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Groan within Ourselves

Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits

of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within
ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the
redemption of our body (Romans 8:23).

To understand the deep cry of our spirit for our

adoption, the redemption of our body, we need to
know what we have lost in Adam, where we are
presently in God’s restoration plan of all things and
the way ahead.

Before the fall, man was alive to God, spirit, soul

and body and all things were subjected to God in a
universe with one realm where the Creator of all
things, man and all of creation dwelled together in
harmony.

When the Lord God formed man of the dust of the

ground, He breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life and man became a living soul (Greek: psuchë; 1
Corinthians 15:45). God created man in His image
and likeness. This means his perfect living soul,
which comprises his imagination and memory, seat
of the emotions and desires, conscious and
subconscious mind and his will, was alive to God
and his soul was constantly and totally aware of
Him. His soul was filled with God’s perfection, which
is His life-force. The perfect members of his body
were the willing servants of his godly soul reflecting
the glorious character and power of God made
manifested in divine magnificence. His body
responded in total harmony to everything that his
virtuous soul desired to do. Adam’s bodily senses
were alive to God and he could observe his Creator
with his natural senses, who is Spirit and dwells in
heaven. His spirit was constantly observant aware
of God. All senses of his whole being, were
aware of Him. And they heard the sound of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the
day… (Genesis 3:8a).

Adam’s entire being was alive to God, in other

words, he was alive to God in his spirit, soul and
body. Though Adam was perfect in his entire being,
God created him a living soul. That means that he
predominantly related to God with his soul and less
with his spirit. Adam’s body also received much
more impulses from his soul than from his spirit.
That was no problem because his soul was perfect
in God. Because Adam was a perfect living soul he
was created with natural ability to love the only
true God spontaneous with all of his heart, with all
his soul and with all his strength. He was fashioned
to love God perfectly on his own merits. He
expressed his feelings and thoughts of his soul
through his whole perfect person, which was alive
to God. Because he was filled with the light of God
his perfect mind functioned at the speed of the
light that was in him! Adam did not have to do
anything to please God. The substance of his very
being, which was in the image and likeness of God
spontaneously and effortlessly, pleased God on its
own merits. His mere existence pleased God and
God’s perfect person pleased Adam. Adam was full
of the love of God and he could sense Him with his
spirit, soul and body as he abided in His presence.
Adam’s entire existence was perfection and
fulfillment.

When God created man, He created man in Him,

one with Him and He gave him dominion over the
earth. Adam and Eve were the epitome of divine
energy and tranquility and were overflowing with
heavenly peace as they ruled their domain. They
were filled with joy as they find their delight and
fulfillment in doing the will of God according to the
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anointing that was working in them. As king, Adam
lived and related to realities in a world where the
Spirit and natural realms were fused into the one
world of God, where all things were in Him,
subjected to Him. Creation existed in one realm
because God is one and in Him is no disharmony or
division. It was a perfect existence filled with God
which is everlasting life, dazzling light and eternal
truth. Man was perfect because he was created the
son of God, one with God (Luke 3:38). This was a
relationship where man was son of God and God
was Father of man. Both God and Adam find delight
and fulfillment in their divine Father-son
relationship. Man was created to have dominion
over all things in the kingdom of his Father. Adam
was beautifully fashioned a glorious son of God to
be concerned about his Father’s business. He was
created a royal prince of light, overflowing with the
presence and Spirit of God. God placed Adam in the
Garden of Eden, not to do his own will, but the will
of his Father. Since the beginning of creation God
purposed to bring forth a harvest of sons.
Therefore, God blessed them to be fruitful and to
multiply.

When Adam walked with God, He taught him about

creation and the purpose for cultivating and
maintaining the garden. He also taught him about
naming the animals and his relationship with them.
Adam was the covering of all the earth. Adam,
being in the image of his Creator had creative
freedom as he nurtured the garden and cared for
creation. Adam was created to manifest the glory of
God. God and Adam found great joy and fulfillment
in their fellowship as they flow in their oneness of
Spirit. God is a Being of light, not just radiating light
or illuminated from within, but His substance is
light. His light has substance and dimension, the
most glorious and magnificent life-form imaginable.
All beauty, all love, all goodness were contained in
the light that poured forth from this Divine Being.
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No one is capable of imagining the magnitude of
perfect love that this God of light, life and truth
poured into Adam. As Adam abided in Christ His
creator, doing His will, he flowed with the life-force
of God. Adam was in the same light-image and
likeness of light as God, always moving, vibrant and
an overflowing fountain of the energy of the Spirit
of God which was manifesting in Adam’s whole
being according to His good pleasure. He was so
full of life that he lived 930 years after sin entered
him and the discord of sin entered his soul. All life
in creation lost its power when Adam ceased to
abide in his Creator.

Through Adam’s offense we all sinned and fall short

of the glory of God. In Adam, we all died to God.
Because of Adam, death entered into our spirit,
soul and body. Independence from God guarantees
death because the flow of eternal life, dazzling light
and eternal truth ceased when you move outside of
Christ. God was no longer the glorious perfection
and holy righteousness of man. In separation of
independence from God, man always tends to offer
something of himself to God in an endeavor to
prove his own righteousness. How can the
imperfect think that He can please Him that is
perfect or how can the dead satisfy the Living?
Though sin is not imputed where there is no law
death reigned from Adam to Christ through the tree
of the knowledge of good (law or legalism) and evil
(lawlessness), for it is written, “But of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat,
for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die”
(Genesis 2:17). Since the day of the transgression,
until Christ, sin reigned in death. God never gave
man a choice between good and evil but between
life and death (Deuteronomy 30:19). Good is better
than evil but it is still death, from the fruit from of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam
deprived his offspring the privilege to know God as
Father and to become sons unto Him because the
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godly seed died in him. There was a need for a
godly seed to perpetuate God’s dream for a harvest
of sons. Only when Christ, the Seed of God, was
made manifested in the flesh He revealed God as
Father to man and demonstrated to the earth the
truth about the Father-son relationship.

Through Adam’s rebellious disobedience he split

the universe in two by separating the spiritual from
the physical. Previously the universe was only one
realm, which denotes divine primacy. There is one
body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one
hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one
baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above
all, and through all, and in you all (Ephesians 4:4-
6). The number one excludes all differences, for
there is no second with which it can either
harmonize or conflict.

The separation of the universe into the spiritual and

physical realms brings about two realms which
denote there is another. The Lord will not share his
glory with another; therefore, he had casted Adam
out of paradise into the lower realm of the natural
while He occupied supremely the higher realm of
His Spirit.

Thus man became incapable of pleasing God. They

ceased to be God’s people. God ceased to be one
Spirit with Adam; He forsook him just like He
forsook Christ on the cross and Adam became a
branch cut off from the Vine. The number two
surface again denoting there is another, namely,
man in enmity against God in his rebellious
independence from Him. The transgression closed
the door for man to grow up from a living soul into
a Life Giving Spirit, which was Christ his Creator.
Adam lost the ability to please God on his own
merits. Man died to God in spirit, soul and body,
and the universe was torn apart. Therefore the Lord
God sent man out of the Garden of Eden to till the
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ground from which he was taken. God made His
abode in the upper sphere, the realm of His Spirit,
and God casted man and creation under his domain
down into the lower realm of the natural. God
would not share His dwelling with that which was
dead to Him and divorced from His being. As Adam
lived in the natural realm he was no longer aware
of God's presence. Adam tried to recall some
spiritual occurrences in Eden but these were kept
on slipping his memory just like a glorious dream
that fade away after waking up. It was apparent
that he could see little beyond the barrier of his
flesh-restricted mind. Adam and Eve used to
communicate telepathically but since the fall they
did not spontaneously know each other’s heart but
unawares they started to babble, expressing the
uncertainties in their fearful hearts. Neither could
Adam remember fine details of memories that are
hidden in the realm of spirit, a life that he shared
with the Father, a spirit life that seemed to extend
to the beginning of creation. The immense voice
that emanated from a pinpoint of light that swelled
with each thunderous word until each of its rays
filled his whole being he could no longer hear as he
was imprisoned by a black wall of mist of doubts
and fears. No longer could he behold Him that is far
more brilliant than the sun, the light that used to
sooth his eyes with its deep and pure white
luminescence. Adam sensed, at the time, that the
light would not cross the barrier into the darkness.
Then it dawned on him that he was no longer in the
presence of God. The true Light came only 4 000
years later to give light to every man coming into
the world.

God purposed from the beginning of the earth to

bring forth many sons to glory. Following the fall of
Adam, God’s vision was perpetuated in Christ. His
vision was to see His seed. This was fulfilled on the
cross. God at first established a covenant of works
with His people Israel. Because the Law is spiritual,
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imperfect man could not fulfill its requirements in
the flesh. Then God took away the first covenant,
the ministry of condemnation that He may establish
the second, which is the ministry of reconciliation in
His Son. Though the first covenant came in glory
that even the skin of Moses’ face shone the New
Covenant was brought in much greater glory, even
in the glory of God’s only begotten Son. Through
suffering on the cross the Lord Jesus Christ
completed the work necessary for our total
salvation, in spirit, soul, and body as well as
restoring all of creation beyond its former glory into
the one realm of God’s presence. In spite of Christ’s
complete work on the cross, we do not yet see all
things being restored to a glory surpassing the
former where all things being subdued to Christ in
one realm of His presence. What do we see right
now? Though, born-again believers are complete in
Christ, we only see the spirit of the redeemed being
made alive to God because of righteousness but
the body is dead due to sin. The soul who is in the
blood of their body is enmity against God (Romans
8:7,10). The universe is still divided into the realm
of God’s Spirit and the carnal realms of the soul
(psychic) and the natural and all things are not yet
under the domain of Christ. The whole creation
groans and labors with birth pangs until now to be
delivered from the bondage of corruption into the
glorious liberty of the children of God and we within
ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the
redemption of our body. God willed it this way that
we may learn to trust Him in hope that He will finish
the work that He has started in us and creation.
Presently we live imperfect lives in a broken
universe where God demands a flow of faith and
hope to please Him.

When you are in Christ you have become one spirit

with Him. Your eternal spirit is quickened to God
because of righteousness but your body is still
mortal, void of perfection of immortality, meaning
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that it is dead to God because of sin (Romans 8:10).
Your soul is enmity against God, for it is not subject
to the law of God, nor indeed can be (Romans 8:7).
Your hope in Christ is that you will be alive to God,
in spirit (already alive if you are born-again), soul
and body when the Spirit of Him (Father) who
raised Jesus from the dead will quicken your mortal
body (Romans 8:11). Then you will be alive to God
as a total man when the Spirit of God (Father)
dwells in you (Romans 8:9).

You can only live with the spirit part of your

person in the realm of God’s Spirit because it is the
only part of you that is alive to Him. Your spirit (if
you are born-again) is alive to God due to
righteousness and is the part of your person that
can experience God and His kingdom. Therefore
your relationship with God is not through your
physical senses but by faith. Faith, hope and love is
the three doorways into the Spirit, which is the
three dimension of a divine relationship in the spirit
(1 Corinthians 13:13). God is Spirit and one with
your born-again spirit. He reveals Himself to you in
your spirit through the Holy Spirit. It is the will of
God for you to live with your spirit in heaven while
be physically on earth. No one has ascended to
heaven but He who came down from heaven,
that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven (John
3:13, emphasis added). Jesus told Nicodemus he is
on earth and heaven simultaneously. Through faith
you can have a life in the Spirit (heaven) while
being on earth. You can train your spirit to be
constantly aware of the Lord. Waiting on the Lord is
one way to train your spirit to be constantly aware
of His presence.

Your soul is enmity against God and lives in the

soulish realm. All people that come into the world
have excess to the soulish or psychic realm. A faith
life is when you present your soul to God, which is
enmity to Him, as if it is a friend of Him, bringing
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into captivity every thought to the obedience of
Christ by meditating on things that are true, noble,
just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtues and
praiseworthy that you may be renewed in the spirit
of your mind. Your mind is the bridge between your
soul and spirit. It is where the carnal mind and
“spirit of your mind” dwell together.

Your body is dead to God because of sin and is

limited to dwell in the natural realm. Your body of
death cannot experience God with its physical
senses because your body lives in the natural and
God dwells in the Spirit. Because you cannot feel
God with your hands, or smell Him with your nose,
or hear Him with your physical ears, or see Him
with your eyes of flesh, or taste Him with your
tongue does not mean He is not there. Your bodily
senses and God are in different worlds that is why
you are missing God who lives in heaven. Through
faith you present your body, which is dead toward
God because of sin, as being alive from the dead
and the members of your body though dead, as
instruments of righteousness to God. This is how
you live your life on earth as if you are in heaven.
Paul said that this is acceptable to God, the way a
normal Christian should live (Romans 12:1-2).

Our faith in God is in hope to attain bodily to the

resurrection from the dead and to be perfected in
our soul. We also hope to see all things under Christ
in a sphere where heaven and earth is one as it was
in the beginning. Faith procures substance in the
books of God even if we have not yet received the
promise (Hebrews 11:1). Our hope in Christ is when
that which is perfect has come, then that which is
in part will be done away. While we are living our
lives through faith in the Lord we must look to Him
in hope of a complete redemption of the whole
man. Our hope is to be alive unto God, spirit,
soul and body and to see all things subdued

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to Christ in a realm where heaven and earth
is one.
When a born-again believer dies his spirit goes to
the Lord So we are always confident, knowing that
while we are at home in the body we are absent
from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight.
We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be
absent from the body and to be present with the
Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6-8). With physical death the
soul of the deceased in Christ sleeps the sleep of
death. Consider and hear me, O Lord my God;
enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death
(Psalm 13:3). Physical death causes the body to
return to dust and the spirit goes to the Lord. Then
the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the
spirit will return to God who gave it (Ecclesiastes
12:7).

At the last trumpet, those who went before us, the

dead in Christ, who were sowed in corruption, will
be raised with an incorruptible body, and those who
will be alive with their mortal bodies will be clothed
with immortality. The hero’s of faith and the rest of
the family of God that is captured in the cloud of
witnesses has not received the fullness of this glory
yet because it is written that they should not be
made perfect apart from us. We who are alive and
remain until the coming of the Lord will by no
means precede those who are asleep. For, if those
in heaven have found this glory, the New
Testament would not have spoken of this perfection
to come. We who believe will enter into this glory at
the last trumpet.

However, the faith of Enoch and Elijah defied times

and seasons and they were changed in their bodies
before the appointed time of the last trumpet. Their
faith demanded that time is no more, that
tomorrow’s fulfillment is to be walked in today.
They attained bodily to the resurrection from the
dead and were made perfect in their souls. Through
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faith God took them that they did not see death.
Their faith brought substance to their hope, a world
clothed with heavenly perfection, in the freedom of
a sphere where heaven and earth is united as the
one world of Christ. In their world the will of God
has being done on earth as it is in heaven. As far as
they were concerned they were alive to God in
spirit, in soul and in their body, the New Jerusalem
has come down and heaven and earth has become
one. They had so much life in them that God had to
take them.

Paul manifested the same faith as Enoch and Elijah

when he made known his intense groaning to attain
to the perfection of sonship. If, by any means, I
may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not
that I have already attained [bodily resurrected], or
already perfected [perfected in the soul]; but I
press on, that I may lay hold of that for which
Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me
(Philippians 3:11-12). I am convinced that if God did
not destined Paul to die for His name sake, he
would have attained to the resurrection from the
dead just like Enoch and Elijah because of the same
faith that was in him.

Let me repeat the vision of our hope which is the

cry in our spirit for sonship: “Our hope is to be
alive unto God, spirit, soul and body and to
see all things subdued to Christ in a realm
where heaven and earth is one.” According to
Revelation 12 there will be those that will enter in
this glorious promise before the appointed time. I
have also witnessed this event in a night vision in
1973.

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