THE CROSS IN THE HEART OF GOD
by Don Godfroy
TO THE READER
The following study is an examination of some of the teachings of Jacob Boehme. He was a Christian mystic, who wrote 30 books in the 1600’s. A mystic by definition is “one who partakes of a mystery.” As Christian’s we are all “mystics.”
The focal point of Jacob’s experience is “the mystery of the Gospel,” (Col. 1:26,27). Paul explains that this “mystery” has been hidden from past ages and generations, but has now been made manifest to His saints. It is “Christ in you, the hope of glory!” Hudson Taylor called this the “sacred secret.” Norman Grubb called it “union life.” Nancy Messler, Dan Stone, Malcolm Smith and others called it the “exchanged life.” Boehme expresses it as the epiphany of the human experience and the express purpose for man’s creation.
Boehme was given insight by Divine revelation, into the inner working of the life of God. He saw seven Spirits or principles, by which God expresses His Personhood or Being. At the fulcrum or center of this process, Boehme describes a cross, or death to self-seeking, within His very own being. Isaac Newton gained much insight into the “laws of motion,” by studying Jacob’s writings.
Boehme was given spiritual insight concerning God’s purpose in creation, Adam’s plane of existence before and after “the fall,” and the origin of evil. We will look at how these seven principles in the life of God work in us to bring us to the “measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” I am in deep gratitude to many teachers, who have studied Jacob Boehme’s writings extensively, especially Norman Grubb, George Hawtin, William Law, and J. Preston Eby. I am also thankful to the “Union Life” group who taped a presentation by Alan Parker and Norman Grubb on the writings of Jacob Boehme, back in the mid 80’s.
The nature of some of Boehme’s revelation may be quite new to some. Please don’t let it upset you. Set it on the shelf if you can’t receive it. Always ask God to confirm spiritual truth by sending a “double witness.”
I have enjoyed investigating these themes. I am fully aware that I “see through a glass darkly.” I have much yet to learn concerning these topics. It seems the more you see, the more you realize you don’t see. Any understanding is truly a gift from God. It should always bear the fruit of God’s righteous and holy love flowing out of your life.
As most mystics, such as Jane Leade and Madam Guyon, Jacob Boehme was not well received and was intensely persecuted. He felt that his revelation and subsequent writings were for the end of this present age, when God would have a people return to the purity Adam had before he fell, fully manifesting the Mind of Christ.
Jacob said, “In the time of the end, the time of the Lily, these writings will be sought as serviceable. To all such who are shooting forth into the fair Lily in the Kingdom of God, who are in the process of birth, are these lines written; that each may be strengthened, and bud in the life of God, and grow and bear fruit in the Tree of paradise; that each branch and twig in this fair Tree may contribute, help and shelter all the other branches and twigs, that this Tree may become a great Tree! Then shall we all rejoice, one with another, with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TOPIC HEADING PAGE
Introduction 3
The Two Crosses 4
Eternity and Time 5
God becomes God 5
The Uncreated Heaven 5
Infinite Freedom 6
Wisdom 7
The First Spirit/Introspection-Contraction 9
The Second Principle/Expansion-Outreach 10 The Third Principle/Rotation 10
The Fourth Principle/The Cross 11
The Fifth Principle/Resurrection Life or Light 12
The Sixth Principle/the Word 13
The Seventh Principle/the Intelligent Word-God All in All-Rest 13
The Seven Properties in the Life of a Star 14
The Cross is at the Center of God’s Life 15
The Origin of Evil 17
The Two Trees-The Two Wisdoms 22
The Mystery of Male and Female 29
Brideship and Sonship 31
The Seven Principles Represented in the Three Feasts 32
Faith As Substance 35
Pentecost-The Sixth Property 38
Tabernacles-The Intelligent Word 40
Tabernacles-The Feast of Glory 43
The Circumcision of the Heart 44
The Rest of God 49
Face to Face 51
The Speaking Word Man 53
INTRODUCTION
Jacob Boehme was born in Alt Seidenburg Germany, in 1575. John Wesley, in his day, required all of his preachers to study the writings of Jacob Boehme; and the learned English theologian, William Law, said of him: “Jacob Boehme was not a messenger of anything new in religion, but the mystery of all that was old and true in religion and nature, was opened up to him,” – “the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.”
Born of poor but pious Lutheran parents, from childhood, Jacob Boehme was concerned about the “salvation of his soul.” Although occupied, first as a shepherd, and afterward as a shoemaker, he was always an earnest student of the Holy Scriptures, but he could not understand “the ways of God,” and he became “perplexed even unto melancholy, -- pressed out of measure.” He said, “I knew the Bible from beginning to end but could find no consolation in Holy Writ; and my spirit, as if moving in a great storm, arose in God, carrying with it my whole heart, mind and will, and wrestled with the love and mercy of God, that His blessing might descend upon me, that my mind might be illumined with his Holy Spirit, that I might understand His will and get rid of my sorrow…
“I had always thought much of how I might inherit the kingdom of heaven; but finding in myself a powerful opposition, in the desires that belong in the flesh and blood, I began a battle against my corrupted nature; and with the aid of God, made up my mind to overcome the inherited evil will, …break it, and enter wholly into the love of God in Christ Jesus. I sought the heart of Jesus Christ, the center of all truth; and I resolved to regard myself as dead in my inherited form, until the Spirit of God would take form in me, so that in and through Him, I might conduct my life.
“I stood this resolution, fighting a battle with myself, until the light of the Spirit, a light entirely foreign to my unruly nature, began to break through the clouds. Then, after some further hard fight with the powers of darkness, my spirit broke through the doors of hell, and penetrated even into the innermost essence of its newly born divinity where it was received with great love, as a bridegroom welcomes his beloved bride.
“No words can express the great joy and triumph I experienced, as of a life out of death, as of a resurrection from the dead! While in this state, as I was walking through a field of flowers, in fifteen minutes, I saw the mystery of creation, the origin of this world and of all creatures… Then for seven days I was in a continual state of ecstasy, surrounded by the light of the Spirit, which immersed me in contemplation and happiness. I learned what God is and what is His will… I knew not how this happened to me, but my heart admired and praised the Lord for it!”
At the age of twenty five, Boehme was given another great illumination, in which the Lord let him see further into “the heart of things, the true nature of God and man, and the relationship existing between them.” Ten years later “the divine order of nature” was opened up to him, and he was inspired to write what the Lord had revealed to him.
From 1612 to 1624, he wrote thirty books. “My books are written” Boehme said, “only for those who desire to be sanctified and united to God, from whom they came. Not through my understanding, but in my resignation in Christ, from him, have I received knowledge of His mysteries. God dwells in that which will resign itself up, with all its reason and skill, unto Him. I have prayed strongly that I might not write except for the glory of God and the instruction and benefit of my brothers.”
Jacob Boehme’s persecutions and sufferings began with the publication of his first book at the age of thirty five. Then, not withstanding five years of enforced silence, banishment from his home town, and an ecclesiastical trial for heresy, his “interior wisdom” began to be recognized by the nobility of Germany; but at this time, at the age of forty-nine, Boehme died, “happy” as he said, “in the midst of the heavenly music of the paradise of God.” (end quote).
THE TWO CROSSES
Mark 8:27 (NIV) Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?"
28 They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets."
29 "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
Peter answered, "You are the Christ.[29] Or Messiah. "The Christ" (Greek) "the Messiah" (Hebrew) both mean "the Anointed One."
30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.
31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."
34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
When the disciples understood through divine revelation that Jesus was the Christ, He began to teach them about the cross. Peter was offended by it. Then Jesus turned to the crowd and made it clear to all that it would be absolutely impossible to follow after Him unless one became willing to take up his cross and follow Me. In Luke 9:23 the word “daily” is inserted after cross. This is not the cross which Jesus died on, but a continual cross which a true disciple must embrace daily.
When Jacob Boehme was illuminated he saw into the inner working of the life of God. He not only knew God. But he knew how God worked or operated. As Christians, we state facts about God’s nature. For instance, we believe that God is omniscient, omnipotent, immutable, faithful, omnipresent, and sovereign. But we don’t generally understand how He has these characteristics in His nature. We accept them by faith from the testimony of the scriptures and our experience in knowing Jesus Christ.
ETERNITY AND TIME
As human beings we are creatures of time. Our mental process understands things in a logical, linear, fashion. We have to start at the beginning and build in an orderly fashion to have understanding of a process. The difficulty Boehme faced in trying to explain what he saw in the life of God, who exists outside the realm of time, is that he had to break it down and explain it in linear terms for our understanding. So Boehme describes the inner working of God’s life as a process. He said that you almost have to have a devilish thought as if God had a beginning. However, we know that God did not have a beginning for He dwells outside the realm of time. Time is a created phenomenon and is only relevant to this universe. This universe is not God, but is a form or medium by which God can express Himself. In Sunday school I had been taught that eternity is time without end, however that is a misnomer, for eternity is a much higher realm than time and has no restrictions placed upon it in a linear fashion. Eternity is a state of there being “no time.” Many of the early church fathers also defined eternity in this manner.
Essentially, Boehme saw seven properties or “spirits” by which God becomes God. However, this never happens in time but only in eternity. It is not a case of God is first this, and then He is this, and this, and so on. But He is simultaneously expressed in these seven properties in eternity. For our understanding we are going to try to break it down into linear time, but keep in mind that there is never a time when our God is not all that He is.
GOD BECOMES GOD
What do I mean that God becomes God? Modern existential philosophy recognizes that just as there is a state of being, there is a state of non-being. This is what Jacob Boehme is talking about, a God who is forever emerging as being out of non-being. So what does this mean to us? By what Boehme shows us, we are able to see the inner workings of the life of God, and by doing so we can begin to understand about His eternal characteristics. What we see about His characteristics can help us understand more about our Lord Christ Jesus who is in us, and is the true expression of who we are. In Genesis we are told that Adam was made in the image and likeness of God. Image means “phantom” or “spirit” which speaks of man’s creation as a spiritual being which can only truly know himself or his Creator, by grasping his spiritual nature. Likeness means a “comparable model.” This shows that Adam was designed to have his inner life work by the same principles by which his father, God, operates.
THE UNCREATED HEAVEN
The ideas which Boehme tries to explain to us are difficult to understand, because the principle ideas and the principle things, of which Jacob Boehme is writing, do not occur anywhere in this physical universe, but occur in eternity. He uses a term, which is unique to his writing which is “the uncreated heaven.” And that uncreated heaven, since it is not created, does not appear anywhere in this physical universe. He calls the uncreated heaven the true heaven. Boehme talks about there being a period or a time before the creation of this physical universe, (we are thinking in linear time for understanding), when God reigned in the uncreated Heaven, and that there will be an eternal future where God will also reign in the uncreated Heaven. The concept he is trying to bring out is that if you remove this physical universe what do you have left? According to Boehme, the uncreated or true heaven. So where is this uncreated Heaven? It can only be experienced through Jesus Christ in you. Paul explained that what can be seen is temporal and what is unseen is eternal. The goal of creation is to take that which is eternal or uncreated and have it expressed in this physical universe. That is what Jesus accomplished in His life. We will look at this more as we get into the seven properties by which our God fully expresses Himself.
I have heard preachers expound that Heaven is somewhere north of Polaris and that Jesus is on the throne somewhere north of Polaris and that for Him to come back He will have to travel across the universe. However, the truth is that if you have been born of His spirit, (born again); there is an eternal, uncreated Heaven in you where Christ is seated on His throne. And for Him to appear, one aspect of His coming or appearing is to simply be fully manifest in your person in the full nature of all His characteristics, love, wisdom, mercy, etc. For when we see Him we shall be like Him a ‘comparable model’. Exactly what the creature was created to be!
It is rather ludicrous to think that Jesus is out hiding somewhere in this universe, as the universe is an expression of His divine mind, which consists or is held together by the power of His word. The concept of the uncreated Heaven is important so that we understand that this physical universe is not the only arena in which God operates.
So now, what is in this uncreated Heaven? God, in all that He is. There is also an uncreated glory. It just is. The light that God is, the love that God is, the truth that God is and the wisdom that God is. Boehme reveals that the total plan of God proceeds out of eternity into time with the creation of the universe. The ruin of that creation by the fall of man was followed by the cure for that fall through the atonement of Jesus Christ. Then came the subsequent working-out through future ages of time, the full redemptive purposes in the heart of God for His creation. God all-in-all brings the conclusion of time. And then God’s plan moves back into eternity again. The purpose of God to bring forth a vast family of sons in His image and likeness finds its centerpiece in the cross of Jesus Christ to accomplish the redemptive, mercy-will of the Father. Jacob Boehme will show us that there is also a cross in the very heart of God as we look into the seven properties or spirits by which God expresses all that He is.
INFINITE FREEDOM
In Jacob Boehme’s introspection into the inner life of God, he describes a state in God’s life, that if it were thought of as an energy level, would be the lowest state. This is the deepest area in the life of God and it is a state of infinite freedom. This freedom pre-exists actual being. This is an idea which many of the mystics point out. If you can wipe away this physical universe as an act of will, you come to a place of nothingness, which is actually a state of not having being, and nothing is expressed as well. Our modern existential atheistic philosophers speak about their doctrine of nihilism, in which they come to this nothingness and they become atheistic, because all they can see is a total end. But what Jacob Boehme saw, when he came to this nothingness, is that he found God.
It is very difficult to consider a place in the life of God as nothingness which precedes being. This nothingness could be thought of as an infinite expanse that needs to be filled with potential being. Boehme called this the unground. He explains it as being like an abyss. Now we sometimes think of the abyss as the place where Satan comes out of. However, this is not what he is talking about. It is a place of infinite depth. A place without limitation. It is actually not a place at all. It is not in this physical universe. It has no height, depth, width, or any material substance at all. It is the region of absolute nothingness. It is not evil and it is not good. It is simply freedom.
What is pure freedom? Pure freedom is the possibility of anything. Everything that is possible is possible. Nothing yet is, but it is possible. Boehme described this unground or abyss as not a place of darkness or light as the shining of our sun. But he saw it as a clear place. This clearness is a stillness. It is a place of clear rest in which everything is possible. We can say that God is the source of all freedom and the source of all rest for there is absolutely no movement in this unground. Boehme says that this unground is represented in the book of Revelation as the glassy sea before the Throne of God. “And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal.” (Rev. 4:6). Boehme tells us that John was not transported to some place north of Polaris, but he was allowed to see into the uncreated Heaven. For instance, Boehme says that the spiritual things which John describes are symbolic of the inner life of God. The seven spirits of God, by which the life of God is expressed is represented by seven lamps burning with fire. In the midst of the lamps, the four beasts, and the Throne, is a Lamb as though it had been slain. This is the cross principle by which the life of the Father is expressed through the Son. It is also the means by which God’s infinite supply of love and mercy are made available for every need.
So, the first two characteristics about the life of God Boehme reveals is a state of infinite freedom and rest, which he calls the unground.
WISDOM
The next characteristic, which Boehme reveals has to do with wisdom. It is not really a characteristic but is something so closely linked with the Father that it is the actual mind of the Father. Solomon spoke of wisdom as a person in Proverbs 8. In the Greek it is the word Sophia. It is in the feminine gender and speaks of wisdom as a woman.
When Adam first came forth from the hand of God, (according to Boehme), he should have been able to procreate by speaking offspring into creation just as God created him. This is because he had both the male and female principles in him. We know this for a fact; for it was later that Eve was removed from Adam and made a separate entity. Boehme says that this was done, not necessarily because Adam was lonely, but because he wasn’t getting the job done. Boehme saw Adam’s initial existence, as a state of innocence and immaturity.
Boehme shows us that God’s wisdom is the female aspect of God. That is why there is no female god to be worshipped in the bible and why it is considered blasphemous to do so. This is also why the Baal worship and fertility religions, which had female goddesses and sex worship, were so destructive to the Israelites and anyone who partook of these pagan religions. Boehme says that the Father is the creative power of God, while the female aspect of God is the creative agency. We could also describe it as the Spirit and Soul of God interacting in harmony to create, as the spirit is always masculine and the soul is always feminine in Hebrew and Greek. Now we will briefly look at the creation act of God in making Adam and see how the male and female principles work together in the life of the Father.
Gen. 1:26 (KJV) “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
Our God has chosen to reveal to us parts of His very own image and nature in how He created us. He has chosen certain words for His very own name which also reveal His nature, different words for God also have gender in many languages. Different Hebrew words for God also have gender. In Hebrew, the last characters of the word tell the gender. We will see that the Hebrew words tell a new and amplified story in the Bible when the gender is noticed. We lose a lot when we are limited to our English genderless words.
For instance, Yahweh is masculine. El Shaddai is feminine in context usage. When the masculine Yahweh and the feminine El Shaddai come together to operate in concert, they become androgynous (meaning both masculine and feminine) in gender in the Hebrew language. The androgynous word Elohim (creator) was unfortunately translated into the genderless word God in our English bible. In the creation story we lose the idea that there must be a masculine Yahweh working in concert with a feminine El Shaddai in order for them to become the androgynous creator, Elohim. Now we will look at Genesis 1:26 again with this new understanding. The words “us” and “our” take on additional meaning.
And God (androgynous Elohim) said, “Let us (masculine Yahweh and feminine El Shaddai) make man in our (Yahweh and El Shaddai) image, after our (Yahweh and El Shaddai) likeness… So God (androgynous Elohim) created man in His own (androgynous) image, in the image of God (androgynous Elohim) created He him; male and female (an androgynous creature) created He them.
Boehme explains the male and female principle in the life of the Father as the male being the power, the idea, or the will, while the female shows the “how” of this power, idea, and will, coming forth. They both operate in complete harmony, agreement, and oneness. We could say that love is the initiating first cause or the why of “all things. God is love. Wisdom is the how or agency, by which the full desire of love, is expressed. We could think of wisdom as a womb by which the desire of love is birthed into expression. This is the interaction of spirit and soul, male and female, in oneness and unity to accomplish all the will of Elohim.
Attempt, if you can, to wipe away this physical universe. There is infinite clear freedom and potential. All this infinite possibility is God, but is not yet God expressed. Boehme says that in the midst of all this freedom and possibility is God’s wisdom. He saw that in the expanse of this nothingness there is a single eye, which is God, which looks out on this nothingness and there is absolutely nothing to see. But He wants to see something. Boehme says that the eternal beginning in the creative process in the life of God is that He draws inward and it’s as if He looks into a mirror and this mirror is His own imagination or His own mind. This is not like a hand mirror. Boehme describes it to be a shimmering maiden. This is the female aspect of Himself. It’s not really an eye looking out, but God looking in on Himself. And this divine Maiden shows Him what He can be. This is His imagination. So, as God looks into the divine Maiden and sees the infinite freedom and potential of all He can be, what does He see? God sees the Son, because the Son is the express image of God (Hebrews 1:3).
THE FIRST SPIRIT
INTROSPECTION-CONTRACTION
So, in this beginning, although it is not actually a beginning, for Boehme describes the mirroring process by which God looks in on Himself to see what He will be, as an eternal process which is forever happening; God sees the Son. He loves the Son and so wants to be the Son that an infinite desire is initiated. This is the first actual property in the nature of God. In this infinite clear freedom is also infinite rest and stillness. This nothingness begins to fold in on itself as the inward desire of God to express Himself as the Son causes movement. As you or I would look into a mirror and think, “Oh, that’s me.” so our God is always looking into His divine Maiden of wisdom to see what He will be. However, this is still all in the imagination and nothing has been brought into actual being.
Boehme says that this inward movement or drawing, takes on a wave like action in the still rest of freedom, with such compunction that it is drawing everything to itself. The clear freedom actually becomes dark and takes on a real substance. Whether spiritual or material substance, I do not know. Boehme says that this darkness actually becomes hard as if it was a created thing or at least had a spiritual substantiality to it. Boehme goes on to show that out of this first property of introspection (where in the mirroring process God looks in on His own life to see what He will be), six other properties or spirits flow out of this first property and are in union with it. Boehme is showing us that in the emergence of the life of God, diversity flows out of unity,-as in the physical creation being expressed in multiplicity out of unity.
In doing this, Boehme reveals to us a “dialectic” process. Jacob Boehme is often called the “Father of Dialecticism.” A dialectic process is this: for any principle or idea there is an opposing principle joined to it and in union with it and these two principles are in some kind of dynamic tension. And so these two principles must somehow resolve themselves and form a third principle or synthesis. So we have a cycle of “thesis”, “anti-thesis”, and “synthesis.” And this synthesis becomes a new principle or thesis and already has joined to it a new anti-thesis or opposing principle and so the cycle continues.
In other words, Yes in order to be Yes must have No joined with it or Yes would have no meaning unless No is there. Boehme says that in Yes and No, all things exist. In the dialecticism of the Yes and No principle everything exists. Norman Grubb, who has studied Jacob Boehme extensively, simply calls this “The Law of Opposites.” It is only by an opposing principle that any idea has any meaning. In the natural, we are looking at Newtonian physics. William Law says that Isaac Newton got his understanding of his first three laws of motion from studying Jacob Boehme. What Boehme is showing us is that God becomes known through a dialectic process through the seven properties or spirits.
So, in the still rest of God, the desire to become the Son causes motion. This disturbs the rest and causes a problem because things are supposed to stay at rest in God’s freedom. Motion is the opposing idea which comes out of the rest, so something must happen to restore rest. Boehme says that contained within this inward movement is an opposing principle---which is to move outward. Why is it to move outward? One logical explanation is to get back to rest. If you push something in so far you can perhaps pull it back out to its original position.
SECOND PRINCIPLE
EXPANSION-OUTREACH
Boehme describes this first principle of contraction as a region of infinite gravity, which causes an infinite darkness, an infinite inward force, and an infinite density. From this point Boehme identifies an opposing principle which he calls expansion.
Once again it is important to remember that these 7 principles do not happen one after the other, but are happening simultaneously in eternity. It is important to understand that these 7 principles are in unity and that they are all emerging out of each other to accomplish one common goal. That is the dialecticism of it. God’s will or desire is to be the Son of His love. As this infinite inward desire to be the Son increases, the infinite expansion to express Himself as the Son also becomes proportionately greater.
Boehme says that the expansion has a “sting” to it. It stings to be stretched out as it is being pulled in at the same time. As one grows, the other grows, and they can’t resolve themselves or let go of each other.
THE THIRD PRINCIPLE
ROTATION
Boehme says that the synthesis of these two opposing principles is rotation. There is such a conflict or dynamic tension between the contraction and expansion that a torque or a tumbling process occurs and it begins to whirl. As the infinite contraction and expansion become greater and greater the whirling or rotation is increased and increased. Boehme calls this a whirling will. For it is by this process that God’s will or desire is accomplished. Of what is it a whirling wheel or will? It is a whirling wheel of selfishness to express itself.
Boehme says that these first three principles make up what he calls the dark principle. Why is it the dark principle? Because what you have here is the infinite power of God, like an infinite dynamo, getting ready to run away with itself, trying to express itself. This is a whirling wheel of self-seeking.
As this process continues to whirl faster and faster, an infinite heat is generated. Now, this heat should burst into flame and reveal light. However, the infinite contraction will not allow anything to be expressed. Infinite desire, though not evil and not good, is simply selfish desire and will not allow anything to be expressed. The second property wants to express everything, but the first won’t let the second go, and they become tumbling into a will or wheel of self-seeking. Boehme calls this the “Wheel of Birth” by which God gives birth to Himself.
Here you have the infinite generating power of God reaching out, but folding in on itself and whirling in a dynamo of infinite heat and infinite power. It is dark. It will not let any heat out. It is not helpful or noticeable in anyway. If you were standing next to it, although it would be infinitely hot it would not let any heat out and would not benefit you in any way. It is only for itself. Boehme calls this the dark principle because it is a will, but it is not yet being, for nothing is yet expressed or given out.
THE FOURTH PRINCIPLE
THE CROSS
Boehme says that a very mysterious thing happens eternally in the life of God at this point. The Father has looked in on the divine Maiden to see what He will be. His desire to be the Son brings the first three principles into being. These take the infinite power of God out of clear freedom, and bring it to where there is an absolute chaotic mess, and God can’t let go of Himself. If something didn’t save God from His own self-seeking, He would be trapped in this wheel of selfishness and would burst into flame. And the life of God would become a raging hell of self-seeking. This is again why it is called the dark principle.
What Boehme says happens, is that the One in whom rests the desire to do the complete will of the Father, comes to rescue the Father. How can the Son come to rescue the Father when the Son is not yet expressed? It is the first miracle. Remember we are thinking in linear time. These things Boehme describes are happening simultaneously in eternity in the uncreated Heaven. The Son comes to the Father’s aid. And what does the Son do? The Son by definition is the one who gives his life and dies for others. The Son dies for the Father who is unable to let go of His own self-seeking. The Word incarnate, Jesus Christ our Savior did the same for us when we were unable to die to our own self-seeking. Boehme calls this the “Father Principle.” We will look at it in greater depth further along, after we have covered all seven properties. I wouldn’t want anyone to think that our Father has an incurable problem of self-seeking.
When this takes place there is an infinite thunderbolt eternally happening in the uncreated Heaven. Boehme says that this is described in Revelation 4:5 “Out of the throne proceeds lightning’s, thundering, and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God.” It is a picture of who God is in the symbols. The thunderbolt is the Son dying for the Father being unable to let go of His own self-seeking. And when this happens there is an eternal lightning. And when this lightning flashes, the dark will perceives the flashing light and is cooled by the flashing light. This has an effect like a governor on a motor and brings the infinite power of God under control.
THE FIFTH PRINCIPLE
RESURRECTION LIFE OR LIGHT
When the lightning flashes into the dark principle of the whirling will, it makes it safe because it has now died to its self-seeking. And because of this it bursts into flame. This is the other side of the cross. One side is death, the other side is life. When it burst into flame, a gentle light was given off. Light is the first expression of the life of God. There are numerous scriptures for this. All things were created by Christ Jesus and for Him. He is before all things and by Him all things consist. (Colossians 1:15-16). John calls Jesus Christ the “Light of the World”, the “true Light” that lighteth every man that comes into the world, and also, that all things were made by Jesus Christ. John 1:3-10. The first command of creation is, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3).
Let us briefly review, for this is the focal point and fulcrum of God’s life, the centering principle by which His life as love and light are expressed. God is unable to stop from His own self-seeking. Miraculously, the Son comes forth and rescues the Father. He is the one who always wants to do the will of the Father. He is the one who makes eternal life possible so that the plan of the Father can be fulfilled in us. He is the one who makes the life of the Father possible, for were it not for Him there would be no life of the Father expressed. So, He became the Lamb who is always slain from the foundation of the world. But on the other hand, the desire of the Father is to be the Son. This is why Jesus says, “I and my Father are one.” And, “If you have seen Me you have seen the Father.” They are not separate Gods, but One.
This fourth property is the center of the life of God. There is a cross in the heart of God where He eternally dies to self-seeking. He’s a life lived for others. His desire is to bless. God’s love, defined by the Greek word “agape”, is an unconditional love. It is the most powerful force in the universe and this is why Jesus said, “If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself.” The cross explains why He is this kind of love and why He is not tempted by evil. We very quickly jump from death into life at the fourth principle so that the fifth principle is light. This light is the Son. The fifth property is the first expression of the being of God. This is where life begins and it is light. Boehme says that at this point the Son is like a new born babe. He calls it the principle of gentleness. The lightning flashing into the dark whirling wheel of self-seeking has ignited the infinite heat into a safe and gentle light. The life of God has safely burst into flame and is giving out a gentle light. This gentle light then fills the uncreated void. This gentle light is the Son. The Son loves the Father with infinite love. The Father loves the Son with infinite love. Their love is so over-bounding with no limits of expression that an infinite river of love proceeds from them which fills the whole void of infinity. This is the Spirit. It is this love that is the power of Resurrection Life... It is the power by which He is able to “subdue all things to Himself” as a “consuming fire.”
THE SIXTH PRINCIPLE
THE WORD
Proceeding from the gentle light, as a part of it and emerging from it, is the sixth principle, “the Word” or “the Word expressed.” Again, there are many scriptures referring to Jesus Christ as the Word. He is the Logos of God. In 1 John1:1-3, the apostle makes it clear that “the Word” or “the Life” was manifested in this earth and the people experienced it with all their natural faculties. They handled the Word of Life. That which they had heard and seen they made known unto us, that we might also know the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
The Word expressed speaks of His humanity. We can know and experience the living Word in these human bodies. It speaks of the testimony of Jesus in His ministry as the man of Galilee in and amongst His creation, walking out that which He came to accomplish—the complete will of the Father. We will re-examine this sixth principle a little farther along in our study.
THE SEVENTH PRINCIPLE
THE INTELLIGENT WORD
GOD ALL IN ALL
REST
Out of the gentle light of the Word expressed emerges the seventh principle, the “complete” or “intelligent Word”. This is where the infinite river of Love, mentioned in the fifth principal, fills all things and swallows up anything in opposition to it. Boehme says that the seventh property or the complete expression of God is also the realization of the full mind of God or the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ is the same as the mind of the Father which is the Sophia. The Sophia is actually expressed by the creative power being fully joined with the creative agency to express the complete wonders and splendors of God which make up the glory of the uncreated Heaven. This is the full expression of marriage in the life of God or the oneness and purpose of the male and female natures. Boehme says that the full expression of male and female does not occur until the seventh principle.
This full and complete will of God being worked out in creation is expressed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:24-28.
1 Cor 15:24 (NIV) Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For he "has put everything under his feet." [27] Psalm 8:6} Now when it says that "everything" has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.
The Amplified version renders the phrase “all in all” as, “be everything to everyone, supreme, the indwelling and controlling factor of life.” This would be the full accomplishment of what the Father desired in creation and would bring all things into His rest. In the life of Jesus, this would be exemplified in His ascension and consequent sitting down at the right hand of God (Hebrews 10:12), His work being finished. And we are also exhorted to “labor to enter into that rest” which is only found in union with Christ. This union has to do with the male and female aspect of things and what is exemplified in the marriage supper of the Lamb where Jesus Christ our Saviour is wed to a virgin Church without spot or wrinkle.
The theme of “rest” is one that permeates the Bible. It is a very important state in the life of God-the point at which all things begin and all things end. God rested on the seventh day of creation. He created the Sabbath rest laws for the seventh day, the seventh year, and the Jubilee year which is after seven sets of seven years. When Israel failed to observe these Sabbath rest years and did not allow the land to rest, they were sent into exile to Babylon for the 70 rest years they owed the land. Ultimately, it speaks of “this land which we are” made of dust and temples of the Holy Spirit. This “land” must also rest in Him.
Even our physical human heart begins and ends in rest. It beats over 100,000 times each day and between each beat comes to a state of perfect rest. It goes through the contraction-expansion stage to pump oxygenated blood to give life to your body. The sino-atrial node is the “spark”, like the cross principle as “lightning”. It controls the rhythm and is called the “pacemaker” of the heart. It is a picture of our “spiritual heart” working by the seven principles just like our Father, our Creator.
THE SEVEN PROPERTIES IN THE LIFE OF A STAR
We will now look at the birth and life of a star to see in the natural or earthly, the shadow of the heavenly or spiritual. The first three properties which Boehme also called the Dark Principle have to do with the infinite generating power of God. In the natural, we see this in an electrical circuit. Positive and negative (opposites) must be in rotation and create a circuit to express their power. They also seek a ground. The ground is the Cross or fourth principle. Jesus exemplified this when on the cross He absorbed all the negative (dark) energy man could lay upon Him and grounded it safely into Himself and returned a new energy of unconditional love when He expressed, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” From then on, a new love energy or gentle light reigned down on the earth.
In the birth of a star such as our sun, the four forces of the universe: gravity, electromagnetism, weak nuclear force, and strong nuclear force, interact to accomplish the first three principles of contraction, expansion, and rotation. In this whirling wheel of particles and gases a thermonuclear reaction takes place and a gentle light is produced. This would be the fourth and fifth principles of death (the cross) and resurrection (life). This life is expressed as light.
The sixth principle of the Word expressed would be the ongoing process of photons of light energy coming to our earth. Through photosynthesis this light energy is made into food for us and all living things. Where you get light energy on the food chain, whether you eat plants, or animals that eat the plants, makes no difference. You are still eating light energy in one form or another. Jesus declared that we must “eat His flesh and drink His blood or we could have no life in us.”
The seventh principle would be accomplished when, as we eat and partake of light energy, we eventually become fully grown and mature. We then are a full expression of light energy. The light has become us. We do not become the light. The light becomes us. It is the controlling and indwelling factor of life. The spiritual experience of this would parallel our coming to full maturity and putting on immortality. The life (light) of Christ has fully grown up in us through the constant nourishment of His Holy Spirit. He has become us. We never become Him. We are fully in union and dependent on Him to be our life. As light overcomes darkness, life overcomes death. Death has been totally swallowed up within us. The dark principle has been totally overcome and brought under control by the indwelling factor of His life, now all the power that our God is, is only expressed by the mind of Christ in us. We are totally delivered from the will of our own self-seeking. And so we operate out of a nature that is fully at peace and at rest within itself. We have entered into His rest in its fullest dimension.
THE CROSS IS AT THE CENTER OF GOD’S LIFE
In the beginning of this study we talked about the “two crosses.” The cross on which our Saviour died once and for all, fully satisfying the penalty of our sin and the disciples cross, which we must pick up and carry daily to follow Him. The thought of the Son having to come and rescue the Father from His own self-seeking is rather problematic in my thinking and we will now look at this a little deeper.
Boehme called this the Father Principle. When he describes it as the Son coming to rescue the Father, he is showing that the expression of the Father’s love begins in a dark desire. The beginning of love is desire. Although Boehme calls this the Father Principle it is not yet the Father expressed, but the principles emerging out of each other. In the dark principle, in the life of the Father there is no good or evil. There is only evil in the dark principle in Satan (which we will look at next.)
When the Father looks in on His divine mind in infinite freedom, He and all that the Godhead is, are in absolute harmony and agreement that the life of God can only be expressed as a life which has eternally died to it’s own self-seeking. This is the cross in the heart of God. The cross is the only resolution to self-seeking. The Son is the one who comes to us when we are unable to die to our own self-seeking. It is a daily empowerment when you are placed by His grace “in Christ.”
The Father and the Son are in such union and agreement, their love for each other filling all things by the Spirit, that it is very difficult to separate the two. Jesus said that, “I and my Father are one.” And that He only did what He saw the Father doing and heard the Father saying (John 5:19, 14:10). He explained to Phillip that if they had seen Him they had seen the Father. So it is a bit of a paradox. Is it Christ or is it the Father? It is the Father expressing Himself as the Son. It is the Son in total union with the Father being a willing expression of the Father.
We experience the same paradox. The life in us, that is now our true life is that of the Son. The Son is expressing the life of the Father in us. That is why Paul expressed the mystery of the Gospel as “Christ in you, the hope of Glory.”
Jesus lived the cross every moment of His life. His only desire was to do the will of the Father and be an expression of the life of the Father. He was a living sacrifice and we are also admonished by Paul to be “living sacrifices.” We can lay down our lives in intercession as Jesus did because we know, in the eternal life of God, we will also receive our life back again. However it is not our adamic life that enables this, but only the life of the Father implanted in us by the Holy Spirit.
We will now look at an example of the “crucified life” so that the “resurrection life” of our God can be manifested. In the natural world, there is a phenomena in electricity (“El” is the Hebrew name for God), called absolute zero. This takes place at minus 459 degrees Fahrenheit. At this temperature another condition occurs namely.... superconductivity. It is when a metal such as tin can be a conductor of electricity without any resistance whatsoever. The full power of the electricity is realized and transmitted effectively. Our Lord Jesus Christ stripped Himself of all His deity and took on the full nature of fallen man. He then took that man to absolute zero. We could say that the self-seeking nature of adamic man was “frozen”. He then became a superconductor of the full expression of the life of the Father. There was no resistance in Him to do the will of the One who sent Him. Pride would be the main resistance in man, which inhibits the ability of our God to live His life through us. Absolute zero would be the perfect example of the humility of Christ by which He humbled Himself even to the death of the cross.
I spoke earlier of the cross being a grounding rod for evil by which we “break the circuit of evil” and send back a “circuit of Love.” Loving your enemies, turning the other cheek, not returning evil for evil, etc, could also be called “the fourth law of motion.” Newton said in the third law of motion that “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Instead of returning evil for evil we can absorb the evil intention toward us by grounding it into the cross of Christ, who has forgiven even those who crucified Him, and by the fourth law of motion return our Father’s intention of a love that will bring a restoration to Him. Paul says that God has given us a ministry of reconciliation. Reconciliation is to “make an enemy a friend.” It is to bring resolution or synthesis in the dialectic process between two opposites. This can only be done through the cross principle the same as it is done in the very life of the Father. Therefore the Cross is the very fulcrum or center of the life of the Father, which keeps Him eternally safe from being anything other than the holy expression of love that He is. God is love! This same principle must be fully worked out in our new creation nature as well.
In electricity, resistance is caused by heat build-up due to friction. Try to put too much power on a line too small to handle it and you will have a fire. Our God also sends “fiery trials” to burn out the resistance in our self-life that He may be able to more fully express Himself in our life. It is a gradual rewiring as we are changed from “glory to glory” and “transformed (metamorphosis) by the renewing of our mind.” He is truly a “master electrician.”
This Father principle by which the Father is saved from His own self-seeking by the Son could also be viewed as the Father saving Himself by expressing Himself through the Son as unconditional love---eternally dying to any possibility of self-seeking. It has never ever been a remote option or consideration in the life of the Father. This is why He is Holy, is not tempted in any way with evil, and is eternal in nature. The cross in His heart keeps Him safe. Another example would be the story of Abraham taking Isaac to Mount Moriah to be sacrificed. When Isaac asked, “Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham replied, “My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for the burnt sacrifice.” (Genesis 22:8). Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The sacrificial lamb comes right out of the very nature of the Father. It is His nature to lay His life down to receive it back again.
This nature working in us is how we, as intercessors, can “be” for others. Through this disciple’s cross, anything the Father wants to do through us, He can accomplish because we can die to the resistance of it either in ourselves or outside of ourselves or both. This is the cross which Jesus told us we must carry. This is the cross by which we lose our life and save our life. This is the cross by which we can lay down our life to anything and bring life (God’s life) back up with us. This is the “law of increase” by which Jesus Christ is multiplying Himself in the earth. As He said, “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains alone, but if it dies it produces many seeds.” (John 12:24).
THE ORIGIN OF EVIL
In this theodonic dialectic process, which we have been investigating, is also contained the source of evil. If it is true that there is evil, the possibility of it must be evident in the infinite freedom of God’s life or it can’t exist for there is nothing outside of God. There is only one Creator. If evil creates itself, you would need to have two Gods.
In Greek culture, that is precisely the situation. They have an evil god called the Demiurge who created the physical universe and all matter. Because it was created by an evil god, matter is, to them intrinsically evil. Only spirit, created by their good god, is intrinsically good. So the goal of creation in Greek philosophy is eternal separation of spirit (good) from matter, including flesh, (evil). They could not accept that God could dwell in human flesh. They denied the incarnation. This is the spirit of anti-christ and it has crept into much Christian thought.
In Hebrew culture, the physical creation is understood to be intrinsically good as it came from the hand of the Creator. God himself pronounced it to be “good” and “very good” at the conclusion of His work. Through the fall of man, creation was put under a curse, which we will look at more completely after we establish the origin of evil. Keep in mind that Satan, or the serpent was already in the garden and was an intrinsically evil being, more “subtle” than all the other creatures. Creation was not put under a curse from his disobedience, but from Adam and Eve’s. God’s original plan for His creation has not changed. Through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, the curse will be fully removed in God’s plan of the ages, also called the “Restitution of all things.”
So, apart from God, there is absolutely nothing. In the infinite freedom of God there is the possibility of everything. There is the possibility of death in the freedom. Or more precisely, a life that is consumed with self-seeking and self-exaltation, which is the absolute opposite of the life of God as demonstrated in the life of the Son, Jesus Christ.
Satan is understood by most to be an angelic creature. Angels may be an uncreated being according to Boehme (or not of this physical creation.) When Boehme speaks of a created being it is in reference to this physical creation, limited to this time-space, dimension. Man will actually be of both realms, as it was our God’s purpose in creation to manifest His uncreated eternal nature of love in a physical created entity---man. His desire was to have true fellowship with man, as man would be fully compatible with everything that God loves, or in complete agreement with His will and desires. It is understood by most that when God created this physical universe, angelic beings were already present. They are pictured throughout scripture as worshipping around His throne which is in the “uncreated heaven,” or the eternal realm. We will first look at Jacob Boehme’s explanation of Satan from the historical understanding of a being who fell from an exalted position. Then we will apply the same principles from a perspective of viewing Satan as a being who was created a “murderer from the beginning.” (John 8:44). Whether Jesus was referring to his beginning as Satan or his created beginning is debatable, but we will consider that position briefly in the light of what Boehme brings out concerning the origin of evil and the role of this being, Satan.
According to Boehme, Lucifer (which means light-bringer or daystar) was a very exalted being in the uncreated kingdom before the physical universe was yet expressed. Lucifer’s job was apparently to be the “bearer of the light” which corresponds to the meaning of his name. If he was the bearer of the light he must have known a whole lot about the light. The light is the expressed life of God. What Boehme tells us is that Lucifer understood so much about the nature of the light, that he was intrigued by the first three properties (the dark principle), which are the source of the infinite generating power of God. He apparently considered the thought, that if he could become king of the dark principle, he could become a separate king or a separate god. Then he could have a separate kingdom and even rule over God. He perceived that all God’s power came from the dark principle. If he could become master of the dark principle he could prevail and actually rule over God. God’s emphasis was on the light principle, as a gentle light coming forth as a servant. “He who is the greatest among you let him be the servant of all.” This perfectly describes our Father, who brought forth His creation to tenderly serve and care for it ---to rule over it in love.
Boehme says that Lucifer actually thought that he could become separate from God and be a separate God. It would not be sin for Lucifer to say that he was God. In carrying the light he was so closely related with God’s being, that he could say that he was God. The sin, according to Boehme, would be to say that he was a separate God. This was the sinful pride that caused his fall. The fall was this: Lucifer became so enthralled by the dark side that he wanted to become its king. He said, “I will ascend to heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.” (Isaiah 14:13). When he did this he made a great miss-step. He actually fell into this dark region and instead of ruling over the dark principle, it ruled over him. He was trapped in his own deception and willfulness, in the wheel of his own self-seeking.
This illustrates another aspect of the cross in the nature of God to die to self-seeking and rule over the dark principle (be an overcomer). It is only God’s life in you that has this power and ability to die to self-seeking.
In the life of the Father, the Father chooses to die to His own self-seeking and express Himself as the Son. This tempers the dark region so that it is expressed as a gentle light under the complete control of love to bless and be a life lived for others. When Satan fell into this dark region he had nothing to temper or control the passions of his own self-seeking and transform it into a gentle light. For that can only be obtained by being in complete union, agreement and submission with the Holy will of the Father. So having nothing to temper this dark region, it burst into an uncontrollable flame or a raging hell and he became its king. The light that it gives off is a false light. Jesus said, “If the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness.” This perfectly describes the satanic nature who “masquerades as an angel of light.” This is not a raging hell somewhere south of Polaris where Satan resides but in the raging hell of lust which James describes in Chapter four of his epistle. This is death.
Boehme said, “The devil’s fire desires a body to devour, and turn to nothing, to darkness. God’s fire is coupled with love; His fire causes light; and light, love; light desireth substance, a body to fill and does not consume; it takes away nothing, but quickens; love giveth itself freely to all.”
It is forever settled by Jesus Christ that the dark region will not be opened in the life of the Father. True light can only be produced by the fourth principle, the cross. This is why John expresses that, “God is light and there is no darkness in Him at all --- no, not in any way.” (1 John 1:5 Amplified). There is never any darkness expressed in the life of God, only light. In the seven stage theodonic process, when we get to the expressed life, which is the fifth principle, only light comes forth. The darkness is never revealed and can never be revealed, because of the Lamb slain in the very nature of God Himself, from the foundation of the world.
Lucifer became Satan apparently thinking that he could become separate from God and through mastering the dark principle, even rule over God. However, falling into this infinite darkness, he became trapped in the wheel or will of his own self-seeking with nothing within himself to deliver or save him from the will of his own self-seeking. And that is what a devil is: to be trapped in the wheel of your own self-seeking with no ability to redeem yourself.
So where is this raging hell which Satan rules over? According to Boehme in his book “The Way to Christ”, a redeemed person born of the Spirit of God, has all the glory and potential of the uncreated heaven dwelling in him through the cross-carrying nature of Christ. And in his flesh, he has the potential to experience the fires of hell, the wheel of his own self-seeking. The cross saves us from the fires of hell, but the possibility of hell is still in us. It is nowhere else. According to Boehme, we have the potential capacity of the infinite power of God in our spirit and the infinite evil of Satan in our flesh. As a Christian we are those who have changed gods, changing from the god of this age to the eternal living God. The one who was realized or expressed in us was Satan, in that our nature was that of self-seeking. That wheel of self-seeking can be extinguished and the life of God lived in our spirits. We have passed from death to life and from darkness to light. Satan isn’t actually thrown out of us, but is extinguished. When he comes to accuse us, he is a liar, because we have been taken out of Satan’s kingdom and translated to the kingdom of His dear Son.
Now consider another element, why does God allow the continuation of evil? Evil is God’s convenient agency, through the law of opposites, to recognize our need for Him, to know Him, and to work out His good purposes.
We will briefly look at the origin of Satan from another perspective. In the Amplified Bible there is a note in Isaiah 14:12 for the word commonly rendered as Lucifer. It states, “Light-bringer or shining one was originally translated Lucifer, but because of the association of that name with Satan, it is not now used. Some students feel that the application of the name Lucifer to Satan, in spite of the long and confident teaching to that effect is erroneous. Lucifer, the light-bringer is the Latin equivalent of the Greek word Phosphoros, which is used as a title of Christ in 2 Peter 1:9 and corresponds to the name “bright Morning Star” which Jesus calls Himself. The application of the name has existed since the third century A.D., and is based on the supposition that Luke 10:18 is an explanation of Isaiah 14:12, which some authorities feel is not true.” End quote.
First, we will look at some evidence that Satan was possibly created just as he is now and then we will see who else the Scriptures might be referring to as the light-bringer and daystar in Isaiah 14:12. Jesus said in John 8:44 that Satan was a “murderer from the beginning” and “does not stand in the truth”. Some translations such as the Diaglott, Westcott & Hort and Marshall’s Interlinear Grk/Eng New Testament render this an emphatic “has not ever or has never stood in the truth.” This would imply that Satan was not a great angel who walked in the light and then fell. 1 John 3:8 says that Satan “has been sinning from the beginning.”
Isaiah 54:16 states, “Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.” In the book of Job, Satan is pictured as one who has access to the throne of God in the uncreated heaven, even though in Isaiah 14:12 this Lucifer is “fallen from heaven.” Satan is cast out of heaven in the book of Revelation later on to do a more intense work on earth. In Satan’s role in the life of Job, he is shown to be totally under the control of God to do only what the Lord bids him to do. In the end, Satan’s work in the life of Job as a destroyer culminates in a greater understanding for Job’s knowledge of God and faith in God. All that he lost is restored double. It is kind of a prophetic parable of what God is doing in creation, working good out of evil and bringing a double restoration. In the church of Corinth, Paul instructed the believers there to turn a person over to Satan for a destructive work. This individual refused to repent of an incestuous relationship. The work of Satan here appears to be effective as he did repent and was restored into the fellowship of believers. If Satan’s original goal was to become separate from God, he became more of a reluctant servant than anything.
We have a similar picture in the contrast between the Garden of Eden in Genesis and the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, the Bride, the Lambs wife ---which city we are in the book of Revelation (Rev. 21:9-11). In the Garden of Eden there is a river flowing out of Eden, gold in the land, the Tree of Life and the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Bdellium and the onyx stone, and God walking in the Garden. In the New Jerusalem there is a River of Life flowing from God’s throne, pure gold translucent like glass, only the Tree of Life through-out the city, all manner of precious stones, and God dwelling in the City.
There are some significant differences between Eden and the New Jerusalem. Eden is a product of the “beginnings” of our God’s purposes while the City is the product of the ultimate accomplishment of these purposes. In Eden there is a serpent, and through the cunning of that serpent, man is cast out. In the City there is no serpent, for by the dominion of Christ in man the serpent is cast out! In Eden there are two trees--one which contains death. In the City, there is only the Tree of Life. Eden is man on trial. The City is man purified and perfected! Eden is man faced with the processing’s of God through choices and experience, through testings and dealings, for his own learning and development. The City is man established in the mind of Christ having overcome all things!
We can plainly see that evil is an agency which our God can use to show forth the beauty of His character in contrast with the dark principle. How would we understand mercy or learn how to endure suffering to be one who has mercy if we did not so desperately need mercy ourselves? Actually, I cannot say for sure whether Satan fell from an exalted position or was created originally as a “waster to destroy.” But I am at this point as sure as I can be that there was never a moment in God’s uncreated Kingdom that this being we call Lucifer or Satan, was ever out of the control of God. God was not shocked or surprised by this being if he rebelled just as He was not surprised by Adam’s fall. Paul gives us some insight into this in Romans 8:20, “For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him, Who hath subjected the same in hope.”
Jacob Boehme’s revelation concerning the nature of Satan and the origin of evil is illuminating for understanding the 'adamic' nature as well. Adam sought the very same thing: to be separate from God and to exalt himself by this “forbidden knowledge.” He believed the same lie that Satan (if a fallen creature), believed first in his own imagination.
Jesus talked about a “wise builder.” This wise builder “counted the cost” before he began to make sure he could finish what he started. A man who begins a work without thinking it through thoroughly and then runs out of money; or for whatever reason cannot finish what he began, or has to significantly change his original intention would be considered a “foolish builder.” Our Father is most definitely a wise builder. If you truly believe in the sovereignty of God, you have to accept that there was a wise purpose in either allowing or purposing Adam to fall into sin and death. To me, it appears to be the only way we could understand the nature of the cross in His heart, and partake of that cross through His Son, Jesus Christ, and be fully made into His likeness and image. Job’s lessons, through Satan’s testings, brought him a double blessing. King Nebuchadnezzar also was greatly blessed and boasted of his great kingdom. He became as a beast with a darkened mind and lived as a beast. Through this experience, he learned humility and the sovereignty of God. Somehow his kingdom was preserved during his “health crisis” and through his new understanding of God; he reigned once again, but now submitting to God’s rulership over him. In Daniel 5:36, Nebuchadnezzar says, “I was re-established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me than before.”
Now for the other part of the question concerning the being in Isaiah 14:12 called the light-bringer, or daystar. If it is not Lucifer/Satan, who could it be? The Amplified Bible says that the corresponding word in the Greek is “bright morning star” which is used as a title of Christ. Jesus is the Son of God. He is also called by Paul to be the “last Adam.” Adam is also called by God to be His son. So you have two sons or light-bringers. One who fell to the dark principle. One who overcame the dark principle and is the “Light of the World.” One who was created and One who was uncreated expressed out of the very being of the Godhead, one in nature and substance of the Father. One was “of the earth, earthy”; the other was the “Lord from heaven” who is spiritual but took on our earthly dust, that we may be transformed to be an expression of His glory, and only for His glory.
If you look at the main scriptures which are commonly used to illustrate the fall of Satan, Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, they could also refer to Adam. Adam also walked in the Garden of God. Adam was given dominion over all the works of God’s hands. He could be the 'cherub who covereth’ and he also fell. Isaiah said this “light-bringer” made the world a wilderness. That happened at Adam’s fall, not Satan’s. It was all “very good” after Adam’s creation. After his fall, in which he “died”, all creation was also lowered into the same vanity, futility, and curse. Satan’s curse was that he would now crawl on his belly, or be trapped and have no means of escape, and eat the dust of the earth. Adam was made of the dust and has provided a continual feast. Only the last Adam had “nothing in Him” which the serpent could consume. Adam had been given dominion. The usurper gained it and became “prince of this world” and “god of this age”. However, through all this, our Father is going to “bring many sons to glory.” Next, we will examine what actually happened to Adam at his fall.
THE TWO TREES
THE TWO WISDOMS
When Adam came forth from the creative hand of God, what were his abilities and limitations? We know that he was in a state of being that could be tempted with disobedience to God’s commands. God is not tempted with evil. God is incorruptible, which means He absolutely cannot be corrupted. Adam was not. He was as yet “uncorrupted”, but not incorruptible. So we can see that for Adam to come into the full and complete likeness and image of God, and also bring forth a vast family of sons in that same image required a process. The two trees in the Garden represented two choices: the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
In Psalm 8:4-5, a clue is given to Adam’s original state of being at his creation and before his fall. “What is man that You are mindful of him, the son of man that You care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings (or than God) and crowned him with glory and honor. (NIV). The word translated “a little lower” is the Hebrew word “chacer” which means to lack. “Heavenly beings” is Elohim or God. Young’s literal translation renders it “And causeth him to lack a little of godhead.
Adam had a lack or a need that he needed to have filled. The two trees represented two choices by which he could fill that lack. One of the main things Jacob Boehme emphasizes is the Wisdom of God or the Divine Sophia. The two trees represent the two wisdoms which Solomon talks about in the book of Proverbs. We have already briefly looked at wisdom in the nature of our Father. It is the feminine aspect of His creative ability or His creative agency. It is the soul or womb by which the creative power or Spirit of our Father brings forth that which He desires by the Word of Faith, which is the Son coming forth expressing the Father’s Divine will and mind.
In Proverbs 9:1 Solomon tells us that “Wisdom (sophia) hath builded her house, she (sophia) hath hewn out her seven pillars. Boehme says that these seven pillars are the seven spirits of God which is the seven-fold expression of the life of God in all it fullness in the uncreated Heaven. In chapter 8 of proverbs, Wisdom is pictured as a divine virginally pure maiden calling forth to the sons of men that they might partake of her and find life. Verses 23 through 36 give much insight concerning the role of this Divine Maiden, in her union with the Father in the bringing forth of the physical creation. This is not two separate gods, but the one true God, our Creator.
Prov 8:23 (NIV) I was appointed [23] Or fashioned from eternity,
from the beginning, before the world began. (In the infinite freedom of the uncreated heaven.)
24 When there were no oceans, I was given birth,
when there were no springs abounding with water;
25 before the mountains were settled in place,
before the hills, I was given birth,
26 before he made the earth or its fields
or any of the dust of the world.
27 I was there when he set the heavens in place,
when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,
28 when he established the clouds above
and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,
29 when he gave the sea its boundary
so the waters would not overstep his command,
and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.
30 Then I was the craftsman at his side. (the Creative Agency)
I was filled with delight day after day,
rejoicing always in his presence,
31 rejoicing in his whole world
and delighting in mankind. (the crowning achievement of creation and purpose of creation to bring forth a vast family of sons.)
32 "Now then, my sons, listen to me;
blessed are those who keep my ways.
33 Listen to my instruction and be wise;
do not ignore it.
34 Blessed is the man who listens to me,
watching daily at my doors,
waiting at my doorway.
35 For whoever finds me finds life (the Tree of Life).
and receives favor from the LORD.
36 But whoever fails to find me harms himself;
all who hate me love death." (the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil).
Solomon contrasts the pure virginal Wisdom of God able to impart life, with the wisdom of this world pictured as a harlot. This wisdom leads to death. Once a person is enticed by this harlot he loses all sense and control of his life. This would be compared to being caught in the wheel of your own self-seeking.
In First Corinthians, Paul makes it very plain that the preaching of the Cross is the wisdom and power of God and foolishness to those of this age who are perishing. That God Himself would lower Himself to take on the nature of sinful man to suffer and die to redeem them from their slavery to Satan and their mortality does not make sense to the adamic understanding. When Jesus started to teach them about the cross and His coming death He had to rebuke Peter with a strong, “Get behind me Satan for you savor the things of man and not of God!” Paul also says that “Christ is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.”(1 Cor. 1:30). He also says that the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. But those who are in Christ and are spiritual can; as he emphatically states that we have the mind of Christ! (1 Cor. 2:16). Wisdom is contained in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom all the attributes of the Godhead dwelt, including the Divine Sophia. If Christ dwells in you, so does His mind and all the Wisdom of God. The question is how do we access it? We will look at that later on.
Now getting back to the two trees in the garden: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was stated by Eve to be “good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise.” She is describing the “wisdom of this world.” In First John 2:16, John refers to these same three alluring temptations which seduced Eve. “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” Peter also states that by partaking of the “divine nature” we can escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2 Peter 1:4).
Lust refers to the Dark Principle or the whirling wheel of self. It appeared to hold a secret knowledge which would exalt them to be equal with God, or become gods, or more precisely become separate gods. You have to wonder why the Tree of Life was not appealing to them. Boehme says that the Tree of Life contained the Cross principle, death to self-seeking. Paul gives us another picture of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life in Romans 8:6-8.
Rom. 8:6 (KJV) For to be carnally minded [is] death; but to be spiritually minded [is] life and peace. To be carnally...: Gr. the minding of the flesh} to be spiritually...: Gr. the minding of the Spirit} 7 Because the carnal mind [is] enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. The carnal...: Gr. the minding of the flesh) 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
The Amplified translation renders carnally minded as “sense and reason without the Holy Spirit.” The Tree of Carnal knowledge or the “wisdom of this world” appeared to be life but was actually death. The Tree of Life appeared to be death (because of the cross principle) but was actually life. Adam had life, but not a regenerative life working out of the cross/resurrection principle. This is what Adam lacked. The Wisdom of God, the Divine Sophia, contains all seven aspects of the complete expressed life of the Father. This fullness and completeness dwells in Christ and it dwells in you if you have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in you. This and this alone is life and explains why “they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”
The Tree of Carnal knowledge is experiencing life on the earth plane through bodily sense consciousness. The Tree of Life is experiencing life on the heavenly plane through the spiritual senses by which we can know God and be led and taught of His Spirit. Now we will see what Boehme has to say about Adam’s state of being before he fell.
“God stirred Himself to produce creation. He was desirous of having children of His own kind. Creation was an act of the free will of God; God unfolded His eternal nature, and through His active love, or desire, he caused that which heretofore had been in Him merely as spirit (as an image contained in a piece of wood before the artist has cut it out), to become substantial, corporeal.
“God longed after the visible substance of his similitude and image, and so created man. Man was created the child of Omnipotence; a pure virgin, after the form of the Eternal,… with a mind and holy faculties, in which dwelt no lust. His will was in God. He was to be a perfect symbol of God; to attain the great fountain of meekness and love welling up from the heart of God. He was a virgin without a feminine form, after the form of the Eternal; full of chastity, modesty and purity, in the Image of God.
“Adam had both Fire and Light in him, and therefore, Love. No knowledge of any evil was in him; no lust, no covetousness, no pride, no envy, no anger, nothing but love. The celestial image clothed him with divine power. He could have removed mountains with a word; he could rule over the sun, moon and stars; all was in his power, the fire, the air, the water and the earth. His life fluid was heavenly. His will was in God, and God was in him. He was in paradise, clothed with the heavenly glory, the light of the majesty of God. He lived on paradisiacal fruit (all the other trees of the Garden) and the Word of God. He knew no woe, no sickness, no death; he lived in joy and delight, without toil or care.
“God created His image and likeness in a single man. Adam was a man and also a woman; for God did not, in the beginning, make man and woman; He did not create them at the same time, because the life in which the two properties of masculine and feminine are united in one, constitutes man in the image of God, after the manner of the Father’s and the Son’s property, which together are one God, not divided; for perfect love is not found in one property, but in the two, one entering into the other.” (end quote).
So Adam, as he was first created, did not have any mixture of good and evil in him. In this he did not perceive cold or hot, nor was he affected by time or limitation. He had mastery over all physical laws and could travel at will, at the speed of thought. He was lord over all the earth. Boehme says that Adam, being without contrast, was kind of like a babe, or an infantile being in an idyllic state. Adam did not have full creative maturity. Adam was supposed to be the progenitor of a vast family of sons. We were all in him and he didn’t create in that plane of existence.
“Adam could have generated a heavenly kingdom out of himself, without a pain or rending himself. Eve was within Adam as a pure, chaste, virginal power. He could then generate in a virginal state, and procreate by means of his will, and out of his substance, without pain or laceration; for one being could have been born from another, in the same way as Adam in his virginal state, was projected into being in the image of God; because that which is of the Eternal, can also procreate, multiply itself, according to the law of Eternity.” (end quote).
Adam understood that the two trees represented life on two planes of existence, heavenly and earthly.
“Adam saw within himself two forms of being, one belonging to the paradisiacal world; and then he saw one also without, belonging to this world, and his soul imagined after the outward. Then came the command to him, “Eat not of the mixed fruit of good and evil, lest ye die!” But Adam continued to image after the earthly dominion; he imagined after the beasts and introduced himself into bestial lust, to eat and to generate as beasts do. He desired to live in himself and be Lord. He thought he would eat both the paradisiacal and the forbidden fruit and so live forever; but he had brought the earthly quality into the pure, celestial substance, and his light was being extinguished. The divine image was disappearing, the earthly appearing.
“He could no longer live in obedience to the will of the Father; his lust for the earthly fruit overcame him. He sank into a deep sleep; and God saw that it was not possible for him to live in obedience, and let him sleep; sleep signifies death.
“So Adam cast himself out from the majesty of God, with his own will. He could not continue to walk in his innocence, that he might have his confirmation in the divine way of production. He had turned from “the speaking of the Word” into self-will, lust, and “speaking good and evil”; and God’s good will perished in him.
“God had forbidden Adam his false desire, lust after earthly fruit and power and virtue; and Adam had no necessity for these things; he had the paradisiacal fruit, the Word of God, and no want or death. His eyes, which might have continued to see always and eternally the glory of God, closed in sleep. God permitted Adam to sleep; otherwise, in the power of fire, in his selfishness, he would have become a devil.” (end quote).
This is not the sleep of death from eating of the Tree of Carnality. This was from his immaturity. Not embracing the Cross and becoming absolutely fixed in the image and nature of God, which would bring him to the place where he could not be tempted by evil, he was still “lacking from Elohim.” Boehme understood by revelation of the Holy Spirit, that when Adam was put into a deep sleep and had the feminine capacity removed from him and fashioned into a separate being, Adam was lowered in his plane of existence.
“Adam was given that which he would have, the terrestrial woman, in place of the celestial virgin; Adam’s treachery toward his heavenly consort, disqualified him for her, and left him only fitted for an “Eve.” During his sleep, the woman was made out of Adam, and the image of God was destroyed. The man and the woman were made into creatures of this outer world, fashioned into mortality.
“Adam and Eve still had a paradisiacal consciousness, but mixed with terrestrial desire. They were “naked” although “not ashamed” until they had eaten of the earthly fruit. Adam went out from the will of God into the world, and was captivated by it, and ate of earthly fruit. Then the spirit of this world took his soul captive, and his faculties became earthly and his substance, bestial.
“After eating of the tree of self-knowledge, of good and evil, by willing otherwise than God willed, man became unholy; he died to the holy, heavenly image, and lived in the awakened bestial image of the serpent. The animal being had swallowed up the celestial state, and Adam and Eve then had common flesh, hard bones, bestial members, and needed bestial clothing. The desire of a beast is only to nourish itself and to multiply itself. It hath no understanding of any higher thing. It hath its own spirit, whereby it liveth and groweth and consumeth itself.
“Lust originated in Adam, but thereupon his perverted desire began to be excited in the woman. Eve was then moved by her lust, which the devil awakened in her, and desiring to be skillful, she became foolish. The serpent said to her, “Your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods.” It is true that her earthly eyes were opened, and her spiritual eyes became closed; with earthly eyes, man cannot see the kingdom of God.
“After the fall, man was subject to the limitation of time, and was degraded to the animal state of being, so that heaven, paradise and divinity became a mystery to him. God cursed the earth for man’s sake, and no paradisiacal fruit grew anymore; all was gone, save only the mercy and the grace of God! After the fall, men lived in weakness, as today. They begat children in the two kingdoms of wrath and love, evil and good, Cain and Abel, Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob.” (end quote).
So Adam came under the dominion of time, sin, and death. He also brought the whole physical creation into bondage and decay. The first and second law of thermodynamics brought mixture and imbalance into his inner being and thus into his outer world. However, he did gain one thing, which did make him like his Father---the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:22). This law of opposites contains the infinite generating power of the dark principle, but without the cross to render this power safe so that it is an expression of Love, rather than devilish selfishness. Boehme says that Adam went from being created a pure spirit being to becoming a beast. One only becomes a true human being when one is regenerated by the Holy Spirit.
The two trees were in Adam. He could render the potential of death in the dark principle safe by embracing the Tree of Life and become always an expression of the light principle or life of God, which is Love. He was seduced by the power of the dark principle and took on a new nature.
Jer. 17:9 (KJV) The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Mark 7:21 (KJV) For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: covetousness...: Gr. covetousness’s, wickedness’s} 23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
These two scriptures plainly show that this evil tree is plainly in man and that we are still eating from it. However, access to the Tree of Life was cut off from Adam and not accessible until the One who is the Tree of Life, the Lord Jesus Christ reopened the way for us to come back into the image and likeness of our Father.
Isaiah gives us some good insight into the difference between man’s wisdom and God’s wisdom, man’s ways and God’s ways.
Isa. 55:8 (KJV) For my thoughts [are] not your thoughts, neither [are] your ways my ways, saith the Lord. 9 For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
In the wisdom of God and His plan of the ages to take man from the Garden to the Holy City (from the book of Revelation), it was necessary for all to die in Adam. Paul gives us some insight into this incredible plan in Romans 11.
Rom. 11:32 (KJV) For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. concluded...: or, shut them all up together}
33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable [are] his judgments, and his ways past finding out! 34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counselor? 35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? 36 For of him, and through him, and to him, [are] all things: to whom [be] glory for ever. Amen. (whom: Gr. Him)
The Amplified translation renders verse 32: “For God has consigned (penned up) all men to disobedience, only that He may have mercy on them all [alike].” When Adam thought he could exalt himself by embracing the dark principle, he instead debased himself and became trapped by the wheel of his own self-seeking. All men have been “penned up” into this disobedience and are a slave to it. It is only the mercy of God through the atoning work of Jesus Christ, which can release them from this pen of being dominated by their sense consciousness and human reason. In verse 36, Paul declares that everything came out of God and is now in the ages-lasting process of passing through Christ and when this is completed all things will again be back to Him or in Him.
However, they will not be as they were originally, but in a higher dimension. When Adam gained the knowledge of good and evil, he gained resistance that would also grow him up. You can only build muscle by repetitive motion against resistance. Adam was innocent and immature. He now could experience the power of love against the power of evil. He now had something to “overcome.” He would find that he could only be an “overcomer” by the infinite mercy of God found in Jesus Christ. In this, he would have the experience of knowing the love his Creator had for him, by the depth He would go to save and restore him. He could also build spiritual muscle by carrying the disciple’s cross. This is why Paul cries out in verse 33, “Oh the depth of the riches of both the wisdom and knowledge of god!” What a master plan!
When Adam left the creative hand of his Father, he was headed for a wrestling match with the “most subtle beast of the field”.
Eph. 6:12 (KJV) For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places].
Where did the wrestling match take place? It is the same 'field' which Jesus sold all that He had to purchase to possess the treasure hidden in it. Jesus was successful in His wrestling match and crushed the head of the serpent and cast him out of the field in the New Jerusalem.
Heb. 2:14 (KJV) Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
He entered the same playing field for his wrestling match---flesh and blood. Death, is to be caught in the power of the dark principle without a redeemer through the cross principle. Jesus entered death and lived the cross to overcome death by always being dead to self-seeking. There was nothing in Him that the devil could pull on to tempt. “The prince of this world cometh, but he has nothing in me!” He was tempted in all ways as we are tempted and overcame. He lived by every breath that comes from the mouth of God. He laid down His physical life in death at the crucifixion. But, in essence, the sin nature in His fleshly mind and body was already dead or crucified long before. Resistance in “tending the garden” is a necessary ingredient in our Father’s plan to bring forth a “vast family of son’s in His own nature and likeness.” Our Father always overcomes the potential of death in the dark principle by dying to it and so must we.
As we looked at Job and Nebuchadnezzar earlier, through their loss and subsequent processing, they ended up in a greater existence. They gained an intimate knowledge of their Creator, by needing His discipline and His mercy-loving kindness. As Jesus said, “He who is forgiven much loves much.” The extremely exalted position Adam had before the fall was magnificent. However, I am convinced that our Father has even more for us. He is going to bring us to absolute full maturity. He shall have a “kingdom of priests” which rule over the works of His hands with the same love and wisdom in the Mind of Christ, by which He originally brought all things into being. The power of the Cross and the Light principle can change anything into good. That is why Love is the most powerful force in the universe and why Paul declared, “Love never fails!”
THE MYSTERY OF MALE AND FEMALE
In Adam’s fall into the dark region where he became mixed with good and evil caused him to become divided, fragmented, and unbalanced in his inner being. In Deuteronomy 6:4 our Father declares, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is ONE Lord.” This is not only a declaration of monotheism, but an insight into our Father’s inner harmony. The cross in His heart makes Him eternally single-minded in Being. Jesus said that if your eye is single your whole body will be filled with light. Man in his ambivalence worships God with his lips, but his heart is far from Him. He is dual-minded.
As we begin an investigation into these themes of male and female, it is extremely important to not form mental images of male and female in our human fleshly experience. In the Spirit, male and female are not “forms” but characteristics of righteousness such as love and wisdom. We are instructed by Paul to no longer know each other “after the flesh,” not even to know Jesus Christ that way. (2 Cor. 5:16).
In our Father’s nature, His love is balanced by His male and female natures. His male nature of Yahweh, “the Self-Existent One” is expressed in strength, power, and force.
However, it is not like those who rule in this world by strength, power, and force. God’s power is motivated by Agape love, an initiating love which is unconditional and is the first cause of all things. It is evidenced in that, “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” He came to serve and not to be served. He showed us that the One who is the greatest among us is the One who is the servant of all. His male nature is always dominant as the chief servant leader. Paul admonished husbands to “love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” (Eph 5:25). Christ’s example shows us how the male nature loves the female and what Agape love does.
In His female nature, represented by El Shaddai, another picture of His love is formed. El Shaddai literally means “the Breasted One.” It is generally translated “the Almighty.” However, it is a power not of force, but of all bountifulness. It is a picture of the power of the breast to draw, nurture, and comfort, in a mother’s love. This love is a responding love or “phileo” in the Greek. In the marriage relationship, wives are to submit to their husbands (Eph 5:22). This is a picture of the female nature always responding willingly to submit to the Agape initiating love of the male nature. Boehme describes this as the Father looking in on Himself and seeing the shimmering maiden of the Divine Sophia, His Wisdom. She responds to His thoughts and shows Him the “how” of these thoughts being accomplished. This is also the interaction of the Spirit (male) and the Soul (female), the Creative Power and the Creative Agency.
In Revelation 1:13, John gives a description of Jesus Christ as the Alpha and the Omega in all His eternal glory. It says that He is “girt about the paps, with a golden girdle.” The Greek word “mastos” is used for paps. It is used exclusively in the Greek for a female breast, as in Luke 11:27, “Blessed are the ‘mastos’ which nursed you.” What John saw was Jesus in His full restoration to the glory he had with the Father in the Godhead, before the world began. (John 17:5). Once again, I would like to emphasize that it is extremely unwise and dangerous to try to separate out the male or female nature of God and worship it singularly. Our God refers to Himself as masculine because the male is always dominant. In actuality, the male always has the female joined to it because they are eternally one. That is marriage in the eternal nature of God and human marriage is derived from this pattern.
The word spirit is the Greek word “pneuma”. It is in the masculine gender. The Greek word for soul is “psyche”. It is in the female gender. Because we our spirit, soul, and body in our existence we have both a male nature (spirit) and a female nature (soul) within us, whatever our human sexual gender may be. In our Father, the male and female natures work in complete harmony and agreement to accomplish all the will of Elohim. In us, our mixture and the duality of good and evil have fragmented the male and female into such imbalance that we are usually controlled and dominated by our soul life, instead of the soul being in submission to be an expression of God’s spirit. Eve was given as a help mate to Adam. She was given a specific role to fulfill in their common life. They were not to be separate entities but to “become one flesh.” Adam also had his role to fulfill for them to live in harmony. There is never a question of one being inferior or superior to the other. It should be a contest to serve one another in love; instead of by manipulation --- for one to try to gain the upper hand and dominate the other. It is never a question of “worth” but of “roles”. One cannot survive without the other and be “whole.” Becoming one flesh is also becoming one mind. To have one mind is to be in total harmony and agreement. The male and female natures are then in their proper balance of roles through mutual love for each other.
Our God is perfectly balanced in His loving nature. Our Father fulfills the description of “mature” in every conceivable facet. His desire is that we grow and mature to the same perfection of maturity, which His Son demonstrated to us on earth, “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”. Eph 5:13 in the Amplified is rendered: “that we might arrive at really mature manhood --- the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ’s own perfection.” Our Father’s perfect balance between the love of the male and female natures of nurturing and discipline will certainly grow us up to accomplish His most cherished desire for man: to be completely mature in the image and likeness of his Creator, a true son.
BRIDESHIP AND SONSHIP
One of the aspects of the New Creation Man within us is the role of the male and female natures of spirit and soul being brought into their proper roles. Becoming complementary to each other instead of combative. Although I am male in my humanity, one of the relationships I have with my Savior is that of a bride. His love was initiated toward me and by His grace I was empowered to respond. This role of “brideship” has to do with “falling in love” with Jesus Christ our Head and Lord. It means being truly virgin in our desires toward the Lord; it means walking in the Spirit, keeping ourselves unto Him and unto Him alone. It means renouncing the schemes and plans and ambitions of the carnal mind, our love of the world and desires of the flesh. It means to have no other love and no other God before Him, no master that rules our life, no other lord that dictates our action, no reserved areas of our being. It means truly submitting to His Lordship, a wife who has “made herself ready”, rejoicing expectantly for the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Imagine the first thoughts of Eve, when her eyes first rested upon Adam. I doubt not that she was overwhelmed and immediately drawn by irresistible cords of love and passionate desire to find union with him in spirit, soul, and body; for that is precisely why God created her. And so have we been created to find vital union with our Heavenly Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now we will look at the male relationship taught in Scripture called “sonship.”
Rom. 8:15 (NIV) For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. [15] Or adoption}And by him we cry, "Abba, [15] Aramaic for Father}Father."
The Amplified Bible renders the above verse: “You have received the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit producing sonship.” The word “adoption” as used in the New Testament has been misunderstood because of our modern usage of the word to mean legally bringing someone into your family who was not in your family before. Adoption literally means “the placement of a son.” In New Testament usage, it refers to a cultural event when the child was presented to the elders, no longer as a child, but now as a son, full grown, mature, now in partnership with his father. Whatever the son said, it was just as though the father said it. Whatever he did was in the father’s name. If he signed a contract the father would honor it. This is a pretty heavy thing which you wouldn’t give to a five year old, or even a twelve year old. You would wait until that child has come to full stature. In Jesus’ case, he was thirty years old when the Father spoke and announced to the world that His Son had reached the age of adoption. He also reaffirmed it at the experience of His Son on the Mount of Transfiguration.
Matt. 3:17 (NIV) And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."
Luke 9:35 (NIV) A voice came from the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him."
Our adoption as sons, or “sonship,” embodies the male characteristics of strength, authority, power and dominion. The promises to the “overcomer” in the book of Revelation speak of ruling and reigning with Christ and being kings and priests unto God. These were strictly male offices in the Old Testament law. We will only be able to enter such a ministry in its fullness when we have been formed to a place where we can be a revelation of our Father’s true intention of what the male nature is; as it was demonstrated in Jesus Christ.
Paul expresses that one of the objectives of the full manifestation of God in His sons is to “reverse the curse” or deliver creation from the “bondage of corruption.”
Rom. 8:19 (NIV) The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope. [21] For the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
Our relationship to Christ as a bride, the spiritually feminine relationship of intimate love and reverent submission to Christ, will precede your relationship to the Father as a son with Jesus Christ as your “elder Brother.” Brideship is the harbinger of sonship. It is through intimacy of fellowship and vital union with Christ, made one in Him in love, that we are prepared for that illustrious glory and strength and dominion, administering the Kingdom of God under the ruler ship of our Head, the Lord Jesus Christ.
THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES REPRESENTED IN THE THREE FEASTS
In Deuteronomy 16:16 a command is given to all the male Israelites.
Deut 16:16 (NIV) Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover), the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost),and the Feast of Tabernacles. No man should appear before the Lord empty-handed: 17 Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you.
These three Feasts which the Lord established were prophetic of our spiritual journey from birth to manhood, to complete maturity. In Passover, Jesus fulfilled the full scope of what was prophesied in the deliverance from Egypt of the Israelites when they ate the Passover lamb and placed the blood of that lamb over their doorposts. The scope of this act went from delivering the descendants of Abraham at Moses’ time to being the Savior of the whole world.
1 John 2:2 (NIV) He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
1 John 4:14 (NIV) And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
In John 3:3 Jesus declares to Nicodemus that “unless a man is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The term “born again” would be more precisely rendered “begotten from above.” The term begotten is from the Greek word genao. It has two meanings depending upon if it is in the male or female gender. In the female it speaks of the birth process or to bring forth into the world. In the male it means to beget or engender which would relate to the male role of depositing the seed which is sperma in the Greek.
In John 3:3 genao is in the male gender and speaks of the seed of life being deposited in us. Therefore we take on a female role as the seed is not deposited in the male but from the male to the female. We are declared by Paul to be a temple of the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor. 6:19). From Moses’ tabernacle in the wilderness to the New Jerusalem in Revelation, which is declared by John to be “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband,” and to be “the bride, the Lamb’s wife,” (Rev. 21:2, 21:9) the temple is always pictured in the female gender. We will see this more clearly when we get to the feast of Tabernacles. For now I just want to establish that the three feasts prophesy of the seed of life being planted in our earth and brought to full maturity through a process.
Our Passover experience is expressed by the 4th and 5th principles. The 4th principle, the cross in the heart of God, is expressed by Jesus’ submission unto the Father’s will to pay the debt for our sins and to be our Kinsman Redeemer. He willingly laid His life down to receive it back again. He not only went to the cross, He lived the cross and learned obedience by the things He suffered. The 5th principle, Resurrection life, or life that has the ability to regenerate itself, is expressed by the Word or the Light. Boehme says that it is the principle of “gentleness.” God’s life comes to us as a gentle light, lighting our spirit which is the “candle of the Lord.” (Prov 20:27)
Jesus said that His purpose was to plant Himself in the earth and bring forth a great harvest.
John 12:24 (NIV) I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.
Isa. 53:10 (KJV) Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put [him] to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see [his] seed, he shall prolong [his] days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Thou...: or, his soul shall make an offering}
Passover is the feast which deals with our spirit. We are made alive in Christ and Peter says that we have become “partakers of the Divine nature.” (2 Peter 1:4). How can Jesus die and increase Himself with those of like nature, His seed being multiplied in the earth after its own kind? This is the capacity of spirit. The word individual is from the Latin word “individuus”. It means to be un-divided. We commonly use the term to describe our separateness or uniqueness, but actually it means to be un-divided from the rest of the human race. A human individual is a perfect representation of what a human is: un-divided from the rest of the human race. Thus in the higher realm of Spirit life, God has the ability of individualizing Himself, that is, bringing forth another expression of what He is without, so to speak, breaking Himself into parts. God individualizes Himself as the new man within us, Christ in you the hope of glory. God can individualize Himself within an infinite number of distinct beings, or units of consciousness and expression, and yet not in any way be separate or divided.
Only God can do this because He is spirit. Matter cannot be individualized. It can only be broken up. Thus if you were to tear off half of this page, and then tear that into small pieces, you would have divided up the page. The remnant of the page would be smaller by the amount of paper torn off; and the whole page would be the sum of all the fragments. This is division, it is not individualization. Spirit, however can be individualized, and this capacity of God is the process by which He is bringing forth a vast company of sons in His very own likeness and image! This is also why the Body of Christ can be made up of many members and yet be one body. And why Paul exclaimed, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth within me” (Gal. 2:20).
So your real self, the Christ within, the spiritual man, the new creation, is in all truth an individualization of the nature of God in human flesh. Peter said that we had become “partakers of the Divine nature.” This does not mean that you are an absurd little personal god. You are an individualization of the one and only God who was first individualized in human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. The new creation life within you is not “another Christ” or “another God,” but the manifestation of the life, mind, will, nature, power, and glory of the one and only true God ---- our Father, by whose seed/spirit you have been begotten from above.
Spirit has to do with the life force within us. This is a great mystery, as Paul expresses.
Col. 1:25 (NIV) I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness-- 26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
This is much like the process that took place in Mary, the chosen servant of God to bring forth His much beloved Son into the world.
Luke 1:35 (KJV) And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
Adam and Jesus were the only two beings who were not “conceived in human lust.” Jacob Boehme has some very enlightening insights into God’s purpose in this.
“The image of God is the fair virgin, which substantiated by the regenerate life, restores to man the wife of his youth (Mal 2:14), the divine womanhood of Adam’s two-fold perfection. This image, shut up in Adam, could only be stirred by the power of God; that it might again appear, God manifested himself in Christ. The eternal virginity, lost by Adam, came unto Mary by the Word of Life. The fire of divine love in her being, in the virginal essence, (corrupted in Adam, and now restored), brought to birth that “Holy Thing,” the Son of God. And Christ in man makes man alive; restores again that which the devil severed in the first Adam (into male and female), making them one again, ---- a virginal manhood, --- a son of God.
“Christ, the divine spiritual Sun of Righteousness, enters again into the original matrix, out of which the life of man has taken out its origin, the eternal Word. The hungry soul absorbs the Word and then returns to the original spiritual state, and becomes a temple of divine love, wherein the father receives his beloved Son; and in which the Holy Spirit dwells. The creature is not God, it remaineth eternally under God; but God blazeth through it with his love-fire, his light and shining; and that shining, man retaineth as long as his will remaineth in God’s light. Where the will is there will the heart be also.
As Christ was born in a stable, and cradled in a manger, so is Christ in man ever born amidst the animals in man. The newborn Savior is ever laid in a cradle between the ox of self-will and the ass of ignorance, in the stable of the animal condition in man; and from thence the king of pride (as Herod), finds his kingdom endangered, and seeks to kill the child, who is to become the ruler of the ‘New Jerusalem’ in man.”(end quote)
Mary, being female, received the seed of the Holy Spirit into her womb. It grew and developed until the birthing process. Upon birth that Holy seed was called the Son of God. We, as temples of the Holy Spirit, are pictured as female. The seed of His life, the Christ in you, has been planted in your spirit. Paul spoke of this process of Christ being formed in you. He labored diligently with the Galatian church until he knew they were being led by the Spirit of Christ within them and were not trying to perfect themselves by the keeping of an external set of laws and ordinances in the flesh. Now we will look at the role of faith in this process of the formation of the true substance of Christ within us.
FAITH AS SUBSTANCE
In our natural world, we basically think of substance as something having matter. However, matter in physics is not a physical concept. Mass is a physical concept. If I kick something and it hurts I deduce that it has mass. It interacts with my physical being in a way that I know that it has the physical concept of mass. This interacting could be called inertia. If I throw a book at you, you will experience the inert mass in the book.
So we could say that mass has inertia. We think of mass as something visible in our physical world, something solid. However, Einstein found out in his theory of relativity that energy also has inertia and therefore mass or substance. So mass has substance and energy has substance. Hebrews 11:1 declares that faith is also substance and therefore mass. It is the substance of things not seen or the invisible realm (invisible to our five senses), the uncreated heaven, out of which everything comes. We could say that the universe is made up of mass-energy equivalents, which is faith expressed. The universe expresses the positive-negative, light-dark, yes-no, principle of the law of opposites. The universe is an expressed Word of faith.
Mass comes from the Latin word massa which is connected with the bread of the communion table which represents Christ the Bread of Life. The Latin comes from the Hebrew word mazza, which is the word translated manna. Manna is representative of Divine Substance. The Divine Substance is Christ. When Jesus referred to Himself as the “true Bread which came down from heaven,” He was referring to Himself as the true manna. Manna also represents the “essence” or “seed” of life and for this reason a sample of it was kept in the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. The Amplified Bible beautifully expresses this in Hebrews 1:3, “He is the sole expression of the glory of God --- the Light-being, the outraying of the divine --- and He is the perfect imprint and very image of God’s nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His mighty Word of power.”
That Word of power, rhema word, or a word of faith, by which He brings into being out of the true substance of His very own nature in the Father. We can only approach God by faith for “without faith it is impossible to please God.” (Heb. 11:6.). In Galatians 2:20, Paul says that he has died, yet lives, and that his true being is now Christ living in him. He next states, “The life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God.” Some translations have changed the OF in the King James to IN. In my own research, I lean toward OF being accurate to the Greek manuscript. Because He is in us living His life, we operate by His faith. It develops within us though, from “faith to faith”. Paul said that “Faith, Hope and Love remain.” Faith is the unwavering confidence God has in the power and ability of His love and wisdom. Hope is what sustains the outworking of the processes by which the ultimate goal of Love is reached. The “greatest of these is Love” because Love is the nature of God and the original motivating factor in all that He does. We are to come to the “perfection of Love” or love fully mature and working in us as it works in the life of our Father. The cross principle in our heart brings us to eternally die to self-seeking so that we can love like He loves. This is the Hope which sustains His longsuffering and mercy towards us to bring to completion the work He began in us by His faith.
So this seed or essence of life placed within us is Christ, who is true mass or substance, which is spirit. Faith is the means by which this seed is placed within us, --- His faith which He imparts to us to believe the mystery of the gospel message. We will use the word blood to represent Passover. “The life of the flesh is in the blood.”(Lev. 17:11). Passover is the impartation of life. It occurs by faith in the blood of the Lamb. The blood of Jesus (life) was poured out as an offering for sin. His blood purchased our redemption. The blood is not the life, but contains the life. We breathe in the air which represents the spirit or breath of God. The heart pumps oxygen throughout the body by means of the blood. The soul is the container for the spirit. They fit together like the male and female sexual organs to bring forth life. Spirit and soul are very difficult to differentiate --- only God can truly separate the two.
Heb. 4:12 (NIV) For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
This is rather straight-forward that in this interactive realm of soul and spirit, it is not always easy to discern what the source of actions are. Since they were designed to work in unison, I think of it as the spirit/soul, or heart/mind complex. Thought is generated by the spirit. The soul then is like the womb which brings the initial energy of thought into substance. It could also be described as Love and Wisdom. As Boehme described our Father looking in upon Himself to see what He will be; His desire to express Himself is generated by Love. True love is spirit energy. For He is love. His Wisdom, the Divine Sophia, shows Him how that love can be expressed. The mind or soul is like the womb for the spirit. It brings into being that which the spirit originates or desires. In the Spirit, sexual reproduction is the union of love and wisdom to produce righteousness out of the Holy substance that God is. All actions proceed from thought. The heart generally represents the spirit in scriptural terms. As Jesus said it is “out of the heart” that all manner of evil proceeds. He showed it as the first cause or generator of action.
There are three sources of thought in this universe: God’s Holy Spirit, man’s human spirit, and the spirit of this world, Satan.
1 Pet. 1:13 (KJV) Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; to the end: Gr. perfectly}
The loins of your mind speak of the reproductive part of the soul, which is feminine. It is able, like a womb, to receive the seeds of thought, which are spirit. We are instructed by Paul in II Corinthians 2:11 to “not be ignorant of Satan’s devices.” Devices is from the Greek word noema which means “thoughts.” So we are not to be ignorant of Satan’s thoughts. We are to have discernment and test the spirits to see if they be of God. For Satan, who is a spirit, would like to “impregnate” our mind with his thoughts. And the Bible tells us that when sin is conceived it brings forth death, just as it did in Adam and Eve.
Paul’s desire was to present the Church as a “chaste and pure virgin” to the Lord. This means that the church is not to receive any thoughts, or energy from any other spirit but that of the Living God. This is the virginal purity which Boehme said originally dwelt in Adam’s mind, but in innocence and not the maturity of the “measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”
PENTECOST
THE SIXTH PROPERTY
Pentecost has to do with the Voice or hearing. The sixth property is “the Word expressed.” Expression has to do with the soul realm, for the soul brings forth what the spirit desires. We could say, from one perspective, that Jesus is the Divine Soul of the Father, as the Father expressed Himself in His Son. Pentecost deals primarily with the soul realm, its regeneration and renewal as an expression of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said in John 6:63, “The Spirit gives life. The flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” This is exactly what Boehme saw in the “Word expressed”; the impartation of life. In this case through hearing, but not through the natural ear but the spiritual.
Pentecost occurred 50 days after Passover, on the day of the wheat harvest. The first Pentecost was at mount Sinai when Moses received the Law. There was a manifestation of fire, smoke, shaking and quaking. The people audibly heard the Voice of the Living God. Their reaction was to draw back in fear and plead with Moses to hear God for them and then instruct them. He brought down the Holy Law on tablets of stone which resembled their hard hearts and closed ears.
When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the Law he found them worshipping the golden calf. He asked, “Who is on the Lord’s side?”. The tribe of Levi responded and slew 3000 of their fellow Israelites. Because of their obedience, they received the calling of ministering to the Lord as priests. In Exodus 19:5-6, God’s original intention was for the entire nation to be a “kingdom of priests,” not just one tribe.
In Acts 2 when Pentecost “had fully come”, the Lord manifested Himself as tongues of fire. The room shook with a rushing mighty wind, and the people heard the word of God spoken in their own language. They didn’t run in fear, but cried out, “What must we do to be saved!” Three thousand were saved instead of killed in this Pentecost. The Holy Law came in by the Holy Spirit to be written upon their hearts, fulfilling the prophecy of Jeremiah concerning the new covenant.
Jer. 31:31 (NIV) "The time is coming," declares the Lord,
"when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their forefathers
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them,[32] {Or was their master}
declares the Lord.
33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time," declares the LORD.
"I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.”
Clearly, Pentecost is about hearing the Voice of the Lord in that “new creation man” inside of you. Having the Spirit of the Law written on your heart (spirit) is to have it put into your mind (soul), so that its fruits are brought forth in actions. In the Hebrew and the Greek, the word for “to hear” is also translated “to obey”. The message is that if one truly hears, one will naturally obey. Learning to hear and discern the Holy Spirit from the other spirits is a process. It is the purpose of Pentecost to perfect our hearing to produce obedience. It is the outworking of what has been placed within. It is stage two of the growth and development of the seed of Christ by which we have been begotten from above.
Pentecost is also the endowment of power to be His witnesses. A witness is one who testifies to and proclaims the Truth. Jesus only said what he heard the Father saying. That same ability to hear must be worked into us. The word “witness” also means “martyr.” This refers to the Holy Spirits ability within us to put the old self-nature to death.
James 1:21 (KJV) Wherefore lay apart all