Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
LIGHT OF THE WORLD INSPIRATIONS The Baptism of Fire by Tony den Hartog Preached 3/18/2002 A transcription of tape 2130 Transcribed by Jackie Weber You all have been reading the March, 2002, letter, “The Lord Is My Shepherd.” What does it mean, “He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters”?--waters of rest. They are all symbols. Today the wind was rustling in the trees and the water was trickling over the edge of the waterfall; and I noticed that just the sound causes one to quieten. The Holy Spirit is also likened unto a sound--the sound of a mighty, rushing wind (Acts 2:2), something that comes and restores, refreshes and brings back the memory of what we had in the beginning with God. In other words, there are symbols, pictures, things which are created (such as waterfalls, trees, forests or anything that is in this world which God has ordained); and when we meditate deeply on these things, a sound begins to reveal itself--something that begins to quieten the soul. And that's the Lord. Now what is the Lord? We know that the Lord is the Spirit. But what is the Spirit? We know that soul is the willed action of God, the creative intent of God bringing everything into being perfectly and harmoniously. And it is all so lovely, so very pristine; and nothing can enter into that soul (the soul of God, that is) that defiles or makes a lie. But now something has happened because this soul that was really given into Adam became overshadowed by certain beliefs. They are voices that speak. Have you noticed that sometimes your mind speaks to you? Have you ever seen a person walking down the street mumbling to himself? He is talking to himself. We all talk to ourselves, but not out loud. I noticed that some workers at my house, the moment power was available, put their radios on blasting away; for they can't stand the silence. They cannot be quiet because it disturbs them--because their minds are constantly speaking to them. It is not really the mind, but rather the serpent mind--the mind of flesh. It's this world, and it speaks; and we all experience it, sometimes consciously, but most of the time unconsciously. Of course when it is unconscious, we experience heart palpitations or anxieties that we cannot explain. We get shaky and uncertain of ourselves, and we don't know what's going on. That is really the serpent that is stirring you up on the inside. But he never lets you know that he is there; he works behind the scenes. For once you know it's there and how it works, it loses its power. What then can break this syndrome (or mentality) that is working in the unconsciousness, as the unconsciousness? And it is not just individual serpent influence; it is universal. And it has become a great red dragon (Rev 12:3) that is functioning now in every race, color, creed and nationality. Everywhere you look there is nothing else but disturbance. And usually the wars and conflicts that exist are generated out of a religious belief. The Hindus are burning down the Moslem mosques, and they are all destroying each other. But if they knew what they were doing, they wouldn't do it. Jesus came to us, first of all, as the last Adam, born of a woman, born under the law. That means that He, in his humanity, drew to Himself the same thing that we draw to ourselves. It's called cosmic law, or the law of sowing and reaping. If he had not been subject to this law, he could not have been crucified. 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. . . . Or I could also say in the likeness of a serpent mind--because if it had been the mind of Christ in its totality, nobody would have been able to touch Him. So He took upon Himself the nature of sinful flesh and experienced the same feelings of “Can't you just stay and pray with me while I go through this thing?” No, because there is not one human that can help another; nobody can help you, not even God. What helps me then?--the recognition of this verse: "The Lord is my shepherd" (Ps 23:1). Jesus also said, “You will not leave my soul in hell. You will not allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You have shown me the pathway of life" (Acts 2:27-28). You have shown me the divine intent of soul--that it was not ordained for Me to be crucified. But at the same time, there was an ordination to destroy the serpent. And in order to destroy the serpent, Jesus had to become the serpent. That is the mystery of Calvary--that God descended into the lowest parts of the earth, became one of us, experienced all the pain and anxiety and all the voices and all the impressions and the feelings that we do. And He went through the cross, calling out, “The Lord is my shepherd.” Jesus was saying that just as we are. Then something happened. “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” Why not?--because evil is not an ordained law or substance. So Jesus could say that He feared no evil and feared no death because “You will not leave Your Holy One to see corruption. You have shown me the pathway of life. So I can, in total trust in the Lord who is my shepherd, descend into hell." That's what Jesus did; He made his bed in hell, then rose out of that hell; and then the Lord who was the shepherd…. You know what it is now? This Jesus, whom ye have crucified, God has made this Jesus the Lord [which is the shepherd] (Acts 2:36). First Jesus called out for the Shepherd to lead Him right into death and out the other side. And in doing so, he became the Shepherd. But by descending first, He became the serpent. And then the serpent's head was split open; and out of the serpent came the Lord which is the Spirit. Then Christ rose from the dead and ascended on high. Now He is Lord and Christ of all. That's the mystery of “the Lord is my shepherd.” We are still crying out, “The Lord is my shepherd,” but now we are growing. We are going through the baptism of fire. Every voice, every high thing, every imaginary thing, everything that exalts itself against the true knowledge of God is being consumed by fire until the Lord is my Shepherd no longer--because then we are fused as one. And the Lord IS. First He leads you, but now you are in the leading. You are now the body of Christ. You are the shepherd leading. But of course that takes the whole process. You cannot become “the Lord IS” until you go through the metamorphosis--until the whole of the serpent is extinguished within you and you are prepared to lay down your life for your friends (Jn 15:13). I'm talking as one who has to experience this myself. There are degrees. But we are now beginning to speak of the Father openly; we are now beginning to see that as He is, so are we in this world (1Jn 4:17). We have tried so hard to convert people to Christianity; but nobody has ever been able to do that because it doesn't work that way. Every man, woman and child will have to go through the same realization. I am getting messages over the Internet from men and women who have for years been in despair in religious circles and churches where they felt condemned and terribly oppressed by the words that were spoken from the pulpit. Now they are reading the Light of the World teachings and are saying, “It's so wonderful and refreshing reading this because it doesn't condemn. It doesn't warn you of some terrible Armageddon or destruction or the end of the world.” No, we don't talk about that. I know that the world is going to come to an end; the serpent is coming to an end. The activity of the unconsciousness, which is really the generation of a viper, is coming to an end. Matthew 3:9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. We have tried so hard to convert people, while God says that He can make them out of stone! Matthew 3:10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Now what is the fire? It is the love of God. It doesn't mean people. I call these trees the mutants--the things that God has not ordained. They are all consumed by fire, all the trees that are what I call human inventions, things that have been generated over the years which attempt to justify and make legitimate all the terrible things that are happening in the world. Everything that has not been generated out of God is cast into the fire; but we learn in 1Corinthians 3 that the fire will consume all that which was not ordained, but the soul (which is God, which is you, which is I) is saved--saved as by fire (v 15) --because no man can lay any other foundation than was laid--and that was Jesus (v 11). He both laid the foundation and became the foundation; and He became the chief cornerstone (Eph 2:20). In other words, that was the perfect and absolute ordained image of the living God in whom we are all complete. And everything else that has caused disturbance in the soul, in the world, will be dissolved by fire. Read the book of Revelation; even death, hell and the devil (everything which has been so called evil, which never really was) are all consumed and will never be remembered anymore (Rev 20:14-15). This is big, isn't it?--to know that God will not allow anybody to be lost. Anything at all that has a God essence within itself (which all human beings have, never mind what you are. You might be a headhunter or a drunk, a homosexual, black or white)--I don't care what you are; everyone has the God light, or the Spirit, in them. It might be overshadowed by all sorts of concepts and beliefs and religious feelings, phobias and anxieties; but they are all going to be consumed by the baptism of fire--in one way or another. But God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear (1Cor 10:13). In other words, He will not turn up the fire when you are not ready for it. He just lets you go a little bit further until you come to the end of your tether and start screaming out for mercy. Then He says, “Okay, let Me just turn up the heat a little bit.” Then you will be ready to let go of that thing, knowing that you don't need it anymore. I remember St. Nicholas in Holland who comes at night and brings presents. And with him he has Black Pete. Of course St. Nicholas knows exactly which children have been naughty; they will be put in a bag and taken to Spain. As children, we were terrified because we knew we had been naughty. And that developed within us a sin consciousness. It was a feeling of guilt that we thought was a good thing. But that's not good for children or adults either. It's not good for adults to hear from the pulpit, “If you die right now, you know that you will go to hell, don't you?” Then everybody quickly goes forward to receive Jesus because they don't want to go to hell. It's all a fearful thing. Jesus did away with all these cultural, religious ideas; and He brought in the freedom of Spirit. Don't misinterpret what I'm saying when I say that I'm not guilty; I am not innocent in the sense that I will never do anything wrong. The guilt is there, and the reward is there for the guilt--as long as we do not judge it. Don't forget, every deed, every word, everything that proceeds out of the mouth and the heart of man will have its own reward. The wages of sin, or the out-working of it, will bring its own reward. Nobody is going to judge you--because your sin judges you. Your own fear judges you. Like Job said, “What I feared greatly has come upon me” (Job 3:25). It has nothing to do with God; God doesn't judge you (Jn 5:22). We judge ourselves. But now I do not have to judge myself because there is no self to judge. I died--because if one died for all and as all, then all our dead (2Cor 5:14). First of all, you've got to realize that the recognition of that frees you--that's grace! It frees you from the curse of the law; it also frees you from the influences of what is called karma. You are free from the law--if you are not afraid. If you are afraid of God, afraid that He is going to judge you, you are under the law. When your fear is judging you, you can easily misinterpret that and think that it is God. You must know what happened on the cross--Jesus was destroying the body of sin as He was baptized into death. That's why He said to His disciples, “The baptism that I am going through, you are not able to bear right now.” This is why I am saying that God will not put you through a baptism of fire if you are not ready for it. You actually have to surrender to the fire, saying, “I'm walking right into the fire, and I know that I am going to come out on the other side unscathed, unhurt--complete and whole. All my anxieties and all my fears, all my trust in materiality--everything will be gone." That's where your freedom is, and that's where I want to be. You won't be able to get there any other way. You have to actually present yourself to the fire. It may take years before you are ready to do this. That's what Jesus did; He went through it and was consumed by that fire. Then where is He now? He is now alive for evermore. And I am alive forever more, for I am in Him, aren't you? Romans 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Actually, the flesh and blood was dissolved. Flesh and blood and spiritual being cannot exist together. Paradoxically, for a while they both seem to be there. Like Paul said, “The things that I don't want to do I seem to be doing” (Rom 7:15). For a little while this is the case; and there is condemnation and also feelings of guilt, the feeling of “I shouldn't have done that.” But after a while, these things become less and less, as we are Looking onto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, lest I should be weary and faint in my mind (Heb 12:2-3). John the Baptist said: Matthew 3:11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: There are two aspects. The first one is the baptism in the Holy Ghost on the Day of Pentecost. They were all together with one accord, and suddenly the house was filled with a mighty, rushing wind, and they all began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2:1-4). And there was great joy, tremendous healing, deliverance and provision. They were all together in one accord, and nobody dared even to come near them. This was a holy time. But every one of them was still a Jew; they were not yet Christians. A Christian really is an enChristed one--one who has, to a large extent, experienced the dissolving of his own ego, of his own fleshly identity. I don't know that anyone has ever experienced this completely, for then he would disappear out of sight. But we are progressing. So the baptism of fire is not something that you get one moment on the Day of Pentecost. It is a continuous process of eliminating the old that the new might come forth. You must present yourself over and over again to the invisible Father that is within you and around you and through you. Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living [not a dead, sick or afraid one] sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. You can see, then, that Paul is drawing a contrast. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed. The word “transformed” is metamorphoo. This is the same thing that a butterfly goes through when it is a caterpillar. A caterpillar doesn't just suddenly become a butterfly; it has to go through a metamorphosis where the old is gradually dissolved. But notice that there is no more memory of it once it is gone. Once the caterpillar has gone into its cocoon and gone through a state of death and comes out the other side as a butterfly, the caterpillar is no longer there. It is not a caterpillar AND a butterfly; the caterpillar is now a butterfly. It is the same with Jesus. There is no more Jesus; there is now only a life-giving Spirit. There is not a Hebrew man sitting in heaven on a throne on a cloud somewhere. No, the man is gone. He is now a life-giving Spirit. That's the Spirit of the Lord, the same Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead. Resurrection is not just a body becoming alive again like Lazarus. Otherwise, Lazarus could have said, “I am the resurrection.” No, Lazarus did not experience the resurrection. Only Jesus experienced the resurrection--which is the resurrection of the original idea, the original son, the original offspring that is invisible to human sense. It cannot be seen, but neither can you see the tree--because everything that God created is invisible to human sense. But it is not invisible to those who are spiritually regenerated. This is why only 500 could see Jesus after the resurrection. And there were only three who could see Jesus in His transformed being when they were on the Mount of Transfiguration. But don't forget that Jesus first had to go through all the fulfillment of the law. In other words, it was not yet finished, even though He showed Himself the way He really is and they saw Moses and Elijah as well. But it was not possible for the disciples to partake of this invisible resurrection life until Jesus rose from the dead. That is of course the argument. What was the difference between Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration and Jesus after the resurrection? On the Mount of Transfiguration Jesus had not yet completed the destroying of the serpent, or the fulfillment of the law. But when Jesus rose from the dead, He could say to his disciples, “All power has been given unto Me both in heaven and in earth; now you go in My Name (in My nature, in the abilities that I now have) (Mt 28:18-19). The same Spirit that healed the sick, raised the dead and cleansed the leper--I'm giving it to you. Now go and do likewise." So that is a whole different dimension. There is not just Jesus born under the law--because Jesus transcended through all material law. Everything that this earth represents, which is gravity, which is life-and-death, Jesus transcended and cannot be touched by it. That's the ordination of God. All of us will also experience this, but one step at a time. There are people who are sort of thinking that we are already there. We are there with Jesus before the cross, but we are not yet there after the cross--because we still have to go through the cross. All of us. First we have to go through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Don't think that if you don't have the baptism of the Holy Spirit that you can go through the baptism of fire. It is impossible. When you are baptized in the Holy Ghost, your tongue changes; you have the ability to speak words that before you were not able to say, “Father, forgive them.” You begin to see people in a different light. When I came home to my wife, I said, “My, you have changed!” But it was not her that had changed; I had changed. I began to see her the way she truly was. And then our relationship began to change because our perspective was changing. We saw everything in a different light. And that is how the progression takes place. So let's meditate on this.