Entering Into Fullness — George Warnock

Unconscious Spiritual Witness and Fellowship

In the past number of months, I feel it was a word that a sister spoke in a casual conversation. I don't think she was even aware of what she was saying, but it just entered into my heart in a way that I cherish, and it's just been on my heart to just desire God to bring us to the place where our religious self-consciousness is something that doesn't hinder our fellowship one with another.

Scripture says that when Moses came down from the mount, he said that he wished not that the skin of his face shone. He wasn't really aware. He didn't have a self-consciousness of his trying to witness, or if you know what I'm saying.

But that sister, we were just sitting around the table and sharing together, and I don't think she really was trying to say anything to me, and I'm not going to say who it was or what it was, because it's something exceedingly precious to me, and I've hidden it in my heart.

Thanking the Lord for reminding me of that. Sometimes we get a misconception of just what it really means to walk in fellowship with the Lord or to feel vital in the body of Christ, and because I don't have an active part in ministry or something like that, well, I'm in the body of Christ, but I'm not really very useful or very valuable.

I know this sister doesn't think herself to be very valuable. She has a very low opinion of herself, I think, and yet there we were, just speaking together, and she spoke a word that penetrated my heart more deeply than anything has in the past number of months.

And so let's all be aware that, you know, I have a little clipping at home on my bulletin board that says something like this. It's our unconscious Christian witness that makes the biggest impact on other people.

It's not the witness that you witness that you're conscious of trying to witness to this person or whatever, you know, but it's that spiritual radiation in your life that other people, that you're not really aware of, that people are seeing.

You know, like they say of Moses, he whisked not, but the skin of his face shone. And Frank Bartleman in his book on the Azusa Street Revival, before that revival came forth, he said he had such a burden in his heart that God would deliver him from his religious self-consciousness, you know.

And I know that is a deep work of the Spirit, you know. It's a very tremendous work when God can succeed in accomplishing that in our lives, so that we're not self-conscious of our religious walk, you know, but delivered from that sense of our own awareness of ourselves and just seek to be conscious of the glory of God and the needs of his people.

Abiding in God's Presence and Pressing Toward Fullness

So, pray the Lord, cause us more and more to abide in his house, you know, to seek one thing of our desire to the Lord, that will I seek after, you know, just to dwell in his presence. And if we do that, it won't be a matter of somehow trying to have something or trying to bring something forth, but it'll just be a spontaneous flow of our relationship with him.

Just place this on my heart, and I think that, you know, we're all, we all have a longing within our heart to walk with God and to see him come forth in our midst. And the need is very apparent, and we know that we still have a great sense of anticipation, and we know that there is some space to walk yet, until Christ be fully formed within us.

And I just would exhort, you know, exhort you, and we should exhort one another to not, there's such a tendency in this hour to want to just throw in the towel, in the final leg of the race, to, to waver, and to perhaps settle for some lesser thing, to settle for something which, you know, where people seem to have evidence, and we have little evidence, but it's a tremendous thing to, to just keep your hand to the plow, and to remain faithful, and to not settle for anything but God's fullness.

I just want to read something from, from Hebrews that bears us out, and it just says, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And there's such a tendency to waver, but God help us by his Spirit not to waver.

This, this thing of steadfastness is one of the most important things that, one of the most important qualities that God needs to, and is working in our hearts. Then it says, let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.

And we need to stimulate one another, and uphold one another, and truly receive God's burden, his burden for one another. Then it says, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. Don't throw it away.

Don't throw in the towel. Don't, don't grow weary in the last leg of the race, for you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. So it would seem, and in our experience, I'm sure we can relate, that when we have done the will of God, and, and done all that we know to do, to cry unto him as, as only these bodies can cry unto him, we seem to, we have done everything that we know to do, then there seems to be a time, perhaps a little lapse of time, before the promise is received.

But it is in a time like that, that we need to be, we need to be patient, we need to uphold one another, and not grow weary. For yet a very little while, he who is coming will come, and will not delay.

But my righteous one shall live by faith, and he, if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him, so God help us to have this in our hearts. It's just, when we consider it, there is nothing to go back to, there is nothing.

Timothy, it talks about a soldier, you know, doesn't entangle himself with the affairs of life, and it talks about an athlete who runs for the prize, and all that it requires, and it says, it says here, for this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, that they also may obtain salvation which is in Christ Jesus, and with it eternal glory.

So God help us to endure what he has given us to endure, for the sake of those that he has yet to show this eternal salvation. God help us to uphold those around about us that God puts in our way, and even in this day, when we do not have an apparent life to give, you know, God help us to come to that place of death, and not to cling to our own life, but to come to that place of death, and gladly just submit unto death, that the day may come when the life of Christ is truly formed within us, that we have a life to give.

Dying to Self for the Life of Others

I think of a situation in my work, where I'm working with, you know, troubled people, and this boy, this fourteen-year-old boy that just had no, had no hope, and he had to attempt, tried to kill himself, and God laid such a burden on me for this boy, and I just, God broke me in his presence, and I could just weep and sob, and this boy tried to comfort me, but God just, I just said to him, well this is, it's my desire that you have Christ so in your life that you will desire life, but even in the midst of the, that grieving that God placed upon me for this, this individual, you know, God is showing us that we need to come to that place of death.

We need to die so that those, can, that boy can live. We need to die, and we, we need to be encouraged not to cling to our life. We do that, these last little vestiges of our own self-life, we, we just hang on to them so tightly, and God give us the grace to let go, so that he can truly come forth in all his fullness.

It is a trustworthy statement, if we died with him, we shall also live with him. If we endure, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

So we are himself, and that's what his people are himself. He cannot deny us, and God just give us the, the grace to, it says, guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.

Guard through the Holy Spirit. God help us to guard, it's a thing that needs to be guarded, because there are so many things that would come in and just, just rob us, because the hour is so crucial, and God is going to break forth within us shortly, yet a little while, so faint not.

Don't settle for anything less. Don't run to where there seems to be some evidence of some life, but run to Christ, and he will, he will bring forth that life within us, and he is faithful. Very much of Bill's heart, and I believe all of our hearts here, how we long to see that sovereign move of God in our, in his people.

The Lord's Desire to Gather His People

Lord, just remind me of the scripture where Jesus cried over Jerusalem. He said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee. How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.

That was a word to Jerusalem and Israel of old. How much more has the Lord wrought in our hearts to be faithful unto him, and how the cry of his heart is to gather his people unto himself, is to pour out of his fullness in his people.

And I was so blessed, as was ministered yesterday, when the two disciples came to that wire road, and they chose that Jesus made to go on in this direction. And the disciples constrained him, but they had an hour, they had a knowledge of the hour in which it was.

But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. We recognize that the day is far spent. We say, Lord, where is thy move?

But the Lord has spoken to us very clearly and concisely this weekend, that he desires to draw more out of us. He wants us to have that longing, he wants us to cry after him, as Bella shared, hold fast to that faith.

And I just remember in Proverbs, My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee, so that thou imply in thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart unto understanding, yea, if thou cryest after knowledge, if thou liftest up thy voice for understanding, if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.

For the Lord giveth wisdom out of his mouth, cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous, he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth their ways, and thou shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity, yea, every good path.

He longs, his heart is so much more ready to pour out upon us these things, if we will cry unto him. We thank the Lord for the wonderful ministry, for the wonderful words that he's given us this weekend, and I believe he would have us to go home to our different places after these gatherings, and cry unto him, and to seek unto him, and cry for wisdom, so he can pour out a greater measure of his love being upon us.

The Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation

The passage from Ephesians chapter 4, a passage I've memorized, and quoted, and ministered from it many, many times, and yet every time I've ministered on it, I've realized it hardly scratched the surface, and I know it'll be the same this morning.

There's such a depth, such a depth in the truth of this passage here, and like I've mentioned so often when the Apostle Paul was writing to the Ephesians, he was writing of such depth, of such fullness, of such heights, of such expanses, that he knew it wasn't within the ability of man to hear or to receive what he was saying.

Then why would he say it? Well, he says it because you and I who have the Spirit have the capacity to hear words which are inaudible, to see things which are invisible, to comprehend things which are beyond all comprehension.

We have the capacity if we have the Spirit. I say the capacity, that that capacity must become enlarged by the Spirit of God, in order that we might be able to embrace the heights and the depths of the infinite expanses of God's truth and of his love and glory.

And so when Paul would declare something, then he'd stop and pray. Chapter 1, that God might give them the Spirit of wisdom and the revelation and the knowledge of him, the eyes of their understanding being enlightened, that they might know.

He must stop and pray that God would give them that. True, they had the Spirit, but you see, he still prayed that they would have the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. We're inclined to put such a sense of finality upon experiences we have.

I've got the Spirit. I remember when I was baptized with the Holy Spirit. And so did the Ephesians, for it was Paul himself who came to Ephesus and found a few disciples and laid his hands upon them and prayed that they would receive the Holy Spirit.

That was many years before he wrote this. But here he's praying to God that they might have the Spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him. You can't put a sense of finality on experiences we've had.

Yes, I know God, but still I must come to know him. And the more you come to know him, the less you feel you do know him. And that's inclined to cause you to enter into a certain sense of frustration.

And you say, I don't know him as much now as I did ten years ago. And it's only because your capacity has become enlarged and your concept of God has become enlarged. And whereas ten years ago you thought you knew him, now you scarcely know him at all because he has become much greater, much vaster in your comprehension, in your understanding.

And so once again, Ephesians chapter 3, he says, Wherefore, for this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, I've got to pray about this. I've got to pray that God will grant you something.

And he's declaring something, but he says, we can't receive it. It's beyond our ability to comprehend. And I say, I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.

God is a family, the whole family is a family of God. Part of it's in earth and part of it's in heaven. And we're the whole family of God. And on the earth, that one family might be considered as many families, but together in the purpose of God, we're one vast family, whether it be those who have gone on or those who are still on earth.

And he says, I bow my knees unto the Father, because he's speaking to father's children. He wants the children of the Father to comprehend what he has to say, that he would grant you, that God would grant you.

It's not something you can just take it and, well, I got it. I memorized it and I got it in tape. And I'm, you know, I'm glad I got these tapes because I forget some things. And so I'm glad I got it on tape.

And well, it's all right that you have it on tape so that you can play it over, but you could play it over a million times. And apart from the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him, you wouldn't hear, you wouldn't see, you wouldn't understand what God is saying.

So don't put as much emphasis on the tape or on the book or on the writing, but put the emphasis on that ability, that divine ability from God to be able to hear, to be able to comprehend, to be able to see with the ears of the spirit and with the eyes of the spirit.

And so Jesus said, as Brian mentioned yesterday, not take heed what you hear, but take heed how you hear. Because unless we have the capacity from God to hear as God would have us to hear, to hear in the spirit, to understand what he is trying to say, we're not going to hear what the spirit is saying to the churches.

That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. Paul says, though the outward man perish, that the inner man is renewed day by day.

And God is working on the inner man. God wants to bring forth that man from within, that new man, that new creation man. God wants us to begin to walk in new creation life. And we hear some of the precious things in God's word and we stumble at it, we get frustrated at it.

We turn away in frustration because we say, I can't, because we're thinking in the realm of that old creation mind. But Paul tells us, as I quoted last night, that there's only one thing that is of any avail and that's new creation life.

And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them. There's only one rule by which we can walk and that's new creation life. And so we constantly are condemning ourselves or condemning others because we see the old creation life and we recognize it's there.

But God doesn't want us to dwell on those things. He wants us to put on the mind of Christ. He wants us to put on the whole armor of God, the helmet of salvation. That with the helmet of salvation, we'll think with a new mind.

We'll have attitudes that spring from a new heart and a new mind. And we recognize the old is there, but as we put on the new creation life and walk according to the new creation life, we'll begin to enter into that glory of the new creation life.

And as many as walk according to this rule, there's a new rule for you and I to walk. And the new rule is the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.

God condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. And so the secret is there, and it's very simple, a people who will walk after the spirit.

New Creation Life and the Ministry of the Spirit

You say, I know it's simple, but why don't we enter into it if it's simple? Because the old creation man, the old creation law, the old creation rules are constantly there seeking to thwart us from entering into new creation life.

And so we must begin to think new creation life. We must dwell on that. Paul says, whatsoever things are good, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are of good report.

If there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. I know it's not something that we can grasp and live hold of with a natural mind, but I believe that's why there's a ministration of the spirit that God has raised up, a ministration of the spirit that he's raising up in this day and hour.

And then he's going to anoint more and more, that when they stand and minister, they'll minister words by the spirit. And the ministration of the words of the spirit of God will bring into being that which the word declares.

So it's not really difficult. It's just that we haven't given the spirit of God his right away in our lives or in our assemblies. It's simple enough, but we hear the wrong voices. We're tuned into the wrong things.

We're tuned into the programs of men. We're listening to high intellectual preachers, and we're listening to those who've got it all laid out there with their study of the scriptures, greatly diluted with human philosophies and human psychologies, diluted and perverted and polluted with all these things.

And God is going to cleanse his ministry. He's going to cleanse his church, that out from the midst of the body of Christ, there will go forth that pure, clear, infallible word from the mouth of God. He's going to do it, not because those ministries are anything, but because the Lord is jealous for his people, because he rises up in this day and hour jealous for the people of God, that he might present unto himself this glorious church, and to present this glorious church unto himself, there must go forth a pure, clear word from the mouth of God, a creative word that whenever it goes forth, it will bring into being in the hearts of God's people that which God desires.

The Spirit's Lordship in the Church

So it's very simple, as simple as when God said, let there be light in his light. It's just that simple. Because God spoke, it came into being. It's as simple as that. The problem is finding the vessel through whom God can speak.

The problem is God finding that pure heart, that in that pure heart he might mold the very heart of God. And I say it's a problem, and I know it's a problem, but God has dealt with it. He crucified the mind at the cross, where a crown of thorns was laid upon his brow.

He crucified the works of man on the cross, because the hands of the Son of Man were known to the cross. He crucified the wayward works of man, because on the cross there was a man whose feet were pierced.

He crucified the corruptible heart of man, the wayward heart of man, because a soldier took a sword and thrust it into his heart. So he crucified the carnal flesh at the cross. God condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.

God did the work at the cross, and God does the work in your heart and mine when we give the Spirit of God his worship in our hearts and lives and in our assemblies when we gather together. For what God did at the cross is now in the Spirit.

For by the eternal Spirit it was that Jesus offered himself without blemish unto God. He offered himself without blemish unto God by the eternal Spirit, so that the Spirit there at the cross of Christ was absorbing into his holy being all efficacy of the work of the cross and of the blood of Christ, absorbing it into his being and then coming to abide in his temple, that the efficacy of the blood and the work that God accomplished at the cross might be manifested in and throughout the body of Christ because of the presence of his Spirit, because in the Spirit there is also the blood and the water, the three precious witnesses that God has given us, the blood and the water and the Spirit and the three in one.

We want the word, the cleansing of the word. We believe in the blood of the cross, the blood of our redemption when Jesus died on the cross. We believe all that and it's all so hysterical, but it is the Spirit that bears the witness.

It's the Spirit that brings forth the truth concerning it. It's the Spirit that brings forth the efficacy of it, and because we give not the Spirit of God his right of way and his lordship, and in this we don't partake of the efficacy of the blood and of the working of the cross in our lives, the day and hour when the Lord Jesus Christ is rising up in the midst of his church and he said, too long have you used my spirit, too long have you played with my gifts, too long have you been playing church.

My spirit comes forth in the congregations of the saints in this day and hour to exercise his lordship in the body of Christ. That congregation, that group of people that gathers together and refuses to give the lordship of the Spirit his rightful place is going to have, as has been witnessed over and over again, that congregation of people, that church is going to have Ichabod written over the doors.

The Lord Jesus Christ reigns supreme in the universe, and he's been king of kings and lord of lords these two thousand years. He's not coming back to be king of kings, he's that now, and he's running from the throne to continue and to perfect the work that he has started in the body of Christ and to bring it to a glorious conclusion.

And now because we have come to the end time, the Lord Jesus Christ, the king of kings and the lord of lords, says my spirit whom I have sent into the earth in my stead and in my place, he has my word to declare to my church, and I'm going to close every mouth that does not submit to the lordship of the Spirit of God in the midst of his people.

We thank the Lord for every work that he is doing in the church, every ministration that goes forth, every manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit, and we're witnessing in this day and hour a new wave of gifts of the Spirit.

We hear of places where much healing is taking place. We thank the Lord for all that he's doing. Our brother said not to get our eyes away in any of these things that are happening, and it is right. We thank the Lord wherever he is working, for whatever he is doing, but until God's people come to the place where the utmost desire of their heart is the utmost desire of God's heart, we're not going to come to that fullness that God desires in his people.

The Alpha, the Omega, and the Fullness of God's Purposes

And God wants to bring his people unto a fullness, unto a completion, unto a consummation, unto the finishing of the work which he had begun. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ rises up, and we see him though in the book of Revelation declaring himself to be not only the Alpha but the Omega.

He's not only the beginning, he's the ending. He's not only the one who begins, he's the one who brings to a conclusion. He's not only the one who is the seed that was planted into the ground and sprang up as the blade, he's the one who comes forth in his people in the time of harvest as the full corn in the year.

If he's the Alpha, he's the Omega. If he's the beginning, he's the end. If he starts something, he's going to finish it. And he that hath begun that good work in his people will complete it, he'll bring it to a conclusion.

He's not going to cut it short along the way because his people refuse to go on. He will bring forth the people that will go on. If the people who he has nourished and cherished and enriched with spiritual gifts and blessings and bestowed upon them all manner of spiritual blessing, if they refuse to go on, God says, I'm not going to cut, I'm not going to delay the work which I have begun on the earth.

I'm still going to bring it to a conclusion. If you can't find those who will come to the wedding feast, to come to that place of intimate union and relationship with me, I'm not going to stop the wedding proceedings just because you're not ready for it.

You've got the invitation. The invitation goes forth to all of God's people everywhere. Lay aside all your doctrines, all your programs, all your ideas, all your psychology, all those things that you've mixed up with the pure gospel of Jesus Christ, lay it all aside, count it as refuge, count it as done, lay it on your assheap and win Christ or continue with those things and be left where you are.

And God says, I'm still going to do what I've declared. I'll go to the Indian people who've been rejected. I'll go to the colored races that have been rejected. I'll go to third world countries that have been rejected and through them I'll do the work that I declared I'm going to do in the body of Christ.

And they will hear it because they're ready for it. God's not going to delay the work which he has promised and which he has planned. And when the religious world said, I don't want it. I don't want that far out stuff.

We're too busy. We're working for God. We've got too much to do to be involved with a lot of those so-called in-time truths. I'm too busy. The master was angry. He says, go out into the lanes and the byways, find anybody you can, anybody at all good or bad.

He emphasizes good or bad and bring them in that my house might be filled. We're going to witness the coming in of the dejected, the oppressed, the downtrodden, the harlots, the prostitutes, the scum of the earth.

They're going to come in and they're going to be glorious. Glorious with the garments, the wedding garments of Christ. But many religious people are going to be left aside. We're not to be sidetracked or come short of the fullness because we see God doing something wonderful out there.

I know he's doing wonderful things and we thank him for that. But the most wonderful thing of all is the thing upon which we have set our eyes, and that is coming unto the Christ and abiding in total union with him, finding our habitation in God as God would find his habitation in us.

Growing Into the Fullness of Divine Love

Coming into perfect love, come into the fullness of the love of God. Everybody agrees with that. And so they say, you know, why bother with all those so-called deeper truths? All we need is love. No, that's all we need.

But we say a thing like that, you know, with a sort of a dropping voice, we just need love, as if love is some little thing you can just go and pick up and grab and use anytime you want. Love is God. Love is a mention you can't comprehend, and that's what we need.

I know you've got a little cup of it. Just because you go down to the Pacific Ocean with your little cup and take a glass of water and you say, I've got some of the ocean in my cup, it might be true, but you don't have the Pacific Ocean in your cup.

God wants us to come into the fullness of it, because only in the fullness of it are we going to satisfy the heart of God, and only in the fullness of it are we going to be that people in the earth who will be the expression of God to the earth.

So we begin in love and we grow in love, and love is all that matters, and love is all that counts, but we want to grow into it until we come to the fullness of it. You and I know very well that though we talk about love and sing choruses about love, and in a big meeting where there's a lot of human activity, a lot of human entertainment, love is emphasized so much in all of the songs that come forth.

Love is emphasized, we know that, but you know that love is lacking, and love will continue to be lacking. I don't care how much you talk about it, it will continue to be absent from the body of Christ until the body of Christ goes God's way and comes to know God, because God is love.

Enough just to say forget all those doctrines and let's just love. Forget the doctrines, yes, but you've got to come to know God if you're going to have love. Jesus said, Jesus ministered here in you three, three and a half years to reveal the Father to his disciples that they might have love.

It wasn't just something he'd come down and say, now your disciples just go and love one another goodbye. He ministered with them three, three and a half years in order that the love that was in him might be imparted to them, and he says, I've declared unto them thy name father, and I will declare it that the love wherewith thou hast loved in me may be in them.

And so it takes a declaration from the mouth of God, it takes teaching, it takes the unfolding of truth, it takes the sending forth of truth by the Spirit of God into the hearts of his people, it takes a revelation of the character of God, and the will of God, and the desire of God for his people implanted in their hearts.

It takes all that to produce that love in God's people. You say forget all those things, let's have love. You've got to have that in order for the love of God to be revealed in his people. Jesus said, I declare unto them thy name.

Never once did he go and say my father's name is Jehovah. He declared unto them the father in who he was and what he said and what he did. In all his works and in all his teachings he was doing nothing more nor less than unfolding the heart of God to his people.

And so it shall be in the Bible of Christ, when that minister rises up in heaven with the Son of God because of the Spirit, they too, as they minister, as they speak, as they speak out from the heart of God, they will be revealing and expressing the Son in the earth.

And the church of Jesus Christ is ordained to be the fullness of the Son in the earth just as the Son is the fullness of the Father in the earth. So as Jesus revealed the fullness of the Father by walking in union with the Father, by speaking the words of the Father, by doing the works of the Father, by declaring nothing out from himself, but declaring the truth of God out from the mouth of the Father, so he revealed the name of the Father to his own.

And so he said, I declare thy name unto my brother. I declare thy name that the love wherewith you have loved me may be in me. Because Jesus was able because of his ministry, because of his teachings, because of his life, because of what he was, because he was the expression of the Father in the earth, he wasn't God the Son distinct from God the Father.