372. Unity, Union and Oneness

Mike Parsons

Levels of Understanding: From Unity to Oneness

There are various levels of understanding and experience that take us deeper into what it means to be in unity, union, and ultimately, oneness with God. In earlier teachings, unity was often understood in terms of shared beliefs. If people agreed on doctrines or beliefs, they were considered to be in unity. However, this kind of unity was superficial because it excluded others who did not share the same beliefs. In reality, true unity has little to do with agreement on beliefs.

Unity Based on Beliefs vs. True Union

Union, on the other hand, is about a deeper relational connection. It’s similar to the union between husband and wife, where two people come together in an intimate relationship that goes beyond mere agreement. Union is more about connection and relational closeness than about aligning beliefs. It involves a joining together at a deeper level, reflecting a more intimate connection than unity of the mind or beliefs alone.

However, there is an even deeper level: **oneness**. When we enter oneness, there is no separation between us and God. This doesn’t mean we become God, but we become one with Him in spirit. In this state of oneness, we have access to His heart, His mind, and there is a profound connection that transcends separation. While we remain distinct, oneness allows us to experience God’s presence and intimacy in a way that feels inseparable.

Union and Oneness: A Personal Journey

My personal journey involved discovering what it means to be in oneness with God. It was not just a theological understanding but an experiential one. The feeling of oneness was different from the experience of union, where intimacy was deep, but there was still a sense of individuality. In oneness, I felt an abiding presence in God that made it impossible to feel separate from Him. It became clear that this relationship was not about doing or achieving, but about realizing and experiencing what was always true—that I am made in His image and likeness, and that this reality transcends any works or protocols.

We are all on a journey to discover who we truly are as sons and daughters of God. Being made in His image and likeness means more than we often understand. It means that our very essence reflects His original intention for us. As we go deeper into this relationship, our DNA is transformed, and we are restored to God’s original purpose.

Experiencing Truth Beyond Protocols

In the past, much of the spiritual journey was about protocols—if you do this or that, you would get closer to God. There were steps to follow: salvation, baptism, receiving the Spirit, and so on, which often felt like climbing a ladder. However, the deeper understanding is that we don’t need to earn or work for these experiences. The truth has always been there; we just need to have it revealed to us. Once it is unveiled, we come into agreement with it, realizing that God has always seen us this way.

Evangelical Christianity has often taught that God’s view of humanity changed after the Fall, but in reality, **God never changed His view of us**—we changed our view of ourselves. His thoughts towards us have always been rooted in love and truth, and He is revealing this so we can see ourselves as He does.

Agreeing with God’s Reality

This process of revelation is about agreeing with God’s perspective. It’s not about reconciling our limited human thinking with God’s, but about transforming our thinking to align with His. This transformation is key to entering into the reality of who we truly are. It’s not about doing works or following steps to ascend spiritually. Instead, it’s about embracing the truth that has always been there and allowing it to transform us.

Ultimately, this journey is about living in a relational reality with God that unveils the depth of who we are. It’s not about striving or achieving through works but about receiving the revelation of our identity in God and living in agreement with that truth.

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358. Governing Time: Understanding God’s Seasons and Our Role

Mike Parsons discusses how seasons reflect God’s intentions and how we can align ourselves with these divine plans.

Astrological Control?

I’ve never bought into the idea that I’m controlled by some astrological setup of the stars or that I need to wait 2,500 years, or however long, for the next period of Aquarius, Aries or Pisces. Yes, I believe in immortality, but do I really want to wait two and a half thousand years for another season to come? I believe that seasons illustrate God’s desire to do something. For example, some people look at Aquarius, the water-pourer, and prophesy about living water coming, streams flowing, and revival waters emerging. Depending on what they’re tuned into, they’ll use Aquarius to justify all sorts of ideas. And then there’s the talk of transitioning between the ages and all that.

So, do I believe in times and seasons that God operates within? Yes. Do I believe God uses our times and seasons to help us relate to things? Yes. Sometimes He even says to me, “In three years’ time,” respecting the fact that we live in time.

Divine Timing and Seasons

Ultimately, am I subject to that? When it comes to legislating and governing the times and seasons that God wants to move in, it’s about agreeing with God and participating in the co-heirship to bring about His desires. That doesn’t mean I can govern or control someone else’s actions. I think the problem arises when people believe they know God’s heart and then try to enforce it by controlling others or legislating against them. That’s not how I believe God wants us to operate. Everything we legislate should be for blessing, never for cursing. We’re not meant to remove someone or cause harm where someone ends up losing their job or worse. That’s not the way I believe God works.

I’m not saying you couldn’t do it, especially if you have the authority as a son. But is it necessarily what God wants? I’m not convinced. I don’t resonate with the mindset that says, “I’m so concerned with what’s going on in the world that I need to change it.” That approach often translates into, “I’m going to come against this and that and the other.” I don’t think God “comes against” anything. God blesses to bring about change and transformation. I think the spiritual warfare mentality still operates in some people, making them view everything as a battle against the enemy. But often, they end up doing it in the same spirit they’re supposedly opposing. For me, it’s about governing in love.

Promoting Blessing Over Control

When I govern in love, it brings about change that blesses people’s lives and aligns them with who God says they are and what He wants for them. I can call that into being, decree and declare it, govern and legislate it. But I’m not controlling those people. They still have the choice to embrace God’s heart for them. And if they choose not to, I can’t control them into it. Similarly, I can’t control a government into changing a policy just because I think it’s not what God wants. I believe that many ideas people have about what’s right and wrong and just come from their own sense of justice, rather than God’s.

I’m totally in agreement that, as sons, we have the ability to cycle seasons or time to bring about change and transformation. That might seem like acceleration, but I’m not going to be controlled by the cosmic clock. I believe we’re here to govern times and seasons to fulfil God’s purposes, not our own or someone else’s, and certainly not in a negative way.

When we talk about governing time, what are we really trying to do? Control time? Control what happens within it? Time is also a being we can cooperate with, and I believe the process and journey are what really matter. People are on different cycles of journey and process. For some, it takes longer than for others. So, if you try to control time, you might make it too fast for some and too slow for others. Everyone needs to legislate for their own journey within the time they’re in. It’s complex, and I’m not convinced people fully understand what it means to govern space and time. And frankly, I don’t think it’s ever explained well enough for most people to grasp.

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357. Faith IN Christ, or Faith OF Christ? What’s the difference?

Our True Identity

I believe our true identity comes from God’s faith in us, not our faith in God. So, what about the faith needed for our salvation? Where does faith come from? How much faith is needed? Whose faith saves us? These are all valid questions that many people ask, but I think they ask them because they don’t fully understand the reality of what God has done. They think we need to do something to make what God has done work for us.

I believe God wants us to understand that the very fabric of the universe is founded on grace and faith—but not ours, His. His grace is limitless. Ephesians 2:8 says, “By grace, you have been saved through faith; that is not of yourselves.” It’s very clear here: the faith through which we are saved is not ours; it’s the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

So, I can’t come to God and say, “Look at my great faith that saved me,” because I never had that measure of faith—and I don’t think anyone does. What we do have is the gift that enables us to come to the realisation of what the truth is, so it’s not by works. This is what defines the difference between the Old and New Covenants: how faith worked in the Old Covenant and how it works in the New. The key question is whether faith is a gift from God or something we try to generate ourselves through works or effort. The reality is that it has nothing to do with what we do at all—by grace, through the gift of God’s faith, not by our own faith or works.

Saved by Our Faith?

So, we are not saved by our faith in God but by the faith that comes from God. The meanings are slightly different. The faith of God means God has enough faith for our salvation, and the faith from God means He gives us the faith to come to the realisation of how He feels about us. It’s often translated as “our faith in God,” but it isn’t actually our faith—we didn’t create it; it was freely given to us by God.

God has an amazing way of looking at us, filled with wonderful thoughts, and each one of those thoughts is good. In English, it’s usually translated as “faith in,” but in Greek, it’s more accurately “faith of” or “faith from.” That small change in wording can make a huge difference to our experience, understanding, and daily walk with God.

One perspective drives us to constantly strive to have enough faith, often leaving us afraid we don’t. The other invites us to simply receive faith from Him and rest in the fact that His faith is enough for us. We don’t need to strive.

Let’s look at some Bible verses that address this. Philippians 3:9 says, “And may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ.” That’s the usual English translation. If we read it as “faith in Christ,” it suggests that righteousness comes from my own faith. But if we change the wording to “faith from Christ,” it reads: “And may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith from Christ—the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of the faith that comes from Christ.” That makes a huge difference in how we understand righteousness. It’s no longer based on our faith but on the righteousness Christ imparts to us.

‘In’ Fits a Works-Based Theology

The word ‘in’ fits with a works-based theology, but “of” or “from” fits with a grace-based understanding. Galatians 2:20 is another scripture: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Now, how many people have tried to crucify themselves daily, taking up their cross, trying to follow Him, and living in misery, wearied and burdened by the attempt to be good enough to please God or earn His love? So many are still caught in that trap.

We were crucified with Christ because when He died, we died with Him—not because we did anything, but because He did it on our behalf. It’s no longer I who live; Christ lives in me, and I now live as a new creation in Christ. The life I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God—or, more accurately, by faith from the Son of God. This changes everything. My relationship with God isn’t based on how much I can believe, but on His faith and the faith He gives me to enable that relationship.

The King James Version gets this right: “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” It’s all about the unconditional love of God and the gift of life through Jesus. Through Him, the world can rediscover its lost identity as children of God.

Who Is More Faithful: God or Me?

So, whose faith saves me and sustains me: my faith in God or God’s faith in me, given to me? Definitely the latter. Am I relying on my small measure of faith, or am I trusting in God’s faithfulness? God is faithful to do what He promised. He predestined us to a face-to-face, restored relationship in love, and this has always been His intention for each of His children.

So, does “in” or “of” really matter? Absolutely, it does. It makes a huge difference in how we live our daily lives. One places the burden of faith on us; the other reveals faith as a gift, enabling us to rest in God’s grace and faithfulness. So, who do you think is more faithful—Jesus or us? I know the answer to that, and I’m sure you do too.

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354. Heavenly Home? Revealing Our Sonship to Creation

Mike Parsons explores the profound concept of our true identity as spiritual beings created by God and emphasises that while we exist in a fallen world, we are not defined by it. Instead, our purpose is to reconnect our spirit, soul and body, to restore creation, and reveal our identity as sons of God.

Understanding Our True Identity

We didn’t leave our heavenly home. Heaven isn’t our home; creation is our home, within God. God is our home, if you like. We’ve come out of Him; we are spirit, and we’ve come out of Spirit. We haven’t taken on Satan’s fallen identity. We have come into a realm that has fallen, and our role within that realm is to bring restoration to it. But we are not fallen as Satan fell.

So, we may come into this realm and need to reconnect with ourselves. In this realm, we have to connect spirit, soul and body as a way of understanding that as we are restored, creation will be restored. Creation is waiting and longing for the revealing of the sons of God. So, we need to reveal our sonship to creation, which is why we need to be in this realm connected to all the realms, so that we can be a demonstration of God’s heart and desire within the realms of heaven. “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, in creation as it is in heaven.” But we haven’t taken on the fallen identity of the accuser. We have just entered into a world that was created, in a sense, by Adam and Eve’s choice to be independent. So, it is a world shaped after the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. As we come into that, we are then to bring it back into relationship with the Tree of Life, if you like.

Reconnecting Spirit, Soul and Body

There is a purpose. The sonship mandate was to overcome and to rule, to have dominion. That dominion has just been taken, through humanism, to mean control, empire, and everything else. So, God wants us to restore the relationship with the sons of God. God created us, not to live in Heaven—that’s not our home—God created us to co-heir and co-create with Him in the whole of creation, and therefore there is a role for that.

Is there a heavenly purification or purging of creation? Well, there is us coming into our identity, which enables creation to be set free into our identity. It’s like creation is longing and waiting for the revealing of the sons of God. But it also talks about creation being set free into the glory of the children of God. As we come into that true sense of our sonship, which is the glory—the weight of who we are—then there is a process for us to have our soul, which has been connected to this realm, aligned to our spirit, which is coming from our identity out of heaven. Of course, there is a renewing of the mind that comes because when we come into this world, although we’re alive in the spirit, our spirit and soul are not connected correctly. That is what bringing us back into wholeness and oneness is about.

The Mandate of Sonship

So, I would encourage you, when you’re looking at things like this, just relax and enjoy becoming the son that God created you to be—becoming the person and listening to the vast sum of His thoughts about you, tuning into the reality of who you really are. That will have a positive effect on creation in that it will be a revealing of your true identity and your role within creation itself.

You are being restored; you are learning to breathe easily again, to find that place where life is flowing through you and in you, and then creation begins to respond to you in your sonship. Now, yes, there is the opposite going on—there are the accusations of the enemy, which will try to keep people from their true identity. But Satan fell because he said, “I will be like God.” Eve bought the lie that she could be like God, but without God. Therefore, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is really the choice that man has made to follow independence. Jesus came to enable that independence to come to an end, for the lost identity to be recovered, so that people could fully understand who they really are. Their identity with the world will be redefined through our identity—not with a fallen or broken world, but with the restored desire that God has as the Creator of the world, of creation, so that we can participate with Him in its full restoration.

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345. The Rapture of the Saints

Mike Parsons – 

“The Rapture’s Coming!”

Every time there’s any sort of sign in the heavens, people say, “Oh yeah, the rapture’s coming, blah blah blah blah blah.” I mean, half the Amazon rainforest has been cut down to produce books about the rapture, and none of them came true. I’ve got a whole shelf filled with those books that people have either sent me or I used to have, that I keep just as a reminder that it’s never going to happen.

It won’t. It’s all based in a wrong understanding of God’s purpose, based in a theology which was a rejection of the Holy Spirit back in the 1820s. The Brethren – dispensation, millennialism, rapture theology all came from the same source. Zionism also. It’s all the fruit of a poisonous tree, sadly, but people buy into it hook, line and sinker. Any time there’s any sort of thing that happens in the world, you get all the crazies coming out, sadly. They’re well-meaning, a lot of them. It’s deceiving. It’s just a huge deception.

Whenever you reject the Holy Spirit, you’re opening yourself up for demonic deception. The whole Brethren movement, which was inspired by God for the priesthood of all believers, saw many believers come out of the institutions to look for a simpler way of engaging house to house. The Holy Spirit fell on them with prophecy, tongues, and gifts in the 1820s.

Ultimately, they rejected that, some of them. Deception came upon them, and then they needed a theology that explained why the Holy Spirit wasn’t for today, which they came up with: dispensationalism and cessationism as part of that. Then, along with that, came the rapture, the whole deception of it. Scofield was paid by a Jewish source to promote that because it plays into the hands of those who are looking for a one-world governmental system on earth. All it does is rob us of our authority to bring the Kingdom now and promotes fear.

Cult-like Deception

There was a lady in the States who killed two of her children because she didn’t want them to go through the [tribulation]. That was last year [2021] because it was supposed to be February the 24th that the rapture was going to happen. She actually killed two children because she did not want them to go through the tribulation. That’s how deceptive it was, but it becomes very cult-like because it’s a very controlling thing. We need to see it exposed; more and more people need to be set free from that deception. People will throw out the rapture, but they’ll keep the millennium because they’ve not yet realised it came from the same source. Or they’ll keep Zionism, not realising it came from the same source. That’s part of the problem: people are not discerning, and they don’t find out. They just believe what they’re told, and if you hear it enough, you think it must be true. That’s true. People do believe it because they’ve been told, and they kept being told.

I was brought up with it. I was in the Brethren Church. I know the roots of it. I researched it. I found all the books of the early Brethren fathers and what they shared, and how good it was in the beginning. But you could see when it went off, and you could see when deception came in because the writings changed. The tone of them changed. They became judgmental. The love went out of them. You can see it in just what was written, how it was written. Everything changed from the inspiration that they had.

If they had continued, you would have had Azusa Street-type revival 80 years before it happened. But they rejected it, and it took 80 years for that to come round again. The most ironic thing, and this is a huge irony, the Brethren movement does not allow women to speak, and they don’t believe in prophecy. But when the Holy Spirit was moving on that group, a woman called Mary Margaret McDonald prophesied a vision, and they based the rapture teaching on that prophecy. But they don’t believe women can speak, and they don’t believe prophecy, but they based the teaching on it and mixed it with a Jesuit priest’s teaching, and came up with that whole system of belief which hijacked the seminaries around the world for the best part of a hundred years.

Impact on Mainstream Christianity

It is still taught in most seminaries around the world, unless you come from a Reformed background. Most of the other charismatic seminaries teach it because they were totally hoodwinked by it. The Scofield Bible, which was commissioned and paid for with an agenda that wasn’t from a Christian, promoted that. The Scofield was a King James Version that contained all the notes related to the rapture, the seven dispensations and cessationism, all in the notes. That infiltrated the seminaries around the world, and then most of the missionaries’ teaching, and the evangelical movement were actually taught from those seminaries.

That’s why it’s so infiltrated mainstream because it got in through the seminaries, and then that went out through and infiltrated most of the evangelical movement. It wasn’t really until the charismatic movement started to bring people back to a restored relationship where they could hear God for themselves, that people started to question some of those things.

When I got baptised in the Spirit in 1986, the first thing God said to me was, “You need to understand kingdom and covenant.” Well, I thought I knew what kingdom and covenant meant because I’d been brought up in the Brethren movement. That’s all they talked about: the kingdom coming a thousand years after all this stuff. It took me three years of going back with God through the Bible, because He just did it. I didn’t read another book: I just went through the Bible. He showed me the whole error of all of it, and I found a whole different view of what is going to happen, which has led me and helped me to come and embrace restoration and everything else. But that was a long time ago.

I already had a lot of deconstruction from futurist eschatology 40 years ago. Now, it’s so easy to see how all this works together with what God is doing to restore. I didn’t have all of that negative stuff. I had a lot of demons cast out of me. I had a lot of religious spirits specifically from that movement. It was a deceptive movement: it was birthed in God – and rejected God for an error. When you do that, you open yourself up to deception. It has had probably the biggest deceptive influence on mainstream Christianity in the last 200 years. A huge deception.

Mike goes into much more detail on these subjects in his book The Eschatology of the Restoration of All Things, available in paperback or as an ebook.  Click here or on the image above for details.

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341. Unlocking Hidden Abilities

Mike Parsons

There are abilities we all were intended to have that have become disconnected.

 

Video summary

We all have abilities that have been disconnected, and after deconstructing my mind, God wanted to reconnect me to them. I needed to change my thinking to believe in abilities beyond my current experience. God used the illustration of a perceived gulf to show me that there was no real separation, just my perception of it. Once I accepted this, I realised there were abilities to unlock, such as multi-dimensional reality and creative consciousness.

Like many, I had been programmed by religion and life, and deprogramming opened up new possibilities. He showed me a new way of thinking aligned with the mind of Christ. You don’t need my exact experience; it’s about your journey with God. It’s important to seek these revelations in relationship with God, not independently.

We were created with abilities to engage with sound, light and frequency, but over time, we moved away from our original reality. Jesus came to restore that, but it’s a process. Intimacy with the Father reveals who we really are and our potential for creating. I never thought I could create beings, but God showed me I could. He said there are things left for us to create as sons of God.

Sharing this with others, I found someone who had similar experiences. My journey has shown me that God wants us to form and create our own realities in alignment with His heart. We’re always creating stuff that is not in alignment with His heart; it’s just how we live. But when we start to choose realities aligned with His heart, our realities will be different from what we experience now.

339. Universal Inclusion in Christ

Mike Parsons

Some are in Christ and some are not? I personally don’t believe that because everyone’s in Christ through the resurrection.

Everyone was born from above, so everyone’s included in Christ. That might have been true before the cross, but post-cross, everyone is now in Christ and everyone has been born from above. I don’t see that there are those who aren’t. There are those who don’t know they’re in Christ and wouldn’t go to the Father because they don’t realise their position as sons of God, and there are those who do have that revelation.

Limited atonement

From my perspective, what Jesus did on the cross was reconciling the whole cosmos to himself, not just some. That view is a limited atonement view, or an Arminian view, where only those who accept what Jesus has done are born again after they accept it. This is an old covenant, works-based mentality rather than a grace mentality. Essentially, what Jesus did was reconcile the cosmos to himself, which did not require us to do anything. He did it all; he finished the work before we had to do anything.

When Jesus breathed into the disciples, they were representative of that resurrected, born-from-above, new creation. The reality is most people haven’t realised it yet. I don’t believe in an evangelical view of salvation, where we do something and then we’re saved. I believe we’ve been saved and we realise that we’re already saved; otherwise, it’s works-based.

I don’t believe that only those in Christ are saved, assuming they’re outside of Christ. I would say only those who know they’re in Christ would access the Father. If you didn’t know you were in Christ, you wouldn’t access the Father, would you? It may just be semantics, but I would say that is coming from a very evangelical perspective of “get born again when you pray a prayer,” whereas I would say no, you might pray a prayer that brings a realisation of what you already are, but it doesn’t happen after you do something. It’s already happened when Jesus did what he did.

Who we actually are

Before the cross, there were all sorts of people who were not following God. Although God hasn’t changed, and the Father hasn’t changed towards his creation and towards all people, Jesus came to rescue us or restore our ability to know who we actually are. We lost that ability through walking in independence, which affected who we really are. Jesus came to unveil and reveal who we really are so we can know that. In Corinthians, it says that you can’t really understand anything spiritually unless it’s in the spirit. If our spirit was dead, how would we ever come to a point where we wanted to accept Jesus? But if our spirit is alive and able to enter into that relationship that God has already provided for us, then it comes after realisation.

In an evangelical view, salvation is based on what we do and then God does something if we do something. I believe God’s already done it; the work’s already finished, and we enter into what has already been done by realisation of that. I don’t believe some are in Christ and some are outside of Christ: some know they’re in Christ, and some don’t know they’re in Christ.

324. Complete Salvation in Christ

Mike Parsons

The Finished Work of Christ

  • The finished work of Christ has accomplished everything necessary for our complete salvation. There is nothing else to be done.
  • All the promises and covenants of God are fully and completely fulfilled in Jesus. There is nothing and no one else who could complete or fulfil them.
  • We are all included in Jesus and have received life through him, just as all died in Adam.

The Universality of Salvation

  • As in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. All have received life, though not everyone is aware of this reality yet.
  • The ministry of believers is to help people understand this amazing inclusion and reality that all have been given life in Christ.

The Universality of Sin

  • The Bible verse “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) is often used to tell people they are not good enough and need God.
  • The reality is that all have outworked their lost identity, which is short of the glory God intended for us.

Justification by Grace

  • The ‘all’ who have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (in Romans 3:23) are “justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).
  • This means that all who have sinned (which is everyone) have also been justified, not by their own merit, but as a free gift of God’s grace through Christ’s redemption.

The Universality of Justification

  • The “all” who have sinned are the same “all” who have been justified. There is a universality to both the problem of sin and the solution of justification.
  • Romans 5:18  states that just as condemnation came to all through one man’s transgression (Adam), so also justification of life has come to all through one act of righteousness (Christ).
  • The condemnation referred to here is not eternal punishment, but the state of living in lost identity apart from God, and the consequences that brings. 

Jesus’ Authority over All Mankind

  • According to John 17:2, Jesus is given authority over all mankind, so that he may give eternal life to all whom the Father has given him.

Eternal Life for All Mankind

  • In John 17:2-3, Jesus states that eternal life is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom God has sent.
  • God has given Jesus authority over all mankind: the same “all” who were condemned in their lost identity and the same “all” who would be made righteous and justified.
  • Some may try to separate the “all” to whom Jesus has authority over, and the “all” to whom he gives eternal life. That is illogical. The same “all” applies to both – Jesus has authority over all mankind, and he will give eternal life to all whom the Father has given him.

The Supremacy of Christ

  • Colossians 1:15-20 speaks of the supremacy of Christ, and that all things were created through him and for him.
  • Note again the inclusive nature of the “all” – nothing is left out, as all things have been created through Christ and hold together in him.
  • And it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Christ, and through him to reconcile ‘all things’ to himself, whether on earth or in heaven.

The Universality of Reconciliation

  • Christ has reconciled all things, not just people, but everything that he created.
  • This reinforces the universal scope of Christ’s work: he has reconciled all of creation to the Father through the blood of his cross.

The Universality of Christ’s Work

  • John 1:7 – Jesus came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him.
  • John 1:16 – Of Christ’s fullness, we have all received grace upon grace.
  • John 3:35 – The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands.
  • John 5:28 – A time is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice.

The Reconciliation of All Things

  • In John 12:32, Jesus says that when he is lifted up on the cross, he will draw all people to himself.
  • “All” does not leave anyone out, and there are many instances of the word “all” used throughout the teachings of Jesus and the Scriptures.

The Fulfillment of the Law

  • In Matthew 5:18, Jesus states that not the smallest letter or stroke of the law will pass away until all is accomplished.
  • The “heaven and earth” referred to in this verse represent the old covenant system, which was fulfilled; and it passed away when the temple was destroyed in AD 70.

Key Takeaway

All has been accomplished through the finished work of Christ; there is nothing left to be done for the full and complete salvation not only of mankind but of all creation.

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321. Unveiling the Deceptive Path

Note: Mike was asked a question about how he views the fact that some prophetic voices seem not to be accurately representing the good news of the gospel at all, and what might be the way forward. This is his response.

Deception often starts with small distortions of truth, leading people astray gradually. These initial deceptions can lay the groundwork for larger falsehoods to take root. The enemy doesn’t usually present outright lies immediately; instead, the truth gets twisted bit by bit. Any prophetic individuals who now spread complete falsehoods likely fell into deception gradually. Minor deceptions accumulate over time, dulling people’s sensitivity to truth and making them susceptible to further deception as they operate outside of love.

This is what has led to recent political and judgmental ‘prophecies’. Eschatological beliefs, particularly those of impending judgment (invariably understood to mean ‘punishment’), exacerbate this; leading to prophecies of judgment on nations or individuals through catastrophes such as earthquakes and tsunamis. When I come across such messages, I always look to express mercy instead. My desire is for all to experience God’s love for themselves, which reveals His true nature of mercy, grace and love, so contrary to this kind of  judgment.

Signs along the way, such as the excommunication of the Toronto Vineyard, marked a departure from values of love and acceptance. Judgmental attitudes infiltrated the prophetic movement, leading to further divisions and exclusions. This led to an increased focus on spiritual warfare and a judgmental mindset, causing the movement to drift away from its roots in love. Prophets began to pronounce judgments in alignment with their perception of God’s impending judgment on the earth – a mindset that has drawn some into extreme political views and conspiracy theories.

It is important we measure everything against love to avoid deception. Instead of engaging aggressively, let’s approach everyone with love and restoration. Embracing and loving perceived threats (rather than fighting against them) can lead to transformation.  Restoration, not separation, aligns with God’s desire to reconcile all things. So, instead of getting into conflict, it will be better if we focus on helping individuals – even fallen heavenly beings – get back on track with their original purpose.  I’m not going to fight against someone or something and so give them an opportunity to fight against me. All I will look to do is come in the opposite spirit: remind them of their true identity, that God has forgiven them, and that they have an original higher purpose which is so much better than what they are doing right now.

Even though there may be deception within the prophetic movement, understanding God’s original intent for it can help us move forwards. When we receive a revelation, we often interpret and implement it based on our own understanding. I believe in the importance of embracing principles like foundational government, but my approach has shifted towards viewing government as an intrinsic aspect of our identity as children of God, rather than merely a set of roles or tasks to fulfil. Our aim is to discover and express God’s kingdom and governance in our lives, so that we can each contribute according to our abilities and opportunities for growth and expression within a given blueprint.

So, rather than fitting people into predefined roles, it is more effective to allow their identities to naturally express themselves within a relational framework. Heavenly government is an expression of individuals’ identities coming together, not a rigid organisational structure. Initially, there might be a tendency to impose organisational structures, but the essence lies in organic development and honouring each person for who they are. The principles remain valid, but the way they are worked out evolves organically within the dynamics of relationship. Sometimes, we embark on journeys to discover better ways, learning from experiences along the way. If I had known then what I know now, I would not have taken the church here along the path I did; but ultimately it is God who takes us all through doing, to becoming, to being – that is our journey.

Key Takeaways

Let our desire be for all to experience God’s love for themselves, which reveals His true nature of mercy, grace and love.

Ultimately it is God who takes us all through doing, to becoming, to being.

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320. The Signs of Jesus’ Coming

When you look at the beginning of Matthew 24, the chapter’s context is the question posed by the disciples to Jesus. They asked when these three things would happen: the destruction of the temple, the sign of His ‘coming’ (parousia = presence), and the end of the age (not the end of the world, but rather the end of the Old Covenant age, as Jesus brings an end to the Old Covenant).

These ideas are interconnected, and Jesus provides various signs of His parousia in this context. The ‘generation’ was that 40-year period and the ‘elect’ refer to Jewish believers who left Jerusalem, as Jesus had warned them. Leaving the earthly Jerusalem was also a symbolic act of leaving the Old Covenant and entering the New, the Heavenly Jerusalem. The ‘angels’ (angeloi = messengers) gathering the elect can be understood in the sense of human (and perhaps supernatural) messengers who had been sent out with the gospel during the period leading up to the end of the age; so ‘the elect’ are those who would be gathered during this time, the 144,000 of Revelation.

The lightning imagery can be interpreted in different ways. Firstly, it can mean that Jesus would come quickly at the end of that age, as lightning bursts suddenly. Secondly, the word lightning can also be translated as bright sunshine, which suggests that the light of the Gospel would be released during this period, as the messengers released that truth and the elect were gathered in.

All that Jesus says in this passage is perfectly consistent, but we may find the symbolism challenging to grasp fully due to our conditioning by modern teachings that associate these verses with the ‘rapture’ and the end of the world. But when Jesus talks about two in the field and one being taken, this is again a warning about the war and siege of AD 67-70 (nothing to do with a ‘rapture’), underscoring the importance of being alert and ready at that time. In the days of Noah there were those who were ready and entered the ark and those who were not ready and were lost: the same thing was true here. Of those who did not heed the warning to flee, some were ‘taken’ by the enemy army, and many were crucified and thrown into Gehenna during that period of the Siege of Jerusalem leading up to AD70.

Jesus’ parables have also been misinterpreted by the ‘rapture’ teaching. They are not analogies to be dissected for every detail, but rather stories used to convey a point. Terms like “outer darkness” and “weeping and gnashing of teeth” symbolise being outside the covenant and expressing anger towards the gospel: those who reject the light of the New Covenant dwell in darkness and respond with hostility.

Certain parables refer to the anticipation of Jesus’ first coming after a period of silence in prophecy. During this time, some were aware of the signs and awaited the Messiah, while others remained unaware or entrenched in a flawed religious system. When He did come they rejected Him, but then had a whole generation in which the light had gone forth, the messengers had gone out and the good news was being proclaimed. Yet still many rejected the good news and followed their old religious system rather than entering into what Jesus came to offer.

I can direct you to a whole blog post we wrote several years ago on the subject of the sheep and goats. In that parable Jesus was talking about nations, not individuals; and specifically about the treatment of the elect, the believing Jews, by their ‘brothers’ (the unbelieving Jews) during this time of covenant transition.

In reality, I believe it’s more important to seek the Father’s heart on these matters rather than attempting to dissect every scripture from a modern-day perspective. Understanding the nuances of Old Covenant language can be challenging, and without that context, passages may seem obscure.

Jesus cautioned his followers to flee Jerusalem when they witnessed certain signs, without even retrieving their coats. Historical records, such as the writings of Josephus, corroborate that Christians heeded this warning and fled to safety in the hills of Pella. While the entire region was impacted by the siege, those who followed Jesus’ advice were spared (‘saved’). The phrase ‘cut short for the sake of the elect’ indicates that even the survivors would be at risk if the tribulation continued. Ultimately, it did come to an end, signifying the conclusion of that age and its accompanying trials. We are not anticipating tribulation of this kind anymore!

Key takeaways

The signs of Jesus’ coming were for the first century believers, regarding an event in their future but in our past.

It is important always to seek the Father’s heart, rather than attempting to dissect every scripture from a modern-day perspective.

Eschatology of the Restoration of All Things

In the video Mike refers to this, his third book, which goes into a great deal of detail about eschatology and the background to the ‘rapture’ teaching.
Order the paperback from your favourite bookseller or get the ebook on our website.

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