VARLEN field read into LIKEREC DS

I have a file with a varying length field defined as follows:

A DMESSAGE 150A TEXT('Denial Message')
A VARLEN
A PDATE L TEXT('Process Date')

I have set up a DS for reading these records into, as follows:

D M DS LikeRec(RCBI1 : *Input) Inz

I see that the DS is created with a VARYING alpha field, and a subsequent 
PDATE field. 

My question is this: Can I set up a pointer to point at the M.PDATE field, 
and know that every record that I read from the format into the M data 
structure, it will point at the M.PDATE field? Or do the subsequent fields 
after the VARYING field shift based on the length of the VARYING field?