Into His Likeness

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

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

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.

Absolute Destruction Before Resurrection

But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction. (1 Sam 15:9)

God had commissioned Saul to go and strike Amalek and everything they had. Saul was ordered to kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. Nothing was to be spared. God demanded absolute destruction.

God rejected Saul when Saul disobediently spared all that was good. There is a part of us which cherishes our good works, our good sides and our fortitudes. At the same time that part also has the wits to despise its bad or evil sides. The carnal minded believer is thus willing to see his bad sides eradicated, but he wrongly assumes that God will spare his good sides. He erroneously thinks that those parts are too manicured to see destruction.

However, when we accepted Christ we died. Both our good and our bad sides were crucified so that He could become our life. Astonishingly, there are still residues of our old thought patterns claiming to be heard in the midst of our new life. In the beginning there is an unwillingness in us to subject everything to His rule, so we thus perpetuate those fleshy thinking patterns which asserts that our imagined strengths are a precious fragrance to Him.

Our Father, however, rejects our fattened calves. He objective is solely to see Christ formed in us, and that implies a complete destruction of all we envisage we have. He makes it plain that we have nothing of value until we surrender everything. When we acknowledge that Christ is our life and that we have entered a perpetual union with Him we find ourselves again.

To our surprise we find that we are as He is. We even find that He doesn’t differentiate between what we considered as bad or good sides. His main concern is life, and life is a wonderful mixture of negatives and positives. Everything works together for good for those who are called according to His purpose.

When Samuel discovered Saul’s unwillingness to destroy everything he called Saul a man who was little in his own eyes. That is God’s verdict over any man who believes his self effort counts to anything. A man who is little in his own eyes thinks he has something to prove. He believes that he is something by his own powers.

Self effort is the opposite of faith and thus sin in the eyes of God, because self effort asserts that I can become more like God if I work hard to improve myself. Faith says; I am a new creation, Christ is my life and through faith I acknowledge that everything God says about me is true. I am what I am by God’s grace. I am perfectly myself. Then I have accepted myself and I am big in my own eyes. Why? The answer is that Christ is love, power and eternal life. He is in me living as me, thus I am what He is. Those qualities isn't something He has. He is all those things. I do not either have those qualities. I am those qualities. I do not have to strive to become something I already am by the grace of God, and which I have received through Christ's finished work.

Self-effort origins from the misapprehension that we are separate from God. However, we are in a union with Him who chose us. When self-effort is replaced by faith we see that we are in an eternal union and by faith do we understand that we are right with Him and that our soul and body are perfect manifestations of Spirit. The end of self-effort, that is, the erroneous idea that God is outside us (which He also is) is the opportunity for faith to take precedence. It is thus clear that when we live by faith we perceive that everything about is perfect. When we live from a understanding of separation we see sin as our dominant reality.

This is part one in a series of three parts.

The Tower of Babel

One of the greatest, most scandalous and dangerous lies which is preached in the church is that we must become more like Jesus. That was the lie which ruined Eve and Adam’s relationship with God. All because Eve believed the lie that she needed to become more like God. Notice that after the fall it wasn’t God who withdrew from those two. It was Eve and Adam who hid themselves from God. Shame had entered paradise. This rather persistent feeling renders us with a feeling of nakedness, of not belonging and it alienates us from recognizing our Heavenly Father’s love.

Shame is the means by which the prince of the power of the air controls and conditions his doomed kingdom. It is this feeling of disgrace that shame promotes which inhibits every man from being a true image of the Godhead. Shame cripples, ruins and it causes man to hide from God. Jesus never exhorted anyone to be like Him, because that would be to contradict and thwart His royal mission.

He came to expose the lie, atone for its consequences and provide liberty for the captives. The fall had rendered man spiritually blind. Man firmly believed that He had to improve himself so he began comparing himself with the creation. He found that he was superior to everything else in it, except his fellow man. The next step was thus to compare and contrast himself with his peers so that he could be the foremost among them.

Man began erecting his own righteousness, the tower of Babel. It was a bold and ambitious project which only outcome would be to entrench man in his delusion and reinforce the hold of the lie. So, God did what He does in every person’s life. He destroyed the tower and scattered man’s righteousness to the extent that it was completely leveled. This is the story of every man.

Shame’s twin brother condemnation has caused too many believers to bow their head with a urgent sense of falling short, simply because someone has passed on an idea of a standard which resembles the tower of Babel, that is, the original lie presented in different words. We are rendered feeling useless, of no value and a hindrance to God, because of our imagined shortcomings. We don’t feel loving, we don’t feel spiritual, and compared to others we seemingly do not have the brilliant gifts which they are endowed with.

Accepting ourselves is vital if we are to recognize ourselves as perfect images of Christ in our form. It was God who chose us. It was solely His initiative to gather us as a family of many sons. He chose us exactly as we are with every human facet we have. If He has accepted us we can accept ourselves. Not doing so is in fact an insult against His sober judgment.

Chasing our own righteousness is the basic sin which prevents us from becoming what we were created to be; ourselves. As a substitute we become a distorted version of ourselves. When we aren’t ourselves we are nothing. There is only one truth and only one righteousness which restore our true being; His.

Before the fall Eve and Adam perfectly expressed themselves. The day they ate of the fruit they became expressions of sin, and God plainly told them that their lives from now on would be a perpetual struggle to be something they never could be in their own powers. Originally they were furnished with faith faculties to be faith people. A life outside God was destined to be a life of appearances.

Only spirit people can discern spiritually and make righteous judgments. Thus the new creation is a partaker of divine nature. Such a person doesn’t judge in accordance with outward realities. He sees behind outer success, prestige, influence and affluence. That person clearly sees the emptiness in the hearts of those who are wise in this world. As a result a faith person does not pursue those things. He isn’t easily deceived by worldly things. What motivates him is the love of God which is outpoured into His heart. His passion is Christ, and nothing this world has to offer holds any appeal to him.

Faith involves the competence of seeing beyond appearances and accepting God’s truth about us as the final truth. If He says we are love, because He is love, that is a fact despite our circumstances or what we imagine we behold with our earthly eyes. The day we acknowledge that we in Christ are everything we are meant to be in this temporal realm we are set completely free to express ourselves without shame or any other crippling emotion.

Well Watered

At that time God will unsheathe his sword, his merciless, massive, mighty sword.
He'll punish the serpent Leviathan as it flees, the serpent Leviathan thrashing in flight.
He'll kill that old dragon
that lives in the sea.
"At that same time, a fine vineyard will appear.
There's something to sing about!
I, God, tend it.
I keep it well-watered.
I keep careful watch over it
so that no one can damage it.
I'm not angry. I care.
Even if it gives me thistles and thornbushes,
I'll just pull them out
and burn them up.
Let that vine cling to me for safety,
let it find a good and whole life with me,
let it hold on for a good and whole life." (Isa 27:1-5 – The Message)

One of the words the Bible uses to define our human condition is vessels. A vessel contains something. It either contains sin or it contains righteousness. Sin found its dwelling place in man after the fall, and we thus understand that sin and the devil are equal terms in the scripture. Every person who accepts Christ is cleansed from that former indweller. When it comes to the serpent God is merciless and kills him so that there is no risk seeing him returning to the sea, that is, our spirits.

When this passage refers to “that time” it refers to the dispensation which came into effect after the cross. We who are regenerated are the fine vineyard, where He is the vine and we are the branches abiding in Him producing His fruit. A different translation says: “…every moment I water it.” According to my calculations every moment is every new now. He who is the great I AM lives in the now, and He sustains us every moment of our being. In fact He more than sustains it, He keeps it well watered so it never lacks, but has an abundance of every good thing.

I believe it is not too far stretched to view the sea as a type of our consciousnesses. We all know how we are composed of conscious torrents and subconscious torrents. When everything is well our seas are calm. However, when the gale is coming our way the waves rise. He who lived in our private sea is dead. He loved to whip up the sea. Our Father who now reigns over the sea secures us that we are safe with Him.

“I am not angry. I care”, He says. A multitude of Christians still believe that God is angry with them. Carefully they watch every step they take, they are obsessed with confession in order to mitigate an angry God. This passage clearly states that God isn’t angry with us. His anger is directed towards the indwelling sin who has usurped His dwelling place. The fact is that He has never been angry with us. The indwelling sin, however, has been well aware of His fury towards it, and of course this has been imprinted on our consciousnesses. The Spirit is now thus convincing us about our righteousness and His love, which slowly but surely will liberate us from the bondage of fear.

What are thistles and thorn bushes, we might ask. Man’s main occupation since the fall has been to build his own righteousness. Whether that has been by observing the law or attempting to erect a sense of worth through other means is of less interest. However, it is a well ingrained habit, so those thorns are self-effort. Our Father lovingly pulls them out by letting us come to end of ourselves, to the point where we give up and accept that He is our life.

Why would God, who is joined one spirit with us and who lives in us be angry with us, that is, Himself? He never makes any mistakes, He is perfect and He indwells us. To assert that God is angry with us is the same as saying that He is angry with Himself. That is a ludicrous idea. In Him we find a good and whole life. That is our destiny. This life is expressed as us. That is our work, that is the pinnacle of faith; self-expression!

Liberated Sons

There comes a day when we rediscover our “I” as a safe “I”. We have been through the devastating stage when the law condemned us and ultimately caused us to come to the end of ourselves. Then we discovered to our great delight that we had died to the law. A new realization is now dawning upon us; we are in a union with the resurrected Christ. As we bask and revel in this wonderful truth another profound revelation is working its way through the surface and settles in our minds.

Our “I” reemerges as a safe “I”. We discover that since we now are indwelled by God and are in Him everything pertaining to our being is cleansed, and we begin to experience the almost inexplicable liberty of being free sons who are perfectly expressing Him in our form. Every day we are carrying His death within, that is, our former conscious and subconscious thought patterns which have defined our personhood so long are fading and their defining power is shattered.

To enter this new life is a dying away from what we previously considered as our secure ground. To step out into the unknown is a terrifying and at the same time liberating experience, because now we finally are beginning to trust ourselves. Before we enter this level as fully operating persons we need to be completely settled in that God accepts and loves us.

Thus Jesus was assured by His father before He began His public service in earnest by these words: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Jesus was now established as a safe Son who could say “I do nothing of myself” when He himself always was the doer. This paradox seems like a veil, until it is torn apart when we understand the depths of the union life. It is I, yet not I. It is He, and simultaneously it is me. We are one, and since I can trust Him I can trust myself.

I have found that I am a bit reluctant to step into the unknown and begin to operate as Him by, for instance, speaking out words of faith. God has to encourage me, and even push me over the cliff, either by using other persons or by speaking, Himself, to my heart. In Jesus’ case God used Jesus’ mother to push Him into operating as a safe liberated “I”. At the wedding in Cana they ran out of wine and Jesus’ mother challenged Him to do something about the situation. Jesus’ harsh answer demonstrates His inner turmoil of entering a level formerly unknown to Him.

Then Jesus took a leap of faith and said His faith words: “Fill the waterpots with water”. We know the rest of the story. But, notice what John writes after this incident: “…and manifested forth his glory”. His glory, His “I” operating as a safe liberated son of the Most High trusting the promptings which surfaced in His thoughts and mind. Many of us are in this process of consciously becoming aware of that we are "co-saviours" with Christ as fully operating safe sons, that we are vessels of honor, that we are light and salt in this world. Not as a possibility, but as a fact!!!

Cleansed

I don’t know how many times I have read the passage which describes how Jesus cleansed the temple. However, at this occasion a new understanding suddenly manifested and hit me in the gut. It struck me that we are the living temples which He came to cleanse, and that this incident recorded in the gospels is merely another shadow of spiritual realities.

After Jesus’ display of rage the disciples were reminded of Psalm 69:9, “"Zeal for your house will consume me." Since we are God’s temples He is very jealous towards any other occupant who dwells in His Palace. Even before the foundation of the earth Jesus must have been looking forward to this day when He would make a statement regarding who was the true proprietor of the human spirit.

After the cross He with the same zeal and rage expelled the prince of the power of the air from his temples, so that He Himself could indwell His beloved ones, and thus grant them life and liberty. They were slaves of sin, and a slave can only exchange owners when a price is paid. He paid the price so man could become slave of righteousness. The cost was tremendous, and it is a powerful testimony of how far He is willing to go in order to satisfy His love. No one in the universe has the means to overbid His offer and ransom.

Man was created in His image, but the fall had rendered the pinnacle of God’s creation as a distorted version of its true image. A distorted image of the perfect image does not emanate any glory. We were enslaved to sin (Rom 6:6), and thus radiated darkness. Not much glory in darkness. So, since we are brought out of this darkness by the new master we can consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom 6:11).

Herligheten i en fullt ut levende sjel

Skrevet av DeeDee Winter - oversatt av Ole Henrik Skjelstad
Originalens tittel: The Glory of a Fully Alive Soul

Det er få som forstår det mektige i det Gud gjorde når Han skapte våre sjeler og den funksjon de er tiltenkt. De er fullkomment skapt til å være fullt ut aktive og levende på enhver måte. Det å betrakte våre gjerninger og reaksjoner som noe mindre enn det idealet vi tror er Kristuslivet….noe som sier at om vi bare stod stødigere i unionen med Kristus og ikke var så___(fyll inn det blanke feltet med det du ikke liker med deg selv)___så kunne vi oppføre oss mer likt Jesus eller bli mer lik Jesus. Hvor mange ganger har vi hørt noe sånt som dette? Vi har en misforstått ide om hvordan den menneskelige Jesus var, og vi bringer med oss den samme falske ideen inn i våre egne liv som en standard vi må nå…..når Han faktisk ønsker å leve i vår menneskelige unikhet, den personen som Han skapte oss til å være.

Fra det øyeblikket vi ble gjenfødt av Hans Ånd er det Kristus som lever våre liv! Før vi mottok Kristus så var vi i et samarbeidsforhold med denne verdens gud. Dette arbeidsfellesskapet ble brakt til korset (Romerne 6:6-8) når vi tok imot Ham som vår frelser. Vår Gudskapte menneskelighet…sjel og kropp, som Bibelen sier er ”skapt på skremmende, underfullt vis”…ble gjort nye for å bli brukt av Kristus som et kar til ære. Vi opplever store endringer i våre liv når vi begynner å erfare Kjærlighet levd som oss, men en enda dypere forandring skjer i vår oppmerksomhet eller bevissthet når vi begynner å innse at vi er sammenføyd med Ham i en ånd/Ånd (1 Kor 6:17), en enhet så sikker at vi kan si som Jesus, ”Jeg gjør ikke noe av meg selv..”. Denne gjenopprettede enheten var hele hensikten med korset…at Han ville bringe oss tilbake til det unionsforholdet vi hadde før fallet. Denne enheten bli en realitet ikke lenge etter at Jesus hadde bedt sin herlighetsbønn i Johannes 17…”At de må bli ett slik som vi er ett”…men først måtte Han gå til sitt kors. Den eneste måten som Hans ord kunne bli oppfylt var gjennom sin død, oppstandelse og oppstigning. Den samme prosessen finner nå sted i oss gjennom våre sjeler. Det er gjennom det ”at vi bærer omkring i våre kropper Jesu død” at andre får liv. Dette er grunnen til at det er ytterst viktig at våre sjeler er fullt ut levende og aktive!

Vi lærer i skriften at mennesket er tredelt…ånd, sjel og kropp (1Tess 5:23). Vår ånd er vårt virkelige selv, skapt i Guds bilde, og er det som blir sammenføyd med Ham når vi sier ”Ja” til Hans kall. Våre sjeler uttrykker denne ånd/Ånd unionen. Ånd er satt sammen av hjerte, sinn og vilje og er fiksert i Ham. Våre sjeler er satt sammen av følelser og emosjoner. Vår kropp er den fysiske delen av vår væren. Vi har ånd-sinn…hvor vi vet (1 Kor 2:16) og i tillegg et sjel/kropp sinn hvor vi tenker og resonnerer (Ef 4:23). Nå når vi har lagt dette grunnlaget la oss se på et avsnitt i skriften hvor Jesus knytter hele den pakken som er ”oss” sammen. Det er Matteus 16:13-26 ,hvor Jesus livaktig instruerer sine disipler om hvordan deres liv kommer til å bli. Det begynner i 16:13 hvor Jesus spør hvem de tror Han er, og Peter svarer at Han er Kristus. Jesus sier at kjøtt og blod har ikke fortalt ham dette…noe som betyr at vi må ha en åpenbaring gjennom Ånden for å forstå Gud…og på denne klippen av tro/åpenbaring bygger Han sin kirke.

La oss nå hoppe fram til det siste verset og snakke om våre sjeler. Jeg vet ikke hvordan det er med deg, men det var mange år hvor det eneste jeg ønsket var å kaste vrak på min sjel! Jeg var altfor redd for mine følelser og tanker. Jeg ønsket å leve i Nirvana…et fredfylt sted uten krusninger. Å, det var deilig når jeg ”følte” meg glad og lykkelig, men la noe eller noen forstyrre meg og jeg gikk i forsvarsposisjon eller havnet i fordømmelse, fordi jeg klarte rett og slett ikke å ”være lik Jesus”. Lite visste jeg da at det å ”forsøke” å ”være like Jesus” var synden fra Edens hage…når Eva ble fristet til å ”bli lik Gud”. Jeg oppdaget at Gud hadde en ting eller to å lære meg om min sjel, dens nødvendighet og dens rettmessige plass.

En dag jeg plutselig ble fylt av en veldig sjalusi ovenfor en venn jeg hadde elsket i mange år kom Guds åpenbaring til meg. Jeg visste ikke om noe annet enn å fornekte sjalusien ….å prøve å forsikre meg om at jeg ikke var sjalu, man at jeg var Kristus i min form. Like raskt som ordene av fornektelse kom ut av meg svarte Herren meg: ”Du er ikke sjalu ovenfor henne, du er sjalu på hennes vegne. Det er min sjalusi i deg for henne slik at hun skal kjenne meg slik som du gjør.” Jeg sa meg umiddelbart enig i at det kom hun til å gjøre!

Men mens jeg lot denne sannheten svirre omkring i hodet mitt forsto jeg at hver eneste følelse fra kjærlighet, fred, tålmodighet, vennlighet og overbærenhet til sinne, hat og sjalusi kunne enten bli brukt riktig eller galt….galt før jeg ble født på ny av Hans ånd, den gang når selv min kjærlighet egentlig tjente mine egne hensikter….til riktig. Slik som nå når min sjalusi er for en annen. Noe som tjener en evig hensikt gjennom det å bli enig med Gud om min venn. Alt som Gud sier om Seg Selv og uttrykker i skriften er Han i/som oss!

Matt 16:24-26 sier… ”Deretter sa Jesus til disiplene: «Om noen vil følge etter meg, må han fornekte seg selv og ta sitt kors opp og følge meg. For den som vil berge sitt liv, skal miste det. Men den som mister sitt liv for min skyld, han skal finne det. Hva vil det gagne et menneske om det vinner hele verden, men taper sin sjel? Eller hva skal et menneske gi som vederlag for sin sjel?”

Jesus sier vi skal ta opp vårt kors og følge Ham. Å følge Ham er rett og slett å leve våre vanlige liv mens Han ”får oss til å følge Hans veier.” Jeg pleide å være oppmerksom på vekten som ble lagt på "miste" og "liv", men nå så jeg at vekten var på "sitt/vår"….noe som hentydet til enhver falsk ide om uavhengig eller separat liv. Vi må få dette faktum på plass, at det er ikke noe i oss som er atskilt fra Ham, før vi kan fullbyrde vårt høye kall som mellommenn ….binde og løse på vegne av de Herren gir til oss.

Jesus sa at for å oppfylle alt dette Han hadde sagt måtte Han gå veien om korset og dø…noe som Peter svarte ”Nei!” til. På en meget kraftig og avslørende måte kaller Jesus ham satan.

Deretter følger kremen på kaka! Hva gagner det et menneske å miste sin sjel? Det vil si å aldri gi uttrykk for intensiteten i følelsene våre, noe som får fram korset i oss…vår død og oppstandelse. Det er når vårt mål er å leve en liksom eksistens som i grunnen er akkurat det samme som Peter gjorde når han sa til Jesus at Han ikke måtte gå til korset…og det er satans evangelium…selv i dag når han fordømmer oss for hvilken som helst negativ følelse!! ”Det er ikke spesielt likt Kristus” sier han, og inntil vi er etablert i det faktum at vi er Ham vil vi fortsette denne jakten hvor vi prøver å etterligne dette falske bildet av Jesus vi har blitt lært.

Ser du hvor viktig det er å ha en fullt ut fungerende menneskelighet? Det er den eneste måten korset kan gjøre sin gjerning i oss og vi kan være de forbederne som vi var skapt til å være...bære Hans liv, dø daglig…med-frelsere med Kristus!

Jesus sier at det er VI som har nøklene…til å binde og løse mennesker og deres liv…nøklene til å bringe andre til Hans liv og kjærlighet…til å snu tragedier…til å helbrede knuste hjerter…til å sette disse fri som Gud gir oss…til å føre de fram til helhet…alt ved vårt ord! Våre utrolig verdifulle sjeler er hjelpemiddelet for Hans kors!

La oss gjøre det som Ånden kommanderte disiplene i Apostelgjerningene..”Gå, stå og tal i templet alle disse ordene fra Hans liv.” La oss ikke lenger gi eller tro på et halvt evangelium som alltid forlater oss i en stilling hvor vi må forbedre oss selv!

Vandre ved tro i ”dette” Livet…Hans Liv…levd fullt ut av oss…


De av leserne som ønsker å forstå mer av det nye livet i Kristus som vi nå lever som Ham til tross for det vi opplever, forstår og tolker som negative ting på grunn av vår religiøse utdannelse henvises til Norman Grubbs bok "The Spontaneous You"

A Sea of Glass

“Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom." (Matt 16:28)

It can’t be made plainer than this. The Son of Man came in His kingdom while the disciples still were walking this earth. On the day of Pentecost Christ established His kingdom of Heaven in man. Not in tents made of man, but in holy dwellings erected by God.

“Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.” (Matt 13:43)

This is now! Our usual excuse is: “I don’t feel like I am shining”. Personally, I am an expert on exclamations like that. Abraham took it a step further. He threw himself to the ground laughing when God told Him how He judged Abraham and what eternal repercussions Abraham’s life would have. However, who are we to argue with God and His righteous judgments? He is the doer, so if He has whispered to you that you are going to be an intercessor who is willing to lose everything for the sake of others, and you don’t exactly feel that way, well, it is going to happen anyway. Abraham saw Moriah afar off. So do we.

Our emotions fluctuate. I shouldn’t be too difficult to agree on that. Hence the author of the epistle to the Hebrews finds it important to accentuate: “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.” (Hebr 4:12)

The Proverbs puts it like this: “…above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life" (4:23). Even though our emotions and soul life are manifestations of Christ, those expressions are not our true identity. Our true identity is like a sea of glass mixed with fire (Rev 15:2), that is, our spirit joined one spirit with His. The sea of glass is our inner spirit tranquility which is mixed with pure love which burns with an eternal flame, which seemingly is a paradox, but not in the Kingdom of the ascended Christ.

To make us completely safe in our new identity, which of course is us shining like the sun, the living and active Christ, who is the word of God, assists us in discerning between our soul life (appearances) and our spirit life (faith). By faith we see through appearances and acknowledge our new too good to be true self in Him.

The 90 Percent Rule

Many years ago I was attending a course which objective was to turn me into a better salesman. In those days I worked in an outlet selling sports equipment. The lecturer introduced us to something he called the 90 percent rule. He asserted based on surveys that 90 percent of everything we do is motivated by our own agenda, that is, selfishness. Most salespersons generally talked too much, he claimed. The customer could thus experience that he wasn’t the most important person during the conversation, and he would in worst case feel rather alienated. The trick was to let the customer get the feeling that he was the most important person by letting him do the talking by asking him good questions which ultimately would reveal his requirements.

The salesperson was obviously also governed by the 90 percent rule, so he of course also enjoyed being the center of the conservation in a sales situation. However, he would be empowered to alter his strategy when he was conscious about the sales process. He now knew that if he changed his approach he could increase his sale considerably. He was still governed by the 90 percent rule, but he could change his behavior if he was aware that there was an award waiting. The salesperson was still the selfish person he always had been, but he was now doing good works.

This principle is of course valid in every social or religious structure. If we receive the right incitements we are able to alter our behavior. We are still our old selves, but we have gained the necessary knowledge to manipulate ourselves and our surroundings to our benefit. I consider this is a good example of what is going on when man feeds from the tree to knowledge of good and evil.

There is also an underlying motivation behind God’s desires and works. He has in mind a succession of sons in everything He does. That is His incitement. However, His desires are purified in love. When we are feeding from the tree of life, that is, the unwavering union with Christ, our desires and motivations are in the same manner purified in love, because we are new creations. We no longer operate from the old self, which, if we are to be completely honest, was governed by the 100 percent rule.

The Holy Spirit is doing a huge work in each and every one of us convincing us that we do not longer need to scrutinize everything we do with a suspicious gaze looking for selfish motives. When we use the word huge it indicates how entrenched our former thought patterns are. We are cleansed once and for all, we have received a new heart and our union with Christ is our guarantee that every desire which surface are already purified in His love. Slowly but surely He arouses our faith to embrace this overwhelming fact. As we confess in faith that Christ is now our sustainer, our life and lives as us the Holy Spirit will turn our faith into substance, and suddenly one day we just know that we know that we are perfect in every aspect of life.

The Great Debtor

I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. (Rom 1:14)

When we walked according to the spirit of error we considered everyone and everything to be our debtors. When we gave, it was usually with an expectation that our generosity would be rewarded or reciprocated. We were creditors. Why would Paul consider himself a debtor to peoples he never had met or had had any dealings with? The answer is love. Paul was completely soaked with God’s love.

We humans have never quite figured out why God loves us so cordially. His love has an ethereal dimension which is very unfamiliar to the unregenerate man. He, the creator of everything, expresses His love as He was a debtor to every one of us. Hence He gives and gives abundantly. It is His nature. That is His way of life. We are receivers and that is the intention of our design. We are thus conduits through which the quality of His love will be spontaneously expressed.

John asserts that as He (Christ) is, so are we in this world. It plainly denotes that there are no “ought to be” left in our lives. We are everything we are supposed to be. When we are saved we begin to share with others this wonderful new life which is burning with an eternal flame in our hearts. We have become debtors to those God sends in our way. And we find that it isn’t a burden, because it is unconditionally love in action. We love, because He loved us first.

Twice the New Testament exclaims that God cannot lie. A lie is an obvious sign of self-seeking love. The motivations behind a lie can vary, but a liar is ultimately seeking his own ends. God cannot lie, and thus His love will always seek the benefit of others, that is, Christ being formed in every human. A debtor is always in need of a creditor. Hence Paul repeatedly in Romans 5 make statements such as “the free gift”, “the gift of God”, “the gift by grace”, “the gift unto justification of life” and “abundance of grace.”

A Hypothetical Paradox

If we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge his people." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebr 10:26-31)

The author of the Hebrews has gone into great detail explaining the prevalence of the New Covenant compared with old. He has gone to great lengths assuring the believer about his new standing with God, and he even asserts that a child of God does not need to have any consciousness of sin because of a once and for all sacrifice. He even cites God saying: “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Then he writes this passage which has caused the opposite effect of security in many a believer. We even get the impression that the author is contradicting himself.

The profundity of this verse is that it confirms us as persons with the ability to choose, we are something far more than mere automats. The if-clause makes this passage a hypothetic discussion of impossibilities – a paradox. He in a way says that if you were in a position to choose Christ you are also in a position to reject Him even though you have tasted His goodness and mercy. The paradox is that if you again is returning to sin, which is the spirit of error, there must be a change of spirits again. However, that is impossible, because it was God who shut the door to the ark when everyone had entered.

The author of the epistle has through various examples shown how the believer has been transformed from an outer person to an inner person. An inner person has the law written in his heart and he spontaneously expresses it as the fruit of the Spirit. For such a person there is no law, and moreover, he has no consciousness of sin and he is safe. He has found peace with God in his Spirit. A return to being an outer person arouses sin consciousness, he has no longer peace with God, he will again behold God as a God of wrath and he has rejected Christ’s sacrifice. This hypothetical person’s faith has thus become void. Another point is that Jesus has made a once and for all sacrifice. Therefore there remain no more sacrifices for sin.

How did man become a self conscious person? What is a self conscious person? When are infants awakened to that they are persons? Isn’t it when they come to realize that they can choose? God placed two kinds of trees in the middle of the Garden. Eve thus had a choice and it was when she exercised her ability to choose she acquired the awareness of being a person and not a mere automat. She made, as we all know, the wrong choice. However, Eve tasted and discovered the opposites in life. Without her discovery we would not have been in a position to choose, and most importantly; choose Christ.

Our conclusion must be that the author in this passage continues his exposition of the good news, and here in particular he confirms the authentic personhood of a believer. It is crucial if we are to be true witnesses of Christ that we are completely safe in our relation to our Father, and that we are firmly established as true persons. Free and safe sons, just as Jesus demonstrated, are in a position to be intercessors for a needy world.

Safe Sons

“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.” (Rom 8:19)

A son of the most High is a safe son. He has through the fall tasted the wretchedness of being a child of the spirit of error. He knows firsthand the emptiness and nothingness of a life where everything is defined by good or evil. A true son has experienced the futility of erecting his own righteousness. His attempts of observing the law failed miserably. He knows firsthand how appearances are just illusions of a world in which he is now just a sojourner. God’s sons are well acquainted with sorrow and tribulations. They have been under the curse and have vivid memories of its misery. After they have tasted God’s grace and received an unwavering faith in God’s goodness and love the enticement of returning again to a state of slavery holds no appeal to them whatsoever.

A true son has encountered the negatives and the positives of this world. He has allowed the positives to swallow up the negatives. In the same manner as when God said; “Let there be light” and the light swallowed up darkness, the son has let the light of Christ shine in his life by accepting Him through faith. He has become a see-througher who recognizes that God is all in all, and that God’s self-for-others-love sole and only objective is to gather everything in Christ through mercy and love. A safe son knows that it has all been necessary. Without it he could never have reached the pinnacle of the creation; personhood. A consciousness of being a person with choices. The son sees clearly that when he received Christ a change of reigning spirits occurred. The sin deity is replaced by God, and it is now God’s life which is being manifested through him.

A true son has given up his life, and thus found life. A quality of life hitherto unknown to him, but he embraces it with everything he is, because he has acquired a profound understanding through everything he has experienced; this is true life – this is what he originally was meant to be. As every man reaches true sonship a breath of relief goes through the creation as it waits for its final liberation from its bondage to decay and will be brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. As everything will be gathered in Christ, everything will be gathered in His sisters and brothers as well to the glory of God. God’s generosity and love is boundless. He freely shares Christ’s inheritance with His offspring – the seed of Abraham.

A Brief Treatise on Love

Today I woke up with a question in my head: What is love? I have read so much about love, I have heard so much about it and I have written about it myself, but I am still not sure what it is.

I have heard people talk about love as it is something we just decide to do. That has never worked in my life. People tell me that God is love; it isn’t something He has, it is something is. Well, I am truly happy He is love, but what does that mean? Then we have all those who say that love is the opposite of self-centeredness. They compare and contrast self-love and self-giving love. I can understand the difference between those two concepts, but they are still just academic notions to me.

Can love be understood, even far better, be experienced through words? Aren’t words just a limited means of communication? Can they precisely convey something which is beyond words? If that is the case, why I am writing this? Then we have all those who assert that love is displayed through actions. I believe they have a point. However, I find it tremendously difficult to plan that today I am going to be very loving and caring, because I have tried that approach. I don’t think my efforts convinced anyone, least of all myself.

Love is often used as a word to express expectations very few of us can meet. It has its cultural connotations which sometimes make the whole idea of being a loving person a terrible yoke. It is a word that has caused more condemnation that any other word. Every day there are souls rededicating themselves to God promising to become a better husband, father, mother or whatever. People cry everyday to God pleading Him to make them more loving. Their cry is often echoing their notions of love which not necessarily is God’s idea of love.

Those who have received the revelation that Christ is a living reality inside them and knows that He is everything they need might have this sensation of a slight disappointment. As Eva we might fall for the temptation thinking: “Is this all?” We can hear the accuser roar: “Has God really said that He is living in you as you? If that is the truth why do you have so little love? It is your responsibility to increase your love! ” However, the devil isn’t love so he really has no idea of what he is talking about. He only knows a perverted version of what God calls love. The devils idea of love is that it is something the creation has and not something God is.

Earlier today I had an experience which ripped my heart open and for a brief second exposed all of its pain and cravings. Then there came a sensation of balm being applied and something very soothing covering the wounds. Everything was completely spontaneous. I didn’t know it was coming and I didn’t make it happen. Something deep down in me exclaimed: “This is love.”

If this is so then my entire comprehension of love is in for a makeover. There is no doubt in my mind that this was a presence larger than me touching me with a gentleness I cannot express with words. Didn’t God do the same thing at the cross? Ripped His heart open for all to see? Is there a pain, a craving in His heart for love, companionship and relationship with His creation? Is love a mixture of exposing and healing? Is pain and suffering a prerequisite for love? Is need love in disguise? What is then love when everything is restored?

If His love is spontaneous, why must my love then be anything else? If He is living inside me then I can rest in the fact that His spontaneous love will surface in a tangible way when a situation or an encounter calls for love, can’t I? It’s beyond my conscious control. I can just enjoy and relish in the moment beholding Him making himself manifest through human flesh knowing that He just touched another human being through me. And the most incredible thing; I experienced the whole thing with my entire being. I did it, yet not I, He did it. This sets me completely free from boasting, this sets me completely free from achieving, from rededicating, from planning and it sets me completely free from being an example, that is, a “good” Christian. I assume love boils down to that I Am! And, hopefully this will allow me to just let others be.

A Glorious Temple

Salomon had been commissioned the glorious task of erecting a temple to God. His father David had purchased and gathered the necessary building materials. It took seven years to complete this magnificent temple (1 Kings 6:38). The last thing they did was to bring into the temple all the things his father had dedicated to the building; silver, gold and all the vessels.

The building lacked one thing though; the presence of God. When the ark was carried into the building and the priests came out of the Holy Place a cloud filled the house of the Lord. The priests could not stand to minister because of the glory of the Lord.

In the new covenant we know that God doesn’t dwell in buildings. He fills every temple, in other words, every man into whom the ark, that is, Christ has entered. From our spirit, the Holy Place, His glory permeates and fills the entire temple, our entire being. Every corner and hidden nook is packed with Him. He is the sole and only occupant of this tremendous temple. There is room for no one other than Him. Thus the whole building is perfectly holy; spirit, soul and body.

The fact that the priests could not stand to minister due to His glorious presence symbolizes the end of the old dispensation of annual sacrifices which perpetuated a conscience of sin. Something far better would come into effect. A once and for all sacrifice has been carried out which states that I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me (Gal 2:20).

In 1 Kings 9:3 God makes a most astonishing promise: “I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time.” As was the habit in the old covenant God then put forward His conditions for the promise to stand firm. However, as we all know; Jesus Christ has fulfilled every condition on our behalf so that we with boldness can continue our walk knowing that our salvation is eternally secured!

His Joyful Pride

There is a cry in every human heart to hear the words: I am proud of you! Those words are in many ways the ultimate confirmation of our being. There are people who are so hungry to hear that they are an object of pride that they are willing to go to extremities. Neglect and deprivation have left many with a sense of worthlessness and meaninglessness.

We find as we behold the world that we are all unique. This craving for acceptance is something profounder than receiving ovations for what we do. We long to hear that someone will boast of and find pleasure in our unique existence, a recognition which supersedes our actions. However, it might seem to us that those who receive most attention in this world do so because of their accomplishments. Hence we make huge efforts to conform in an attempt to resemble our idols hoping some rain will fall upon us as well. As an effect we occur as false versions of our true personhood.

Due to the lie we compare and contrast our life with others and adapt to the prevalent culture, or we make an attempt to stand out by opposing it. There are days when the pain almost smoothers us and we find that activity and noise alleviate our ache. We are willing to go to great lengths to avoid rejection, and each moment we make another adaption our inner being becomes more entangled. To our surprise we discover that this cry in our heart doesn’t diminish as we get older and supposedly more mature.

Every religious system that gives preference to works and appearances to mere being perpetuates the lie, and causes people to continue in bondage. Faith is the opposite of works. God has thus made faith prevalent in the new dispensation, because faith is an image of our innermost being where we are united in one spirit with the Godhead.

Our Father in heaven has through the image of his son experienced the same earthly afflictions as we encounter. He knows firsthand our emotions and soreness. Hence He is perfectly able to identify with his children in their quest for love. His desire to embrace and acknowledge His offspring is beyond words, and he displayed His eternal love and pride through the cross.

His sacrifice shouts out; I want you! It is a cry that qualifies our being as immensely significant to the creator of the universe. This goes far beyond our actions, because they are not impressive to Him who said: “I am.” To be is the foundation for His pride in us. Therefore He perpetually meets every son with: “Well done, my child! Everything was against you, but despite your adversities you found your true being in my Son.” His pride in us is displayed in a joy He cannot contain. He dances fervently and shouts out His joy every moment of our being. He pride in us causes Him to spin around under the influence of violent emotions (Zep 3:17).

The New Covenant

After Moses received the ten commandments engraved in stones on Mt. Sinai his face shone. Forty days in God’s presence made his face radiate from the glory of God. He had during his consecration to God gained wisdom from above, and he thus found it prudent to cover his face with a veil. Moses knew that the glory would fade away. He also knew man’s aptness to worshipping idols. The Israelites had exalted Moses when he had led them out of Egypt, but they had soon begun to murmur when he didn’t live up to their expectations in the variety of trials they encountered in the desert.

Christians in the modern Church have the same inclinations as the Israelites. They speak highly of their pastor when he is visiting the older, when he delivers great sermons and when he always has an encouraging word to share. His face shines and the congregation says: “He is truly a man of God, a very good Christian, an example to all of us.” When the days come when he fails to live up to the high standards they begin to complain and accuse him of having lost the anointing. This is how the outer law works.

A person might have been capable of not swearing for six months, and his face shines because of his accomplishment. Then the day arrives when he is assembling a flat packed cupboard. When he has finished the task and is about to raise the cupboard to its feet the whole thing falls apart…and he swears. His face is definitely not shining anymore. Due to condemnation it is probably ash grey. The glory of any outer law swiftly fades. Unfortunately, too many Christians lead a life where they alternate between glory and condemnation. This is not the new covenant in action, because it fashions the believer to have a consciousness of righteousness only.

In the Old Testament people needed the anointing from the Holy Spirit to operate in the supernatural. The anointing was an outward thing. This is how the old covenant works - It is about outward things. The new covenant, however, is not about anointing. It is a declaration guaranteeing that the Holy One dwells and lives inside the believer. This is not a life governed by static outer laws. The new creation is in a dynamic spontaneous relationship with the ascended Christ who governs the believer from the inside. Life no longer revolves around adapting to rules and regulations, but recognizing Another and having fellowship with Him.

Laws and letters are not alive. They cannot generate growth. Only Christ, who is alive, can provide growth in a person’s life. Since letters are dead things, when applied they produce death. The ascended Christ, however, is a life-giving Spirit. It is from His life that rivers of living water spring forth inside every person who recognizes His glorious indwelling life.

Christ as a living reality generates a glory which never fades. Contrary to Moses’ glory which faded, the glory of Christ which is shining in every believer’s face increases from glory to glory. This is the new covenant in action. "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor 3:18).

One of the great challenges for the modern church is their preoccupation with the historical Jesus, the one who came in flesh. But, we do not know Him according to flesh anymore. We are in error when we spend all our time preaching about and meditating on the historical Jesus. We are studying a dead man. Our entire fixation must be on the ascended Christ who returned a second time to live inside ordinary humans. He is with us every second of the day. We cannot escape His presence. Wherever we are He is. We can look in the mirror and say: “This is Christ!” This is our new identity, this is the ascended Christ for people of today. When this becomes our reality the Spirit will breathe life into the scriptures and we can glean profound spiritual truths from the historical Jesus.

Today the historical Jesus is the veil which blinds many from seeing the new reality. This veil brings about movements such as “What would Jesus do?” As long as this veil is not removed we continue to struggle with our doings, attitudes and behavior. The historical Jesus becomes the law in a new garment. When we come to the end of our self efforts and turn to Christ the veil is removed. As long as we still can see the mountains of self effort rising above the water it will continue to rain until the ark is the only object on the water. The water, God’s works, must cover and supersede every death work of self effort.

The person who is joined to the Lord, who has entered the ark, is one spirit with Him. Two have joined as one. This of course goes far beyond appearances, because to the human mind this is a paradox; an absurdity. But, we have the mind of Christ and are thus empowered to accept this by faith. So when we look at ourselves without the veil of the old covenant we see an expression of Jesus Christ. We are saved by His life!

Moses received the law which is a perfect image of God’s character, but to man it is a dead outward thing, because he can’t do it. Now man has received Christ, who is a living inward reality. Recognizing the Another turns absolutely everything upside down. The outward law is now an inside law of love written on hearts of flesh. As Norman Grubb would have put it: “This is the key to everything.”

Emanicipation

Perhaps one of the most emancipating things Jesus ever said was, ”I only do what my Father is doing.” (Joh 5:19).

Rather plainly Jesus says that there is only One who he has to answer to, and that is His Father. He is responsible to no human. Moreover, He is also alluding to the indwelling life of His Father which directs Him, motivates Him and lives through Him as Him.

Jesus was not governed by a bad consciousness. Unfortunately are dozens of Christians taken captive by their consciousnesses which exert smothering demands on how to act and live. Jesus, however, followed the joy of the Father in His heart. He was thus empowered to see beyond appearances and behold the realities of the spiritual realm where the joy of the Father reigns.

Jesus was not governed by all the needs the world sent in His direction. They needed a new king in Israel. Jesus refused, because that was not the Father’s intention for Him during His time on earth. However, He responded to every other need the Father led Him to face. In those instances man was given the opportunity to see behind the veil, His flesh, and they were awestruck by His, compared to the creation of the universe, rather simple displays of power.

Jesus was not governed by the needs of the pastors or the congregation. He was a priest Himself, representing the Father. And so are we. We are declared Royal Priests by the Most High. We are led by the Spirit, and He goes wherever He pleases. He is not submitted to any earthly power structure.

Jesus’ Father is love, so given that His Father was in Him and He was in His Father He was love too. Love only does the truth, so that was the doings of the Father which were manifested in and through Jesus.

Jesus was never preoccupied with how to avoid sinning. In fact He had no consciousness of sin, because His Father does not have a consciousness of sin. He had a consciousness of righteousness. The exact same outlook and mindset we enter in accordance with the renewal of our minds.

In His Father Jesus was absolutely free to express Himself as a Human Being who was containing and abiding in the Creator. He didn’t have to put up an act. He didn’t have to wear any fig leaves. He was Himself through and through. Others’ expectations didn’t govern His life.

Most importantly, though, is that we have an identical union with the resurrected Christ as the earthly Jesus had with His Father. We don’t know Jesus Christ according to the flesh anymore, but as the resurrected Lord who has found a resting place for His head in our hearts.

We are thus everything the resurrected Christ is! And He is the truth, He is love, He is power and He is eternal life.

A Bruised Reed

A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice. (Isa 42:3)

God’s principal concern is always human beings – the pinnacle of His creation. His idea was to gather a family of sons under His wings. To make them true sons and be partakers of His heart and His nature, which main characteristic is self-giving love for others, He had to let them go their own ways so they could develop a consciousness which could compare and contrast between the negatives and positives in this world (Luk 15:11-32).

He Himself descended to this temporal realm to partake in the human project which was finished at the cross (John 19:30). His firstborn of many sons was made perfect through what He suffered so that He could be a high priest who is not unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin (Hebr 4:15). God in His humility walked with man on this cursed earth, so He himself could share the burden concerning the progress of man. He in fact chose of His own free will to carry the entirety of what He began when we created beings with a consciousness. His objective was that they could reach their completion in Him so that they in Him could experience that death works in them to life for others (2 Cor 4:12), that is, His sons promoted to priests.

In His heart we find unsearchable love and compassion for His beings. There is not a thing He will not do to see them return to His heavenly lap. He would rather die than see any of them perish. So that’s what He did. When His love has led them to a position where their fire of self-love is quenched and everything which is left is an ember of the eternity He has put in every human’s heart He very gently begins to blow on the ember until it bursts in to a flame nourished by His life. He never ceases to give or breathe His life unto His family, because that is who He is. Souls almost crushed by life’s many travails He with affection and tenderness bandages with His love. He would never condemn, preach to or lay heavy burdens upon a bruised reed. The heaviest burden of them all, the law, He fulfilled Himself so that every Human could experience His love which has no boundaries. This is His justice!

His Truth

There Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press terrified by the Midian oppressors when God spoke His word of faith over him: “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valour.” As most of us Gideon was fixed on circumstances and appearances, and found it quite impossible to reconcile what he so clearly saw in the temporal realm with what God saw in the spiritual dimension. Gideon thus echoed a common theme in his reply: “My clan is the weakest one, and I am the least of them all.”

God calls into existence the things that do not exist. In Gideon’s case God didn’t appreciate the lie about Gideon which Gideon held fast to in the midst of his travails. From his viewpoint Gideon couldn’t see any further than the lie. When God has spoken His truth about a person or a situation His truth will come to pass despite every circumstance. So, Gideon became ultimately in the natural what God already saw in faith.

As new creations we are faith people. God’s intention with every one of us is to transform our entire outlook so that we can behold everything through faith. It is by faith that His love and generosity become manifest to us. It is by faith we understand that His desires are our desires. It is by faith we with firm boldness can speak to things which do not exist as they exist, because they do in the eternal realm. We might perhaps not see it come to pass in our lifetime, but ultimately it will become a reality.

We all experience situations which seem to overwhelm us, which we have no clue how to handle with our limited human means. We often encounter this devastating sensation of being nothing. In the natural we see our heritage, our humanity, the city we are from and our family line. We hear the mocking voice in our head asserting all the lies about our person which are so easy to believe, because the natural seemingly confirms his accusations. Then God speaks His truth unto us, and everything is turned upside down. And He persistently pursues His truth until it is established as a fact in our minds.

Twelve years ago I sat in church feeling as a complete failure as a father. Then this voice interrupted my outpouring and plainly stated which such an authority that my world was turned completely around: “To your children you are the best dad in the world.”

True Assessment

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God. (2 Cor 5:16-18)

Despite the fact that we are declared as new creations in the scriptures we rarely feel that way. It seems to us that we still are the same old person doing the same old things thinking the same thoughts we always have.

This is all a question of appearances, isn’t it? The new creation is new through and through. It can’t be regarded or judged according to the flesh. It belongs to a different realm. It is a spiritual being manifested in soul and body. What a wonderful gift it is when we are imparted to see beyond appearances and behold our true self in faith. The self which is one spirit with its Father. The self He has beheld from before the foundation of the universe.

What a beautiful picture of ourselves we see when our consciousnesses are renewed to the true image of our being. The image He holds up as a mirror. This is the image we are transformed into beholding with our spiritual eyes as we go from glory to glory. We see beyond appearances in our own life and we begin to see the beauty in others as well, because finally we have arrived to the place where we accept and love ourselves with the same acceptance and love our Father has toward us in all His dealings with us.

In a process of the renewal of our minds we have put off everything which pertains to that old self, which really wasn’t a self. It was just a distorted version composed of lies. In this process we rediscover ourselves and find to our surprise that we are just as He is. In the same manner as we have found peace with Him we have found peace with ourselves.

This desire to change, to better ourselves has dissolved into nothing, because it was nothing. We are everything God says we are. We have given up that old self and its distorted view of its being and found our new life. In the realm of appearances it might look the same, but it isn’t. We perhaps continue to do the things we always have done. We work, we watch TV, we eat and we sleep. This is life! This is the perfect version of ourselves.

He was just a simple carpenter from Nazareth, but He was God’s son! What everything boils down to is this; who is your father? What spirit are you of? He has cleansed us once and for all, and thus, for the pure everything is pure. It is all of grace! What an incredible mystery this is; He united to us living as us in a world seemingly full of paradoxes to the unskilled eye. We are one, yet two.

What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him. (1 Cor 2:9)

Beyond Mere Words

Everything in this world is endeavored to be defined by words. The words are not the thing itself, but the words attempt to give a precise description or definition of the thing in question. Since every one of us construe our reality according to our own preferences, experiences and perceptions the thing’s appearance will be formed in our minds differently. It is only when we see or experience the real thing that we are able to shed away with our misconceptions, and vagueness is exchanged with knowledge.

Words are static and lifeless in this sense. Their mission is often just to point to a higher reality. Words have the inherent power that when they are applied as just words they might limit and fence in life itself. There is perhaps no wonder then that the authors of the Bible refer to it as the scripture and not God’s word, because words so often are misused, notably words which we dedicate to a divine authority. We have all experienced firsthand how words uttered by man either build up or tear down. Criticism and rejection cripple. Praise and acceptance edify. God, however, utilized words to create the visible world.

Unfortunately, words are often used as a means of control. They are even used to hide behind and thus cover up nakedness. The word of God is never applied to further any of this, because it is more than mere letters. It is a dynamic life-giving person - Christ. Letters put together into words can merely present a shadow of His reality. The apostles wrote letters in order to help people get a clearer idea of His person, but only those who had met Him knew the real thing.

Paul warns his audience that the letter kills, and continues by saying that it is the Spirit that gives life. It is the Spirit who gives substance to what the words are hinting at. Only the Spirit can apply the scriptures correctly, and is the one in us who helps us discern which part of the written word that applies to our life right now. The Spirit is, however, not limited by letters; “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). This is our freedom in Christ - this is genuine life. Life is not fenced in by letters, whether carved in stones or written.

The word of God is not finished. Since it is a dynamic life-giving power it continues to create and the letters He writes are written on hearts of flesh. Every day of our lives a new chapter is added to His word.

Our True Origin

Jesus boldly proclaimed: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:19). To the disciples he explains that this is true because He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. Jesus also says that to acknowledge this is a matter of faith. The religious mob, that is, those who live by appearances and not faith, found it both appalling and blasphemous when Jesus likened Himself with God.

When John in 1 John 4:8 says that God is love we are inclined to believe him despite the seeming darkness which surrounds us. A question which is reasonable to ask in this context is; what is love? Since Jesus was the image of God and God is love it becomes quite clear that the most powerful display of love ever was the crucifixion.

Love in its purest form is love for others. The cross is God’s heart displayed for all to see. His love for others in such a driving force in everything He undertakes that it casts out every fear in the recipients and establish a secure ground on which we can relate to our heavenly Father. When His love is for us - we have established this is love that sacrifices itself for others - what can then separate us from Him? His love will perpetually seek our best, but most of all it will seek our hearts, because this is His heart’s passion manifested in Christ. His desire to join His heart with His precious children is like an irresistible flood. Nothing can prevent it from attaining its eternal purposes.

Why could Jesus exclaim that those who had seen Him had seen the Father? The child who was conceived by Mary was from the Holy Spirit. Jesus was born of God. He was the firstborn and foremost of many sons. Every Christian is born again by the Spirit, and thus a son. The Father is not ashamed of his sons, because He doesn’t appreciate the appearances which have a tendency to lie heavy upon them. He only sees our new spirit reality, which also is our original true origin.

In Him the invisible God is made visible again; in order that every one may recognise their true origin in Him, He is the firstborn of every creature. (In Him we clearly see the mirror reflection of our original image and likeness.) (Col 1:15 – Mirror)

Christ is formed in us when we renounce self-effort and self-reliance, that is, the law (Gal 4:19) and embrace His grace, which is Christ. His love is manifested in us with increasingly intensity as we are transformed from glory to glory until we one day find that we also are willing to sacrifice life itself for the benefit of others knowing beyond any doubts that there is a new body and an eternity in His presence awaiting.

By faith we can say: "Whoever has seen me has seen Christ." Simply because we are in Him and He is in us.

Reassurance

By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. (1 John 3:19-24)

Condemnation robs us from confidence, boldness, faith and joy. However, God is greater than our heart, plainly because He has given us a new one (Ez 36:26). In His magnificent generosity He calls the new heart ours and it is. Every one of us knows deep down within that we are a unique person. Every time our Father beholds our heart He sees a reflection of Himself. John further on says He knows everything, so there are obviously things that we do not yet see or understand, but those things are clearly so very much to our advantage that there is no need to experience any condemnation, which by the way is a residue from having eaten too much fruit from the three of good and evil.

God's objective is to have us standing in His glorious presence with confidence, which synonyms are self-assurance, poise, coolness and buoyancy. Now a wonderful promise follows: “Whatever we ask we receive from Him”. It should be clear that there are a lot of things we do not have to ask for, things He has already freely given us and which He wants us to understand He has given us (1 Cor 2:12):

•And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. (Rom 4:5)

•Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. (Rom 5:18)

•He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him (Col 1:22)

•Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom 5:1)

•And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Cor 3:18)

•Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. (Rom 4:8)

•But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. (1 Cor 6:17)

•To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Col 1:27)

•For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. (Gal 3:26)

Our Father is immensely preoccupied with our daily living, what we call the small things in life. He loves to show us His ability to make Himself manifest in every detail of our lives. One of my favorites is to ask Him find a parking place, and He always find one not too far from the elevator. Ask God about those things that concern your daily life, because it is here that He also lives and exists in us. He has found a dwelling place within us, manifesting Himself in human flesh in regular daily human routines. This is indeed a great mystery.

We receive because we keep His commandments, and they are very simple: Believe in His son and love one another. Our work is to believe in Him who He has sent (John 6: 28-29). Furthermore, He has done for us all of our works (Isa 26:12). When we rest from all our works we find that the Spirit within neither slumbers nor sleeps (Psalm 121:4). His activity within is a well of joy and life. Love is just as easy; we love because He loved us first. It is a perpetual out flowing of His love.

John’s aim with these verses is to assure us that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before our Father. It is as God says through him: “Be still and know I am God.”