Attaining to Sonship – Resurrection Life

I’m not yet finished with Attaining to Sonship by Art Katz. This portion of the transcription finds Art presenting what it is to live in the resurrection Life of Christ.

“But the condition for His Life is the forfeiting of your own. So, you’re a dead man. You’re dead and hidden with God and Christ until… Not many people have the stomach for that. It takes a sublime confidence that Jesus was raised from the dead and because He lives, we shall live also.

“How many of us are the children of the Resurrection? Sons and daughters of the Resurrection is something more than the approval of the doctrine. And I can just say with complete safety and assurance, the overwhelming majority of Christians, even of a charismatic kind in the earth today, do not live out of the resurrection Life. They approve the doctrine, but they live out of themselves. Which is not a bad thing. I mean it can even be impressive from time to time and God will even give, in His grace, a little enablement. The only thing wrong with it is this: it falls short of His glory.

“And it requires not just a once and for all death but repeated deaths, like right now. I know I give the appearance of being self-assured as if I’m some kind of professional, and I can get up at will and open my mouth and it’s all going to come out. If I’m not a dead man now, trusting God now, you may hear something clever, even biblical, even impressive, momentarily blessing, but it will not be Life-giving. This subject this afternoon is so crucially important for all the church in the last days, that no man however gifted or experienced is competent to deliver this word. It has got to be the manifestation of His Life because it is about His Life. Otherwise, it would be a contradiction of terms. That God should call you to the reality of His Life, that you might live in the power of His resurrection, by a man who is speaking out of his own humanity is a patent contradiction.

“The content has got to be in keeping with the mode. ‘Well, Art, how come you don’t sound like Jesus? I can pick up your Brooklyn accent. Don’t tell me that’s the life of God, Jesus doesn’t have a Brooklyn accent.’ That’s how much you know. He’ll have an accent of any kind that He Himself has imputed to that vessel. You think that my birth in Brooklyn is an accident and a happenstance? Or your birth, or nationality, or origin, or formation, or personality is in any way just something God just has to make the best of? Or is it the explicit sovereign choosing of God whose Voice is the voice of many waters and brings forth the fullness of His council and wisdom through the diversity of the vessels in whom His life operates and speaks.

“We mustn’t be deceived that it’s going to come out of some kind of sound chamber—“Thus saith the Lord.” It will be very natural, it will be unaffected, but the origin is not out of man but out of God. And that man who is speaking has not chosen the subject himself and has not, in himself, the ability to deliver it… But the life of Christ can. And the wisdom of Christ can meet their wisdom and reveal it as foolishness. If that were not so, any attempt to go speak would be foolhardy and vain.

“The only thing that justifies such a going is that the One who sends is also the One who goes with you and will be your life, and wisdom, your utterance, your sweetness of spirit, your charm, your severity, your authority, your everything required for life. He is your life is the amplitude of everything that pertains to godliness and to life.”

I hope you have enjoyed these portions of Art Katz’s powerful message, Attaining to Sonship. Art was a treasure, and if you desire to hear more of the message you can go here.