LIFE THAT GROWS
30/04/24 12:53
There is a form of Christianity that is based on the eucharist and our union with God. This is the foundation of the Christian Church and the source of Godliness and genuine humanity. Fundamentalism can present a gospel of bits and pieces rather than wholeness and holiness in God. A religion of ‘wordism’ is a religion of the letter that kills. It lives in ignorance of the fact that the words of the Bible denote a far greater reality than the marks on paper that appear before our eyes. The Living Word is the Christ of God and we are His Word when we are His life. A real life in God is a state of being derived from our oneness with God in Christ.
HOLY TRADITION
The Nicaean Creed, Classical Christianity, the teaching of Jesus, the apostles and the Church Fathers teaches that in Jesus Christ we and Father have become one. The undoing of separation from God is the healing of the nations and of the individual Believer. When this is not the point even the import of the healing of limbs and diseases loses cogency. Heaven came to earth in Jesus. Heaven, earth and you were joined to God when Jesus cried, ‘It is finished.’ This is the foundational healing.
BITS
Ministering from fundamentalism we can present bits and pieces of virtue, urge Godly behaviors and generally miss the point of life to the full because we are living from a gospel in which the parts are thought to be the whole. In life the whole is always more important than the sum of the parts and this is supremely so with our life in God. We agree with Jesus that we are one with God and God’s creation when we and Father are one in Christ. Love to God means living in the reality of oneness that He has made for us.
When we make Jesus our life we are joined to ultra-life and ultimate Being.
ONE WITH CHRIST
‘I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!’ GAL 2.20,21 NIV.
Oneness with God is a function of the new covenant. It’s ours as a result of the finished work of Christ and our entering into His oneness with Father as a result of the atonement and incarnation. Just as Jesus and Father were one, so we can participate in this oneness if we believe. We are not God but we are the sons/daughters of God included by Christ in the Holy Family.
CONCEIT OF THE LAW
Why might we not believe? If we are in the law rather than in Christ (we cannot be in both) we will be living in separation and not in uni0n. Remember, we create our reality out of what we believe – which is why as ministers of Christ we teach the truth and not an approximation of it. You have oneness with Christ which is what Paul means by Christ our life.
‘When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory’ Col 3.4 NIV.
SOIL OF THE GIFTS
The anointing and the gifts cannot function properly if we are not situated in the basic healing – the healing that is our union with God. This is the reality in which we live – it’s not a passing wind, erratic presence or a sudden manifestation. In Jesus you are incarnated with God. This is your Constant.
We can minister partially from this oneness or from a mindset of separation and law-keeping in an old covenant mentality. But here we will be limited to pruning, trimming and and fertilising the tree of the knowledge of good and evil rather than being undiluted spirit and life in person in oneness with Jesus. One can make a ministry out of junk food and bits and pieces of something and nothing, if one contains oneself in religion and the law. Then again, we can be spirit and life in our speech and our action in union with Christ. As such we are life itself.
