"Not I but Christ" Gal: 2:20. We pray to our Lord for power to act and receive. Yes there is power being in Christ; but it is not our power we exercise but His, which He is dispensing through us. This power comes in the form of His love and sympathy. He humbled Himself to enter our plight, then placed His Spirit in us. It is not power we have in ourselves by our status as Christians, but it's actually a Person. He made Himself like us and displays Himself as a man in heaven. He has allowed for our difficulty and His consolation is eternal. I forget that most days, as my efforts for myself take priority in my daily self centered life. Including my Christian walk, as interpreted and often influenced by my Adamic personality. I want for myself a deliverance from my condition, to be what I think I should, by a feeling. We are all in the Adam humanity's sinking ship, we are drowning in our own self sufficiency. There is inherit trial in this life, living as we do, by the first man, that will always be here on earth. Before I was saved worldly things took up all the space. Now in my salvation spiritual things have entered in, and so I have some solace and think I am doing things well for growth and power. But He even allows this comforting place to be absent at times, and for good reason. A time of spiritual void serves to remind me of my own inability. It is not only by the fruit of The Spirit, feelings, enjoyment of the fellowship experience, in which I find myself in spirit or apprehend my Christian worth: but in His Person hood, the apprehension of my spirit there. The very image the father has projected upon me in His Son. Him as the object of my life for me, to The Father. "That the life of Jesus might be manifest in our [mind, not actions] mortal flesh" 2 Cor. 4:11.
I think we forget that our spiritual quest is directly associated with the Person Jesus Christ. I know I do! Why is it we can have a object before us that is all consuming; be it spiritual understanding from His Word, doctrine, or a worldly necessity, such as work, success and family that consumes all of our thoughts. Leaving Jesus Christ the Person often in a dark corner of our mind.
Most of us know it is Him, Himself who has provided our salvation in justification. But few, I believe, see Him as the needed object for our vision of power as life. Him becoming life explained. What is the result? This weakness is perhaps why we revert to the mental stimulus of the natural apprehensions so often? Developing many programs to be all we can be for Christ so that we may feel we have overcome. Do we really trust in Him as a Person for all of our life? I think the reason this is hard to see is lack of knowledge and faith.We see that we are delivered by the grace of God and this freedom opens the mind and allows us to think we can use the world as a tool to manipulate spirit. We become inclined to utilize the natural and think God makes a allowance for its use. This is not faith!
I am a great example of this common Christian error. I recently was under a cloud of unbelief. I feared for my future. I was overwhelmed by conscious regrets of past decisions. There was no room in my mind for the freedom and joy offered by the Holy Spirit in consolation to those who are children of the living God on this earth. My mind was occupied with plans and schemes. I just wanted to feel better, which is only natural. How in this condition, can I see Him, Jesus Christ, as a Person who is the object of all my comings and goings? Able to be relied upon in all my affairs; no matter if I suffer in this life? Then I was reminded by His Word that in His death all of my burden as a natural man was lifted from me by faith that He has accomplish all I need for life. My joy is found only in Him the Person. He has overcome for me the world and all its troubles, including death. It is by His sacrifice we have been justified, but also glorified in heaven, Rom. 8:30! In fact I do not even exist as the natural Adam man in The Fathers mind."You were once darkness, but now are you a light in the Lord" Eph. 5:8. How will I gain power by this Spiritual truth? We must always go back to the cross to find ourselves. We are upon it with Him, yes it will always be a place of suffering here: but "He has overcome the world". My joy returns knowing this. I have freedom once again by this true truth taken into my thoughts for life. My weakness has made it so.
The problem is in our minds. We spend much of our time trying to make the Majesty of Jesus Christ fit our thoughts and hopes for happiness and blessing in the material life by a self effort to build this concept in ourselves..... Instead we should be making our minds up to seek His image as a faith object in weakness as we will always be unfit for His place in and of ourselves. So weakness and failure, the old nature, is our marker. We have charge of our thoughts, we have volition. A renewed mind should be our only goal. The prize before us is to translate the vision The Father has of us, shown clearly in His Word, to fit the mental concept of His desire of ourselves as we walk the earth. "Seek those things which are above where Christ sits at the right hand of God" Col. 3:1.
I think many stand upon the word of God with shear determination. It is not easy to allow the trans-formative view God has of us to enter daily life. You could say its not normal for human nature to submit to the image of another. We are in no way worthy as men. We often just want the blessings. To feel good! However the gift of this spiritual insight comes from seeing the Spirits view of us as portrayed by His Word. Beings that are regarded in the only vision before Him for Him to be able to accept us; which is that of Jesus Christ Himself! The Word of God expresses just that throughout Paul's writing. "I count all things [that which we seek and enjoy in this world] but loss for the excellency of the knowledge[intimate, personal, internal] of Christ, my Lord" Phil. 3:8.
I do not wish to merely act correctly as a Christian. Or for that manner to display with regularity a outward spiritual traditions as a internal indication of my spirituality; simply because of the fear I would be trapped comfortably there. Physical and emotional repetition in itself, even done with good intent does not necessarily reflect spirit. The danger in relying on behavior is that by its reinforcement of the natural feelings I may become a man who is not becoming a man having trust in His Words reflection of just who we are in Him....."Now unto Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us, unto Him be glory" Eph. 3:20,21. Thereby disallowing the formation of a analytical personality of myself as Christ Himself, me as His Body, experiencing all that He is by faith only. This Conformation tendency is often the down fall of Spiritual power and most common among us humans. We turn inward under this condition, thinking this is the way a Christian looks when gathered so it must be by spirit often becoming habitual in nature. Behavior we become comfortable with, yet would appear to many on the outside to be unusual or even bazaar. Not that what the world thinks so much matters. Praying to a invisible Person sometimes seems quite strange to me. What does matter is; are we being His body in thought and image as our inner concept of our new nature on this earth? This is the most difficult choice a Christian may chose. It is the choice to carry and live with our pain and failure as men with hope in another. We will never live up to Him in this natural life existence in a human body. We will always fail in carrying out duty's. Most I am afraid seek shelter in the crowd, its shady there and often comfortable. I am not excluded from that zone either, by the way.
These are all just words. I have gone on to long. The more I find my Christianity in seeing His expectations of me by His word, the more I see my failure. I have come to this place, perhaps worn down by contemplation of my presence in Christ, if that be possible. The truth is I just cannot stop sinning and neither can any other human being. I am discouraged in my self. And frankly discouraged by much of the the Christian world around me. I must once again pick up my cross as I am a participating member of that worldly Christian weakness. But He, despite ourselves, loves us and has given us eternal life. "We are excepted in the Beloved". I must live in faith that this is true. Happiness and joy come and go. But it is in my weakness that He is made true."Giving thanks unto the Father, who has made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light" Col. 1:12. As I said last time I will close out this victimization chapter of my blog effort on July 5th After that I will only write as the Spirit moves me and send the results to those that wish to hear from me. I hope you will bookmark this site for future reference and new posts. Please let me know if you wish to remain included for notifications.
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