Letter to a Brother #2

Some quote the scripture reguarding being at1

home in the body as being absent 2

from the Lord. Apparently they interpret that the3

way these in the systems of religion do.4

Their thought is what keeps us from the presence5

of the Lord is our physical bodies and that we therefore6

need to go to the grave in order to enter the invisible realm7

of the spirit. There they will be in the presence of the Lord.8

There are so many problems with this way of viewing things that I hardly know where to begin. Imagine the surprise of many christians when they find themselves in the lake of fire9

after they lay down their bodies as the second death burns out of them all the fear and unbelief they would not let God deal with in this life. The Greek word for home used in this passage is ''to be in one's own country.'' I don't know about you, but my current physical body that has not been fully redeemed and the realm of the flesh that is my body tries to lock me into, is not my own country or my home. My country, my home is in Him. It distrubs me when christians declare: so and so went home to be with Jesus. These people are at home in the body and not at home in Him right now. What keeps us from the presence of God is not the fact that we have physcials bodies- Jesus had a physical body that didn't prevent Him from having constant fellowship with the Father- but our carnal mind and our soulish emotions.10

A man named Paul kept trying to pull us into the realm of the spirit, I think maybe because it is through that heavenly fellowship that the new heavens and the new earth will be created in our re-gened physcial bodies. This is the divine marriage of the Spirit and the body that results from a quickened spirit an altered genetics. This metamorphosis is what the creation is groaning to see. If it is invisible, then what hope does the creation have and where will the new earth be manifested? They say that men can only see the temportal. What happenened on the Mt of Transfiguration?
When Jesus described His rescurrection body, He did not say as some preachers quote, The spirit has not flesh and bones but rather He said: A spirit has not flesh and bones. By ''a spirit'' He meant a vision, a ghost or apparition that has no substantial reality. What he was instead manifesting was the new Adam. The fact that He appeared in different bodies so that not even these who were closest to Him recognized Him shows that He is now a quickening spirit- quickening the members of His body as He appears in each of us.11

The water is a type of the Word. It is no coincidence that God created our bodies to be 95% water. This water which He has poured into our earthen vessels speaks of our capacity to be transformed by it if we receive that Word infused with the Spirit. When that happens, the water turns into wine or the blood of Jesus which contains the original divine genetics. This is what it is to be re-birthed or born of the Spirit. The 3 that bear witness on earth [our physical bodies] are the water, the blood and the Spirit. They are in agreement. When one says that chemistry and genetics are of the earth not of the spirit they seem to be dividing up realms that God is wanting to unit. They say that water is external cleansing only they seem not to understand that the water is the Word that cleanses and sanctifies the church. They seem not to want to believe that Jesus is te savior of our bodies. Don't limit the Holy One of Israel, and don't try to put asunder the spirit and the flesh that He has joined together in the Sons of God!12

Is there a point in trying to make the physical raising of Jesus symbolic and past tense? To me it was very real and I believe that we were raised with Him and the fullness of our participation in His resurrection is now what is being unveiled. If it was past, what then are we hoping to attain to? What is the prize of our high calling? What is it to ''apprehend that for which we were apprehended''? I believe that this man Paul wanted to be among these who do not sleep but who attain to the fullness of the resurrection in this realm as we put on our heavenly bodies
[not invisible!] to do the work that God has set out for us. If Jesus could walk through walls, why can't we? More perplexing, if Philip can be transported by the Spirit to physically appear in one place and then instantly in another place, why can't we? Or was that just ''symbolic''?13

''And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is [present tense] come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of anti-christ...'' The flesh he is come in is our flesh in order to restore us to the place Adam had in Him in the beginning.14

Though I take my song from a withered limb
Both tree and song belong to Him...15

Lenored Cohen16