The Friendly Foe or The Second Death by Dora Van Assen

HAVING OUR PART IN THE FIRST RESURRECTION

"Blessed and Holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath not power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years."  Rev. 20:6

Before we discuss this text before us, let me draw your attention to Rev. 1:1:  "The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto "Him!".  (This "Him" is Jesus.)  God was unveiling unto Jesus His coming ministry in the believers as Christ and Lord.  Acts 2:36.  "And He (God) sent and signified it by His (God's) angel unto His servant John."  Rev. 1:1

The word "signified", means to reveal by using symbols.  In other words, this bok is to be discerned in the Spirit.  It cannot be taken literally.  The Book of Revelatin is not unveiling future events in the natural realm, but it is ttelling us about the ministry of Christ in and as us.  That He is the Head of the Body of Christ.  God "gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all."  Eph. 1:23

And gives Him as Head over all, to the ecclesia which is his body, the complement of the One completing the all in all."  Eph. 1:23 LCNT

Complement means:  that which fills up, completes or makes perfect.  Christ is our INNER MAN, being resurrected or awakened to our true identity and relationship to our Father!  We are the Sons of God being manifested to Creation.  Jesus was the first manifested Son of God.  He was manifested to Israel, though He looked like everybody else.

John said:  "I knew Him not: but that He should be made manifest to Israel."  John 1:31.  Jesus was manifested as the Son of God in a natural flesh body as a man.  We are all so unnatural, (living in a false imaginary world) that what Jesus did naturally seems supernatural to us.

I am so glad that God is awakening us to realize the difference between Jesus and the Christ or The Anointing.  When Jesus died on the Cross, The Anointing of God did not die.  "For God was in Christ (The Anointing) reconciling the world unto Himself."  2 Cor. 5:19.

Now let us turn to our original text found in Revelation 20:6.  What does it mean to have PART in the FIRST RESURRECTION?  The Father is quickening some other scriptures to us as we wait in His Presence for the spiritual understanding to this long misunderstood verse.

THERE IS ONLY ONE RESURRECTION

It can be likened unto the the reaping of one harvest of which Jesus Christ is The Head.  "but now is Christ risen from the dead, and became the FIRST-FRUITS of them that slept...."For as in Adam all die, even so, in Christ shall all be made alive.  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ's at His coming.  Then cometh the end (of the harvest)."  1 Cor. 15:20-24. 

I added (of the harvest) because it is talking about a Firstfruits of a seed.  The FIRSTFRUITS of a field of wheat is the sign or pre-representative of all the wheat growing in the field.

So Jesus is the Representative Son of all mankind.  That is why He called Himself the Son of Man over and over again.  Even as the Sprit of God raised the First Son of man, Jesus, from the dead, even so, He will raise up all mankind in their own order and time.  Jesus is the first man ever raised from the dead. [my comment: the 1st raised from the dead into The New Creation Man, the New Species Man]

"The Firstfruits of them that slept"  1 Cor. 15:20.  "The First born of the dead."  Col. 1:18.  "Christ cannot die anymore."  Rom. 6:9.  DEATH HAS NO MORE DOMINION OVER HIM.   Rom. 6:9.  GOD RAISED HIM UP FROM THE DEAD NOW NO MORE TO RETURN TO CORRUPTION."  Acts 13:34.  "THOU SHAL NOT SUFFER (ALLOW) THINE HOLY ONE TO SEE CORRUPTION."  Acts 13:35. 

Jesus did not see (dissolve into complete corruption) because God rasised Him up on the thrid day.  Lazarus was stinking because he was in the grave four days.  His body had begun to decay.  Though LAZARUS was raised so miraculously by Jesus, he died again.  Can we say he died twice and must therefore be raised twice??  No!  It is appointed unto man once to die; then comes the judging (setting things in order), that a rightous judgement can be made. Heb.9:27

I see only one Resurrection and One Death.  The "clinically dead" will all die again.  For we must all be changed. - Metamorphosed either by way of the grave or by still being alive when that time comes in God's plan of the ages.  God must follow His own blueprint!  1 Cor. 15:51-58

Eternal Life is the Gift of God.  We cannot earn it.  "The wages of sin is death, but the Gift of God is Eternal Life through our Lord Jesus Christ."  Rom. 6:23  See John 17:2-3.  As He has power over all flesh, Christ gives Eternal Life to all men.  How?  By living His life in and through and as all mankind.  Christ is our Life!

THE SECOND DEATH

Turn again to Revelation 20:6.  "On such the second death hath no power."

What is this Second Death?  Is it a warning to sinners or backsliders?  Or is it the work of the Christ, The Holy Spirit, as fire purifying the soul and mind from all false ideas and conceptions of God? - the false grandiose personations of ourselves or going to the other extreme presenting a false humility.  Being pitiful and weak and self-denying.  LETTING THE CHRIST MIND, which we already possess, operate in us will bring us into a true balance of knowing ourselves:  Who we are in Christ.  Phil. 2:5

The Second Death is only mentioned four times in the scriptures and it is always found in connection with believers.  And all are found in Revelation.

Rev. 2:11 - "He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death."

Rev. 20:6 - "He that hath part in the first resurrction on such the second death hath no power."

Rev. 20:14 - " Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.  This is the second death.

Rev. 21:8 - "And all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which
                   is the second death."

In these verses we will notice that Rev. 2:11, 20:6, are referring directly to believers who overcome.  Christ is THE OVERCOMER.  We overcome ourself or ego in Him, by recognizing our identity I AM in THE CHRIST I AM.  We are awakened by the Spirit in us to this trueself who we really are!  I AM A SON OF GOD.  I AM born of the Spirit out of God.  His very offspring.  I AM A LIVING SPIRIT.  I AM MANIFESTING GOD.  Without BOTH SPIRIT AND MAN there is no MAN-I-FESTATION.  Spirit alone cannot be seen or is not manifest.  MATTER alone cannot express SPIRIT-GOD.  It takes both SPIRIT-GOD AND MATTER INTEGRATED TOGETHER IN A UNION OF ONE.

"Great is the mystery of GODLINESS:  God manifested in the flesh, JUSTIFIED IN SPIRIT....PREACHED UNTO THE GENTILES."  I Tim. 3:16

When did Jesus preach to the Gentiles?  He was sent to the lost sheep of Israel.  It is the Body of Christ IN FLESH today who are preaching to the nations.

THE FRIENDLY FOE

GODLINESS MEANS:  LIKE GOD.  Godliness is being worked in us by the SECOND DEATH.  The Lake of Fire is The Holy Ghost Fire within us, bringing death to our Self-life.  God is Consuming Fire, Heb. 12:29, consuming all our dross into Himself.  He does this as He dwells in us.  Our body is the Temple of God.

He walks and talks in and through us, as He is gradually changing (metamorphosing) us unto GOD-LIKENESS - HIS RIGHT-NESS.  The outer man, (old man) is perishing (dying-changing) as the Inner Man (New Man) is renewed day by day.  A process.  The New Man is Christ in You!  2 cor. 4:16.  Out of the outer man and the Inner Man, God is making One New Man!  Like, out of Jew and Gentile God made One New Man.  OUT OF TWAIN GOD MADE ONE MAN.  Eph. 2:15

Let me give an example:  a husband and wife do not become one flesh just because they are united in wedlock.  Only as they reproduce themselves in their child do they become ONE FLESH.  This took a death!  NO LONGER BEING just husband and wife.  Now they are Mother and Father and Son and family.  Dying to self is really a friendly foe.  In type the Mothers and Son (carrying His Father's seed) go through the channel of death to come forth into Life.  So we died with Jesus, the Christ on the Cross and were raised with Him in Resurrection.

We are having our "part" in the FIRST Resurrection.  Now!  "Christ in you," is proof that we are in His resurrection.  Paul said:  "That I may know Him in the power of His Resurrection."  Phil. 3:10.  We know Him is His suffering and being made conformable to His death.  Paul said, "I am crucified with Christ."  He did not mean on the Literal Cross, but a spiritual Cross in himself. - crossing out every thing unlike God.  Only God to be left.  The New Inner Man needs to be RE-NEWED DAILY.  Like Paul, "to die daily" IS to be "quickened" daily.