The Feast of Tabernacles is a collection of teachings by Richard Mikelson.

 

These teachings explore spiritual depths of influential texts of scripture,  and of the human condition.

Our Conversation is in Heaven

Our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” Philippians 3:20-21 King James

The word “conversation” in the King James is from the Greek manuscript’s word “politeuma” meaning “our citizenship.” In the original Greek, it meant our behavior is from and about heaven. We are citizens of certain behavior, so now our citizenship is heavenly. We speak truth, not lies, about what viewpoints are right in conversational words. Even about politics, our conversation is about our heavenly citizenship where righteousness dwells, and so much more. The spirit of God has exercised godliness within our temple as today the God of heaven gives us possession of equal inheritance and full birth rights with Jesus.

We who follow Jesus Christ are citizens of a heavenly dimension and our spirit is subject to heavenly standards. Our inner person, our spiritual person, has been raised up and made to sit together in places where Christ Jesus rules and reigns. We have a heavenly citizenship of a lasting home, a place of sonship, a land of godly perception of Our Heavenly Father that is real.

Every Christian is called to become a dwelling of the highest behavior possible to fit in God’s heavenly city, where the “mansions” are the place of His throne. Spiritual gates take us to higher heavenly places where He is enthroned. His throne is made up of people that we can join as a member, to be one with those people who have found the SOURCE OF SPIRITUAL LIFE.

HIS SPIRIT has come in to us to properly teach us how to dwell in the light, to be citizens of heavenly behavior. People who are born of the spirit have awakened to the behavior of patient love. Our darkened state was “born again,” now we’re capable of kindness and justice. We recognize truth because God has written His law within our inner being.

All Christians are required to truly grow until they are spiritually alive within, until they are INDWELT by Godliness. We must be spiritually introduced to heavenly places, and we are when the spirit of truth connects our spirit to His Spirit. We find then that our heavenly Father provides strength to walk uprightly in the truth connected with lasting heavens. The reward for doing this is superabundance.

It is worth our time to examine prayerfully just what is actually stated in certain passages of scripture:

“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.” Philippians 3:20-21 NAS

The Lord Jesus Christ comes to make our spirit one, to change our minds, and change even our body as the power of Christ reigns within us to form a proper stature of joint heirs with Christ Jesus. His salvation does include changing the vileness of our bodies. We can be changed in our whole man right now if we are citizens of proper behavior. Right now our Father is supplying the Spirit of sonship, a sevenfold spirit from the throne of Jesus that washes away the superficial readings and carnal minded interpretations that religious scholars have taken and twisted into destruction. This scriptural passage was present for Paul, not in the future, and we are doing this same changing of viewpoints to become citizens of a higher heavenly order. It has affected our spirit, our thinking, our behavior, our perception of truth.

ALL CHRISTIANS HAVE A NEW INNER MAN that can now be “citizens” (legal residents of a homeland) of a spiritual homeland! The truth is most Christians have been robbed from the present belief in heavenly mindedness. Christ forms a person within us that is positioned to look for new heavens to which they are alive. They are looking to see Jesus reign over heaven and earth to bring God’s domain that frees people from sorrow, sickness and death. He is coming even now, with a spirit of truth we must accept.

What Christians are doing here in America today is not holding up truth but a lie. Why? Their citizenship is confused! They have settled short of full salvation to be mixed with earthly states. Our conversation, like Paul’s, is to be from Zion’s lofty vantage point. It is an exalted heavenly state given those just men who are looking for it. We follow on to learn of the SAVIOUR, whose coming is as the dawning of day, He will change even our vile bodies.

Yes, our citizenship, our politics, our viewpoint have been molded by the spirit of truth,given through Jesus, to form belief that conforms us ALREADY TO HEAVEN NOW! Should we ever focus on LOOKING FOR THE INSTRUCTIONS THE SAVIOUR GIVES, IT WILL CHANGE OUR ENTIRE BEING, including the vile body, “the soma body.” The Greek word for “body” is “soma”. We Christians have a “soma body that is dead”, and we have also a “spiritual body that is alive:”

"If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body." I Corinthians 15:44 NAS

Paul clearly teaches that if you now have a natural body, you also now have a spiritual body:

"There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." I Corinthians 15:40-44 NAS

Accepting this clear message from the enthroned Christ makes for a divine connection with our heavenly Father’s supply. We are connected with He who heals, raises our spirit to citizenship with heaven, renews our mind with truth, quickens even our natural, “soma” body. We should now take note of those with exalted seating in the heights of God’s heavens. He has placed great ushers by the gates of personal change by which He is changing our mindsets about the scriptures.

We now can have spiritual understandings that work, even to change our natural bodies! Health in the body can be ours as the savior saves us from dying. Our homeland is HEAVEN and by that we are filled with God’s great wealth. We, too, look for our vile body to be changed, to be as our spiritual body, alive never to die again. Our spiritual body has fellowship now as a citizen of Zion in God’s celestial city, a citizen of heaven. Through seeing Jesus we are changed and believe our body is being changed to be like His glorious body to be the dwelling place of God.

Jesus always says our Father wants to make a home within us. God’s Spirit has touched our spirit to join in agreement with those crying “ABBA, Father”. The third day has come! A feast of fat things raises us to His third heaven where it is unlawful for man to speak. A very high place has been reserved for candlestick church overcomers! This is the reward to be seen openly in these last days as the SAVIOUR extends His insight into more and more individuals who are now outside the candlestick church camps. His Spirit is coming to COMPLETE (perfect) the work of guiding us, teaching our inner spirit the details that please Him. We are learning to please our Father in all we do or don’t do, as we follow on to know the Lord.

We Christians are to present our bodies, our natural life, a living sacrifice, as our “reasonable service.” As our inner spirit person is quickened to know God’s power to subject all things to Himself, a fuller resurrection raises us to see Jesus is incorruptible. We see His Life without mortality. This is the Life that needs to appear within us who are looking for the promises of God. We are molded by the Lord’s handiwork to His promise to make us flawless, perfect and clean with the power and glory that releases us from every lie. We are citizens conformed to a lasting state, now dwelling with His GLORIOUS BODY that has been lifted to the throne above—above the workings of death in mind and body—to a body of glory that transformed our human humiliation.

"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself." Philippians 3:21 NAS

Oh, yes He is able to subject all of us completely! He can subdue the vilest character, no matter the humiliation! Now we are expecting He will continue to subject all our vileness, washing away the humiliation of our “soma.” We are to be citizens conformed to His image, fully developed to belong in the celestial realms of heaven. A change from mortality to immortality is taking place within us who allow Christ to be formed within our inner being. We now have instruction that abides in our spirit. It pleases Our Father to grant us inheritance divine, a glory like onto the sun, stars, and moon. It is vastly important to allow the truth of Christ to be formed in our spiritual life by following the truth Christ reveals.

What is most important in our life? Are we pleasing God? What is a clear conscience worth? Thank God we have been awakened from the dark night to know the Savior. We have followed on to know more of Him, now we find crowns of heavenly life. Oh, yes our spirit and soul has been subjected and is now controlled by a Spirit with divine purpose about righteous functioning in our daily life.

Tremendous changes are now taking place within the Lord’s body. The truths in our inner spiritual being are like jewels in the walls of the city, a treasure house for the mysteries of godliness!

"Have nothing to do with profane myths and old wives' tales. Train yourself in godliness, for, while physical training is of some value, godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and struggle, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. These are the things you must insist on and teach." 1 Timothy 4:7-11 NRS

God light is shining from us, out from inside us. This plan and in-working process is effectively working in heavenly minded Christians. It will effectively work even in our vile body so we are fashioned to fit into our proper rank among His glorious many membered body:

“For our realm is inherent in the heavens, out of which we are awaiting a Savior also, the Lord, Jesus Christ, Who will transfigure the body of our humiliation, to conform it to the body of His glory,” Philippians 3:20 concordant

Hallelujah! The full salvation promised is to transfigure even the natural body that humiliates man. The whole man—body, soul, and spirit—can now be quickened by the Spirit of God that abides within us with a victory so complete, so powerful that our vile bodies are transfigured! Full salvation includes the promise of these words. To be saved fully is to have a supply of God’s incorruptible life that swallows up all of our death, even making our vile body alive.

We too seek to possess the very fullness of our Father’s divine will where we are not merely held as babes “saved by grace,” but sons totally made alive in one spirit, renewed in soul, and quickened in body. We are quickened by the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead to expand His influence over our mortal substance. This has TRULY been reserved for us in heaven, now ready to be revealed!

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." I Peter 1:3-5 NAS

This protection of God’s power is working to reveal the heavens of spiritual Mount Zion where perfection is working in just men. Here, the New Jerusalem order is above the candlestick church heavens. We have grown to know many spiritual things that have been kept secret, as a mystery, about the call to the Kingdom of God. We look to the spirit of a heavenly realm that is above the natural mind of man, above the natural senses and religious thoughts of people not understanding this place. We have been granted release from the carnal mind having fleshly ideas that resist spiritual progress. Our Father’s provision has reached us to guide our spirit, renew our mind, and quicken our body as true “witnesses of Jesus.” God is manifesting Life to those fashioned of Jesus:

"May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this." 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 NRS

There is a lot of blame and condemnation going around the high places of the candlestick church realm. Yet we are saved from condemning others to a lasting hell or any separation from His love. Love is blameless, not blaming others unjustly. Love removes our unholy spots and all the wrinkles causing misunderstanding from the death working in man’s soulish being. Our evil mindedness is provided an empowering godly deliverance. A divine deliverance is working in Zion, with truth leading us to holiness dwelling within. It helps to earnestly meditate upon the meaning of certain scriptural precepts of the apostle Paul, as where he writes:

“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh- for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"” Romans 8:11-15 NAS

Christian people are taught to control their behavior with disciplined religious efforts that are not much more than fleshly attempts to claim power to reform our unholy selves. Such religious efforts have clearly failed, yet the candlestick church has been teaching us the New Testament scriptures as LAW that has made nothing perfect. But we are drawn to the spirit of truth in sonship with those empowered from within to wait patiently as God clothes us with our heavenly garment. This is an inner garment that puts our human reasoning into neutral, taken out of control. We are freed from earthly pursuits to be now enhanced with perceptions of God’s Life, to know all that is available to us:

“For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. ”

Learning how to be led by the spirit of God is the most important thing that we could ever do in this life!

“‘This is the covenant which I will make with them after those days’, says the Lord. “I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them.’” Hebrews 10: 16

The best thing that could happen to us is have our heart written upon by God! Our Heavenly Father is sending the Spirit of truth to our spirit, to write on our inner parts that control our behavior in our spirit, soul, and body. Our inner spiritual man is made alive so that everywhere we walk, heaven appears as we exercise godliness in this life.

We learn to walk in the spirit. We learn to move through life mostly praying in silence, yet definitely desiring to worship God in the spirit of truth. We gain DAILY BREAD, a hidden manna that quickens our inner understanding of God’s ways as we move more fully in conformity to His mind. We have been given a precious measure of His faith that generates life in our spirit:

"…godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." I Timothy 4:8

Pentecostal church circles have ended up in the works of the flesh, with too, too many under the rule of man's flesh in church hierarchies. More is happening in our spiritual life while remaining outside Pentecostal ranks, out of the “church mold” to “come up hither to the Kingdom mold” where God is pleased to reveal His Sonship in us. This is where we are made a TABERNACLE of God, fully free, saved to the uttermost, as heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus:

"But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me;” Galatians 1:15-17 NAS

The Fear of the Lord

Divine Prescription