In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of missions and the willingness to face opposition and even death for the sake of spreading the word of God. He refers to the apostles as being set forth at the point of death and making a spectacle of themselves to angels and men. The speaker also discusses the concept of being established as a father in the faith, combining authority and intercession. He highlights the need for a revolution of consciousness and the importance of questioning and discarding the alternatives of the flesh in order to fully operate in the spirit.

This last session, we have to put in, as much as we can, of the summit of all the rest of the sessions, of the roof. Which is what we usually speak of in Bible terms, we use a great deal of those three levels, which is a proof which the operations, the ways of the spirit with us, and there are the three levels, written up there, little children, young men and fathers. Why is he to be established as a father? Probably the clearest biblical statement about a father is a royal priest. Peter says that, a royal priest. That means he combines authority with intercession. Kings, royalty, utilize authority. Priests, ministry, intercession. And so there the two characteristics given us in clear terms, we sometimes use this term father. There is a basic revolution taking place here, it is a revolution of consciousness. All is consciousness, because the spirit is a knower, knower is consciousness. You live by consciousness, you operate your consciousness, what you are conscious of, that is what you do. All life is consciousness, God is consciousness because he is spirit. Out of God's knowing came all this, he turned his knowing into faith action, and the universe came to be. So all starts back in consciousness, which is the basis of operation, it moves from consciousness into action. So it is consciousness. Now this is now the third level of consciousness. Now if the first two levels aren't moved into, without human response, by human response I mean faith operation, of course we may say that behind faith operation is spirit, but it comes out in my form. There is a moment when I have moved into it. Certainly behind the moving is the spirit, but that is true, but that is not the main point of the moment. According to Jesus continually, if you have faith, if you can believe all things are possible, where is your faith? So if Jesus put emphasis on faith, meaning by that we operate, we put emphasis on the same, we may say behind our operation is the spirit moving, well that is just a background point. So there is in every level of consciousness the faith action which is to be taken, and then the consciousness becomes the reality. So behind the faith action was a sense of need which moved the faith action into receiving Christ as saviour. Then that was dissolved and became the consciousness of salvation, and the action followed that, now act as a saved person, which is a saved person. Then I have had to go through a whole negative process, most of my time spent is mainly in my calling, in the second area, because I suppose the main people I meet are those who know much about the second area, so again this session, these sessions, four of them are very centred around that, where we move into the negative, by which we get a right consciousness of the self, and cleared out from the satanic illusions and delusions put into it, and then from the right side of the self linked to himself, again there is the faith action. And we may quite plentiously know somewhere that you don't come into the second consciousness, not I am, he has me, not he for me, which is the first one, he has me, where there has been a faith involvement, a faith action somewhere, and then by the law of faith, faith becomes dissolved and becomes substance, oh that's it. So if we operate by a consciousness on each level, as a consciousness on the third level, now that's very tough, because that means very much along the line of the song we had to sing, that life is nothing for us but being laid down for others, nothing else, nothing else, nothing else, that's wrong. You don't become a saint until you have nothing more to do with your sins, you go out and you are replaced by Christ, and you don't become a Christ until you are no longer a self-acting self, in each case there is a nothing which becomes a something. It's a strong nothing where there is no meaning to life except that I am poured out for others, and others receive the completion which is my completion, which is Christ in Christ as me, nothing else. Therefore there is no mixture in our attitude to life, that's pretty strong, we have businesses, we have families, we have homes, there seems a certain variety of interests, no there is no variety of interests. Everything is only some form of expression of my one interest, which is that Christ be formed in other people as he has been formed in me. Christ is born in other people and then formed, in two levels, in two minutes he is born, and nothing else, that's wrong. So there is a new consciousness there, by the mercy of God I had it as a young man, that was very privileged, after I'd done my army, but I witnessed in the army, and after I'd been a witness in the college, and it was just about the mission field, then I saw it. And my wife and I went into that, that our marriage always was indifferent to our marriage, I suppose half our married life was apart, as I was wandering around the world and so on, and she was doing so and so, because we would be poured out with wine and broken bread that other people may have what we had, Christ as us. So somehow you have it, but again, somewhere along the line, I don't think you get into anything in the spirit until you question the alternatives in the flesh and discard them as it were. I mean, as I say, seen as the saviour, a wrong self to himself and so on, and this discarding of course is everything except him. And it can be missed, the proof it can be missed, it is missed in the Hebrews. That in the Hebrew letter, the writer couldn't introduce him into the three grades, only two, Jesus as the Moses who got him out of the land, Jesus as the Joshua who got him into the land, although it's a question whether they really were in the land or whether they would have seen a third, I don't know. Officially they come out into the rest level, Joshua level, they said I can't give you the third, I can't introduce you into being a co-priest, because you are blocked by a surge of self-pity, self-interest, self-hurt. So we have to say he can come in, you may say that he comes in the soul level and up the block anyhow. And there are questions arise over the radicalness of the third one. A disturbing one is that we are really talking about what is in Bible terms apostleship, which means you are simply a commissioned person, you exist in your commission, and the zeal of that commission eats you up. And our commission of course is that Christ can repeat himself in other people, which is the term for the whole universe, the vast family of people are walking Christ, expressing Christ in the universe, we know that. And yet when Paul speaks of apostleship, it's one of his most drastic terms, he has to make a contrast between himself and the precious church he is writing to, which is a very living church. And that's a disturbing fact, and that's what 1 Corinthians is for. Corinthians is a very precious church, it has a deviation, but who doesn't have deviations, that wasn't the point. They were spirit filled, gifted, afire, he loved them, 2 Corinthians is a love letter, Paul did love those Corinthians. He wasn't tearing them down, there were certain areas, sometimes the works coming in here and the flesh, certain areas, but the whole church wasn't tearing them down. And yet he did have to say, he did have to say, he had to make a contrast between being a third level person, and being supposedly, I suppose, a second level person. If, and that's when in 1 Corinthians 4, he says to the church, this living church, now you are full, I say it ironically, now you are full, you are rich, meaning they are full of their blessings and full of the joy of the Lord and things going well with them on the whole as a living church. You reign as kings without us, you will sit on top of your church world. Then of course the sarcasm comes in, I wouldn't have gotten it anyway, meaning you've got some deceit stuff coming here, that we might also read with you. Then, I think that God has set forth us the apostles last as we are appointed to death. That's wrong, not appointed to life. We missions don't get that through, we used to. We never used the word death. When the Cable Gang came back to Pauline and me, Caesar himself was her father, Caesar glorified hallelujah, that's all. Caesar glorified hallelujah, and John always talks about the cost of glorification. The Son of Man is glorified when he died at Rome. And so the real purpose of mission is to die, but unfortunately missions have born to keep you alive. Thank God we haven't got a born, but even so missions can keep themselves alive to a point. The Bible doesn't say keep yourself alive, I point it out to death. The highest thing in some way you can be is to go out by Christ's urban name, you may get beaten about and things happen to you there, and some of course have been martyred. He says you're this, you're this. I think that God has set forth us the apostles last as we are appointed to death, and we are made a spectacle of the world, angels are made a spectacle in Greek meat theatre. What's happening, what's happening? Well I hope people look at you in life like that. Disturbed ministers do anyhow, which is a good sign. What's happening, don't like that? Well that's a good sign. If you haven't got opposition, you ought to Jesus first, because he sends a sword on the earth. So he says that, we are fools for Christ's sake, you're wise in Christ. We're weak, you're strong. You're honourable, we're despised. And then some of the sacrifices he had. His present hour, hunger, thirst, naked, so and so, labour, so and so, and then he says being persecuted we suffer it, being defamed we entreat. We're made as a filth of the world, of the Oscar of all things of this day. They say, write not these things to shame you, but my beloved sons I warn you, because you have many instructors but only one father. So I'm saying we have to face the fact that living spiritual churches aren't necessary father churches, aren't necessary intercessory people. So there's a certain hesitation you have to bring in there. I think it's right in saying we have to get saved at the cross. You have to find out that you're shared in the cross and in the resurrection and therefore become a Christ person. You may take up a cross. Christ says you take up a cross, you have to reckon yourself crucified, he did that. You have to reckon yourself he died on your behalf, his precious blood. But you take up a cross isn't it, it's not what he did, it's what you do. I think there's a further stage there when something's driven me that this is the meaning of life to me. Somehow I've evolved in spirits outpouring by me that my part of the world or the world may have this salvation secret I have. So I put that out there. See the radicalness of it is put nowhere better than I know of than in Paul's amazingly illuminating account of his own pilgrimage. Paul could say things other people couldn't say the way he said them. And that's the Philippians 3 where I discuss it literally in that book. Yes I am. His account of his pilgrimage in his own terms. What things were gained of me and what things were lost of Christ, that's the famous one. But what comes in the middle of that is the point that hits us. He starts off by saying what things were gained of me, all this self stuff. I didn't go into how he saw of course the hatefulness of the self and he saw the love of Christ in Damascus and all of that. I can't, that's lost for Christ. Christ will be my saviour. And then he goes on and says not only is he my saviour but he's the one who takes me over. Oh darkly he goes on. I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Oh he's the one operating. He's the real person. That was a young man's stage of course. The first one was his baby stage. Quite a critical moment hasn't come yet has it? Nothing like a diversion or two is it. But that was the second stage. But what's the third? I'm getting at this. At the end of the second stage you read that. He says yea doubtless I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the one who is me. Puma suffered the loss of all things. In other words at that area there was personal suffering. The sacrifice cost something. His reputation and so on. That's in Philippians 3.8. Puma suffered the loss of all things. I read that. I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Lord Puma suffered the loss of all things. That's the suffering Peter talks about. When you suffer something getting into your relationships. Not suffering for others. Paul talks about suffering for others. Peter's suffering that you get in your early stages of grace. But therefore at that stage there was some cost in losing all the life that I offered him to be top Jew and so on. Of course my point is this. Where it said there whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do now count them but done. I mean Christ. Total reverse. Things he couldn't bear to drop he couldn't bear to keep now. Things he couldn't bear to lose he couldn't bear to hold now. He didn't want anything unless it was some means towards the progress of the gospel getting into the world. He didn't have any other meaning to anything. And anything stank to him which could be a bit attractive to him just in his selfhood or his fleshhood or his familyhood. Pretty radical. And the things we treasure up in our homes and so on. Pretty radical. Our little bits of keepsakes and stuff. Pretty radical. They're alright if they're just means of making a home a home. But when they got our affection that isn't the third level. Nothing has your affection except maybe some means by which Christ deserves to be blessed. Nothing, nothing, nothing. So you see that's the best illustration of the radicalness of this third level consciousness. When it isn't any longer the benefits that are marvellous as one of you are praying really it isn't I but he is marvellous enough. When the real marvel becomes therefore I'm a co-saviour with it, therefore a co-sufferer with it. That's a veil from you almost when you're first in this relation it opens up as you move into the third consciousness. And that's where of course he spoke of knowing about the royal priesthood. Now this is the point because the third level you see is you've moved over from dependence onto a co, you're a co-operator, a co-labourer, a co-god, a co-saviour instead of dependent on him. So that's where he shows up when he says let them win Christ. You don't win Christ a person by being dependent on. You win him because oh I'm with you now, I'm part of you, you and I we can really purge you on a level. Winning is levelling. I may be levelled up with Christ as what? Know what he is? What is he? His intercessor? This life outpoured down to me? So from there he went on and said I may know him and I know the king priest, the power of resurrection, I have authority. Not the resurrection, that's going to come later, the power of resurrection is what Jesus Christ used on earth of course. Powers of God. And the flourish of his sufferings, not flourish of his joy. And that's the intercessor level. Being made conform to his death. Christ's death wasn't for himself. So I think there is a great depth when Jesus Paul goes on and says let them attain the resurrection. You don't attain the resurrection of your body, that's given you. Every saved person as Jesus said you get your raised body. You don't attain that. You attain the resurrection which means other bodies are raised. See Jesus resurrection means his resurrection has been expressed in us. We are the resurrected Jesus. If I get that right Paul said the Gentiles you be resurrected in me. I go unto death that the resurrection may come out in you Christ through Paul. That's the raising. It's a different word in the Greek from the ordinary resurrection. That's what he is pressing towards. The mark he is pressing towards. The radicalness, completeness of the detachment by which our whole interest has moved over from things of time and sense to things of eternity is probably put in the best in the Luke 14 passage. And that's given to the whole church, I mean by the whole church the multitude present there, not only to the disciples. But that's where he spoke of the multitudes and said clearly man hates not. Father, mother, wife, children and so on. Cannot be my disciple. See discipleship is learning, is the preparation for discipleship. Discipleship is a school of faith. Discipleship is a life of faith. And when you have been completed your discipleship of course you are a competent apostle which means you are a competent saint. So you see here something God has done which has altered our attitude towards the most precious people in life. He even goes against the great teaching, I mean Bill Goddard gives great teaching but he is very strong, keep your family. Jesus said lose your family. He says your care for your family as a certain position is not the total position. And your relationship with your husband and wife may have a good but certainly not the total position. You are detached, you have only one total marriage and only produce one kind of real children. It's a heavenly marriage and heavenly children. And that's what this is saying. So there is a detachment. A man hates not father, mother and so on until he says in the end whosoever be the forsaken of all that he hath, all that he hath, that's including his very self of course, his health and all, he cannot be my disciple. And he did here count the cost. He didn't say you count the cost of salvation because he counted that cost and you completed it. He doesn't say you count the cost of getting saved but you do count the cost of salvation because that's something that comes through, it's you doing it. It is he doing it but it is you doing it. Your whole personality is involved in it. So we get that don't we? Now the, as usual, the danger when we talk like this is that it may pull us off again to some poor self effort. I wish I could be that. How can I become that? Get back on the self effort. Paul most completely answers that in the tremendous statement I've just quoted to you where he counts all these things but don't let me win Christ. When he, his reverse attitude from wanting things, wanting to keep things, wanting to do really anything which was less than the passion for Christ and souls. And he added there, at that time, that I may win Christ and be found in him not having my own righteousness which is of the law, the right way, but that which is true of the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. In other words, this establishment in the third is again the establishment of the Spirit of God, not your establishment. Your cooperation is, when you see it, enough to move in, in your faith committal. And you're saying, well God, whatever that means, that's what I am. Take it, you'll complete your operations, the operations of this child, young men and the operations of fatherhood in me so that I simply am a father, I am a royal priest. In other words, you are saying to him, you're taking it, he'll do this detachment. It's a real detachment. So we move into a life which is a detached attachment. What I mean is this, in the old life, our attachment was the things that satisfied us. The real meaning is in all these things of the word hate. You see, I kept telling you all these days, Jesus couldn't put things in spiritual terms, he could only put them out of physical, external terms. So talk about hating father and mother, how can you hate father and mother? Because you never did. Because you see, nor do you ever love them, or you love yourself, or we ever have as ourself, or we ever have as ourself. In the old life, you didn't love your father, you loved your father. You loved my father, my wife, my goods, the my is what you're loving, given you in the interpretations of the father, mother, they're the symbols of the my. Now, of course, Jesus couldn't explain that, there was too much a spiritual term of those days, we couldn't explain that. Now, of course, that's to change even the new birth. The my in me, the new birth, you hate what things were gained to me though, you began to have the you in you, which is the other love, so the my of the self love, Satan's self love, becomes the you of the other love. And so in that sense, you get your parents back, and your children back, but it's a detached attachment. It used to be a total attachment. No, no. And there's a cross there, and very often the family won't like it. Especially if the husband and wife don't see it together. And the husband sees that you're loving Jesus more than himself, or the wife sees that you get trouble even in divorces. One of our precious persons walked into a divorce. No, that's Catherine Groover. The husband just walked out on her because he began to see that she was more involved in Jesus than he was in her. So things do happen, of course, we know. So that's the meaning of that, but what I'm saying is that there is a detached attachment. In other words, in the new love, you fulfill what you know is part of your calling to your family, or your husband. That's part of the calling, but it's not the calling. It's part of the way in which you're expressing Christ. Part of the expression of Christ is what is for you in your family life and so on. And you yourself know, and hopefully the family know, they're not number one. Please turn the tape over for side two.