Living at Gilgal - Part 1

by Larry Hodges

"For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice
in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" --Philippians 3:3.

    When God's people begin to see who we truly are and begin to serve Him day and night in His temple, before the throne of God, and Christ the Lamb begins to be acknowledged as dwelling in our midst, we shall hunger no more, we shall thirst no longer, neither shall the sun of trial light upon us nor any heat of persecution, for the Lamb which is in our midst shall feed us and lead us unto living fountains of waters.

    I have no earthly idea why we, almost to a person, have insisted upon constantly checking up on ourselves to see what sort of progress we might have made, or to see if we have gotten any better. Perhaps it has been because we have not really been circumcised in the putting away of our flesh. Or if we have, perhaps it's time that circumcision was renewed. All the righteousness, wisdom, power, perfection, peace, joy, holiness we shall ever obtain is never going to reside in us but in Another.

Getting Into The Land by Faith

    God is after a New Creation upon the ground of resurrection only. He is not going to settle for a better, somewhat upgraded version of us! The Spirit of Truth utters the almost inconceivable words, ". . . not I, but Christ . . ." and we stand in astonishment and wonder at the mere prospect of it. Like those Israelites who so long ago failed to enter into their inheritance because of unbelief, we too have marched in our Pentecostal wilderness of unbelief for 2,000 years!

    Listen to some compelling words spoken in the sixth chapter of the gospel of John, "Labor not for the meat which perisheth but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for Him hath God the Father sealed. Then said they unto Him, 'What shall we do that we might work the works of God?' Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent" --John 6:27-29. The whole work God requires here is to believe. That's all. The very thing the Israelites of old would not do and the very thing we also have not done.

    A man who wishes deliverance for his demoniac son says to Jesus, ". . . but if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help us." The KJV renders Jesus' response thusly, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth" --Mark 9:22,23. But a more faithful rendering is offered by the Concordant Literal New Testament. It states, ". . . now Jesus said to him, 'Why the if? You are able to believe. All is possible to him who is believing.'"

    To have the Holy Ghost make real in us the Scripture, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me . . .(Gal. 2:20)" is to have opened within us the unbounded and limitless realm of Christ and all the heretofore hidden realities and possibilities in Him that are neither to be perceived nor comprehended by any in whom it is not as yet made real. It actually brings us into our inheritance.

    Not I? If not I, then who? Christ! Christ! It is Christ only who now lives! It is not I and Christ. It is not a big Christ and a little I. It is only Christ who lives now! This reveals the great and extraordinary exchange which actually took place at Calvary. It reveals the awesome oneness that exists and that is to be experienced in Christ. It is the great at-one-ment accomplished in Him.

    Someone may ask, "Upon such a mighty attainment as having come to "no more I but Christ," one should think that there would be some sign which will agree with and attest to such a dynamic and compelling attainment." The response to such a question is; When the Father's time is come, He, in His own wise sovereignty, shall render the placement of sons (compare with Jesus' baptism in Jordan River) and the adoption which thereby shall occur. Then shall be signs enough to convince the gainsayer, but altogether too late to be of any help to the doubter.

    There was a night long ago when Jesus had sent His disciples across the sea ahead of Him and Mark states that they had toiled all the night, the wind being contrary to them, without reaching their desired destination. Then comes Jesus walking upon the waters and John states that as soon as they willingly received Him into the vessel, immediately they were at land whither they went!

    What a clear and altogether beautiful picture of us who have striven and toiled all through our long night of unbelief toward a shore which has seemed to recede from us rather than draw closer. The more we have reached out after, the harder we have striven, the less of what we reached for we seemed to possess; the more we have toiled and striven for that holiness, that peace, that rest we see in Him, the less we have seemed to exhibit in ourselves. Then, as soon as we know the reality that Christ is within the vessel and all that means, immediately we find ourselves at our desired destination! Gilgal! "For we which have believed do enter into rest" -- Hebrews 4:3.

    The rest so long sought after, the peace so long and disappointedly pursued, the overflowing joy so elusive before is suddenly ours without the reaching, without the toil, without the sweat of human effort. It is so simple we scarce can take it in. For the reach, the toil, the striving after, is but in truth a confession that we do not yet believe, that we do not truly acknowledge the truth of God's statement, "Ye are crucified . . . it is no more you, but Christ." "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief" --Hebrews 3:19.

    My precious friend, it is not our confession which makes this experience real in us. Our confession must be the result of that reality. But another inherent, inborn tendency which admits of this reality is that of the perpetual dying of the Lord Jesus in those who have experienced such a wonderful reality. Christ cannot and does not live for Himself. His is a given life, a life always being laid down for the other and He, my friend, is the only One who can do this in such a manner that it is acceptable with the Father.

    Without this sacrificial life in expression, we must be in doubt that such a reality has indeed come. Christ is not an enemy of His cross. Such a life may yet be troubled on every side, yet not be in distress; may be perplexed and yet not be in despair; may be much and severely persecuted and yet not feel forsaken; may be cast down and cast aside by others and yet not feel destroyed, for while death works in them, life also is at work in an even far greater way, to overcome that death.

    Nothing other than such a life can manifest upon such a faith as "no more I, but Christ." For, "Knowing . . . that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. . . . reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" --Romans 6:6,7,11.

    It is the same as that life at which we marvel as we behold it in the person of Jesus, standing a King before Pilate, the highest earthly authority in Israel at that time. He has been beaten and reviled; He is bloody and exhausted after a sleepless night at the hands of ruthless tormentors, still He stands in such calm dignity and noble resolution that Pilate becomes unsettled, and we witness a most amazing thing take place.

    What is portrayed before us is the unmistakable irony that it is Pilate himself and not Jesus at all who is here on trial. Pilate is seen as a wavering, vacillating coward while the Son of Man stands in all His regal persistence before him. It is that life, my friend, which has been exchanged for the crucified I in you and me. This is the only overcoming life any shall ever know. It is the only life revealed behind the veil.

    Isn't it more than a little odd that most of that portion of the Body of Christ to which we refer as "the remnant" lies today incapacitated, disabled, crippled and much of it near death? This sounds totally unlike any victorious army of which I have ever heard. It has troubled most of us as we have sought an understanding of the "whys" and "wherefores".

    As to the calibre of these dear saints, it is this remnant which is thought to have the most revelation, the most spiritual depth, the most maturity, the most understanding, the most of everything . . . including sickness. This is not something that has just happened which has no cause or purpose. God is in it and will use it all, I believe, to bring forth His ultimate good for us all.

The Making of a Pearl

    Often we are not willing for what God requires at the outset. "I'm not going to change my diet!", has been heard more than a few times coming from those wishing to hold on to one of the last areas of their life over which they still have at least some control. Today most of them are suffering from one thing or another and it is quite serious.

    I do not believe that God is primarily interested in our diet. He is interested in our diet, because what we eat can kill us, but primarily He is interested in that will which is still able and willing to pronounce its "I won'ts" and its "I wills". In order for us to come into our possessions in Christ, that must be dealt with in utterness. This, I believe is why God has brought many of us to the place where we are able to see that His will, though admittedly costly, is not nearly as expensive as our will.

    When that generation of Israelites which came up out of the wilderness came to Gilgal (and remember, Gilgal is inside the land), the first order of business was to circumcise them again. "At that time the Lord said unto Joshua, 'Make thee sharp knives of flint and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. . . . And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: All the people that came out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt. Now all the people that came out were circumcised: but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised" --Joshua5:2 &4-5.

    The emphasis here is not so much that there were those who had not been circumcised during the 40-years trek through the wilderness. The point the Lord seems to emphasize is that Joshua must "circumcise again the children of Israel the second time." Those whom the blood had protected from death in Egypt, were later slain in the wilderness because there was not the protection and deliverance of the blood. Moses was the only one of whom it was said that he kept the Passover by faith. "Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest He that destroyed the firstborn should touch them" --Hebrews 11:28.

    Oh yes, the children of Israel still kept the Passover in remembrance and references made to the blood and the great deliverance affected through it, but there had been lost to the people the true value and worth of a present tense working of the blood and all that Passover meant, which had been so necessary that night in Egypt when the firstborn of all Egypt had been tagged for death. It had become for them something of a historical event to which they could refer back as a part of their testimony. Has it become only that to us?

    The "firstborn" of Adam is the flesh man, extending even to the physical body of flesh with its appetites and lusts, and unless the blood is presently, by faith, applied over its doorposts, the Lord is obliged to not passover. It was not a death angel who slew the firstborn of the Egyptians, it was the Lord Himself. The thought may arise in some minds, "But I do believe in the blood and its power. I do trust in its wonder-working power in my life." I also may say the same. But I must also ask myself, "Is my faith in the blood of Jesus an active faith or a passive one?" There are worlds of difference between these two faiths.

    The purpose here is not to complicate and confuse, but to make plain and understandable what may be the problem. Active faith is simply that faith which is living and moving to take and possess what is hoped for; itself is the very substance of things hoped for. It was that kind of faith which brought our passover deliverance when we first trusted in Christ Jesus. Passive faith is inactive and is, in truth, not really faith at all. It is an impotent, powerless belief in something which neither requires nor helps one toward conformance with its professed stance.

    Upon the basis of my Passover experience, I experienced that true circumcision not made with hands. "In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses"--Colossians 2:11-13

    Water baptism is the answer of a good conscience toward God which, by faith, declares that we are crucified with Christ and therefore are being buried with Him in the watery grave. When we are raised with Him we are, again by faith, enabled in a walk that is impossible except it be done from the ground of "no more I, but Christ". It is the acknowledging of the putting off of the body; of our crucifixion with Christ and of our burial and resurrection with Him. That experience required more than a passive faith. It required a step of obedience in faith. It required an action in line with its profession. It was a very silly thing to do so far as the natural man and mind is concerned. Just a quick dunk under water, and that's supposed to introduce me to another manner of life? When done with a heart of faith toward God, it does.

    But it was not water baptism which saved and it is not the circumcision which saves. Water baptism, like circumcision, is performed upon the basis of the covenant which already exists between the believer and God in the keeping of Passover. It is really a part of Passover.

    I can well remember the attitude of heart that literally held me in its loving grip those first few months. I walked in all the benefits that Passover accorded me. But as time and tribulations came to pass, my Passover experience (yours too) became more dim, more veiled, more distant.

    I, like you, soon hungered for more of God and had to be brought into that experience known as the Pentecostal experience, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

    Just as the children of Israel were delivered out of Egypt and into the wilderness, so we were delivered out from the world and into our own Pentecostal wilderness.

    They were taken, 50 days later, on the very date of Pentecost, to Mt. Sinai where Moses delivered to them the law engraved upon tablets of stone. At that time 3,000 souls perished. It was the ministration of death. On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit fell and began writing that law upon the tables of men's hearts and 3,000 souls lived because it was the ministration of life. So the wilderness is very definitely a type of the Pentecostal experience.

    Next, after the wilderness journeyings are finished and have accomplished their purposes, God brings us to Gilgal. Gilgal is inside the land of the inheritance and is the place where the second circumcision must take place if the land is to be possessed. Gilgal means "a rolling away" of the flesh. It signifies, more than anything else, "no confidence in the flesh." Gilgal is the place of a renewal of that heart we walked in as the result of our initial circumcision. It is the place of really and finally realizing and yielding to the truth of, "I can of myself do nothing." It is the place of a returning to our first love and dedication, where no cost was too much, where gratitude was always upon the tongue, and a tear of thanksgiving in the eye. It is the place of great tenderness and sensitivity toward God.

A Change of Order

    Here in this land God will not allow the same modus operandi as was common in Pentecost. Pentecost is the realm of the Holy Place of Moses' tabernacle. It is the realm of good and evil, spirit and flesh, up-to-a-point service, half-measures, baking the wave-loaves with leaven, etc.. But Tabernacles is the realm of "behind the veil", utter purity, God only, no leaven and all here is in utterness.

    It is a realm in which "no more I, but Christ" must be the reality and is the basis upon which all is performed. But there is a very important and, I believe, very critical aspect about living in Gilgal, behind the veil in the Holiest. It cannot be done without the blood! To do so brings death.

    It is by faith that we move behind the veil. And we are hearing from many quarters in this hour of those doing just that. We are also hearing from many quarters that very many are sick, ailing in body, and well nigh to perishing. Only the High Priest alone could enter behind the veil of the holiest, once a year during the Feast of Tabernacles at the time of atonement, then not without blood! It was not enough for him to stand in the holiest and point to the blood on the sacrificial passover altar! The blood must also be taken by faith with him behind the veil or he perishes.

    There is still power, wonder-working power in the blood, and that blood must attend our transfer by faith, from the Holy Place into the Holiest of All. Though we are progressing onward and upward in Christ, it is imperative that Passover be more to us than a past historical event in our lives to which we occasionally refer. There is an element of Passover in Tabernacles and Passover, during Tabernacles, must be a very present reality. Why? Because Christ is our Passover and He must be to us an inward, present reality.

    How does one deliberately take the blood behind the veil or across Jordan, to stand in the holiest or in the inheritance? We obviously do not take literal blood, but spiritual. What is the spirit of the blood of Christ? It is the spirit of sacrifice. A sacrificial life! A life which stands behind the veil must stand in the power of, "the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony and of loving not one's own life unto death" (paraphrased). Where this sacrificial spirit of the blood is not, he who stands in this place must expect to perish. The "place" here spoken of is the spirit of "No more I, but Christ." No confidence in the flesh.

    Living at Gilgal means living in the place where, good intentions or "it seemed like a good idea at the time," doesn't pass muster. God is bringing us into another completely different way and manner of living wherein Christ is the Captain of the Lord's host. We need to beware lest the drawn sword be reluctantly used against those of us who, in our willfulness, place ourselves at cross purposes to Him. Here, in the land, there is but one will and it is God's. Here, in the land, we shall be able to move in God only upon the ground of, "no more I, but Christ."

    What exactly is our perception of "life behind the veil"? We hear that phrase used quite often these days and when I hear it, I wonder if those using it mean the same as I do when I use it. Often I think the phrase, "life behind the veil" carries with it in the minds of some the thought of some Edenic, paradisiacal experience where nothing ever threatens, no sound of war is ever thought of, much less heard, and all is readily made available to one's hand and use and there is no thought of risk. It is often thought to be the place of abundance, of peace, serenity and security, of strength and near God-likeness.

    This is not quite the same as I view "life behind the veil." It is surely the place of strength, peace, abundance and even of near God-likeness and ultimately it shall be all this and more. But while this is the truth, it is not the whole truth and nothing but the truth. This is also the place from whence Adam fell in the first place. It was a place where temptation, sin and loss were indeed possible.

    But regardless of how different people see things from realm to realm, one thing remains certain; before the Kingdom of God can become established under Solomon's peaceable reign, David's warring spirit must first remove all warring and opposing hindrances to that peaceable kingdom.

    This must all be accomplished upon an inward, personal basis in us. All the kingdoms of our own inward, personal world must first become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ before there is ever to be the display of a "greater works" ministry that is to bring about the release and restoration of the rest of creation. He must first rule over all peoples, nations, kindreds and tongues, in us before there can be any outward rule of these others. And it is just here that the divine declaration of "no more I, but Christ," actually becomes the powerhouse of God-in-us.

    We have an almost natural tendency to think only of our benefits in Christ and not our responsibilities in Christ. The benefits of "in Christ" are well nigh limitless, if not altogether so. But there are also responsibilities and obligations "in Christ" that in no way entice the natural man. For it is only in Christ that the duties, the life, the very expression of the Son, can and must come forth. Only the Son "is always delivered unto death" --II Corinthians 4:11. Only the Son lays down His life.

    One of the most profound passages of Scripture, to my mind, is, "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father" --John 10:17,18. The Father loves the Son because the Son lays down His life? Is this the basis upon which the Father loves the Son? I believe it is.

    Adam, we are told, was a living soul. His it was to live. The last Adam was a quickening spirit (I Co. 15:45) He was life-giving, not only in the sense that He imparted life to others, but that the life He gave must be one freely laid down. His it is to die. Christ is the only one who can do that. He is the only one who will do that, therefore, the necessity of "no more I, but Christ." For, if we are truly called to walk, as Enoch, into a realm of such dizzying spiritual heights that flesh and blood cannot enter, must there not therefore come a time, in this life, when we, having put off the flesh, no longer cater to its demands, no longer answer its insistent calls, no longer consider our own bodies now, for most of us, "as good as dead?"

    Does it mean nothing that most of the Body today is in a physically deplorable state, and medicine, doctors, vitamins, supplements and herbs prove to be all but useless? Many of us feel a weight of concern for the sufferings of those seriously ill at this time. Not a few are literally staring death in the face. Could it be that God is saying something to us that we are not naturally disposed to even want to hear, much less consider?

    If there is indeed to be a people who shall conquer death, shall they not be required to face death in the most literal and real sense possible? The martyrs of the early church did. I ask these questions, saints, because they beg answers. If Christ Jesus, our Pattern and Forerunner, must meekly submit Himself to the shame, the suffering and the death of a cross in order to overcome him that had the power of death, shall those who follow after Him be allowed to apply to alternatives in order to ease their sufferings, to fend off their death, to preserve their lives? Must our lives be practically wrenched from us rather than freely, willingly laid down?

    He could have called 10,000 angels and have eluded the cross and its sufferings altogether. He did not do what He might have done. In every extremity of the flesh, we have an alternative, we have a remedy for relief, because until now, we have not believed that Christ is our life. We prove that we still believe that our life originates with the flesh when we seek to preserve that life source. Shall we, who stand this day at Gilgal and make our boast in Christ, stand in open contradiction to all we profess to believe and continue in our attempts patch up and preserve the flesh as if our lives depended upon it?

    Yes, this is dangerous, or at least seems dangerous teaching. Some may actually die because of attempting to walk in a place they have no faith yet to walk, but all battles know their casualties and even deaths. If we will but glance backward a moment, we shall behold untold multitudes who died anyway, attempting to preserve their lives. How apropos sounds that saying now, "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep for that which he cannot lose."

    My brethren, it is the Lamb Nature that inherits, and it is the Lamb Nature alone which will lay its life down. The laying down of one's life is a deliberate choice, but only the one who lays his life down has the power to take it up again. For those who shall comprise that glad company of Overcomers, the motto is, "If I live, I live unto Christ; if I die, I die unto Christ." Either way they are in Christ.

What is the Recircumcision?

    Look around today and you will see God's people even more crippled and maimed (naturally speaking) than that circumcised and disabled army of God at Gilgal. If any people ought to have no confidence in the flesh, it ought to be us. Naturally speaking, we're as good as dead. But it was not until Abraham was "as good as dead" that the son of laughter was brought forth on a supernatural ground.

    There can be no debate that the sense life of the body has been the great bar and hindrance to the supersensitive, spiritual life in conjunction with the reasoning mind. If this is so, and we know it is, when shall a people arise who will begin to acquit themselves and stand in the recircumcision of, "it is no more I, but Christ"? If this is so, then what is the step, the action, which an active faith requires? It is that life expressed as "no more I, but Christ."

    When, if not now, shall there arise a people who shall take no thought for the flesh, who will act as if they are not debtors to the flesh, who will walk as if Christ within really is their life, as if, for them to live is Christ and to die is gain?

    But it is just here that the matter of, "no more I, but Christ" is proven to be either real or unreal in us. Especially in this present day is rhetoric plentiful and quite cheap. Christ not only speaks of laying down the life, He goes beyond words to the doing of it. He lays His life down, not willing to preserve it for Himself. He sees all things as coming to Him from the Father, even suffering and death. Here is a manifestation of sons! Here is that cry whereby we are to go out and meet Him, and those who are ready shall arise and enter in. Here is where we are called to lay our life down rather than have it taken from us.

    There must come a people who are willing to leave the confining limitations of the sense life and walk, not in a confederacy with it, but away from it. Those doing so will do it over the objections of the material, physical realm and they will thereby identify themselves as those not willing to bow down and cater to the pitiful cries of the body, to the image of the beast; not willing to give worth-ship to that which is of the beast or even to acknowledge it as worthy of note.

    Only those so released from the kingdom of the beast shall not worship it, shall not receive its number and name, having been truly set free from its debts and demands. Only those who have lost all fear of death are willing to step, with Christ, into its chilly waters to find that they have indeed been pushed back all the way to a place called Adam.

    "A double and triple portion of His Spirit has the Lord said He would add to those who first shall abrogate (annul) the law of the senses which has been the chief hindrance of His kingdom. The sense life is to be made void because it diverts the soul from receiving all its supplies from the Rock. Faith cannot arrive at its full strength until sense is led into captivity and cast into a dead sleep." --Jane Leade, New Jerusalem I, pg. 40.

    It is for this reason that we are given the understanding that it is "no more I, but Christ." For Saul, the man of flesh may only sit in his tent and tremble at the prospect of meeting the great Goliath of death face to face. But bring here the man of spirit, "not I, but Christ", and this mighty colossus too shall be found a defeated foe. Since we here speak of the sense life with its five senses, it is interesting to note that this Goliath has four brothers, all of whom are also giants and must be slain.

    In summary, there is no doubt that God has moved us to the point at which we must enter into our inheritance. Being in the land is not the same as possessing the land. We do so by faith and as faith comes by hearing the word of God and demands a ground upon which it may stand, Galatians 2:20 must become more than merely a verse to quote. It must become a reality within. "No more I, but Christ," has within it the power to translate one from the wilderness side of Jordan to Gilgal inside the land and is the only basis upon which the land may be possessed. It has the power to work in us that frame of mind which has no confidence in the flesh and cause in us a new and fresh circumcision of heart that will give a new walk to our feet, for it is Christ that now lives and even the life we live by faith here in Gilgal is not ours but Christ's. We must remember too, that it was Joshua (Jesus) who did the circumcising. Not the people. He is faithful who has called. He will also do it.

Himself

    "Is your body yielded to Christ for Him thus to dwell and work in you? Jesus is the one Man that contains in Himself all that man ought to be, all that man needs to have. All the fullness of the Godhead and the fullness of a perfect manhood have been embodied in Christ, and He stands now as the summing-up of all that man needs. His Spirit is all that your spirit needs, and He just gives us Himself. His body possesses all that your body needs. He does not need strength for Himself. The energy which enabled Him to rise and ascend from the tomb above all the forces of nature was not for Himself. That marvelous body belongs to your body. You are a member of His body. Your heart has a right to draw from His heart all that it needs. Your physical life has a right to draw from His physical life its support and strength; and so it is not you, but it is the precious life of the Son of God. Will you take Him thus today? Then you will not be merely healed, but you will sweep disease away, and then remain a fountain of life for your future need. Oh, take Him in His fullness." End Quote by A.B. Simpson

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