September 28 -- Part 2 -- Budapest

Good Morning, I have had a wonderful breakfast and Mariusz is off to a swimming pool for his morning exercise.  The weather in Budapest is ideal.  It is pleasant and sunny but not too warm.  Yesterday we had a long afternoon lunch with a young apostle who is a refugee from the islamic killers who are murdering the saints in Nigeria.  He is living in a refugee camp on the edge of the city and has no way to earn an income.  It was fun to listen to him telling of his building relationships with others in the camp.  Amadi is a marvelous man of God with a great future ahead of him.  I often dream of the Body of Christ coming to the place where we could effectively bring such men into an economically safe environment where they could grow and get equipped.

You will recall that yesterday I published Part 1 of this.  Today I continue with Part 2.

I was further stirred as Holy Spirit highlighted another verse:

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

I was impressed with my own foolishness in holding onto false expectations.  I have often thought the eternal relational character of the Bride of Christ was so obvious everyone must see it.  And yet, many do not.  It is not because they are stupid, or unrepentant, or even unwilling.  It is simply that they are not seeing it spiritually.   

Most of us have been reared in the cultures influenced by the Greek philosophers.  They believed that truth would be deduced by reason and logic.  But Jesus, who is the Truth, told Peter, recognition of Him as the Son of God was not the product of reason and logic but was the result of revelation by God the Father.  Holy Spirit is sometimes referred to by the title Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation.  Sadly most of the leadership of church groups is men or women who have studied theology -- the logical study of God.  But logical study produces information not revelation.  Knowledge puffs us up, fills us with pride.  Thus all these theological studies have produced the doctrines that divide us into camps warring against each other instead of melding us into one family loyal to each other.

The fervently expressed desire of Jesus is that His Bride would be united as one even as He and the Father are united as one.  But the Bride is a spiritual person.  Her unity is spiritual and can only be perceived spiritually.  This is true corporately and it is also true individually.  The scripture teaches we are the righteousness of God.  When we look at our lives logically from our human perspective we see clearly that we are not righteous.  We are not righteous even as men might be righteous.  We have all sinned and fallen far short of the glory of the righteous God.  But God says we are righteous.  Is God wrong ?  NO !  God is correct and we are wrong.  Despite what our logic tells us, if we are in Christ we are new creatures.  The old unrighteousness has passed away and all things have become new because One, Jesus, died for us.  And we have been commanded to stop looking at ourselves from a human point of view and start seeing ourselves as God sees us.

Indeed Jesus shows us in the pattern of His own life that the very nature of the work of God requires us to believe we are the sent sons of God.  We need to see ourselves as God sees us in order to do God's works.  If I were to proclaim myself to be merely a sinner saved by grace, I would in essence be saying that I have successfully resisted the work of the Holy Spirit who has been bringing to me transformation into a mature son of the Creator God.  God is not looking at our old sinful being.  He is looking at the new creation.  He deeply deeply desires for you to see yourself in that way also.

As exciting and fulfilling as seeing yourself from Papa's perspective may be, it is only the beginning.  Because His further desire is that by the grace of Holy Spirit you also see the corporate Body of Christ, the beautiful betrothed Bride of Jesus the Anointed One.  Indeed, Paul tells us in his letter to Corinth that our failure to correctly see the Body of Christ has very serious consequences.

My prayer is, "Jesus, I am blind.  Unless you heal me I have no hope.  Please let me see the revelation you have for me."

What is yours ? 

His, thus Yours,

  Stuart

Matthew 16:17

 . . . flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.

John 4:24

God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.

I Corinthians  1: 22 - 2:13

For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.  For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”  And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.  Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but just as it is written,

“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,

And which have not entered the heart of man,

All that God has prepared for those who love Him.”

For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.  But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.

II Corinthians. 5: 13 - 21. (NASB) 

For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, 

therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.  

Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. 

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.  

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.