Spir Dynamics 292 11/7/93; Eph 312-328, 6/24/86-7/11/86; 12/30/77; 9/18/78

DOCTRINE OF THE INDWELLING OF THE JESUS CHRIST

A. The Prophecy of the Indwelling of Jesus Christ, Jn 14:19-20. “Before long the world will see Me no longer, but you will see Me; because I live, you also will live. In that day [Church Age], you shall come to know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”

1. There never has been a time in history when some part of the world did not see Jesus Christ. That is the doctrine of theophany. There was not a generation in Old Testament times that did not see the visible member of the Trinity. But in the Church Age, Jesus Christ is invisible to mankind.

a. Christ appeared as a man, e.g., to Jacob, Abraham.

b. Christ appeared as a cloud, pillar of fire, the burning bush.

c. Christ actually indwelt the sacred building in Israel.

2. The Church Age believers would live in operational divine dynaspheres, and by so doing would be able to see Christ.

3. “I am in My Father” is a statement declaring the deity of Christ. These believers would come to know that Jesus Christ was true deity while in Hypostatic Union. The humanity of Christ was in union with the Father, a unique positional sanctification. This is undoubtedly the basis for our positional sanctification, since we are in union with Christ and must share everything He has.

4. “And you in Me,” is the prophecy of the baptism of the Spirit, equal privilege under predestination prophesied.

5. “And I in you,” is a declaration of the indwelling of Christ. This is true for every believer (plural personal pronoun).

6. The people who heard this prophecy could see Christ’s humanity, but they could not see His deity. The same was true of the Shekinah Glory. They could not see the Shekinah Glory, but they could see the manifestation of its presence in the cloud and pillar of fire.

7. The indwelling of Jesus Christ is unique to the Church Age. The Church Age is the dispensation of the royal family of God, therefore it has certain unique features which include the fact that God the Holy Spirit and God the Son indwell every believer. These are unique and never occurred before in history.

B. The Verification of the Indwelling of Christ in Our Lord’s Prayer for the Church, Jn 17:22-23, 26.

1. “And I have given them the glory which You gave Me.” This is a reference to the prototype divine dynasphere by which the humanity of Christ glorified God the Father. Now our Lord has given to us the operational divine dynasphere as the means of glorifying Him.

2. “That they may be one even as we are one.” The glory is more than the divine dynasphere, but includes the indwelling of Jesus Christ.

3. Verse 23, “I in them” is a specific reference and prophecy of the indwelling of Jesus Christ. “And you in Me [the Father’s indwelling of Christ during the Incarnation]; in order that they might be matured...” God the Father indwelt the Son in order that He might become mature. In the same way, Christ indwells us that we might become mature.

4. In Jn 17:23a, the preposition EIS plus the adverbial accusative of reference neuter singular of HEIS should be translated, “with reference to one.” This means there is one objective: to fulfill God’s plan and glorify God.

5. “that the world may know that you have sent Me and that You have loved them, just as You have loved Me.” One of the purposes for the indwelling of Christ is a sign to you that God the Father loves you just as He loved Jesus Christ.

6. Jn 17:26, “I have made known to them Your person and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them. . .” This love will never be in you until you reach gates 5 and 6 of the divine dynasphere: personal love for God and impersonal love for mankind.

7. “...and I in them.” Jesus Christ indwells you along with the virtue-love of the divine dynasphere. This does not become a reality to us until we have metabolized doctrine about who and what God is.

C. The indwelling of Jesus Christ relates to the mystery doctrine of the Church, i.e., the protocol plan of God and the portfolio of invisible assets, Col 1:25-29.

1. Verse 25, “Because of which [Church Age], I have become a minister with reference to the dispensation from God, which was given to me for your benefit, that I might implement [fill up] your deficiency of this doctrine from God,”

a. It is for the benefit of every believer to understand the dispensation in which he lives and everything related to it.

b. Although we are blessed by studying the Old Testament, there is no substitute for briefing you with regard to your own dispensation, why you are here, and the tremendous assets God has provided for you more than for anyone else in any other dispensation.

2. Verse 26, “the mystery, which has been concealed from past dispensations and generations, but now has been made known for the benefit of His saints.”

a. The protocol plan of God for the Church Age was only hidden from past dispensations and from Old Testament writers because of its uniqueness. It could not possibly have been revealed without upsetting everyone.

b. Some of the benefits are: the indwelling of every member of the Trinity, the universal priesthood, your very own portfolio of invisible assets, the protocol plan of God, a spiritual gift, and invisible impact on history.

3. Verse 27, “to whom God willed to reveal to [among] the Gentiles the [riches of glory] glorious riches of this mystery which is Christ in you, the hope of [with reference to] glory;”

a. The riches which God has given to you have a source. The source is God’s glory. You have both the riches and the Source of the riches indwelling you. Jesus Christ as the Shekinah Glory indwelt the Tabernacle and Temple not only as a guarantee of Israel’s security, but also of their prosperity and blessing. Jesus Christ now indwells you as a guarantee of your security, riches, and fantastic blessings. If Jesus Christ indwelt a building in the age of Israel, how much greater is the indwelling of Christ in the body of every believer in the Church Age?

b. “The hope of glory” is the mature believer’s confidence that at the point of maturity he will receive his escrow blessing which will glorify God both in time and eternity.

“Hope” is used technically as hope ² and hope ³, the confidence or future expectation of the adult believer who recognizes that the indwelling of Jesus Christ as the Shekinah Glory is the guarantee of greater blessings for time and eternity. The first characteristic of spiritual adulthood is occupation with Christ. Christ indwells us for the purpose of motivation. Knowing He indwells us gives us a very strong and powerful motivation to keep advancing through each stage of spiritual adulthood with its accompanying category of undeserved suffering.

c. “Glory” here refers to your escrow blessings. “Christ in you” is the confidence (hope ² and ³) of receiving those escrow blessings which glorify God the Father. Once we crack the maturity barrier, the indwelling of Jesus Christ becomes a personal reality to us. The indwelling of Jesus Christ is part of our motivation to continue momentum. For the reversionist, the indwelling of Christ has no effect. It is as if Christ were on the outside knocking to be let back into his life, Rev 3:20.

d. “The hope with reference to glory” refers not only to the Lord Jesus Christ, but also to the escrow blessings deposited with Jesus Christ, the depositary by the grantor, God the Father, in eternity past. Jesus Christ as the escrow officer is the One who actually conveys those escrow blessings to us in time when we reach spiritual maturity. He conveys those blessings to His own righteousness in us, which we share by positional sanctification.

e. “Christ in you, the hope of glory” further speaks of capacity. As believers, we must have capacity before blessings, even logistical blessings; otherwise we can’t handle the blessings. If you understand the doctrine of the indwelling of Christ, you will have the capacity to enjoy your logistical grace blessings without being destroyed from lack of capacity.

f. This doctrine of the indwelling of Christ is vital to you for security, a guarantee, motivation, and capacity. Because it is so important, the next two verses teach the responsibility of the pastor- teacher to disseminate this information.

4. Verse 28, “Whom we proclaim, constantly inculcating every person, even consistently teaching every person with all wisdom, in order that we may present every person mature in Christ.” Or a more interpretive translation: “Whom we communicate, warning every believer [about being a loser] and teaching every believer [about being a winner] in all wisdom [mechanics for the execution of the protocol plan of God], that we might present every believer mature in Christ.”

5. Verse 29, “For which purpose [execution of the protocol plan] I also labor to the point of exhaustion, constantly striving toward the objective [to learn doctrine] on the basis of His working [enabling power of the Holy Spirit in teaching the Word] which is effective in me by means of the power [divine dynasphere].”

Or a more interpretive translation: “For this purpose I also labor to the point of exhaustion, competing according to the game plan which is operational in me inside the divine dynasphere.”

D. The indwelling of Christ is related to the Shekinah Glory in the Old Testament.

1. Definition and Description.

a. “Shekinah” is derived from the Hebrew noun SHAKAN, meaning to dwell. It refers to the fact that Jesus Christ indwelt certain sacred buildings in Israel.

(1) Shekinah was coined by the rabbis who wrote the Babylonian Targum during the Babylonian captivity.

(2) They developed the technical word as a periphrasis to speak of God as dwelling among His people. In this way, the Targum writers avoided the danger of applying this as an anthropopathic concept to Jesus Christ as Jehovah.

(3) It was used to express the invisible presence of God with Israel.

b. “Glory” is the Hebrew Biblical word KABODH, used for the visible manifestations of Jesus Christ as a theophany.

c. Shekinah itself represents the invisibility of Christ, the God of Israel, actually indwelling three sacred buildings during the Age of Israel: the Tabernacle, Solomon’s Temple, and Zerubbabel’s Temple. Glory represents the visible manifestation in theophanic form.

d. Since Jesus Christ as the God of Israel was invisible to the Jews, He was understood through the various categories of doctrinal teaching from Moses and Aaron and the Levitical priests. Illustrations of the doctrinal teaching was taken from the rituals authorized by God. For example, the articles of sacred furniture in the Tabernacle, the modus operandi of the feasts or holy days, the modus operandi of the priests and even their uniforms were used to teach Christology. There was lots of doctrine and lots of illustrations in the ritual plan of God of the Old Testament.

e. There are three categories of manifestations of Jesus Christ during the dispensation of Israel.

(1) Theophanies appeared to Old Testament believers.

(2) During the First Advent, Jesus Christ became flesh and “tabernacled among us,” according to Jn 1:14, for thirty-three years.

(3) Christophanies were the manifestations of Jesus Christ in resurrection body before His ascension.

f. Our subject, the Shekinah Glory, relates only to theophanies. There are two categories of theophanies as appearances of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. (The examples are not exhaustive.)

(1) Animate.

(a) As the angel of the Lord (Jehovah).

(b) As a man in human form, He visited Abraham and wrestled with Jacob.

(2) Inanimate.

(a) The cloud and glory of the Lord, Ex 40:34-38.

(b) A pillar of cloud at the entrance to the Tabernacle (a different kind of cloud), Ex 33:9.

(d) The burning bush.

g. The title, Shekinah, refers to the invisible presence of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy of Holies, enthroned on the mercy seat between the cherubs, Ps 99:1; Isa 37:16.

h. As Shekinah, Jesus Christ indwells the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle, Ex 25:21-22. As such, He is declared to be the God of Israel, Lev 26:11-12.

i. Under the title glory, or KABODH, Jesus Christ was manifest to people at various times. He was manifest to the Jews as a Theophany in Ex 16:7,10; Lev 9:23; Num 14:10, 16:19, 42, 20:6. So Jesus Christ, the person, the Shekinah part, was invisible. Jesus Christ, the theophany, was visible at various times to various groups in Israel.

j. Shekinah Glory, then, is defined as theological nomenclature designed to explain the relationship between:

(1) Jesus Christ and client nation Israel.

(2) Jesus Christ and the Church as the royal family.

k. Shekinah Glory explains the uniqueness of the Jew in the dispensation of Israel, while at the same time explaining the uniqueness of the body of Christ in the dispensation of the Church.

l. In the dispensation of Israel, Jesus Christ indwelt a building; first the Tabernacle, and then two temples. In the dispensation of the Church, Jesus Christ indwells the body of every believer.

m. If the indwelling of Christ in the sacred buildings of Israel is unique and without precedent in human history, how much more is the indwelling of Christ in the body of every believer unique and without precedent!

n. Shekinah Glory is a title for our Lord Jesus Christ which establishes a link between two unique categories of spiritual phenomena: the eternal and infinite Son of God dwelling in buildings, and the eternal and infinite Son of God, now the God-man, Jesus Christ in Hypostatic Union, indwelling your body as a believer.

o. The Shekinah Glory is identified as the God of Israel in Lev 26:11-12. “Moreover, I will make My tabernacle [dwelling place] among you, and My soul will not despise [reject] you. I will also walk among you; I will be Your God and you shall be My people.”

(1) Further proof that Jesus Christ is the God of Israel is found in Luke 1:68. “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us [First Advent] and accomplished redemption for His people.”

(2) Hezekiah’s prayer in Isa 37:16 gives three facts: Jesus Christ is the God of Israel, Jesus Christ is the Lord of the armies of Israel, and Jesus Christ dwelt in the Holy of Holies between the cherubs as the God of Israel. Isa 37:16, “O Lord of the armies, O God of Israel, who sits between the cherubs, You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth [Jesus Christ controls history].

You have made the heavens and the earth.” This reference tells us that the God of Israel was Jesus Christ, for Col 1:16-17 says Jesus Christ created the heavens and the earth, also confirmed by Jn 1:3 and Heb 1:10.

(3) Deut 6:4, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord [Jesus Christ] is our God; the Lord [Jesus Christ] is unique [SHAMA JISRAEL, ADONAI ELOHENU, ADONAI ECHAD].”

(4) A New Testament commentary on the Shekinah Glory is found in Rom 9:4. “Who are Israelites, to whom is given the adoption [unconditional covenants to client nation Israel] and the glory [the Shekinah Glory in sacred buildings].”

2. The Location of the Shekinah Glory.

a. The Shekinah was located in the Tabernacle. Ex 25:21-22, “And you will put the mercy seat [throne] on top of the ark, and in the ark you will put the testimony which I will give you. And there I will meet you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the cherubs which are on the ark of the testimony, and I will speak to you about all that I will give you in mandates for the citizens of Israel.”

b. Jesus Christ as the God of Israel was actually going to dwell above the mercy seat between the cherubs in the Holy of Holies. This is also taught in Lev 9:23 and Num 16:42.

Heb 9:4-5 describes the presence of the Shekinah Glory as the God of Israel in a more subtle way. “Above it [ark of covenant], the cherubs of glory.” Ordinarily they were only called cherubs, but here they are called “cherubs of glory” because that’s where our Lord Jesus Christ indwelt the Tabernacle in the Old Testament.

c. The Glory was identified with the cloud theophany as the visible manifestation of the God of Israel.

(1) This is taught in Ex 40:34-38, “Then the cloud covered the Tent of the Meeting [Tabernacle], and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. Now Moses was not able to enter the Tabernacle, because the cloud had settled on [top of] it, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. And throughout all their travels, whenever the cloud was lifted from over the Tabernacle, the citizens of Israel would move out; but if the cloud did not lift, they did not move out until the day when it was lifted. For throughout all their travels, the cloud of the Lord was over the Tabernacle by day, and there was a fire in the cloud by night in sight of all the house of Israel.”

(2) The cloud by day and the fire in the cloud by night meant that the motivation, security, life, and blessing of Israel was tied into the God of Israel. Israel was ruled by God; it was a theocracy. The Jews were guided by the God of Israel as they followed that cloud. The cloud was security in bivouac and guidance on the march. At any time, night or day, a Jew could pause to look at the cloud and know that the God of Israel dwelt in the Tabernacle. Whatever was bothering or worrying him, the Jew only needed to look at the cloud and be reassured of his security and blessing.

(3) So the theophany of the cloud revealed the fact that Jesus Christ was present though invisible as the Shekinah. Lev 9:23, “Then Moses and Aaron went into the Tent of the Meeting [Tabernacle], and when they came out and blessed the people, the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people.”

(4) Ex 16:10, “Now it came to pass as Aaron spoke to the entire congregation of the sons of Israel that they looked toward the desert, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in a cloud.”

(5) Num 14:10, “Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the sons of Israel.”

(6) Num 16:19, “And the glory of the Lord appeared to all the congregation.”

(7) Num 16:42, “Now it came to pass when the congregation had assembled against Moses and Aaron, that they turned toward the Tent of the Meeting [Tabernacle], and behold, the cloud covered it and the glory of the Lord appeared.”

(8) The Shekinah Glory was related to the pillar of cloud at the entrance to the Tabernacle. Ex 33:9, “And it came to pass when Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the Tabernacle, and the Lord would speak with Moses.”

d. The Shekinah Glory was related to the worship of Israel. Ex 33:10, “When all the people saw the pillar of the cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, the people would stand up and worship, each one at the entrance of his tent.”

e. The Shekinah Glory also indwelt the Temple of Solomon.

(1) 1 Kg 8:10, “And it came to pass when the priest came from the Holy Place [during the dedication of the Temple], that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of that cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.”

(2) 2 Chron 5:13b-14, “Then the house [Temple] of the Lord was filled with the cloud, so that the priest could not stand to minister because of that cloud. For the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.”

(3) The theocratic statement of Ps 99:1 speaks of Solomon’s temple. “The Lord rules, let the people tremble; He sits between the cherubs, let the land shake.”

(4) The dedication of Solomon’s temple is found in 2 Chr 7:1-3. “Now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house. And the priest could not enter into the Temple [house] of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. Then the citizens of Israel, seeing the fire come down and seeing the glory of the Lord over the Temple, bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshipped and gave praise to the Lord saying, `Truly He is God; truly His grace is eternal.’”

f. The Shekinah Glory was also related to Zerubbabel’s Temple in Hab 2:20. “The Lord is in His holy Temple; let all the land keep silent before Him.” Silence is the only way you can learn.

3. Blasphemies against the Shekinah Glory in the Old Testament.

a. The blasphemy of Nadab and Abihu.

(1) Remember that the Shekinah was invisible; the glory was visible at certain times. The Shekinah dwelt in the Holy of Holies, and no one was permitted into the Holy of Holies, Ex 40:35; Num 16:2.

Only on the Day of Atonement was the high priest allowed to enter the Holy of Holies, and then only twice: once with a sacrifice for himself, and once with a sacrifice for the people.

(2) Moses’ older brother, Aaron, became the first high priest of Israel. Aaron had four sons. The first two, Nadab and Abihu, violated the Holy of Holies and so were eliminated. As a result, the priestly line continued through Aaron’s two younger sons.

(3) Just outside the veil of the Holy of Holies is the altar of incense. Though it is in the Holy Place, it actually belongs to the Holy of Holies. But since it had to be used by the priests, it was kept outside the veil of the Holy of Holies. The description of the altar of incense is given in Ex 30:1-9. The prohibition regarding the altar of incense is given in Ex 30:9. “You shall not offer any strange incense on this altar, or burnt and food offerings, and you will never pour out a libation on it.”

(4) Outside the Holy Place was the brass altar for the burnt and food offerings; this taught that Christ died outside the camp. The fire on the brass altar came from the Lord. This fire from the Lord was taken from the brass altar into the Holy Place (via the seven lamps) and used to burn incense on the altar of incense.

(5) The fire on the brass altar came from the Lord in the following manner. Lev 9:22b-24, “And he [Aaron] stepped down after making the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offering. Then Moses and Aaron went into the Tabernacle. When they came out, they blessed the people; and the glory of the Lord [cloud] appeared to all the people. Then fire came down from before the Lord, and consumed the burnt offerings and the portions of fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.”

(6) A short time later Nadab and Abihu, in a state of intoxication, took unauthorized fire (“strange” fire in KJV) into the altar of incense. Since their father Aaron was the high priest, they were authorized to function as priests as the two oldest sons. They brought their own incense and their own “matches,” and started a fire in the Holy Place. Then they peeked behind the veil of the Holy of Holies, which was forbidden, and saw some kind of Light. Then, in their drunken state, they took their self-made fire on the altar of incense and from it made some sort of torch, busted through the veil, and entered into the Holy of Holies.

(7) Lev 10:8-10 tells the story of what happened to these two men before they entered the Holy of Holies. “Then the Lord spoke to Aaron saying, `Do not drink wine or alcoholic beverage on duty, neither you nor your sons with you when you come into the Tabernacle [Tent of the Meeting], so that you may not die. This is a perpetual mandate throughout your generations, to make a distinction between the Holy of Holies and the profane, and between the clean and the unclean.’”

(8) This implies that no one has the right to be under the influence of alcohol and teach the Word of God or, in this case, fulfill a ritual related to God’s Word. The “profane” is what you do when not fulfilling some spiritual function.

(9) Lev 10:1-3 tells what happened to Nadab and Abihu. “Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their fire pans [censers or incense vessels], and after putting fire into them [strange fire], they added incense to it [incense from altar of incense], and offered strange fire in the presence of the Lord [Holy of Holies], which He had not commanded. Therefore, fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died in the presence of the Lord [in the Holy of Holies]. Then Moses spoke to Aaron [Lev 21:8], `I will sanctify Myself in him [high priest] that is near Me [i.e., I will treat as holy those that approach Me]; furthermore, I will glorify Myself in the presence of the people.’”

(10) “In the presence of the Lord” means they busted through the veil with strange fire. The only light in the Holy of Holies is the presence of the Shekinah, the Lord Jesus Christ. But in stumbled these two drunks with human light (human viewpoint), with the idea of pouring this out between the cherubs! Jesus Christ, dwelling between the cherubs, wiped them out with fire!

(11) The Lord was saying, “I will glorify Myself in the presence of the people. They don’t have to come in here. Only once a year can the high priest come in; that’s all. And furthermore, I’ll have no drunk priest serving in here at the altar!”

(12) There were two results from the case history of Nadab and Abihu.

(a) They died the sin unto death for attempting to put unauthorized light or fire in the Holy of Holies. Christ is the light of the world, and Christ was the light in the Holy of Holies.

(b) The Levitical priesthood descended from Aaron through his two younger sons, Eleazar and Ithamar. Eleazar became the next high priest. In the time of David, Eleazar’s line was temporarily set aside and Ithamar’s line became the high priest.

(13) Another meaning to all of this is found in Lev 16:1-2. “Now the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron [Nadab and Abihu] when they approached the presence of the Lord and died. Then the Lord said to Moses, `Tell your brother Aaron that he shall not at any time enter the Holy of Holies inside the veil before the mercy seat which is on top of the ark, lest he die. For I will appear in a cloud above the mercy seat.’” In other words, “if you want to know if I’m there, just look above the tent and see the cloud. But actually I will dwell inside the Holy of Holies on the mercy seat between the cherubs.” The rest of Lev 16 describes the exception on the Day of Atonement when the high priest, after sanctification ceremonies, entered the Holy of Holies twice. Apart from this exception, no one was to enter the Holy of Holies. The penalty for any violation of this was death.

(14) Num 3:4, “But Nadab and Abihu died in the presence of the Lord [Holy of Holies] in the desert of Sinai. And they had no children; therefore, Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests during the lifetime of their father Aaron.”

b. The blasphemy of Hophni and Phinehas.

(1) Another blasphemy against the Shekinah Glory occurred during the time of Israel’s wars with the Philistines. 1 Sam 4 tells the story of Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. At the time Eli was the high priest and a very old man in his late nineties. His sons, Hophni and Phinehas, served as priests in the Tabernacle then located at Shiloh. The Jews were very apostate at this time. There was practically no evangelism and very little doctrine being taught, for Eli was too old and his two sons were very apostate.

(2) The Jews had just been defeated in battle by the Philistines as judgment for their apostasy and rejection of doctrine, 1 Sam 4:1-2. They wanted to destroy the Philistines, the last of the great warrior Greeks. Instead of turning to the Lord as a result of their defeat, they were looking for a good luck charm, 1 Sam 4:3. (Rebound seldom occurs to the apostate.)

(3) They decided the ark of the covenant in the Tabernacle at Shiloh would be their good luck charm. They were so apostate that they didn’t even know that ordinarily that was where the Lord dwelt. Because of their apostasy, the Lord was not dwelling there at this time.

(4) The two priest sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, went into the Holy of Holies and picked up the ark and carried it out. 1 Sam 4:4, “So the army sent troops to Shiloh, and from there they carried back the ark of the Lord of the Armies, Who sits between the cherubs. Furthermore, the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were with the ark of the covenant.” In other words, these two men claimed that only they knew the right way to “rub the rabbit’s foot,” and that they were the only ones who could carry the ark to the battlefield.

(5) A second battle was then fought against the Philistines in which the Jews were not only defeated but practically destroyed, 1 Sam 4:10. The results of this terrible annihilation were:

(a) Hophni and Phinehas were killed, 1 Sam 4:11.

(b) The ark of the covenant was taken by the Philistines and placed in their heathen temple; they hoped it would somehow bring them luck, 1 Sam 4:17.

© Eli, age 98, was sitting on a gate. When he heard the news, he fell off the gate, broke his neck, and died instantly, 1 Sam 4:12-18. So part of the source of the apostasy, a very bad priesthood, was eliminated.

(6) The wife of Phinehas, while in childbirth labor, heard the news. Her reaction is recorded in 1 Sam 4:19-22. “Now his [Eli’s] daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and about to give birth [in labor]. When she heard the news that the ark of God was taken and that both her father-in-law and husband had died, she squatted down and began to give birth, for her labor pains came on. Then about the time of her death, the midwife who stood by her said to her, `Do not be afraid; for you have given birth to a son.’ But she did not answer or pay attention. Then she called the boy Ikabod, saying `The glory [Shekinah Glory] has departed from Israel’ . . . Then she repeated, `The glory [Shekinah Glory] has departed from Israel, for the ark of God was taken.’”

(7) IKABOD is translated “there is no glory.” For during this period of apostasy, Jesus Christ had departed from Israel because the ark of God was captured, and because the Jews had violated every principle related to the sacred furniture in the Tabernacle.

4. The Sacred Buildings of Israel.

a. Beginning with the construction of the Tabernacle in the desert, a series of sacred buildings were constructed in Israel according to specifications laid out by the Lord Himself, because they represented the whole concept of Christology and soteriology.

b. These buildings were always associated with the presence of the Lord; that’s what made them sacred buildings. They were indwelt by Jesus Christ, the Shekinah Glory. Furthermore, all these buildings portray and memorialize the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ during His First Advent.

(1) The Tabernacle: Ex 25, 33, 40; Lev 9:23; Num 16:42. “Tabernacle” literally means the tent of the meeting, for it was the place where God met Moses and the people.

(2) The Temple of Solomon was a more permanent structure, mentioned in 1 Kg 8; 2 Chron 5; Isa 37:16.

(3) The Temple of Zerubbabel is mentioned in Hag 2 and Zech 2:5 as being “the place of the dwelling of the Shekinah Glory.” This was the Temple eventually built after the Jews returned to the land from their Babylonian captivity.

(4) There is also a Tabernacle/Temple in heaven, which memorialized Christology and soteriology, mentioned in Rev 11:19, 13:6, 15:5. “After these things, I looked and the Temple [Tabernacle] which serves as a testimony in heaven was opened.”

(5) There is a temple in Jerusalem during the Tribulation, but this is a center for apostasy, Matt 25:15; Rev 11:1. There is no Biblical evidence that this temple has any sacred connotation; on the contrary, there are reasons why it cannot be indwelt by the Shekinah Glory.

(6) The millennial Temple of Ezek 40-47 is related to the restoration of Israel as a client nation to God during the Millennium. Its ritual serves the same purpose of memorializing the person and work of Jesus Christ on the cross as does the Eucharist during the Church Age.

5. There are two periods in which there is no sacred building.

a. The Church Age.

(1) Since Jesus Christ already came in the flesh during the First Advent, there are no longer any theophanies nor any sacred buildings in which He dwells. The sacred buildings of Israel have been replaced by something more startling and unique.

(2) In the Church Age, the body of every believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit in order to provide a temple for the indwelling of Christ. There are no sacred man-made buildings in the Church Age, only auditoriums where doctrine is taught.

(3) Since the old sin nature resides in every cell of your body, Jesus Christ could not reside in your body unless the Holy Spirit indwells to provide a temple for the indwelling of Jesus Christ. The very fact that the Holy Spirit indwells your body and turns it into a sacred building provides some positional restraint on the old sin nature.

(4) 1 Cor 3:16, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”

(5) 1 Cor 6:19, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” Your life now belongs to God. Therefore it has the greatest potential for happiness the world has ever known, and for greater impact than the world has ever known.

(6) 2 Cor 6:16, “For we are the temple of the living God. Just as God has said [Lev 26:12], `I will dwell in them and walk among them; furthermore, I will be their God and they shall be My people.’”

(a) Lev 26:12 literally says “I will walk among you,” using the Hebrew hithpael perfect of HALAK. In the hithpael it means to walk about, to traverse, to walk among; in other words, it connotes a relationship. The preposition BE, which usually means “in,” becomes an irregular preposition here because of the combination with the noun which follows it, TAWEK, meaning “in the middle of.” So the actual word here is BETHOK, which combines the preposition BE and noun TAWEK to mean “among." There is no way indwelling could be implied here. This means Jesus Christ will be in the presence or in the middle of Israel, indwelling a building.

(b) But when Paul quotes this in 2 Cor 6:16, he doesn’t use “among." He makes a very subtle change. He translates HALAK as the future active indicative of ENOIKEO, which can only mean “indwell." In Lev 26:12, Jesus Christ was dwelling “among” the Jews, not “in” them. He was indwelling the Tabernacle but was living among them. Now in the Church Age, Jesus Christ indwells the believer; He doesn’t live among us. If Paul wanted to quote HALAK exactly from the Hebrew, he would have used PERIPATEO, but he doesn’t .Instead he uses ENOIKEO, meaning to indwell.

© ENOIKEO is a gnomic future tense, which states what is always true under the given circumstances of personal faith in Christ. Jesus Christ produces the action; He indwells in you. The declarative indicative mood is used for a dogmatic statement of doctrine: the doctrine of the indwelling of Christ in your body.

(d) To make this indwelling concept even stronger, Paul uses the Greek preposition EN plus the locative of AUTOS following ENOIKEO, which is translated “indwell in them.” This is so strong!

(e) This same verb, ENOIKEO, is used in Rom 8:11 for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Rom 8:11 says, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.” The first “dwell in” is OIKEO plus the preposition EN. But Paul anticipated the resistance to the doctrine of the indwelling of Christ, and so in his second mention of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, he uses ENOIKEO plus preposition EN, “to indwell in you.” The same words, ENOIKEO plus EN, are used for the indwelling of both Jesus Christ (2 Cor 6:16) and the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:11).

(f) If in Rom 8:11 ENOIKEO refers to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, then it follows logically that ENOIKEO used with Jesus Christ indicates the fact that Christ indwells your body as well.

(7) So in 2 Cor 6:16, Paul quoted Lev 26:12 with the slight but important change, “I will dwell in them,” not “among them,” to show the dispensational change regarding the place of residence of the Shekinah Glory.

(8) Because of the indwelling of Jesus Christ, there are no sacred buildings in the Church Age. However, for Jesus Christ to indwell your body, where the old sin nature also resides, it is necessary for that body to be converted into a temple by the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit.

(9) There is no period of time between the age of Israel and the eternal state that is without “sacred” buildings except the Church Age. This points to the tremendous importance of the Church Age, the crossroads of history, the dispensation of the royal family.

b. The eternal state is the next period in which there are no sacred buildings.

(1) Rev 21:3, “Behold, the Tabernacle of God [Jesus Christ] is with mankind, and He will tabernacle with them. They shall be His people; consequently, God Himself will be with them.”

(a) The future active indicative of SKENOO, “will tabernacle” is a reference to the Shekinah Glory. The predictive future is a reference to the eternal state, and explains that there is no sacred building then, no tabernacle because Jesus Christ, the Shekinah Glory, tabernacles with them. This could also be construed as a gnomic future for a universal point of doctrine: there will be no sacred buildings in the eternal state because Jesus Christ is present.

(b) “His people,” (plural) refers to different categories of believers from different dispensations who, as winners, are the permanent citizenry of a satellite city suspended above the earth, the New Jerusalem of the eternal state.

(2) Rev 21:10-11a, “Then He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and He showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.” The “glory of God” is the presence of Jesus Christ as the Shekinah Glory.

(3) Rev 21:22-24a, “And I saw no temple in it [eternal Jerusalem], for the Lord God, the Almighty One [deity of Christ], even the lamb [humanity of Christ], is its temple. Therefore, the city has no need for sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of the Lord [Jesus Christ the Shekinah Glory] has illuminated it, and the lamb is its lamp. Then the nations will walk by its light . . .”

E. The Relationship between the Indwelling of Christ and the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

1. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit provides a temple for the indwelling of Christ as the Shekinah Glory.

a. 1 Cor 3:16, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” This is repeated in 1 Cor 6:19-20 with some amplifications.

b. 1 Cor 6:19-20, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? You have been bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body.” You glorify God in your body by the knowledge of and then the execution of the protocol plan of God, the lifestyle of wisdom, and the unique life.

c. 2 Cor 6:16, “Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God has said [Lev 26:12], `I will indwell them and walk among them; furthermore, I will be their God and they will be My people.’”

(1) The “idols” here refers to the Corinthian temples. They were houses of prostitution, places where they worshipped the various gods and goddesses of sex. They were also the place for the best bars and best food, with a little religion thrown in on the side. As a result, Corinth was a party town. Since some of the believers were still going back there, Paul asks what is the rapport between those idol temples and the temple of your body.

(2) See the development of Paul’s quotation of Lev 26:12 in this doctrine, point 4.E.

1. The indwelling of Jesus Christ is the beginning of the unique life.

2. The combination of the indwelling of Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the basis for the unique life. Rom 8:10, “For if Christ is in you [and He is]; on the one hand the body is dead because of the sin nature, but on the other hand the Spirit is [the unique] life because of [imputed divine] righteousness.” (See the Doctrine of the Unique Life.)

3. Motivation from the indwelling of Jesus Christ is related to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, 1 Jn 3:23-24. “Furthermore, this is His mandate: that we believe in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, and that we love each other just as He [Jesus Christ] gave us mandate. And he [Church Age believer] who executes His mandates keeps residing in it [the divine dynasphere], and He [Jesus Christ] resides in him. Furthermore, by this [living in the divine dynasphere], we have come to know that He resides in us [cognition of indwelling of Jesus Christ] from the Holy Spirit [teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit in divine dynasphere] whom He [Jesus Christ] has given to us.” (See the Doctrine of Procession.)

a. Christ keeps on residing in the believer who keeps on residing and functioning in the divine dynasphere. This is for the purpose of motivation for momentum.

b. The Holy Spirit is the teacher of the doctrine of the indwelling of Jesus Christ. This can only occur if we keep residing in the divine dynasphere and learning doctrine. By living in the divine dynasphere, and continuing to expose ourselves to the teaching of doctrine, we come to know that Christ resides in us.

c. Jesus Christ indwelling our bodies is our status quo since salvation, but Jesus Christ being glorified in our bodies is the ultimate experience of spiritual adulthood. The three stages of spiritual adulthood are related to three experiences associated with Christ in our bodies, which are distinct from Christ indwelling our bodies.

(1) The experience of spiritual self-esteem is “Christ being formed in our bodies,” Gal 4:19.

(2) The experience of spiritual autonomy is “Christ being at home in our right lobes,” Eph 3:17.

(3) The experience of spiritual maturity is “Christ being glorified in our bodies,” Phil 1:20.

d. These stages of experience are a result of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who from His base of operations in our body functions as “the filling of the Spirit” inside the divine dynasphere.

e. The indwelling of Jesus Christ provides a new emphasis for the royal family of God, a new priority for the new spiritual species, the body of Christ.

f. Negative experience (from negative volition) with God results in wrong relationship with God. Wrong experience (from wrong priorities) with God results in wrong relationship with people. Right relationship with God results in right relationship with people.

g. The indwelling of Jesus Christ demands that every believer give #1 priority to his relationship with God before his relationship with people. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit provides the base of operations for establishing as our #1 priority the relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit who indwell us.

4. From the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we learn about the indwelling of Jesus Christ as the Shekinah Glory, and this results in the transformation of our lives into the image of the Shekinah Glory, 2 Cor 3:14-18.

a. Verse 14, “But their minds were hardened [negative volition to Israel], for until this very day [AD 57 and now] at the reading of the Old Testament Scriptures, the same veil remains unlifted over their minds, because it can only be removed in [by] Christ.”

(1) The unbelieving Jews, because they had rejected Christ as Savior, suffered from scar tissue of the soul. Because the Jews rejected Christ as Savior, they had a veil over their minds about Christ as Messiah.

(2) The veil is the scar tissue on the soul of the Jewish unbeliever. The Jews read about Christ in the Old Testament, but they did not understand and follow the pattern of Rom 9:30-33. Therefore, they sought to be justified by the Law, as per Gal 2:16.

(3) However, this veil, or hardness of the soul, is abolished or removed from the Jewish mind when he believes in Jesus Christ.

b. Verse 15, “But to this day [AD 57 and still now], when Moses is read, a veil lies over their right lobe.”

(1) “A veil lies over their right lobe” means that scar tissue of the soul accumulated from rejection of Christ as Savior makes it impossible for them to understand even that which they customarily repeat: ADONAI ELOHENU, ADONAI ECHAD (Jesus Christ is our God; Jesus Christ is unique).

(2) In the dispensation of Israel, the Jews could not see Jesus Christ dwelling between the cherubs. There was a veil between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, and the entire Tabernacle was covered. But they could see Christ from the articles of sacred furniture taught by the priests, and from the theophanies, like the cloud over the Tabernacle.

(3) Today when a Jew believes in Christ, the veil is removed. Jesus Christ, the Shekinah Glory, now indwells his body. Now Christ can be seen, not literally, but by understanding, through the teaching ministry of the Spirit, the indwelling of Christ.

c. Verse 16, “But when anyone [specifically a Jew] turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” Paul had to explain the blindness of the Judaizers, since the Corinthians had accepted their teaching and had become legalistic.

d. Verse 17 teaches the freedom to execute God’s plan after conversion. “Now the Lord is the Spirit [deity of the Spirit], and where the Spirit of the Lord is [indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the body of the believer and in divine dynasphere], [there is] freedom.”

(1) “The Lord is the Spirit” is a reference to the deity of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is called “Lord” in Isa 6:8-9 cf. Acts 28:25-27; Jer 31:31-34 cf. Heb 10:15-17.

(2) The Spirit indwells the body of every believer to provide a temple for the residing Shekinah Glory, Jesus Christ, and to provide a base of operations for His ministries of filling, controlling, walking, and teaching.

(3) Under the filling ministry, the Holy Spirit indwells the divine dynasphere as the enabling power for the execution of the protocol plan of God. When the believer resides in the divine dynasphere, he is said to be “filled with the Spirit.” The “filling of the Spirit” also refers to the Spirit controlling your soul. As the believer functions at the various gates of the divine dynasphere, he is said to be “walking by means of the Spirit.”

(4) There are two categories of freedom, establishment and spiritual. This passage refers to spiritual freedom which exists only inside the divine dynasphere, Jn 8:32. The filling of the Spirit provides the spiritual freedom necessary for the fulfillment of the protocol plan of God and the glorification of God.

e. Verse 18, “But we all, with an unveiled face [believer in divine dynasphere at gate #4], beholding as in a mirror [Word of God] the glory of the Lord [Jesus Christ as Shekinah Glory], are being transformed into the same image [reflected glory of indwelling Christ as Shekinah Glory] from glory [humanity of Jesus Christ in prototype divine dynasphere] to glory [believer in operational divine dynasphere], as it were, by the Spirit of the Lord [enabling power of Holy Spirit in divine dynasphere].”

(1) “We all with unveiled face.”

(a) The unveiled face is:

(i) The Jewish believer, in contrast to the Jewish unbeliever, whose mind is veiled when he reads the Old Testament Scriptures. Just as the veiled face means ignorance of doctrine, so the unveiled face means cognition of doctrine. The unveiled face is the result of epistemological rehabilitation.

(ii) The believer filled with the Spirit, having residence, function, and momentum in the divine dynasphere, under the enabling power of the Spirit and momentum from metabolized doctrine, i.e., the capability of understanding mystery doctrine.

(b) The unveiled face means:

(i) To understand our status quo as royal family, the portfolio of invisible assets, the protocol plan of God, the lifestyle of wisdom, the unique life, and everything related to our equal privilege and equal opportunity.

(ii) Passing all three categories of suffering for blessing: providential preventative suffering, momentum testing, and evidence testing.

(2) “Beholding as in a mirror.” The mirror is the Word of God. As we persist in learning doctrine inside the divine dynasphere, we not only see a reflection of ourselves, but we also learn the mystery doctrines of the Church Age, we see the Shekinah Glory, Jesus Christ.

(3) “The glory of the Lord.”

(a) As a reference to the Shekinah Glory, this also refers to the indwelling of Christ without saying so.

(b) However the point here is not the indwelling of Jesus Christ, but seeing the glory of the Lord, from Bible doctrine, which results in occupation with Christ and personal love for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

(d) The Jews profited from understanding that which they could not see. They could not see the Shekinah Glory dwelling between the cherubs in the Holy of Holies, but they knew He was there by the presence of the cloud over the Tabernacle/Temple. The analogy to this concept is found in Ex 40:34, “Then the cloud covered the Tabernacle, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.”

(i) In the Holy of Holies, Jesus Christ was present, but He was invisible to the people. This is analogous to the indwelling of Christ. He actually indwells your body, but He is invisible to you.

(ii) The visible manifestation that the Shekinah Glory was indwelling the Tabernacle was the cloud, a theophany, which covered the Tabernacle. The visible manifestation today that the Shekinah Glory indwells the believer is his attainment of spiritual adulthood through residence, function, and momentum inside the divine dynasphere.

(e) The indwelling of the Shekinah Glory makes it possible for the believer to be transformed into the same image, which is tantamount to spiritual adulthood.

(f) The indwelling of Jesus Christ as the Shekinah Glory today is just as invisible as He was in the Old Testament, but the cloud of His reflected glory is seen in the Church Age believer who advances through the stages of spiritual adulthood to spiritual maturity.

(g) Jesus Christ, as the Shekinah Glory, indwells every believer. His reflection becomes apparent through metabolized doctrine and resultant momentum in the believer.

(4) “Are being transformed.”

(a) The pictorial present tense of METAMORPHOO presents a picture of the believer being transformed through residence, function, and momentum inside the divine dynasphere. We are never transformed through any personal self-improvement.

(b) The passive voice means the believer is acted upon by metabolized doctrine, resulting in spiritual adulthood.

(5) “Into the same image.”

(a) This is quite a problem, because Jesus Christ is God. There’s no way we can be God-like; that’s impossible and blasphemous. But we can emulate our Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity.

(b) From the point of His virgin birth, Jesus Christ occupied the prototype divine dynasphere and rapidly advanced through the gates while in childhood. He reached spiritual maturity, gate number eight, and subsequently faced evidence testing from Satan before His public ministry began. Not at any time did His humanity ever leave the prototype divine dynasphere. He had respect for and obedience of authority. He was teachable and continued to grow in grace and favor with God and man. We can do likewise, thus being in the image of Christ.

© In the divine dynasphere we can emulate Christ, i.e., emulate the image of His humanity. We can advance through the divine dynasphere gates in exactly the same manner, for we have the exact same enabling power of the Spirit, and we have even greater mystery doctrine!

(d) So “the same image” means the same as Jesus Christ, the indwelling Shekinah Glory.

(e) The transformation “into the same image” refers to the three stages of spiritual adulthood which manifest the invisible indwelling Christ.

(7) “From glory.”

(a) This is a reference to Jn 1:14, where the Shekinah Glory, our Lord Jesus Christ, became flesh and tabernacled among us.

(b) Hence, this is a reference to the Shekinah Glory residing in the body of every believer and the human body of Christ residing in the prototype divine dynasphere.

(8) “To glory.” The preposition EIS + the adverbial accusative of measure from DOXZA indicates how far the action of the main verb extends. The action of METAMORPHOO, or “being transformed,” extends all the way to Church Age believers who, through residence, function, and momentum inside the divine dynasphere, attain spiritual adulthood. From the Shekinah Glory becoming true humanity and residing in the prototype divine dynasphere to the believer residing in the operational divine dynasphere attaining spiritual adulthood and glorifying the Lord.

(9) “As it were, by the Spirit of the Lord.”

(a) This refers to two functions of the enabling power of the Holy Spirit inside the divine dynasphere:

(b) The ministry of spirituality and/or the filling of the Spirit. Generally the phrase, “filling of the Spirit,” from Eph 5:18, refers to your body. For when the Holy Spirit, who indwells your body, has control of your soul you are said to be filled with the Spirit. That is the status quo of being inside the divine dynasphere. Functioning at the various gates is “walking by means of the Spirit.”

F. The indwelling of Christ relates to the baptism of the Spirit and positional truth, Gal 2:20. “I have been crucified with Christ [retroactive positional truth], and I no longer live but Christ lives in me [indwelling of Jesus Christ]. And the life which I now live in the body [current positional truth], I live by means of doctrine with reference to the Son of God who loved me and delivered Himself up on my behalf.”

1. Retroactive Positional Truth related to the Indwelling of Jesus Christ.

a. Retroactive positional truth is a part of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

b. At the point of salvation, the Holy Spirit put us in union with Christ. That is current positional truth, meaning we are currently identified with Christ, and we share everything He has: heirship, sonship, righteousness, eternal life, election, destiny. Also, by being in union with Christ, we are royal family.

c. In addition to current positional truth, which is identification with Christ in His resurrection, ascension, and session (His current status), we are also identified with Christ in His death and burial. This is retroactive positional truth, accomplished through the same mechanics of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

d. While retroactive positional truth is identification with Christ in His physical death and burial, there is also great emphasis on identification with Christ in His spiritual death on the cross.

e. While God the Father imputed all the sins in human history to Jesus Christ on the cross and judged every one of them, two things were rejected and not judged on the cross: human good and evil. The basis for salvation is the imputation of all sins in human history to Christ on the cross followed, by their judgment by God the Father, 1 Pet 2:24; 2 Cor 5:21. Human good and evil were not imputed to Christ on the cross and were not judged.

f. The gist of retroactive positional truth is that since we were identified with Christ in His spiritual death, when He rejected human good and evil, positionally we have also rejected human good and evil.

g. As a result, human good and evil remain an issue in our lives as believers. Thus by application of the doctrine of retroactive positional truth we must also reject human good and evil in our experience.

h. Human good and evil are combined to form the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world and the function of the old sin nature as the sovereign ruler of human life in the body.

i. Jesus Christ rejected human good and evil on the cross. Human good and evil were rejected for judgment by the justice of God since they were not necessary for our salvation. They were separated from the judgment of our sins.

j. Both human good and evil have a dual function in life.

(1) As the policy of Satan, the ruler of this world.

(2) As the function of the old sin nature residing in the cell structure of the body of every person.

k. Through retroactive positional truth, the Church Age believer is separated from human good and evil positionally through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, so that positionally the rulership of Satan and the control of the old sin nature are broken. But positional truth is not an experience.

l. Consequently, retroactive positional truth combines with current positional truth to destroy and abrogate the sovereignty of the old sin nature in the body where our Lord Jesus Christ now indwells.

m. Furthermore, the baptism of the Holy Spirit at salvation and resultant retroactive positional truth nullifies the power of Satan as well as the old sin nature. But we must know and apply these doctrines before they become a part of our experience.

n. Rom 6:1-8, “Therefore, what are we to conclude? Are we to continue in the sovereignty of the sin nature that grace may increase in our lives? Emphatically not! We who have died to the sin nature [retroactive positional truth], how shall we still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus [baptism of the Spirit] have been baptized into His death [retroactive positional truth]? Therefore, we have been buried together with Him through baptism into death [retroactive positional truth] in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life [executing protocol plan of God]. For if we have become intimately united in the likeness of His death [and we have through retroactive positional truth], and not only this [retroactive positional truth], but we also shall be intimately united with Him in the likeness of His resurrection [current positional truth]. Therefore, be knowing this: that our old self [unbeliever in Adam] has been crucified together with Him [retroactive positional truth], in order that the human body with reference to its sin nature may be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be the slaves to the sin nature. For he who has died [retroactive positional truth] has been acquitted [positional deliverance of retroactive positional truth] from the power of the sin nature. Now if we died with Christ [and we have through retroactive positional truth], we also believe that we shall live in association with Him [current positional truth].”

o. Col 2:12, “Having been buried with Him [retroactive positional truth] by means of baptism [baptism of the Spirit], the same baptism by which you have been raised with Him [current positional truth] through faith in the working of God who raised Him [Jesus Christ] from the dead.”

p. Col 3:1-4, “Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ [and you have in current positional truth], keep seeking things above [Bible doctrine] where Christ is, sitting on the right hand of God. Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth [Satan’s policy of good and evil], for you have died [retroactive positional truth], and your life has been hidden with Christ by God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, at that time [Second Advent], you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”

q. Retroactive positional truth was very important for Paul to teach the Galatians at this time. The Celtic Galatians had bought the lie of legalism from the Judaizers, who taught that faith alone couldn’t save; that salvation is by faith plus keeping the Mosaic Law. In Galatians 2, Paul recalls the time he chewed out Peter for being a hypocrite. At one point Paul said to Peter, “where is your application of retroactive positional truth!” i.e., “I have been crucified with Christ” (verse 20).

r. This means that positionally the believer must reject all human good and all evil. This means separation from the power and authority of the old sin nature. After all, what stimulates the old sin nature more than legalism?

s. In this context, retroactive positional truth means that Paul is dead to the Mosaic Law. So are all these Galatian believers. “Christ fulfilled the law,” Matt 5:17. “Christ is the end of the law for those who believe,” Rom 10:4.

2. Paul has a new life because of retroactive positional truth, “and I no longer live [as a Pharisee].”

3. Paul emphasizes the doctrine of the indwelling of Christ and relates it to retroactive positional truth, “but Christ keeps on living in me.”

a. Not only is every Church Age believer separated positionally from the old sin nature (retroactive positional truth applied), but he is indwelt by the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a reminder of the doctrine of the unique life, that all three members of the Godhead indwell our body.

b. Here is motivation from the indwelling of Jesus Christ to apply both retroactive positional truth and current positional truth to the Christian life in the fulfillment of the protocol plan of God. The indwelling of Jesus Christ as the Shekinah Glory is not only a guarantee of our fantastic blessings and our portfolio of invisible assets, but is also motivation for the fulfillment of the protocol plan of God.

4. “And [the life] which I now live in the flesh [body], I live by means of doctrine with reference to the Son of God.”

a. Paul, motivated by the indwelling Christ, and through application of retroactive positional truth and current positional truth, is living by doctrine. This last phrase means, “with reference to His indwelling, I am motivated to learn Bible doctrine.”

b. This phrase means that fellowship with the indwelling Christ comes through Bible doctrine, the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16).

c. The protocol plan of God demands that our relationship with the indwelling Christ take priority over our relationship with mankind. The indwelling of Jesus Christ demands God emphasis over people emphasis. As long as you emphasize relationship with people over relationship with God, you cannot attain spiritual self-esteem, and you will probably never realize the implications of the indwelling of Jesus Christ. Instead, your life will be characterized by self-induced misery.

d. Occupation with Christ and personal love for God must precede impersonal love for all mankind at gate #6 of the divine dynasphere.

e. The indwelling of Jesus Christ is a warning sign to every believer that personal love for God must always have #1 priority over any human relationships or any interaction with those in your periphery.

G. Conclusion: The Doctrinal Test regarding the Indwelling of Christ.

1. Self-examination must always be done with the greatest possible objectivity, without any prejudice.

a. This can only be accomplished in a satisfactory manner through the perception of Bible doctrine and its metabolization in your right lobe.

b. Once you have doctrine in your right lobe, then you can look at yourself through the mirror of the Word of God, and evaluate yourself on the basis of that doctrine.

2. 2 Cor 13:5, “Be testing yourselves to see [determine] if you are in the doctrine; keep examining yourselves, or do you not know [this] about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless, of course, you flunk the test?”

a. “Be testing yourselves.” You cannot do this in a state of ignorance about Bible doctrine. How you feel emotionally, what you think intellectually, your state of health, or any other human factor is not the criterion for evaluating yourself. The only measure you are to use is the Word of God and what it says about your life. We are responsible to God to test ourselves.

b. “To see [determine] if you are in the doctrine.”

(1) Bible doctrine must have #1 priority in the life to fulfill the will of God, to execute the protocol plan of God, and to fulfill the principle of relationship with God taking priority over relationship with people.

(2) Therefore, the believer must be constantly alert to make sure that his scale of values emphasizes the importance of Bible doctrine first in his life. There are constant distractions in your life designed to de-emphasize Bible doctrine, and to frustrate the will of God under the three categories of His plan, i.e., the protocol plan of God, the lifestyle of wisdom, and the unique life.

(3) It is essential that your priorities are straight. This requires epistemological rehabilitation, which demands the daily perception of doctrine, especially the mystery doctrine of the Church Age, without which we cannot fulfill God’s plan for our lives, and without which our relationships with others will inevitably sour, and our relationship with ourself will be frustrating.

(4) Through perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine under operation Z, the believer begins to understand the mechanics of the protocol plan of God, he begins to use the assets in his portfolio of invisible assets, and through residence, function, and momentum in the divine dynasphere, he fulfills this doctrine of the indwelling of Jesus Christ.

c. “Keep examining yourselves.”

(1) This self-examination is impossible unless the believer obeys the first command in context: “be testing yourselves to see if you are in the doctrine.”

(2) Objective self-examination under the privacy of your own priesthood is only possible with cognition of Bible doctrine. Under the privacy of your own priesthood, you must examine yourself in every area of your life.

(a) You examine yourself regarding sin. This is the only way you can rebound. You must be aware of sin in your life before you can confess it.

(b) You examine yourself for fear, worry, and anxiety, and you use the faith-rest drill in spiritual childhood to overcome these.

(d) You examine yourself with regard to your personal love for God. Until you love God, you’re not in spiritual self-esteem, and any other system of self-esteem is only arrogance.

(e) You examine yourself with regard to human interaction. The solution is gate #6, spiritual autonomy. Impersonal love toward all mankind is the basis for capacity for personal love toward a few. At gate #6, your relationship with people peaks out.

(f) You examine yourself with regard to your relationship with God, which peaks out at gate #8, spiritual maturity.

(g) You examine yourself with regard to your status quo. The solution is cognizance of the three stages of spiritual adulthood.

(h) You examine yourself regarding your suffering status, when and why. Is it self-induced, punitive, or suffering for blessing?

(3) You can’t really answer these questions about yourself unless you first have the doctrine. Everything depends on combining your status quo as a royal priest with cognizance of Bible doctrine.

d. “Or do you not know [this] about yourselves.”

(1) Only metabolized doctrine can be utilized in self-examination. You are commanded and mandated to examine yourself! This should not be put off until you feel like it, or until you get in a jam and are forced to examine your life. God’s mandate is for objective self-examination.

(2) You cannot fulfill this mandate unless you personally have an understanding of the pertinent doctrine, which here is the doctrine of the indwelling of Jesus Christ.

(3) Part of spiritual self-esteem is self-knowledge in relationship to the divine provision for your life.

(4) Until we reach the point of occupation with Christ and personal love for each member of the Trinity who indwells us, spiritual self-esteem is impossible. With personal love for God, we can know ourselves under spiritual self-esteem, and then we find the new motivation that comes in spiritual adulthood: motivation from knowing that Christ indwells our body.

e. “That Jesus Christ is in you?”

(1) The rhetorical question dealing with the indwelling of Jesus Christ is designed to test your spiritual self-esteem, and to motivate continued advance through the various stages of spiritual adulthood.

(2) Spiritual self-esteem cannot be parlayed into spiritual autonomy until the believer passes providential preventative suffering, 2 Cor 12:7-10.

(3) Cognition of the indwelling of Jesus Christ not only motivates the believer to continue his spiritual momentum, but it also motivates his application of doctrine, which will frustrate the impending danger of spiritual self-esteem being neutralized by arrogance. For spiritual self-esteem can very easily be parlayed into arrogance, preoccupation with self, and loss of spiritual adulthood unless the believer understands this doctrine.

(4) So it becomes apparent that understanding the doctrine of the indwelling of Jesus Christ and applying it to the Christian life becomes a necessity in status quo spiritual self-esteem.

(5) Two doctrines are important to understand in spiritual self-esteem: the doctrine of providential preventative suffering which provides momentum in spiritual self-esteem, and the doctrine of the indwelling of Jesus Christ which motivates the believer in spiritual self- esteem.

(6) Like the Shekinah Glory dwelling between the cherubs in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle of Israel, the indwelling of Jesus Christ is just as invisible but just as real. Like the theophany of the cloud that covered the Tabernacle, the glory of the indwelling Christ became visible to Israel. Generally, the Jews would look at the cloud over the Tabernacle when they were suffering. If it was undeserved suffering for blessing, they profited from seeing that glory. Those who did not profit from it were destroyed by the sin unto death.

(7) The glory of the indwelling of Jesus Christ is seen in two ways.

(a) The attainment of spiritual maturity and the distribution of our escrow blessings.

(b) The passing of evidence testing as a witness for the Prosecution in the appeal trial of Satan and the fallen angels.

f. “Unless, of course, you flunk the test?”

(1) There are two ways of flunking the test.

(a) Ignorance of the doctrine of indwelling of Jesus Christ.

(b) Failure to apply the doctrine of indwelling of Jesus Christ.

g. Actually, there are three tests in this verse.

(1) Self-testing for positive volition toward Bible doctrine as the #1 priority in your life.

(2) Persistence in the perception and metabolization of doctrine, resulting in accurate and objective self-examination under the privacy of your own priesthood.

(3) Cognition in the application of a specific doctrine, the indwelling of Jesus Christ, for two purposes.

(a) To motivate in spiritual adulthood.

(b) To frustrate and neutralize arrogance in your life.

(4) When the believer flunks the test in self-examination, he applies the doctrine of the indwelling of Jesus Christ to avoid discouragement, despondency, or further distraction. When the believer flunks the test, he is then in a very precarious situation, even though Christ continues to indwell his body during failure. However, the believer can begin by applying this doctrine and keep plugging in the spiritual life.

3. One of the ways by which you examine yourself.

a. Experience with people is not the major issue in the Church Age (although it is emphasized today by those who do not know doctrine) because of the unique nature of the Church Age. As a member of the royal family of God, the indwelling of the Shekinah Glory, as well as the indwelling of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit in you is the major issue!

b. It is not, therefore, the quality of our experience in relationship with mankind that takes first place, but the quality of our relationship with God. It is impossible to have a high quality relationship with God unless you have doctrine resident in your soul.

c. The major emphasis of spiritual adulthood begins at gate #5 with spiritual self-esteem. Spiritual self-esteem demands that relationship with God take priority over relationship with people. It should be evident that spiritual self-esteem is personal love for God; therefore, it demands that God emphasis precede people emphasis.

d. In other words, gate #5, personal love for God takes precedence over gate #6, impersonal love for all mankind.

e. Spiritual self-esteem is characterized by personal love for God. spiritual autonomy adds to this impersonal love for all mankind.

f. The indwelling of Jesus Christ demands God emphasis over people emphasis, for Christ indwelling our bodies is much closer to us than people, no matter what the relationship with them may be.

g. As long as you emphasize relationship and fellowship with people over relationship and fellowship with God, you cannot and never will attain spiritual adulthood. Your life will be characterized by self-induced misery under the law of volitional responsibility plus the three stages of divine discipline.

h. Wrong experience with God results in wrong experience with people. Right experience with God results in right experience with people.

H. The Implications of the Indwelling of Christ.

1. The indwelling of Jesus Christ is a sign of royalty.

a. While the baptism of the Spirit is the means of forming the royal family of God, the indwelling of Christ is both the sign of the royal family and another expression of the uniqueness of the Church Age.

b. Therefore, your background is of no consequence in the Church Age, because you are indwelt by Jesus Christ. You have equal privilege and opportunity with all other believers.

2. The indwelling of Jesus Christ is a guarantee of our portfolio of invisible assets. Along with the sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit in Eph 1:13-14, the indwelling of Christ is a guarantee of our portfolio of invisible assets prepared for us by the Father in eternity past.

3. The indwelling of Jesus Christ is a guarantee of eternal security.

a. You cannot lose your salvation, no matter how you foul up your life, no matter how you fail!

b. You can’t see Christ indwelling your body until you die. Then your soul and spirit leave your body, “absent from the body and face to face with the Lord,” (2 Cor 5:8). Jesus Christ leaves your body along with your soul and spirit and escorts you to heaven.

c. This fulfills the principle of Ps 23:4, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will no fear no harm because You are with me.”

4. The indwelling of Jesus Christ is a guarantee of your escrow blessings.

a. Since Jesus Christ is both the depositary of our escrow blessings and the escrow officer who distributes them to us when we fulfill the conditions of the escrow, the indwelling of Christ is a guarantee that, billions of years ago, God the Father created and placed on deposit in Christ fantastic escrow blessings for you.

b. The fulfillment of the escrow conditions is the execution of the protocol plan of God. The indwelling of Christ is not a guarantee that we will receive our escrow blessings, only that they exist. We will never receive our escrow blessings until we advance to spiritual maturity.

5. The indwelling of Jesus Christ is the motivation for momentum in spiritual adulthood.

a. At gate #5, spiritual self-esteem, you have personal love for God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Knowing Jesus Christ indwells you becomes the motivation you need to advance to gate #6, spiritual autonomy, and to gate #8, maturity.

b. Each one of these stages is accompanied by the divine administration of undeserved suffering. Spiritual self-esteem must pass providential preventative suffering to advance to spiritual autonomy; spiritual autonomy must pass momentum testing (gate #7) to reach spiritual maturity; spiritual maturity must pass evidence testing to glorify God to the maximum.

c. Therefore, there must be some motivation, in addition to metabolized doctrine, to go through undeserved suffering. The specific motivation is the application of the indwelling of Christ. This becomes the motivational virtue for the advance through each stage of spiritual adulthood. There must be a strong personal love for God that continues to get stronger. It is occupation with the person of Christ that becomes the important motivating factor beginning at spiritual self-esteem, Heb 12:3.

6. The indwelling of Jesus Christ emphasizes our relationship with God rather than people.

a. The unique factor of every member of the Godhead indwelling your body provides a different emphasis and a new priority for the new spiritual species, the body of Christ.

b. As long as you emphasize experience with people over experience with God, your experience in life will be characterized by self-induced misery from the law of volitional responsibility, plus a tremendous amount of punitive suffering from the three categories of divine discipline (warning, intensive, and dying).

c. Believers today are constantly seeking counsel about human relationships. In most cases, the problems exist because of wrong priorities: people emphasis over God emphasis.

d. Right experience with God (life in the divine dynasphere) results in right relationship with people. Negative experience with God results in wrong experience with people.

e. Because of the indwelling of Jesus Christ, the Church Age believer cannot put relationship with people before relationship with God. Your priorities are established by those who are closest to you: God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who indwell you! Therefore, your priority must be God emphasis before people emphasis. The key to right priorities is the indwelling of Christ.

f. The protocol plan of God demands that you give #1 priority to your relationship with God as the only way to have a successful relationship with your fellow man. In other words, virtue in the protocol plan of God places relationship with God ahead of relationship with people or with self. If you put relationship with people ahead of relationship with God, you’re insecure, subjective, and will have a miserable life.

g. Gate #5, or spiritual self-esteem, is characterized by personal love for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who all indwell you. But they are all invisible to you. Therefore, the persons of the Godhead can only become the objects of your personal love through a consistent intake of pertinent Bible doctrine.

h. Gate #6, or spiritual autonomy, characterized by the functional virtue of impersonal love for all mankind, provides capacity for love in romance, friendship, marriage, social life, etc. But always remember that gate #6 rides on a tandem behind gate #5. Relationship and experience with God must precede relationship and experience with mankind.

i. Epistemological rehabilitation is a never-ending function during the believer’s sojourn on earth. Epistemological rehabilitation demands cognition of virtue love as a problem solving device, which must be related to the doctrine of the indwelling of Christ.

j. The challenge of the communion service is priority. The person whom we worship in the communion service indwells your body. The challenge is always who and what is Christ. 1 Cor 11:24-25 commands us to “keep on doing this in memory of Me.” You cannot remember someone you do not even know. The communion service is designed to bring to memory the doctrine you know concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ, who now indwells you.

k. 2 Pet 3:18, “Grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; to Him be glory, both now and to the day of eternity.”

l. Heb 12:3, “Consider Him [Jesus Christ], who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you do not grow weary and become discouraged.”

(1) The humanity of Christ, in His prototype divine dynasphere gave #1 priority to His relationship with God the Father, as illustrated by His prayer at Gethsemane, “Nevertheless not My will but Thy will be done.” There’s our pattern. No one ever faced so much hostility from people as did our Lord during the First Advent. But it never deterred Him from His mission in going to the cross and being judged for your sins, because His priorities were always straight.

(2) The weariness described by this verse is that which comes from putting people first in your life. This is weariness from being disappointed and let down by people. This is often your fault, because you assign to others your standards. You put people first and then when they disappoint you, you get discouraged and disillusioned. Weariness, discouragement, disillusionment are exactly what the believer demands by putting relationship with people before relationship with God.

I. Summary and Highlights.

1. Categorically, there are three ways to classify God’s plan for your life.

a. The protocol plan of God emphasizes the modus operandi of the royal family of God in relationship to the divine dynasphere.

b. The lifestyle of wisdom emphasizes the believer’s epistemological rehabilitation through the metabolization of doctrine.

c. The unique life emphasizes the fact that every person of the Trinity indwells your body, even though they are all omnipresent, imminent, and transcendant, but still locally indwelling your body.

2. The Significance of the Indwelling of God the Father.

a. It is related to the glorification of His plan for the Church Age, Eph 1

. b. It provides assurance regarding His work in eternity past on our behalf. He is the author of our portfolio of invisible assets, the grantor of our escrow blessings, the mastermind of the protocol plan of God, and the designer of our very own palace (the divine dynasphere) by which we execute that protocol plan of God.

3 The Significance of the Indwelling of Christ.

a. A sign or badge of the royal family.

b. A guarantee of our portfolio of invisible assets portfolio of invisible assets.

c. A guarantee of life after death in the presence of God.

d. As the depositary and escrow officer, the guarantee of our escrow blessings.

e. Motivation for momentum in spiritual adulthood.

f. The basis for assigning #1 priority to relationship with God over relationship with mankind.

4. The Significance of the Indwelling of God the Holy Spirit.

a. To construct a temple in our bodies for the indwelling of Jesus Christ.

b. To provide a base of operations for both the execution of the protocol plan of God and the glorification of Christ in our bodies.

5. There are three major distinctions in the mystery doctrine for the Church.

a. The difference between the indwelling of Christ in our bodies and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our bodies.

b. The distinction between the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our bodies and the filling of the Spirit. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is status quo from salvation; therefore never experienced. The filling of the Spirit is a Christian experience both in our souls and in the divine dynasphere, but not in our emotions.

c. The distinction between the indwelling of Jesus Christ in our bodies and the glorification of Christ in our bodies. The indwelling of Jesus Christ in our body is status quo; therefore not experienced. The glorification of Christ in our bodies is the ultimate experience of the Christian life, the experience of spiritual maturity.

6. Each stage of spiritual adulthood is related to an experience related to Christ. These experiences are not the same as the indwelling of Jesus Christ.

a. The experience of spiritual self-esteem is Christ being formed in our bodies of Gal 4:19.

b. The experience of spiritual autonomy is Christ being at home in our right lobes, as in Eph 3:17.

c. The experience of spiritual maturity is Christ being glorified in our bodies, as in Phil 1:20.

d. The indwelling of Jesus Christ in our bodies is non-experiential. The glorification of Christ in our bodies is the experience of maturity.

7. The indwelling of Christ provides a new emphasis, a new motivation, a new priority for the new spiritual species, called the Church, or the body of Christ. The new priority is:

a. God emphasis must precede people emphasis.

b. The indwelling of Christ demands that every believer give #1 priority to his relationship with God, gate #5 of the divine dynasphere.

c. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit provides a base of operations for giving #1 priority to God emphasis over people emphasis.

d. Wrong experience with God results in wrong relationship with yourself.

e. Wrong experience with God results in wrong relationship with people.

f. Wrong experience with God results in wrong relationship with God.

g. Right relationship with God results in right relationship with both self and people.

h. Relationship with self peaks out at spiritual self-esteem.

i. Relationship with people peaks out at spiritual autonomy.

j. Relationship with God peaks out at spiritual maturity.

J. The indwelling of Christ is not the same as having occupation with Christ as a problem solving device on the FLOT line of the soul.

1. Occupation with Christ is the experience of having the tenth problem solving device deployed on the FLOT line of the soul. It is tantamount to Christ being formed in your soul, Gal 4:19; or Christ being at home in your hearts, Eph 3:17. This is the experience of the mature believer who has executed the protocol plan of God.

2. The indwelling of Christ is related to the body and is not an experience. Indwelling is a position. Occupation with Christ is an experience.

3. Just as Jesus Christ indwelling the body of every believer, so God the Holy Spirit indwells every believer.

a. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is positional.

b. The filling of the Holy Spirit is experiential.

c. The indwelling of Jesus Christ is positional.

d. Occupation with Christ is experiential.

4. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is related to the believer’s body, 1 Cor 3:16, 6:19-20; 2 Cor 6:16. The filling of the Holy Spirit is related to the believer’s soul, Eph 5:18. The filling of the Holy Spirit is experiential, while the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is permanent. Therefore, all believers are indwelt with the Holy Spirit. Only believers using the spiritual skills are filled with the Spirit.

a. The filling of the Holy Spirit is mandated by God. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is stated by Scripture to be a permanent status quo in time.

b. The purpose of the indwelling of the Spirit is to provide a temple for the indwelling of Christ as the Shekinah glory.

c. The purpose of the filling of the Spirit is:

(1) To provide the first power option of the spiritual life.

(2) To provide the first spiritual skill in the spiritual life.

(3) To provide the second problem solving device on the FLOT line of the soul.

d. Summary.

(1) The indwelling of the Spirit is permanent whether the believer is spiritual or carnal. Therefore, the indwelling is non- experiential.

(2) The filling of the Spirit is temporary, depending on the experiential status of the believer—out of fellowship through sin or in fellowship through the function of rebound.

(3) The purpose of the filling of the Spirit is to provide enabling power for the execution of the protocol plan for the Church. Every time the believer commits a sin, he loses fellowship with God and the filling of the Spirit. Every time the believer uses the rebound technique of 1 Jn 1:9, he recovers fellowship with God and the filling of the Spirit.

(4) Apart from the filling of the Spirit there is no divine power for perception, metabolization, or application of doctrine to experience. Apart from the filling of the Spirit there is not and cannot be the fulfillment of the will, plan, and purpose of God for the Church Age.

(5) Divine power is necessary to execute the divine plan. Therefore, the two powers options belong to experience rather than the indwelling of the Spirit. The two power options are the filling of the Spirit and teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit to the human spirit plus the conversion of GNOSIS doctrine to EPIGNOSIS. In both cases your volition is involved.

(6) The indwelling of Christ belongs to all believers at the moment of faith in Christ and remains a permanent possession regardless of spiritual status quo or lack of it. The indwelling of Christ as the Shekinah glory guarantees we have the divine blessing of our portfolio of invisible assets. Christ also indwells us as the guarantee of the irrevocability of our escrow blessings.

(7) Occupation with Christ relates to the soul and occurs experiential for the few who are persistent in the use of the three spiritual skills. The experiential factors related to occupation with Christ are as follows:

(a) Cognition of the indwelling of Christ contributes to number one priority being given to the three spiritual skills as the means of occupation with Christ. Understanding precedence for the Christian way of life. Cognition of the indwelling of Christ becomes motivation for perseverance in the use of the spiritual skills.

(b) The experience of Christ formed in you, Gal 4:19; tantamount to the experience of Christ formed in your hearts through doctrine, Eph 3:17.

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