October 3 -- Conclusion -- Hrubieszów

As I try to take careful sips from this flood of revelation, I find myself wanting to draw the pieces together.  In doing so Holy Spirit draws my attention to these verses:

God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.

Immediately we see a contrast drawn by the Holy Spirit in these verses.  As background please remember that when the original Greek scriptures were written there were no verses or paragraphs or punctuation or capitalization.  All these were added many generations later by translators and scholars.  The Greek word translated Christ is a word that literally means "anointed one".  Thus we see the contrast Paul wrote about:

The anointed one in you, the hope of glory;

Contrasted with:

We may present every man complete in the Anointed One.

It is God's will, Paul tells us to garner a rich glory.  His hope for that glory lies in you (in each follower of Jesus) walking in the anointing of Holy Spirit in you such that the glory of God would be made obvious in your personal life.  Paul says that as the servant sent to the Bride, Paul's role in making that happen was to proclaim, admonish, and teach so as to make it possible to present each individual (as distinct from a group) as one whom had been brought to maturity and completion in The Anointed One, Jesus.

Part of this completion is for us to stop seeking after miracles and wisdom and begin to seek after intimacy in our relationship with Jesus.  In this intimacy we come to drink from the revelations of Holy Spirit.  We are shown that we individually have been sent as sons of God to be His personal righteousness walking among the people of this world.  We are also shown that we corporately are already the betrothed Bride of Jesus, beautiful, eternal, spotless and without blemish and that we the Bride are being brought to completion as Jesus chooses and places each member of our Body in exactly the connected relationships that please Him.

In these intimate relationships we also are drawn to invite Holy Spirit to dwell richly in us as individuals transforming us with the character of Jesus, His own gifts of power, and the revelation of the Father's steadfast love.  As we grasp these things, we begin to accept a humility like that of Jesus that never denies the greatness and glory of our identity as the sons of the Creator God.  Rather our humility is in recognition that none of our greatness of power, character or appearance is the product of our own efforts.  It is all the result of our having received enormous amounts of totally undeserved gifts and grace from our Father God.  It is in this context that we begin to stumble upon the revelation that God who is LOVE has poured Himself into us and chosen to love us unconditionally and without end.  That love which then flows through us becomes the power of God to bring transformation and freedom to people around us.  We leak love everywhere we walk.

When we grow and mature in that love He reveals more and more of His character in us and to us.  In that revelation we are privileged to be sent as sons of the Father to walk as humble, hidden, servants in the home of the betrothed Bride of Jesus.  Astounding as it may seem, Jesus is willing to entrust to us the love and care for His precious Bride.  Not only that.  And this defies logic or comprehension.  Jesus, in whom all the fullness of God is pleased to dwell, has chosen to so trust and believe in us that His hope of glory now rests in His faith that you and I will choose to live and walk as ones anointed by Holy Spirit.

My prayer is:  Jesus, please continue to pour out your grace for me that I might never disappoint or fail you.  If I should fail you please transform me and bring correction in my life that I would not repeat my failures.  Holy Spirit please continue to reveal the Father's heart to me.  Father please transform me by your love that I might pour out your love into the lives of the people around me.

What is your prayer ?

His, thus Yours,

  Stuart

Matthew 16:17 (NASB)

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

John 4:24 (NASB)

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

John 20: 19 - 23 (NASB)

So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and *said to them, “ Peace be with you.” And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and *said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”

I Corinthians  1: 22 - 2:13 (NASB)

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.

Colossians 1: 27 - 28  (NASB) 

God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.