Charlie Lewis

Last week we discussed how we are so indoctrinated by our culture to think in terms of our temporal, earthly experience, that we lose the ability to speak in the language of eternity – our first and primary language. Even as we read our Constitution (the Bible), we frequently miss the eternal language and lessons laid out by Jesus.

We must re-learn the language of eternity.

I am told by people that are learning a new language that when you can begin to think and process information in the new language, you have mastered it. This is not easy. Often you have to go to a place where you are surrounded by those who are speaking the language and immerse yourself in the training process.

Could that be what we are told to do in Romans, chapter 12 verse 2? Is that what this verse really means?

2 Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you,[a] but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of “how you think.“ This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.

Romans 12:2, The Passion Translation (TPT)

How we think is important, and how we  think is determined by how we have been and how we are programming our minds to think. Our mind is the data bank that houses all the information we have placed in our minds. Or the information we have allowed others to place in our mind. We do the programming, or we allow someone else to program our minds for us.

There is not much reference to eternity in our mind for most of us. We have not placed it there.

The tangible, physical things of our life in our “here” takes up all the room in our minds. That is no accident. This did not just happen. The culture and the systems of our world are controlled by the Kingdom of Darkness, and they have an amazing and effective plan for programming our minds to think like they want us to think. When we understand and when we grasp eternity and our eternalness, the priority and significance of the brief, temporary “things” of our lives in our here begin to dim and to lose their power and their influence over us. Our focus changes. Our perspective is not confined to this planet. We know where we came from, our before-here. We know where we are going, our here-after. We know why we are here, the reason that we exist and why we are.

What we can buy, power, fame, good looks, sexuality, drugs, alcohol, immoral behavior (sexual or otherwise), all of the material things that we can pursue will not satisfy. Only our purpose, our reason for being that is found in our eternity, will deliver the peace, the satisfaction, and the contentment that we are created and designed to achieve and to enjoy.

The number one and the primary take-away from our study of who we are, where we came from, why we are here, how we are to live, and what happens to us when we die and our spirit departs time and leaves our body is that we must know, we must understand, and we must live our lives in‑time from the correct perspective of our eternity and of our eternalness.

Why? Because we are eternal. We never die. Our spirit existed before our time experience and will live after our body dies. Our life in-time is to be lived completely from the perspective of our eternity and from the view of our eternalness. This is who we are. This is who we are forever. This is who our Creator and our Designer is, and this is who He has created and designed us to be. For our lives in-time and forever to be successful and meaningful, we must be effective in our pursuit of eternity and our eternalness. There is no other platform that we can define and that we can use to achieve success that is lasting.

Our God, our Creator and our Designer, is eternal. He only communicates and fellowships with us, His creation, from the perspective of our eternity and from the position of our eternalness. He is not religious; He is a God of relationship. And we are created and designed to be in a living, flowing, breathing relationship of fellowship with Him, continually and without end.

He and His Word are the same. Both are eternal and do not change. His Word, the scriptures are not a religious book of regulation and compliance. His Word is completely relational and provides for us the interactive dynamics that we choose to live our lives by in order to be successful and in right relationship with Him. His Word is our Constitution: the values, the principles and the established precedents that we agree to use to govern ourselves. Our Conduct and our Behavior are based on the eternal values that are found in scripture.

From cover to cover, the scriptures present the story of Humanity as the battle of two kingdoms; one King and one who wants to be King. The epic battle by this want-to-be King for control of Humanity is displayed clearly throughout the recorded history found in our book. The devastating results of Humanity, who are deceived into believing his lies and who choose to follow this want-to-be King, are presented in great detail for all of Humanity to see and to understand. This renegade Angel cannot win. In his desperation, his plan is to steal, to kill, and to destroy as much of Humanity as he can before he ends up bound and imprisoned for eternity. He is already defeated. He is the defeated Satan.

The pressures of time and our being “in-time” cannot be allowed to influence our decisions and to manipulate our choices for action. The situations, the circumstances and the relationships of our “here and our now” seem so important, even more important than our here-after and our before-here.

That is a huge misconception.

Situations, circumstances and relationships are all temporary. They are not forever. They can each change frequently from minute to minute, and they often do.

The foundation for our life is based on our eternity and on our eternalness.

Chasing the temporary and ever-changing situations, circumstances, and relationships of time can be very frustrating and defeating. That is not a battle we can win. This how we lose our hope, our purpose, and the meaning for our life in-time. We are designed to operate in our eternalness, and that is the most stable and most secure position that we can possibly choose to manage our present in-time experience on planet Earth.

It is interesting and noteworthy to examine the conversations that Jesus Christ, God Himself, Emmanuel, God with us, had with humanity when He was on the Earth. Humanity would always ask their questions based on time and their in-time situation, circumstance or relationships. Jesus always answered from the perspective of Eternity with a Kingdom-focused answer. His vantage point, perspective, and operational directives were always from the position of humanity’s eternity. He has not changed. He always answers our earthly in-time questions from the Kingdom perspective of eternity and our eternalness. Have we missed that? Are we stuck in-time?

Here are two well-known conversations that Jesus had with people while on earth. As you read through them, I want you to note and consider how Jesus employs the Language of Eternity in these conversations.

Jesus Speaks With Nicodemus

Now there was a prominent religious leader among the Jews named Nicodemus, who was part of the sect called the Pharisees and a member of the Jewish ruling council. One night he discreetly came to Jesus and said, “Master, we know that you are a teacher from God, for no one performs the miracle signs that you do, unless God’s power is with him.”

Jesus answered, “Nicodemus, listen to this eternal truth: Before a person can perceive God’s kingdom realm, they must first experience a rebirth.”

Nicodemus said, “Rebirth? How can a gray-headed man be reborn? It’s impossible for a man to go back into the womb a second time and be reborn!”

Jesus answered, “I speak an eternal truth: Unless you are born of water and Spirit-wind, you will never enter God’s kingdom realm. For the natural realm can only give birth to things that are natural, but the spiritual realm gives birth to supernatural life! You shouldn’t be amazed by my statement, ‘You must be born from above!’ For the Spirit-wind blows as it chooses. You can hear its sound, but you don’t know where it came from or where it’s going. So it is within the hearts of those who are Spirit-born!”

Then Nicodemus replied, “But I don’t understand, what do you mean? How does this happen?”

Jesus answered, “Nicodemus, aren’t you the respected teacher in Israel, and yet you don’t understand this revelation? I speak eternal truths about things I know, things I’ve seen and experienced—and still you don’t accept what I reveal. If you’re unable to understand and believe what I’ve told you about the natural realm, what will you do when I begin to unveil the heavenly realm? No one has risen into the heavenly realm except the Son of Man who also exists in heaven. And just as Moses in the desert lifted up the brass replica of a snake on a pole for all the people to see and be healed, so the Son of Man is ready to be lifted up, so that those who truly believe in him will not perish but be given eternal life.” [The Amplified Classic version reads, “…not perish, but have eternal life and actually live forever!”]

John 3:3-15, TPT

Jesus, God Himself, Emmanuel – God with us, here explains and delineates the difference between an earthbound perceptive and an eternal and forever perspective that we find in His Kingdom and in its understanding. This is our correct choice to the alternative choices that are provided to us by the kingdom systems of the world.

Jesus Speaks with the Woman at the Well

Jesus realized that the Pharisees were keeping count of the baptisms that he and John performed (although his disciples, not Jesus, did the actual baptizing). They had posted the score that Jesus was ahead, turning him and John into rivals in the eyes of the people. So Jesus left the Judean countryside and went back to Galilee. To get there, he had to pass through Samaria. He came into Sychar, a Samaritan village that bordered the field Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was still there. Jesus, worn out by the trip, sat down at the well. It was noon.

A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, “Would you give me a drink of water?” (His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch.) The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, “How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan, and a woman, for a drink?” (Jews in those days wouldn’t be caught dead talking to Samaritans.)

Jesus answered, “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.”

The woman said, “Sir, you don’t even have a bucket to draw with you, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this ‘living water’? Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and livestock, and passed it down to us?”

Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.”

The woman said, “Sir, give me this water so I won’t ever get thirsty, won’t ever have to come back to this well again!”

He said, “Go call your husband and then come back.”

“I have no husband,” she said.

“That’s nicely put: ‘I have no husband.’ You’ve had five husbands, and the man you’re living with now isn’t even your husband. You spoke the truth there, sure enough.”

“Oh, so you’re a prophet! Well, tell me this: Our ancestors worshiped God at this mountain, but you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place for worship, right?”

“Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem. You worship guessing in the dark; we Jews worship in the clear light of day. God’s way of salvation is made available through the Jews. But the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter.

“It’s who you are and the way you live, [conduct and behavior: Dynamics] that counts before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.”

The woman said, “I don’t know about that. I do know that the Messiah is coming. When he arrives, we’ll get the whole story.”

“I am he,” said Jesus. “You don’t have to wait any longer or look any further.”

Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked. They couldn’t believe he was talking with that kind of a woman. No one said what they were all thinking, but their faces showed it.

The woman took the hint and left. In her confusion she left her water pot. Back in the village she told the people, “Come see a man who knew all about the things I did, who knows me inside and out. Do you think this could be the Messiah?” And they went out to see for themselves.

John 4:1-30, MSG

Our Creator and our Designer always addresses His conversation with Humanity from the perspective of Eternity and our Eternalness.

Often, actually most of the time, humanity misses the meaning of what is being said. They are unsure of what is being said, because they are considering what is being said from the perspective of time. Our God talks and communicates in the language of eternity. Eternity is the Language of the Kingdom and eternity is the only language that our God speaks and uses for communication.

We are not accustomed to, nor are we comfortable communicating using the language of eternity, the language of the Kingdom. We do not know, nor do we understand the language of Eternity. Because we are so inundated and absorbed with the language of our culture based on time and our in-time experience on this planet, we have not even heard, nor do we know or understand, that there is a language of eternity. Change does not come easy and it requires effort. The continual, concentrated and concerted effort is necessary to program our minds to think and to speak in eternity, the language of the Kingdom.

We are created and born as an eternal spirit, and eternity is our first and primary language.

I am told by people that are learning a new language that when you can begin to think and process information in the new language, you have mastered it. This is not easy. Often you have to go to a place where you are surrounded by those who are speaking the language and immerse yourself in the training process.

Our search and our research for our identity, our origin and our purpose have opened new beautiful and empowering vistas of understanding for us. Our past visions of who we are, where we came from, and why we are here are changed forever, and changed for the better, exponentially. No longer are we bound by the physical, material world that we see, nor are we confined to what we have previously been told about who we are and our abilities. We have entered into a new and exciting revelation. This revelation breaks the chains of the incorrect and the limited information from the horizontal and earthly plane/perspective that we have received. Our new understanding and perspective destroys forever the ties/bonds of religious and earthly propaganda that have had us bound and limited to our own abilities and to our earthly genetics.

We are free indeed! Free to be who our Creator and our Father has made us to be. We are free to pursue His plans for us, and we are able to achieve all that He designed and empowered us to be. Most of all, we are capable of becoming who He has anointed and who He has consecrated us to be.

With the correct perspective of eternity and our eternalness, we have learned that our transcendent relationship that is provided to us from our Father is outside of ourselves and not dependent on our earthly heritage and those earth-bound abilities. The existence of this very real relationship that is beyond the normal or physical level of who we are, provides for us an unequaled and more powerful source and the resource for us to engage and to employ in the successful and the meaningful living of our life. This resource is greater than anything on this planet can defeat. This source contains within itself the authority, the empowerment, and the pre- qualifications to achieve amazing exploits for ourselves and for humanity on this planet.

Our transcendent relationship has established for us a divine pedigree and an out-of-and-not-from-this-world lineage that carries with it capabilities and anointings that are beyond the scope of our earthly heritage. Our DNA is from the throne of the living God, the Creator of all things. We are not bound by the  genetics of the Family that we were born into on the Earth. Our lineage is divine and comes directly from the source of all things.

To properly engage and to utilize this amazing, implanted ability that has been given to us to its maximum capacity, there must be a paradigm shift in who we are, and in whom we see, in what we accept and in what we believe ourselves to be. We must correct and change how we think, the vantage point from which we process all information, each situation, every circumstance and all relationships. This becomes what we believe. What we believe must be changed from our earthbound perspective to the reality of our eternity and our eternalness. All of the actions we choose to take in the daily living of our lives must reflect our correct vantage point of eternity and our eternalness, so that we come into alignment with and in agreement with who and what our Creator and our Designer says that we are.

Our paradigm shift begins with an intentional and an on-purpose change in our beginning point of reference for evaluating and for considering everything that we are and do. Everything. And what is our new and unchanging, permanent position? We will always begin our valuation and our consideration of everything that we are and everything that we do, from the perspective of our eternity and from our eternalness.

Our mission and our charge while we are in our temporary experience of time is to make good choices that are based on our eternalness because our choices in-time have huge impact on what our experience will be when we return to eternity without time.

When the body of the man, Jesus Christ, had been savagely beaten, and after being whipped without mercy and nailed to a wooden cross, as His body expired, He loudly cried out to its Creator:

46 Then Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Father, I surrender my Spirit into your hands.”[a] And he took his last breath and died.

Luke 23:46, The Passion Translation (TPT)

Jesus as a human man was releasing His Spirit to leave His body and to return to its origin and to its Creator.

When Stephen was being stoned to the point where his body was dying, he cried out to his eternal Father:

59 As they hurled stone after stone at him, Stephen prayed, “Our Lord Jesus, accept my spirit into your presence.” 60 He crumpled to his knees and shouted in a loud voice, “Our Lord, don’t hold this sin against them.” And then he died.

Acts 7:59-60, The Passion Translation (TPT)

When our spirit leaves our body, we go to Heaven, our here-after. There our life in-time is evaluated, and we are rewarded according to our life choices while we were on this planet. Every thought, each action and all of our desires are presented for review.

This is important to know and for us to understand while we are on this planet and in-time.

Our choices for our conduct and for our behavior must be based on the awareness and on the reality of our eternalness. We are an eternal spirit. Unlike our body that is temporary and will die, the real us, the eternal and forever us, our spirit, will not die, but will live forever. Our choices of how we live our lives in our present, in-time experience, the here and now portion of our eternity determines what our experience will be in our here-after forever.

The Holy Spirit God wrote through King David in the twenty-third Psalm, Passion Translation, verse six:

“So why would I fear the future? For your goodness and love pursue me all the days of my life. Then afterward, when my life is through, I’ll return to your glorious presence to be forever with you!”

Psalm 23:6, The Passion Translation (TPT)

When our spirit leaves our body we begin the “hereafter” period/component of our eternity.

This is our promise! This is what our life is about.

In the makeup of humanity, the component in our triune being of spirit, mind, and body that gives our body life is our spirit. When our spirit enters our body, our earth-suit that is provided for the expression of our spirit, our body begins to breathe and to live in-time.

When our spirit leaves our body and departs time, our body dies, stops breathing and ceases to live.

Our mind – our emotions, our feelings, our intellect, and our personality, fully knows and completely understands that our body is temporary. Our body will die. Our body is temporary and has a beginning and an ending. Our body will one day cease to be. Our body is the temporary home of our Eternal and our forever spirit, while our spirit, the real and forever us, is in- time and on this planet. Our spirit engages our body for physical expression while on the earth.

This understanding is not complicated, and is really very easy to understand. Some in religious circles have made this difficult and complicated. It is not. This knowledge and this understanding of our design is important for humanity to know and to understand in order to be able to engage our life in-time successfully. Yet, only a very small percentage of humanity really understand operationally how they are designed and how they are created to operate successfully in-time.

The real us, the eternal and forever us, is our spirit, and it is our spirit that gives life to our body. This is the design of our Creator. Our forever life that is found in our eternity and in our eternalness are contained in our spirit.

When we understand the three components of our eternity and our eternalness, we realize that our spirit was in our “before-here” with our Creator before entering our “here,” or our “here and now,” the in-time component of our eternity.

We did not begin here, and we will not end here.

Our spirit existed before entering their earthly home (our body) and they continue to be and to exist when they leave their home on the earth. The real us, the eternal and forever us, was in eternity without time before coming to the earth and before entering and beginning our journey in-time. “Here” we wrap ourselves in our earth-suit and begin our experience in our eternity with time. The in-time portion of our eternity is the shortest and most brief period of all the components of our eternity.

The commonality of who we are forever, when we are (1) in‑time and when we were in the (2) before‑here and when we will be in (3) here‑ after portions of our eternity where there is no time, is our spirit and our eternalness.

Be sure to check back next week, as we address the all-important question of “What happens when my spirit leaves my body?“