Reach for the Stars! ~ Bill Britton ~ Chapter 4
A Corn of Wheat
“We want to see Jesus! We want to see Jesus!” This has
been the cry of humanity ever since the Greeks came to Philip in John 12:21 at
the Passover feast. The answer of Jesus in verses 24-25 was that “The hour is
come that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if
it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” And in verses 32-33 it tells us that he
is discussing his death: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw
all men unto me. This He said, signifying what death He should die.”
Jesus knew that the Life that was in Him was the
answer to the needs of the world. But He also knew that working in one physical
body, with geographical limitations of being able to be in only one place at a
time was not the answer. He knew that for all the world to see Jesus, He would
have to be glorified, lifted up from the earth realm, and His Life planted in
humanity so as to bring forth a great harvest in others. Plain and simple, this
is what He is saying in John 12:23-33. Simple arithmetic bears this out. If He
came back to earth and gave each person 6 minutes for a private conference, it
would take him more than 100 years (working day and night, 7 days a week) just
to see the people in New York City alone. In fact, he would never finish, for
new people would be born faster than he could interview the present living
ones. If every person living now on earth were to spend one hour alone with
Jesus, it would take 400,000 years for Him just to see those now living! Even
if he preached to an audience of 1,000 every hour, 24 hours a day, it would
take 400 years for the present population of the world to hear him. Can you
imagine standing in line for 400,000 years just to get one hour with Jesus? I
know this sounds silly, but I must shock you and awake you to the truth of the
real plan of God!
Jesus was a Divine Seed. He was that Living Word,
planted into humanity, that brings forth a harvest in His own likeness. John
1:4 says “In Him was life”, implying that outside him there was no life. This
is true. The earth produced a vegetable life, and there was an animal life
also. There was even a human life in the world. But all this “life” was only a
mortal (or dying) life. There was no divine life outside Jesus. He only has
immortal life, eternal life, and this is the life that He is imparting to
humanity through His death, burial and resurrection!
In order to reproduce himself, he had to find soil
that would receive him. “He came unto his own, and his own received him not,
but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God”
(John 1:11-12). Angels could not receive or produce this life, for angels are
spirits, and this life had to be planted in earth, in the Adamic soil. “We have
this treasure in earthen vessels” (2 Cor. 4:7). Praise God, He found that soil,
that earth which would receive the living Word and bring forth in His likeness.
Rom. 8:29 says: “For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many
brethren.”
The reproduction of this divine life is brought out
plainly in 1 Cor. 15:45-49. “As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall
also bear the image of the heavenly.” Heb. 1 and Col. 1 tells us that Jesus was
the express image of the Father, the “image of the invisible God”. Not
physically, for the Father has no physical body. He is Spirit, invisible, and
omnipresent. It was the nature of the Father that Jesus expressed on
earth in the sight of men. Man could not understand the nature and substance of
God in His omnipresent, invisible form. So Jesus became His image and expressed
Him in a physical, visible body, in a language we could understand. “We beheld
his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.” (1 John 1:14). And
in 1 John 1:1-2 we read: “That which was from the beginning, which we have
heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our
hands have handled, of the Word of life; (for the life was manifested, and we
have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life,
which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us)”.
Now the Father is saying: “Son, you gave me your body as a vehicle of expression, that I might reveal myself and unveil my glory to this world. Now you have laid that life down, and have given that body over to death, that out of death I might bring forth a body for you, through which you can express yourself, and which will bear your image in the earth.” “A body has thou prepared me” (Heb. 10:5). “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular” (1 Cor. 12:27). “But now are they many members, yet but one body” (1 Cor. 12:20). A many membered body for Jesus, for the expression of the Christ life in humanity! Glory to God what a plan!
Jesus gave us a parable in Matt. 13:44, “Again, the
kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hid in a field; the which when a man
hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath,
and buyeth that field.” Now this story is not about you finding salvation, and
buying it. You did not buy your salvation, it was the gift of God. The kingdom
is like a treasure hid in a field. That earthen field is you. The kingdom is in
you, but hidden, veiled by flesh. Jesus found it, and “for the joy that was set
before him, endured the cross” and bought that field. He paid the price, in full.
He not only bought the hidden treasure, he bought the field also. He purchased
your earthen vessel, and he has an eternal plan for it. “Ye are bought with a
price: therefore glorify God in your Body, and in your spirit, which are God’s”
(1 Cor. 6:20). Your body has been purchased, as well as your spirit. What is he
going to do with this earthen body of ours? According to Phil. 3:21, he is
going to change this body and make it like unto his body of glory. Not do away
with it, or leave it in the grave, as some erroneously teach. But he will take
this very earthly tabernacle we now live in, and change it into a glorious and
eternal temple. “We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed.” (1
Cor. 15:51).
To see the price he paid for this field, turn to 2
Cor. 8:9… “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was
rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be
rich”. What a powerful scripture! Rich, yet making himself poor. Selling all
that he had, to buy that field. So that the treasure in that field might be
redeemed and uncovered, unveiled, revealed, manifested. Phil. 2:6-8 (Amp) tells
us that Jesus was essentially one with God and in the form of God, but emptied
himself, stripped himself of all his heavenly glory, made himself poor, so as
to suffer the awful poverty of death. Why? In order to plant that divine life
in the earth of humanity, so that we might grow up into his likeness, bear his
image, and share that eternal glory that he has with the Father. That we might
be rich. That we might be what he was before he became poor! Glory to God!
Let me read you our text again in John 12:24 in the Amplified Bible: “I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just one grain, never becomes more but lives by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces many others and yields a rich harvest.” When Jesus came into this world, he alone had life. There were no others capable of producing life. 1 Cor. 15:45 says that the first Adam was a living soul, but of the earth earthy. No life in him, just as earth or soil cannot produce a harvest without seed. But the last Adam (Jesus) was a life giving spirit. But that life remained in the seed until it was buried in the earth. The seed alone had life, there were no others like it.
When Jesus walked this earth, he manifested the realm
of Sonship. But he was alone in that realm. There were no other sons, no one
else with the divine life of God, no one who could understand him or fellowship
with him. “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world
knew him not.” (John 1:10). “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” John
says. Even John the Baptist, who had received divine revelation on the identity
of Jesus, began to have his doubts as he sat in jail. He sent messengers to get
more proof and reassurance. His enemies did not know who he was. They thought
he was everything from and illegitimate troublemaker to a devil, but they would
not receive him as Son of God. His friends thought he might be a reincarnated
prophet, at least a good man with love and compassion. But they knew nothing of
Sonship. By divine inspiration, the disciples received the revelation that he
was the son of the living God. But they did not understand the realm of
Sonship.
One time, in Luke chapter nine, a village of the
Samaritans refused to receive Jesus. James and John were furious, and asked the
Lord if he wanted them to call fire down from heaven and burn up those wicked
people, as the prophet once did. But he rebuked James and John. They did not
understand the realm of Sonship. They still lived in the realm of the prophets.
But the realm of Sonship was much higher. It was not a destroying power, it was
a life giving ministry. They could understand the Prophet, for he walked in the
same life and the same spirit they walked in. But here was a New Creation Man,
a Son of God. Nothing else like it on the earth. And they couldn’t understand
it. It was a lonely life, living in a world where he was the only inhabitant.
But his determination was to populate that realm of Sonship with many others,
brethren in his own image. Even Peter could not fellowship him on this high
plane of the God-Life of Sonship. Immediately after Peter received the
revelation that Jesus was the Son of God, in Matt. 16:16, we find him in verse
22 rebuking Jesus because of the message of the cross. Jesus turned to him and
said “thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.”
He could not even communicate with Peter on the realm of Sonship.
Oh friends, let me tell you that this higher dimension
of the Spirit is a lonely place at present. Not many can understand what you
are going though, what you are hearing from God. Just as Jesus had to find his
fellowship with the Father alone, rising many times before day and going into
the mountains to pray, just so there is a place the sons walk in today that
only God can understand. And the further we go in Sonship, the more unexplainable
this place becomes to those who are NOT in it.
But thank God, there is a harvest coming from this
divine seed, this firstborn son of God. This new world, the world of Sonship,
will be fully populated. Jesus will have fellowship with those who have suffered
as he suffered, who have become joint heirs with him of all he possesses. This
is the purpose of God of planting this first Corn of Wheat into the earth of
humanity. The full harvest will bring forth on various planes. There will be a
30 fold harvest, a “doubles portion” or 60 fold, and a “fulness” or 100 fold.
At present we are looking for the firstfruits of the harvest, that body of sons
who shall be manifested to deliver the creation from the groaning bondage of
death. All of this from that one Corn of Wheat! Praise God!
There will be no reaping of the harvest, no gathering
it into the Father’s barns, until it has come to it’s full maturity. Many who
do not really believe in mature Sonship try to quote the part of a verse in 1 John
3:2, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God,” but they fail to go on with
the rest of the verse: “And it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but
we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall
see him as he is”. No, the truth of the harvest does not do away with the
literal personal return of our Lord Jesus to this earth. We shall see him.
“Unto them that look for him shall he appear”. And the fact that we are babes
in Christ, children of God, and sons growing up into full maturity, does not do
away with the fact that this harvest must come to full maturity before it is
reaped. “Behold, the husbandman (God) waiteth for the precious fruit of the
earth, and hath long patience for it” (James 5:7).
Jesus said in Mark 4:28-29, “The earth bringeth forth
fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in
the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the
sickle, because the harvest is come.” When the farmer first sees the blade come
up from the ground, he is not disgusted with his crop and ready to plow it
under. He knows that it is perfect to it’s present stature, and that given time
and the right conditions, it will continue to grow until the full corn appears.
The sun shines, then the clouds appear. The thunder rolls, the lightning
flashes, and the rains fall. Then the sun reappears, and completes the work of
maturing the corn. But there is no reaping until that which appears in the
field bears the exact image of that which was planted. Not only the image, but
also the life-giving qualities.
So we have His life within us. But we still remain
attached to this earth realm. Not cut loose and brought into the higher kingdom
realm yet. “We shall all be changed” not yet fulfilled in us. Paul says, “So
when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall
have put on immortality…” (1 Cor. 15:54). He indicates here that this has not
yet been done, as long as we dwell in this mortal or dying realm. There is yet
a reaping. A reaping of the fully matured harvest. And it shall bear the exact
likeness of the One who was planted, that first Corn of Wheat. So that if you
were to see the first Seed and a harvest seed together, you couldn’t tell the
difference. John, on the isle of Patmos, couldn’t tell the difference. God took
him by the Sprit into the new age, and twice he fell down to worship one who
was in the image of Christ (Rev. 19:10, 22:8), and both times had to be told
not to do it, that the messenger was only one of the saints. “Worship God”.
That first corn of wheat is the only one who has ascended back into Deity, as
well as giving his life and image to humanity. Worship Him! Praise Him forever!
After twenty chapters of describing the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, the Apostle John finally summarizes it all up in John 20:31… “These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have LIFE through his name”.
So this is the heart of the Gospel. He has done all
these things to show us what the Anointed One is really like. For we are part
of him, bone of his bones, flesh of his flesh, members of his Body. And that we
might see the realm of Sonship in action, for this is the place we are to
dwell. We must know how to act. We must know what our privileges are. So he
shows us what a Son of God is like. And that through his name, we might believe
our way into this same Life!
This is the Gospel. This is the good news for
humanity. We will be like Jesus. We are to bear his image. To sit with him on
his throne. To share his glory, and his inheritance. Oh yes, this has made good
theology, but was never brought into a realm of reality. Somehow, someday,
somewhere beyond the blue we would see him and be like him. But here on this
earth? In front of the heathen of this world? No one seemed able to believe for
such as this. But it is so anyhow. Men’s doubts and fearful arguments will
never prevent it from coming. Praise God! He has decreed it. It is according to
his eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord!
There will be a harvest. The harvest will produce a
multitude of sons in the image and with the life of the Son of God, until the
knowledge of His glory covers the earth as the waters cover the sea. Heaven is
real, and will be entered into by those for whom it is prepared. The body of
that first-born Son has not been destroyed, and He shall be seen again. But let
me say to you that He will be seen on this earth by the nations of the world in
His Body of Sons, and they will know that they have seen the Christ, the Son of
the living God. And the Kingdom of God shall come to this earth, the will of
God will be done here, and this shall be as great as any heaven you’ve ever
dreamed of.
Jesus healed the sick, cast out devils and raised the dead to demonstrate the privileges of him who walks in the Kingdom realm, above the limitations of this earthly life. Blind eyes were opened and the lame made to walk without any failures, to show that there is nothing hard for the New Creation Man. He has shown us the way. He has fully demonstrated Sonship. All the things that He did had divine purpose. He triumphed over all the powers of darkness and put them to an open shame. The battle is won. For those who walk in His footsteps and bear His image in the earth, there is nothing hard about casting out devils or raising the dead. The New Creation Man has absolute dominion over all the works of God’s hands. All creation bows to his authority. He who walks entirely in the Spirit and is no longer bound to the earth, knows no limitations. He who no longer draws his life and strength from earth, but is cut loose and gathered into the Father’s barn, cannot be touched by Satan. Satan knows his limitations. He had the promise from God in the garden of Eden that “dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life”. So as long as we bear the image of that one (Adam) who is of the earth earthy, we are Satan’s rightful food. But as we put on the image of that heavenly one, that life-giving spirit, we no longer are the Serpent’s Meat. He no longer has the right to attack us, and he can find nothing in us. When the sons of God have then ministered this life to the world, until the Adamic nature is no longer in evidence, then shall the glory of God cover this earth, and Satan will stave for lack of the old carnal nature to feed upon. Praise God!
Jesus healed multitudes of people in Palestine during
his short visit to this earth. But he did not come to heal all the sick or
raise all the dead. If this was his purpose in coming to earth, then we’d have
to say that he failed, for many were still sick and lame and blind when he
left. Many lame were still gathered around the pool of Bethesda and sitting at
the Temple gate long after his ascension. But his purpose is coming and walking
in the realm of Sonship, was to demonstrate this realm to those who would
follow him in here, to open the way for them, to make a way though the Veil,
and to plant the life of the Son in us. Glory to God!
“Lift up your hearts and rejoice, oh ye people, for
your redemption draweth nigh! It is even at the door. The day is at hand when
you shall rise up into a throne that you have never known before. The blessings
of heaven are upon you, the grace of God dwelleth in you, and this world will
know. For their sakes I’m anointing you and sending you forth, and for their
sakes you shall go. I have a surprise for this world, and one they will never
guess. For though they have forsaken and rejected and despised me, yet their
hearts I’m going to bless. And the surprise is that the life I will bless them
with is already in the earth. Yet, it is hidden in the hearts of those who are
truly mine, who have tasted of the new birth. For I am going to rip aside the
veil of flesh, and reveal and unveil my glory from out of my living temple. How
surprised they will be to discover that my glory has been in their midst all
the time, veiled in flesh, unknown to those who had only carnal eyes with which
to see. But ye, my people, my beloved indeed, have need to rejoice. For you are
my battle-axe and weapons of war. With you will I tear down the throne of
nations, and the power of Babylon. Not in your own power, for you have none.
But in the power and wisdom of your God. For the thrones of this earth, and the
kingdoms of this earth have been built by man with the wisdom and strength of
Adam. And they shall be destroyed by man who has learned to enter into the
wisdom and strength of the eternal God. That destruction shall be eternal. For
never again shall carnal man build kingdoms and thrones. Never again shall the
flesh rule over my creation. For my kingdom, built by my Son, shall continue
forever, and shall rule over creation through all ages. Ye are mine, and I am
yours, saith the Lord of heaven and earth. Rejoice, rejoice, and again I say
rejoice!”