Identification — Paris Reidhead

On that occasion, August 20th, I mentioned to you an editorial by Dr. Tozer regarding truth becoming yours through experience, that it wasn't enough to intellectually comprehend truth to claim it, but that you must experience that truth.

Now if you've not read that article, I would ask you to get in touch with us. You call the church office if you don't have it, and we by some means will secure a copy, mail it to you. It's a very important editorial.

Last week there was an editorial of similar importance on the matter of the freedom of the will. Now I wish everyone in this church would read that editorial, meditate upon it, argue with it if you must, but let it do its work of stimulating your mind.

This, again I say, is one that is of tremendous importance in our day. Two truths relate together as touching this outline in this fashion. The truth is not yours unless you experience it, but you choose whether or not you will experience that truth.

God is not going to coerce you, he's not going to compel you, he's not going to make you enter into anything that he's provided for his children. It is true, it's been true, it ever will be true, you are just as holy as you want to be, just as spiritual as you want to be, just as mature as you wish to be.

You are tonight what you wanted to be yesterday and so far today. What you will be tomorrow will be determined by your attitude tonight and in the tomorrows. Any truth that I might be instrumental in giving can't come to you only as an insight.

It isn't yours until you have exercised your will in an act of determined purpose. This will be mine. It doesn't become yours until you experience it. Now the reason the church is so ineffectual in the twentieth century is that the members of churches have confused intellectual information with spiritual experience.

And they have failed to recognize that because the intellect comprehends does not at all imply that the human spirit possesses. Now these two editorials that I've mentioned will put them into focus and will, I trust, emphasize that truth which we're presenting.

The Witness of the Spirit and Assurance of Salvation

And so we begin this evening with number six, the witness of the spirit. I simply hastily review by saying that when in genuine repentance and in simple faith, and all faith incidentally is simple, faith is confidence in the character of God.

The sufficient confidence to believe that God said what he meant and God meant what he said. Now that's not difficult. If you ever try to make faith anything other than that, you're just complicating it.

In its last analysis and its final essence, it is confidence in character. I promise to pay is the basis of most of the transactions that will be performed tomorrow. I am interested in the fact that in Wall Street, in the stock market, there is no occasion when there has been a default on a sale.

Have you gone into the spectator's gallery at the stock market of recent years? It's quite amazing to see vast transactions, some of which will have the effect of causing individuals to lose great sums of money or to make great sums of money.

And it's done by a raised eyebrow or by a finger sign or by a little piece of paper. No time for formal contracts. It's going on so rapidly. And yet in the history of the stock market, there has never been a default upon one of these indications of intention.

There's never been a situation where a person said, well, now wait, I didn't promise to buy that. And all of the millions of dollars that will change hands tomorrow will have been changed by something as simple as just a few notations on a piece of paper, a raised finger or a nodded head.

And this will be sufficient to cause whatever results to be accepted by the one in whose name they were done. Confidence in character is the whole basis of our economic life. Now your spiritual life is founded on this same basis, confidence in character.

God said what he meant. God meant what he said. I suppose this is the reason why the scripture has made it so plain that we are to spend time magnifying the name of the Lord. The one whose name you magnify is the one in whom you acquire confidence.

Therefore, when you magnify the name of the Lord, you are preparing your heart to rest confidently upon any assertion that's made by God. This I presume is the reason why we have that specific instruction.

Again, we find that faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of God. Not just the promise that God has made, but the assertions that he's made regarding his character and the record of his dealing. Therefore, when one exercises faith, saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, it results in a transaction, an inner transaction.

Something glorious happens. Something happens to the person. Something happens in the person. This we have called in his traditionally salvation. Actually, the word salvation we've seen is a vast word, an immense word.

But a characteristic of our common everyday evangelical parlance, we say someone is saved. They've been born of God. They've been forgiven. They've been pardoned. They're new creatures in Christ. The question, therefore, that this number six supposes is this.

How do we know that we're born of God? How do we know that we've passed from death to life? And the answer is, we know because God himself has joined himself to us. Salvation is a person, not an it, not a thing, not something that he sends, not something that transpires at the end of life.

Salvation is a person. And he that has the person hath life. He that has the son hath life. And thus, when you have the son, you know you're a God's child because God, by the Spirit, witnesses to your heart that you're his.

Now this is your initial beginning of your relationship with God. But up until this point, we have seen that it is the Holy Spirit, God, the third person of the Trinity, presenting the son, the second person of the Trinity, to the individual.

We've called him a sinner. Now he's a believer at the point in which we deal with him. He is a believing-er. He's someone that has begun to believe. And belief, therefore, is going to characterize him the rest of his life, or eternity for that matter.

Now the important thing for you is this, that when you in true repentance and in genuine faith receive Christ as Lord and as Savior, he does something to you. He does something to you. He not only does something for you, but he does something to you.

He does something in you. He makes you a new kind of being. He joins himself to your spirit, and you are a child of God, not simply because there's been a legal transaction that there has been, but there is a personal transaction in which God himself joins himself to your spirit in such a way that you know that you are his.

Not you think so, not you feel so. Oh, there will be thinking and feeling, but there is something beyond it. There is certainty. I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

This is the testimony of the Apostle Paul. I know. This is a know-so relationship. Well now, how do you know? An inference from what you've done, well, that is there. A presumption from something that's taken place, yes.

Because you have fulfilled certain prescribed responsibilities and obligations, yes. All of that's there. But you know because God has told you. You know because he has witnessed to your heart. Now I speak of this and really put it out of place because I want you to realize that the Christian life begins with knowing God, not knowing about him.

Knowing him. This is life eternal that they might know thee, not know about thee. Oh, you can know about him long before. It's to know him. This is an experiential encounter with God that results in an inner certainty that needs no proof nor argument.

It rests upon that ultimate foundation of experience. Pastor Brown, many years ago, wrote a book, Pathway to Certainty. I've referred to it in the past. And in it he said, the only ultimate certainty comes from experience.

Thus, we would say the same tonight, that when you have been born of God, you know it. Now, what do you know? What do you know? Well, you know that you have seen yourself a sinner. You've seen Christ, the sinner's friend and sufficient Savior.

You've seen him as the sovereign for your crime had been that you'd ruled your life. You've embraced him as Lord and as Savior. You've received him, and he now tells you that you're his. But all this while, your focus has been on him, been on the Lord.

Identification with Christ and the Believer's Need for Victory

Now, back with me to number nine. Number nine in our little chart we have called identification with Christ. We have this number seven, the possibility of temptation and the possibility of failure. And number eight, the confession and cleansing, brokenness, confession and cleansing.

But number nine is identification. It was at this point that we were two or three weeks ago. Now, I'll repeat. Number six, the witness of the Spirit. Number seven, temptation and the possibility of failure.

Number eight, brokenness, confession and cleansing. And now to number nine, this truth of identification. I would, it's arbitrary. From the very first, I've said there's nothing sacred about this little outline.

You can tear it apart and blow it to the winds, for I won't defend it for a moment. If it isn't useful, let's bid it goodbye. If it is useful, then we're grateful to the Lord. But I put arbitrarily, just because it fits into my thinking and I trust will be helpful in yours, this matter of identification here.

Not that it begins here, but that there becomes an awareness of your need, generally speaking, at about this point. Now, the time factor in all of these 14 points until you begin the 14th, at least the 13th, it can be one day or I have no debate as to the timing.

I simply use what I consider to be the general experience of individuals and say that after you've known you're saved, known you've been born of God, there comes a time of temptation and the possibility of failure.

When that failure occurs, then there must be brokenness in confession if there is to be cleansing. And the evidence of the genuineness of God's work is brokenness. But a person soon becomes wary of this up-and-down experience.

A person soon becomes wary of the intolerable weight and burden of it. And so then the question that arises is, well, what can I do about it? What can be done? Well, we come to identification. And at this point, you're prepared, generally speaking, to say, well, I'm grateful that my past sins are washed away.

I'm extremely grateful to the Lord that the danger of hell and separation in the region of the damned is removed. I'm so grateful that I have peace with God through our Lord Jesus. But, oh my, who shall deliver me from the tyranny of myself?

Who shall deliver me from the bondage of trait and habit and attitude? And who's going to help me with those characteristics that I have by heredity, that imbalance of traits which put a certain weakness or pressure or tendency in one direction or another?

How am I going to get victory over myself? This is the question that arises. And as almost always is the case, the initial introduction to a truth, a Bible truth, is on the basis of a personal need. Now, one of our missionary friends that was here last year and made the statement, I believe, from this pulpit, if not from this pulpit, somewhere in my hearing a short time before, said that of their experience on the mission field, almost everyone that came to Christ was pressed by circumstances for which they had no answer.

A personal need, sickness, pressure from demon powers, fear of death, oh, many different needs, brought them to the missionary, broke down their fear and their prejudice, put them in the place where they were willing and open to listen, to hear, to learn something which had been condemned.

I remember my own experience years ago in Minneapolis at one of our teachers, a dear man of God, who was acting sincerely in the light, all the light he had, I'm sure, but he warned us greatly about going out to Minnesota Keswick or Midwest Keswick at Lake Minnetonka where L .L. Legters was the speaker.

Oh, he said, don't go there and get involved in that holiness teaching. Don't go there, that's dangerous doctrine. Well, we listened to him, listened to him because he must be right. He was a teacher and wise, and it was years later on the mission field that I had those abrasive experiences that brought me to the place where I was willing to say, well, Lord, surely somewhere, somehow there must be an answer.

And, of course, the answer lay not in Mr. L .L. Legters but in the truth of the word of God that God had made so preciously real in his experience and that he had been faithfully seeking to present out there at Midwest Keswick.

Now, my teacher was sincere but sincerely wrong, you see. He was earnest but he just didn't understand, didn't understand what Mr. Legters was saying and he didn't understand our need, or for I'm sure he never would have militated against our spiritual progress.

He was a genuine, earnest servant of God. Now, we come to this point of identification where we're prepared to let the prejudices of the past, and let's be honest about it, I trust we ever will, the truth that we're dealing with tonight is heresy to some, some evangelical men that believe in the inspiration of the Bible.

This rank heresy to talk about victory in the Christian life and talk about identification. Now we're aware of that, we love them nonetheless. I think we can disagree without being disagreeable, you know.

We can differ without being difficult. And there are men that I, with whom I have the warmest fellowship, that feel that some of the truths that we embrace and warmly hold are heresy of a mild sort, not of an essential sort, of course.

And so we recognize this, we realize this, and yet at the same time am I speaking to someone that has a need? I tell you, when you get hungry it makes a lot of difference. When you get in trouble it makes a great deal of differences to your attitude.

And so tonight as we're here we're concerned, speaking to the person and concerning the person that says, I want victory over the tyranny of myself and the world and the flesh and the devil. I want to have that liberty that the word of God attributes to Christ when it says, whom the Son makes free is free indeed.

Well now how comes this liberty to be yours? First, everything you ever get in the Christian life you will have to see in Christ. For everything that God has provided, He's provided in Christ. Our Lord Jesus has the sum and the circumference, the whole of God's gracious purpose.

Everything is in the Lord. That's why I love the hymns of Dr. Simpson and love his writings because he saw all in the gracious work of the Lord Jesus. Not in a doctrine, not in a scripture, but in Christ.

That's why the little formula of the Alliance is such a delight to my heart. Christ our Savior, Christ our Sanctifier, Christ our Healer, Christ our Coming King. And there the complete presentation of our glorious Lord in His great concern for all the needs of His people.

Seeing His people and seeing their need and seeking to meet their need. Now this is our message, that He has a message of the whole Bible for the whole world to meet the need of the whole man. It's glorious to have such a testimony.

Identification Versus Eradication and Suppression

And we have here this message of identification. Dr. Simpson was touring the world and ended up in Britain on his way home. And he went to a conference of Christians. They were having a great debate. One group was talking about eradication, and that is the teaching which some hold that there is a work of grace that takes out the old nature.

Then there was another group that were talking about suppression. Saying that God gives you grace to sit down on the lid of your heart and if you just hold on to the handles tight enough it won't pop off.

Suppression. And he listened to one side giving the arguments for eradication and then refuting suppression. The other side giving the arguments for suppression and refuting eradication. And he said, when they asked him, he said, Well, dear brethren, I love you both but agree with neither.

It's not eradication and it's not suppression. It's identification with the Lord Jesus. Well, I believe this with all my heart. I believe that when our Lord Jesus wanted to redeem you, he not only wanted to redeem you from what you had done, but he wanted to redeem you from what you were.

In order to do that he had to be made what you were. Now just take the penalty for what you had done, but he had to be made what you were. In the eyes of the Father he had imputed to him all that you were so that when he went to the cross, he wasn't going as the Holy Son with your sin upon him.

He was infinitely and gloriously and ceaselessly the Holy Son. But when he went to the cross he went as you. He went as me. He stood before the Father as me. Not only my penalty laid upon him, but my sin counted to him so that he stood before his Father as me.

In my place, in my stead, my substitute as me. In Psalm 38 he identifies himself with us so completely that he that knew no sin speaks of my sin as though it were completely his. Now he identified himself with us.

You'll never get anything from God outside of the work of Christ and the purpose of the Father. Never, never. Everything must be within the precincts of what God purposed in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so as you see the Lord Jesus going to the cross, he is going there for you, but he is also going there as you so that everything the Father is doing to him he is doing to you.

Now that's so simple that you've missed it. Maybe you're wondering if you're going to get it out in time to catch the subway, but let's go back over it so that's the case, so we don't miss the point. Here it is.

He was there as your substitute and your representative. He was there for you, but everything that he did, he did not only for you, but he did as you. And everything that the Father did to him he was doing to you in Christ.

He identified himself with you so completely that it was you to whom these things happened in the mind of God. Now this is identification from the divine point of view. Christ identifying himself with you so completely and so perfectly that what happened, what the Father did to him, the Father counted was done to you.

Crucified, Buried, Raised, and Seated with Christ

Now this is the reason why it can be stated as we read in Romans 6 .6 in these scriptures, if you don't have them you must record these five phases of our identification and if you'd like to put a little asterisk down somewhere at the bottom or the back of the page number 9 and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, I'll give you the parallel scriptures so that you'll see it.

Everything that the Father did to the Son he did to you because the Son was there as you. This is a thesis. Now number 1, Romans 6 .6 in Galatians 2 .20 knowing this that our old man is crucified with Christ.

This is historically settled and historically fixed. Since he was there for you and was there as you the day Christ died you died in the plan and the will and the purpose of the Father. Now I can't understand why people have difficulty with this.

They have no difficulty with the other side of this heavenly coin. There's no difficulty with Christians realizing that when Christ died for them their sins were washed away because he was there for them.

Why there should be any difficulty with understanding that when he died for you he died as you? I can't comprehend. To me the truth when, of course the reason why I didn't see it for years after I heard it was that I didn't have insight and illumination but I, now looking back on it you wonder well why couldn't I have seen that?

Why was that so hard to grasp? Bless the Lord, ask him to open it to your heart. If this truth is somehow eluding you go to him Lord I am determined that this truth should grip me and I know it can't just because I grip it.

Lord you must open my mind, illumine my heart cause this truth to burst into meaningful experience in my life. Now here it is again, knowing this that our old man is crucified with Christ. When Christ died you died.

Now this is the history of it. Well beloved, you say well what's so important about that? Well everything is so important about that because the whole of your victory depends upon your understanding this.

See some people say well when I experience the fullness of the Spirit I'll have victory. I beg to differ with you in love. But you won't have victory when you're filled with the Spirit because victory doesn't come through the fullness of the Spirit.

Power for witness and for service comes through the fullness of the Spirit but victory comes through the cross. Cleansing doesn't come through the cross in the sense of identification. Cleansing always comes through the blood.

It's the blood that keeps on continually cleansing. Some people say well when I'm filled with the Spirit then I'll have cleansing. No dear heart, cleansing ever and always is through the blood. Victory is always through the cross and power is always through the person of the Holy Spirit infiltrating and saturating and possessing you.

And oh how many people there are that have difficulty here. I think of the fact that we have groups divided on these points. I know some dear earnest hearts, bless them, that feel that the whole of the deeper Christian life is just cleansing.

Well there's no Christian life apart from cleansing. But oh it's never to be misconstrued as the whole. Cleansing is through the blood. And then there are some that know identification and victory through our identification.

And they feel this is the whole of the deeper Christian life just to know this victory. Well this is glorious, it's a knot without which. But victory always comes through the cross but power is through the person of the Holy Spirit in vital relationship with you.

Now understanding that then back to this first point here, this sub-point under nine, with the Roman 6 -6, When Christ died, I died. He died for me. He died as me. And therefore when he died, I died.

This is the historical event. Just as a person that is unmarried finds great difficulty in behaving, thinking, acting as a married person, so a person that is uncrucified has an awful difficult time trying to act crucified.

And this is what's thrown some into a spiritual tailspin. They've said, well, here it is, it says reckon yourself to be dead. So they reckon and reckon and reckon and don't feel any more dead at the end of the reckoning than they did before.

Well where is their problem? The reason they have a problem is that they do not realize that there was a day when they died. There was a day when they died. Whether they feel it or not, if there was the same attitude in regard to the forgiveness of sins as there is here, people would never know that they're forgiven.

Never. They'd say, well, how can I be sure that the death of Christ and the blood of Christ washed away my sins? How could I be sure? I don't feel washed. Oh my, the problem that would arise if this were to be carried backwards.

But bless God it isn't. Generally speaking it seems to be only to be carried forward. Now let's get this clear. Let's get it straight. There was a day when you died. Whether you ever feel like it, whether you ever act upon it, whether it ever means anything to you or not, if you're in Christ, if you've been born of God, there was a day when you died.

That was the day Christ died. You are crucified with Him. Well now, you say, well, now wait a minute. Is that all there is to it? Of course not. Nothing is that simple. Well, you say, well, is that all I have to do?

Is just know that when Christ died, I died? No. Go back and read that editorial in the middle of August. What did Dr. Tozer say for you that have read it? He said the truth doesn't become yours until you act upon it.

And so we come back to this, that you realize that when Christ died, you died. Oh, that's the fact. That's the truth. That's the scriptural assertion. Now how is this going to become experientially yours?

How? It's going to become yours in the next test that you encounter, the next problem, and the next after that, and the one that follows that, and the one that comes just beyond that. And each successive test that you approach, each temptation and each problem you encounter is going to be met on the basis of the fact that you died to this thing.

You're crucified. Well, you see, too many people say, well, I'm tempted. Well, I guess I'm not dead. There is no experience you will ever have with God that eliminates the possibility of temptation. If you were to have some experience with God that kept you from being tempted, you would, I say it reverently, be holier than was our wonderful Lord, who was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.

God did not say he would keep us from being tempted, but he said he would keep us from yielding to temptation and being overtaken by it and forced into it. And so there will be in the next hour of test, the next occasion, and maybe before you get home, certainly it will be before tomorrow night, every person to whom I'm speaking is going to have a situation that you will meet before tomorrow night in which you are going to have a choice of alternatives as to how you walk.

You're either going to walk according to you, according to what you've done in the past, the habits of your mind, the attitudes you've acquired, or you're going to walk in the light of this truth that when Christ died, you died, and that this part of you that would react that way is the part that died with him, and you're going to take sides in this thing against yourself, against the habits of the past, the attitudes you've acquired, and the normal way by which you deal with this.

Maybe someone's going to come and say something to you, or do something, or some temptation will be put in your path, and your previous experience has been to meet it in a way that led to failure. Now, you're going to say the part of me that would react this way, or think this, or do this, is the part that died when Christ died.

And you're going to head into it that way. I won't. I'm approaching this as one that has been identified with the Lord and crucified with Christ, and when you step into that situation that way, you release, as I did the last time I was here, I recall, I just shut this power off, in order that you could understand.

Just a little flick of the switch cuts the power. And so it is that when you see, well, when Christ died, I died, the part of me that would respond this way, would react this way, would think this way, would want this, would do this, is the part that was crucified with Christ.

Your choice, your exercise of your will, it isn't controlled or coerced, your exercise of your will. It has to require a will. You will to have victory. You will to walk pleasing to the Lord. You choose not to sin.

It's not arbitrary in the sense in which you're coerced. You will to please Him. When you do, it's putting on the switch and His power flows in, in that particular situation. But what about the next situation?

You'll meet it the same way. The day Christ died, I died. The part of me that would want this, or think this, or do this, is the part that died when He did. And I reckon myself to it, the switch goes on, this power goes in.

Your trouble is going to come from this, that there will be times when you won't really want to have victory. And you just won't put the switch on. But I have news for you. You're going to wish you had.

You're going to wish you had. Because there's going to be that sense in which your heart's going to cry out, Oh Lord, that I failed you in that moment. So may the Spirit of God make this truth now real to you.

Burial, Resurrection, and Enthronement in Christ

Let's go on quickly to number two. Not only are we crucified with Him, but we see that we are buried with Him. In Romans 6, 4,. Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead, so we might walk in newness of life.

And then, we have to relate this to some phase of our adversary and our warfare and our difficulty. And we do. For we know that arrayed against us is a world, a world system. With all of the axioms and the principles and the mode of operation, all of the standards of this world are completely opposed to the child of God walking in a holy, pure pathway through it.

But there is great insulation that comes from realizing that you're buried with Him. When He was buried, He was there for you. And that person in the tomb is there in your place. You're buried with Him.

Oh, to stay there. Just to stay there. Insulated by the grave. Then number three, we are quickened with Him. Ephesians 2, 5. We are quickened together with Christ. Quickened with Him. And then number four, we are raised up together.

Ephesians 2, 5. And number five, we are seated together in the heavenlies in Christ. Ephesians 2, 6. This is our identification with Christ. Crucified with Him, we have victory over the flesh ourselves.

Buried with Him, we have victory over the world. And raised and seated with Him, we have victory over principalities and over powers. Now it's of this last that I wish to speak just a moment. If you'll turn to Ephesians 1, you will see the key scripture setting forth this phase of our union with Christ.

Much of what I've given here before, this evening I gave on their last occasion of meeting. But I did it in order that I could reestablish again the foundation of this truth that we're now approaching that is indispensable for all effectual Christian service.

You understand that so much of what is done is done on the level of flesh and personality and instead of the mighty weapons that tear down strongholds, simply the weapons of ability and technique and those things which the world uses in its pursuits.

But now we're coming to that level, if I may use this term, that level that is to be thought of as normal for the Christian. Where is the Christian to view himself in his life and in his service? It's still in this realm of identification with Christ.

Now remember it in this fashion. There were two people on the cross, Christ and you, you were crucified with him. There were two people in the tomb, Christ and you, you were buried with him. There were two people that were quickened, Christ and you quickened together with him.

There were two people that were raised, Christ and you, you were raised up together with him. But wait a moment, is that all the further we can go? Is that as far as we're to go? How many people are on the right hand of the throne of God tonight?

Oh, you say, the Lord Jesus is there. We mustn't be presumptuous. Oh, this would be, no wait a minute, it's presumptuous for us to be of such a mind as to discount and disregard the clear teachings of the word of God and the clear setting forth of the truth of God's word is this, that he hath raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ.

And the place from which all proper spiritual, enduring ministry is performed is not from earth under the circumstances, but from the throne seated with Christ. As I say, I wish you'd get some literature that would be helpful to you here.

And I can recommend that little booklet, The Authority of the Believer by our brother Macmillan, J .A. Macmillan. It's available in the bookstore, small sum, 30 cents or so. And then The Enthroned Life by F .J. Heugel and Bone of His Bone by Heugel.

These books are extremely helpful here. But what I want you to see is this, that the place that you are to occupy in God's purpose is not just a pew in the church as an active, contributing, attending member.

That's good, and don't stop. We need you, bless your heart. But that's not the ultimate goal for you in his purpose. You come here so we can tell you about that there. This is where you are to be, seated with Christ in the heavenlies.

Oh, that somehow the Spirit of God can let this truth just burst like sunrise into your heart. That this is where you're seated, not under the circumstances, but seated with Christ in the heavenlies. That's why Paul wrote in Ephesians 1, 3, He hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings, where?

In the heavenlies. But we don't begin to enjoy our spiritual blessings until we've seen ourselves and entered into the meaning of what it is to be in the heavenlies. Now what is it? He was there on the cross as you, you were there with Him.

He was in the tomb as you, you were there with Him. He is on the throne as you, and you were there in Him and sharing His victory. This is what, perhaps what He meant, I think it is, when He said, And the glory thou hast given Me, I have given them that they may be one.

Father, I will that those whom thou hast given Me be with Me where I am. Oh, we wish, we often feel that this has reference only to our going to be where He is, when we die or when He comes for us. But I believe when He said, I wish well that those whom thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, has reference to our conscious union with Christ in His enthronement.

The Cross, Spiritual Warfare, and the Church's Authority

Now this is the reason that the church is so vulnerable. Because it's fighting with the weapons of this world instead of having a company of people, all of whom have entered into this life of identification and union with Him.