most healing is selfish. The real prayer for healing is to pray that the person's sickness will be magnified in Christ, whether by death or life.

Get that? That's Paul's prayer. He says, I'm in a tough spot. My body's in a tough spot.

They're probably going to martyr me, he said. But I have only one thing. With all boldness and as always, so now always, Christ may be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.

Not what happens to my body. Does my body magnify Christ? And I tell you, most of our prayer for healing is selfish. You watch it.

It's how a person may get healed. No, it's how Christ may be magnified by their body. Pray that they may be glorified, that Christ may be magnified, whether they're sick or well.

Don't hang about them getting sick or well. Hang about them glorifying Christ through their body. Do you see my point? We're never again for ourselves.

If I've got a sick body, it isn't I'm a poor sick body. It's my body that magnifies Christ. Now that may include healing, it may not.

That's not a matter. Paul said to die is gain, so he rather look forward to death. He didn't run away from death like we do.

We're so silly. Death's nothing. Death's a shadow that's disappeared to the cross.

Death is glory. You move from little to eternal. We're so silly to think about death or body.

What's body? It's only a little fiddling means of expressing Christ. What matters is spirit. Spirit.

The spirit's what I really am in relationship to Christ. So, you watch this. We've become, it's become our attitude to life.

Why suddenly me, me, me, me, me, me, me? When you're human, you're always taught that way. We're meant to feel. We're meant to feel for others.

So, we're always taught that way. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Steady now.

Now, if it's usually, wait a minute, God. I don't like this. This is hurting.

This is bad. It's for something for others. Everything that ever happens to me always is somewhere in which you're going to magnify yourself through me to others.

You may never know why, but if your attitude is right, you see, you say, all right, Lord, praise the Lord. I'm in this situation now. You're in this situation, and I'm with you in it, and Christ is coming out of you in peace and joy and praise, whether you're in a torn-up condition or a healed condition, isn't the point? See my point? I'm saying to you a tremendous thing.

You are on the fatherhood level. You see, this isn't something you grow into. It's something he puts you in.

Not something you grow into. He puts you into justification by faith through his precious blood. He puts you into unification by which he comes into us.

He puts you. You didn't put him. He put you.

He's put you up with himself on the throne. As we say, as you emphasize when we say, he's put us up there. The throne's for others.

The throne is where you get up now with the Holy Spirit and be the merest of Christ in the world and suffer in doing it, and I might fill up the sufferings of Christ for his body's sake. So you see the royalty of our position? You are as God. As he is, so are we in this world.

You are as God. God is for others. God's thrill, wonder, glory, royalty, beauty, love.

It is for others. That's why we love him. We love him because he first loved us.

You're for others too. And that's all you are. And that's all you are.

And whatever happens to you in your home, your family, your business, it's for others. It's somewhere where Christ has put you there because you're a branch of the vine and through that branch comes something by which other people get some fruit. Other people get something from Christ.

That's a tremendous outlook. And you'll never get that without the quick, as it were, dying and rousing. Paul speaks about always bearing about the body and the dying of the Lord Jesus.

I mean by that, you always say, oh dear, oh dear. We're human. Oh dear, oh dear.

You start that way. They say, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not taking that.

Christ's in this thing. So you transfer your attitude from what you're human and say, oh, this is awful. Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord for others. So I'm saying, I take it as we're human, there's no condition we should normally have. As humans, we always start hurt.

Suffering is the basis of this life. Thank God for suffering. Suffering is what's been given to the world to press them into God.

The greatest hope for the world is a suffering world because it has a chance of fighting God. Thank God for suffering. And we're in a suffering world.

So you all suffered out here and always start that way. But if you know how to handle your suffering, if you know how to deal with your suffering, if you know how to transfer yourself to what you really are, to this third recognition, whether you say, oh, it's all right. Praise the Lord.

I don't like Him. But praise the Lord. Not for me, for others.

That doesn't mean, of course, that we dash around trying to do things for others. Do-gooders are the most hopeless people. Don't be a do-gooder.

The do-gooder is inside you, isn't you? The do-gooder is the Holy Spirit does the doing by you. So it doesn't mean you rush about doing things. You just be yourself.

But being yourself, praising Christ, that is for others. That is the Holy Ghost coming through without you knowing it. We were talking yesterday, I think, a little about, you take Job.

Job had no idea what was on up for him. That God sent Satan, it wasn't Satan that stirred God up. God sent Satan to knock Job about.

Pretty tough. No, God does some tough things for glorious purposes. And He put Job through a tough spot.

He knew Job was a person who would take it. And Job did take it. Sat those teeth and took it.

He murmured and groaned. God doesn't mind you murmuring and groaning if you end by praising Him a little later on. You're a human, so He doesn't mind if you murmur and groan.

And poor Job murmured and groaned. He couldn't understand. He set his teeth.

Though He slayed me yet till I trust Him. Oh, oh, oh, oh. He did come to see the glory.

The glory wasn't that he saw it. The glory was millions since he'd seen a person persevering for God. Job was a silent witness to millions and millions through history.

That a person can stand persevering in God without knowing what's happening. When everything's ruined around him, he can still say, Though He slayed me, I trust Him. How many millions have been held in their faith by Job? So, you see, God had tremendous world manifestation of Christ and His grace through Job.

Which Job would do nothing about. I suppose he's enjoying it now. He didn't know anything about it then.

See? So you never know. You don't know. You see, the Bible says that heavenly hosts are watching us.

You don't know the effect you're having on other people. Not this summation at all. You don't know what effect millions are having as they're watching us.

When you say, Some person in a tough spot, everything's wrong. Praise the Lord, it's all right, all right. God, you're glorified.

Yes, good enough for me. Something's rolling out to others. Something's rolling out, manifesting the grace and power of Christ to others.

So I'm putting that to you very seriously as the third way in which you are in Christ. You don't get there. You are there because He put you there.

If you're in Christ, you poor thing, you're caught out. You're a poor thing. You've got to be in other lover forever because that's all He is, that's all you are.

You can't escape now. He's grabbed you. He's got pretty tough hands.

What he grabs, he keeps. So poor you, you're grabbed. I've been trying to wriggle out 50 years and can't do it yet.

It's impossible. Funny thing is, you love to be grabbed. That's the funny thing.

That's the joke. So, but you see, say again, you are there. Get that? If you dare to affirm that in Christ your sins are gone, you're justified in God's eyes, if you've never sinned, you're saved.

If you dare to affirm, yes, by God's grace, He does live in me. I don't understand much about it, maybe, but I see He lives in me, He's joined in me, the person living in me is here, He's here, and I'm just in the branch of the vine. All right, you affirm that, then you affirm the third.

You better watch. You are the third. You are the third.

You are for others. Don't wiggle. You are.

Accept it. Everything that happens to you has some wonderful purpose in which you minister, living Christ by you to others, although you know nothing about it. You may just be a poor little thing from wondering what's happening to you.

Now, if we get that little farther down in the practical for a moment or two, what is to be our attitude towards situations in life? What's to be our attitude towards situations in life? Now, we've been through processes of replacement in the self. Our first replacement was our self-righteousness, our fallen, conceited self by Christ, our righteousness. So we exchanged our sinful selves for His self and His righteousness.

A replacement of the lost sinful self by Christ. Then you went further and you replaced the falsely self-developing self, self-denying or self-seeking self, and you replaced it by Christ. So you know you're just the agency in which He replaced Himself.

So again, Christ as the living self in you is replaced by the human self. You're acting by Christ. So always a replacement of the self by Christ.

Can you get this? Can you replace everything that's happening in the world by God in it? Can you replace every darkest, evil, cruel thing that's happening by God in the centre of it? God is in the centre of everything that God means everything to be. There's no permissive will where God isn't so weak as that, as a directive will, as a determined will. Every single thing that happens in this world, God means it to happen.

And God is in the perfect centre of the thing which looks a horror. Can you do that? Thank God you've got somewhere. Because that's the solidity of life.

You don't get through life in two powers. You don't get through life, you've got the devil raging about here, and God, come on God, do something about it. You don't get through.

If the devil's raging is only clothing God, and God's inside the raging, you've got something. If the devil's raging is only clothing for God, and God's inside the raging, you've got something. And you see God operating in through the devil.

Can you do that? I see you can't, but you'd better learn. Because it's what the Bible says. Again, I can't spend too much time in just one meeting on Bible proof, but one or two, we talked a little in our rap session yesterday afternoon, one is, you can't answer it.

How did Jesus see the devil? How did he see him? Now we're told. We're told at the last supper, things were mounting up, Jesus knew what was coming, and he knew Judas was going to betray him. And we read how he tried to win Judas, gave him a sock, which was a special favour, to try and win him.

He could see Judas wouldn't be won. So he cried and said, Satan, go and do what you're going to do. And the Bible says Satan entered into Judas.

So Jesus knew Satan had got on the job. He got his agent, whoop, things are going to happen now. What does Jesus say at that very time? To his disciples, he sat there.

You read in John 14. He said this, the prince of this world cometh, has nothing in me. Get it again? Satan, of course.

The prince of this world cometh, has nothing in me. Everything out on him, nothing in him. You are an inner person.

You will never live this life by the outer things happening. You live from inside out, not from outside in. You're an inner person.

So Jesus says, the prince of this world cometh, has nothing in me. I'm an inner person. I don't see the devil.

I don't see the devil. The devil was raging around. They were just going to have him arrested and scourged and torn and crucified and humiliated and murdered.

He couldn't see the devil. Why? Listen. Read a few verses on.

Went to Gethsemane. They came out to Gethsemane and there was Judas kissing him and having him arrested. And Peter, in indignation, took his sword and cut the ear off the high priest's servant.

And quietly Jesus said, oh, healed it again, put it back in. He said, let it be the cup which my father has given me, shall I drink it. It was the devil's cup, he called his father's cup.

He saw through the devil to God. That's the secret. He saw God in the devil's clothes.

He saw right inside this very center of this devilish activity was a God of perfect love and perfect purpose. He saw his father. That cup was my father to me.

That's why he's so cool on the cross. That's why the centurion says, sure, that's the son of God. That's why a murderer could see this dirty, bloody, naked figure and say, do you remember you were coming to a kingdom? You're a king.

He didn't look like a king in the flesh, did he? There's a king spirit came out of him. He said, that's the king. Because he had inward poise.

This is the truth of life, the inward poise. Now, you get the inward poise if you can see that everything in this world is the devil's disturbance. God's world is God's world.

It's always been God's purpose. And God is utilizing the disturbance to bring some new form of his grace and glory and power and manifestation through. That's the way to learn.

We're here to learn that God is a living God. You learn against appearances. And so we have a faith that goes deep roots.

And it goes deep roots by everything being fantastic. There's no God in this thing. And you must say, God is in this thing.

God's in the center of this thing. I watch now. I won't see God come out.

I won't see a perfect purpose of love and power in this miserable accident, cruelty, whatever has happened. That's a big thing. But we've got our, I tell you, we've got our perfect presentation in Jesus.

And I told you, I quoted you in the afternoon, yesterday afternoon. Look at the confirmation. Here we get in Acts 2, the first speech after Pentecost.

This is the first official speech of the Church of Christ in existence after Pentecost. And then two chapters after it, you get the first quoted prayer. And in both they say the same thing.

And this is what Peter said. He said, you, he pointed to the people crowding around him. He said, you, listen, through determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, have by your wicked hands crucified and slain him.

How dare he say that? That God determined and counseled that our wicked hands were slain. God determined they'd do wicked things. Get that? Peter said God determined those wicked men would do wicked things because after those wicked things would come a glorious resurrection.

And we're part of it. And then in the prayer, when they'd been charred, imprisoned and so on, under persecution, they pray a prayer which is quoted. And this is what it says.

They pray to God. For the truth against thy holy child Jesus, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the people of Israel and the Gentiles, were gathered together for to do what? Read it. For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before it should be done.

There's no permission there, there's no determination there. God determined all those wicked men to crucify his son. God's right, utilising the devil.

He's in the heart of the devil all the time. And he's in the heart of unsaved people all the time, getting at them. You see, he means an unsaved person to be unsaved.

He means evil to be evil. This is the point. Only when evil is meant to be evil can the need of salvation come out.

Things happening what they are, they may be changed to what they're meant to be. Of course, the other famous example, most of you know, is Joseph. When Joseph had his vision, he was to be blessed to the Lord, and a blessing to his parents, and so on.

And you know, every rotten thing happened to Joseph. His brother sold him as a slave. His own brother sold him.

Never seen him again, because in those days, if you sold a slave, you were done for. And then he went to Egypt, and even there, he had the peace of God in his heart, Sir Potiphar. And Potiphar's wife lied him into prison.

The only clean man in the place, lied him into prison. You bet Potiphar saw he got something done there, too, being deceived by the lie of his wife. Fourteen years, fourteen years, they came up, became what it became.

You know what he said. Listen to the words, you know it. When the Brethren and Brothers came back in the family to get food, and the beautiful, we can't stop now, the beautiful way in which Joseph brought them to repentance, beautiful touch, beautiful touch, until they come to realize the kind of things they'd done.

And he revealed himself to them. Remember what he said? You meant it for evil, God meant it for good. Not permitted it, meant it for good.

And then he adds this, God did send me before you to preserve life. Sending isn't letting, sending is sending. God sent Joseph through prison, through being sold as a slave, through all this sent him there to preserve life.

Tremendous. I can't say more now, but I've already said you must think it through to yourself. You're not going to get through without confusion.

If you have God here, and evil things there, you can't make a meet. You say, God, I see through evil things to you. I see only you in the universe.

Evil is only an outer form. It's something like ripples on the water. You get a great, beautiful, clear pool of water.

That's like God. That's like the world. It's God's perfect world.

Very good. We haven't read it in a long time. Perfect world.

Very good. Now, the devils have put some ripples on the surface. The ripples aren't the water.

Our trouble is we're riffle-minded instead of pool-minded. We're always seeing ripples in the pool. We're part of the pool.

We're in the eternal man, in the eternal perfection, in the eternal love. Operate from there, don't operate from the ripples. And see, God will smooth the ripples out, and the pool will turn up again.

See, this is the way that, in every situation, these men who understood that operated. You see, Jesus never saw evil. He saw a good behind evil.

He never saw it. I mean, you take a storm on the lake. Well, we are humans, so we see things on this level.

And there's a storm, you're frightened, especially if it's a small boat filling with water. And there was filling with water, they said. And Jesus was asleep.

And they were frightened. Who wouldn't be frightened? We'd be just as frightened. And so they woke up Jesus.

Jesus rebuked them for having fear. Well, wouldn't you have had fear? I wouldn't have done. He rebuked them, said, where's your faith? He didn't see a storm.

You see, Jesus saw through out of disturbed appearances to eternal, perfect reality. And perfect reality is God's perfect weather. He said, peace be still.

And along came the calm. Overflowed the storm. He didn't see a storm.

He saw God's universal peace come through. So, you see, he always saw through the ragged, disturbed appearance to the full reality behind which is the eternal fullness of God. So it didn't cause him a stir when he had to feed 5,000, although he had five loaves.

You try that, you get a bit frightened. Five loaves won't go very far among 5,000 people. It didn't cause a turn of hair.

He didn't see five loaves. He saw the utter little symbol, that God's good bread, the utter little symbol of the God of all bread. And all the reality is always there in your own spirit.

He just said, thanks Father, thanks Father. No, no, a vigorous prayer. He just touched his hat to Father, said thank you.

And then he just got spreading it. He acted, got spreading it with his nose full. Every time he did it.

Oh, he couldn't catch any fish last night. No fishing last night. Empty lake.

He didn't see that. He thought, oh well, I say there's plenty of God's fishes. Drop a net in there, you'll find them.

There they were. Now, this isn't phony. This is the Bible.

And all those men did it. Moses just didn't see a bare wilderness with no water. He said, somewhere is God's water.

And God said, that's right, that's right. You go strike that rock, it'll come out. So you see, let me try to explain it like this.

Let me say again, we are governed by our inner attitude. You get this? You are an inner person. You're not an outer person.

You're only an outer shell. Your real self is the eternal self, spirit. Now, you're governed by your inner attitudes, which is what we call believing.

Now, what you believe in holds you. Now, we've fallen into meta-believing, race-believing. We just believe things in their weakness and their brokenness and their troubles.

We're geared to this kind of believing. What you believe holds you. This is the law of life.

What you believe in holds you, and you contribute to it. So you see, all the time, oh, there's this trouble, there's this lack, there's this need, there's this sickness, there's this problem. Why do you see it? Well, you're held on it.

Now, if you've got to call God off, where you can't quite show where God is, you get there perhaps. If you say, this is God's, God's in this thing. God meant this thing to be.

God's in the centre of that thing. It looks to me just like the need. God's in the centre there with the supply.

God's there. I see through to God in that centre of that thing. Everything's his purpose.

He's in it. Now, you transfer your believing from the outer appearance to the inner reality. And what you believe in holds you.

Now you see. So, the whole of life is transference of faith. All life is what you attach yourself to.

Now, and what you attach yourself to, as I say, holds you. Now, when you transfer your attachment and say, sure, I'm not saying it isn't real, it's real down here. I'm not a down here person.

I'm not a down here person. I'm not a flesh person. I'm a spirit person.

To me, spirit's reality. To me, this union with God is reality. This is only a shadow.

Now, I'm not going to be governed by shadows. I'm going to be governed by reality. And so I transfer my... And against all odds, I say, God, you're in the middle of this thing.

Thank you. You put this thing here for me to show how you turn a need into a supply. The supply's there.

How you turn a difficulty into a deliverance and so on. Now, it all hangs around your inner attitude. Get that? You're governed by your inner attitude.

And this is the great habit you've got to learn. This is what turns a whole life into adventure. See, if all the measures of this life are really only... They're God's messes.

He may turn them into something... Whatever the opposite to a mess is. Something nice. You see, all life's adventure.

Because you're turning the apparent troubles into God's revelation in himself. That, again, I say... You may not like me saying it. But I think we have far too... A great misconception of suffering.

I would say, be careful about generalizing your suffering. It's rather a nice thing for us to do. Oh, the poor, poor.

Oh, the poor suffering. Oh, we're doing so and so. Don't generalize.

Jesus never generalized. You see, sympathy can be mere sentiment. It can merely be, I like to feel nice about it.

So I've been sat in it. Now, you see, the truth is this. Outer suffering has no hold on you unless you inwardly respond to it.

So the word given to God by the human race isn't suffering. It's sorrow. You read Joseph's story.

In Joseph's story, God said, You may be able to have sorrow. Sorrow is my inner reaction to suffering. Sorrow is how I take suffering.

Now, that's the key. Nothing can touch you outside except how you take it. There isn't one single problem outside unless you take it as a problem.

And there's no suffering to touch you outside unless you take it. I don't say it isn't real suffering, but it's a lesser matter. If you take it, it's all right.

It's all right. It depends how you take it. And so what the world needs isn't a great outer compassion.

It's just all the poor things. It's how can they learn as if God loves them. And they're real people that God loves, and they can be real people.

And God can do something with them that takes their acute situations. That's why I told you the benediction of Paul. Paul didn't say release slaves.

He actually said in 1 Corinthians 17, If you're a slave, remain a slave, because if you're Christ, you're the Lord's free man. Because freedom isn't outer slavery. Freedom is inner attitude.

If you're self-seeking, self-loving, self-hating, you're a slave. You're an inner slave. If you have the love of God, you're still a slave outwardly, but just so that you're loving your fellow slaves.

You're loving your boss, and you're free. And the poor old boss is a slave. You're free.

This is God's jokes again. You see, we've got such a carnal outlook. What's that pity? See that you don't have sympathy but compassion.

Sympathy keeps a person down there. When you sympathize, you're lowering the person to where they are. You're agreeing with what they are.

Oh, poor thing. The only keeping is poor things. Compassion is to help them to find what they ought to be seeing.

What they ought to be seeing? Praise God in this thing. Now, sympathy feeds you. Oh, it's rather nice to sympathize that person.

Compassion will hurt you, because they'll probably kick you back when you say praise God. So, compassion may have a cost for you, because people won't like it when you say praise God when they're suffering. You see, compassion, that's the real thing.

Helping people to praise God in this thing. Oh, poor thing. So, beware.

I don't find the Bible talks about great individual masses. It talks about individuals. Jesus said the poor you'll always have with you.

But he did everything with poor people. I'm not talking I haven't done it. I mean, I've lived among the primitives of Africa and served them.

I've been among the Dayaks of Borneo and served them. I've been in the heartless of all my remote red Indians in the Amazon. They're tough to find.

They're tough. I've been up on the Tibetan border, reaching the Tibetans. I've been all over the world reaching them.

I'm not talking about somebody hasn't done these things. I've done them. And I'm a tough old missionary.

And I know it isn't just giving them a few outer things. It's getting them to find there's somebody who loves them, who cares for them. They're real sons, a real father.

They can be something. Help them to become people. That's what matters.

Well, I don't expect you to agree with me, but I shall run before I get shot tomorrow. So, I'm quite safe. Now, if I may say just one more thing.

So, I'm saying a tremendous thing. I'm saying to you that the basis of our outer reactions now to life in general, of any conditions, unsaved people, tragedies, everything alike, is God means things to be so. He means that kid taking drugs to take drugs, because that's how he finds Jesus.

You know that, many of you folks. This tremendous outburst of the Jesus kids has come out of the falls. We older people never heard of Jesus kids.

Never heard of such things. It's come out of that. We're all drug addicts.

Depends what our drug is. Most of our drugs have been self-righteousness and pride and stuff. There are drugs of other kinds.

I'm not blaming a person who makes drugs. We're all drug addicts. Depends what drug.

That's all. But, all right, they've been caught up in those things. Now, if that's someone who's gone down, it's prepared them for this amazing jump up into Jesus.

And there'll be no jump up into Jesus. They've had a go down first. And God's in the go down.

And God's in the go down, because that's the way up. So, when I can begin to say, I haven't loved my family like that or not, right yet. Jesus, you've got him.

They're yours. He's going to find out. He's going to find out.

You've got him. He doesn't know it yet, but I know it. You've got him.

I'm seeing him in God. I'm not seeing the thing about him which deserves me. And so on.

So, I'm saying that as a tremendous basis, a general basis. Can I, dare I, find the Bible itself? Dare I say? Everything's God. There's nothing but God.

The devil himself is only an utter agency of God. God's operating through everything. To release it from the fallen condition into the redeemed condition, the heavenly condition, the hellish condition, the heavenly condition, of course.

Now, the other thing I must say to close this matter up, we are more than passive recipients. Now, it's a great thing to have even a passive attitude, if it's a faith attitude, praise God, if I call that passive. I mean, I'm just saying praise God.

I praise God in this thing. It looks black. I say God's in it.

It looks devilish. I say God's there behind purposing all that. I see the tupu, not the ripples.

I'm seeing through everything. I see no more evil. I see evil only as a form God's using because I'm not the person.

Evil is here in the flesh, but I'm looking for the other realm. Now, that's what you might call, may I call it the general passive attitude. The active attitude is I'm a son.

Now, the purpose of a son is to bring the father, the father's purposes, into a specific form, out into a specific manifestation. That's what a son's a form. We saw that from the beginning.

The son came into being, let there be. To let the father come through in specific forms, as in creation, he let him through. The son of the level which let the father through in varieties.

And that's what sons are for, to let the father through in different forms of local manifestations. Now, that means that in all our lives, each of us in local situations, each of us differently. Now, that's where you are privileged and responsible as a son, to let the father through.

Now, how do you let the father through? By the word of faith. By the word of faith. Now, I've told you at the beginning that why Jesus originally was called a word is a word is a person in action.

You are an inner person of spirit. A person in action is from a word. That's what puts you into action.

That's you in action. I told you all people are trinities, so one form of trinity, inner trinity, is thought, word, deed, father, son, spirit. Now, thought is general.

All right, you can think of all sorts of things. That's all right. You start by thinking of all sorts of things.

Now, you don't act from thought. You act from word. Out of your thought, say, that's what I'll do.

That's what I'll make. That's where I'll go. All life is, you come and say, I'll go there.

I'll make that. I'll do that. I'll eat that.

You move from your word. Your word is you in action. When you've moved into word, then you come and eat that thing or go there so-and-so.

And that's the deed. Thought, word, deed, deed is the spirit coming out in reproductive, different variety of forms. Now, do you get this? Everything you ever do has a center in a word.

You're always people of the word. You speak a word and it happens. All through life.

Now, you're a spiritual person. Now, you're geared to the spirit. Now, you're geared to God's purposes.

And God's purposes mean certain things hit you in your situation. You don't like them. Now, first of all, you say, praise God.

He means it to me. You don't kick. You start praising God.

You make this tough spot to be there. But I don't like it. Now, it's not much more I don't like it.

I don't see why I should remain either. I say, God's put that here for me to see change. Now, here's where you come in.

Now, you're the son. You say, all right, Lord. I don't like that situation.

Here's this need. There's some money or some inheritance must be supplied or some life must be saved or some healing or something is needed, whatever it may be. All right.

Now, I'm moving in. I'm saying, Lord, I accept that for you. You mean it to me.

But now I'm moving in as a son. And I'm saying that my reaction is I don't like that thing to be so. I like to see change.

So, I'm the one to speak the word of faith that you are changing it. Now, that's your agency. That's your function as a son.

You're saying you're changing it. You're letting him through. Now, very briefly, on what basis can you do that? I think what holds up most of us in attitudes of faith, words of faith, is our doubt whether we have a right to do it.

We aren't quite sure if it's God's will. And what stops us most of us in speaking words of faith in prayer is we're not sure if it's God's will. I suggest we make a big mistake there.

You are God's will. When you say if it's God's will, you are doubting whether you and God are one. If you sit back and you're like, here's God, here's you.

No, you're not the one. You are God in human form. And what you will is God's will.

You are God's will. What you desire is God's desire. Now, the reason we haven't done that is we've got suspicious of ourselves.

You see, in the fall, they didn't care. Since we've been saved, we got sensitive and we're suspicious of our motives because we've got the idea, you see, so far to be different and all that business. I went through that, of course.

Now, when you come out of that back into Christ, you're joined to Christ. Don't be suspicious. Don't suspect your motives.

God's your motives. God's motives. God and you are one and he operates through your will, through your outlook, through your desires.

What does Jesus say in his great statement about sailing out of a mountain? His famous statement in Mark 11. Sail into this mountain, be there and move me across the sea. A mountain is how you see it, not what it really is.

If you see it's a mountain, it is a mountain. If you don't see it's a mountain, it's as far as the rubble goes plain. The Bible says, get that? In Proverbs, it says, watch out there over that great mountain, before the rubble goes plain, because the mountain is how you see it.

If you see it's a mountain, you see it as a mountain. If you see it as God's plain, there's a mountain. If you see it's a mountain, get out! That's how it's done.

Now, that's the time when he's saying, if you say, then Jesus says this, adds this, listen, whatever ye desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, that you shall have them. Whatever you desire, not God, that's very daring to trust you. Ah, yeah, but you see, you're a former God.

He trusts you because he communicates himself through you, says, whatever you desire. Now, that's a very broad place. So that means, in your own different situations, or my situations, as things arise which I desire, don't be afraid, go right and say, all right, God, that's the thing, I'm now thinking of doing that.

That's the word of faith. The word of faith dares to say that God's bringing this into being. Because, again, I haven't time to develop it now, but the truth is, you see, that, first of all, we get back to Christ by being at his disposal.

That's why I say, you don't commit yourself once you've committed yourself. That's done. Once you've committed yourself to him, he's got you.

He's got you. It doesn't matter if you're recommitting, it's you recognising he's got you. He's committed himself to you.

So, you've taken the commission to committing. He's got you. Now he says, I'm for you.

I'm at your disposal. In other words, you stop by saying, I'm at God's disposal. God says, sure, now I'm at your disposal.

I'm at your disposal. I'm the blank check. God says, I'm at his disposal.

Not to me, it's his disposal. You see, we're operating as God now. God says, I'm at my disposal.

You just say, that's what's happening. That's what's happening. That's what's happening.

That's faith. That's faith. Faith is a word.

You don't act without a word. As I say, you didn't come here as we came by just saying, I might come. You said, I'll come.

You had to say a word. One thing you did, you didn't take that lovely meal we gave, as I say, I'll take this dish, not that, but the twenty-five we have to choose from, usually. You say, I'll take.

This is authority to people, don't you see? Now, you've begun to do it, some of you. But begin to say this. But, you see, when you say it, you're saying that there's something here that you want to see God do.

You like to see God do it. You want to see. You want to see.

And so, you're now saying, all right, God, because you're at my disposal, and you brought this thing here, everything, the heat brings them here, you put it here, now you put it here, perhaps you intend to come through in some manifestation, some blessing, some fulfillment, and I'm the agent, all right now, I'm saying you have done it. I'm saying you have done it. You put you in there.

I'm saying, in the word of faith, you've done that thing. Jesus always did that. That's how Jesus operated, the Word.

And all these names in the Bible say they operate on the Word. Tomorrow you'll find the man who will come. And all this shout, and the Lord's given the city, and down fall the walls.

So the Word is spoken. That's all. Now you speak the Word.

The hindrance of speaking the Word is this outer soul reaction we have, soul and spirit. Our problem is it doesn't feel like it. It feels so silly.

You feel cold. You feel hot. You don't act through your soul feelings.

You act through your spirit decisiveness. Your spirit's where you make a decision. And you don't come up by your outer feelings.

You simply, inside, say, this is what I feel. This is so. Once you've said so, don't you look back on it.

If you look to see how it happens, it means you're not quite sure it's going to happen. Don't you do that. That's God's business.

Once it's done, it's nothing to do with you how it's done. It's done. That's all you've said.

Because God's the doer. Because it's the Holy Spirit coming through you and using you as the agency by which this comes into being. That's speaking the Word of Faith.

That's operating as the Son of God in our life situations. Well, that's enough. Thank you.