Download LIGHT OF THE WORLD INSPIRATIONS Recognition of Embodiment

LIGHT OF THE WORLD INSPIRATIONS
Recognition of Embodiment
by Tony den Hartog
Preached 6/30/2002
A transcription of tape 2165
Transcribed by Jackie Weber
2Corinthians 3:1 Do we begin again to
commend ourselves? or need we, as some
others, epistles of commendation to you, or
letters of commendation from you?
--(a reference) that what you are going to
present is legitimate, has some substance
behind it. Paul says, “The things that I want
to do, I don't do; and the things that I don't
want to do, I seem to be doing” (Rom 7:19).
That means, then, that in our humanity we
have no commendation, no matter who
or what you are--even Jesus. Jesus never
wrote a book or a letter, never set up an
organization or a religion. But there was a
revelation that was coming which was not
what you call “cunningly devised.” You must
remember that all religion is cunningly
devised around an imaginary God that
doesn't even exist in truth. And we have
given all our loyalty, all our time and
effort, in trying to worship or even sing
about or adore something that is just a
product of the carnal mind.
Doesn't it take away all the commendation?
So what do we do? Casting down
imaginations and every high thing that
exalts itself against the true knowledge of
God and bring into captivity all the
imaginary realms of the unconscious (2Cor
10:5). When I say “unconscious,” I mean to
say that the unconscious is the mind of
flesh. It is very intellectual; it is very
philosophical; it's very emotional. But it
cannot adhere to reality. It is impossible
for the natural man to receive anything
of the spiritual dimension which Jesus
began to reveal.
There was more revelation in the
recognition of who Jesus was (or is) than in
His parables--because all the parables and
the teachings of Jesus were about
something. The Kingdom of God is likened
unto this or that. And He gave many
parables and many examples to bring
people out of the fable of what we call
human existence. That's why He said to
Nicodemus “What is born of flesh, is flesh”
(Jn 3:6).
What is born of flesh? What is flesh?
Reason--that's flesh. How does this work?
How can a man, when he is old, be born
again of his mother's womb? (Jn 3:4). We
have thought that life is in flesh and blood,
thought that life was something born of a
woman and that we had a father and a
mother and that we are living under a
culture.
In the Scriptures we find some deeper
revelation concerning our true identity.
I-dentity.
2Peter 1:16 For we have not followed
cunningly devised fables, when we made
known unto you the power and coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. . . .
Was he talking about Christmas--a baby in
a manger? No. "The power and the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ" was when He
went through the whole advent of being
lowered into the lowest parts of the earth
(Eph 4:9) to take upon Himself the nature of
sinful flesh.
Romans 8:3 For what the law could not
do, in that it was weak through the flesh,
God sending his own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in
the flesh:
The Mosaic, or moral code of the law, could
never bring in perfection and always
remains the same--because the law is
never satisfied. No matter how much you
obey it, it will find fault with you. Even if you
give all your money to the poor and you
work all your life in the mission field, the law
will still not be satisfied. Even if you give
your body to be burned, it will not be
satisfied--because God did not ordain it.
John 1:17 For the law was given by
Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ.
The law came by Moses. It doesn't say
anywhere that truth came by Moses or
grace came by Moses or reality came by
Moses. No, Moses has given us a veil, a
blinding veil. And as long as we read the
Old Testament, this veil, this deadness, this
ignorance, this blindness remains over our
consciousness (2Cor 3:13-14). Right
through the Scriptures, even in the old, it
says that one day this veil is going to be
lifted. The blindness will be lifted and the
deaf will begin to hear and the blind will
begin to see. And I'm not talking about
physical blindness or deafness.
But all these physical ailments that we
experience will disappear in the revelation
of Jesus Christ. And death itself will
eventually dissolve into its native
nothingness--because death is, again, an
imaginary realm. Death is a veil; it's called
the shadow of death. Though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil (Ps 23:4)--because evil (including
death) or sin or anxiety about anything of
this life, has no maintaining, sustaining law.
In other words, it is not ad infinitum. Aren't
you glad that pain is a temporal thing? So is
death. And everything that is temporal is
subject to change; it has no nature, no
substance, no continuation--because it is
just a mind-formed anxiety about something
that you don't have to be afraid of--because
of what Jesus demonstrated. He said, “See,
here I am; put your fingers there.” Death
has no power, no reality.
2Peter 1:16 . . . we made known unto you
the power and coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his
majesty.
Peter had an inkling of His Majesty of what
we call Lord Jesus Christ even before the
cross. That's when Jesus asked His
disciples, “Whom do men say that I the Son
of man am?” (Mt 16:13). Notice that Jesus
said “the son of man.” What does “Son of
man” mean?--something that is coming out
of the loins of a man, out of the seed of
man, the sperm of man. The son of man is
generated out of man.
I can ask you the same question today.
Whom do you say that I am? You all have a
different concept of who Tony or Jesus
is--because we all have imaginary
evaluations which give either
commendation or condemnation. Some
say, “You are Mary and Joseph's son” (Jn
6:42). Some say, “You have a devil” (Jn
8:48).
But what did Peter say? “Oh, you're not that
at all! You are the Christ” (Mk 8:29).
Beyond the veil of what the appearance of
personal sense is, the Christ was seen. And
this Christ is not a spiritual nothingness that
wants to reveal itself, but gives you no way
of knowing it.
No, Christ was embodied as Jesus.
And what is the embodiment?--the
recognition that my Father, which is the
Cause, and the son, which is the effect,
are one. It is like the wet going with the
water; wherever the water is, there is the
wet. You can't have the water without the
wet. So you cannot have the Father
without the son.
The embodiment is when the Word which
was in the beginning with God descended
but did not take upon itself the totality of
being, saying, “Here I am; I am God!” That's
the mystery. God, the Word, descended
into the likeness of sinful flesh. In other
words, He didn't descend as something
holy and blameless as the Catholic Church
believes. They believe He was born of a
virgin and that His blood was therefore holy.
But that has nothing to do with it. There is
no holiness in blood. And there is no
holiness in the sperm or in the
egg--because sperm and egg are just
natural procreation. Every animal goes
through the same process. That is only the
procreation of bodies.
Do you realize that in the New Testament
the virgin birth was never again
mentioned after the Day of Pentecost
when the Holy Ghost was poured out
and the Christian church was
established?
But 300 years later the veil was put on
people's understanding, and they began
to worship the body instead of Spirit.
They began to acknowledge the physical
body of Jesus.
And what did Paul say?
2Corinthians 5:16 . . . though we have
known [Jesus] Christ after the flesh, yet
now henceforth know we him no more.
Paul never knew Jesus after the flesh
because he was one born out of season.
He didn't know Jesus as a historical figure.
He met the Lord Jesus Christ the same as
Peter, James and John saw the Lord Jesus
Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration.
We look at the man Jesus and worship the
man and His birth and even His mother.
There's no acknowledgment or
commendation for poor old Joseph, only
Mary, for she is claimed to be the mother of
God. But notice that on the day of
Pentecost the “mother of God” was also
there to be born again of the Spirit. She
was baptized by the Spirit into one body.
She was part of the ecclesia, the ones who
had been called out of the darkness into the
marvelous light of God (1Pet 2:9). That's
the mystery.
So this whole thing now begins to take
shape in us. In other words, it begins to
take embodiment, as before there was no
embodiment and we suffered so
much--physically, mentally, socially,
economically. We have suffered universally.
The whole world, the whole creation, is
travailing until now--until there is an
embodiment, until the Word which was
in the beginning with God becomes
flesh in us. So that the Cause, then, has
an embodiment as son or daughter--or
has expression.
Love cannot have expression. You can say,
“God is love”; but why is this all happening
in the world if God is love? Why is there so
much suffering and cruelty, meanness,
death, accusation and conflict everywhere
you look?--because there is not yet an
embodiment, or there is not yet a
recognition of “You are the Christ, the son
of the living God” (Mt 16:16). You're not a
baby in the manger because
Acts 2:36 . . . God hath made that same
Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord
and Christ.
So there was a Lord Jesus Christ that was
the prototype of a new creation. But, again,
words won't do it. There has to be a
recognition of that you as a personal
identity (the same as Jesus' personal
identity) died the death of the cross.
I am crucified with Jesus; nevertheless I live
(and I say that) yet it is not I, but Christ,
who lives its life in me. And the life that I
now live in the flesh, I do not live of myself,
as a personal selfhood--because I have no
personal selfhood (Gal 2:20). I am not what
you think I am. And if you can see me the
way I am known, I will say to you just as
Jesus said to Peter, “Upon this revelation I
will build my church, and the gates of hell
(or the powers of death) will not stand" (Mt
16:18).
--upon the recognition and the revelation
that “You are the Christ, the son of the
living God (Mt 16:16). You are not flesh and
blood.” The recognition that you have about
me is also the recognition you have about
yourself--because there is only one body of
Christ, which is the fullness of Him that fills
all in all (Eph 1:23). So there is not the body
of Christ and you or Christ in you; the
Christ is AS you. Christ is the image of the
living God.
But this Christ has to take form in you.
This is why Paul said, “I travail within myself
that Christ may take form in you” (Gal 4:19).
Then It will be made flesh in you; there
will be a demonstration of this living
essence which has always been, and
always will be; It was never born. It has no
father, no mother, no beginning and no
ending. It's the Christ of the living Father.
You may ask, “What about all these
people?” There are no people; there is only
one. In our humanity we have looked at so
many bodies, so many minds--and have
categorized them and put them in libraries
and in books and written biographies about
everybody and everything. All that is in vain
because none of these stories ever existed.
Do you know that nobody has ever
existed? That which we put emphasis on
and write about in books has never existed.
God doesn't know anything about them. He
doesn't know anything about Einstein,
Tony, Mussolini, or even Adolph Hitler or
any other terrible tyrant that we read about.
God does not know anything about any
tyrant.
In other words, God has no history. There is
no history. History is illusion. It is a
phantom concept that we have formed in
our humanity. We think, “Yesterday I did
this or that.” No, you didn't. Or you think, “I
am so old; I was born on such and such a
day.” No, you weren't. God doesn't know
anything about people being born. He
doesn't even know that Jesus was born.
Now you are looking at me strangely. God
does not know anything about any
cultural, subjective-based belief that we
have had and we have categorized.
That means, now, that all history is going
to be wiped away from human
consciousness. And all the projections, or
the prophecies, that we think are going to
happen in the future will also be eradicated
from memory. In other words, we will no
longer know anything or anybody after the
flesh--past or future.
That is your meditation; that is your
prayer--that I am now the offspring of God. I
have no father, no mother, no beginning or
ending. But now I have to have the feeling
of it because Jesus revealed the only
begotten of the Father.
Do you know that Jesus said that?
John 3:16 For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son. . . .
Jesus didn't say that God so loved the
world that he sent a little baby in a
manger. And Jesus didn't say, “God
sent Me.” No, He said that God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten
Self to live in you, to move in you and
have Its being in you--because then you
become aware that there is only one.
And AGAIN He bringeth in the firstborn, and
I will be a Father unto you, and you shall be
My children (Heb 1:5).
But there is only one; Christ cannot be
divided. God cannot be divided. Do you
think that each of you has a little bit of
Christ? Or a little bit of the only begotten?
No, you are flesh of His flesh and bone of
His bone (Eph 5:30). You are spirit of His
Spirit--there is only one; and that is the
eternal only begotten self of God, the
only begotten son.
John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh,
and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of
the Father,) full of grace and truth.
And we have always thought, “Isn't that
wonderful; that was Jesus.” Well, of course
it was Jesus, but it is no longer Jesus of
Nazareth or Jesus of Bethlehem. It is the
ascended Jesus after he had done away
with this so-called natural man. There is
not really a natural man; the natural man
is a phantom. The memory you have of
yourself as being born and being sick
and being desperate and lonely never
existed. God doesn't know anything about
that. He knows you only the way you are
known. And that is, “You are my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17;
15:5).
Therefore you must listen to the inner
prompting. There is only one mind, and it is
the mind of Christ. In psychology you find
the idea that everybody has a different
mind. I've got a mind and you've got a
mind. But that's not the truth. There is no
carnal mind. The carnal mind is really the
realm of the unconscious which we are
linked to. Yes, we are linked to the
darkness of this world. The god of this
world which has blinded our
understanding has connected us to the
unconscious past.
And they are what you call cunningly
devised fables--and that's what psychology
dwells on. Psychology maintains that each
person has a mind, or a thought pattern, of
his own. And you haven't; you are
uncontrolled. You have no control over your
conscious thinking--or your thought
patterns. They go wild. You try to stop
thinking about a problem that you think you
have. You are tormented by the problem
and the fear and the anxiety.
It is much better that we withdraw from all
these outer things and become still enough
to hear our true self, our true selfhood. Our
true selfhood is not heard yet. All that we
have been hearing are the voices that are
in the unconscious and are constantly
saying, “You are so guilty. You should have
done this or that. Be careful.” That is the
accuser of the brethren (Rev 12:10) which
crucified the Lord of glory (1Cor 2:8).
The natural man is never satisfied. You can
give your life for a natural man and do
everything for him; and later on he will
accuse you for something else. In other
words, you cannot please anybody. The
harder you try, the more they will accuse
you. That is the law of the human
consciousness. They are never satisfied.
This is why Jesus said, “Who is my father?
Who is my mother?” (Mt 12:48).
We think we have to bury our father or look
after our mother. But Jesus said that His
father, mother, brothers and sisters were
those who perceive what God is (v 50).
When I can look through the veil of these
cunningly devised fables which we
demonstrate on the outside in the form of
fear or disease or mental anxiety, or
whatever it is--if I can look beyond the veil, I
see you the way you are truly known of
God. And you know what happens?
Suddenly you will be asking, “Where did the
disease go? Where did the problem
go?”--because I know you the way you are
known.
I do not try to heal you; I just see you the
way you are--because God doesn't heal
anybody. God doesn't even know anything
about disease. If He would know something
about disease, you would have it forever.
You would be eternally sick. For whatever
God creates, or puts into manifestation, is
eternal. What God has ordained is eternal.
Whatever appears as what God did not
ordain is temporal; it is subject to change.
Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad that
everything that we know as sin, disease,
lack and problems of all sorts are all subject
to change? Why?--because it is a temporal
thing which has no law or power to maintain
itself.
This is why this world is in for a whole new
revelation, or dimension, which is called
"the coming of the Lord." The word
“coming” really means Presence. It doesn't
mean coming from somewhere. No, it is
something that is recognized--because it is
already there. It has never left you nor
forsaken you. It has always been with you;
but we have been veiled by cunningly
devised fables. The word “fable” comes
from the word mythos meaning myth. A
fable is a culturally based explanation or
taught principle of observed mysteries as
seen in the Old Testament.
The Old Testament is the realm of the
unconscious. It has nothing to do with
God. Even the god of the Old Testament
has nothing to do with God.
“You mean to say there is more than one
God?” Jesus said to the Pharisees, “The
god that you worship is the devil” (Jn 8:44).
He was pretty blunt. As long as we believe
that God rewards and punishes, we are
worshiping the devil. Or that God deals with
you or even wants to make you more
perfect or holy--you're still worshiping the
devil. You give credence to some being we
call “God” that is responsible for all the evil.
Some people teach that; they speak of the
evil of a righteous God. I heard one man
say that God can kill without murdering.
“The Lord gives and the Lord takes away.”
No, that's all Old Testament fables. God is
the author of life, not of death. If death
were a law or had any reality in it, it would
be there forever. If God would ordain the
death of anyone, then you would be dead
forever. It is impossible to change what God
ordains. Can you change two times two
equals four? Is there ever a time that two
times two will become five? Can life ever
become death? Can life ever become
unconscious? Can life ever lose its energy,
its power to maintain and sustain its
creation unerringly for all eternity? No, it
cannot be; God is the same today,
yesterday and forever (Heb 13:8). And I am
complete in It. What does complete
mean?--that I will never see death. And to
the level of my perception, the level of my
recognition, will this myth be dissolved.
Now the myth was dissolved in Jesus very
quickly. At 33 years of age, He came to the
Garden of Gethsemane where he was
confronted with so-called death. In the
wilderness He was confronted with, “If you
be the son of God….” Notice that Satan
didn't say “the son of man.” He said, “If you
be the son of God, then turn those stones
into bread” (Mt 4:3).
And that is the temptation that we have. We
try to come to God and say, “Now God, I
am hungry, I am thirsty, I need protection, I
need a partner, I need a house, I need
something.” Do you know that is pagan? It
is pagan to ask God for something
material--because God cannot give you
anything. How can the incorporeal being
called “God” give you corporeality?
Corporeality refers to matter; and the
spirituality of God cannot give you matter.
He can only give you spiritual
substance; and the spiritual substance
will bring about the matter that you
need. God cannot give you matter,
healing or anything else directly. But
when we recognize God as our total
sufficiency, as our being, then out of the
recognition and the realization of it
comes everything that you have need of,
even before you ask.
I will go before you to straighten out the
crooked path (Is 40:4). It is we who have
created the crooked path. But when there is
recognition, the veil is lifted and the fog is
lifted and the entrance of God's Word gives
light. It gives understanding to the simple
(Ps 119:130). That's the mystery.
This is why Paul says: Awake thou that
sleeps (Eph 5:14) in the mortal sense of
being, thinking that we need something.
You don't need anything except to
recognize that love is the only power. It's
not even a power, but it is the sustaining
action that upholds and sustains--never,
ever missing a beat. Your eyes focus in and
out; your heart keeps on beating;
everything works perfectly. Have you got
anything to do with any of that? When you
sleep, do you have to put a little alarm clock
inside to wake you up? No, He waketh me
morning by morning (Is 50:4) and He gives
His beloved sleep (Ps 127:2). He gives his
beloved light and insight, provided we
listen. If we are so concentrated on the
outer realm, the world at large or even the
family situation or the circumstances of life,
we remain veiled.
“But I have this terrible responsibility toward
my child.” You've got no children. That is
another myth. You don't have the
capacity to be a father or a mother.
That's why there is so much cruelty from
people playing father and mother--which is
really selfish love. God is the father of all
and the mother of all. He is the life; He is
the continuance; He is the revelation and
the wisdom; He is the sanctification and
He's the redemption (1Cor 1:30)--of all
things that have been lost.
Do you know that the only thing that has
been lost is the prodigal son? What is the
prodigal son?--the son of perdition which is
the one that takes his substance and
squanders it on riotous living and thinks that
he can find the answer in the material
world. He builds himself empires. Now
these big empires are beginning to be
exposed for what they are and how they
have robbed the people of their securities. If
you have your security in that, how
miserable you are! We must trust in the
Lord with all our heart and lean not to our
own understanding. In all our ways we must
acknowledge Him; then he will direct our
path (Pr 3:5-6). And it might not even be
clear all the time--because then you have to
be led by the Spirit, and that is not easy
because you cannot see where you are
going. You've got to really walk in the light
as He is in the light--in the light of
recognition. And then, the Scriptures say,
the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin
(1Jn 1:7).
What does that mean? The nature of the
Lamb is nonresistance; it doesn't struggle
with materiality. It lets go; it surrenders to
death. It surrenders to its enemies. And it
has the ability to say, “Father, forgive them;
they don't know what they are doing (Lk
23:34). They are still looking for material
satisfaction.”
So owe no man anything (Rom 13:8). If
they ask for your coat, give them your coat
(Lk 6:29). And you've got to see it in the
right perspective all the time--because
you've got no obligation either. You have
no responsibility toward anybody except
to love them the way God sees them and
knows them. You don't have to become….
Tape ended here.