Divine Conception

I'd like to read just a little bit from Matthew. Saint Matthew, the first chapter, the eighteenth verse. 

Matthew 1:18-23 "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us."

Now I'd like to turn over to the book of Genesis and consider just a little bit of Scripture here in the book of Genesis. Turn over to about the second or third chapter. Let me see just where we're at here. These pages want to stick together. Over in the fourth chapter it is, verse one.

Genesis 4:1-16 "And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden."

Now I want to talk a little bit tonight, if I can, concerning divine conception. In the third chapter, reading at the first verse, it says, 

Genesis 3:1-16 "Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."

We've been trying to take our time and talk to you a little bit about the things concerning faith and what one of the great problems of the church really is. Now I'd like to take my time tonight as we have in the other tapes. We've made several tapes here in succession on tongues and baptism and one God. And speaking of one God, I want you to especially notice something here that perhaps you have noticed in the past and I've noticed it in studying, is that the Scripture here refers to the one who walked in the garden as being the Lord God. As being the Lord God, not just God, but being the Lord God. Now, you know, death is a horrible thing. And death has preeminence over everybody. Nobody escapes death. Death has the preeminence and power over everybody. And Paul said all of our lives we were subject to bondage because of the fear of death. I brought some of this out in the last tape that we made here. All of our life we were subject to bondage because of the fear of death. Now. That really tells me something and to me I can see something wonderful and glorious here that's hidden within the passage of Scriptures that Genesis gives in the third chapter. Remember that there is a great controversy over the third chapter of Genesis, as well as these other things that we've spoken on in the last few days, and we've tried to bring it out according to the Scripture the way that we understand it and in a way that you could understand it. And where you could take the Bible and show a person just exactly like it is. Now, if I am wrong then I've invited, not only by airways, but by people here or abroad, to bring me Scriptural proof and show me Scripture-wise where I am wrong, but if not then to accept what I have said. And we have based it altogether on God's Word and tried to prove what we understand concerning the Scriptures. In the garden, I want you to notice something. The Lord told Eve said, Eve, the day that thou eatest of this tree ye shall surely die. The day that thou eatest of this tree thou shall surely die. Now. I made the statement the other night that if God had not allowed this thing to take place that God could never have proven to Adam and Eve that He was God because God could have said, I'm God, but Adam could have said, I'm God, and Eve could have said that she was God. You say, Brother Pike, that's absurd. They wouldn't do a thing like that. But it's a true fact that the serpent told them, said, He's trying to pull something over on you. Said, Because in the day that thou eatest thereof He knows your eyes will be open and you shall be as gods. Is that right? So it's not as absurd as you might think it is in your carnal reasoning. And so then, God had to give a proof here as who really was God. And He told Eve He said, The day that thou eatest thereof thou shall surely die. Now. I want to take just a few minutes here and explain something. First of all, God made Adam and Eve to fall from the garden. Now. A lot of people say, Brother Pike, God never made them to fall, but God made Adam and Eve to fall from the garden. You say, Can you prove that is true? First of all they were made out of the dust, isn't that right? God made them out of the dust. Next, they were not eternal. They did not have eternal life. They were in the presence of eternal life, or they were not born of the Shekinah glory of God as the church is today, but they were living in the presence of the Shekinah glory of God. And they were made to fall. They were made so they would be subject to fall from their steadfastness in God. There was no other way that God could bring forth His plan for humanity without letting man fall. Now as we get a little farther along in the lesson I'll prove that to you. Man had to fall from his steadfastness in the garden to be able to become as God. If you notice it was not said unto Adam and Eve that they were gods, or like God until after they had partaken of the tree of good and evil. Now, when you think of the tree of good and evil sometimes you can kind of get misconstrued on that particular thing. When you say good and evil, actually there wasn't anything there but evil because God had already given them the knowledge of good and he was letting them know that Satan had a knowledge of good and of evil. And there wasn't anything for them to get but evil. God said, Don't partake of the tree for it knows about good and it knows about evil. And I made the statement the other night, you don't grow knowledge on trees. How many of you know that? You don't grow knowledge on trees. That's absurd. You can't do it. It has to be a spiritual significance to what God is saying. I am persuaded to believe that tree represented Satan because the Bible refers back to Satan. It says that thou was one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful tree in the garden. But said to Satan, Thou didst lift up thyself. Lifted yourself up above the trees, and God did cast him down. But he was a beautiful tree in the garden. And this tree was a tree that contained evil and God knew that if they went to this tree that all they could get out of it was evil. It's not like God to destroy the righteous with the wicked. God doesn't do that. Neither is it like God to hold back anything good, because the Bible says God will withhold no good thing from them that walk upright before Him. If God had told Adam and Eve that they could not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil when there was good in that tree then God would have been cruel. He would have been keeping them back from something good because He, himself, testified that there was some good to it. But how many of you know that Satan loves to tell the truth about ninety-nine percent. That's right. Just enough to get your attention, just like he did Eve. He told her the truth, proportionally speaking. He told her but he took the real thing out of its rightful perspective and he used it to kill with. Like when He went to Jesus; he said, If you be the son of God cast yourself down from here. Now, Jesus could have done it, but the thing was Satan said, If you be the son of God. He was trying to put a question, or create unbelief in Jesus' heart. He said, If you be the Son of God turn these things into bread. Turn these stones into bread. But Jesus was too wise for that. In other words, if Jesus had turned those stones into bread it would have proven that He was in the stages of unbelief because the question Satan ask Him was, if You be the Son of God. In other words, give me a proof that you are the Son of God. If You are the Son of God. And this, of course, if Jesus had sought to prove He was the Son of God He would automatically have produced unbelief and Satan knew that and that was what he was trying to do. And if he could have gotten Him to have done that one time the entirety of God's plan would have been finished. Is that right? So then, the thing that he did he said, I want a proof of it. But Jesus quoted the Scripture and said, It is written. Now then, God did not hold back anything good from Adam and Eve. He said, You can't eat of the tree of good and evil, of the knowledge of good and evil, He said, because if you do you'll die. In other words Adam and Eve, I have already given you a knowledge of good. I've endowed you with the mind of God and given you the knowledge of all things pleasant. I've given you the knowledge of joy, of happiness, of contentment and prosperity and blessings, and don't go intermingle anything with it. Stay away from the tree of knowledge of good and evil because there is nothing you can get out of it but evil. And when you get it all mixed up you're going to be in a double-minded condition and faith cannot work in a double mind. The writer tells us that if you're double minded faith can't work. Ask in faith nothing wavering for he that is double minded cannot have faith, for nothing can he receive of God. All right, now. Here, as they partook of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the very moment that Eve partook of it she was then ready to die. But the thing could not be effected until she took it to her husband because in the Old Testament nobody could do anything in the family and it be effective in the sight of God unless the head of the house agreed that it was so. If a daughter did anything if the father just annulled it that was it. If the wife did anything if the husband annulled it that was it. And so then, the thing could not be effective, neither did God come walking in the garden, neither did He say anything to Adam and Eve until after this sin got into the headship. And then when the thing got into the headship God came walking through the garden and He said, Adam and Eve, where art thou? And I tell you something tonight. When sin comes into the home God will tolerate it for a while, while it's going on in the wife. He won't leave the wife unpunished. He won't leave the children unpunished, but he will tolerate it while it's going on in the wife and children. But, my friend, if it ever gets into the husband, or into the daddy, then God's going to come down and take a look at things and find out what's going on. And so then, when Eve eventually came to Adam and told Adam, said, Adam, said, the fruits of this tree are good. I've partaken of it, and said, Let me share it with you. Then the trouble started. Because immediately the powers of death was set in motion. It wasn't set in motion until it hit the mind of Adam, but when it came to the mind of Adam then it was set in motion. Now then, here's something I would like for you to consider. Why is death in the world today? How did death get here to begin with? and who is to blame for death? and what will it take to eradicate death? You've got to know where death came from. You've got to know what caused death and you've got to know how to — If you're ever going to eradicate death. I'll put it like that. Now. Where did it come from? How did it get in the world? The Bible says that sin is in the world because of lust. Is that right? It says that sin is in the world because of lust. Remember that. Because of lust. Eve lusted after the fruit of the tree and because of that it let sin in. And the Bible tells us that you're first enticed then you are drawn away of your lust and then lust conceives. And after lust conceives it brings forth sin and after sin is finished it brings forth death. Eve was enticed by seeing this and then she lusted after it. And when she did sin conceived in her heart, lust conceived in her heart and it brought forth sin, which is unbelief. And when the sin of unbelief came then death set in because the just shall live by their faith, the Bible says. And so then, just as quick as that heart became unbelief God called it an evil heart of unbelief because it is a heart that cannot contain, or retain God. God is a spirit according to John four, twenty-four and you can't keep God in your heart if you've got unbelief. God cannot and will not fellowship unbelief. And so then, the very minute that Eve conceived this evil mind of understanding, this indoctrination that came from the beast in her heart, her heart became darkened with unbelief and unbelief is sin. And she was immediately cut off from the presence of God. But, the thing is she did not feel the impact of it because she was living through Adam. She was living through Adam and it had to get to the head. Just like you might take cancer in your arm. You might take cancer in your feet, or in your body somewhere. But you won't feel the impact of death, even though that is death working in your members; yet you won't feel the impact of death until it hits the blood stream and goes to the heart. And then when it goes to the heart it goes to the head and hits the brain and that's it. In other words you're gone. As quick as it hits the heart that's it. And so then, this evil that has been injected into Eve had to make it's round and get to the headship before she realized, really, the full impact of what she had done. Now then, the very minute that Adam partook of it then their eyes, the Bible says, their eyes were opened. Now I'd like to say that their eyes were closed. The very minute that it happened their eyes was closed. Their natural eyes came open, as the Scripture says, but their spiritual eyes were closed in the sleep of death. The very minute that they did it their eyes came open to a natural tangible surrounding and environment and their eyes were closed to a spiritual world of beauty and of happiness immediately after they did it. Now. This is something that I want you to see tonight. That was a conception of the heart that brought forth death. But there is a divine conception of the heart that can bring forth life. And that life eternal. Here Adam and Eve, living in the Shekinah glory of God, being right in the presence of God and having the very desires of their heart, all of sudden went into a deep sleep of death and was cut off from the presence of God. Then the Bible says that God began to walk through the garden and He said, Adam, where art thou? And the Bible says Adam had hidden himself, and Eve had hidden herself. Why did they hide themselves? Somebody said, They hid themselves, Brother Pike, because that they were naked, that they were without clothing. No, that's not right. They did not hide themselves because they were naked or without clothing. That's not why they hid themselves. They hid themselves because they were in unbelief and shame. They had already been naked. They had already been without clothing. God made them that way. But they did not hide themselves from God before because they were not ashamed. It wasn't that that caused it; it was the evil heart of unbelief and it was the shame and sorrow of sin that had caused the whole thing. They hid themselves because they were ashamed and afraid. That's what it was. Now then. Adam had his wife. They were there, they were holy, they were pure. There were no blemishes on them. They did not look upon each other as a fleshly being in the sense of lust and in the sense of ugliness, but they were pure and holy. They wasn't anything like that because it was God's holy, undefiled creation without any spots or blemishes. But when the Satanic forces of Satan polluted Eve's mind, the very minute he worked on the five senses of the body to pollute her mind, and to abase her and to bring her down to a beastly level she became ashamed. Unbelief set in in her heart and she became ashamed and this is where death came in. I want you to see this tonight. This is exactly where death came in. Death came in just as quick as Satan, which was that tree, just as quick as he project his evil inspiration of lust through the beastly intelligence into Eve, or into God's creation, death set in because faith cannot work in the beast mind. Faith cannot work in the beast mind and every person that's born into this world has the beast mind. There is not a person born into the world that doesn't come into it in a sinful manner. David, or one of the writers, said, In sin did my mother conceive me. In other words it's a beastly act to start with. The whole thing is a beastly act. Everything in this world centers around the beastly act of human conception. Everything centers around it and it has an inspiration of life to it. This is what I want you to see. Lust is an inspiration of life. Did you know that? But it is perverted life. It is an inspiration of perverted life. And it produces a temporal, temporal life, or a temporal thing that can be called life, in that we come into the world to live until God can change us over into the thing He had Adam and Eve in the presence of to begin with. Now then. Adam and Eve was in the presence of the Shekinah glory which was not the inspiration of lust but the inspiration of love. They were in the presence of God's eternal Spirit, which was unadulterated and undefiled love. Though they had not been born of this love, they had not conceived in their hearts of this divine love that they might be transformed into the image of God. They could not be because they were not ready for it. See? They had to take on what we refer to as a sovereignty. They had to take on a sovereignty of heart and will and mind before God could ever do this. If He had taken Adam and Eve and just made them that way they would have been like robots. They would never have known the attributes of God. They would never have known the greatness of God. And, friend, listen. If we had not known the attributes of God and the greatness of God we could never have been like God. Did you know that? Do you know what makes a woman like her husband? Is that she learns her husband. She understands her husband. And if she loves her husband and she draws close to her husband she will become just exactly what he is. Just right down to a tee, because she will develop his character, his ways, his desires and everything. And when you see her you will see him, as far as far as characteristics it'll be the very same thing. Now. You say, What are you trying to tell us? I'm trying to say that they had never had this divine conception of God's eternal seed word to where they could become eternal. He could not do it because they were not sovereign yet. In other words, they had no power of choice yet. They had no will yet. But when God exposed their understanding to the tree of evil. the knowledge of evil, immediately they took on another mind. This caused them to be versatile in their thinking and versatile in their desires. And immediately when they took this on it caused them to be able to be sovereign to make power of choice and decide what they want and what they did not want. And then, besides that, God allowed this to happen to subject the creature to vanity. Paul said, the creature being subjected to vanity, not willingly but by God who subjected the same in hope, being subjected to these things without hope, He gave him Christ, the hope of glory, or gave him faith, the hope of eternal life. But He did make him subject to vanity. That is to say, He let this beastly mind, through the intelligence of this thing, through Satan's mind it caused the five senses of Eve to be aroused to create the stimulation of lust that He might switch them over to a temporal life and give them a chance to choose for themselves and prove them to see whether they were worthy of eternal life or not. He switched them over right here when they opened their outer man. When they aroused their human passions in the five senses of the body then they became as beast. They became as beast and then they had to live from the beastly elements of the earth. They had to change over and start living on blood. Before that they lived off of fruits. It was a water life. Now, according to the Bible, when God completely restores the garden it's going to be a water life. How many of you know that's true? Out yonder in the millennium it's going to be a water life. It's going to be the garden. Now, you say, Brother Pike, what do you mean? Did you know that as far as we know in the garden no beast killed each other. No beast ate each other. There's no such thing as partaking of blood in the garden. And did you know, the one thing that God forbids today is partaking of blood? Did you know that? I know some places they eat blood and drink it, but God forbids it, because that's really what caused the trouble from the start. Now. Look at the garden. Or look at the millennium. The Bible says, And nothing shall harm in all of my holy mountain, saith the Lord. He said, The lions shall lay down beside the lamb and they shall eat straw just like the bullock does. In other words, it will be a water world. They won't feed off of each other like they do now. They won't be vicious. The Satanic force will be taken away. It won't be there. It will go back to the same thing that was in the beginning. So then, look. Now, here is God in the garden. You know, He'll be in the garden again in the beginning. But here He is in the garden walking among them and yet the Shekinah glory of God overshadows them because they have a mind of good. That's all, just a mind of good. They can fellowship God. That's why God use the … (Begin side two.)..just a mind of good. They can fellowship God. That's why God used the Jews like He did. Was to draw them away from the beastly intelligence and draw them away from every beastly passion and desire that He might walk close to them and project Himself through a nation unto a lost and a dying world. That's why He had the restriction on the Jews He did, and that's what it means. They were chosen. After God had finished that well they were just like all the rest. He concluded them in unbelief to let them know that they were just like Adam and Eve, that they were in the presence of the Shekinah glory and had never conceived divine conception and had never been born of God. So then, this was the thing that Jesus talked to Nicodemus about. Nicodemus begin a ruler of the Jews came to Jesus by night and he said, Rabbi, what must I do? And Jesus told him, said, You're a ruler of the Jews. You're one of the great intelligence of the House of Israel and you don't know what to do? And Jesus said, You've got to be born again. He said, Can I enter the second time into my mother's womb and be born? Jesus said, You've got to be born of the water and of the spirit. He said, for if you're not born of the water and the spirit ye shall not even see the kingdom of God. Friend, that's the answer right there. Now. When He walked over to this woman at the well, I want you to notice something here. When He came over to the woman at the well and He stood here talking to her at a little place right near a place, a city called Sychar, which was really a parcel of ground that Jacob had given unto Joseph. It was right near there and this was called Jacob's well and it was a mountain that they had appointed in times past to worship in. When Jesus came up, the disciples not being with Him, and He sat down at the well and He talked to the woman. Here at Jacob's well, He began to talk to the woman and the beauties of Christ was projected into her heart here at the well just exactly like it was in Adam and Eve in the garden here, but she couldn't get a hold of it because she hadn't had the divine conception. But she was talking with God. In other words that was God in human flesh. Is that right? God in human flesh right here talking with the woman at the well just exactly like He had come down as the Lord God in the garden and talked to Adam and Eve. And here she was right close to divine conception but couldn't be partakers of it because Jesus said to her, said, Woman go call thy husband. And the woman said to Him, said, I don't have a husband. He said, Thou has rightly said. Said you have had five and the one you are with is not your husband now. See? He had said to her, If you had ask of me I would give you water. You wouldn't have to come here to drink. But when she went to partake of it Jesus brought her sins before her and then let her know she couldn't have that which she desired. Jesus was about thirty years old, or thirty-two years old, whatever it was. He was a nice looking man and she thought, well, being an adulterer like she was and mixed up with all these other men, He was just another young, nice looking man. And when she began to talk to Him she said, Sir, I'll give you water from the well. You don't have anything to drink with, wanting a conversation. But, Jesus being the Messiah spoke to her and she said, I perceive that thou art a prophet and said, I know that when Messiah comes He'll tell us all things. Jesus said, I am He that speaketh unto thee. He made it very plain to the woman. Now then. And then, right here the woman suddenly realized something. And the Bible says Jesus abode in that land for two days over there that the people might see and might believe what was going on, that He was the messiah, the same Lord God walking on the earth as it was in the garden. Adam and Eve in the presence of the Shekinah glory. This woman in the presence of the Shekinah glory but she couldn't have that eternal life without divine conception. And she couldn't have divine conception without faith. It takes faith. That's what's wrong with the church today. The church cannot find the divinity of conception in their hearts because they don't have faith in God. Now, when we get to the place to where we can have faith then God will do something for us. When we get hungry for God. When we get thirsty for the things of God and we turn our faith toward God and we begin to want the Word, want the revelation of Christ and want to move into the spiritual powers and realms of God. Then at that time God will do something for us. But until we become hungry God won't do it. That's why that in the time of prosperity God has such a hard time reaching people because the flesh is contrary to God. It's the beastly part of man that's awakened and the more he eats the more he's stimulated unto the lust and desires of life. Is that right? Every person that God ever used He called them off into the wilderness somewhere. He caused them to die out. He got them away from the things of the world. Am I telling the right thing? He always got them away from the natural because the natural always stirred up the beastly part of man. And every time when they had prosperity they had trouble. When God wanted the indoctrinate Israel He pulled them out of Egypt, got them out in the wilderness all by themselves. In other words, He done the same thing to them He did to Moses. Is that right? When God wanted to use Elijah what did He do with him? Took him out in the wilderness. When God got ready to use Jesus what did He do with Him? Called Him into the wilderness. Is that right? In other words God always does the very same thing. He has to kill out the very thing that was awaken in the garden for a man to be valuable to God. That's why man has to fast like He does and pray like He does and get into solitude like he does, because Paul said, Though the outer beast perish, or the outer man perish, yet the inner man is renewed day by day. Look at Jesus hanging at Calvary. Look at the rending of the veil. What was it there? It was God killing the beastly part symbolically speaking of humanity, being us that died at Calvary. Paul said it was us that died there. Jesus taking our place. Jesus dying, it was you and I, the death part of the beast, before we could even get back in the presence of God. Because the Bible says that God set a flaming cherub right there with a flaming sword, that is, or a cherub with a flaming sword, right here to keep every way of the tree of life. There was no way to get back to it except you die. Is that right? You've got to pass by the flaming sword. The Bible says that there was a two edged sword coming out of the mouth of Jesus when John saw Him. You see the flaming sword. You've got to pass by the flaming sword. The Bible says no man can see God and live. No man can see God and live. And God said to Nicodemus, Unless you be born again you can't even see the kingdom of God. Jesus said to the woman at the well, He said, You've got to — You're not going to worship in this mountain, nor at Jerusalem. He said, Right now is the time. He said when you're going to worship God as a spirit. He said, For God is the spirit of truth and He said for you to worship God, he said, you've got to make your spirit be born of His spirit of truth and then your spirit will become one with the Holy Ghost, with the spirit of truth, and then that Holy Ghost nature will cause you to speak truth, think truth, live truth, act truth and everything that you do, your desires will be the desires of truth. That will be service unto God. He said, That will be service unto God. When your spirit intermingles with His and you walk truth and you think truth and you speak truth, you live truth, He said, then you are worshipping God … ritualistic practices, or the outer part of the beast that had been aroused, the passions, the lust and the desires had been awakened by Adam and Eve, God could not use those. But He had to subject this creature to those and feed those creatures, or these creatures through the elements of the earth so that He might make us into a God. It was His plan to make us into a God, to make us equal with Himself. And the very minute that their eyes came open to evil then the Lord said, They have become as one of us, to know good and evil. Now. Jesus said in the Old Testament, said, Did not I call ye Gods? He said, Moses, I've made you God to the people. And is it not written in the Scriptures I have called you gods, but ye die like men. In other words, you're going to lean to your beastly intelligence. You're going to follow the lust of the flesh, but remember that evil knowledge from the tree of knowledge was projected through the beastly intelligence into the outer man of Adam, and into the outer man of Eve. Is that right? The woman represents the beast in the garden. Whether you believe it or not, it's true. The man represents Adam, the son of God, in the garden. That's right. The woman is a representative of the knowledge of Satan and the knowledge of the beast and the weakness toward the things of the world. But the man is the representative of the Son of God and of the strength and endurance that Christ has toward God. The Lord made it this way. Now here is something that's beautiful about. Remember every bit of it had to go to Adam before God could start His plan in motion, because Adam was both and feminine and male gender to begin with. How many of you know that? He was both man and woman to begin with. In other words, that's why a man and wife are one because Adam was both man and woman to begin with. I believe that is why the hippies are wearing the long hair now. It's because it represents, spiritually speaking, that the woman is not without the man and the man is not without the woman. That the church has at last emerged into to a oneness in the body of Jesus Christ, and that now it is no more Adam and Eve but it's one. It is no more Christ and the church, but it is Christ's body. All one in the presence of God, living by the Shekinah glory of God. Not in the presence of it but is born of the Shekinah glory of God. I believe that God is showing the perversion of man and woman, where Satan has at last made man woman and woman man, in that woman is so masculine and man is so silly and feminine. I believe that God has shown Satan's evil practices but at the same time setting everything in a reverse. As Satan's plan of lust works in reverse it reveals God's plan that's working right the other way. Do you understand what I'm saying? Everything Satan does works in reverse but it reveals God's spiritual plan going the other way. That's right. Just like a convertible automobile or a convertible coat, Satan perverted man in the garden, perverted woman in the garden. Brought them over to a mind of perversion and then God switched them back over like a convertible, back over to the right kind of thinking. Now. The thing that caused the trouble was when this evil mind of unbelief began to be projected into Eve, and then when she carried it over to Adam. I want you to see this tonight, now. As this mind was transferred from Satan to Adam by projecting it through the beast, through the woman and then over to Adam. This is the way he got it over there. Now. They became double minded. Faith couldn't work. Immediately when this mind got into Adam he became a man with a dual nature, not a split personality. He did not have a split personality, he had a dual nature. He had a dual personality. In other words, within my flesh, Paul said, as one personality, there dwelleth no good thing. He said, Within my inner man there's another personality that's a good thing, he said. I have a will on the inside to do the things of God, he said, but in my outer man, he said, I can't seem to find a way to perform it, as far as physical performance. That's why the Bible demands a performance as well as a will. Now, I know that we are dead to the beast body by the body of Jesus Christ. That's the only way we could get back in the presence of God's glory. The entire world today, the entire world today is in the presence of the Shekinah glory again, like Adam and Eve was, in a measure today. That is to the extent of grace. They are here to the extent of grace because when Jesus died at Calvary He died to take away the sins of the world. And God, allowing this allotted period of time for grace that He might woo us in this season with His Spirit to bring us to the Shekinah glory that we might conceive of a divine Word of God. Now that's the trouble with the church. We've got what we call ministers that are sterile. Men who make themselves sterile to violate the laws where God said reproduce and multiply in the earth, men have made themselves sterile to practice the evil practices of lust and desire and still multiply. Mothers have done the same thing to get away from the travail, to escape the curse of God. Instead of going through the blood and going through Christ they've gone in another way to escape the curse. That's what they've done. They've cut off the multiplying in the earth. Do you understand what I'm saying? Ministers today cannot bring forth a true seed of God with the real divinity of God's Spirit. Every seed must have a quickening. It must have an inspiration. Whether it be an inspiration of lust or an inspiration of love because the quickening is the life and it must have the blood cell within it. If it doesn't have the blood cell it's no good. Preachers preach the Word today but it's a performance. It's a show. And the blood cell of Christ is not in it. The blood is not in it. The life is not in it and the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, which is in the blood seed is not there. It's not anointed and therefore it can't bring forth life. Now. It's just like you look at the people out here. Now we know the sperm of life, the Word, and cell to cell just like if we look at everybody tonight as different cells within the womb of this world tonight and the sperm of life in among them, it's cell to cell, everybody coming according to its own desire and own nature the way that God has ordained it to come. Now, you say for instance, we've got a body of people that are good people, got a body of people that are good people. Now, think. They will come together as a body of Christ. We've got other people that are not good people. They are bad people. They are beastly. They have no desire to come to the things of God. Those cells will come together as a body until a head of knowledge reaches from the tree of knowledge the inspiration of lust takes them over and they become a bodily image. And in that hour there will be a great travail throughout the world and that child will come forth into whatever its rightful image is. I believe this. Now these cells here, as life is coming in by the hormones and as these cells and sperms working in here, these things one to another, there is a struggling, there is a striving. There is a war. There's a difference. Why? Because it's got to be a male or a female. And the woman represents the beastly image. The man represents the image of the man child. And there's a struggling going on but there's got to be one of them that's got to come to life. Now. I believe in my heart that when we preach the Word and we preach it with the blood of Christ, and we preach it with the divine inspiration of love that we'll get the job done for God. The very minute that this mind allows the quickening of lust to enter in through the medium of the five senses there was, from that time on, an evil mind of deception and unbelief established in Eve and transferred to Adam. Adam already had an established mind of Christ, in the sense of the love of God projected to him. He didn't know anything much about it but God, bring him through the process over the years, this seed, bringing it on down through many generations and compiling it, bringing it on down He has built the man and made him to be as God. Made him to be as God. This body that is to be raptured is to be as God. And here we are standing over here in the end time ready to come to the fullness. For in the garden the last thing God made was man. And he made everything in this world and came down to the last thing, now what is He making? You say, Brother Pike, He's already made man. But He's already made the beast. The man is the man child. The one that He makes in His image, Adam and Eve, to rule in the garden, that's Christ and the church. That's what He's making now. He's speaking it into existence by the ministry and by the projected Word of His love and knowledge He has at last, in the last part of His labor, in the sixth thousand years creating mankind, bringing the image of Christ in with the full authority to rule the garden, which goes back to the millennium. But this mind being established. Now, I want you to see this tonight. I'm going to close in just a little bit here. This mind being established in Eve. I want to show you what it did. Being established in Eve, being brought over to Adam, this mind being established was now a contrary, conflicting mind and a germ of life that had possession, or control of the outer image, or of the tabernacle. To do this it had to take into captivity the inner life which God had placed in Adam. It had to take it into captivity. Just like a rat. A rat is a perverted life. In other words there is a perverted, warped up mind that has got life in captivity because it's to work contrary to God. You have to kill the thing and release the life to go back to God to get the life out of captivity. Because, like the drunkard, that's the same life I use but it's a perverted thing. He's got into captivity. The beast uses it for passions and for lust. The same way with the rich men of the world. Same way with racers and everything else that does things contrary to God. It's life in captivity. It's the beast. For Eve, Adam had this and then with these two minds it was just like when the woman conceived and the two children, Jacob and Esau, wrestled within the womb and they represented two nations. It always was brought out as Cain and Abel. Always brought out as two different ones. Being twin minds it had to be brought out that way. Paul said to abstain from bodily lust that warreth against the soul. Because of the conflict between the inner man and the outer man, or between the soul and the outer person. There is a conflict between the beastly intelligence that works through the medium of senses and lust and the mind of Christ which works within the heart. As a man thinketh in his heart so he is. There is a conflict. Why did God do this? Because for a man to be born of God it has to be sovereign. You say, But, Brother Pike, it's predestination. I know it's predestination, but God has predestinated man according to the sovereignty of his own desire. God placed both of these minds within a human being, or within Adam, that they might be passed down to every person that when this person is born into this world they are born into sin. Every person that's born in the world is born into sin. It's the beast like in action. And when it comes in it's a continual conflict. And God, put these two minds in there that the wrestling might be in there that we might be a creature of sovereignty. And God predestinated that individual according to what He saw in the future out yonder that He would chose. He has made him a Sovereignty through this dual thing and then predestinated him according to what He saw in the future that he would chose from his sovereignty and made him whatever he is. I don't know whether you understand what I'm saying or not. I'm sure most of you do. But, anyway, this dual mind is working. It's working. This dual personality, this dual mind is working in man and in woman. And God, looking down through the telescope of time — Peter said we are God's elect according to His foreknowledge, according to what He foreknew that we would do. For them that He predestinated He foreknew. He foreknew them. He foreknew what they would do. He foreknew where they would go. Now. The Bible says He that endureth until the end the same shall be predestinated. He that endureth until the end the same shall be saved. He that endureth until the end is the same as God foreknew. He that chooses right rejects wrong, though in choosing right, he couldn't overcome if he wanted to. But in choosing right God gives him a supernatural strength, a supernatural faith and a supernatural endurance because He sees a right desire in His heart. That's what makes him preeminent over the others. God gives him the strength to overcome because of the right desire but it is a sovereignty with the man. God doesn't make anybody do anything. You do whatever you want to. You choose whatever you want to but whatever you choose God knows it and this is how that death is in the world today. Can you see what I'm speaking of? Death works in your members, Paul said. He said life works inside of us, but death works in your members through the tree of knowledge, through the beastly intelligence through what is referred to as Jordan, or your carnal mind, the one thing your spirit can't seem to get over. Your carnal mind being enmity with God; your reasoning. This is the beastly intelligence and faith can never work in the beastly intelligence. As long as the church is in the realms of the beastly intelligence there won't be any blind eyes opened. There won't be any deaf ears unstopped. There won't be an lame be made to walk again. There won't be any resurrection of the dead. But in the day that the beastly intelligence is killed, and David said stir up your pure mind, and that inner mind through pray, supplication and consecration to God overrides the outer man, as you kill him through fasting, this man will become a spiritual giant. And it was with Jesus when He resurrected from the tomb, stand up as a spiritual man, as they did at Pentecost. And then when it come forth this individual will be endued with the power from on high. The virtue of God is what heals. The virtue of God is what discerns. The virtue of God is what shows visions, but we've got to be full of the Holy Ghost and to be full of the Holy Ghost we've got to kill the beastly intelligence to let faith get in there, to contend for THE faith that was once delivered to the saints. I made the statement the other day, He that cometh to God must believe there is a God and believe that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. You've got to believe that God wants to reward you or you'll never get nothing from Him. Another thing is, faith calls those things that are not as though they are but faith can't work in the beast mind. Faith works in the mind of Christ. And when we get to the place to where we can look at something that we know good and well is as is and say it is not because the Word of God is contrary to it, then, my friend we'll have faith and power with God. Stephen was full of the Holy Ghost. You might have the gift of the Holy Ghost but you're not full of the Holy Ghost. You need to be filled with the Spirit. Full of the Holy Ghost. That's how Stephen did miracles, is being full of the Holy Ghost. All I'm saying is this. If you've got a disease in your body you've got to look at that disease and call that as though it is not. You've got to say, now this is the work of the beast. This is the work of the beastly intelligence. This is a lying vanity. God's Word says, by His stripes I'm healed and this is (?), because God's Word says whatever I ask He would do. I ask Him to heal me, He healed me. That settles it. Now. When we come to that place — I know you can do that in your intellect up here and it isn't going to get you anywhere. But you've got to do it in your intellect before you can get it in your heart, but faith does that. Faith believe God's Word so that in the face of anything it isn't there as far as faith is concerned, because faith eradicates it. Faith commands God concerning the works of His hands. Jesus Christ made heir to the glories of God and THE faith of Christ, controls, has everything that belongs to God. And when you get THE faith of Christ in your heart it just commands God. In other words, THE faith is in control of everything that God is and all you've got to do is get THE faith that was once deliver to the saints. To do that you've got to get rid of that mind that Eve let into the outer man, or Adam let into the outer man in the garden. You've got to kill that beastly intelligence. You've got to get over Jordan. You've got to kill it out. And when you go into the mind of Christ you're over Jordan in that Canaan land of God in that new body, that new world. Everything old passes away because according to your thinking that's what you are. Let me say this in closing tonight. God has set the world within a person's heart. He has set the world within a person's heart. Now. You say, I'm in the world. But, my friend, the world is in you. The world is the beastly intelligence. That's what the world is. It's got control of your spirit. Before you're born again it's in your heart. The world is in your heart and your complete environment, everything is tangible, under the curse and it is corruptible. Now. But, when you are born again the world is taken out of your heart and the kingdom of heaven is within your heart. Then you're no longer in the world because when your spirit intermingles with Satan's spirit you're in the world. You're lost. But let me say this. If you, in your spirit tonight, have never been born again you're spirit is one with Satan's spirit. If your spirit separated from your body tonight it will go to God to stand judgment, but remember, it is already one with death and with darkness. It is already where it's going because it is one with death and darkness. But when you are born again and your spirit intermingles with the spirit of life, eternal life, you are already where you are going. If you put off the old man your spirit is already in the world of light, in the world of happiness. You are already there. The only thing is you've got to get a change of the body or separate the spirit from the body to recognize it. Do you understand what I'm saying? It happens in the world. When you get the kingdom of heaven within you then that's what Jesus meant, seeing the kingdom of heaven through your understanding. The kingdom of God is at hand. The kingdom of heaven is here. You know, the kingdom of observation is within you. You're translated into it. Once the Spirit, or the kingdom of God, is within you then you are in heaven as much as you'll ever be in heaven. Do you understand I'm trying to say to you? I don't have time to go into that to try to explain it tonight, but some of you understand what I'm saying. So then, there is only one thing that we can do and that's kill the outer beastly part, get rid of the conflicting mind that causes us to be double minded and then we'll have a steady sailing with God. And when the winds of heaven blow we won't be blown about by every wind of doctrine. Is that right? Have an anchor of the soul. I want you to stand with me tonight. This is what we need tonight. A divine conception of the Word of God within our hearts to bring forth a man child. Paul said, I travailed until Christ be formed within you. And tonight the only way to get that divine conception is for you to have faith in the Word of God. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And the only way that you can have that divine conception is to believe in the Word of God. If you can believe in the Word of God then you can be born of the Spirit and you can be eternal.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

Founder and first President of Jesus Christ’s Eternal Kingdom of Abundant Life, Inc.

Holiness Unto The Lord