Hi all,
I left last week talking how the apostles must have been in awe by the realization the Word of the Lord who had appeared to the prophets through the centuries, had left heaven to be made a man and live among them. Can you imagine their thoughts?
How did the Son given become the Child born?
In Philippians 2: 5-11 Paul writes:
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal with God; But did empty Himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of man, and finding Himself fashioned as a man, humbled Himself, being obedient even to death, even to the death on a cross. Therefore God (Father) did highly exalt Him and give Him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow…”
That scripture tells us Christ, the Son from heaven, ’emptied Himself’, and was made a man. He ‘found Himself’ fashioned as a man – what an amazing change for Him to go from unlimited in the Spirit realm to be confined to a physical body.
The Greek word for ’emptied’ is ‘kenoo’ and means to ’empty completely, to make void, to assign no value’ (as when a pitcher of water is emptied, the empty pitcher now has no value for its contents have been emptied.) Christ made Himself of ‘no value’, emptied Himself completely in order to leave heaven to be made a human.
The boy Jesus didn’t do miracles
It means Christ the Son, the Word of the Father, emptied Himself of all rights and privileges as the only Son of the Father. For us it means when the Son was given the human name Jesus, He lived not as God’s Son, but as a man. Once the Holy Spirit came upon Him, He lived as a Spirit-filled man.
That means the Roman Catholic teaching that the boy Jesus did miracles, is wrong. He did no miracles before His water baptism when the Holy Spirit came upon Him at that time. It also means because He did miracles as a Spirit-filled man, so too we will do similar miracles*, for we too have been given the Holy Spirit. Though scripture says He received the Spirit ‘without measure’*, we have the Holy Spirit according to the measure* given each of us. (*John 14: 12, John 3: 34, **Romans 12: 3)
A visitation I had
In 1989 I had read Philippians 2, but had never studied it in depth. But during a visitation with the Lord and the one I call ‘my angel’ (my guardian angel) I asked: “What was it like when the Lord left heaven? How did it happen?” I knew what Gabriel had told Mary in Luke 1: 35 when she asked how it would happen that she would conceive God in her womb:
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the Power of the Most High will overshadow you…”
The word ‘power’ used here is ‘dunamis’ which is where we get the word ‘dynamite’, and means power. The word ‘overshadow’ means to ‘envelop like a cloud’. So the power of the Most High covered Mary like a cloud. More about that next week.
But my question to the Lord and the angel was what did that look like, how did it happen? Suddenly I was in the Spirit standing in heaven. There were no people, only angels, and they were all packed tightly together as a crowd might watch a parade. I was standing at the back of the crowd of angels as an observer, at that point not sure what I was seeing.
There was a narrow path, just wide enough for 1 person to walk, an open path between the angels. Some were looking from the side of the path I was on, the others on the other side of the path looking our direction. But no one was looking at the angel across that narrow path – all eyes were on the brilliant white light of the Father’s throne, for the path led from Him through the crowd of angels.
Out of that light stepped the Lord
He looked like the Lord I have seen so many times in visitations – I had previously wondered to what degree if any Mary’s DNA had shaped His features, and was a bit surprised to see Who I saw leaving heaven looks the same as the risen Lord I was seeing in the visitations. I watched Christ leave the light of the Father to walk through the path of angels bowed in awe; The angels all either bowed at the waist, or kneeled down, or kneeled on 1 knee, but all eyes were lowered as they silently watched Christ walk from the Father’s throne along the path, through their midst.
From my vantage point it was right to left, and I found myself slightly turned towards the throne as the Lord approached, and then went past us. I never turned to my left to see where the path led for I was suddenly back in my living room with the Lord and angel. The realization I’d just been given a glimpse of Him emptying Himself of all rights and privileges as the Father’s only Son, to become made into a human being, overwhelmed me.
I was overcome with awe, with amazement. I couldn’t speak at first, it was so overwhelming. All I knew mentally about the Father giving His only Son had now become a living truth. I lay face down before Him: “Oh Lord, you are SO worthy of worship, you are worthy…and then I was overwhelmed again to the point I just lay in silence again.
Once I regained my strength
I asked the Lord if He could verify what He had allowed me to see with scripture? He told me to examine the passage with Hebrews 10:5, which I did:
“Therefore as He was coming into the world He said, ‘Sacrifice and offering is not what you desired, but a body you have prepared for Me.'” v6-7 continue: “In burnt offerings and sacrifices you have had no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold! I have come. In the fullness of the scroll (book, ie Old Testament) it is written of Me, to do your will oh God (Father).'”
As the Son was emptying Himself, He told the Father that He knew the Father had no pleasure in the blood of bulls and goats, but that the Father had prepared a body for Him – and He would go to do His will.
And that body – it was a forever change. Jesus was resurrected with a human body, and will always be human. In fact, speaking of resurrection day, Acts 13: 33 quotes Psalm 2 as prophetic: “This day have I become your Father.” The Father is still in the Spirit realm with a Spirit-body. But His Word who holds all things together by His FAther’s power, is a man and forever will be. It changed the Father-Son relationship forever.
As far as we know, He will be the only one who will go through eternity with the scars of those world in His flesh. The Son went from being in the Spirit above time and space, to being confined to a body on earth confined within that body.
The One who created Adam’s body has now confined Himself to just such a body. The Son for the first time in eternity found Himself having to learn personally what it is to walk, to talk, to use the bathroom, to eat for strength, to go from one place to another not by thought, but by having to put one leg in front of another as He walked to a location.
We’ll stop there, and pick it up next week on the physiology of why the Father needed to prepare a body for His Son – and more. Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
