OCCUPYING HIS PLACE

      "Both He that sanctifies and those that are sanctified are all one" Heb. 2:11.

      "The more clearly [intelligently] we enter by faith unto objective truth, or what is true of us as to the sanctification unto the Lord, the deeper, more experiential and practical will be the Spirit's subjective work in us, and the more complete will be the magnification of the moral effect in our life and character".

      I suspect that the problem or lack of arrival to know the moral effect of Christ Jesus' Life arises for most of us Christians in the desire for a manifestation of a experience in our Christian lives. That is our natural weakness, the desire to feel something. Especially the expatiations brought on by actions; which is simply our natural self's reaction to what we as a culture have come to depend upon as Christianity's function to create changes on the earth. Paul had the same problem to shed, which he came to terms with in finding that. "It is no longer I that live, but it is Christ that lives in me" Gal. 2:20.

      As for myself I have been somewhat relieved from experiences dependence as the very explicit biblical teaching [Rom. 6,7,8] of position and identification has made a impact in the formation of a new creature conscience in my thoughts. So as not to be so in reliance on things done here. Of course I know that I am a hopeless sinner in the flesh, needy and ever seeking a feeling, as we all do. Yet the Lord has given me a new life of Spirit to contemplate, its just not defined by tradition, experience or feelings. It is now my privilege [due to knowledge] to allow the Holy Spirt to conduct His thoughts in my mind as to my presence [spiritual positional identity] within Christ Jesus. I firmly believe this is the Christian Spiritual life/identity which must come first before my service and fruit can be honorable to approch the Father's great and profound sacrifice in His Sons representation of us on the cross. A Work that has transferred me spiritually to a new life in faith of His intent for me. "Whereby it is given to us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these [faith in them] we might be partakers of the divine nature".

      I believe we will never learn any truth by experience except if it be in the deepening knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as the experience. The desire for personal satisfaction is the main cause for a weakness of spirit in the believer. Also the repetitions of doctrine or dogmas and traditional rites of performance is in no way a contributor necessarily to personal fellowship with the person of Christ Jesus. No these things, while useful perhaps, do not cause us to know Him in and of themselves. We must come to see Him within a new mindful concept of His life as our very own, a spiritual life conducted in acknowledged weakness; in the taking of all things, good and bad, as connected with Him. Things not marked for our enjoyment of a experience, even things which arrive in personal pain. But too know Him as life through a new revelation of our new creation spirit found by faith in His Word. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free" Rom. 8:2. Paul's freedom declared here is from his natural Adam personality or his desperate need to accomplish good works on the earth.

      "The passive power of faith needs for its sustenance closer communion with the father than its active [tradition, emotions, feelings] energy." We will find His life in the quiet endurance of weakness and suffering. The patience of accepting wrong and loss in this world. A rest of faith within despite circumstance. His life and identity known and viewed in us by God is our identity. A determined mental position we may rely upon based on knowledge, held privately in faiths true divine power. The same power was also found in His Son as a Man on the earth. We must come to identify with His Son in solitude and for that we need more than words or doctrine but a new mind. "As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things" 2 Cor. 6:10 

      Most Christians don't inhabit a living reality in consciousness of Christ's life as their own as the bible tells us to. "According to His divine power He has given all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue" 2 Pet. 1:3. Most of us have a conceptualized Christian identity, one learned by repetition and church culture. We are drawn by displays which feed our needs as natural men because we often have learned no other alternative. We become captured by the worlds influence on all things here. However true Christianity, as life, is found in the formation of a new mind. The Word is very clear on this truth. "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" Rom 12:1-2. Why then are we so held back from His life as so clearly described in His Word?

      We have all heard of the Placebo effect. Placebo is Latin for I shall please. That is much of what the world has provided for the natural Adam mans mind in his orientation, including Christian practices. We must be made to feel good and right about something, even protected from evil, pain and suffering. We Christians as a group desire the same thing as the world dweller, a happy prosperous life announced by planed actions. This innate desire is why the Placebo effect so dominates our culture and so successfully impales Christian awareness.

      There is only One who can make our Christian lives experiential of Spirit and that is Christ Himself. The experience He provides however is found in the faithful observance of all things in the light of a living Person including our very identity. We must set our minds eye on things here from a heavenly perspective held in knowledge of the Words direction for the believer toward a personal private relationship with Him where He is now. A mental exercise or change of mind which no liturgical observation of itself will accomplish. "Set you affections on things above, NOT on things on the earth" Col. 3:2.

      It is by having the Lord Jesus in glory before us as the object of our souls in everything practically. Him interjected in all our life's actions as our defining life will give the power of His truth to our daily lives. How may we know this spiritual/heavenly position though? It is merely by observation. We must come to know that the old mans nature is wrapped up in the ego or the self conscious. This inner man will always whisper our sins, guilt and inadequacies toward holiness [separation from the world]. We become captured by the programed old mans thoughts. But as we come to know who we really are ["Hid in Christ in God"] and believe that His description of us is true, we may by observance arrive above our old thoughts and personality, or the souls rule. Through knowledge and faith a new man is growing inside of us, the new creation of active Spirit, our image found in Christ. There is no higher place than that of Christ Jesus as our personal identification. This is His definition of us, God's view. May we strive to glorify Him in His place as ours, the place He designed for us to occupy with a new mind. "It is no longer I that live, but Christ Jesus lives in me" Gal. 2:20.