Comfort for Broken Hearts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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

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

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

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

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.