Christ Revealed in Me

Holiness Restored

2011-05-29T11:46:00.000+02:00

The Trinity is not a new concept invented by modern theologians in an attempt to describe the union between Father, Son and Spirit as the Bible translates their fellowship. From before the foundation of the earth there was a Triune relationship which is characterized by love, adoration, joy and acceptance. Into this amazing fellowship we are now adopted so that we can share in the blessings of being part of an eternal outflow of love, benevolence and approval.

Paul very distinctively writes: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. (Eph 1: 3-5)

Chosen before the foundation of the earth we were predestined to take part in this union which heavenly places pertains to. As members of the Trinity we are considered holy and blameless. Holiness hence refers to our new position in the heavenly realm. Moreover, holiness can be understood as a state of eternal joy, love, acceptance and mutual admiration. This potent word is pregnant with the wonder and the beauty, the passion and the sheer togetherness of the Trinitarian life.

When Christianity arrived in Rome holiness by and by lost its original meaning. Interpreted in the Roman judicial system holiness was transferred into the legal realm. In this world of pure law holiness came to mean legal perfection or moral rectitude. This metamorphosis heavily influenced the church so that holiness became a matter of conduct and behavior and hence made it possible for legalistic conceptions about holiness to prevail in the institution. This influence has gravely distorted the true meaning of holiness, and furthermore turned holiness into something man has to attain in order to prove his devotion to God.

Holiness is the effect of Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. However, the Adamic race wouldn’t have benefitted from Jesus finished work if those defiled by the fall, that is, every man, wasn’t included in everything Jesus accomplished. Therefore, we are crucified with Him, we are resurrected with Him and we have ascended with Him. This mystical transference which took place when Christ became us is our guarantee that we are included in everything He accomplished.

Holiness understood from a legal perspective irretrievably reverse the whole act of reconciliation, to such a degree that this understanding purports that Jesus came to save us from God. Changing God has become the object of Christ's sacrifice. He came to convert God so that God's wrath could be emptied upon Him and not us. However, Paul insists that Jesus came to save us from ourselves and the consequences of the fall. While we were utterly helpless Jesus came to save us from bondage and the spirit of error's evil domain.

To too many Christians the word holy denotes alienation, fear and estrangement, when its proper meaning has all the opposite connotations. Its true and original meaning can only be properly acknowledged in concepts such as inclusion, peace and fellowship. In short, our holiness pertains to the undisputable fact that we are reconciled to God and that our original design, that is, that we are created in His likeness, is restored.

Before You Call He Will Answer

2011-04-26T09:13:00.000+02:00

It is written, ”And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer” (Isa 65:24). In our daily struggles and adversities we might find this verse a bit hazy. God claims that before we call He will answer. Try that in a phone call! Anyway, in our daily lives we often wonder where that answer is, notably when the wind blows really hard. Despite everything which seems to contradict this amazing promise I find that there are at least two applications of this verse.

Firstly, as long as we dwell in the temporal realm we are subjected to some severe impediments regarding our general overview. We really have no means to find out if God saved us from a hideous car accident because we were delayed a minute. We don’t know in what ways He has arranged everything so that in most instances we do not have to call, because everything is already taken care of. Faith is the only mean with which we are furnished to acknowledge His activity in our lives when there are no other evidences. Sometimes, however, we can say, "That was God!"

Paul wrote, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” (Eph 3:20-21) The realization of this verse has nothing to do with your abilities or devotion. It only hinges on which power that works in you. In Christ God has taken possession of you and hence He is that power. He is constantly active in our lives. We are always in His thoughts. Our Father neither sleeps nor slumbers in regard to His precious sons! The promise in this verse is constantly and perpetually a reality in our lives whether we recognize it or not.

Secondly, ”And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer” means that to whatever circumstance we encounter God has an answer. God has called us to be co-workers and co-operators of His universe. To this end He trains us. We hence face a variety of challenges in our walk, and therefore He says, “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” (Eph 5:14) By default our attitude is one of submission to appearances – a heritage from the fall when we saw everything in fragments, and separation embossed every thought we had. In order to become proficient co-workers He teaches us to see beyond appearances and hence in increasing measure trust Him and as we become more and more settled in the union reality, ourselves.

Awake you who sleep, and receive the light which empowers you to see God in everything. Awake to the desires in you. Awake to what you want in this situation. Dare to trust your desires in any circumstance, and speak to God the solution you so very much want to see manifested. It is His desires which well up in you and those exact desires are His answer to your situation. Be bold in your requests! Know that the answer is a reality in the spiritual realm, and in His time it will become a reality in the material realm. My friend, you are never abandoned. He is always active in your life so that everything you encounter is in reality an opportunity for your Father to bless you in ways you had never imagined.

Rest in Work

2011-03-31T12:39:00.002+02:00

We all know that life is work. It is action. We are always on the move, both on the outside and on the inside. When the author of the epistle to the Hebrews says we ought to enter God’s rest he evidently isn’t talking about idleness. This is by the way the only “ought to” left in our lives after we became God’s. So what is this rest we are to enter into?

“God’s rest isn’t rest from work….. it is rest in work”, Norman Grubb so masterly put it. We are resting when we have the sufficiency to do the work. Unrest or strain is to do something from a position of insufficiency. In this not so insignificant difference lies the freedom to be who we are created to be!

Our God is a God of action. Joyfully He runs the universe. He has the sufficiency to do so. In us God also is a God of action. Life is action, movement, change of seasons. We are caught in the middle of this creative life force. When we are caught by God there is no escape. He won’t let us go. He has stuck Himself to us. Isn’t that wonderful!

A state of insufficiency or unrest occurs when we become self-centered in our outlook. My life, my status, my position, my money and so on – we can make the list endlessly long. That really wears us out. However, God won’t let us be there forever. Only until we have learned our lesson. Our greatest problem is perhaps all those expectations laid upon us by others. It is impossible to live out our life from the inside when we are burdened down by faulty expectations on how to run our life and what to do.

To work from sufficiency is to have more than enough to do the job. There is an undertow of joy in everything you undertake. Your special gifts and talents are in action. Your dreams are being realized to such an extent that you have to rub your eyes in utter amazement. That is rest! That is God in action in your life. Take heed of yourself; respect your desires and dreams. Let everything God has put on your inside have leeway. Allow your uniqueness to shine!

Norman Grubb concluded, “So ‘rest’ is adequacy in action….it’s inside action.”

(Both quotes by Norman Grubb are from The Meaning of Life, pages 50-51)

They Have Been Satisfied By the Truth

2011-03-23T08:48:00.002+01:00

One of the most heartrending episodes in Jesus’ life was when He at the cross cried out: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Our Savior came out of the womb of the fallen Israel to join the ranks of a fallen humanity. If He was to be a savior of all mankind His identification with man had to be absolute. He became like one of us in order to live our life in the flesh. We are not exaggerating when we assert that one of the most astounding events in all history took place when one member of the Triune fellowship became flesh.

He came down to share in our fallen condition so that we could share in His fellowship in the Heavenly realms. The Triune fellowship is characterized by an unspeakable joy. The three members’ desires are in total harmony and they are completely devoted to each other. The camaraderie and love which flows unimpeded between the Divine persons is so pure and beautiful and radiates with such a light that the fallen man cannot approach its presence without being devoured by its fire.

Jesus descended so that we could ascend into the Heavenly realms and be partakers of the unspeakable joy and love of the Trinity. He identified Himself with us so that we could identify with the Triune fellowship. Perfected through what He suffered He blazed a trail which we could follow when He after the resurrection ascended to where He now sits by the right hand of the Father.

What seems as the pinnacle of Jesus’ identification with a fallen mankind was when He at the cross cried out those famous words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” That is our cry. Ever since the fall our insides have cringed under the burden of a penetrating sensation of abandonment. As an attempt to alleviate the pain we have created gods in our image. Remote and aloof those gods have mirrored our perception of the living God.

Psalm 22 answers our cry which Jesus articulated: “He has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.” Paul elaborates in this manner: “He is actually not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being”. The Temple’s veil which tore apart revealed God’s presence in every man. Concealed behind the veil God, the sustainer of all life, dwelled in the Holiest of Holies. From now on every man could find God. Not lo here or lo there, but inside every man God has erected a temple not made by hands.

Whereas large numbers of new creations are still groping in darkness and perpetuate the cry of abandonment there are those whose hunger and thirst for righteousness has driven them into the mystery where they have been satisfied by the truth, that is, they have found that Christ is their life. They have discovered that they are irrefutably intertwined with the Trinity and joined as one with the Godhead.

Let There Be Light

2011-03-09T21:02:00.002+01:00

Paul discloses a profound secret to the saints in Rome when he asserts, “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Rom 5:4-5)

There have been times when I have read this and thought; really? I am the first to admit that I am like an averse little kid when these seasons of suffering occur. I don’t like it the least. An inevitable question is why do I react in this fashion? I believe it is because those sufferings reveal something about my faith, notably the fact that sometimes I resemble that wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. In other words I am not completely convinced that God is in full control and that He is love and love only. Moreover, I am not totally persuaded that everything that befalls me is His perfect plan for me in any circumstance.

I assume this was what Peter had to learn when he was sifted and as a consequence denied Jesus three times. After the revelation where he saw that Jesus was the Messiah he must have thought that now he was the initiated one and hence knew everything. His testimony from that moment onwards must have been that God is love. Peter was convinced that he loved Him back and on account of that not so small fact would never ever deny Him. However, there must have been a slight doubt in his mind regarding those things he took for granted. The only way Peter could become aware of his delusion was through testing.

Now we have come to the core of the matter. Our reason to rejoice is that God’s prime concern is to make us safe in His love. A most fascinating evolvement or perhaps it is more correct to say fascinating unveiling of our new heart takes place when we become settled in His love. Unimpeded by doubts regarding our Father’s character our new heart begins to produce what Paul calls character. This is a recognition of who we really are, that His love is poured into our hearts and that that is the eternal source from which our life flows.

Even though we have received a new heart it seems like it needs reassurance and love in order to blossom and mature. In a matter of speaking it is softened when we understand that God is love and that He is for us. I find that this law is operative in me: The more I recognize God’s love towards me the more loving and understanding I am towards others. This is definitely a fascinating aspect of the new life. It displays my humanity and that I am created for meaningful relations shrouded in love.

Most importantly, though, is the fact that love is the most significant characteristic of the Triune relationship of which we now are invited to be partakers. Hence, we are trained in love. We are not responsible to become more loving. God is the one who through our different experiences in this life see to that our new life is manifested in love. Norman Grubb said, “I am not a maintaining self. I am a maintained self.” God is my keeper and maintainer!

From this perspective we realize that those periods of testing also involve a subversion or erosion of our self-sufficient-self. A process which is absolutely necessary if we are to grasp the enormity of God’s grace and how comprehensive Jesus’ finished work is. After the incident outside the high priest’s courtyard Peter’s self confidence was in disarray. He must have doubted God’s love since He allowed this calamity to come his way. Perhaps worst of all, Peter must have felt his nothingness as a devouring darkness.

Into this vacuum God’s light and love flows unobstructed and fills Peter with a new understanding of who he is in an eternal perspective. It is the kind of emptiness the Genesis account alludes to into which God commanded: Let there be light!

Which is Born of the Spirit is Spirit

2011-02-21T14:47:00.003+01:00

One of the most fascinating conversations ever recorded is found in John 3. Jesus is giving Nicodemus a lecture in the principles of the Kingdom. As the rest of the Jews Nicodemus believed that Messiah would establish Israel again as a prominent nation. They thought that God would install Israel at the helm of world affairs. That His Kingdom would be a literal kingdom. To Nicodemus Jesus established that the Kingdom would be an invisible Kingdom inhabited by those who were born again by the Spirit.

Ezekiel prophesized, “I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land.“ The Kingdom of heaven is our own land. We are merely sojourners in this temporal realm. We belong to another dimension – unseen by the natural eye. There we live, move and have our being.

A few sentences later Jesus says a most stunning thing to Nicodemus: “…that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”. When Jesus meets the Samaritan woman He informs her that God is spirit. A spirit is invisible if it hasn’t any means of manifesting itself. The universe is thus a manifestation of God. He who is all in all can be found in everything for those who have eyes to see. In the same manner we express our true self – our spirit - through our body and soul. Those who have eyes to see can the glory we have from our Father. We manifest our spirits in a lesser scale than God, hence He calls us gods.

The Kingdom of God isn’t referring to a future bliss. It is here and now populated by those who are born again by the Spirit. About those who haven’t accepted Christ John writes: “Whoever does not love abides in death” and “…whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” We pray and hope to see them join our ranks of born again spirits. Paul states clearly that every man is reconciled to God, but evidently not everyone has the life. Man is reconciled to God, but only those who are spirits and born again have life.

Do you believe that you are a lover? John says you are if you have the Son of God. You can’t help yourself; you love people and you love everything God loves. Remember you are a spirit. You are a partaker of God’s life. You are an other-lover no matter how you feel or how you perceive yourself. As spirits we function on a quite different level. We do not live by sight, but by faith. And by faith we call into existence the things that do not exist. Be patient with yourself and do not judge according to appearances. As spiritual persons we make spiritual judgments.

When the full extent of the fact that we are spirits sinks in a most glorious thing happens in our consciousnesses. A wave of relief and freedom wash in over us. We recognize that the abundant life isn’t something into a dim future. It is here and now. We clearly understand that as spirits born by God we are not limited by any law. We are driven by His love which far supersedes any law.

Who are You, O Great Mountain

2011-02-17T16:20:00.002+01:00

I ask you my friend to never think disparaging thoughts about yourself and what you consider as failings or warts in your personality while in this temporal realm. I have been in that place where I always fought what I perceived as flaws in my personhood. I have begged God to improve me - to make me more loving, more caring, a better listener, more energetic etc. I have tried with all my might to become a better person. The measuring stick was the law and manmade codes of ethics.

My seemingly flaws seemed as mountains to me which I had to conquer and flatten. Listen what God said to Zerubbabel: “Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain.” How is that possible? There is only one answer: “He shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of 'Grace, grace to it!” The shout of grace is reverberating through the universe and when your ears hear its call you know the answer. From the top of your consciousness the truth about who you are will reach every corner of your being. Can you hear the shout?

When the truth settles you will see that what you perceived as flaws and shortcomings are plains from God’s point of view. In His time He will make them your biggest assets. Yes, we are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are His works, and we are a work of His hand. When that spirit of error was kicked out of the temple and God’s Spirit filled it God declared over us: You are perfect! Do you believe it?

In Noah’s days it continued to rain until all the mountains were covered by water. God’s work will always cover our mountains of self effort and our erroneous notions about who we are. The water from above will make everything level. Can you see it?

Well, who are you, O great mountain? You are the lie from the Garden of Eden. You said we had to become like God. We have disclosed your lie. We are like God. How can it be any different when we are created in His likeness? It is a magnificent work of His righteous right hand. My work is to believe that He has done what is impossible for man. So, let’s go to work with a light heart.

The Refreshing Taste of Freedom

2011-02-10T11:08:00.002+01:00

The following constitutes a part of Paul’s greeting to the Galatians: “For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” Paul is referring to the Gospel when he utters those indeed bold words. The gospel he was sharing was not given him by any man; it came as a revelation of Jesus Christ. It should then be clear that the good news that Paul preached was something quite different from what he previously had been taught by the men of the law.

In verse 16 Paul makes a most astounding observation: “God revealed His Son in me”. Some translations have made this into; “….revealed His Son to me”, which is something quite different. The Greek preposition used in this context is “in”. What we can infer from this and what also align with our own experiences as Christ is formed in us is that Paul and we go from outer reality to inner reality and we realize that we are inner people.

The inner life is governed by utterly different principles than the outer life. Contrary to attempting to follow outer ordinances and regulations the inner life endows us with the opportunity to be whole persons and not least true to ourselves and those around us. Following outer principles is a sure path to dishonesty and hypocrisy. We are a sick and tired of being pretenders, and as the outer pressures mount the cry in our hearts is: “I want to be real! There must be someone out there who loves me and accepts me as I am!”

That was Paul’s prime discovery! This was the foundation for his gospel. God is love and He loves you beyond your wildest imaginations. In fact you cannot imagine His love. You can, however, under those limitations we now are subject to to a certain degree experience His love, but more importantly you can by faith be fixed in your consciousness that He is love, and hence in everything you can count on this fact. In weakness, in darkness, in misery, in confusion, in affliction you can count on one thing: God is for you!

As this amazing fact begins to settle in our minds outer circumstances begin to lose their power in how we perceive ourselves and life in general. No matter what happens we are safe in Him. Of course, this unfetters those inner potentials we a period believed were against His will and good pleasure. For some it means that they can play card with their friends, for others they are now free to exercise the music someone told them was from the devil.

You have your history, and I have mine. What we have in common is this: We suddenly blossom in the light and love of our Father and can finally be who we were created to be without any inhibiting outer fences. Our motivation comes from within, from Christ in us and He was as you perhaps remember accused of being a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!

Serving God

2011-02-01T13:30:00.002+01:00

The cry in most churches and denominations is that we must serve God. Well, then, how do we serve God? When Jesus came into the world he said: “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body has you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, 'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.”

This is plain and straight forward. God is not interested in man’s attempt at pleasing Him by making sacrifices and offerings which often is at the core of the message in regards to serving God. “You have to offer more of your money, time etc.” “You have to make some sacrifices for God, you know.” To be honest with you: God is not interested!

Asking for forgiveness and punishing ourselves mentally when we have failed is nothing else than burnt offerings and sin offerings. God takes no pleasure in our attempts to atone for our misdeeds. Jesus’ sacrifice was once and for all. There is nothing we can add to His finished work. Forget it!

However, what we know is this: God has prepared a body for us through which He who is Spirit manifests Himself. Secondly, we have come to do His will. How? We are conduits through which His life flows. That is serving God. We serve Him with our bodies so He can make Himself known to the world. This is the reason why Jesus said: Those who have seen me have seen the Father. Remember, we have the same oneness with God as Jesus had.

Those who attempt to serve God by their good works are nothing more than servants and their self-perception will be accordingly. However, those who by faith have entered a more elevated level in their consciousnesses do not regard themselves as servants. Jesus calls His brothers and sisters friends, and that is what we are -friends with the creator of the universe. To see this truth and hence enter into it is indeed a wonderful thing.

Those who know who they are have given up any effort towards serving God with their own means. They just are. Through those God’s life and light flow unimpeded. Since they know this precious fact they are unperturbed by appearances. They live by faith. They have moved into the New Jerusalem where everything is clean and covered with gold. To the pure everything is pure, Paul wrote.

The Lord of Heaven and Earth

2011-01-18T13:23:00.002+01:00

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. (Acts 17:24-25)

Those are words Paul said to the men in Athens. Our God doesn’t live in temples made by man. Neither Churches, Cathedrals, monasteries nor convents are His dwelling place. He lives in temples made of flesh, that is, the pinnacle of His creation – men. Only God can make man. That is His sole privilege. It is pure vanity to imagine that man can create a house from brick and wood that contains the Creator of the Universe. He has found a dwelling place in what only He can create.

In the same manner it is pure vanity to imagine that we can serve God. He is the one who has made Himself servant to all mankind and gives us everything. I assume when Paul uses the word “everything” he means what he says – everything, that is, nothing exempted. “God only requires Himself”, Jessie Penn Lewis once wrote. The gifts of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, our worship, our self-for-others-love are all Him manifesting Himself in our form.

In the new dispensation as new creations in Christ He has made us participants in His life. We live His quality of life, we breathe and exhale His life and we are made everything in Him. To live by laws and ordinances are an artificial kind of life. The cry that we must serve God is void and without substance. He, the sustainer of life, doesn’t need anything. Penn Lewis further wrote: “What God wants out of us He will first put in.” What He puts in naturally flows out again – rivers of living waters. This is the higher law of love which comes to expression without boundaries as we cease from our own works and realize that without Christ we can do nothing.

God Judges Upwards

2011-01-10T08:46:00.000+01:00

I am afraid I am challenged to give some depth to James 2:19 which says: “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” I am not in a position to provide my readers with a comprehensive exposition, just some preliminary thoughts. The verse has always confounded scholars and many consider it as an obscure verse, and so it has been for me for many years.

The only beacon around which I can navigate in this context is some thoughts which manifested in my tired mind a late evening. I am treating the subject at hand with the uttermost caution and humbleness. I perfectly know that I only see in parts, and that there are others out there who see other parts which might shed more light on this.

First of all we have to acknowledge that many Christians fear God even though John says there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). I find it difficult to say that there are similarities between human faith and how demons believe. However, there is a huge difference between believing that God is one and that we are one with God. The first can instill fear, the latter casts out fear.

The key word I am given in this context is separation. Those who believe in separation, that is, the illusion that God is out there somewhere are those who might shudder. When the devil thought he could become like God, his mindset obviously must have been separation, that he had some sort of life in himself - that God wasn’t all in all – that he could sustain life by his own powers. That God is all in all can’t be grasped intellectually. It is a subject to faith only.

Perfect love is consummated in those who have entered a consciousness of union. Knowing that you are one with God provides the peace that transcends understanding. We do well believing that God is one, James says. If his statement is to make any sense in the greater context of our discussion he must be alluding to our oneness with God. The demons can’t possibly have a consciousness of union. Their only reality is separation by virtue of that this was the mindset that sparkled Satan’s rebellion.

It is the mindset of separation which motivates a Christian lifestyle where the main focus is how to please God. Paul Anderson-Walsh puts it like this: “Have you ever found yourself wondering, “Who is the real me?” Most of us have. Moreover, many Christians have to live with the added guilt which comes from a numbing sense that who we are is not who we should be. Consequently, we live our lives trapped in a cycle of performance, rotating between commitment, failure, condemnation, confession and re-dedication.” A consciousness of union is the only remedy against this cycle of performance.

A last reflection on why both demons and too many Christians shudder. When a person thinks that God judge downwards he will perceive himself to be in a precarious position. One wrong step and judgment is effected from above, that is, punishment. The demons rightly believe that God judges downwards. Their destiny is sealed. However, the gospel judges upwards. Jesus didn’t come to judge the world or to condemn the world, but to save. There exists no reason whatsoever to shudder in unconditional love. The issue is, however, that too many do not hear unconditional love. They hear conditional love which is something different all together, that is, the system of the world.

God judges upwards to bring life. We judge upwards to bring life to those God has given us.

Five Loaves and Two Fish

2011-01-03T14:55:00.000+01:00

There is a deeper and more profound context to the bread and fish miracle than what meets the eye. We all know the story – how Jesus multiplied five loaves and two fish and hence fed a gathering of five thousand men. In addition there obviously must have been both women and children present. The intriguing thing is that the five loaves and two fish represent our humanity. That is how far our powers stretch – five loaves and two fish are all we have to offer a hungry world. However, in our rebirth we were joined one Spirit with God and in that instant we no longer are five loaves and two fish. We often erroneously think that that is all we have to offer until the revelation comes which opens our minds to a far greater reality. In this union with God it is impossible to discern or make a distinction between man and God. We are so completely meshed together with God that to tell where I begin and God ends is an utter impossibility. From here it becomes very interesting, because in this union we are no longer merely five loaves and two fish. We are multiplied so that our influence is far beyond our human limits – those we operated within before we came to Christ. In this new setting where God has taken us over we are just as astonished as the disciples when we behold what happens around us when we serve what we think is a rather meager portion to the world. It multiplies! The Spirit is all over the place! Almost incredulous we watch how God feeds a huge gathering of people through us. And miracle over miracle; after the feast there are twelve baskets with leftovers which we bring with us home. After we have given out our portion we are better off than what we were before. We have more to give at the next occasion, and we have plenty to satisfy our own needs so that we are always refreshed, quickened and energized in the aftermath of our ministering to the world. It is the oneness with God that Jesus prayed for that makes all this possible! The prayer is answered! We are multiplied! God has made the impossible possible.

The Original Me

2010-12-31T14:35:00.002+01:00

I remember in those early days of my Christian walk how preoccupied I was with what Jesus did and my desire to emulate His works. I got all fired up when it came to the healing of the sick. I wanted to see sign and wonders in our midst. I wanted to be as holy and righteous as He was. I wanted to be as good as He was. More than anything I wanted to do what is right, just like I perceived He did.

Now I find to my great amusement that I am more interested in who He was, that is, a perfect example of me. I recognize that He had a different ministry from mine. However, I am filled with the same Spirit as He was. The oneness He spoke about in relation to His Father is an established fact in my life too. I lack nothing compared to Jesus. I am just as righteous and holy. I can say as He did: If you have seen me you have seen my Father. He was a perfect expression of our original design which everyone who has accepted Christ has regained!

Jesus wasn’t an underling. He was so wonderfully full of Himself. There is not even a hint of false humility in how He viewed Himself. I am the way and the truth and the life, He said. What a bold statement! I do only what my Father does, He said at another occasion. No double mindedness in Him. He knew He was a perfect expression or manifestation of God. So am I! He never thought He had two natures that were in opposition to one another. There were no cracks in His understanding of oneness, that some part of Him was not of God – that there was a part of Him that merely was Himself doing all those stupid things we assign to ourselves. No! Everything is God! And this is the mystery: Everything is me as well! Here I am full of myself and at the same time an expression of God! Only God could come up with a scheme like this!

What a fascinating and intriguing Father we have – never afraid to associate Himself with us. What generosity! What humbleness! My father is definitely not ashamed of me! No reason for me to be either. I am, that is, I exist – here I am! I can sense myself with everything I am. I am not afraid of myself. No need to be. I can safely trust all those emotions, desires and thoughts that swell up in me trusting God by faith regarding everything I am, because I am the original me created in His likeness!

Nothingness Supplanted by the Knowledge of God

2010-12-21T00:18:00.000+01:00

Scientists have discovered that the universe is expanding. What does the universe supplant when it expands? It supplants nothing. This is nonsense to our minds – it is incomprehensible. Who can imagine nothingness supplanted by something else?

In the same manner our inner universe is ever expanding. Nothingness is supplanted by an awareness of God who has taken complete possession of us. Fleshy thought patterns inherited from the fall – they are of course nothing – are supplanted by recognition of the indwelling God. We do not understand this either, but we can experience it as we increasingly settle in His rest. This is the mystery revealed: Christ in us. Flesh and blood hasn't revealed this to us - every revelation comes from our Father in heaven. By virtue of that He indwells us heaven is in us. Our spirit is the conduit through which He speak those words almost too grand to utter and which made the religious scold and hate Jesus. In the same manner they will scold and hate us because of our testimony. However, nothingness will ultimately be supplanted by recognition of God as the One who is all in all. As the time draws close towards the consummation of time nothingness will be more and more visible - another paradox - when it is contrasted with the knowledge of God. At last everything which remains is God when the nothingness is done away with.

Sow to the Spirit

2010-12-19T16:25:00.002+01:00

Paul wrote to the Galatians: ”For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”

The first man to sow to his own flesh was Adam when he attempted to become like God by eating from the wrong tree. In reality this is the whole enchilada. Anyone who tries to improve himself according to a fixed set of laws, ordinances or whichever system that is based on the tree to knowledge of good and evil is in reality attempting to become like God. The corruption Paul speaks about is the curse that Adam faced after his fatal decision not to believe that he was created in God’s likeness and hence perfect in Him.

God said to Adam: “Cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.” Ever from the beginning God has said that self-improvement is impossible; the ground is cursed. Attempt to please God by your own efforts and all you will bring forth are thorns and thistles. The thorns and thistles will sting you as condemnation and disappointment in yourself. Slowly but surely you are lead to the end of yourself. When the scripture speaks about carnal minded believers it refers to those who haven’t grasped who they are in Christ through faith, and thus struggle in their own powers to become righteous, that is, meet the standards they believe God has set up for them.

Those who sow to the Spirit are those who have embraced the truth and entered His rest where they rest from their own works. They know who they are in Christ and hence by faith daily experience the powers of the age to come, that is, eternal life.

The One Who Dwells in Me Does His Work

2010-12-01T16:54:00.002+01:00

As new creations we can trust all our emotions. We are created in His likeness and thus all of our emotions are made holy and righteous in Him. To classify our emotions in good and bad is one of the enemy’s tricks and a residue from the fleshy mind patterns that were engraved in us when we fed from the tree to knowledge of good and evil. We are made whole and perfect in Christ and since He now lives in us we can accept all our emotions as a manifestation of Him. We do not have to understand all of the emotions that surge to the surface in our soul life. God is mighty to use all of them to His glory or to His purposes. We are never exhorted to question our emotions, but to enter His rest. In His rest there exists merely one reality: Life at its fullest and that includes all our soul reactions. God is our keeper and He has promised that all things work together for good. All things mean all things. No exception! Our spirit center, however, where we are joined one spirit with God is perpetually fixed in Him. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews wrote: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” The word of God is Christ and by virtue of the fact that He lives in us He helps us to discern between what is our calm and peaceful spirit-center and the emotions which so often confuse and confound us. We are who we are by His grace and that includes our soul. As we mature we cease nagging God about fixing us, because by faith we know that we are forever made perfect in Him. I can’t add one iota to His generous work in me. If He wants to change me that is His privilege. Remember what Jesus said; the Father who dwells in me does his works. He still does His works in you and me. You can behold it with your single-eye of faith. Don’t forget that He has accepted and chosen us and included us in His family. Personally, I don’t doubt His choices!

The Man at the Pool

2010-11-23T09:33:00.002+01:00

John chapter five recounts Jesus’ encounter with the man who had suffered with a deep-seated and lingering disorder for thirty-eight years. The man had, according to himself, been unable to step into the water as the first person after the angel had stirred the water. Despite that the man didn’t answer Jesus’ direct question when Jesus asked him if he wanted to become well Jesus healed him from his infirmities.

When Jesus met the healed again man in the temple Jesus uttered a most curious thing: “See, you are well. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” Here Jesus is talking to a man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years unable to do much other than lie by the pool. Not many opportunities to sin when you are in such a condition.

Jesus encounter with the man was brief and they didn’t exchange many words. The text doesn’t mention any particular sin the man indulged in. The key to understand Jesus extortion is, however, found in the man’s answer to Jesus’ initial question: “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”

The answer discloses two things. Firstly, he trusted in others. Secondly, he trusted in himself. Never does he reveal any reliance on God. To put it differently: He trusted in the flesh and not in God.

We find the origins to this basic sin in the Garden when man became sin since Adam ate from the tree to knowledge of good and evil. We lost our life when we wanted to be like God by our own means, that is, trusting in the flesh. Every other sin the Bible mentions is a result of this basic error.

Thus Paul exclaims that whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. Not faith in the flesh and our or others abilities, but faith in God’s abilities. It is as simple as this. The Bible says: “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Where there is no condemnation there is no sin on account of that those who are in Christ Jesus trust God and live according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. In Christ they have found their life again and can live as whole persons expressing their uniqueness. To understand oneself as a whole and perfect person in Christ requires the kind of faith which says what is impossible for man is possible for God.

The Totality of God's Grace

2010-11-20T09:08:00.002+01:00

We are commissioned to proclaim the totality of God’s grace. Any trace of law, self effort, self reliance or behavior modification is eradicated from our message. We speak Christ and Him crucified, and we encourage everyone with ears to hear to take that leap of faith to where we see God only, that is, our Father manifested in human flesh. Our faith is a divine faith. It is the quality of faith which has its origin in Christ and which Jesus wondered whether He would find when He returned to the earth. Our identity is firmly fixed in the fact that Christ lives in us.

It is only from this vantage point that verses like this makes any sense: “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Tess 5:16-18).

The beauty and simplicity of our message is completely at odds with the world. We died when we disappeared in Christ at the cross. We are resurrected and ascended with Him and placed in the heavenly realms. As vessels, once dead, on account of the spirit of error who occupied us, we are now made alive by the Spirit of God who has joined Himself one spirit with us. That is our righteousness, our justification, our holiness and our sanctification. More than that: As genuine sons He has granted us to have life in ourselves (John 5:26).

Ezekiel was given to foresee the complete and whole transformation that takes place in those who enter into the cross: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ez 36:26) This is a done deal. His love doesn’t transform us by virtue of that we are already transformed, but it persuades us to increasingly enter this reality of completeness, and when we do fleshy patterns melt away and the new creation in revealed in increasing measure. In other words: God reveals Christ in us (Gal 1:16).

When we through faith have seen the magnitude of the cross its radiance irrevocably fills our entire vision and we can’t refrain from speaking about what we have seen and heard. The totality of God grace has captured and enchanted us, and this is the gospel that we proclaim.

Faith Imitation

2010-11-13T02:14:00.002+01:00

The author of the epistle to the Hebrews admonishes his readers to imitate the faith of their leaders, those who spoke to them the word of God (Hebr 13:7). This is the kind of faith which is awoken when a person goes through what many call the dark nights of the soul. Paul elaborates on this in his first chapter in his second letter to the Corinthians when he observes that the perils he and his friends went through was to make them not rely on themselves, but on God who raises the dead. When the illusion about independent self is burned off what remains in a mature faith in God who can do all things in and through us.

On the day the Lord made the covenant with Abraham, our father of faith, a deep sleep fell on Abraham. Dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Before Abraham could enter a perfect rest from all his works he first had to go through his own dark nights of the soul experience there in the desert. While Abraham was fast asleep resting from his works God made the covenant with Jesus Christ, who represented Abraham and his seed. In making the covenant with God Abraham learned not to rely on himself, but on God who is mighty to accomplish everything He has promised Abraham and his descendants of faith. In the midst of our travails God reminds us about His promises and encourages and comforts us, like He did to Abraham. We are not responsible or accountable to observe the covenant terms. The covenant was cut between God and Jesus, and Jesus has met all the requisites.

The Camel and the Eye of the Needle

2010-11-08T21:53:00.000+01:00

I was reminiscing about my life the other day. What stood out at this particular occasion was all the pain I have had to endure and have gone through. It struck me that I have been slowly and deliberately crushed. Somehow I was reminded of Job’s fortune. How he as a perfectly righteous man saw the greater picture through what he suffered.

I was like a camel which couldn’t go through the eye of the needle. I believed I was rich. I was too full of myself to pass through. God’s intention was obviously to squeeze me through that tiny gap. In order to accomplish His goal this camel had to be diminished until there was nothing left. Then I quite easily passed through the eye of the needle.

It is in God we live, move and have our being so in reality I was on the inside with everything I am from the outset. However, my consciousness was on the outside gauging and assessing everything from that viewpoint. I saw God and life as a set of properties. God was full of love, mercy and unfortunately angry if I messed up. Life was defined by other properties, for instance sin, obedience, disobedience and how to become holy. That was all I could see from the outside. Those lists of properties are of course almost inexhaustible if we prefer to walk down that road.

On the inside, however, I am not anymore so preoccupied with properties. I am in the middle of a river which simply runs. I am a part of the working God, as Fynn in his book “Mister God, This is Anna” so wonderfully expresses. As a part of the functioning God I am in the midst of the whirlwind we call life. God doesn’t gauge and assess life. He just lives it. That’s all.

A Sea of Glass Mixed with Fire

2010-11-01T14:33:00.000+01:00

When the book of Revelation speaks about a sea of glass mixed with fire (15:2) it is alluding to the new creation in Christ who is joined one spirit with God. The sea of glass is our inner spirit tranquility which is mixed with pure love. We are both calmness and a burning flame. Only in the kingdom of God can contrasts like this coexist and make sense.

Our God, who is all in all, has established His kingdom in people like you and me. The One who is in complete control has endowed us with a faith faculty which when practiced see through to the core of all things where it finds the eternal One. The core is infinite and unchangeable. In the midst of our travails and our fluctuating emotions our spirit center is thus like a sea of glass.

God is a consuming fire. His love burns like an eternal flame. To John it was shown like a river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In us life blossoms by virtue of the river which every moment refreshes us, and what we have we pass on because God cannot deny Himself. Our righteousness is clear as crystal. It can never be questioned because a gift from God will always prevail and speak truth.

The kingdom of God established in man connotes a new order of things and thus the following passage has come into effect: “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

We speak a word of faith and calls things that are not as though they were which means that the eternal truths do already exist even though we do not see them with our natural eyes. We call on them and in God’s time they will be manifested to His glory. We are transformed. We are who we are. We are living temples. We are everything in Him. We are eternally changed. When the truth dawns upon us we cease striving to become something we already are, and in the core of all things we recognize that there is no more death or mourning or crying or pain since we are complete in Him.

Freedom in Love - Slaves of Love

2010-10-24T17:55:00.002+02:00

To freedom Christ has liberated us. It is the freedom to follow the flow of love which originates in God’s heart. Jesus said from the outset: “I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” He was not coerced or manipulated or pushed to sacrifice Himself for the sake of mankind. Love compelled Him, and love makes it a delight to follow the laws of God. Love rises up within as a joyful and pulling desire and it is a delight to follow its drifts.

Love is a law in itself. It is not constrained by human edifices, whether it is manmade traditions, structures or how we perceive church should be. The flow of love will even decide how we spend our money, or to who or which organizations we donate them. Whenever it is a joy to give we know it is love that is moving us to bless someone or something with our means.

It is love that compels us to do the things we do. We are slaves of its desires which well up in us. We are not slaves in that old sense of the word. The level we now operate from is light years apart from when we were slaves of the old master whose lies and tricks and manipulations made us do the things we did not want to do, or the things that never brought us any gratification. When the joy of love moves us we maneuver in quite a different realm.

The old master used outer realities to coerce us or lure us to do his will – the lusts of the eyes. That was before we received our new heart where God’s law dwells. Now we are moved by the inner realities of the Spirit, and when we know that we have gotten a new heart we trust those joyful inclinations that now govern our lives.

God said: “Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours.” A desire wells up and we follow its delightful promptings. Wherever it leads us is the place which the sole of our foot treads. Since we are driven by the power of love we are not stopped by setbacks or obstacles. Love compels us to never give up; it spurs us on until the reward is ours.

When we were kids we had the time of our lives in the kindergarten. Now, however, those childish games hold no appeal to us. We by and by enroll to higher education and are fascinated and intrigued by what our inner teacher teaches us, and we are attracted to those who have joined the same course as us. Love matures us, it brings us to the outermost expanses of the kingdom and it has given us back our true humanity.

Love has its own agenda. It defies man’s expectations and it blows wherever it wants. At one point we are engrossed in one particular thing. At the next spell something else consumes us. To the world we might be perceived as unpredictable, or even as wine drinkers and gluttons. Love, abundance of life and freedom are inseparable. They dance hand in hand in an eternal display of joy. We cannot help ourselves: we are captivated and enchanted by the rhythm.

We Give What We Have

2010-10-20T17:37:00.000+02:00

Peter said to the crippled man at the temple gate: What I have I give to you. It is the same Peter who denied Christ at three occasions not very long before, who then obviously hadn’t any inner resources to draw from. Now he stands in front of the crippled man with boldness and confidence uttering words that would have been unheard of before the cross. Peter’s transformation is stunning.

What was it Peter gave to the crippled man? To put it bluntly: Peter gave the man God. The Old Testament temple is a type or shadow telling of the human temples to come - temples not made from stone. When Salomon consecrated the temple God took possession of it and swallowed it up in Himself. Every nook and cranny was filled up with His presence. In like manner our human temples are consecrated by Jesus. We irrevocably are filled up with God whether we know it or not.

From Pentecost onwards this has become a common experience for mankind. Everywhere people are accepting Christ and are filled up with God, in fact to the degree that is runs over. Peter in this sense is in no way unique. Wherever we go we give what we have, that is, God. We make deposits of Him everywhere, and whenever we make a deposit someone is affected. Our deposits are like those ointment cloths Peter left behind and which brought healing to many.

Sometimes we witness God in action through us, and crippled are empowered to walk in broad daylight. At other times there are no explicit proofs of the effect of our deposits. What perhaps most of us struggle with is this feeling that God hasn’t taken possession of us and that we thus have nothing to offer. But, we are faith people and our inner witness, the Spirit, corroborates with our faith so that our boldness and confidence is always on the increase.

Peter gave what he had by faith and so do we. We assume by faith that wherever we are we deposit God spontaneously because He has swallowed us up. When or how what He has disseminated through us will blossom isn’t our business. All we do is trusting that we manifest Him wherever we go and leave the rest to Him. What we have is the infinite God who has created the heavens and the earth, and through the union with Him that is what we give, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

And There Was Evening And There Was Morning

2010-10-18T14:42:00.000+02:00

And the word went forth like this: And there was evening, and there was morning. God doesn’t work during the darkness of the night. He is the Father of lights and His works are undertaken in light. You cannot find this light outside yourself. Outside you is the impenetrable darkness of reason and appearances. The darkness will not provide you with the answers you seek. Nothing is created in the darkness. The light and the wonders of your existence dwell in the center of your being. From here His light permeates your entire being and you walk in the light as He is light. There in the center everything He has freely given you is waiting for the appointed time to be unfolded in light. Each manifestation of Him a natural consequence of what took place the day before. The six days are for Him to do His work. You are created for the Sabbath where you rest from your works in Christ. The light is holy and righteous. Thus you are holy and righteous since the light now originates in and emanates from you. It is not your works that define your status. You are indentified by which Spirit who is in you. If you are in Christ then the Spirit of light, God’s Spirit, the Spirit of truth has transformed you into light and truth. As light and truth you have emerged as a true son and you trust and assert your I. Without your I you are merely an indistinct shadow in the void. Your I is what gives you form and your distinct expression as light.

In the Cool of the Day

2010-10-14T14:18:00.002+02:00

God walked among Eve and Adam in the midst of the garden in the cool of the day. His presence wasn’t unassuming, but it wasn’t threatening or obtrusive in any way. It was more like a pleasant breeze that cools you down after a warm and strenuous day. Eve and Adam didn’t know what shame was, so despite their nakedness they were attracted to this amiable and loving presence with whom they could share they hearts.

The Fall changed everything. It wasn’t God that changed. It was man. Man’s nakedness suddenly became a distress and an annoyance in his own eyes. He was so bothered by the fact that he hadn’t anything to offer God that that crippling sensation of shame completely prostrated him. Even worse, he felt so devastatingly unclean compared to the radiant holiness of God. Shame efficiently put up a barrier where before there had been a silent torrent of love flowing between the two lovers. Shame made man hide from God, and wherever there is shame man hides from the only source which can remove shame.

Ever since that day there has been a burning desire in God’s heart to see the intimacy of the Garden restored. In Christ the objective was achieved. In Christ there is no shame. As we move further and further into this mystery of Him being in us and we in Him we find our nakedness again. Nakedness in Him connotes that our original potential is restored to express Him as sons and daughters, as His beloved heirs in a world that is craving for redemption.

When the relationship is restored God walks in the midst of our lives like a cool breeze which gingerly caress our cheeks with affection and love. As the Spirit removes those last residues of shame in our outlook and the last clouds, which have obstructed our vision, evaporate we see that we are perpetually intertwined with Him and that we are the Garden which now blossoms with a lush exuberance that is spectacular in its radiance and beauty.

My First Book

2010-10-10T19:12:00.002+02:00

I am very proud to announce that my first book now is published. It consists of my best blog articles so far. You can order the book by following this link: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/lonekheir

Artwork by Jessica Robertson. Introductions by DeeDee Winter, Steve McVey, John Lynch and Fred Pruitt.

We Are the Light of the World

2010-10-08T10:08:00.000+02:00

There is an eternal outflow of light from God. It expels darkness wherever its rays penetrate. Every man who is joined one Spirit with the Father through the redemption in Jesus Christ is also an eternal outflow of light. In our ignorance we thought that we had to become light, to let our light shine brighter and more radiantly through a change of behavior. In Christ we are the light of the world and we are placed on a hill so that our light is seen by all who have eyes to see.

The question about sin always raises its ugly head in this context. Won’t sin extinguish our light? That is a question children in Christ ask, and the answer we give them is no! An adult in Christ has no consciousness of sin because he not only believe, but knows, that a once and for all sacrifice for sin has made the sin issue void and of no interest. His only concern is life in its many facets. Thus, he like Jesus exerts his right to forgive anyone his sin. Our mission is reconciliation and not sin. The light in us compels us to implore people on Christ’s behalf to be reconciled with God.

But, don’t we have flaws and shortcomings that obstruct the light? No! Those are the cracks in the jar which the light finds its way through. If God has declared us perfect in His Son, then we are perfect. As adults we have advanced past that level where we were preoccupied with our flaws. We have put that change me, do me better attitude behind us. It isn’t about us anymore, but Christ and those He loves. The light in us finds those He has given us. They are caught in our spotlight, and the darkness in and around them is expelled by the heavenly rays. We see this happen by our inner eye, that is, faith!

No Wrath

2010-10-05T14:39:00.002+02:00

Before we have been led by the Spirit backwards to the void we still have residues of separation in our mindsets and this illusion generates another illusion regarding God’s wrath. We repeatedly find this theme in the old testament when an unredeemed people fears God’s wrath at every corner. From Adam’s fall and onward separation from God was how the chosen people viewed their existence, and as a consequence they dreaded God and His wrath.

When we as mature people recognize our nothingness we find that our lives have been hidden in Christ all along, and there in the void we find our lives again in Him as an everlasting outflow of light. More than that, we discover that the idea about God’s wrath was another of those tricks of the enemy, but which the Spirit has used with great efficiency so that we can come to end of ourselves. The Spirit has led us backward to our origin where we find no wrath. When the illusion about separation evaporates the illusion about God’s wrath is made void and nothing.

We have come to the point which the scriptures call before the foundation of the earth. At this point the lamb was slain and God wrath evaporated. To us this point in time is now. Every now is thus before the foundation of the earth. In the temporal realm the cross is the focal point which stretches both backward and forward in time. Before the foundation of the earth can’t be expressed with words or understood in terms of time. It is in the same manner as He is, the great I AM, and we are in the eternal. Eternally bound to Him in love and a part of Him we find that our wrath was an illusion as well. The eternal outpouring of light and love is the sole and only reality. Finally we know what Jesus meant when He spoke about a peace that transcends understanding.

In the Beginning

2010-10-01T10:56:00.002+02:00

In front of Pilate Jesus said that His kingdom wasn’t of this world. This is a kingdom which government is found inside humans created in the likeness of God. In order to understand this kingdom we have to return to the beginning where everything was void and silent. The Spirit is hovering over this nothingness which we all have to return to or be led back to before His creative forces can be unleashed in us.

Our return to the beginning is marked by frustrations, sufferings and failures. That is the only way our self activity and noise can be extinguished. We all initially thought that Christianity was all about moving fast towards some goal God had set up for us. The faster we got there the better Christians we were, and the more God would be pleased with us. We thought it was about becoming something or someone. That is was about doing the right things, having the right motivation, the right attitude. We thought we should imitate Jesus. We spoke a lot about love, but couldn’t quite find it within ourselves.

However, Christianity is about moving slowly to the beginning where we ultimately recognize our nothingness and become still. In the stillness God is moving, and we in this stillness recognize His mighty power within which created the heavens and earth. It dawns upon us that there is no separation between us and Him. He is in us presenting Himself to the world through each unique seed.

We all have the capacity for thinking, and we have a consciousness. To us it seems like our mental activity takes place somewhere on the inside of our bodies. However, we cannot pinpoint its exact location. It seems, though, as it is confined inside our flesh. But, what if we didn’t have any flesh? Where would our thinking and consciousness be then? It would just float unimpeded in the void. This is the place where we are linked to God, who is all in all, and who in His great wisdom decided to contain His all-ness or omnipresence in humans like you and me. When we return to the beginning, to the void, to our nothingness we find God and His kingdom within and all is well.

Kissed on the Inside

2010-09-28T17:04:00.002+02:00

We have all wondered about what the difference is between human love and God’s love. The scriptures tell us that God is love. It isn’t something He has. It is something He is. That simple fact transcends our understanding. What many of us try to do in order to understand God’s quality of love is that we attempt to explain it with human words and definitions. However, the Bible says that the world is deceived by the evil one so our ideas of love will be heavy influenced with his ideas of love, which really isn’t love.

The plain fact is that humans love from the outside. This is demonstrated by how we kiss the outside, and we all know what feelings and sensations that arouses. God, however, kisses the inside. We only know a person from the outside. The outside is what we see and perceive regarding a person. In addition we perhaps know something about a person from what she or he has told us. We have a very limited knowledge about what stirs a person and the inner processes that shape that person’s conduct and outlook.

God knows all those things. He knows the depths of our being. Our history is intimately known by Him. He knows perfectly well what stirs and motivates us. The patterns of behavior and thinking that make a person are all familiar to Him. We would easily be tempted to say that He loves us despite all His encompassing knowledge about us. It is so convenient to disparage our worth and our being when we marvel at His love. The truth is that we are created in His likeness. Thus we have the potential to understand His love. Moreover, we have the potential to love like He does.

Jesus was an example of us, that is, what is possible when flesh and Spirit is intertwined in a union where oneness with God is an established reality. To love like God is not a self improvement program, but life that flows from a person that is indwelled by God. If God is love so are we. Only faith can appropriate this amazing wonder.

To be kissed on the inside is such a new and unfortunately alien experience for us that it takes a huge job from the Spirit to convince us about what God is doing in our lives. He kisses our history, our thinking, our incentives, our inner person, yes, everything that we are. It is a perpetual love feast. His kisses find all those spots that hurt and confuse us. His kisses untangle those knots that make us cringe in fear and despair. Even when all those deceptions which have kept us in bondage all our lives are stamped out He continues to kiss us.

Naming the Animals and All Creation

2010-09-26T17:37:00.000+02:00

The letter kills but the Spirit gives life, Paul wrote. The scripture is filled with words. Each word uniquely composed of letters and words arranged in such a way that we glean some meaning from the text we study. When we read the words we merely see a framework of something. The words aren’t the thing itself. They render us with a sensation of being on the outside peeking in. Words are simply a framework we attempt to climb. But, the framework isn’t meant for climbing, so we repeatedly fall down.

When we have hit the ground a sufficient number of times we begin to wonder whether perhaps there is something beyond, or within the framework, in other words; that we aren’t to climb to the top. On the inside Jesus is calling out: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” We begin to hear His voice, at first dimly but it becomes more and more exigent, and we sense that we are about to cross a threshold where no climbing is necessary.

One day the Spirit pushes us through and we are suddenly faced with another reality. We even find that Jesus wasn’t on the inside. He was on the outside. When we opened the door and let Him in the words we before perceived as outside us, are now us. They are an integral part of our being. We are the words. They are letters written on hearts of flesh. Before we let Him in the words pulled and pushed us. They tried to control and dictate our lives. Many a time when we failed to follow their commands we had that metallic taste of loss in our mouth, and it tasted like death.

Enchanted by the words, since we believed they were the final thing, we even exerted their powers on others. We tried to control our world with words. The letters didn’t just kill us, we used them to kill others as well. They are a lethal weapon in the wrong hands. In the right hands those letters kill that ingrained resolution which states that we can do it. The Spirit sometimes uses letters to purify, to turn metal into gold, to renew minds.

As Christ is formed in us we behold with increasingly clarity that we are the words. We are above and beyond the written words in a realm so utterly beautiful that words fail to describe it. The written words were just the door in. We are now the master of the words and they have to obey our commands, that is, they are expressed in a spontaneous living that is not defined by words because life is expressed by the Spirit within who is restrained by nothing except love.

Everything is reversed compared to Adam. Initially he defined the words when he named all the animals and all living creatures. Figuratively speaking we appreciate that he was the words, he lived the words, he gave them meaning beyond themselves. After the fall he was separated from the word, and the words defined his life and him. That is our starting point; always defined by words. Then we cross the river and we give the words meaning and definition by our being since they are us.

Love Your Neighbor As Yourself

2010-09-22T12:32:00.000+02:00

Love your neighbor as yourself, has been one of those major stumbling blocks in my life. I knew what the commandment demanded from me, but I was utterly helpless in fulfilling it. One day I saw that it said that I couldn’t love my neighbor more than I could love myself. A life in condemnation and failure isn’t of much help if you are to love yourself. This whole scheme seemed more like an endless loop of misery than something that was possible to attain. I guess this was how the Israelites felt when they wandered in circles in the wilderness.

Love your neighbor as yourself is in fact a double commandment where love your neighbor hinges on love yourself. Self love and self acceptance is a prerequisite for the other. If we view this commandment from an outer perspective it soon becomes a burden to big for us to carry on our shoulders. The secret of fulfilling of Jesus’ seemingly impossible demand is found on a completely different level.

We read that Jesus was perfected through what He suffered. The ultimate goal of everything God does is to make sure that Christ is formed in us, so that we can be transformed to His image. This implies a process where we ultimately come to the end of ourselves and appreciate our nothingness, where we as Jesus say that we can do nothing of ourselves. We kick out, or more precisely; in a joint operation with the Spirit we kick out, any residues of self-reliance and any desires to make things happen of our own accord. We arrive at the spot where we become still and acknowledge that God is God. That illusion of independent self is once and for all shattered.

Abraham was also perfected through what he suffered. Of old age, when his loins were empty, when he had encountered his own nothingness God could plant the seed in Sara which brought forth Isaac, who was a fruit of the Spirit with eternal repercussions. From his line Jesus was born. However, the seed could not be planted before Abraham’s nothingness was amalgamated with faith. Through what he suffered Abraham was empowered to see beyond himself and see God only, as the one who would and could accomplish His will in and through Abraham.

When Abraham initially saw his nothingness and coupled it with what God had promised him he bordered on the verge of bitterness and cynicism. God, however, continued to remind Abraham about His promise and thus slowly but surely fuelled Abraham’s faith until Abraham recognized that in his nothingness was the seed to supernatural greatness in God. In his nothingness he found his true life, the abundant life of faith.

We all receive the same invitation as Abraham, to leave everything behind and find a place where we can set up our tent and be met by our God who through our nothingness can conceive the boy, that is, the righteous deeds that are everlasting in their effect. Like Abraham we are not guaranteed in our lifetime to see the multitude of seeds from the one seed.

As Lot we all ran when it began to rain sulfur and fire upon us. From the horizon we could behold the smoking ruins of our self righteous works or attempts thereof. Free from any obligations to perform, reliant on God only we have discovered our nothingness. In this nothingness we are wholly His responsibility and we say as Jesus: I only do what I see my Father is doing. We even say as Paul: By His grace I am what I am. The nothingness is our freedom. No need to pretend anymore. When it now dawns upon me that I am accepted and loved by God as His unique creation I can love myself without reservation and from the new heart flows love to my neighbor in the manner God see most fit for my neighbor’s eternal destiny.

His Second Coming

2010-09-19T12:38:00.000+02:00

This is how Lucas depicts Jesus’ ascension: “They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.”Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

In John chapter 16 Jesus tells the disciples, “in a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.” When Jesus used the phrase “in a little while” He obviously meant a period of days. We know that is a fact regarding His ascension. Since He uses the same phrase about His return He meant that after a period of days they would see Him again.

In the last chapter of his Gospel John writes that Jesus showed Himself three times to the disciples after His resurrection. It wasn’t a ghost they saw but a real person in flesh and blood as witnessed in particular by Thomas when he was offered to put his hand into Jesus’ side.

When the two men in white said that Jesus would come back in the same way as the disciples had seen Him go into heaven they meant that Jesus would return in flesh. He had ascended in the flesh and He would return in the flesh. The Jews are still waiting for their Messiah. They missed His coming, and are thus still waiting. Large parts of Christianity are still waiting for Jesus’ second coming. As the Jews they have missed the event, because Jesus has indeed returned in the flesh after a little while as He promised.

The Jews missed Jesus because they couldn’t fathom that He would be born as a poor unnoticed child in a manger. They thought He would come with flashing lights, great pageantry and ethereal splendor. Christianity has missed Jesus second coming because they cannot fathom that He has returned as you and me who are quite ordinary persons in the flesh. We are that manger where Jesus is born again and again. Paul puts it like this: “To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

In the book of revelation John writes: “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him.” In the literature we find a myriad of imaginative attempts at explaining this verse. Notably that all will see Him has puzzled many a commentator. However, if Jesus has returned in a host of born again Christians this passage suddenly makes a lot of sense.

There are passages in the Bible which allude to that there will be an additional second coming beyond the one discussed in this brief article. However, this particular event is hidden from me, so all I can say is: time will show.

We are Both - That is our Glory

2010-09-16T21:41:00.002+02:00

Legalism is a system of living whereby we try to make spiritual progress or gain by following a system of rules or ordinances. The fundamental idea is to try to make ourselves presentable to God by doing right. We find this concept in all religions, Christianity is no exception. Paul said in one of his epistles that we no longer know Jesus after the flesh. This is the antidote to legalism. When we know a so called spiritual leader merely after the flesh we immediately begin to wish to emulate that person’s behavior, thinking and attitudes. This is the principal motivation behind legalism; man imitating man, or man attempting to please a distant God.

The other extreme is those spiritual systems which emphasize the spiritual dimension only. One of their favorite assertions is that the material world merely is an illusion, that the only reality is the spiritual. Today’s New Age movement in many ways belongs to this branch of the religious world. However, if we are to find the right balance we cannot exclude the flesh, that is, our soul and bodies. Jesus came in the flesh as a real person. We thus cannot ditch our own flesh. Fred Pruitt puts it like this: “He was flesh and blood real, which is why it is the real and actual sacrifice of His Body and His shed blood can be efficacious in our lives. We can know our humanity filled with God and doing His will by us, only because we have been shown another humanity which was/is just the same. We MUST keep the human side, and not toss it out in favor of a Spirit-side only.”

John writes in the first chapter of his gospel: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” It was spirit manifested in flesh that enabled the disciples to behold Jesus’ glory. As sons of the Most High we are also spirits manifested in flesh, and that is our glory. If we exclude any of those attributes we have left true Christianity and are an easy prey to aberrations. The Spirit was the basis of Jesus’ life, works, thoughts and attitudes. That was His rest and that is our rest. A Spirit led life isn’t about imitation, because “the wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” The Spirit-flesh dimension encourages us to acknowledge that life is about diversity, different gifts and personalities, different paths and uniqueness.

To know Jesus no longer after the flesh is to recognize that there was/is an additional dimension to His life which we also are partakers of. Fred Pruitt writes: “Jesus only walked out as a parable what was already true in the Spirit, from the way and manner in which He lived and walked, to the Cross which is a real space-time event on earth, but which cut across all divisions between time and eternity and bridged the gap. We must have them both, not one or the other. We live in time and eternity, and in Christ become “masters” of both. Boehme said we have in a sense two eyes, one which sees forward into eternity, and the other which sees backward into time. One who has overcome will understand this and live it.”

The resurrected Christ manifested Himself to the disciples and Thomas in particular. Jesus was so real in the flesh that he challenged Thomas to put his hand into His side. He showed Thomas His hands. Jesus said: “Stop doubting and believe!” Then Thomas exclaimed:”My Lord and my God!”

The Damascus Road

2010-09-12T15:53:00.002+02:00

There on the road to Damascus Saul met the resurrected Christ. He had heard about Jesus and His earthly service. As most Pharisees He believed Jesus was an imposter. Vehemently Saul persecuted those following the way. Even though Saul most likely hadn’t met Jesus he knew him according to the flesh. How he perceived Jesus and His ministry was merely one-dimensional, and Saul hadn’t much regard for this in many ways ordinary person’s claims of being the savior of the world.

The only way to know the resurrected Christ is by becoming blind to knowing Jesus only after the flesh. Blind to the earthly realities Saul’s inner eyes were opened to grasp the enormity of the cross. In his blindness he could acquaint the invisible Christ. The Saul whose whole life had been engrossed in the outer things became Paul who led a life from inner realities. Fixed in the inner realities of the spiritual world he regained his vision so that he could influence the outer world.

The loss of sight also denotes our utter helplessness in our encounter with Christ. We have nothing to offer except our lives through which He can reach out to a world that believe it is seeing, but is truly blind. Until we have become blind to the outer world we have no proper vision. It is when we become blind that we become seers. As seers we recognize our nothingness and His superior abilities to live the life we all are created to be partakers of.

At the Damascus road we all get our new name. The name that has been a part of our self consciousness to this point is declared void and of no effect when we meet Christ. Our new name comes into effect when we are baptized into Christ. It severed our strings to the past and all those old lies which have kept us in bondage and without hope in this world. It denotes a completely new direction, and it accentuates our new standing as new creations with hope for the future.

When Saul encountered Jesus a light from heaven flashed around him. The Spirit opens our eyes so that we are enabled to see Jesus in a new light. Seeing Jesus merely after the flesh causes us to want to emulate His deeds and attitudes without acknowledging the Spirit dimension of His life. He is both flesh and spirit, and so are we; flesh made perfect by the Spirit. Flesh is spirit manifested and that is our glory.

The Unconscious Activity of Breathing

2010-09-10T18:01:00.000+02:00

There is a sound in our bodies. We seldom hear it. A multitude of operations take place in every corner of this amazing vessel, most of the time without any of us giving it much attention. Our hearts beat with a regular rhythm which changes automatically in accordance with our level of activity. Almost unconsciously we feed our bodies with its most important ingredient in order to stay alive. Oxygen passes our mouths and noses and finds its way to the lungs without any conscious effort on our part. It is when we become conscious of our breath and try to control it that trouble arises.

There is a profound and stunningly beautiful greeting from God encapsulated in our bodies’ effortless and quiet running. God’s main purpose is to conform a host of sons to the image of Jesus Christ. He has told us so through amongst others Paul. We are not quite sure how this rationale is attained within us. However, it is when we begin to control and tamper with the process that trouble arises.

One of our favorites in order to accelerate the process is making huge efforts at doing right. A process which runs smoothly when we are unconscious about it comes to an abrupt halt when we start tinkering with it. Try to control your breath every moment during the day and I guarantee you that a restful unconscious life upholding torrent becomes a living nightmare. The exact same outcome is guaranteed when we begin to control our growth.

Scientists have made huge efforts towards explaining our body. Despite their labors most of its processes are a mystery to mankind. We have gained some knowledge about what it needs in order to run properly. In Christian terms we know that faith is imperative for those God initiated supernatural processes within us to run smoothly. I have faith in my body. I believe it will perform all of its life-upholding process, and thus I do not give it much thought. Without my conscious knowing or interference my body executes all its tasks effortlessly.

Faith is the ingredient that keeps me alive. If I began tampering with my body’s processes I would soon be a dead man. Thus, on a different level faith says that I am filled with all the fullness of God. Faith says that I cannot sin. Faith states that I am conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Faith says that Christ is formed in me. I believe in God’s abilities to make all this happen and I therefore do not have to take thought to see His goals accomplished in me. I am at restful ease when it comes to my body, and the Spirit encourages me to be at restful ease when it comes to His processes in, through and as me.

The Christ life simply is. Many days I do my stuff almost in a state of oblivion. I run through the day not giving God much thought, to an even lesser degree I am conscious that I am Christ in my form. The union with God is so wonderfully expressed through this and my light shines so radiantly that the angels behold this mystery with amazed silence. The idyll is broken when I become self conscious and begin to scrutinize an incentive, a thought or an act. A temptation to lead me into an illusion of separation has entered the garden. God is faithful, however, and reminds me about those truths that boost my faith, and peace is again restored in the temple.

God has created us to be conformed to the image of Christ. Not copies, but images. Image in this context means uniqueness and individuality. And it is this uniqueness and individuality that God wants to have a intimate relationship with. So of course when I speak about a state of oblivion above that merely is a figure of speech to get a point across. I enjoy my Father so much that most of the time I am very aware of His existence, His love and His presence in my life. I enjoy Him and He enjoys me.

Walk on Waters

2010-09-05T10:47:00.002+02:00

When Jesus walked on the water it was not only a demonstration that God is above and can operate outside the physical laws. It is a statement that God is far greater than any physical law. But, as with most stories in the Bible there is much more to this incident than what meets the eye. God is spirit and manifests Himself in the natural, and thus when the Spirit utilizes figures in the natural to prove a point there is irrevocably a spiritual dimension to this that only can be appreciated through revelation.

When Jesus annuls the physical laws by walking on the water He also states that He is above the moral laws as recorded in the commandments. In Him they are canceled and He is above and outside their domain. Thus He is a law in Himself, spontaneously expressing God, who is love, in His physical body. He is like the wind that blows wherever it pleases. It is constrained by nothing, and blows in every direction the Spirit instigates always confusing and confounding those who live by appearances like Peter when he couldn’t fathom and resisted that Jesus had to die at the cross.

Walking on the water Jesus beckons and calls every one of us to join Him. The power of the outer laws is indeed so authoritative that it is only when we are in Him that we are out of their insisting reach. In Him we are set free from any law that is operative in the natural realm. Immediately we fix the gaze at ourselves and our own abilities we begin to sink. As the water begins to envelope us and we can sense how it presses in from every direction we are again subject to the all the laws which threaten to drag us down into the black abyss of captivity and death.

We have now tasted both; captivity and liberty, and as Peter we prefer the sensation of being unlimited. Therefore in our distress we call out for Jesus. The Spirit has taken us through both these extremes to teach us the wonders of the heavenly life and that it is not in our powers to sustain this life. It is only attainable in our union with Christ where we rest from our own abilities after the Spirit has taught us the futility of trusting our own efforts.

Many of us have had those dreams where we are freed from the natural laws and fly through the air in amazed wonder. Deep down in every one of us there is a yearning to experience the supernatural, freed from every inhibiting circumstance. In Christ we begin to manifest our dream. When we recognize that we are in Him everything is now possible. We can do nothing of ourselves, but in Him we are far above the limitations of human law. In Him weakness is turned into strength. Span your wings and fly, says the Spirit.

The Junction

2010-09-01T15:25:00.002+02:00

One day we come to a junction in our lives. We are purposely led there by the Spirit. The issue we are confronted with is a faith issue. The Bible says that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. It asserts that there is a rest for God’s people where they rest from their own works. John even states that a person born of God cannot sin. However, we are daily perplexed by life in the sense that we experience condemnation, we struggle to please God and we try to avoid committing sins. It becomes quite clear to us that our experiences contradict the scriptures. When that is the case there obviously must be something missing in our understanding. We have reached the junction.

The Spirit has caught us in a dilemma, and He states that there is only one solution; we have to make a leap of faith into the mystery. Paul writes that there is a mystery which has been hidden from ages and generations, but now is revealed to the saints; Christ in you. He writes to the Galatians that it pleased God to reveal His Son in Paul. He continues to say that Christ lives in Him, and he even states that when the churches of Judea heard that he who once persecuted the church now preached the faith they glorified God in Paul. He says that the gospel he preaches is not man’s gospel. There obviously is a man’s gospel which is contrary to the gospel Paul preached. So before we make the leap and enter into the mystery we obviously have been under influence of man’s gospel. A gospel that causes confusion and is accursed since it keeps the saints in bondage.

It begins to dawn upon us that if all the above mentioned is the case then we must somehow be Christ in our form, that we are partakers of divine nature. This is the secret, the solution to our predicament. Completely taken over by God we are new creations, and we begin to see that our main problem has been those thought patterns that have insisted that there is a separation between us and God; He there and me over here. However, if we are one spirit with Him there is no separation and we are rightly gods. Our rest means that we have entered the seventh day; the day when the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. United with God and settled with Him on the seventh day we are complete and perfected once and for all, simply because all is finished. When we have a consciousness of sin our mindset is separation and we believe that we live in one of the other six days of work. If we believe so we obviously believe in an illusion, because He has finished the work. There is nothing we can add.

Remember that when you accepted Christ you were firmly placed on the seventh day with God, resting from all your works. Our main problem is that we haven’t discovered this actuality yet. So in reality we struggle in vain when we think we aren’t placed there. Remember, we cannot add a single thing to His work. All our efforts are therefore just wind.

At the junction the Spirit urges us to make that leap of faith which settles us on the seventh day in our consciousnesses, where we align faith with facts.

Comfort for Broken Hearts

2010-08-29T18:10:00.002+02:00

When God is pursuing you with His love He never asks those tricky and humiliating questions regarding your past such as; How did this happen? Why did you do that? Why on earth would you do such a thing? Rather, He asks those questions which sole purpose are to make you feel comfortable in His presence. They often go like this: How are you? How’s your day been? Can I help you in any way? You know that I love you? We are talking about those questions which make you feel at ease and which convey His unconditional love towards you. Unconditional love is concerned with you and your heart’s condition.

God’s main business is those inward things. He wants to heal your heart, your inner man. That is the place where those most hurting wounds are; the pain or fear or insecurity which in a way renders you as a crippling emotionally speaking. A healed and redeemed heart is the greatest miracle there is. We know from the scriptures that Jesus had a magnificent healing ministry. He often healed all those who came to Him. Those miracles as they are recorded in the gospels deal mainly with the outer man, that is, bodily ailments. We construe those incidents accordingly, and thus when we read that Jesus promised that we would do greater miracles than Him we begin to pray for those who are sick. Unfortunately, our most frequent experience is that nothing happens and we thus easily become disillusioned.

Why does the gospels seemingly merely record outer healings? Isn’t it because those miracles get our attention? They create a desire in us to deliver people from their ailments. And it is easier to depict the effects of an outer healing than an inner healing. An objective reality is much more convenient to describe than the subjective surrealism of a complex inner world. As we mature we grow from outer perception to inner perception and we begin to appreciate that in reality everything is about that inner world. Our bodies are merely our temporarily abodes which are predestined to decay as we are waiting for our final liberation. Our heart, however, is eternal. When we move from outer to inner we rapidly acknowledge that we do greater miracles than Jesus since His love in us ministers love and healing to others in a grand scale.

There is no doubt in my mind that God in His grace still delivers people from diseases and ailments. However, we also find ample evidence that good people die from for instance cancer far too early despite the fact that they are subject to intense prayer. However, it seems as the spiritual law which states that when the seed falls into the ground and die this single seed gives life to many is still very potent. Jesus was a prime example regarding the effects of this law. The literature is also full of examples which confirms that God is greater than our afflictions and can turn everything into something good for many. “The tortures occur”, CS Lewis wrote, “If they are unnecessary, then there is no God, or a bad one. If there is a good God, then these tortures are necessary for no even moderately good Being could possibly inflict or permit them if they weren’t”

Bond Servants

2010-08-26T11:03:00.002+02:00

There are depths to the Genesis account which are quite amazing. Sometimes it seems as there are layers like a onion which the Spirit peels away as He finds edifying. Some are given to see this and others are given to see that. One fascinating aspect that I have been allowed to ponder lately is seeing Eve as a type of the human race and Adam as a type of Christ. Adam is in a odd way both a type of Christ and not a type of Christ. In one sentence he is and in the next he is not. When he is not he is merely that old Adam who seemingly messed everything up. We like to think that he is at fault. In a way he is, but from a different perspective without his disobedience we still would have been children spiritually speaking. I think his fall was inevitable in order to bring forth a succession of sons who are conscious of all aspects of life.

Let us first examine Eve as a type of the human race and Adam as a type of Christ. We notice that Eve was the first to eat of the forbidden tree. Adam was by her side all along. Due to his love towards her and that he couldn’t stand the thought of losing her he also partook of the tree. That was the only way that Jesus could save us. He had to become a man and partake in our world. More than that; he had to taste the death that were our destiny. So Adam eating of the forbidden fruit in a way foreshadows Jesus atoning death on our behalf. Jesus and the Father love us so highly that Jesus has stood by our side all along. He has been so unwilling to lose us that He was willing to taste the same fruit as we all taste; death. The sting of sin is death, and Jesus became sin for us.

Genesis 3:16 states that our desire shall be for our husband. Here we are Eve again, the woman who becomes pregnant with the children of her husband. The record further says that in pain we shall bring forth our children when our husband is that old Adam. His seed in us causes us to struggle in pain when we attempt to do right. We find that we fail miserably and the consequence is a soul wrenching condemnation. It should be quite clear thus that when we die from our husband and is free to marry another we are redeemed from that former curse, and childbearing becomes a restful expression of our new husband, which is Christ.

If we despite this continue to struggle after our marriage with Christ it merely is an indication of us being taken through the wilderness until that illusion about separation is done away with. We became one with Christ the day we accepted Him, but somehow our minds haven’t quite grasped this tremendous fact so we continue to struggle erroneously thinking that being a bond-servant of Christ is based on the same terms as when we were bond-servants under our old master. Being a bond-servant of Christ denotes an absolutely different quality of life compared to the life under that old Adam. Christ’s will is our will. His abundant life is our abundant life. His freedom is our freedom. More than that; since there is no separation we are Him in our form, each of us expressing Him in our uniqueness so that the total becomes His body in this world.

As unredeemed men and women we didn’t know that we were someone’s spouses or bond-servants. We thought we were free agents operating as independent units. It isn’t until the Spirit opens our inner eyes that we become aware of our true standing, and we for the first time begin to see how things really are. Paradoxically, that is a part of the liberation process towards maturity and inner peace. You see, God has been with you all along. He has never turned His glance away from you. He loves you so intensely that He has completely identified with your falls and failures so that you could come out, of what has seemed like a mess to you, like a whole person knowing beyond a shadow of doubt that He is fond of you, and that you are His beloved child. He has never turned His back on you. You might have thought or felt that He wasn’t there when things were dark. But, there He was all along partaking in your unique life with everything He is; Himself.

The Spirit is a Rebel

2010-08-19T09:18:00.002+02:00

When the Spirit has led you through the wilderness and conditioned you through that experience so that you are receptive for the revelations which follow and which will cause an end to your self efforts and establish you in the union with God, He will keenly guard your new standing in Christ. Every time someone attempts to subject you to laws, that is, outer ordinances such as should, ought to, should not etc you will sense something rise within you. The sensation can most closely be likened to defiance. In the beginning we are perhaps too well behaved to let the Rebel have His way. However, as He trains us we begin to recognize this rebellious sensation as Him. As an effect we adamantly refuse to let anyone rob from us our freedom in Christ regardless of who that tries to impose their moralistic outlook upon us. The Spirit is the Spirit of truth and freedom, and He lives within every believer making sure that we become rebels as well, insurrectionists that shake the religious world.

Nothing is a Waste

2010-08-15T19:35:00.002+02:00

After Mary surprisingly turned up and anointed Jesus with expensive ointment as recorded in John 12 the disciples raised their voices and thought it a waste. Why not rather have sold the ointment and given the money to the poor, they objected.

I personally know very talented and gifted Christians (in reality we all are very talented and gifted) who are either unemployed or just are home and thus from a human perspective seemingly are wasting their lives. Their surroundings might be accusing them of laziness or listlessness. In addition to being subject to those well meaning person’s ideas of a productive life many of them also have to struggle with condemnation or sentiments that are challenging their self-esteem because they somehow seems out of the loop.

This idea of waste also comes into play in regard to ministry. Large parts of Christianity have some preconceived notions when it comes to ministry and how we are to serve in a church or a denomination. When we for some reason fall outside these confines we are regarded as wasting our talents or something in that direction. The main goal in most Christianity is to see people saved. That is a noble goal. However, we have too long seen this as an ordinance and not a promise.

Mary’s offer drew attention to Christ. You have given yourself to Christ as a fragrant ointment, and by that offer you are drawing people to Christ often without you being consciously aware of this most wonderful and astounding fact. That is how a supernatural promise plays out. While you are resting in Him with your unique personality He makes Himself known to the world through you. It isn’t something you can control. He does it perfectly both through your negatives and your positives.

My friend, when you have come to Christ nothing in your life is a waste. Everything you do, don’t do or are is an expensive ointment in God’s eyes. You are a blessing to Him regardless of your circumstances. Don’t listen to those who say your life would be more of a blessing if you just would give yourself to the poor, that is, whatever cause they find worthy or imagine need your support.

Water Separated From Water

2010-08-11T18:07:00.000+02:00

When the waters were separated in Genesis 1 the material realm with its qualities was separated from the infinite and eternal spiritual realm. Time, space and distance became prominent realities for a fallen mankind. We perceived ourselves mainly as temporal beings in a temporal realm. Thus death became an enemy, because in a limited temporal realm death denotes an inevitable end.

We were like those proverbial fishes that only know their environment as a three dimensional world of water. Only when the fish sees the light penetrate the surface of its limited world it gets an idea of something beyond its experiences. Or if someone or something ripples the calm surface of the water the fish might come to understand that there is something which it cannot explain on the other side of what it thought was the border of its limited world.

In a finite world everything can be measured, gauged and counted according to the laws of this realm. A Christian keeps score on his sins and his good deeds since he has this faulty notion that the laws of his well known universe also are applicable to the spiritual realm. However, even though he lives in a temporal world he is not of it. He belongs to the waters above the expanse where everything is eternal and infinite. Counting and assessing are completely at odds with a unlimited spiritual world. How are we to count or judge in an infinite eternal dimension? It becomes utterly meaningless. It is impossible. Hence, as Paul stated, we no longer judge according to the flesh.

A new and better covenant is in effect where all those things that we formerly put our trust in are history. They are obsolete. Something better has been revealed through Jesus Christ. The Spirit patiently transfers our consciousnesses from a limited worldview to an eternal sphere where everything must be judged in accordance with this reality, that is, it must be spiritually discerned.

As an eternal infinite being we no longer are subject to the laws of this world as we know it. How are we to assess our lives in this wonderful realm where everything there is, is an eternal now? Since God’s infinite love is encapsulated in every now we encounter, we are liberated beings in an infinite dimension. Everything is merged into this now where we just are. Thus nothing is counted against us. It is utterly impossible to count or keep any scores. That is why there is no condemnation in this realm where life originates and flows as an eternal river of love.

The god of this world operates within the confines of the limited realm. He counts, judges and assesses in accordance with the laws which are operative in a three dimensional world. Every believer who hasn’t abandoned this world’s moralistic and ethic sentiments is thus easily deceived and influenced by his lies. His weapons of condemnation are only effective in relation to a consciousness that is stuck in appearances.

The Spirit is rippling the surface of our known world so that we by faith can take the leap and penetrate the expanse and enter the waters above where we come to know who we truly are as citizens of two worlds. The material world is truly good when it is amalgamated with the truth from above.

The Inner Garden

2010-08-07T14:57:00.002+02:00

One evening not long ago the Spirit suddenly said to me with a smile: “Adam was placed in the garden.” He didn’t have to say more. My curiosity was aroused, which He of course was well aware of. Day after day I pondered what He meant by those six each by them self rather innocent words. In human terms I might occasionally come out as quite clever. However, when it comes to spiritual things I am more or less brain-dead. So I simply couldn’t fathom what He meant. When I came to the end of my own reasoning I began to ask if He could be so courteous to reveal His little secret to me. I thought it fair that if He had said A He also should say B. Despite several requests He remained quiet. However, He has taught me over the years to be patient knowing that He will answer in His time, which I of course counted on in this case as well.

Today I asked again wondering if He was ready to share His wisdom with me. It is perhaps more precise to assume that He lingered until I was ready. This is what He said: “Now the garden is placed in you.” Interesting, don’t you think? The first Adam was placed in the garden. That is an outer thing in the same manner as the law is an outer thing. Well, if the garden is in me, everything is now internalized. I am in other words a law in myself. Spontaneously and effortlessly I now meet the standards of the law since they are an integral part of my new nature. If I am not mistaken He also added: “In the outer garden there were two trees. In the inner garden there is only one tree; the tree of life.” Since there is only one tree, a type of Christ, I cannot go wrong. It is utterly impossible for me to repeat Adam’s mistake. I think we can safely and without being in the risk of exaggerating call this eternal security.

True Fasting

2010-08-05T12:08:00.002+02:00

One of the words the scriptures use in order to cast some light on our human existence is vessel or a container. I have had some problems with this manner of describing our humanity. However, I have come to learn that this is a wonderful description if properly understood. Most of us appreciate that words just are shadows of how things really are. They are not the thing itself. To be called a container thus merely covers one side of the complexity of our being. The vessel analogy is very valuable and liberating due to the fact that it alludes to a thing that cannot fill itself with the help of its own frail powers.

To assert that a container can fill itself is indeed a ludicrous contradiction. A glass cannot fill itself. Someone outside and greater than the glass pour the liquid into it. However, we are vessels which have an inclination towards wanting to fill ourselves. That’s perhaps the whole point with the vessel analogy. Man embarks on mission impossible and is repeatedly frustrated by his efforts. The law is carefully designed to disclose this fact and to reveal our nothingness as containers.

Legalistic ministries encourage believers to fill themselves with good deeds, right behavior, a successful prayer life, love and all the other things we associate with being a Christian. Since we haven’t fully understood in what way that we are fearfully and wonderfully created we rededicate ourselves to God again and again and promise to do better with His help. Of course, this is a sure path to failure. In fact every attempt to live according to outer regulations is an attempt to fill oneself. There is only one solution to our dilemma; give up, rest, simply live and let Christ fill us with Himself. We are created to contain someone, to be filled by someone and that someone is Christ.

A vital point in this regard is that when we were born again He filled us with Himself. We are already filled, but we do not know it yet. What really happens when we attempt to live the Christian life is that we perpetuate an illusion of separation, that we have a life of our own when the opposite is the actual reality. Hence Christ is revealed in us when we come to the end of our self efforts. Finally, our true standing begins to seep into our consciousnesses and the redemption we have been craving for isn’t a far off reality anymore.

Herein lies the magnificent liberty Jesus promised His disciples. When we discover that He is our life we cease to struggle towards an unattainable goal, and we acknowledge that every moment of failure is a valuable reminder of our nothingness. We are now in a position where we can accept ourselves with everything we are and leave it completely to Him to perfect us in our perfection in us in His time.

If we examine fasting in this light it dawns upon us that fasting is not a physical discipline, but a Spiritual discipline. True fasting is to abstain from any self effort. It is to cease from observing the law or any other outer regulation. It is abandoning the idea that we can fill ourselves with right attitudes, thinking and behavior. It is vacating trying to forcefully cultivate any fruit on this human tree by what we think are cleverly devised methods. The moment we realize this tremendously liberating reality we begin to eat. Our food and drink is Christ. He is the only food we will ever need. He is the one that fills up our spiritual stomachs.

Expectations

2010-08-03T04:40:00.000+02:00

There is nothing wrong with you! You might still have some challenges with your thought patterns, but that is everything there is. There is nothing wrong with your soul and body. In fact there never was. There was a time when our limbs were servants of unrighteousness, but that was due to the deceiver who was in us. God held us responsible for our evilness, but His plan was to redeem His people so that the same limbs could be servants of righteousness on account of that Christ is in every man who has accepted His beloved son. When Paul talks about the flesh and is admonishing us concerning the flesh he is referring to the aforementioned thought patterns which impedes us from seeing our union with God and which prevent our gaze from being upwards.

Our greatest adversary is perhaps expectations. Faulty expectations trigger those thought processes which make us think that we have to change or do more. They uphold the illusion that we have a separate self. Those around us have specific expectations regarding how we are to act and behave. When we fail to live up to their standards they usually let us know, and we begin to wonder if they perhaps are right in their assessments of us. In addition we carry with us a lot of expectations concerning ourselves. We find to our great dismay that we often fall short of those expectations, and we thus easily fall prey to condemnation. Have you noticed that Jesus quite often didn’t live up to other’s expectations either? It might seem as He sometimes rebelled against and challenged those expectations. Hence, you shouldn’t be surprised if Christ in you does the exact same thing today. His plan for us and those He has given us far supersedes those usually short sighted expectations. Everything will find its fulfillment in Him in His time.

Claims

2010-07-30T18:10:00.002+02:00

One of the many stunning claims Jesus made was: “Those who have seen me has seen the Father.” Jesus claimed He was the visible expression of God. He further said: “If you had known Me you had known my Father.” Moreover; “I come from Him and He has sent me here.”

Those are bold statements! I assume you are well aware of that they are valid for you too? Born of the Spirit you come from God sent here as a witness about Him. Those who have seen you have seen the Father. As was the case for Jesus, the likelihood that the world recognizes you as a visible expression of God is rather small.

The religious will say about you as they did about the crowd who followed Jesus: “They, who know nothing about the law, is damned anyway.” The legalists will further mock you and say: “Look where you will – you won’t find any prophet coming from Galilee.” Galilee is your hometown, my friend.

You are God’s visible glory! We are stunned by how God empties Himself again and again in order to be found in humans like you and me. However, that was the original plan when God created Adam in His likeness, a shadow of Himself, if you like. You are restored to your original design and thus an outshining of His glory.

Those who know you know the Father. This is simply too much for our mind to grasp. It transcends understanding. The Spirit, however, convicts us about the truth and our faith irrevocably becomes substance. Appearances easily deflect our appropriating of this all encompassing identification with our Father. However, faith supersedes any appearance so that faith becomes our reality as the Spirit does His work in us.

Please acknowledge that you are His glory and an image of Him regardless of circumstances. If He was willing to be found in a manger when Jesus was born, He is willing to be found in your life’s circumstances no matter how grim. You are His beloved daughter or son. Don’t let condemnation which is a product of appearances rob you from your confidence before Him and heritage in Him.

Identification

2010-07-26T12:34:00.000+02:00

It’s fascinating how the Spirit as soon as we cross the threshold to the Promised Land begins what I would call an identification process; an opening up of the mind which empowers us to identify with Jesus Christ on a level that is blasphemy to the religious minded and which would be impossible for us to handle when we were under the law. Jesus was the first and foremost of many sons. He was the last Adam, the lamb who was slain before the foundation of the earth. Only He could atone for the sins of the world through His death, and provide life and hope through His resurrection and ascension. That was His exclusive ministry. Hence He is the first and foremost.

As a Son of God Jesus could utter unprecedented things such as: “I do only what my Father does”, a statement that outraged the Jews since it implied an oneness with God that was unheard of at that time. It is imperative that we understand that Jesus didn’t merely come to share in our humanity in order to save us. He also came as an example of us, so that we after He had accomplished His mission could share the same boldness as He displayed regarding our union with God.

So when the Spirit nudges you and challenges you to say as Jesus: “I do only what my Father does” you are in the midst of your own personal identification process. Of course, that leap of faith isn’t an easy one, but it is an essential one if we are to enter this peace of God, which transcends all understanding, and which will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. Our greatest fear is perhaps that when we get such an idea in our lap we are in danger of being led astray.

If Jesus harbored any such fears we don’t know. What we know, however, is that He was tempted in the same manner as we are. It is quite clear that if He had such doubts He conquered them by the Spirit and became fixed in this truth. It is also evident that He could make such statements because He was born of the Spirit! The Spirit of truth! The Spirit of error had nothing in Jesus, thus He could completely trust those inner promptings swelling up in Him knowing who the source was. Born by the Spirit we are also sons of God, governed by the same Spirit of truth who leads us perfectly towards maturity.

When we have taken our leap of faith and dare to make the same confession as Jesus did, there comes a day when this truth becomes an inner reality. Oneness with God is no longer theory, it becomes experimental, an integral part of our lives. As our consciousnesses expand to contain this tremendous reality we unfold our wings of liberty and like the eagle unstrained surge upwards on the warm winds of love trusting this sensation as the ultimate reality; a return to our original design as illuminated persons who know the difference between captivity and liberty.

The God of the Hills and the Valleys

2010-07-23T21:20:00.000+02:00

Ahab the king of Israel faced Ben-hadad the king of Syria in what would become a battle concerning whether God was the God of the hills or not. Silver, gold, wives and children are the types of the good things the God of the hills provides (1 Kings 20). The question was thus and still is: Is there a God who provides the good things in this world or are they a result of hard work or are they perhaps a consequence of random selection? God gave the Syrians into Ahab’s hands and demonstrated once and for all that He is the God of the hills. That’s our starting point when we come to Christ. Our inner lamb is lit and through what seems as a battle in our consciousnesses we come out with an understanding that there exists a God who loves us and gives us good things in accordance with His riches.

As me move on we inevitable will come to a new junction where another and more profound question arises. Is God also the God of the valleys? Ben-haded again musters a great multitude and goes against Ahab. This is perhaps the most difficult battle we face. Is God all in all? Will we find Him in the valleys of our lives too? The outcome of this battle is essential for our understanding of God and how He works in our lives. True liberty and the peace of mind which supersedes any outer circumstances hinge on the outcome of this battle. Ben-haded, a type of our soul enemy, thus goes against us with everything he has. The outcome is however settled: “Thus says the LORD, ‘Because the Syrians have said, “The LORD is a god of the hills but he is not a god of the valleys,” therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the LORD.’” (1 Kings 20:28)

Even though God gives Ahab a striking victory over the enemy, Ahab doesn’t kill Ben-hadad. As a consequence He is prevented from being a see-througher, a man who sees God only. When we uphold the idea that the enemy still plays a part in our lives, that he is somewhat responsible for our valley experiences we maintain this double vision which causes us unnecessary strain and unrest. God is God of both the hills and the valleys. When we with a single-eye see God only our souls find rest from this world’s travails. God’s objective is to lead us to a place of understanding where we never give the devil any undeserved attention and as a consequence of that attention a spot from where he can influence our lives. In our consciousnesses he is hence rendered as a toothless lion whose roars by and by becomes a distant memory. There is only one God in whom we live, move and have our being. Our Abba is in full control and that goes for every nook and cranny in our lives.

Right Self

2010-07-22T09:53:00.002+02:00

“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”, God said. Image means a representative figure, and we find that likeness carries the implication similitude which means closely resembling another, a counterpart. It was from these astounding facts that we were to derive our identity, our right self. God’s self perception is impeccable. There are no shadows of self degrading notions which threaten to disturb His inner peace. Evidently, as an image of Him our self was to be based in Him and have the same quality as His.

However, when Adam ate from the wrong tree this foundation for the self was shattered. After the fall Adam’s children were after his likeness. They derived their self from a spiritual dead person. As a consequence this false self molded by the god of this earth became our prominent self perception. For many years I perceived myself as grey, boring, dull, mediocre, worthless, nice and well behaved with not a dangerous or wild fiber whatsoever in my being. This was a powerful lie that colored my entire existence. This false self severely inhibited my life.

The false self that we had to toil under was a part of the curse. When we come to Christ we are under heavy influence from it. We drag this heritage with us into His kingdom erroneously believing that He is just as a hard master as our former master. We believe that condemnation, self flagellation and self deprecating thoughts are the path to pleasing our new King. Even worse, many believe that those emotions have the potential to change behavior, or provide us with what we need in order to be good.

However, God wants to give us a new name, a new self, that is, our original self when we return to His fold. God has created a diversity of sons, each reflecting Him in their uniqueness. The unsearchable riches in Christ amongst other things pertain to this multitude of expressions found in Him. God’s overwhelming desire has been ever from before the foundation of the earth to restore our right self. His is willing to do whatever necessary to accomplish this goal. He love guarantees that the false self will see destruction and that the right self will slowly but surely surface so that His truth will triumph.

Before we were born we were given our right self. Hidden under the false self, which we thought were us, we have sometimes seen it shine through the veil, and we have yearned for its materialization. My friend, every thought or notion that belittles you is a remnant from this false self. It is utterly false! It is an illusion – an illusion is just cotton! Yes, your right self is almost too good to be true, but welcome it as your true image. You are everything you formerly believed you weren’t! God has laid the axe to the root! As a result a multitude of true and liberated sons are revealed to His glory and great pleasure.

Some Further Musings on "You Can Do Nothing Without Me"

2010-07-18T09:30:00.002+02:00

Christ in me is the mystery revealed. Christ is my promised land. Through faith infused in me by my inner teacher I finally, after all those years in the wilderness, reached the same conclusion as Caleb: “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it” (Num 13:30). In my understanding this “we” pertains to the union with God.

Together we have conquered the people who dwell in the land. In a joint operation we have devastated the fortified cities. By enduring fierce battles my consciousness by and by has come to terms with the overwhelming truth; He lives His abundant life in me as me. After all these years I now see clearly how I have been Christ in my form ever since I was regenerated.

Sustained by the tree of life I am a safe self. What a relief to discover that I can trust myself. God is my keeper. I am His responsibility. When I now have abandoned the illusion that I am an independent self I have consciously thrown my entire being into His arms. I trust my reactions, my feelings, my emotions and my doings as an expression of His self-for-others-love. I am not sure how this works, but I am liberated from judging by appearances and thus trust that He is the one who works in me both to will and to work, for his good pleasure in whatever form that might be expressed through me.

You Can Do Nothing Without Me

2010-07-16T08:56:00.002+02:00

I am afraid I again have to return to a specific thing Jesus said and which has been reverberating through my mind with increasingly insistency the last couple of days. He said as recorded in John 15:5: “…..for without me you can do nothing.”

I have always read this verse as: “without me you can do nothing good.” The context of this verse is obviously that when we abide in Him we bring forth much fruit. However, the verse doesn’t state what I have read into it. The word nothing is finite, absolute. Nothing contains everything. I come to the conclusion that what Jesus said only can be wholly appreciated if our point of reference is the tree of life. I obviously have read this verse from an understanding derived from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. My human definitions of good and evil fall lifeless to the ground when my life is absorbed into the tree of life. Life far supersedes any definitions I have made in order to create some sort of order in my sometimes confusing universe. It is only through faith that the tree of life becomes my secure ground from where I can receive all the promises inherent in Christ.

Without Jesus I can do nothing. It can only imply that everything in my life is Him. I have had no problems associating what I have defined as good and what I have defined as light with Him. However, my seasons of darkness, I have attributed to myself. But, now I cannot escape that definiteness of “nothing”. Everything is Him. That is the total truth. I am not an independent self. I am a container of Christ. God says a most peculiar thing in Isaiah 45:7: “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” I believe God in this verse uses words which we can understand from our limited human perspective. However, from His perspective, everything He creates is love and light which bursts forth on account of His redemptive purposes, and His ways are thus often far outside my scope of understanding. “Nothing” hence means that in His infinite wisdom I am light and darkness as well. Since God is love and light this what I perceive as darkness evidently must be hidden light. Another one of those mysteries that is too great for me to grasp. I further on cannot fathom that what I perceive as failures is Him expressing Himself as me. But, nothing is nothing, even in this context. It strikes me how humble God is. How He is willing to risk His reputation in being associated with fragile beings as me. That humbles me.

Despite all the aforementioned I know I am a person. I somehow know that I am more than an automat. I am a unique individual with everything that entails. It is now that my mind comes to the end of itself. This is an almost insoluble paradox. We are two, yet one. I find only one solution to this. There is only one conclusion that enables me to reconcile these seemingly conflicting facts and that is: I am Christ in my form. I am slowly beginning to grasp what Paul said: “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me,…(Gal 1:15). His Son has been in me from the day I was born again. During the time I with great determination did my wilderness walk He was there. When I failed most miserably He was there. When I writhed in guilt and condemnation He was there. It was when I came to the end of myself and the illusion that I am an independent self was forever shattered that my lovingly Father could reveal His Son in me.

I suddenly now become to come to terms with all the exhortations and admonitions which both Paul, Peter and the other New Testament authors found necessary to include in their writings. Since I am Christ in my form, and the virgin birth is repeated in me I have gone through all the seasons Jesus went through from infancy to maturity. It should be quite clear that when I was a spiritual child I had to be under a different regime than what is called for when I am an adult. Children needs firm boundaries and a rather strict upbringing to become responsible and mature adults, but when as they grow their parents grant them more and more liberty even though that often is a rather painful process both for the maturing person and the parents. This is the mystery: Christ is repeatedly brought to maturity in persons like you and me. I am rendered in utter awe as I am allowed to see more and more of God’s plan being unfolded in my life. In retrospect I see clearly that it has all been necessary. As a loving Father He has led me through pain, tribulations, misery, great achievements and moments of intimacy and love that is beyond this world. When I have been teetering on the verge of giving up, when the issues I have faced have rendered me in a state where I have wanted to die He has been there encouraging me to take another step. He has been the perfect Father in all His dealings with me. I can only imagine how it must have hurt Him to let me go through those periods when everything was dark, but without them I would still have been in infancy. As Christ has been formed in me I have gone from glory to glory. That is His perspective and that is the truth.

The Sabbath Rest

2010-07-14T15:54:00.002+02:00

The following is an attempt to verbalize some revelations I believe were given to me by the Spirit a week ago. It is challenging to put into words subtle concepts which I do not yet clearly see the extent of.

The author of the Hebrews repeatedly expounds on a rest which the regenerated man is encouraged to enter. The one who enters God’s rest has ceased from His own works, as God did from His. This is in other words a rest which is the consequence of realizing that we can do nothing without Christ. The book of Revelation contains many images which when they are spiritually understood draws a picture of the battle that takes place in our consciousnesses when the Spirit does His gracious work in illuminating our minds so that we are put in a position where we disclose this lie or illusion that we are an independent self. What we discover as the Spirit’s work proceeds in us is that God has taken wholly possession of us and that we live our lives in Christ and thus are His visible expressions in this realm. During this process when we discover the liberating truth of our true being we are in increasing measure revealed as the sons of God.

However, what the Spirit revealed to me is that there is an even higher level of rest which He calls the Sabbath Rest. In a glimpse I saw how everything in this world is used by God for His redemptive purposes. Absolutely everything that occurs in this universe He can turn and use for His good purposes. Nothing of what happens comes as a surprise to Him, He who is the great all in all. Then the Spirit showed me that this also applies to my life. There is nothing in my life which He cannot use for His redemptive purposes regarding my existence, and He can further on advance His redemptive purposes for others through me despite what I perceive as failures and weaknesses which I believe have the opposite effect. Everything works together for good for those who love Him, Paul says. The full effect of this insight is that my soul can find a rest which is not of this world, because He is so much greater than what I do or not do. I do not mentally understand this, that is, how He works forth His will and good purposes through both my positives and negatives. It is too great for me to grasp. However, it is on this backdrop that I can embrace my humanity as a right humanity in Him.

A couple of days later as I questioned these things the Spirit drew my attention to what happened at the cross. An event wrapped up in utter darkness. But, out of it a great light was borne. Then I saw my soul and my mind and the utter darkness they sometimes are filled with. Then He asked me: “If I could turn Jesus’ death into life and joy for many how much more then can I not create light and life out of your seasons of darkness?”

They Are Whom the World is Not Worthy

2010-07-11T10:54:00.000+02:00

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

The Greek word κόσμος, which is translated world, has these connotations; order, lawful order, government, mode, fashion and ruler. In this world-system we will have tribulations, because it is a world fashioned by the god of this world. His principles and machinations govern the worldly system we are a part of. In Christ we are, however, no longer of this world. We have in Him thus become sojourners in an alien environment.

Jesus says that in Him we will have peace. He represents our true habitat, the environment we originally were designed to occupy. This further means that if we have peace in Him and tribulations in this world His cosmos is everything contrary to this world. Its principles and foundations are wholly dissimilar from those we encounter in our current setting and which we have grown accustomed to because it so far has been the only thing we have known.

God says that He will clear away these nations before us little by little (Deut 7:22). The transition from a consciousness which has its security in the principles of this age to a consciousness that finds its sustenance in Christ is a process which the Bible calls the renewal of the mind. This enlightenment of the mind empowers us to in increasingly measure to appreciate what Jesus did, and who we are in Him so that we are transformed from glory to glory.

Daniel Yordy has put it like this: “He said that we must leave all of the ways of seeing and experiencing and connecting, all the structures of, the methods of operating in, the knowledge and wisdom of the life of this present age and step out into the “darkness,” the unknown, following what until now has been only a taste, and follow Him, our Shepherd, into all the experience, power, connections, and knowledge of the life of the age to come.”

It is thus no wonder that those of us who push farther and farther into this mystery, this original pure undistorted cosmos, and thus see things from a completely new perspective compared to those who still attempt to make Christianity work in the matrix of this world are considered mystics, heretics and what worse is. God, however, says about us: “They are whom the world is not worthy.”

Faith is Being

2010-07-10T11:46:00.000+02:00

The word fact can refer to verified information about past or present circumstances or events which are presented as objective reality. In science, it means a provable concept. (Wikipedia)

The author of the Hebrews plainly states that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, in other words; faith is facts. To establish something as a fact demands evidences. When we are to advance a case we have to present evidences that are convincing and which withstand scrutinizing. A fact thus becomes a provable concept. We won’t always find that others share our conviction, but, nevertheless, to us what we know is a reality.

In our personal processes towards faith God convincingly builds His case so that we can stand firm whatever circumstances we encounter. Facts are not feelings. If we are to base our faith on feelings we are that proverbial wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

We are not either to assert that we have faith when the thing we have is partial faith. One of the few men in the Bible that admitted he had a partial faith was the father of the son who was possessed by an evil spirit. He cried out in despair: “I believe, help my unbelief.” Jesus honored his honesty and imparted to him what he lacked, and cast out the spirit from his son.

There are seasons in our lives when we feel that we are light-years from God. We are completely unable to sense His presence. As a consequence we begin to doubt our conversion, and we are inclined to think that our union with God is a hollow concept from a gullible era in our lives. However, it is during those periods that God proves that our union with Him is not grounded on feelings, but that it is an undisputable fact, so that we can know who we are in Him in despite of what comes against us.

For it is you who light my lamp; the LORD my God lightens my darkness. (Psalm 18:28) God is the One who imparts to us that illumination which transforms partial faith into unwavering faith. Faith is not a result of self effort. What we do, however, is continuing confessing the truth despite our circumstances with an expectant trust that God will light the lamp when we are ready to enter new level of insights.

Then we experience what John so cleverly put into words: “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.” A witness bears testimony about the truth, the realities that are our secure foundation. This witness is in us. It fixes us in the truth. The inner witness isn’t a feeling, it is an inner knowing. We just know that we know.

There are many things in our lives that are facts. I for instance know without a shadow of a doubt that I am a man. I do not have to confess on a daily basis that I am a man. I effortlessly and unconsciously look like a man, behave like a man and think like a man. For long periods of time I do not give this fact much thought. I do my things and live my life almost unaware of this reality. We can almost call this the law of facts. Every area of our lives that are founded on facts renders us in a state of being, that is, we are.

When we are so secure in our union that we just are, not giving the basis of our faith much thought so that we live our lives, do our things almost unconsciously of the reality that we are in a wonderful, life-giving union with God we have entered what I believe Jesus meant when He said that true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

Virgin Birth

2010-07-02T15:46:00.000+02:00

Elizabeth exclaimed in a loud voice to Mary: “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!” Jesus, the son of man, was conceived through a juxtaposition of faith and the miraculous work of the Spirit. Every day new sons are conceived through faith and the power of the Spirit. Man believes and the Spirit creates. The virgin birth is repeated every time the seed of a new son is conceived by the overshadowing of the Spirit in accordance with that person’s faith. Every new birth is preceded by God exclaiming over the person: “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

A New World

2010-06-25T22:11:00.000+02:00

The devil fell because he wanted to be like God. He hence attempted to do good and avoid doing evil. Those are the basics of this world’s god’s principles. No wonder that converts believe these principles also apply for the kingdom of God. However, the principles of the devil cannot prevail in God’s kingdom. It is governed by an all together different principle.

The immature Christian gives his best to become a Christian and adapt to Christianity, and of course fails miserably. Simply because he tries to become something he already is through his regeneration. “Not until a person has become so wretched that his only wish, his only consolation, is to die – not until then does Christianity truly begin.” (Kierkegaard).

On the verge of complete ruin he discovers that his dead is already an accomplished fact. His old self died with Christ at the cross. He is a new creation in a different realm. There is nothing left he has to die to, but there is an eternity ahead of him of new discoveries of the unsearchable riches in Christ. By and by he comes to realize that the kingdom of God is governed by infinite grace.

The Obedience of Faith

2010-06-22T09:27:00.000+02:00

Twice in Romans Paul refers to something he calls the obedience of faith. The scriptures tell us that Christ became sin for us and died for us. Through His once and for all sacrifice we are justified, righteous, sanctified, holy, saints, pure, dead, resurrected and ascended. In Him we go from glory to glory. Briefly told, that is the content of our faith.

Faith to salvation is quite easy compared to all the other things we hold as true. Faith isn’t easy, that is why Paul talks about this obedience of faith. Daily we are faced by inconsistencies. We lose our temper, our thoughts are a different story and we struggle with a variety of temptations. It seems like we are rendered in the middle of a battle zone, where our faith is challenged from many angles.

In order to understand this more thoroughly we have to investigate our death and compare it with Jesus’ death. Jesus death was an all encompassing death. All three parts of Him saw death. When He was in the grave He completely had given up His life. Since He had emptied Himself of His rights before He entered this temporal realm He couldn’t raise Himself from death. Thus the Spirit raised Jesus from the grave and gave Him back His life (Rom 8:11).

We who are still alive have experienced a spiritual death. We died in Christ and were also raised by the Spirit. However, our soul and body haven’t yet tasted death like the death Jesus experienced. Jesus is thus both perfected and untemptable there He is sitting at the right hand of the Father. We, however, are perfected and temptable. That’s the difference! So we are pulled, pushed and tempted in this evil world. But, why?

Where do you go when you are sick? You go to the doctor. He is a specialist. He has been trained with the objective of dealing with people’s ailments. Well, this world needs spiritual specialists as well; people who are well trained in the obedience of faith. So, we are educated through those pulls, influences and temptations to become spiritual experts who can aid those who are struggling towards a settled obedience of faith.

We feel fear, we have reactions, there are doubts and there is unbelief. We experience rejection, hurt, anger and a variety of feelings. Through them we discover our humanity. Our job isn’t to purify all those things. What we do, however, is refusing to accept any condemnation on account of our humanity. Obedience of faith means that despite any appearances we stand grounded in the truth which often seems to contradict the actual realities. We are hence equipped to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of His name among all the nations (Rom 1:5).

Free at Last

2010-06-19T22:44:00.000+02:00

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. (Matt 5:17-18)

When Jesus said that without Him we can do nothing, we hear Him, but we don’t believe Him. No wonder then that so much of what we hear or read more or less have a call to some sort of self-effort. In many instances this call is so subtle that if we haven’t exercised our faculty to make spiritual judgments we might easily fall prey to those calls, and as a result condemnation isn’t far from knocking on our door.

The route God takes us in order to disclose our utter helplessness is through Romans 7. In Romans 6 we experience our freed self. We have moved from the dominion of darkness to God’s kingdom, and now we are ready to live the Christian life. Motivated to please our loving Father we approach the task with energy and high hopes. However, we soon discover, just like Paul, that we do not understand our actions. We are unable to do what we want, and we do what we hate.

It is in this state of wretchedness that God reveals Christ in us and we move into Romans 8 where we begin to live the victorious union life where we finally have found ourselves in Christ. Here we discover that the One who has fulfilled the Law and the prophets lives and moves as us. The outer laws which we in our once former ignorance with great fervor attempted to obey we find are fulfilled in us by Christ. Therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!

The righteous requirements of the law are now fully met in us, and finally we can accept ourselves just as God has accepted us. Concepts such as good and evil are beginning to be dissolved and lose their grip in our consciousnesses, and what we have left is right being, that is, the tree of life. So, here I am with a profound understanding of that my original design is fully restored. This is the truth that liberates.

When We Call on the Bear

2010-06-17T10:57:00.003+02:00

Elisha was on his way home after having cleansed the waters of Jericho. We find this incident recorded in 2 Kings 2:23-24. Most of us are quite vulnerable in the wake of successes like that. No wonder perhaps that Elisha then ran into a bunch of children who teased and mocked him. Those voices that we hear either in our heads or come from others are frequently quite childish in their approach, but nevertheless they sting and often hit home, that is, they reveal those areas where the truth still haven’t been established as an incontestable fact in our lives.

Many of us believe the lies the Devil has sold us about ourselves. We think we are found wanting; that there are areas of our lives that need a fix. We demote our tendencies, inclinations, doings and so forth as not Christ like. The plain truth is, however, that in Christ we have been released from all that. What we need is a renewal of the mind so that we can grasp who we are in Christ. Our imagined failings are residues of the thinking patterns we were so accustomed to when we ate from the tree to knowledge of good and evil.

It is in those times of afflictions God wants us to understand that we are not alone and that we are perfected in Christ. We are made whole once and for all. He is walking in the midst of our being when those voices come against us. Since Christ is in us, it is not only we, but also He that is under accusation. I am the first to admit that I think in terms of separation when those instances occur. I see myself as a lone island, left on my own to face the enemy’s fierce attacks on my faith.

However, that is not the truth. Christ in me is going through the same sufferings as I do. His invitation stands firm in the midst of the storm; “Come and take my yoke upon you.” That’s a magnificent image of the union life. Jesus carries the main burden in our union with Him. When He says that His yoke is easy it is on account of that our role is quite simply to rest in Him.

Our work is hence basically to leave the whole affair to God and watch Him rescue us. Elisha learned this secret through this incident. When he understood what was going on He called on two bears which efficiently killed those voices that haunted him. This was His testing time and He came out fixed in the union life, and his ministry soared with the most astounding miracles after He had been settled in who he was in God.

Since there is no separation in God and He is encountering the same problems as we do it should be quite clear that He is the one that has designed those things we face. If we say He has merely allowed them He is rendered in our consciousnesses as a passive spectator. That is not the case. He never slumbers nor sleeps, and His activity is not to our destruction, even though it sometimes feels that way. Of course He wants to shatter our illusion of independent-self, but the goal is to see us irrevocably fixed in the union with Him. Through all this He proves Himself to us as our total adequacy.

The Key of Knowledge

2010-06-13T13:49:00.005+02:00

In one of Jesus many encounters with the Pharisees and lawyers He exclaims: ”Woe to you Lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.” (Luke 11:52) How had they taken away the key of knowledge? Jesus said about them: “For you load people with burdens hard to bear.” Outer laws become a veil that obstructs people from acquiring knowledge, according to Jesus.

What kind of knowledge is Jesus talking about? I believe Paul answers that question in 2 Cor 13:5; “Do you not realize this about yourself, that Christ lives in you?” The context is that also the Corinthians had had their share of false apostles visiting their church proclaiming a different Jesus. The result of this Paul says would be that their thoughts would be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

Outer laws impede the regenerated man from recognizing the mystery which makes the new life new through and through, namely that Christ lives in us. We have unlimited access to all His resources when it comes to living the abundant life. Living by outer laws leads to the misunderstanding that Jesus gives us power, love and everything else we think we lack in order to have a victorious life.

However, Jesus does not give us those things! Simply because He is everything we need, so that when we recognize His abiding we understand we are everything He is. That’s the liberating secret! That is knowledge. And the key that unlocks the mystery is grace; pure undefiled grace!

Eternal Security

2010-06-11T12:40:00.011+02:00

The marriage between man and woman is a shadow or type of the union we have with God which came into effect in the instant we accepted Christ. God doesn’t like divorces in the natural, because that ruins the image of the far superior union He has entered with the regenerated man. Thus Jesus says; “Let no man separate what God has joined together.” However, in the Old Covenant under Moses the Israelites were allowed to give a certificate of divorce on account of their hard hearts. This is very important, because God hasn’t a hard heart. He is love. He would thus never separate himself from, that is, divorce those who are in a union with Him. Even when we are a faithless He is faithful.

God has such a tremendous respect for the marriage that He wouldn’t release us from our marriage to the law, indwelling sin and our union with Satan before we died. The instant we accepted Christ we went into His cross and died with Him. Now, we are free to marry another, and that person is God. When God swore His covenant oath, remember that marriage is a covenant agreed between two equal partners, He had no one greater by whom to swear, He hence swore by Himself that He would never leave us or forsake us. We played no part in the setting up of that covenant. He is the sole guarantor that the covenant conditions will be met. That is our eternal security!

Many say that sin can cause us to lose our salvation. That is impossible, because it was because of sin that He saved us. We were helpless slaves under its dominion. In our newness of life we are dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Sin is a power, a spiritual power which found a dwelling place in man when man was deceived by Satan. That power is forever cast out. We are free from its demands. We might commit sins, but we are every instant cleansed by the blood. Sin can never cause us to lose our salvation, because it was because of sin that He came to our rescue.

One of the images the Scriptures use to describe our being is vessels. A vessel is filled with something. That is its natural faculty. God created man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils and man became a living being. Then man was put in the Garden. In the garden there were many trees. Our attention is drawn to the Tree of Life which was in the middle of the garden. The tree of prominence. In addition there was the tree to knowledge of good and evil.

The tree of life represents Christ, because later on we learn that if man had taken of the tree of life he would have lived forever. Christ is eternal life. Two trees, two possible unions. As a vessel man is created to be filled with something, and He chose the wrong filling. When we have accepted Christ the former union is dissolved and we are now filled with the tree of life, which is eternal life. To assert that a borne again person can lose his salvation is in effect saying that God will permit that that person again is filled with the spirit who is at work in those who are disobedient. That is an impossibility. That would be to annul the cross. That would be to deride Jesus finished work.

Noah’s ark is a wonderful type of Christ. Every man and animal that entered the Ark was saved and protected from the flood. In the same manner every regenerated man is in Christ. In Him we are safe and protected forever and ever. It wasn’t Adam who shut the door when everyone had entered the ark. “And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the LORD shut him in.” (Gen 7:16). God was their guarantee! He personally sealed the Ark. No one is greater than God and no one can remove God’s seal. His firm resolve is that not a single soul that has found shelter in Christ will ever be separated from Him.

Paul said: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8: 38-39) Nothing means nothing!

A Natural Life

2010-06-09T12:05:00.002+02:00

The Christian life is both natural and supernatural. By natural we mean that it is a natural outflow of life. Immediately this natural outflow is inhibited by outer laws it ceases being natural. If you dam a river, which otherwise quite naturally would have flowed through the landscape expressing itself in wild torrents down a mountainside or running just slowly and majestic through a valley, it has ceased being natural. Its inherent life is quenched by the erected barriers constructed by unyielding cement. In the same manner outer laws will inhibit the natural outflow of the Spirit’s life in a Christian. Everything that does not stem from inner life, that is, a position of being will quench the Spirit.

We might call this trust in our inner life, that we in fact are in a glorious union with the resurrected and ascended Christ and that He is in fact expressing Himself as us, faith. Faith viewed from this side is a state where we just are. In this almost unconscious state of merely being we have found our life again in Christ, where it is has been hidden as a contingency ever since God decided to see Himself mirrored in a succession of sons.

It is supernatural because we are not of this world. We are sojourners in this temporal realm until this age has reached its consummation. In God we have access to resources which are completely alien to the unregenerate man. Seated in the Heavenly places with Christ we express ourselves both in the natural and the spiritual world.

We refuse to again subject ourselves to any outer law whether its name is “ought to” or “ought not to”. Perhaps the most subtle of them is that we have to yield more. This particular law hinges on a severe misconception, because when we accepted Christ God completely took possession of us. It is not possible to yield more than that. The Spirit is preoccupied with enlightening the eyes of our hearts so that we in increasingly measure can know the hope to which He has called us, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

By The Grace of God

2010-06-07T13:15:00.001+02:00

Paul says a most wonderful thing to the Corinthians: “By the grace of God I am what I am.” The words resonate with acceptance of his being. In a way he says that God has formed and molded him by His grace so that he is everything he is meant to be. Nothing less, nothing more. To the Galatians the same Paul says: “He who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace.”

Paul had reached a level of understanding where he saw God only. We all know how Paul was a Pharisee of the strictest order and how he persecuted the church before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Despite his rather gloomy past Paul asserted that God had even been there and orchestrated his life and through that season prepared him for his glorious task of bringing the word of reconciliation to the Gentiles.

To the Romans Paul observed: “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” God is glorified and proves his adequacy in turning what in the temporal realm seems like a hopeless case into something most stunning in His kingdom. Paul is the perfect example, and somehow he knew he was. The past, the negative became the backdrop for the positive, the glory of God’s grace which shines so radiantly when it is contrasted with the gloom.

You are not any worse off than Paul. God has set you apart from before the foundation of the universe to be who you are. You have been through different seasons which have prepared you for your high calling of being a son of the Creator of everything. Many a time you have faced things which others have meant for evil, but which God has meant for good. You are not the result of some random influences. Your loving Father has been there all the time hidden in persons and circumstances which have led you to your present glory. By the grace of God you are who and what you are!

It Is Finished

2010-06-03T10:04:00.002+02:00

Jesus cried out: ”It is finished”, but in God’s mind it had been finished from before the fundation of the world when the lamb was slain. In our linear perception of time it was finished two thousand years ago. From God’s perspective it is and has been forever eternally finished. He has never doubted the outcome, He has never been caught off guard by the enemy’s strategies. The Lord has watched over our coming and going both now and forevermore.

Every now, every moment of our lives it is finished. There is nothing we can add or deduct. Despite this glorious fact many a sincere believer is deceived into thinking that there is something lacking in his salvation, that his sanctification is deficient. There are legions of “shoulds”, “ought tos” and “must nots” that cause him to howl inwardly with pain. His seemingly failures throw him to the ground again and again and there is nothing he can do about it.

Utterly helpless he walks among the tombs not recognizing they represent everything He has died from. Desperately he shackles himself hoping he can control his cravings and coveting. It is only Jesus’ “it is finished” that reverberates trough the universe that can set him truly free and make him proclaim through the whole city how much God has done for him.

Borne in a Manger

2010-05-31T10:18:00.007+02:00

My savior was borne in a manger in the midst of manure and the pervasive smell of animals. There was no room for Him in the hostels, and there never is. It was in my derelict building amongst ugliness and foul smells His life again found a place to be manifested. Not many saw it and perhaps I was the one who saw it the least. Little did I know that the savior of the nations was born in me. It wasn’t until God revealed that Christ was formed in me that my inner eye was opened and I could see this miracle taking place in this most unlikely place. Christ come in the flesh again defying any religious ideas of God.

Christ has grown in wisdom and stature until one day He stepped forward as a mature full grown man. That is, my consciousness has in increasingly measure been enabled by the Spirit to behold this mystery. This evolvement hasn’t been something that has gone from worse to better, or from less to more, but from glory to glory. For Him to be fully formed it has been necessary to oppose and rebuke religiosity and legalism in this nation. However, compassion and love has flowed like a wild river when His companion has failed miserably or faced temptations and afflictions which have almost worn him completely out. All this have been of God so that this manger could be transformed into a glorious castle. When darkness has surrounded the building and it has been attacked from every perceivable angle God has turned on the lamp and I have recognized that He was there even in the fiercest of battles, and with a vehemence unbeknownst to man He has slain every enemy which has raised its head against the knowledge of God.

He is the all in all. Even when the pile of dirt has been so huge it has obstructed every view from my limited vantage point He has used it for His redemptive purposes. He is greater than everything and humble enough to identify with nothingness so that He can be recognized as the all in all. Who is like Him? His rest is so encompassing that it far transcends the notion of having died to the law. He is the rest. He is the all encompassing sufficiency. True rest can only be found when He is acknowledged as the one who fills everything and purposes everything after His counsel to the redemption of His creation. Every moment self-consciousness finds a crack in the mind He is diminished and oneness seems like a distant reality. Nevertheless, He is there working forth His magnificent will so that the abundance of life can flow unimpeded to His glory. To be in Christ means no condemnation, that is, it is I, yet not I, but Christ who lives in me. I am found as I am in Him in every now, because that’s where He is.

The Holiest of Holies

2010-05-26T09:58:00.000+02:00

Jesus said: ”I do only what I see my Father is doing”. This is the pinnacle of faith expressed by the One who was the first example of a succession of sons who would soon emerge born of the Spirit. But why and how could Jesus make such a statement? Did He have a second voice in His mind that determined every step He took, or did His observation refer to something else? Let’s start our investigation with some reflections on the Old Testament tabernacle.

The priest could only enter the holiest of holies in the tabernacle once a year to make atonement for the people’s sin. He did so trembling and with great fear. The rest of the year the innermost room of the tabernacle was separated from the holy place in the tabernacle by a veil, and no man could enter the holiest of holies without risking his life. There had to be an atonement for sin before anyone could enter that place. It was in the holy place and the outer courtyard that the priests ministered during the rest of the year.

If we are to be able to tie the aforementioned regarding the tabernacle with Jesus’ observation we have to leave the physical world with its appearances and move to a different level. The outer rooms in the tabernacle thus represent separation in man’s consciousnesses. Man living apart from God. That God is somewhere out there apart from us. When Jesus died at the cross the veil was torn apart and everyone borne by the Spirit in the same manner as Jesus was could now enter the holiest of holies where there is no separation in our consciousnesses. God and man one, no longer apart. The truth is that they had never been apart, but this was how man perceived his existence. To enter this sacred place also signifies that sin is done away with once and for all. If not no man could have entered the holiest of holies.

Jesus was the second Adam and borne by the Spirit. He had unlimited access to the holiest of holies in His consciousness. Jesus saw no separation, that is, that God was apart from Him. Union with God was an established fact in His consciousness. He hence boldly could walk in the Spirit knowing that He was a manifestation of His Father. Everything He did was thus the Father finding an expression through the Son. So whatever the Son did the Father did. Jesus could behold His life and see His Father operating spontaneously as Him, because there was no separation in His consciousness. It is on this backdrop that we understand why Jesus could say: “I do only what I see what my Father is doing.” “Only” doesn’t refer to that the Father put limitations on His life, but that He could see union only.

On the cross Jesus cried out: “’My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This is the cry in every human heart which hasn’t been born by the Spirit and entered the holiest of holiest. Of course, God never forsook His son in this darkest hour, but Jesus had to leave the holiest of holies in His consciousness when He became sin for us and thus experienced the sensation of apartness that has been the prevailing mindset in every man so that He through His sacrifice could open a way into the holiest of holies for every man borne by the Spirit.

We cannot understand Spiritual realities without guidance and revelation from the Spirit. The physical tabernacle in the Old Testament was just a shadow of the things to come. In the new covenant the tabernacle pertains to our consciousness, that is, how we perceive our existence in relation to God. If you still believe that God is apart from you you still haven’t entered the holiest of holiest even though the way in is cleared for you. It is in the holiest of holies that the liberty of the Spirit finds an expression, that we become a law in ourselves apart from the Old Testament law, that we live without condemnation and are established in the union and can say as Jesus: ”I do only what I see my Father is doing”; the pinnacle of faith.

Complete in Him

2010-05-23T09:08:00.000+02:00

The Holy Spirit has done a tremendous work in my life and has convincingly convicted me about my righteousness. There is not a doubt in my mind that God has taken possession of me. He fills me completely and in the same manner as Jesus came in the flesh I have come in the flesh to manifest my lovingly Father. The fact that Jesus came in flesh simply denotes that He was a visible expression of the invisible God through His soul and body faculties. Born by the Spirit His flesh was holy and perfect. My flesh isn’t found wanting either, because the same power that dwelled in Christ now dwells in me.

There was a season in my earthly life when my flesh was filled with sin and it followed the prince of the power of the air. The problem wasn’t my flesh, but who the occupant was. My soul and body are fearfully and wonderfully made designed by my Father to mirror Him, and when He had finished making me He observed that it was very good. When the false spirit was cast out I was restored to my original purposes and design. To accuse my flesh of being of inferior quality or that it has some deadly flaws is in reality saying that God did a poor job when He regenerated me and that I have to fill in what is lacking. That is not the gospel.

Sin is no longer an issue in my life. John says that I cannot sin, and I embrace this by faith. However, I almost daily face temptations. Not to sin, but to return to a mindset where I reject who I am in Him, to doubt that I am a beloved son and that God every second of the day with minutely concern works forth His will in my life. I am tempted to fix my gaze downwards instead of upwards. I am tempted to let worries and problems smother me in their intensity. I am thus tempted to be carnal minded as a substitute to the one I really am, and that is a partaker of divine nature with the mind of Christ. Jesus faced the same temptations as I do. In the wilderness the enemy repeatedly challenged Jesus with “If you are the son of God…..

Jesus was tempted to demean His divinity in all the three parts which constituted His being, that is, spirit, soul and body. In other words both His spirit and His flesh were under attack, but Jesus with great perseverance refused to let the enemy belittle who He was in God. If Jesus had given in to the pressure He would have been in Eve’s position and concluded like she did that there was something lacking in how He was created and hence had to become like God in His own powers. Through this encounter Jesus established forever who He was in God. Jesus was driven into the wilderness by the Spirit. God had purposed His temptation. In the same manner He purposes our temptations so that we can be settled and fixed in who we are in Him.

The Sabbath Rest

2010-05-21T13:38:00.002+02:00

“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Matt 8:20)

Jesus was searching for a resting place, a specific day when He could rest from all His works, that is, a Sabbath rest for His divine being. We are that day, that Sabbath, where our savior can lay His head and rest. Simultaneously, He is our Sabbath rest, because we are in Him and He is in us. This is a profound mystery; how we are joined together in one spirit and how both the human and the divine find rest when they are amalgamated and become one in spirit. This is what the entire creation is eagerly anticipating; the Sabbath day when it will be liberated and enter its perfect rest when reconciliation is consummated.

Jesus IS Come in the Flesh

2010-05-19T09:51:00.000+02:00

Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. (1 John 4:3-4)

Most other translations say that Jesus has come in the flesh. That gives us associations to a time two thousand years ago. Most can agree on that there lived a man in that period of time named Jesus. The dispute mainly revolves around whether He was the savior of the world or not. That’s not the issue in question in this article.

What John throws out here in his epistle as it is rendered in the King James version is dynamite. Jesus is come in flesh means here and now. The thought is so staggering that we have to pitch our arms in utter amazement. Jesus here and now? Where? There exists only one answer. Jesus is come in the flesh in every believer.

This is so overwhelming and have so huge implications for how we are to view ourselves that the enemy will go to great lengths to avoid that this is common knowledge in the Christian community. However, what John asserts squares perfectly up with some of Paul’s observations, notably Col 1:27 and Gal 2:20.

The spirit of antichrist is in opposition to the fact that Christ is come in the flesh, just as it opposed Jesus in His time. Notably, the Pharisees and the Scribes couldn’t fathom that God had found a dwelling place in common human flesh. In some of their rather fierce encounters with Jesus He said that the god of this world was their father. That puts things in their right perspective and we understand what the source of their antagonism was.

Jesus was just an ordinary man, a carpenter from Nazareth, but He was God’s son. The scriptures repeatedly call us sons of God in spite of our commonness. Despite the fact that Jesus was a common man He knew who He was and where He came from. And what an ego He had. “I am the way..” “I am here..” “I have come…” “I will…”. Simultaneously He said: “I can do nothing of my own!” Our false humility is effectively exposed by how He viewed Himself and how He interacted with the world.

Since Christ is come in the flesh and has joined Himself to common human beings like you and me it is about time we raise our heads and acknowledge who we are in God and assert our egos because in our union with God they are reflections of Him. As Jesus we can do nothing of our selves. Spontaneously we do what God does and we recognize this tremendous fact through faith. This is the secret, the mystery of the gospel which Jesus intimately knew and which lifted Him out of His commonness to live in accordance with His original design as a son of the Most High.

Your Servant Loves It

2010-05-16T18:43:00.001+02:00

Your promise is well tried and your servant loves it (Psalm 119:139).

I readily admit that I do not know God particularly well. There are sides with His person that still are shrouded in a mysterious dimness. I know He is love, but what do I know about love? I have some human concepts on love, but He always escapes my attempts at defining Him within those boundaries. He is simply too great for me to fully know. Most likely I would be devoured if He manifested Himself to me in all His glory. Nevertheless, I like Him. I like Him a lot.

What I to a certain degree do know is His promises. My life is grounded on this promise in particular:

“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. ”I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. ”For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Jer 31:33-34)

This most astounding promise is well tried in my life, and it stands fast, unwavering in all trials and tribulations, and it keeps my feet on secure ground whatever circumstance I encounter. As the psalmist I love this promise. It has changed everything.

A River of Love

2010-05-12T21:31:00.002+02:00

Jesus said that we are no more of this world than He is of the world. There is perhaps thus no wonder that we now and then receive severe beatings from a system that do not recognize us, and is inclined towards hating us in the same manner as it didn’t welcome Jesus’ light. We will seldom receive the glory and the honor that are due to us when we are sojourners in this temporal realm. There is only one who fully knows us and whose eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him (2 Chron 16:9).

It is thus imperative that we carry a correct image of God in our hearts. When we receive our blows we need a safe haven where we can find strength for our souls; a place of comfort and approval. Where can we turn to if we believe that even our Father is against us and disappointed in us? If we direct our gaze towards the world for consolation the likelihood of new disappointments are quite high. If we don’t dare to approach our loving Father because we carry a distorted image of Him in our hearts we have no place to turn.

Unfortunately, there is many a sincere believer who does not think that the verse cited above applies to him, because He hasn’t embraced or heard in a faith infusing way the tremendous good news about his new standing with God. Our hearts are blameless toward Him. He has chosen us in him (Christ) before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him (Eph 1:4). That we are blameless is an uncontestable fact!

God’s love is like a river that always seeks the downtrodden, that what is little. Water has the unique quality that it with great certainty finds a way to the lowest parts, where the pain is excruciating and the cravings for love are most desperate. Its fresh and life giving water envelops completely its objects. Even though its torrents are rejected it continues to flow because it is the sustainer of life. That is its nature. It cannot cease from flowing.

My friend, if you have had a tough day there is One whose heart is fully with you, who utter those blissful soothing words that saturate your whole being and who picks you up so you can find rest in His bosom. His love is your destiny, your final destination. His love is your home.

Gain His Glory

2010-05-11T08:22:00.002+02:00

It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 The 2:13)

I spent some time yesterday pondering on this verse. My initial conclusion was that I didn’t like the word “may” in the context particularly well. It was thus natural to make an attempt at finding out what this “may” was pertaining to. Would we gain the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ after we had left this temporal world? I soon rejected this idea, because God is operating in the now. The now is His prime concern in His dealings with His precious children.

My second approach was to reflect on whether this “may” perhaps was pertaining to some condition we have to fulfill in order to see the manifestation of the promise. For instance if we walk in the Spirit and not the flesh then we will most certainly gain the glory, I reasoned. However, that seemed as a very shaky foundation for the fulfillment of a promise. With all these thoughts swirling in my mind I got into the car in order to pick up our daughter. I put on some music and relaxed to the enchanting rhythms and terrific guitar work of Paradise Lost.

When I turned the first curve a new thought hit me with a compelling force. What if this “may” was pertaining to God’s dreams and will from before the foundation of the earth? What if His desire always has been to see a succession of sons who share in the glory of His firstborn son here and now? However, in order that they “may” gain this glory He had to sanctify them first. And so He did through one offering for sins. I am without a shadow of doubt sanctified in Christ, and if I am sanctified I have also gained the glory of my Lord Jesus Christ. Since I am unable to see my glory I trust that what God says about me is the absolute truth. I find it quite futile to discuss matters that He of His own free counsel has decided, notably when those matters are to my benefit.

Those we encounter in this temporal realm can, however, detect our glory. I assume what Paul observed covers this remarkable thing: “In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade. Through us, he brings knowledge of Christ. Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation—an aroma redolent with life. But those on the way to destruction treat us more like the stench from a rotting corpse.” (2. Cor 2:14-16)

What a Blissful Mystery

2010-05-09T16:48:00.001+02:00

Today I am sitting here with this warm fuzzy feeling inside contemplating God’s love. His plan is so wonderfully majestic that I am rendered in utter awe. Who would have imagined that His plan of salvation would involve that the kingdom would be established in hearts of flesh? That heaven is inside every believer where Christ has found an eternal resting place? I am quieted by the fact that He in His mysterious humbleness has chosen to make Himself manifest in human flesh. Every single cell in my body is sustained by His life.

My entire being leaps with joy when He tells me that I am not of this world, that I am a partaker of divine nature and that I am destined to spend an eternity with Him. His love desired my existence into being, and I am now a part of that triune flow that has existed from before the foundation of the world. How could it be otherwise? He will always remain faithful, because He cannot disown Himself. He has sworn an oath regarding His relation to me. Since He could not find anyone greater than Himself, He made the oath with Himself. He will always remain faithful to His oath, because He is unchangeable and cannot lie!

I am thinking about the mystery of the cross where I went into Christ in His death and disappeared for suddenly being resurrected in Him as a new creation with an entire different genealogy from the one I had. I am new through and through. Who would have imagined? In His love He is fussing around making sure that I know who I am in Him. That is His greatest delight to establish His beloved son in who he is. His heart almost bursts with pride when He beholds me. He is boasting unconstrained of me wherever He goes in the Heavenly realms. Could it be otherwise? After all, I am His offspring!

Shouting From the House Tops

2010-05-08T09:08:00.002+02:00

You have most certainly noticed how the Spirit spurs you on to take new steps of faith. He begins His mission by quietly whispering some new and profound truths in your ear. Either are those truths too good to be true or they are beyond your mental ability, because they involves accepting something which might seem as a complete paradox, or those things He whispers are so beyond our material realm that we do not have any points of reference. What we thought was our secure ground is now dissolving under our feet.

However, the Spirit is patient so He continues to unravel those places where the knots are so tight that they impede our ability to process any new ideas. In an odd way we can sense how He is working in us until suddenly the dam bursts and our faith becomes substance and the things He initially whispered to us now have become ours and in our mind it feels as though we now are shouting those magnificent truths from the house tops. What a wonderful release that is.

A reasonable question now is; why all this? The truth is that we have been deceived. When we accepted Christ a revolutionary thing happened. We became new creations. Jesus says about us: “…for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.” The deceiver does not want us to know this magnificent truth. The enemy thus makes any effort to make us stay earthbound in our outlook and entices us to build our identity upon what we can see.

However, appearances fall far short of conveying who we really are in the spiritual realm which is our true home. The eternal truth about us far supersedes any identity we might have acquired during our years on this planet. The Spirit hence convicts us about our innocence and that we are righteous. Our true identity is not dependent on our efforts to become something we desire to be in this temporal realm. It is not based on works, occupation, education or social position. If we are to be safe sons of God our identity has to be based on something unshakeable, and that is Christ. Thus John in his first epistle observes that as He (Christ) is so are we in this world.

We embrace our true identity by faith, but faith is not faith before it has become substance, that is, we know that we know. The Holy Spirit is our helper in this very important process. When the light is fully lit in our understanding those beautiful truths He initially whispered to us are now palpable realities in our lives, and in our consciousnesses these amazing, from an earthly perspective almost preposterous truths, are shouted from the house tops.

Dressed in Fine Linen

2010-05-05T11:29:00.004+02:00

His Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. (Rev 19:8)

How many righteous deeds are you able to perform during a day? I must admit I have lost count. They simply flow quite effortlessly and natural from me, so I do not give them much thought. There was a time, though, when I with great eagerness kept a track record of my sins, or to be more precise, my imaginary sins. Ignorantly, I wasn’t aware of the fact that I was dressed in fine linen.

I hope you don’t mind if I share a secret with you: I have relocated from Mount Sinai. I have some vivid memories from that place, though. It was in those days that my consciousness was filled with thunder and lightning. My thoughts were billowing with clouds and smoke so that I couldn’t see clearly. And it was when I was there that I had this crippling fear of God which rendered me in a state of mind where I seldom dared to approach Him. I preferred to keep a distance, because as long as the commandments and sin dominated my outlook I had this terrible feeling of always falling short before my Father. I thus thought He was terribly disappointed in me.

I now live on Mount Zion, a mountain renowned for its stunning scenery. It is a joyful and peaceful place. Another fascinating quality with this mountain is that it is always sunny here. Clouds and smoke are completely absent, so the view is never obstructed by a deprecating consciousness of sin. With this new clarity in sight I am empowered to distinguish the real me. Moreover, I am always close with God. Even though I do not always feel His presence I know we are connected in a unique and indissoluble way.

Mount Zion is my guarantee that I am as righteous as Jesus. I see that clearly now. God has not dressed me in fine linen to cover my filthy, dirty self. When God does something He does it thoroughly and not half heartedly. I am clothed in righteous deeds as a sign of my new status; clean through and through. I didn’t earn my righteousness. It was a gift which I received and fully embraced when I switched mountains.

Do you think I live differently now when I know that I am righteous? Of course I do! All of us live according to how we think. To linger on Mount Sinai as new creation is like being a former convict who voluntarily prefer incarceration and bondage to liberty and a life as a free citizen with all the rights that entails. The quality of life soars exponentially when you are a free citizen of Mount Zion.

Friends

2010-05-03T08:32:00.001+02:00

But you, Israel, are my servant. You’re Jacob, my first choice, descendants of my good friend Abraham. (Isa 41:8 – The Message)

I am a descendant of Abraham. There is no doubt in my mind that this is true and an uncontestable fact. I am Abraham’s offspring, because I share the faith of Abraham. In other words I am God’s first choice. I am of perfect quality. God has fearfully and wonderfully made me, and when He had finished the task He said: “It is very good!” As a new creation there is nothing wrong with me. I am perfected through one offering.

God calls Abraham His good friend. Hold that thought for a second! The creator of the universe calls a created human being His good friend. Do you think that you are worse off than Abraham? Your Heavenly Papa calls you His good friend as well. What a majestic thought that is!

For many years I thought that few would like to be my friend. I perceived myself as boring, rather dull and not particularly exciting to be around. Those signals I received from the surroundings seemed to verify my suspicions. My negative self perception became increasingly entrenched in my mind and as I grew older, and my conduct reflected my poor self image.

It wasn’t until Jesus picked me up that I began to loosen up, notably when He began to show me how much He appreciated my unique being. He didn’t have any problems with me being an introvert. In fact He found my thought processes very intriguing. I aroused His curiosity. He plainly told me that He wanted to be my friend. I truly appreciate His friendship, because He is so supportive. He is never disappointed in me or angry with me. Even though I sometimes can be very quiet He respects my moods. He is never importunate. We have a lot in common. We read the same books and enjoy the same kind of music.

His loving friendship has untangled a lot of knots and I am thus flourishing like never before. He has even showed me some sides and talents that my Father has endowed me with that I wasn’t aware of and which discovery has enriched my life considerably. I am far from being boring. On the contrary, I am a very colorful and exciting person to be with.

Receiving Like a Child

2010-04-30T12:44:00.002+02:00

For many years I found it terribly difficult to receive gifts. There was a perpetual sense of unworthiness and even a nagging feeling that I had to do something to earn them which made this basic task very difficult. This was not a problem when I was a child. However, as my self-consciousness grew and as life’s many disappointments and blows came in rapid succession my innocence and natural ability to spontaneously receive crumbled.

Paul said in Romans 5:17 “…much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” And Jesus told us that we had to turn and become like small children to enter the kingdom of God. This explains quite succinctly why my first season as a believer was such a “disaster”.

From we were infants our parents gave us everything pertaining to life. Utterly helpless we were completely dependent on our parent’s care and gifts. We were experts on receiving. The idea that we had to merit their care didn’t exist. Moreover, we often demanded their attention and care without giving that issue a second thought. Naturally we moved in a realm of receiving and taking, because their possessions were evidently also ours.

There are some possessions which God owns that He has a strong desire to give His children. Those are: Abundance of grace, the gift of righteousness and the kingdom. He says that when we receive those gifts we will reign in life. Jesus told us that if we don’t have the mindset of a child we will reject the gifts on account of our inclination to think in terms of rewards. However, the law guarantees us that if we attempt to earn His gifts we are doomed to fail.

It wasn’t that God loved me less when I in my self-righteous fervor tried to deserve His gifts and favor. The simple and sad fact was that I was unable to recognize and accept His love, because I firmly believed I had to earn His approval and gifts. Of course that marked my life. If you believe you are serving a demanding and angry God, you become angry and demanding. That is definitely not reigning in life.

Man’s most important and basic faculty is to receive. Unable to receive we are distorted versions of our original design, and a distorted version will ultimately flounder. Jesus met and cared for a special group of people who found it very easy to receive His love and acceptance. They were the outcasts of society; prostitutes, leprous, tax collectors and their likes. So I guess those of us who think we are something in our own eyes are those who find it most difficult to receive His unconditional love.

I have learned the hard way to receive from my Father. His love had to break me first before I could turn and become like a little child. I am immensely grateful that His grace and love found the task of leading this man to repentance worth the effort. Well, He had made up His mind before the foundation of the earth when He proclaimed: “I will!” And His determined “I will” is like an unquenchable flood so my ability to receive is continually improving.

The Greatest Miracle

2010-04-28T21:51:00.000+02:00

There is a great and magnificent miracle that many find difficult to believe is possible. It is not healing. Even pagans believe that their witchdoctor through some magical rite can heal them. It is not life after death. Even New Age adherents believe there is an afterlife. I don’t think I am wrong if I assert that the miracle most people find almost impossible to believe in is that someone can love them unconditionally.

Turning to Jesus

2010-04-27T13:26:00.002+02:00

Often we find that people associate particular emotions or resolve into the term repentance. Brokenness, remorse, guilt, shame, rededication and self-introspection are often demanded if a person’s repentance is to be assessed as genuine. However, if this is the model we apply we inevitably are confronted with a couple of episodes recorded in the scriptures which challenge our understanding.

Eros love demands that a person does something to earn its approval and forgiveness. However, God operates on a completely different level through His unconditional Agape love. Thus He is eagerly waiting for the prodigal son to return, even running to meet and embrace Him. This son erroneously thought that his Father had nothing more than Eros to offer him, so before he went home he had planned what he would tell his Father when he returned including all the necessary phrases and resolves. But, the Father wouldn’t listen to any of it on account of His agape love.

This parable tells us that repentance is simply turning to Jesus. If we put anything else into this expression we demonstrate our predilection towards a legalistic system of reward and punishment. We are also confronted with the thief on the cross who simply turned to Jesus and was saved. He had nothing to show for himself except faith in God’s grace.

Often God’s grace and generosity is too much for the human mind to grasp. We don’t like that God makes it so easy for persons to be reconciled to Him. We prefer to think that they must put in an effort to better themselves first or that they display all the emotions we associate with repentance so that they can deserve His kindness.

We are designed to be spirit people. When Eve and Adam fell the only thing we had left was our flesh. We knew somehow that something was missing. Man began thus searching for the meaning of life outside his original design. As a flesh person man exalted wisdom, intellect, progress and even sex as the meaning of their existence. They missed the goal, which is sin.

The meaning of life is simply to walk in a relationship with the Creator. Anything less than that is missing the target. Repentance is thus to turn from our futile and void pursuit of what seems to the flesh as the ultimate meaning of life and turn to God. The thief on the cross did exactly that, turned to Jesus and was saved. Moreover, we are continually saved by His ascended life, and we continue our process of repentance after we are saved by dismissing our misguided ideas concerning God’s agape love and replace them with the stupendous truth.

And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:42-43)

We are the objects of Agape

2010-04-26T17:08:00.002+02:00

The Greek word for love is Eros. It has the same meaning as the English word love. It denotes the kind of love that responds to beauty and harmony. Eros loves those who deserve its affection. It strives towards the highest and best, and everything which doesn’t match its standards fall short of its devotion. This love is repulsed by what it find ugly and of less quality.

Eros is driven by this desire to fulfill its own cravings and to own the objects of its love. It enjoys the hunt and finds it thrilling to conquer, and it reduces what it desires to mere objects or things to possess. To contrast and compare and come out at the top makes Eros the kind of love that the Pharisees displayed when they were basking in the affirmation from their peers.

Eros thinks that if religious duties are well performed it will earn God’s favor. Its worth is based on its accomplishments and it cannot fathom that God will stretch out His hand to tax-collectors, prostitutes, thieves and homosexuals. Eros likes to boast of its beauty and that it is blessed because of its good deeds. This kind of love is on shaky ground, because whenever it witnesses God’s kindness towards those it consider unworthy its system of values is challenged and its response is often religious anger.

Agape is a Greek word that seldom was used in the days the New Testament was written. It was a word with a rather general meaning, but it was this word the Holy Spirit exclusively used in the New Testament and gave it His own meaning and definition. Agape arises spontaneously from the heart of God, and it loves both the ugly and the unworthy. Agape shows no partiality. It loves unconditionally both the prodigal son and the self-righteous son.

Agape seeks out that what is in disharmony with God. It even embraces its enemies, those who would like to see it dead. This is the kind of love who loves the spiritual unattractive. It isn’t awakened by religious deeds or good works. Because God is love agape originates in who He is, not in us being lovable. So His love seeks us out with compassion and with no strings attached. Its highest desire is to see the objects of its love liberated and set in freedom. It asks of nothing in return and it finds its fulfillment in those who humbly receives it with gratitude because they have nothing to offer.

Agape stirs the depths of the hearts of those who recognize it and welcome it. This is the kind of love that turns hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. Agape can never be deserved so those who trust in its Source are standing on firm ground. Agape is scandalous in its affections and thus rejected by the religious minded who thinks in terms of Eros. There are a couple of other properties which we can attribute to Agape that are almost outrageous; it never feels ashamed over its recipients and it never turns its head in disgust when they fail miserably.

You and I are the objects of Agape!

When He Lingers

2010-04-24T21:25:00.002+02:00

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. (John 11:5-6)

This is really an oddity. I thought that if you loved someone you would hurry to their rescue. But, no! Not Jesus. He follows a different timetable. I for sure would have preferred that He swiftly came to my salvage when I was in trouble. I don’t know how you are wired, but if I learn that someone is in dire need I do not postpone my involvement or aid for two days because I love that person.

Anyway, there are some great lessons in those two brief sentences. If Jesus doesn’t come to your rescue immediately it doesn’t mean that He has abandoned you or that He doesn’t love you. On the contrary, if He lingers it is because He loves you dearly and because He has a miracle up His sleeve.

Your deliverance will come in His perfect timing and when it comes it is going to render you in utter awe. In the meantime He asks you to trust Him and make your bed, that is, make yourself comfortable in your transient “hell”. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the death many turned to Jesus and believed in Him. So, your troubles aren’t perhaps so often about you, but as a beloved child of the Most High you are His conduit for bringing life and repentance, that is, a change of mind regarding God to many.

I ask you to never assume that Jesus doesn’t love you when you face your dreaded darkest hours, because He does. In fact, He goes through those seasons as you. He intimately knows your thoughts. He cries with you, and your heart’s sorrows break His heart. If you listen carefully you will hear Him in your heart saying: “I have gone through this before. I know how it is and I know how to deal with it. If you put your trust in me you will see that I carry you through everything. And it is my responsibility to glorify you and myself through it all. So, rest in me.”

"He loves you not only because you are here, but also you are here because He loved you into existence" (Malcolm Smith)

He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!] (Hebr 13:5 Amplified)

Evolvement

2010-04-22T09:41:00.003+02:00

In his first epistle John introduces something not found elsewhere in the Bible. He suggests that the Christian walk can be divided into three separate periods, where each period has some common characteristics. I have been pondering this lately and what I am now to pen down is not an exhaustive exposition on the subject, merely some initial thoughts.

The little child knows his sins are forgiven. He is not yet, however, secured in God’s grace and has a limited understanding of the mystery of the gospel, that is, Christ’s abiding presence in him. The child is an easy prey for condemnation, and is apt to judge himself and others based on behavior. He prefers fixed boundaries and finds security in a predictable religion.

The child usually wants to have its will and God have mercy on those who is so audacious that they shake their outlook and their predictable world. Children prefer predictability and strict boundaries. They prefer to divide things in good and evil.

The young man has overcome the evil one. He has disclosed the devil’s devices and is secure in his identity. He is strong because he has discovered the surpassing power of the One who abides in him. The adolescent is well settled in God’s grace and he is beginning to make righteous judgments in accordance with the light he has been given.

Otherwise the young men are like most other adolescents. They almost invariably know better than those who are older and more mature than them. Full of plans and energy they embark on any project they think will glorify God.

The father, who knows Him who has been from the beginning, has delved into this mystery we call love. He knows God is limitless and unsearchable. He has found that God operates outside any preconceived boxes. Daily his mind is stretched, because the Spirit is leading him further and further from the trodden paths. The father is completely secure in God’s love. The fact that he is loved is a fixed inner knowledge. He is not dependent on feelings, sensations or experiences to feel loved even though he appreciates those moments of intimacy.

What does it mean that the father knows Him who has been from the beginning? God is love and thus love is the origin of everything. It is a love that far surpasses any human understanding, so the father has undressed himself of those inhibiting thought patterns which attempt to understand God intellectually. God is Spirit and can hence only be recognized in a realm where words cannot by any means make justice to God’s person or ways. The father has abandoned any earthly ways, and his soul is utterly captivated by the beauty of the Eternal one.

For the father any illusion about separation has been dissolved and he is well established in his union with God. His will is fused with God’s will and he confidently obeys his heart knowing he can do nothing of himself and is thus secure in his own I. Paradoxes do not scare him. On the contrary he is intrigued by the freedom those almost preposterous inconsistent ideas offer.

Others envy him his freedom to express himself without any inhibitions. In the same manner as God the father is preoccupied with one thing only and that is life and life in abundance.

I AM

2010-04-21T11:41:00.002+02:00

Repentance is simply acknowledging that ”I can’t” and say to God “you can”. There is no condemnation for those who can’t. Those who still attempt to live the Christian life are, however, in a precarious position and are an easy prey to condemnation and the activities of the flesh. The flesh says: “I can”. That is idolatry.

Faith, however, says: “I am willing to let You”. It opens up to His ability and His resources. The Christian life isn’t a self-improvement program. It is supernatural and divine. This involves a process where the regenerated man increasingly recognizes and embraces Christ’s activity in him.

Repentance is to recognize that God’s Kingdom is within. Repentance leads to faith, and faith investigates its inheritance. It is not an inheritance hidden in a dim future, but it is here and now. What is this inheritance? Isn’t it a fearfully and wonderfully made me who is dressed in Christ? So I joyfully investigate the new creation.

When I let go and let Him I walk in the Spirit free and bold knowing I am a son of the Most High. Paradoxally, I have now found myself and I fill the whole picture with everything I am.

The “I can” identity’s “I” and “my” are filthy rags!
The “I can’t” identity’s “I” and “my” are glorious!

Bread and Water

2010-04-20T17:53:00.001+02:00

After the Spirit revealed the revolutionary news to me that Christ is in me I find it immensely difficult to say that I am dry. It is an impossibility since the Everlasting water springs up inside me and lives inside me and its fresh wells soak my entire being. I find it corresponding difficult to assert that I am spiritual hungry now when the Heavenly Bread continually feeds me with its abundance inside of me.

He has been there my entire Christian walk, but it wasn’t until I recognized the facts and faith became substance that I wholly could rely on Him as my sustainer. What an amazing difference this constitutes. Of course I have my bad days when my soul is in uproar, when self pity finds a crack or tiredness overwhelms me. However, those emotions do not any longer define my being in a negative way. And perhaps most importantly: I never give them the opportunity to condemn me, because the truth has become a tangible reality to me. I have come to love my emotions knowing that I am perfectly capable of expressing Him and myself through them. Emotions are an asset. They color my life.

If my soul emotions happen to bother me a quick glance at Him inside of me is all that is necessary for my soul to calm down and find rest. You see, I am fearfully and wonderfully made. God really put an effort into the making of me, and when He was finished He smiled exclaiming: “It is very good.” Recognizing His presence within me has also released this unspeakable joy which earlier just was a remote idea of something unattainable in this life. So from having a Christ out there, the illusion, to have a Christ in here makes all the difference in the universe.

The One Jesus Loves

2010-04-19T14:35:00.002+02:00

One of His disciples, whom Jesus loved [whom He esteemed and delighted in], was reclining [next to Him] on Jesus’ bosom. (John 13:23 Amplified)

This is perhaps one of the most beautiful pictures portrayed in the New Testament of intimacy between Savior and disciple. John writes of himself that he was loved by Jesus. Not that the others were less loved, but John had understood that he was accepted and loved by his master. Can you imagine yourself resting your head on God’s bosom?

Do you have this inner knowing that you are esteemed by God, and that He delights in you? Do you yearn to rest your head on His shoulder or bosom (which also means heart)? Can you picture yourself being embraced by the tender love of the One who has created everything?

Doesn’t this image make you feel special? Doesn’t it make you bold in His presence? John could be bold with Jesus because He knew he was loved. No need to pretend when you are together with a person that loves you unconditionally!

Did you know that John is derived from Hebrew and means God is gracious?

Eternal Love

2010-04-18T11:33:00.002+02:00

God’s humbleness came into display when His son was born in a stable and laid in a manger in a country occupied by alien forces. That same humbleness is manifested every day in people who have given their lives to Him and who He isn’t ashamed of calling His offspring. They are sojourners on this planet which one day will be dissolved in the same manner as the consciousnesses of those who love Him are shaken until their minds can contain Him.

The mysteries of God are only conceivable to those who have given up everything with a desire to be filled by Him. In this state they discover themselves as true beings liberated from any inhibiting outer limitations. In their uniqueness there is a diversity and freshness that is captivating. In every man He makes Himself known in a distinctive way.

Our Father’s main objective is to see us soar like eagles liberated from the gravity of appearances to be to free to walk boldly in faith trusting ourselves as perfect manifestations of His humble divinity. His desires are like a consuming fire and everything He has resolved according to His own free counsel will see its completion despite any evidence of the contrary.

The same consuming fire has He endowed on every son. This eternal flame scorches off self effort and any constraining illusion of independent self until the creation sighs of relief witnessing another safe son step forward confidently emanating the kind of love that words into being the Eternal Love’s desires.

Theology or Love?

2010-04-17T09:36:00.002+02:00

We often might get the impression that our authenticity as Christians is evaluated by others on the background of our theology. However, Jesus never said that should be our measuring stick. In fact that is a miserable way of assessing a person’s standings with Christ. The Pharisees utilized this method in their encounters with Jesus, but every time they came out as fools. Jesus said that a good tree would be known by its fruit. There is, however, only one good tree in the universe. When Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit those qualities he mentions are a perfect description of the inherent traits of God. How come those qualities will be manifested in our lives as a witness of our authenticity? Since it is only one who is good, according to Jesus, those qualities are manifested in mortal flesh because Christ is in the believer. His life is bound to seep out of His friends. Paul plainly stated that no one has a perfect theology. Every one of us sees in parts. Love, however, is perfected in us and it wells forth with an unswerving fortitude.

Sinless Perfection

2010-04-15T14:38:00.002+02:00

If we are to call ourselves true fundamentalists we are forced to take into consideration and ultimately have an unwavering faith in the Biblical principle of sinless perfection. The opposite, sinful imperfection, might seem from an earthly perspective to be closer to the truth, and is thus the prevailing idea in most churches. When Jesus said: “Be you perfect as your Father is perfect” he was not kidding around. That was not a call to fervent self effort, but a statement of a soon to be actual reality for whosoever entered His kingdom through faith. It was a call not to live by sight, but to live by faith. John had the nerve to say that as He is, not was, so are we in this word. Every quality we attach to the ascended Christ is also true about us, John asserts. Life at its fullest is found in this almost absurd notion that there is nothing wrong with me, but that I am perfected through a once and for all sacrifice.

Faithful in All His House

2010-04-13T12:44:00.003+02:00

Paul likens our relationship to God with a marriage. We died from our former husband, the law. Then we were resurrected to be with our true husband. The fact that our earthly marriages are a type of our heavenly union is the obvious reason why God doesn’t like infidelity particularly well. One of the things the new gentile churches thus were to abstain from was sexual immorality. God is a jealous spouse because He loves us so compassionately.

In 1 Cor 7 Paul literally says that the spouses own each other. They have authority over each other’s bodies. Have you considered the implications of this? It means that we as His spouses have access to and authority over everything He owns. We can relate this to what Jesus said about us being given the keys to the kingdom of Heaven, that we are commissioned to bind and loose. We perhaps see this more clearly when we remember that we are in God, and that He is in us. He owns us and we own Him. Moses knew this secret, because Hebrews 3:2 says that Moses was faithful in all His house.

How much more do we not have access to all His house under the new covenant?

There is a small detail, however, before we can take the necessary leap of faith and operate on this level effortlessly. The Holy Spirit must first have established us in a position where we never accept condemnation. As soon as we begin to assert our rights the Devil will come against us with all sorts of temptations and accusations.

But, we stand fast without the slightest condemnation, and we know the difference between a temptation and a sin. Jesus was tempted as we are. He is well acquainted with the Devil’s strategies, and since Christ is in us the enemy has nothing in us. We do not fall back on self effort, which is infidelity, but stand fast in Him.

As long as we are sojourners on this earth which is under the dominion of the evil one it is his right to come against us and test us. However, God uses those encounters to further His will in us and to exercise our faith. We come out even stronger, more confident and as more than conquerors when we have defeated our adversary by the blood of the lamb and our confession.

It has become more and more clear to me that if we are to be faithful in all His house we have to be safe sons. We are created as persons. Persons can choose, but they become slaves of what they have chosen. I opted to marry, and became a slave of marriage. We choose to have children, so we are slaves of our children. I became a teacher, and that choice governs my life.

To be safe sons of God means that we have tasted darkness and we have tasted light. We know the difference between sin and righteousness. We have experienced the wretchedness of self effort, and found the surpassing excellence of rest. Project man was finished at the cross, and out of it a multitude of safe sons emerge, because they are knowers. Their experiences are the foundation for their choices, and they never again have any desire to return to the former things. They can compare and contrast, and the glory of the new marriage far supersedes the things that one day will dissolve. So they reign with Him safe in His love and secure in His keeping powers. Yes, it is all of grace! Yes, we are slaves of righteousness.

No Wants

2010-04-12T08:15:00.025+02:00

There was a time in my Christian walk when I wanted so many things. I wanted to become a better father, better husband, more loving, more caring, less judgmental and so on. Norman Grubb calls those wants rubbish, and I agree wholeheartedly.

Those wants expressed my erroneous belief that I had to improve myself using my own willpower. I have reached the conclusion that’s not the case, since I am either indwelt by sin or Christ. Since I have been given life through my faith in Jesus I am indwelt by the latter. I thus do not have an independent operating self which is designed to reflect myself, which is the illusion our soul enemy wants to perpetuate. Every one of my wants became veils which impeded me from recognizing my new union with Christ and my perfection in Him, and that I reflect Him in my human form as the perfect version of myself. This of course is the mystery of the gospel.

I also believe that God used my wants so that that illusion concerning an own independent self that had the power to improve itself could be completely shattered when I came to the end of myself. Our wants of improvement also become our idols. We fix our gaze on our goals, and are distracted from our center, which is Christ and Christ alone.

It is quite clear to me that if God accepted me into His family of sons with everything I am, I can accept myself. If I am good enough for God, I am good enough for myself. He is my keeper, it is His life that is manifested in my mortal flesh. I say as Jesus: “I can do nothing of myself.” So, if God wants to better me He has to do it. I just relax with no condemnation seeing Him accomplish His works in me.

Who am I to judge myself? Christ is the judge and his verdict is: “Innocent.” And if I am Christ in my form I am promoted to make righteous judgments as well, and my verdict of my existence is: “Holy, righteous, perfected son.” I have literally kicked my former consciousness of sin on the ash heap. It was a burdensome nuisance which smothered my precious liberty in Him.

I also remember that I wanted to be used by Him, to yield to His will etc. Well, the truth is: I am all those things. How, you may ask. Through faith! I have practiced (He has practiced as me) to recognize Christ in me until it has become a fixed inner spirit knowledge. Our faith develops by hearing the word. That’s what I have been doing the last year; immersed myself (He has immersed Himself) in teachings which edifies and encourages me to take those leaps of faith which enabled me to acknowledge everything He attained at the cross on my behalf.

Ever since I accepted Christ I have been all those things He says I am, but it has taken 17 years for Him to lead me to the understanding I now have. Every step has been carefully planned by my loving Father. I can see that in retrospect.

Rest Through Faith

2010-04-11T09:28:00.006+02:00

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Heb 4:8-12)

We enter God’s rest by faith. That is the only work which is not self effort, because we have the faith of God. We thus declare to ourselves: “I have entered His rest.” The striving part comes as a result of our circumstances and soul emotions contesting our confession. So we stand firm in our belief disregarding any outer storms which attempt to make us sway in our inner conviction. This striving will ultimately transform our faith into substance.

The giants the Israelites feared when they stood on the brink of entering their promised land of rest is a type of our soul emotions and our fear of our flesh. We erroneously think that we have to fight those feelings, attractions and desires which raise their head in order to deter us from entering our promised land which is Him in us as us. At the cross He won that crucial battle and cleansed us completely from indwelling sin. There is nothing wrong with our flesh. He is our keeper! Our flesh is His means of manifesting Himself in this temporal realm, that is, “those who have seen me have seen the Father”.

The word of God, Christ, who is joined one spirit to us pierces to the division of soul and spirit so that we are empowered to discern between what are soul emotions and what is our inner spirit knowing. This knowledge and enablement to discern is powerful in rejecting everything which rises against the knowledge of God, who is our rest. Jesus provided this land of rest through the cross. We already have it, and we recognize and possess our heritage through faith, and we boldly enter His rest knowing this is His good will for us.

Stand Up And Walk

2010-04-08T11:02:00.002+02:00

I don’t think Peter knew how profound his words were when he healed the crippled beggar by exclaiming: “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Recently filled by the Spirit he and the other disciples with boldness expressed the new power which had found a dwelling place in their cleansed temples.

At that time Peter couldn’t have apprehended the full scope of the words he uttered. It wasn’t until later that he received the revelation that the gospel was for the Gentiles as well. It was Paul who was elected to receive the full revelation of the union life, which would propel Paul to take the leap of faith where he completely indentified himself with our Father and perceived that he was an expression of Christ in his form. This is what Norman Grubb calls the total truth of our being, recognizing the Other as the source of our workings and doings.

It was most likely Paul who passed on his revelation to Peter. We find that Peter in one of his letters alludes to this when he mentions that some of the things Paul writes in his letters are difficult for many to comprehend. Despite Peter’s ignorance about the union life in the beginning of his ministry the Spirit spoke those faith words of healing through him for a special purpose. Unfortunately, many have interpreted his utterance as a magic formula on how to minister healing to people. However, that was not the Spirit’s intention.

Those words plainly symbolize that when we recognize Christ within we understand that we operate in His resurrection power as His representatives on this planet. This identification from the Spirit’s standpoint is so inclusive that He beholds us as perfect expressions of the divine life, and thus ambassadors for Christ who boldly can speak words of faith with the authority of the Father spontaneously when it swells up in us. As Paul and Peter we also can enter this fixed inner spirit reality of who we really are when that illusion of self improvement is shattered. However, as was the case for Peter we don’t need to have a full understanding of this to be used mightily by God to further His kingdom.

Let us now take this a step further. We know by experience and many witnesses that God still heals, and that is wonderful. There is, however, an issue that is far more important than physical healing. There are plenty of Christians who still are crippled by condemnation and self introspection. They are rendered lame and cannot walk in the freedom Christ purchased for everyone of us who believe in His name. We are thus commissioned, as Peter so vividly demonstrated, to talk our word of faith to those who are crippled by law and self effort to walk in Him!

That is the real healing that will last throughout eternity!

Where His Glory Dwells

2010-04-06T11:31:00.005+02:00

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Jer 31:33)

I remember those days very vividly when I still thought that the law was something which I had to observe by self effort. The law was something outside me which I as a good Christian had to fulfill. What an anguish my soul went through when I repeatedly failed. I still carried around this illusion that God and I were separate beings; He there and I here. I firmly believed that He would give me power to overcome my apparent shortcomings. I must admit I was a bit confused when that power never materialized.

I have, however, come to realize that Christ lives inside me as me, which of course is a huge mystery; that we who are two are one spirit joined together. He will not give me power to overcome anything, since He is power. It isn’t something He has so that He can dispense it to needy Christians. He is power, and it is only through realizing our union that I become power as He is power. It was only by me failing miserably that He could reveal to me that this is the new reality. That illusion of separation really had my mind in a tight grip, so I had to come to the end of myself before I ceased making so much noise.

Lately I have been fascinated by Paul’s statement in Romans 8:4; “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” A verse which corresponds wonderfully with Jeremiah 31:33. In the new covenant the law isn’t longer something out there which I have to adhere to. It is something which is fulfilled in me, because it is God who works in me, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Notice that Paul says “might be fulfilled in us” in the verse quoted from the Romans. Now it becomes very interesting, because that little preposition “in” denotes in Greek to be in from a position of rest! Hence, all my struggling to perform impeded His ability to fulfill the law in me and through me as me! There was no room for Him to spontaneously express Himself through my mortal flesh when my life was governed by rigid rules.

Paul had quite a struggle with the Galatians. After they had come to Christ some wolves had infiltrated their church and promoted the law as a necessary ingredient in the new life. Frustrated Paul exclaimed: “My little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!” (Gal 4:19). Here Paul is saying the same thing as He did to the Romans, but in different words due to a different context. Trying to live the Christian life impedes Christ being formed in us!

To a rather huge group of well meaning Christians that must come as a big shock. We have heard more often than what we wish to count that we have to become more like Christ. That was the original sin from Eden; trying to become more like God. The law is a perfect and holy expression of God’s character. Attempting to live in accordance to the law is thus repeating the original lie. Hence Paul writes to the Galatians: “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.”

What does it mean that Christ is formed in us? I have come to understand that this is finding our lives again in Him to be perfect expressions of Him in our uniqueness. I am liberated to fully be myself with everything that entails. That is both a profound and magnificent gift. In this lies the realization that I am fearfully and wonderfully made to be an expression of the divine life as me. Only the Spirit can settle us in this truth through faith.

Our old master, Satan, is expelled from the temple. Thus I now say as the psalmist: “O LORD, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells” (26:8). That place is me.

The Journey

2010-04-04T22:38:00.003+02:00

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. (1 John 4:18)

There was a time in my life when the fear of death cast dark shadows over my existence. The sting of death was an almost daily nuisance and it rendered my soul to shrink in fear whenever it found an opportunity to bite. This sensation of helplessness aroused a spiritual hunger which at first led this stranger to the spiritual realm to explore Eastern philosophies for an answer. Karma and reincarnation seemed as plausible explanations to the big questions which death aroused. Even though the puzzle seemingly had found its consummation, fear reigned in the mind of the newly converted New Age adherent.

It wasn’t that the new philosophies encouraged towards much self-effort and an idea of bettering oneself that perpetuated this crippling feeling. I was ready to do anything necessary to qualify for a better existence in my next life. Fear plainly was a faithful companion during those years, and it caused soul pain and palpitations. I thought those manifestations would be history as soon as I had entered a more profound understanding of the spiritual realities I explored. Fear most likely was caused by imbalances in my yin and yangs. It would thus be a splendid idea to balance the Chakras. Unfortunately I didn’t have the crystals which would accelerate the process.

It is now God finds it opportune to interfere and begin convincing me about His existence, and He adds that there merely is one way to eternal life, and that is His son Jesus Christ. Since He is very persistent and persuasive I discovered that everything I believed in was wool. It could to a certain degree keep me warm, but it was without any substance. Fear now lost some of its grip. It wasn’t longer bothering me in a palpable physical way. However, I was afraid that if I didn’t do the right things and pleased my new master He would abandon me in disgust and anger. Hence, this rather ambitious and strong-willed son did His very best to live the new life in accordance to the guidelines He found in the scriptures and what other told him was necessary.

When I came to the end of myself I did so with a bang that most likely reverberated through the universe for several minutes. To walk in a depressive darkness is very instructive. It kind of prepares you for God’s grace. So when the revelation came that I was dead to the law and that His blessings were chasing me new hope and life were infused into this poor soul. There was a new lightness to my steps. The sun was shining again and life seemed promising. However, God was still up there and I was stuck here. I still wasn’t persuaded that my salvation was eternally secured, so there were still moments when fear found a crack in the defense and bit. I still wasn’t perfected in love.

God, however, had another surprise up His sleeve. He plainly told me that when I was born again I entered a union with Him; an indissoluble unity which would last forever. Christ thus lived my life as me and I was a perfect expression of Him. In other words, the mystery revealed. We might be tempted to think that Ole Henrik now was completely free and fearless. Dear reader, please do not hasten to immature conclusions, because Ole Henrik is a complicated guy. A new issue materialized: Can I completely trust my soul reactions even though I am in this union? Am I love as He is love? It was time for the Spirit to teach me about how appearances and erroneous mindsets regarding Jesus still kept me in bondage.

To see love perfected in a person denotes that a person’s faith reaches beyond the fact that God is love, that He is all in all and that everything works out for good for those who love Him and begins to trust himself. God is my keeper. He ingeniously utilizes my soul reactions to reach others through me. I am not always conscious of how His is doing that. I am merely myself with everything that entails. I do not longer judge my emotions or doings as good or evil. I have discovered that I am. I know that my Father cherishes challenges, and I somehow know that I have been an enjoyable challenge to Him. I can vividly imagine how He is smiling His best smile to me as I am settled in this magnificent truth. He probably says something along these lines: “Well, Ole Henrik, so here we are. It has been quite a journey, but now you have finally found your life again. We are companions, you know! I am in you and you in Me. But, the best is yet to come.”

Illusions vs Faith

2010-04-03T21:29:00.002+02:00

I woke up this morning with a verse on my tongue accompanied with a sight which didn’t last more than a fraction of a second. The verse I had in my mouth is where Paul admonishes the Romans not to be conformed to the patterns of this world. The image I saw was our globe covered with a mesh. In my mind it resembled a mesh of illusions enveloping our planet, and thus that was the way I understood it.

When Adam fell his worldview changed instantaneously. To his great distress he now discovered that he and Eve were naked. When sin moved in and took over the command center, his spirit, his faith faculties abruptly dissolved, and all he had left were his third dimension senses. Faith is fixed on our Father. Settled in faith we do not take into account our own appearances, because it is in Him we live and have our being. Faith denotes that we are off a self-focus and onto a Christ focus.

Our natural human faculties cannot disclose this world’s appearances as falsehood. We are not talking about everything God created in the material realm, because He plainly declared it as good. The mesh or pattern alludes to a religious system which is present within every human who haven’t accepted Christ, and thus is manifested in everything the unregenerate man does.

The unregenerate man follows the cravings of his flesh, that is, his regular human faculties which every man is endowed with. Paul thus says that our sight, hearing or emotions do not convey to man the complete image of this universe. If we only rely on those senses we are conformed to this world.

When Jesus found His abode in us He endowed us with powerful faith faculties which are meant to see their perfections through practice. This is the means by which we expose any religious system which is raising itself against the fixed knowledge of God.

This fourth dimension faculty empowers us to not walk by sight but by faith. It is this faculty that assures us that we are in a union with Christ. It liberates from trying to live the Christian life. It persuades every one of us that Christ is now at our control center. If He is the great I am, then we are reflections of His being who spontaneously express Him.

By faith we say goodbye to self effort and any external law which are merely images of the basic elements. Children need an outer framework for their lives. Adults don’t. Since Christ is in every believer He spontaneously and effortlessly fulfils every command in the new creation. If we effortlessly expressed sin when the devil was our master, we now effortlessly express righteousness because of the new indweller.

So we simply are as He is.

Our body is a wondrous thing. If we want to make it stronger and fitter we have to exercise. That involves resistance and pain. I personally know a lot of people who do not like that particular scheme very well, but it is the only way to develop our muscles, whether it is heart, lungs or biceps.

When it comes to our faith it needs practice as well. However, now we have a personal trainer who sets up our training program. It involves some suffering and tribulations so we can come to the realization that He is not out there, but inside with all His resources. We will go astray now and then so that we by faith can acknowledge that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Everything is seasoned with some self-effort until we realize He is our life.

Faith is simply how we respond to our training. To be conformed to the patterns of this world is thus to say to our Personal Trainer: “I give up – I prefer appearances to faith. I don’t think you are love, so I want to do this my own way.”

The world says: “Who do you think you are?” Faith says: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9) That’s the pinnacle of our confession! Now we have entered a faith level which is in accordance to Paul’s encouragement: “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” (1 Cor 11:1)

To Deserve or Not to Deserve

2010-04-02T22:44:00.000+02:00

When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” So Jesus went with them. (Luk 7:4-6)

I picked up my Bible yesterday determined to read Luke. I read with an expectancy of receiving something from the Spirit, something fresh and edifying. So here I am reading about the centurion whose favorite servant has become severely ill. After He had healed the servant Jesus exclaimed over the centurion that he had great faith, most likely because his focus was Jesus and Jesus alone.

However, what suddenly stuck me as odd while reading this passage again was that Jesus didn’t rebuke the elders who with great earnestness asserted that the servant deserved to be healed because he had been an important contributor to the Jewish society.

This is good news, I thought, because how often haven’t we heard that we are of no value, that we deserve nothing and that the only thing we really deserve is death due to our evil nature which God in His grace found necessary to redeem. We often think of ourselves as someone who really does not deserve anything.

Then the following thought manifested: “Why did God save you, Ole Henrik?” The answer was evident: “Because you are of much worth to Him and because He thinks you deserve to live.” That was indeed a very encouraging and edifying string of thoughts, I reasoned. Can you prove this by the scriptures, you might ask. A reasonable question, because I have asked it myself.

Right now I can’t. However, I rest in that the Spirit is my teacher and when one of those flashes of revelation manifests I somehow know that I know it is Him. What the question really boils down to is whether I am of great value or not. I assume the cross answers that question.

I asked my dear friend Fred Pruitt to review my article before I posted it. This is his comment:

“You are of more value than many sparrows!” That’s why I don’t like the definition of grace as simply unmerited favor. We are eternally PRECIOUS to God, and worth so much He bruised His Only Begotten Son that He might steal us back from the one who stole us. We are the “joy set before Him.” We are not and never are “deparaved worms” but precious precious precious jewels of love who He created to live in intimate oneness to reveal Himself but also forever US!

Into His Likeness

2010-03-29T21:30:00.001+02:00

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Rom 8:29)

What does it mean to be conformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ? We can immediately dismiss any notion that it has something to with physical likeness.

Before we continue our investigation let us notice that those God foreknew are predestined to be conformed to His likeness. This is a promise, something which inadvertently will come through because it is a work of the Spirit. We make it much easier for ourselves if we immediately yield to His mighty work in us, and not harden our hearts like the Israelites in the wilderness. We are of course in this context talking about faith and not self-effort.

Faith encourages, no more than that, it compels us to live from a position of rest which denotes a being characterized by spontaneity. This is the Spirit perfectly leading us in our daily lives to be ourselves, our true image of Him where we do right because it is His life which is manifested through mortal flesh.

In my dealings with people I have never met anyone who has identical behavior, thought patterns or reactions. People have equally different gifts. They have different personalities and they can differ quite a lot on particular issues. I assume that is the intention with Christ’s body where every member has different functions. Despite our differences Jesus specifically prayed that we all should be one as He and His Father are one. I thus infer that being conformed to the likeness of Him has nothing to do with that we all are to act identical.

We can of course be tempted to judge this matter in behavior terms only. In order words to be transformed into His likeness means unisonely that all Christians are to be recognized by their good deeds and good works. There is a morsel of truth in this assumption, I believe. However, I do not think this either is the answer to our question plainly because Jesus quite firmly dismissed the idea that He was good. “Only One is good”, He answered his opponents. When the devil attempted to tempt Him to do something to prove that He was God’s son He adamantly refused to be defined by what He did. His identity was based on being.

Jesus ministry was categorized by many and stunning miracles. So far I have not come across anyone with this capacity to work miracles. There have been and are persons, though, who have had and have an extraordinary anointing on this field, but none of those can claim that everyone who came to them were healed from their ailments. So, this is it not either.

Jesus’ redemptive work was the trademark of His ministry. It thus makes sense to me that when we are searching for an answer to our question this might be an important key when it comes to recognizing what it means to be conformed to His likeness in this temporal realm. There is only one Savior, only one who deliberately died on a cross to save the world. However, if we are to carry our crosses it must mean that we somehow are co-saviours operating in the Spirit to those who are granted us. This of course includes to a certain degree, as most of us have experienced, both tribulations and suffering.

Who would have known that a man hanging on a cross would alter the whole course of the Universe? That a rather insignificant incident in a tucked away place would have such immense consequences? It is almost ludicrous to consider. Well, if God could use such an odd method to save the world, it wouldn’t be surprising if He would use rather insignificant and unusual means to make us co-saviours of our universe, would it? He is God, He can use anything to His glory. Perhaps we have some rather unrealistic and erroneous ideas on how we are to impact our surroundings?

Jesus was the firstborn of many sons. Sons denotes plurality and diversity. I attended a concert the other day, where the main attraction in one of his songs sang a duet with a female vocalist. Their voices were in perfect harmony and they perfectly complemented each other. However, the audience didn’t have any problems distinguishing the two voices. Together they spellbound the audience. Separately those two had great voices, but put together they reached levels of beauty they couldn’t have attained on their own. If he had sung duets with others the effect would have been the same, but with a different ring. In addition his voice was so strong that he would have lifted anybody to new levels of harmony and euphony. The universe is reverberating with duets of different rings where one of the singers always is the same.

He is eternal life, love, power and all the other wonderful things we associate with Him. When John in his first epistle asserts that as He is so are we in this world that plainly denotes that we also are those things which He is. This absolutely implies being conformed into His likeness. John also tells us that “in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God.” The word “with” denotes in Greek a position which best can be described as being “face to face.” Into His likeness thus means that we are face to face with God. We are hence talking about the restoration of the intimacy of the Garden.

Kokichi Kurosaki puts it like this: “God created man in His likeness, a spiritual being capable of responding to His love and having koinonia with Him.”

David and Saul

2010-03-28T13:20:00.000+02:00

An interesting episode in the scripture with great significance for us is that David was elected king while Saul still was the anointed king of Israel. During a period of several years they were both kings over the Promised Land. Saul was big, handsome and strong. He exuded all the qualities a genuine king was supposed to have.

Saul’s reign was apparent to all of his people. David, however, was more or less unknown and invisible to most. He only gathered a handful of men who were loyal to him and who recognized him as the true king over the nation. When we now are to investigate which significance this has for our lives we will consider Saul as a type of our fleshy inclinations whilst David represents the union life.

From the moment we are born again we are kings and royal priest in the kingdom of God. In the beginning of our walk we are like Saul. We are the perfect image of self effort and fleshy patterns which we hope will make us presentable to God. Our good deeds are handsome in our eyes. We cherish our strengths and we ask God to bless our works.

Simultaneously there is a David within waiting for Saul to die, so that the one who is a man after God’s heart can step forward to occupy the throne. The man who lives after the flesh will finally come to the end of himself. His efforts have been utterly rejected by God. All he has left is his faith, and the faith person who has been there all the time, but has been more or less invisible because he has been repressed by the flesh, steps forth.

Saul, the religious archetype, trusted his own strength. David, on the other hand, put his trust in God alone. But even in our “Saul” period David is given the opportunity from time to time to take precedence, notably when Saul is facing a challenge to big for him. So David pokes his head forth and through faith kills the Goliaths which threatens to overthrow Saul. However, Saul isn’t convinced that this weakling which he to a certain degree despises will secure his reign. He thus continues his life ignoring the power of the faith seed which is disseminated and which at last will conquer and overshadow the flesh.

Norman Grubb denotes this revelation when we discover that we are in a union with Christ the second crisis. We go from this false idea of separation, that is, God here and me there to a secure position of knowing that we know that we are joined one spirit with Him. This insight or revelation turns everything we formerly believed more or less upside down. The scriptures are opened to us in new ways. We begin to see and understand things which have been hidden from us because of our Saul life.

The good news is that there exist a David in every believer who is groaning in anticipation to be liberated and step up as a secure and safe son of His father. He has been a secure and beloved son from the beginning, but He hasn’t recognized it before now. Glorious and joyful is every son who knows who he is in Christ.

To be in the flesh denotes the erroneous idea that we live apart from Christ. This understanding leads to self-effort and a thinking which is sin conscious in its outlook. It is also apt to downgrade our soul and our soul reactions. We can also attribute to the flesh the idea that some soul reactions are more noble than others, which means a division in good and evil. Our soul is “fearfully and wonderfully made.” In Christ it again has found its perfection, its original design.

Fleshy thinking patterns will obstruct the believer from accepting himself as God has accepted him and impede the believer’s ability to recognize who he is in Christ. We now clearly recognize that the flesh represents a false idea of separation. This unsound idea of independence leads to “shoulds” and “ought tos”. The flesh thus perpetuates condemnation and suffocates faith.

Saul, “who was little in his own eyes”, is a typical representative of those fleshy thinking patterns which results in a desire to prove oneself, whilst David, “a man after God’s heart, represents faith and its restful position in Christ.

Agag the Amalekite

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Then Samuel said, “Bring me Agag king of the Amalekites.” Agag came to him confidently, thinking, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”But Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so will your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel put Agag to death before the LORD at Gilgal. (1 Sam 15:32-33)

Saul had failed in his mission commissioned to him by God. So Samuel, here a type of Christ, was the one who had to a put an end to self effort, religiosity and apparently good works represented by Agag. Agag’s sword, that is, his self righteousness hadn’t produced any children which is a type of the fruit of life.

The power of sin which had birthed Agag would not find its gratification in front of a righteous God. The religious system which had birthed Agag would never birth anything of eternal value. From the day Eve and Adam fell sin was doomed to be crushed by the true woman of faith.

The carnal minded Christian will always step in front of God’s throne with a confident smile whenever he has accomplished something in his own powers. The problem, however, is, when he is not rooted in Christ’s finished work he will inevitably lose his confidence and hide from God when he according to his carnal judgments flounders.

He thinks that his good deeds and his efforts to do his best cannot see death. But they have to if Christ is to be formed in man. That it is the only way for all of us. The Amalekites were the descendants of Esau, the carnal minded son of Isaac who gave up his firstborn rights for a meal. They represent everything born of sin, the childless woman. The deeds of sin will not inherit the Kingdom.

We, however, who believe in Christ are not of sin. We are of the Spirit. Let us therefore explore our inheritance in Him and edify and encourage each other so that we can grow into the full stature of Christ. That plainly denotes consciousnesses which have embraced everything His finished work entails.

Jesus was once accused of being good. He immediately dismissed the notion, and exclaimed; “There is only one who is good!” He wasn’t interested in being defined by what he did. His main concern was being and not doing. Being establishes us in the truth of everything we are in Christ. Doing is a veil which blinds people to who they are. God is the great “I AM”, and that is our position as well. We do not have to do actions to prove something we already are. Our works flow as a torrent from the innermost parts of our being. From a position of being our actions are right, not good or bad as defined by the tree of good and evil.