Treasure Hunters of Eternity

• Printable Version - Share on Facebook - Posted by Pastor Marty Pena April 7, 2017 - Filed in Teachings - 1,409 views

  Yield Yourself to God Until You are Immersed In The River of Love

  I saw a vision of the bride of the Lord pursuing God down the river of life according to Ezekiel 47. That vision is recorded as follows. Ezekiel 47:1 Afterward he brought me again to the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar. 2 Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about the way without to the utter gate by the way that looks eastward; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side. 3 And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ankles.4 Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; the waters were to the loins. 5 Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over.

  The different levels of that river speak of our levels of surrender as we willingly yield our lives to the cleansing fire and ministry of the Holy Spirit flowing from the throne of grace. We must become a people whom the Lord has conquered and we must pursue God until our lives are completely immersed by His Spirit.

  Why would anyone want to apply the truth of Jesus Christ to their lives? Because through our obedience to Christ we allow Gods power to impact us to set us free, to change us, to heal us, to restore us, to bless us and most important, to guide us down the path of life into a deep and wonderful relationship with the Lover of our souls until we become one with Him.

  How hungry are you the beloved child of God? The Lord walks close to a person who desires Him above all else and He gladly satisfies a hungry heart from the bounty of His love. He always welcomes those whose desire it is to indulge Him as their GLORIOUS DELICIOUS. O that we may taste and see that the Lord is good. God the Father, Jesus His Son and the Lord the Holy Spirit wants you to become their eternal habitation as you, through your willing heart, allow them to enter into your life. We must pursue Him, spend time with Him, build a radical intimate relationship with Him until He consumes our lives completely and until every stronghold is shattered and broken down. Until He himself as God Almighty has become your stronghold, which means until He has taken a strong hold of you in the very depths of your foundation and nothing can pluck you from His hand and until you are only motivated and driven through Godly passion and desire and please allow me to testify beloved that nothing in this world can be compared to the value of a personally devoted relationship with God, simply NOTHING. He is a joy unspeakable and full of Glory.

  It is the intense desire of our heavenly Father for us to become acquainted with His Son because the heart of the Father is revealed in Jesus; He is indeed the only way to the Father. If you want to know the Father then you need to follow Jesus through humble but radical obedience. This is the reason why the Lord Himself said to the people in John 6:28-29, when they asked Him that very important question, WHAT SHALL WE DO, THAT WE MAY WORK THE WORKS OF GOD?

  THIS IS THE WORK OF GOD THAT YOU BELIEVE IN THE ONE WHOM HE SENT. This faith in the Word, Christ Jesus, is only acceptable to God when it expresses itself through radical obedience because of love and only the love of the Holy Spirit has the ability to empower us unto obedience as we allow Him to empty our hearts of contrary desires which interfere with us being sold-out and devoted to God.

  One day I asked the Father: So how do I have a relationship with You? He answered me and said: JUST FOLLOW MY SON AND I WILL COME TO YOU. The Lord Jesus said an awesome thing in John 14:23 If anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word, and My Father shall love him. And We will come to him and will make a dwelling place with him.

  We come to the Father through Jesus and the Father comes to us through Jesus and in Jesus, we become one because Jesus is the dwelling place of the Father. This divine sacred union between us and the Trinity is made a reality by the power and the Person of the Holy Spirit that dwells inside of us. The Holy Spirit is with us and with us forever (John 14:16-18).

  This is what the Lord revealed to me about this hidden place: The Place of His Shared Being Through a new encounter of my spirit with Jesus, I entered a place I had never been before. It was very special and high as it was an exclusively separated place for someone very special and loved.

  Upon entering, He let me know this place was for the beloved. The beauty was overwhelming and great peace and security emanated everywhere. The incomparable holiness of Christ Himself could be felt. It was a place without a single spot of contamination, purer than the purest crystal and impossible to be described with words. There was a complete absence of sin. I could ascertain that not only Jesus was in that high place. But also the Father and the Holy Spirit were there in perfect harmony and unity! How can the holiness of that place ever be described? No adequate words can be found. That translucent purity was the love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that permanently flowed together in perfect and high love and unity. This infinitely high and sublime place was captivating and attractive beyond all description.

  Afterward, I saw how Jesus Himself was that place. It was actually inside His own being. Then I was able to comprehend that the Father and the Holy Spirit were actually sharing the place that had been prepared for His beloved. That place had been set aside for those who were completely surrendered to Him, the beloved who had absorbed Him as a sponge absorbs water. Just like the sponge has nothing in itself, it is empty in itself, but with great absorbing capacity, the beloved that enters into that place can draw into themselves the essence of the Trinity while being contained in the Trinity. What a precious reward for those lives that walked the way of surrender! Being attracted by such pure and high love held in the Trinity and prepared for His beloved is the most precious reward that can ever be imagined. I then saw how His beloved changed from being like sponges into becoming liquid itself. They had undergone a metamorphosis so Christ Himself, being wholly integrated into His nature, could absorb them. They experienced this transformation for they had given themselves in love to Him.

  Whosoever desires to reach this blessed elevation of intimacy must follow the Lord with all of their heart. Jeremiah 29:13 And you shall seek and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

  Proverbs 4:5 Get wisdom, get understanding; forget not; nor turn away from the words of my mouth.

  Proverbs 4:7 Wisdom is the main thing; get wisdom; and with all your getting get understanding.

  Proverbs 16:16 How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is rather to be chosen than silver!

  David says in Psalm 119:104 Through Your Commandments I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.

  If we desire to receive understanding from the Lord then we will have to seek for it and a man's heart is revealed by that which he pursues. If your heart is full of worldly desire then worldly things will be what you seek after but when your heart is filled with the love of God then your intense desire will be toward Him and you will find yourself pursuing God as your greatest treasure. We need to understand that the temporal things of this world hold no value to a true bondservant of Christ because once you have discovered Him as your only treasure then you gladly let go of the things of this world, IT IS AS SIMPLE AS THAT.

  Carnal pursuit becomes an obstacle to the treasure hunter of eternity and this is exactly what we are called to be, TREASURE HUNTERS OF ETERNITY. This is exactly what relationship with Almighty God is all about, it is an eternal pursuit and seeking after the greatest treasure ever found. He is the greatest of discoveries that anyone could ever make and the more you seek the more you find and the more you desire the more He will give of Himself to you and happy and to be envied is the man in pursuit of God. This Eternal Living Treasure himself said, when speaking of the beatitudes of His kingdom in Matthew 5, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Did not the Lord say in John 17 and this is eternal life that they may know You, the only true God?

  Christianity is the most intense, intimate and personal call and challenge to enter into an eternal relationship with the great and awesome infinite God who inhabits eternity but whosoever desires to dwell with Him must come to Him in complete humility as He declares in Isaiah 57:15 For so says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, and His name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, even with the contrite and humble spirit; to revive the spirit of the humble and revive the heart of the contrite ones.

  A humble person realizes his deep intense need because he knows without a deep relationship with the Lord he stands completely bankrupt. Smith Wigglesworth said "YOU CANNOT TRULY HUNGER AND THIRST FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS IF YOU HAVE ANY LEANING TOWARD THE WORLDLY LIFE"

  Jesus showed me a corporate setting of the church revealed in the last supper. God said that all His disciples sat at a different distance from the Lord by choice, John was the one who reclined in His bosom and was known as the disciple whom Jesus loved. Then the Lord God chose that disciple, out of that place of intimacy to go and receive and record the Revelation of Jesus Christ. What is the Lord saying? THAT I REVEAL MYSELF TO THOSE WHO BECOME INTIMATE WITH ME. If you live a life of intimacy and pursuit of God, He will unveil Himself to you and as Hebrews 11:6 declares, God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

  Every time that the Lord gives you the revelatory seeds of His truth, you are to allow the Holy Spirit to plant it deep into your heart because if you resist the Sower then what will happen to the seed? I can assure you that we will give an account of every seed that we've lost or abused. Did the Lord not say that a tree is known by its fruit? Every time that you hear the truth of God, revealed in Jesus Christ, the Lord the Holy Spirit is standing at the door of your heart knocking, if you hear His voice and open the door, He will come into you (as the temple of God) to commune with His beloved and transform your heart into a suitable dwelling place for God. As the Living Word His desire is to bring separation between your soul, your spirit and your joints and marrow, in other words, Jesus, as a person, wants to become one with you as He weaves Himself into the very fibers of your being.

  True communion with Christ is to eat His flesh and drink His blood as God declared in John chapter 6. What does this mean? The Word of God is our spiritual bread and obedience is the practical way in which we eat the flesh of Christ because we receive Him as the truth into our hearts and unless we eat His flesh and drink His blood we have no part in Him. True communion is to become one with Him. His word brings healing to our flesh and nourishment to our bones as we apply it to our lives, in other words, the life of Christ is imparted to us through the word of God. His words are spirit and they impart life to those who obey Him. Obedience is the key that unlocks the life and the power of God in His word. Disobedience and rebellion against His divine will produce death. He created man and only He knows what is best for man. If you submit to the order of your Maker then you will naturally discover true happiness because everything He does reverberates from the core of His nature and this nature is love in its true essence.

  Please remember precious beloved of the Lord that this race of which we all became partakers of in our pursuit of the high calling of God in Christ is not a 100 meter dash but rather a slow, intense and a long marathon, so be encouraged to stay patient with yourself as the Lord is patient with you. He loves you and love is patient knowing that His beloved is in a process of divine growth. Change, healing, deliverance, and restoration will come as you progress with God and as you focus and exercise your faith in Him. Ask the Holy Spirit to empower you to set your whole life towards the goal of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Do not focus on the faults, the weaknesses, and shortcomings of your flesh but focus on Him and all these things will drop to the ground like dead leafs when their time comes, as the Lord said to me. Remember we are trees growing through seasons. Also remember that as in the natural, growing up takes time and we all are on different levels and in different seasons and a child cannot give what he doesn't have. A child can only be to where he has grown and your heavenly Father does not expect more from you. We are not in performance but in transformation. Never try to live or walk beyond that which is written about your life in heaven. Ask the Holy Spirit to keep you in agreement with His flow for your life and allow Him to take full control. We grow from glory to glory and He will cause your life to produce the required fruit as you draw spiritual nourishment from Him as your complete source. The key factor behind spiritual growth and development is intimacy and time spent with God in His presence and if you struggle with that then simply ask Him to draw you. Ask Him to expose, judge and uproot everything of the old order of your fallen nature, ask Him to dismantle Satan's kingdom inside of you and to establish His rule and reign in your life. Ask the Lord to work submission into you and to bring you into that place of His shared Being where His Presence shields you off and protects you from Satan's influence, that hidden place of being inhabited and shielded by His divine Spirit. From this place of intimacy, all other aspects of your God-given destiny will follow.

  Matthew 6:33 But seek you first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof.

  Now let us look at the 3rd stage in our walk with the Author of our salvation towards sonship and maturity and in this stage we will discover the ministry of the Holy Spirit and His desire to guide us and empower us to follow in the footsteps of Jesus as we apply the pattern of Christ to our Christian walk. To be born again unto the salvation afforded by the blood of Christ and to be brought forth by God as a mature reigning son who manifests the victory, the glory and the power of His Son by His indwelling Spirit are two very different realities in the life of a Christian. You will be introduced to the message of the cross of Jesus Christ because no one can side-step the cross and expect to grow up into a reigning position with King Jesus.

  In John 3:5-6 Jesus said to Nicodemus, Truly, truly, I say to you, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

  To be placed in a reigning position with the King, one must first be conquered. To be born-again as a spiritual baby and to be born or brought forth into the fullness of the Spirit of Christ according to 1 John 3:9 are two completely different stages of the Christian growth. Let me explain, first we are born-again as we accept Christ as Lord and Savior and we enter the beginning stage of our new life in Christ in a seed form, this being the 30-fold impartation. I am speaking in prophetic symbolic terms to explain the process of spiritual growth unto maturity. Then that seed has to develop through intimate relationship-building with God through His word as we progress through the different seasons until we advance to the 60 fold stage and until the seed becomes a mature fruit-bearing plant (attaining to mature sonship) the 100 fold manifestation of the measure of the full stature of Christ. Mark 4:26-29 And He said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; (1) first the blade (30-fold), (2) then the ear (60-fold), after that (3) the full corn in the ear (100-fold). But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest has come (the son becomes a faithful laborer in the field). The process of our growth is illustrated in this kingdom parable.

  It is the same as a baby growing and developing in the womb of its mother. First, there is a conception that takes place and then as the fetus draws nourishment from its mother the child develops through different stages of growth until the baby comes forth. Much of the unborn child's growth is taking place in the brain, like the renewing of your mind in a spiritual sense. When the child is developed, the birthing process can begin to take place as Paul wrote in Galatians 4:19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you. Jesus also teaches us in John 15 that He is the vine and we are the branches, so in the spirit, we are all connected to God as through an umbilical cord because from Him we constantly draw spiritual nourishment as we abide in Him. An unborn developing child is only revealed at birth. (manifest sonship in the Person and the power of Gods Spirit).

  A fetus develops into babyhood (30-fold), and then childhood (60-fold) until it reaches manhood (100-fold). To be born of the Spirit means that we reach maturity in God as mature sons and the Father unveils our lives in and through the Spirit of His Son. All fleshly hindrance and weakness fall away as the child now become a manifested son. Therefore the term being born of God and this is why in the revelation of this reality the Apostle John wrote the following, 1John 3:9 Whoever is born of God doesn't commit sin, because His seed remains in him; and he can't sin, because he is born of God and 1 John 2:29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that every one that does righteousness is born of Him. (this is talking about those who practice righteousness through their obedience to the faith) 1John 2:5 But whoever keeps His word, Gods love has most certainly been perfected in him. (in other words, his love-walk has been brought to full fruition) This is how we know that we are in Him. (the test of your maturity and position in God) he who says he remains in Him ought himself also to walk just like He (Jesus) walked.

  We must, therefore, understand that in the context of what the Lord said to Nicodemus He set forth a principle of spiritual growth and emphasized the importance of pressing toward the mark and the high-calling of attaining to mature sonship.

  Paul writes about the importance of being brought forth as a completely new creation in Galatians 6:14 But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.

  In such a person the love of the Father is made perfect because the old life of the flesh is done away with through the sacrifice, the sanctification and the circumcision of his personal cross. His love for God was demonstrated in that, just like Jesus, He laid down His life for the benefit of others and in his pursuit in obedience to the cross by dying to self, God has brought Him forth through a glorious resurrection into a reigning position in Christ. Agapé love can only truly manifest in the total absence of self. 1 John 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

  The Holy Spirit revealed to me, the reality of the new creation in Christ cannot be found in the fleshly life of the earthly Adam, rather it is revealed by the Spirit in the miracle of the new creation. This new creation is brought forth by God into the freedom of the life of His Spirit. For anyone to experience and live in the new (the heavenly), that which is of the flesh (the old earthy Adam) must be done away with through the work of the cross. It is a baptism of suffering through which the Spirit of the cross of Christ works a deep repentance into you in the putting to death of that which is earthly, devilish and fleshly. It is a deep work of the cleansing out of God's temple which temple you are. Through this foundational work done by the Lord himself, He brings our fallen nature to nothing. In that place of nothingness, that place of the end of yourself, His glorious all-sufficiency shows up as He brings you forth into the new creation resurrection state. Truly the Lord works a wondrous perfect work in those who respond to it. Psalm 138:8 The LORD will perfect that which concerns me: Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever: forsake not the works of your own hands.

  1 Peter 5:10 But the God of all grace, who has called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.

  Therefore the statement in 1 Corinthians 15:36 what has been sown cannot be brought back to life unless it has died. The cross is the pathway and doorway into the new. The Holy Spirit is given to inhabit the disciple because no one can live the life of Christ without the Spirit of Christ and as you are introduced to the invitation and the journey of your own personal cross you will discover what it means to be truly baptized into the freedom of the life of Christ. Jesus instructs his disciples to take up their own personal cross. He did not say we must take up His cross but our own crosses meaning just like Him, we are called to embrace the call of the cross in dying to self. Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus to His disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. His cross saves you from sin but your cross delivers you from sin as we allow the Holy Spirit to deal with the seed and the seat of the serpent in us, the flesh.

  The life of Christ is a supernatural life empowered by an all-powerful God. You tell me how can you move into a new house to take up full residence if the old occupant refuses to move out? The Holy Spirit will enable you through the process of spiritual growth to shed the skin of your carnal flesh to be brought forth into the spiritual reality of the life of Christ. The life of Christ is the way in which Jesus walked as a mature Son of the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, healing the sick, raising the dead and delivering people from demonic influence. Every true follower of Christ will find themselves eventually walking in the full reality and manifestation of Isaiah 61 because it is the natural order of a mature son.

  2 Corinthians 5:14 For the love of Christ constrains us; because we judge thus, that one died for all, therefore all died. He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again. Therefore we know no one after the flesh from now on. Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

  This is a scripture that is widely misunderstood by most Christians because there is such shallowness in their understanding. How can any person claim to be a new creation in Christ but by their works and the way in which they live they prove to still be carnal fleshly self-centered babies? It is easy to declare that we are new creations in Christ but it is quite another thing to walk in the reality and manifestation of this truth. The Lord asked me one day, In how many of My people's lives is everything really made new? The answer is, very few, because people resist the transformation ministry of His Word and Spirit in their lives and because most Christians live for themselves. They are in this to see what they can get out of God and not how they can serve in His kingdom. As soon as they hear the hardcore reality and truth of the true gospel they become offended. The only fleshly trait that becomes offended to the call of a life of sacrifice is selfishness. Let it, therefore, be known that if you are living for yourself according to your own fleshly standards, the life of Christ will always be unknown and foreign to you. If you resist the work of the cross, in dying to self, then you cannot become like Jesus because the Son of the Most High is not a selfish, self-centered person but a selfless, self-sacrificing loving Savior who laid himself down to serve others in the love. If you are not willing to pay the price in laying down your life to become a servant, then you do not qualify to become useful in the kingdom. Anyone that puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for service in the kingdom. The sons of the Father are those whose lives are conformed to the likeness and the image of Jesus as the eldest Son. They renounced their lower former way of life to embrace the higher life of the Spirit. They serve God because they love Him and love to share His heart for His people. The call to discipleship is a call to a life where the love of God is perfected through a life of sacrifice. It is truly more blessed to give than to receive and the self-centered people will never know what this means. The highest form of worship is a surrendered life to the glory, the honor and the praise of the God of wonders. Only eternity will reveal and proclaim this great truth. I have learned in this walk and journey with the Father that the call of the cross has an amazing way to separate the profane from the holy, the sheep from the goats and those that only serve themselves and not God.

  In this teaching, you are going to learn about the ultimate love sacrifice and the power of the cross of Jesus Christ and its practical application by the Spirit of the cross in the believer's life. Today He sits at the right hand of God being given the name that is above every name and He is calling for those who want to join Him. The call and invitation are extended to every believer.