The previous group of posts compile into one essay

The Amazing Treasure Entrusted to Us

When we have walked with Jesus as the center of our lives for decades, all of us tend to become accustomed to the God who reveals Himself little by little.  But then every once in a while He begins to pour forth revelation in a deluge.  Trying to drink it in seems like trying to take a sip of water from a fire hose.

I was stunned when Holy Spirit highlighted this verse for me:

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.

I could not help but immediately see that Holy Spirit was describing the overwhelming majority of the 'church' leadership today.  One group is searching for and finding validation in signs, wonders, and miracles.  Their claim to fame is the amazing miracles that God seems to work through them and their followers -- healings, deliverance, even gold flakes falling out of the atmosphere -- all amazing and all miraculous and all seemingly from God.  The other, and seemingly larger, group is searching for and finding validation in their wise doctrines based on profound logical research of everything from archeological evidence to ancient writings -- they proclaim as 'truth':  Calvinism, Arminianism, Reformed Orthodoxy, Fundamentalism, et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseum.  

I have no problem with miracles; I have seen far more than I deserve.  And I have no problem with brilliant men applying their intellect;  some folks over estimate my own intellectual prowess.  Holy Spirit is the author of both miracles and wisdom.  But, He is quite concerned with what we are asking, seeking, and searching after.  In Paul's writing He cries out to us for us to seek and search for an intimate relationship with the crucified and risen person of Jesus.  That miracles and wisdom may follow seems to Him quite natural.  But what never seems natural to Him is the idea that the process works in reverse.  We simply cannot find Jesus by pursuing either miracles or wisdom.  We find Jesus in pursuing a love affair with the most wonderful Bridegroom of the Universe.

My prayer is: "Jesus I want you to be the final authority for the decisions of my life.  I want to love you intimately and passionately.  Please teach me the ways that please you."  

What is your prayer ?  

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 taught 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 your prayer ? 

It seems like everyone must pause a moment and look around when reading:

. . . 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;

It is literally impossible for man by reason and logic to conceive how and what the love of Papa God has prepared for us in the eternal realm.  These things are only grasped when we are born into the eternal realm and receive revelation from Holy Spirit.

Sadly much of the Church has been deceived into thinking that eternal life begins when we physically die.  Eternal life is what we are born into when we receive Jesus as our Lord.  Our clear perception of the nature of this life in the eternal realm begins when we invite Holy Spirit to dwell in us fully and to reveal in our hearts what is in the heart of Father for us.  This realm is completely different from the realm of time and space.  In the eternal realm there is neither past nor future.  All is in the eternal now.  In the eternal realm there is neither east or west but all is in the eternal presence of God.  This is the reason why, when we are alive in the eternal realm, we are empowered to speak prophetically about events from which time and space completely separate us.  This is why, when we begin to see the eternal Bride of Christ and understand our own humble connections within the Body of Christ, we can, as Paul promised us, become experts on the perfect will of God.  

My prayer is: "Holy Spirit please come fully into every aspect of my life.  Please reveal to me all that Father wants me to see of His Heart of Love.  Please lead me into the whole character of Jesus and fill my life with your fruit.  Please empower me with and reveal to me all that I need to walk in the good works that Papa prepared for me."  

What is your prayer ? 

When I consider these three passages, I find myself simultaneously awe struck, humbled and deeply distressed:

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.  

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

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.”

Deeply distressed because virtually daily I meet and talk with people who believe themselves to be Christians who are living lives that remain self-centered.  Their prayers are continually about themselves.  They believe that God must do what they ask Him to do.  When their prayers are not answered then it must be because there is something wrong with them.  Every thing that is said in conversation is either building up their self images or an unfair rebuke of them.  Their "ministry" is continually about what they will be recognized and thanked for.  Anyone who fails to approve of them is an enemy of God.  They live entirely for themselves.  And yet they deceive themselves into believing that they are actually serving God and He should be grateful and recognize them.

Every time I pause to consider the humility of Jesus I find myself dumbfounded.  The One who created the universe and mankind has chosen to become one of us.  He has chosen to make himself vulnerable to our rejection.  He has taken upon Himself all of our blame, fault, and sin.  And yet He does not put himself on television.  He does not insist on public recognition.  He asks people He helps to be quiet about what He has done.  He does not insist on being recognized.  All of this despite the simple fact that the entire fullness of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are pleased to dwell within Him and be identified in Him.

When I read the websites of some of those who claim to serve in His name I am forced to ponder.  How could anyone who actually knows Him act like this ?  Consider for a moment:  The God of all glory, the Preeminent One in all the Universe, allows the entertainment media and the news media of this world to be completely dominated by stories and demonstrations of the power of satan.  Certainly this is not because He is without power to influence those media.  Or, if He chose, He could turn the sky into a video screen continually portraying the greatness of all that He has done.  But, instead, He chooses to remain hidden except from those who make a choice to seek Him.  He remains content to let the creation around us be the simple demonstration of His glory until we choose to seek Him.

This God of all Glory, He chose to become sin.  He chose to take upon Himself all our failures and blame so that He might transform us into His personal righteousness.  He chose to set us free from the law of sin and death.  He chose to make us alive in the eternal realm.  Why ?  Because He chose to love us and transform us into His Holy Bride, the most beautiful one in the Universe.  He chose us to be His beloved.  And He has sent His Spirit to equip us with that same selfless love with which He has loved us.

But, He knew our weaknesses.  He knew our limitations.  So He has chosen servants who know Him and love Him and sent them to serve us.  He has sent them not to rule over us but to be our servants.  Ones who will, in that same humility with which He has loved us, make themselves servants to us equipping us with all the spiritual tools we will need to become the disciple makers that He asked us to become.  Yet, because they are men and women who have adopted Jesus'  humble character, the vast majority of these servants are never acknowledged by the social organizations that call themselves the 'church'.  Like God, they often remain hidden from view until we seek them.

But then, I am awe struck.  This God who became man, who knew how very weak and vulnerable we are, He chose to trust us.  He knows us !  How could He trust us even more than we can trust ourselves ?  He entrusted to us His personal power and prerogative.  He said that the people whose sins we forgive, they are forgiven !  That was in itself amazing.  But, He goes beyond this.  Over people whom He loves deeply, He entrusts us with a terrifying power.  The ones whose sins we retain; their sins are retained.

My prayer is: "Jesus, I choose to bow my heart before you and worship you because you are worthy of all praise and honor and glory.  I do not comprehend how or why you choose to love me so deeply.  My heart cries out in love to you.  I am worthy only because you paid the price to make me worthy.  I am in awe Jesus that you have trusted me and entrusted so much to me.  Please, I cry out to you, please, by your Spirit transform me so that I will not fail you; so that I will not betray your trust.  Please teach me how to be a humble servant even as you are continually humbly serving your Bride." 

What is your prayer ?

When I was young, some preacher or another doing a Bible study quipped a line to us, "When you read the Bible and come upon the word 'therefore', find out what it is there for.  The word therefore always connects a cause and an effect.  So if we desire the effect, we must pursue the cause.  Second Corinthians chapter 5 contains a profound series of 'therefore' clauses.  Sadly, we have often heard exhortations to act out the effects without ever allowing ourselves to be transformed by the causes.  Consider:

 . . .  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.

To help us understand this complex of cause and effect relationships I want to restate this passage as a series of Causes and Effects.  So that the meanings are clear I will sometimes substitute the antecedent noun for the pronoun used in the passage:

Cause:  God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf.

Effect:  We became the righteousness of God in Jesus.

Cause:  Jesus died for all.

Effect:  All are deemed to have died.

Cause:  We believe the above things are true.

Effect:  The love of Jesus the Anointed One controls us.

Cause:  Some recognize that Jesus died and rose again for their benefit.

Effect:  They stop living for their own benefit and start living for the benefit of Jesus who died and rose again for them.

Cause:  We live in the Truth of the above.

Effect:  We stop looking at people (including Jesus) by the power of our own reason and logic.

Cause:  We stop looking at people (including Jesus) by the power of our own reason and logic.

Effect:  We see that everyone who is in Christ is a completely different person than he was before he received Jesus.

Cause:  We recognize these changes in the people (including ourselves) are the gifts of God not something the person worked up for him/her self.

Effect:  We realize if God is willing to do this for us He is willing to do it for everyone who accepts it.

Cause:  Being controlled by love we want to help everyone we have a relationship with to accept this transformation from God.

Effect:  Father God commissions us to be His ambassadors; Our function being to make disciples as Jesus commissioned us to do.

Cause:  We have been forgiven so very much.

Effect:  We, as ambassadors of the King, dispense forgiveness of sin assuring people that God is not keeping track of their sins. 

Notice:  If you eliminate the cause you also eliminate the effect.  

We have often heard people exhorted to be ambassadors without ever having believed that because one died for all therefore all have died.  It just will not work.

We have often seen people who believed themselves to be ambassadors but they never believed that old things have passed away and all things have become new.  It just will not work.

We have often seen people who believed themselves to be ambassadors who refuse to allow the love of Christ to control them.  It simply will not work.

We deceive ourselves and allow others to deceive us because we want to be deceived.  But God is never deceived.

My prayer is:  "Jesus, please, help me to remain continuously aware that everything in my life depends on my belief that you died for all and rose again for our benefit.  Help me to let your powerful love guide and control every word I speak and every action of my life.  Please, Lord, grant me grace that I would never misrepresent you as I serve as your ambassador.  Lord, please, allow me to see that old things have passed away and all things have become new both in my life and in the lives of others that you entrust to my ambassadorship."

What is your prayer ?

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 ?

Scriptures

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.