Perfect in One ~ Transcript by Christine Beadsworth

 

I just want to share on the prayer that Jesus prayed in John 17. We’ve heard many sermons on the subject of Jesus praying: “Father, I pray that they all may be one” and many people have alluded to it, referring to unity in the Body of Christ and there’s been all sorts of initiatives to bring this about on a horizontal manner, none of which have been very successful, if we’re honest with ourselves and so I just want to share with you what the Lord showed me about this prayer.

Let’s just read from John 17:21-23. He prayed and He said: “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me”. So, there we see Jesus speaking and clarifying what He meant by ‘being one’. He said: “as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You”. Jesus and His Father were perfectly one. Jesus only said what He heard the Father saying and did what He saw Him doing and They were one and that’s what He was praying for - for us to be one, the way He was one with the Father; “that they may be one in Us”. He wasn’t praying for us to be one with one another, He was praying for us to be one with the Father, just as He was, so that we could have the same effect on the world that He had.

“... And the glory which You gave Me I have given them”. Well that sounds great, doesn’t it? He’s already given His disciples the glory way back when He prayed John 17, but what is this glory? We don’t have a very clear understanding of what the glory of God is, but here He explains it so clearly: “And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one even as We are one”. That’s the glory, oneness - oneness with the Father! That was the glory of Jesus; the glory that He emanated and displayed was His oneness with the Father.

John 17:23 carries on: “I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that You have sent Me” and this is the thing that I want to emphasise today as I share, this phrase: “that they may be made perfect in one”. Beloved, everything that you’re going through right now as you press in to God, is for the purpose of you “being made perfect in one”, in other words, completely one, completely one with the Father and with Jesus. What does that word “made perfect” mean? In the Greek it means ‘to consummate, to finish, to fulfil, to complete’. So, the work of making you one with Him, is to be brought to completion and then the world will know that Jesus was sent and that God loves us, His beloved sons, just as He loved Jesus.
So what does being ‘made perfect in one’ look like? Well, I mentioned before, Jesus only said what He heard the Father saying and did what He saw Him doing. He was perfectly one with the Father. He didn’t judge anything by Himself, He tells us elsewhere, but as He heard, He judged. So there is this complete yieldedness and surrender to the Father, perfectly one with the Father and so being made perfect in one, involves complete for us too.

David prayed in the Psalms (remember I shared before) it’s been translated “one thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after”, but in the actual original Hebrew text, it doesn’t say “one thing”, it says “oneness have I desired of the Lord”, “oneness” and then in the New Testament Jesus prays: “may they be made perfect in one”. So, this oneness is a process that progresses to perfection of oneness, as we yield more and more; surrendering our own wills in every area more and more!

I want to share something amazing that I’ve discovered which is such a graphic depiction of being ‘made perfect in one’. You know that Abraham and Sarah had Isaac, the Son of Promise, ‘in the fullness of time” as God had prophesied and then Abraham was told to take Isaac up the mountain and sacrifice him? It was a real test for Abraham, of who was seated on the throne of his heart. Was he worshiping at the altar of his fulfilled promise in his son Isaac, or was his heart wholly God’s? Abraham passed the test as he tied Isaac to the altar and lifted the knife. Then God provided the ram and He could come back down the mountain again –we know the story so well. But you know the most amazing thing is, that something else happened on that day and it’s not recorded in the Bible, but it’s recorded in the Jewish history books, On the same day that Abraham offered Isaac, his wife Sarah died.

She was 127 years old when she died and, you know, I really wrestled with this knowledge. I just couldn’t understand and, I thought: Abraham went up the mountain thinking he was going to lose his son, but he ended up losing his wife. What was with that, God? Why did Sarah have to be taken on that particular day (because God never does anything by mistake)? What was the significance of removing Sarah once Abraham had passed the test with Isaac?

And then, finally, the Lord showed me that after Abraham’s trip up the mountain with Isaac, the voice of Sarah was no longer heard in the earth. Only the voice of the Father and the Son was heard after that and so, really Beloved, that is where God has us at this time, up the mountain with our Isaac. For those of us who have been called to represent Him in the earth as sons; who have prophetic giftings; who the Lord has been speaking to about releasing a sound, those who really feel they have a calling to share (either publish, preach, prophecy or even ‘talk’ through our art), our promise of what God is going to do through our lives is wrapped up in our voice or what comes from our earthen vessel; what kind of sound we release. The trip up the mountain is really about the silencing of our own voice, so that only the voice of the Father and the Son can be heard from our earthen vessel, after we come down from that mountain of testing. So there’s a death that has to come in our lives to our own voice, to our own opinions, to our own advice and thoughts.

You know, Sarah was a great one for giving advice. She got Abraham into the whole thing of producing Ishmael, because of her trying to offer advice on how to bring forth the promise of God. So, the voice of Sarah did not produce much that was beneficial to the Kingdom of God in the earth. Her womb brought forth the Son of Promise, but her mouth brought forth strife and division for generations and we still see that in the battles that are in the earth today between the descendants of Ishmael and the descendants of Isaac.

So, for the Bride of Christ, Sarah is epitomising through her death, at this time, a silencing of her own voice and a clarity coming in the sound that’s being released in the earth. Only the voice of the Father and the Son are heard after Isaac is offered up. As Jesus prayed that we would be made perfect in one with the Father and the Son, that being ‘made perfect in one’, that complete oneness, requires our surrender and the silencing of our own opinions and our own voice and our own will, in a sense. So God is really dealing with our tongues and you might feel like  the fire has been heated 7 times hotter and God is really bringing all the dross to the surface, especially in the area of the tongue and the things we say (because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks), but what God is really doing, is ensuring that it’s only the Father and the Son on the throne of our hearts and that only their voice issues the decrees and the sound that comes forth from our earthen vessel as we cross the threshold into the next season in God.

So it’s really our voice box, which is an instrument, becoming completely yielded and put into the hands of the Father to be tuned to the pitch of Heaven, so that it’s not our own song that comes out of our instrument. You know, this is not a karaoke session where we play the music of Heaven and we put our own sound to the tune, because that creates confusion! Just as people who’ve listened to a few karaoke sessions know, it can sound really awful and people want to cover their ears - but when the song of Heaven is sung and released by the Father and the Son through you, it will shatter crystal in the earth; it will cause earthquakes. There will be a thundering and a lightning crack as God speaks and roars through your earthen vessel... but first, Sarah has to die...

Can you imagine Abraham? He goes through this whole emotional turmoil as he goes up the mountain with his Son of Promise and he doesn’t understand what God is doing, but he’s willing to follow his instruction, even though he doesn’t understand it and he’s willing to slay his own son, because he trusts God... and then God provides a ram and he doesn’t have to kill Isaac and he’s so relieved and he’s passed the test and he’s coming back down the mountain, worshiping and praising God and feeling like he’s really got a grip on what God’s doing again and he gets to the bottom of the mountain and is greeted by the news that while he was up there, his beloved Sarah has passed away!  He will never see her face again and he didn’t even have time to say good bye, so you can understand how Abraham really wept. What an emotional upheaval! If you’re really going through a thing of really not understanding God’s instructions; it seems like one minute it’s clear, the next minute: “I don’t know what on earth you’re saying God. Nothing You’re doing is making sense to me” - well, I’d say you’re probably in this chapter of your life where God is putting Sarah to death so that the voice of the Father and the Son can be the only thing that’s heard through your earthen vessel.

Gen 23:19  After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah to the east of Mamre, that is, Hebron, in the land of Canaan. Gen 23:20  The field and the cave in it were conveyed to Abraham for a permanent burial place by the sons of Heth.

From this point on, Abraham is no longer married to any person. Sarah is dead to him. And so Sarah is laid to rest in Hebron at a cave that Abraham purchases for 400 Shekels. You know, 40 is the number or the age when a man in the Jewish Culture is considered wise enough to judge a matter. So 40 is really a symbol of wisdom, in a sense and 10 Shekels was the price that was given or the value attributed to a woman after she had passed the age of 60. So 40 x 10 gives you 400. So we see that the price of 400 Shekels had to do with reaching the age of wisdom, wisdom speaking.  Sarah was Abraham’s half-sister but now she was dead and he began a chapter where wisdom was to be his closest companion.

Pro 7:4  Say to skillful and godly Wisdom, You are my sister, and regard understanding or insight as your intimate friend

Who are you intimate with, beloved? Is it the voice of earthly or soulish wisdom that resounds in your ear or does Wisdom minister to you in your inner chamber?
Pro 8:20  I [Wisdom] walk in the way of righteousness (moral and spiritual rectitude in every area and relation), in the midst of the paths of justice, Pro 8:21  That I may cause those who love me to inherit [true] riches and that I may fill their treasuries.

The field where Sarah was buried, Machpelah, means ‘double portion’. The only way you are going to release the double portion inheritance due to you is if Self - and all the self-will it exercises, is buried there in the field of Machpelah and only CHRIST REMAINS. After this, it is no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you and He and the Father are one! You are not your own, you have been bought with a price and ONENESS is the destination of this journey you are on.
Four hundred(the price paid for the field of the double portion, is also the geomatria for ‘thy Maker, ‘unto glory’, ‘wine’, ‘I speak righteousness’ and ‘poured out’. I am sure you can well understand the nuances of the price paid for this double portion anointing. 400 is also the gematria for the Hebrew letter Tav, which is the 22^nd letter or the last letter of the Hebrew Alphabet. God is the Alpha and Omega, the Alef and the Tav. He is the beginning and the end. God is the last letter of the Alphabet and God wants to have the last word in the earth. So are you cleaving to the voice of God or are you determined to keep on declaring your own opinion on the matter? If you will not let God have the last word in the earth, then breakthrough and the manifestation of the glory of God is never going to come through your life. So, don’t utter your voice over the waters. Still your tongue. Let Sarah be buried in the cave of Machpela in Hebron and let the voice of God be heard, because only God’s voice can change hearts. The final stage of Ezekiel’s river is water to swim in, water that cannot be crossed over; water that carries you wherever the river is going – your own will is completely surrendered! BUT before you get to this place, you must cross over or obtain victory in the level of the loins – the part of you that brings forth fruit. Remember, the power of life and death are in the tongue and those who love it, will eat the fruit of it. James tells us that a man who can control his tongue is a ‘perfect’ man ie. One who has reached mature manhood. The tongue must be tamed and fully submissive to the Spirit of God – it must be conformed to His death in order to access the resurrection power of the river of God.
Psalm 29:3 says: “The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; The God of glory thunders;” Do you know that we are made up of a huge percentage of water and the voice of the Lord is uttering over our waters at this time. His voice is powerful and His voice is full of majesty and we need to become perfectly one with His voice and His sound - and that requires our complete surrender and our complete yielding. You know, sometimes it’s a difficult thing. It’s easy to yield and to surrender when you understand and when you agree, but when God is saying: “Be still and know that I am God and be silent...”, when you’re just bursting to say something, that’s a really difficult thing to do, but it is at this time that the gate of our mouth needs to be handed over permanently to the Lord.
When we break bread, when we take communion (communion is common union - Oneness) when we come into union with Christ, the first thing the bread and the wine touch, is our lips, our tongue, our mouth and our throat. Every one of those things are involved with the sound that is released from our earthen vessel and so, let the bread that God breaks with you in these days, transform your lips and your mouth and your tongue and your voice box, because that’s what He’s working with in these days in intense detail, actually microscopic detail of the conviction of the Spirit, in order to fully align us and make us perfect in one with His sound. It is only the sound that comes from God’s mouth that makes the strongholds fall (remember the marching army had to be silent and just listen to the sound of the shofars for 6 revolutions round Jericho). In Joel 2:11 it says: “The Lord utters His voice before His army”. It’s His voice that needs to be heard. Only when there’s a clear sound in the earth, one sound, and we are made perfect in one with the sound of heaven, are we going to see results in the earth realm and so we’ve got to yield, beloved.

You know, when a Bride and a Bridegroom become one in the natural, they become one flesh, and there is a yielding and an opening and a surrender on the part of the Bride. We know that Psalm so well: “Lift up your heads, o ye gates, the King of glory is coming in” and I’ve shared before that ‘lift up your heads’ can also be translated, “yield, you princes”. Lift up your heads o ye gates, yield you princes at the gates, the King of Glory wants to come in and you know what, sometimes it could be us who are the princes at the gates that need to yield. Are we stubbornly going on speaking when God says to be quiet? Are we holding on to our own opinions and our own right to speak and our own right to be heard in whatever situation we’re facing, or are we yielding, because the King of Glory wants to come in to our mouths and to fill them, but He’s got to tune our voice boxes, he’s got to tune our heart strings to the tone and the pitch of Heaven and so there is a dying, a permanent dying and a burying that has to happen at this junction.

This is why there is this pausing at this moment and this fiery furnace, because just like Isaiah needed a burning coal on his lips, because he was a man of unclean lips and he lived amongst a people of unclean lips. So too, the Lord is coming to the unclean lips of His prophetic people and dealing with them, because a spring cannot yield both fresh and bitter water together and out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks and so the Lord is dealing with the springs that flow forth from our heart and come out of our mouths. I don’t know about you, but I am so under the spotlight in these days. Every moment a sentence comes out of my mouth, the conviction of the Holy Spirit comes and the fear of the Lord comes. So we really need to pray this over ourselves: Join our voice with the voice of Jesus. “Father, may I be made perfect in one, perfect in one with Your sound, perfect in one with Your voice, perfect in one with Your heart, at this season.” It’s because it’s only as we are made perfect in one, that true fruitfulness can come. The Bride and the Bridegroom become one and fruit comes forth in the earth.
God cannot string His bow and release His sound in the earth until we allow ourselves to be bent and to be strung as an instrument, by His hand, to Heaven’s tension and yes, it is difficult at this time and yes, a lot of it involves God setting a guard before our mouths, but you know what, in Song of Songs 8 the Bride says: “I am a wall”. A wall can be a dam wall that holds back waters of a river until the whole valley is full of a flood of water and in that dam wall there can be a turbine and when those turbines are released and the water is allowed to flow, hydro-electric power can be generated. You might feel that the Lord is pouring revelation after revelation after revelation of living water into your heart and all you want to do is share it, but He’s keeping those turbines closed until you are made perfect in one, until you are filled and complete and brought to the full stature and the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ and you are like a dam of living water that is filling, filling, filling with the rain water from heaven. There will come a time of release and you will generate Hydro-electric power in the earth from the rain of Heaven through the turbine of your tongue, if you will allow yourself to be made fully made perfect in one through the water of the Word that is pouring into your vessel at this time and not just spewing out whatever you might think at the spur of the moment. Allow the Spirit of the living Christ to complete His work.
You know, David was at Hebron for quite a long time. He reigned there for quite a long time, before he went up to Jerusalem and took the throne. Hebron is called “the seat of association”. Who are you associated with? Are you associated with the Spirit of the living God and the voice of Wisdom? Who are you one with, your own stubborn self-will, worshiping at the altars of your own opinions which you feel you must declare at every moment, or are you one with the Father and the Son and you only say what you hear the Father saying? So Hebron is the place of waiting and being made perfect in one in every area with the will of God, until His appointed time where there is a handing over, a changing of the guard in the spirit.
Isaac was also buried at Hebron and he was 180 when he died. Hundred and eighty is the Gematria for the word for “face”. The glory of God is seen in the face of Jesus Christ and so we need the face of Jesus Christ to be imprinted upon our hearts and then the voice of the Father and the Son can be heard in the earth. It’s a place where we feel impatient and want to be released from the stall, but allow God to finish the work that He is doing in your hearts - we might be surprised at the intensity of the fire, but He’s dealing with His prophets at this time. He’s dealing with their eye and what they’re seeing, because if your eye is full of light, the whole of the body is full of light. The eye of the prophet hasn’t been full of light. Up till now he’s only seen in part and prophesied in part. From what you see and the revelation that you’re seeing, you speak forth and sometimes we don’t see clearly. So we need more light, we need double light and you get that in the field of Machpelah.
I don’t know if I’ve ever spoken to you about the making of a shofar, but a shofar comes from a horn from the place next to the ear and then all the flesh is dug out of it and scraped out of it until it’s completely empty. Then that horn lies in the sunlight until it’s completely dry and then it’s picked up and a hole is bored in the end of it and then the breath of the owner is blown through it and that’s what God is doing with His prophets at this time. He’s scraping all the flesh out of what we’ve heard and what we’ve seen and what we think. He’s scraping all that out of us until we may feel that there’s almost nothing left of what we thought we knew and then the light of the Son comes and bakes us and makes us durable and powerful and makes us a vessel that can contain the breath of God through us. Then He speaks through His trumpets in the earth, a clear sound that can rally the people. So, just yield to what the Holy Spirit is doing and pray this over yourselves: “May I be made perfect in one”.

 I in You and You in Me that they may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent Me, that they may be made perfect in one”.
 May this bless you, beloved.