The Gospel is the big secret, the mystery of mysteries!  It was hidden for ages and from generations, but now has been made known to the saints. To the majority of mankind it was utterly unknown and it would have forever been kept a secret had not God, in His infinite mercy, been pleased to reveal it to us by His Holy Spirit, Christ in you.  Christ in you, the hope of glory! Hope of glory….present indwelling of the Holy Spirit with all of His benefits!  Those being all His love, all His forgiveness, all His redemption, all His grace and all His power, which are truly endless.  He is our hope of glory and He is in us, that is, one with us, through the Spirit of God.  Christ believed in, Christ possessed, Christ experienced, Christ in you!  You become one with Jesus!  In a deeper sense it’s still a hidden thing unless the Spirit of God has revealed it to you individually, until you get a revelation of who He is you!  The light is clear enough, but it’s of no benefit till the eyes are opened.  Each separate individual must have Christ revealed to him and in him by the work of Holy Spirit, or else he will remain in darkness.  If Holy Spirit has, at last, chosen to reveal Himself to you and put eternity within your reach, stretch out your hand in faith and take hold of it!

  You take Christ into you by way of the Holy Spirit, for it is Christ in you by faith that becomes the hope of glory. While Christ did temporarily become small enough to be a man and walk the earth, His true eternal nature, according to the Apostle Paul, is a universe-sized, mystical creating force. (Small enough to live in my heart but large enough to make Earth His footstool!) When the only begotten Son of God became a man, because He was God-man He made it possible for human beings to become one with God. Not gods as some might think but one with God.  Just as the Son of God took up residence in the body of Mary, so through the new birth He takes up residence in those who give up their life to Him.  Jesus in Mary became one with Mary! He took His nourishment from Mary just as we are nourished by Him.  Jesus in you becomes one with you.  He is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh! Whatever Christ is, His people are in Him.  You were crucified in Him; you were dead in Him; you were buried in Him; you are risen in Him!  In Him you live eternally.  Jesus prayed in John chapter 17:21 “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one–as you are in me, Father, and I am in you.  And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.”  Him in you and you in Him!  We have it all in a nutshell in these seven words “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  I cannot think of who He is, what He has done, what He is doing and what He’s gonna’ do, without saying, “He is all my salvation and all my desire, He’s all I need.”  Christ in me, the hope of glory!  I was thinking, the other day, how different Christ is from all the friends that I have.  They bring me good things, joy, happiness and laughter but Jesus gives me Himself.  He does not only give me wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, but He offers me Him and with Him, eternal life!  He is every breath I take and every beat of my heart!  Therefore I can never do without Him for I can’t live without Him!  When Jesus does come into your heart, His court comes with Him….honor, glory, immortality, Heaven and all other divine things follow where He leads.  “Oh,” you say, “I wish He would come and live in me.”  Then, be humble, for He loves to live with one that is humble and of a contrite spirit.  He will raise the humble but bring down the proud!

  With the help of Holy Spirit, I will try to explain the mystery of ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory’ in three ways; the essence of it is “Christ.”  The sweetness of it is “Christ in you.” And the outlook of it is “the hope of glory.” Christ is the “mystery,” the “riches” and the “glory.” He is all this and oh so much more!   Christ in you…how can I explain it?  We are the little graft and He is the strong and living tree.  We are grafted to Him, bound to Him, sealed to Him and when there is nothing between the new shoot and the old tree, the sap flows into the graft and the graft and the tree are one! Christ in you means power in you.  Let me say that again…Christ in you means power in you!  Let Jesus speak through your mouth, weep through your eyes and smile through your face!  Let Him work with your hands and walk within your feet, and be tender with your heart.  Let Him seek sinners through you!  Take on the life of Christ; make His heart your heart.  Ask Him to break your heart with the things that break His.  Let Him comfort through you until the day breaks and the Morning Star arrives.

   Did you ever hear the legend of a man whose garden produced nothing else but weeds, till at last he met with a strange foreign flower of singular vitality? The story is that he planted a handful of this seed in his overgrown garden and left it to work its own sweet way.  He slept and rose and didn’t know how the seed was growing till one day he opened the gate and saw something which amazed him.  He knew that the seed would produce a dainty flower and he looked for it.  But he had never dreamed that the plant would cover the whole garden!  So it was, the flower had killed every weed, till, as he looked from one end to the other, from wall to wall he could see nothing but the fair colors of that rare plant and smell nothing but its delicious perfume.  Christ is that plant folks!  If He is sown in the soil of your soul, heart…He will gradually kill out the roots of all evil weeds and poisonous plants, till over all your nature there shall be Christ in you!

  Let me tell you another story….you throw a bar of cold, black iron into a fire and keep it there till the fire enters into it.  Look, the iron is like fire, itself and if you touch it, you will know no difference.  The fire has permeated the iron and made it a fiery mass.  I would love to have seen that bush where Moses was told to take off his shoes cause the ground was holy.  When it was all ablaze it appeared to be no longer a bush, but a mass of fire, a furnace of pure flame.  The fire had transfigured the bush.  It was no longer a bush but a huge mass of fire.  So it is with you when Christ enters into you, He elevates you to a higher level, even as Paul said, “I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.”  We become like Christ!  We become on fire for Christ!

   I wanta’ tell you just one more story, one about three Hebrew young men who were cast into the fire, but an amazing thing happens.  Instead of them dying in the flames, they are loosed from their bonds and are walking around in the fire.  When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into the flames; they found that they were not alone.  The God they had professed faith in earlier met them in the fire. They not only had God with them but they had each other!  We need each other folks!  It was never meant for anyone to walk alone.  We need to be there for each other, to hold each other up not tearing each other apart!  It always amazes me and breaks my heart at the same time, the church is the only army that shoots their wounded.   The word says that the fire was seven times hotter and even destroyed the ones who threw them in the fire but they came out unharmed, without even the smell of smoke on them… praising their God!   Sometimes the fire we’re put in is so hot,  it destroys the enemy coming against us but leaves us stronger than ever!   Hallelujah!

  Nebuchadnezzar and the others that were with him could not believe their eyes!  They threw three men into the flames and now there are four men loose and walking around!  We should be that ‘other’ man!  We should be the extra man/woman in the fire.  We should be Jesus in the flesh!  We are His hands and feet!  We should be taking the hand of a brother or sister and walk with them through the fire!  Not just standing beside the furnace, ‘egging’ them on saying I’m praying for you.  We should jump in the fire with them, take their hand and walk them through.  If you find yourself in the midst of a fire keep walking and you will come through untouched by the flames with not even the smell of smoke on you, praising God!  Hallelujah!

  Christ in you, the hope of glory.  Glory is power!  When we allow Holy Spirit to come into our hearts we have His power!  Oh how I wish I had a witness! Christ in you in the form of Holy Spirit filling your soul with love and holiness, bathing your heart in comfort and making it pure with His love.  Yes, and then Christ in you is Christ filling you.  Christ in you transfigures you till you becomes like Christ, Himself with all He has to offer.

  One day that old church building you been going to will be gone, then you’ll find that you have a building made by God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. This speaks of glory which is a hope for the soul as well as body.  Glory? Yes, glory!  I can hear you now saying glory belongs only to God.  To Him alone be the glory!  Yes, but Christ also said, “Father, I will that they, also, whom You have given Me be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory.”  And He also says, “And the glory which You have given Me, I have given them.”  Think about it! Glory for us poor lowly creatures!  Glory for you, Sister!  Glory for you Brother!  Glory for me!  Christ in you, the hope of glory!  Wow!  Thank You Lord for all that You have done, all that You’re doing and all that I know You’re gonna do! Thank You for loving me so much, you’d rather die than see me lost!  I so love You!
In Jesus name amen!

In His love,
Elizabeth