Since God originally had spoken to me about what He was going to do after Pentecost had been established, that is, the dwelling of Christ in us, I could not understand why I now was spending so much time talking about righteousness of behavior.

I think I see the connection. We cannot enter the feast of Tabernacles until we go through the Blowing of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement, until the worldliness, lust, and self-will are out of us. The Father and the Son are not going to take up Their eternal residence in us until we are keeping the words of Christ—at least that is what Jesus stated in John 14:23. All of our Christian experiences, all of the works of redemption, are bringing us toward the third great work of grace, the Tabernacles experience (to coin a term; you can call it what you like).

The main point of Tabernacles is that we become one with God. This does not mean we become the Father. It means we abide in Christ who abides in God who abides in Christ who abides in us. The wheel in the wheel, to follow Ezekiel. We become one with Christ in the Father just as He and the Father are One. This is what the Bible teaches.

God is so clever! He starts us off with the idea that if we will just accept Christ we will be forgiven all our sins and go to Heaven when we die. How marvelous!

Then He provokes us (is this the right word?) into permitting the Holy Spirit to guide what we say so our speech becomes incomprehensible to ourselves and others. Sometimes added to speaking in tongues are other manifestations of the Spirit such as prophecy or a word of knowledge.

Wonderful! All this and Heaven too!

When He gets us so far in that we cannot back out, He drops the bomb. Now He wants us to give up our old nature completely and become one with Him in all things. This sounds like more good stuff being added to us (and it really is!) but soon we discover we are going through painful (sometimes very painful) experiences that are purifying us from worldliness, lust, and self-will.

When we complain the Lord reminds us that we have been crucified with Christ and now have ascended with Him to the right hand of the Father, far above all other authority and power.

We understand this, but now God is getting practical. We are having to give up parts of our personality that we did not realize would be called for. Soon it dawns on us that God is asking for all we are that we might receive all He is.

We have a decision to make. We want to escape Hell and go to Heaven to be with our loved ones, and all that, but now the Lord is asking that we surrender our entire personality to Himself that He might make all things new in us.

Basic salvation makes some demands on us.

Being baptized with the Holy Spirit makes further demands on us.

Moving ahead to the fullness of God makes total demands on us. How many Christians are going to be willing to really be crucified with Christ so Christ may live in them?

To be continued.