THE INCARNATION NOW
21/04/24 08:19
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Preface
The foundational nature of the incarnation for humanity, Godliness and sonship is expertly un-wrapped in in Leanne Payne’s book Real Presence. A summary of this work might be that only the incarnated presence of Christ in us is real-Godliness, and that other presences either muffle His Presence in our lives or are no presence at all. This is to say that they may range from idols to the suffocation of His reality in our lives. No more is this so when what we have attached ourselves to is an ideology rather than this Gospel of the Kingdom.
GOD IN-DWELLING YOU
Payne writes, “God by His Spirit may indwell man; Christians are therefore linked with the Absolute. With brilliant clarity, Lewis reveals that over this view of reality all the philosophies and ideologies of man stumble.
KINGDOM SIGHTEDNESS
Herein is Christianity different from all other religions. Unless one is literally filled by the Real Presence of the risen Christ, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
The infinite God is united with the dependent and the derived, with the feeble and mortal, by His Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit, indwelling a man, is capable of reviving the whole personality. Every faculty of man is to be developed and used to the glory of God who is saving man to the uttermost and who will bring to perfection the work which He has begun.” Given the centrality of the incarnation for Godliness it is possible that some communities of faith have never represented the Kingdom Jesus began.
ROOTED IN PRESENCE
Leanne Payne in her book, ‘The Healing Presence’ urges us as the church to live from the incarnation - the continual Presence – and not rely on the spasmodic nature of Holy Spirit manifestations of the kind that we may have experienced at our initial baptism in the Spirit. The basis of our life in God is not the gifts or our ‘shaping up’ in order to be accepted. It’s Christ incarnated in us.
DISCILINED MINDSET
Payne writes, “The acknowledgment that God is always with us - even when we are least aware of it in our sensory being - requires discipline. To acknowledge the Unseen Real requires a concerted effort of our will at first. This is why the term practicing the presence is so useful.”
NOT THE FOUNDATION
A friend of mine in India told me that he spoke in tongues for a week following this baptism. There are times when there is a clear manifest presence – but this is not the ground of our being in Christ. Our foundation is, as John asserts, ‘Christ come in our flesh’ which is Christ incarnated in us. Baxter Kruger elaborates on this as ‘the trinity in us,’ while Thomas Torrance unwraps the importance of our being alive in our spirit by the Mediation of Christ.* The eucharist signals and reminds us of our participation in the strong, steady presence of Jesus Christ Himself as a way of life.
CORE OF ENLIGHTENED KNOWING
Writing of our need to live from the incarnated Christ in us, Leanne Payne observed that, “Until we accept the new [incarnated] self, we are dangerous to ourselves and to others; even though we are Christians, we are still enthralled by the voices of this world and obey them. We fail to abide in Christ and instead remain self-conscious… In accepting myself in Him, I am no longer trapped in the mode of trying to win my own righteousness or God’s love, or in trying to keep the law, the very thing that Christ fulfilled.” (1)
WHOLE-PERSON AUTHENTICITY
There is a living way that is the genuine whole person approach to life. It’s not the law but it is Christ expressed as you from within our being. “A new self, with one face, turned up to God, seeing and hearing with singleness of heart, is born. Christ, the Word, comes to birth and is formed within that soul, and there is therefore the capacity to communicate with the Father. In this way, we find a new self (or new nature, or new man). We have been brought into Christ, and Christ into us. Completion. There is a profound beauty and simplicity in this way of getting a self, of finding healing and wholeness.” (1)
ESSENCE OF CHRISTIANITY
Our knowing of God and self is seeded into our spirit by Father, Son and Holy Spirit within our being. “Christianity is incarnational. We are linked to Ultimate Reality by His Presence within. Christian epistemology is unique in that our way of knowing is rooted in Christ’s Incarnational Presence.. “Christ in us and we in Him: this is the concrete reality. God was incarnate of Mary by the Spirit of Christ; man is in-dwelt, in-gifted, in-graced, in-godded” (2). Love and obedience to Christ is indicated by our living in His life rather than in ours.
MAKE THEIR HOME IN US
Christ is mediated directly to us by the Spirit. Christ lives in us by incarnation. It is the presence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in us and with us that makes us able to love and be alive with God’s spirit and life. This Presence is not intermittent. It simply is. We need not dilute it with the additions of religion or dull ourselves by placing our worship in the wrong place.
EXTERNALITIES REPLACED WITH LIFE
Kriston Couchey observes that, “Entering His ordained plan of COMMUNION in Christ with others releases a fullness and a Spirit flow that destroys the hardened outer shell of religion and inhibition in His people. This unity that releases power is found in Christ alone. It is not the false unity centred in attachments to the organizations, doctrines or leadership structures of the past. These false sources of unity are in fact the ‘shell’ .. and MUST be demolished!” (3)
Real community is not a matter of doing meetings. Union with God is the reality that is ours in our inner-most being. We need this union to be a whole and integrated ‘self’. This union with God, already ours, is the foundation of personal wholeness and with it the ability to live in communion with other Believers. It is the Living Way of Kingdom Life.
1) Payne, Leanne. The Healing Presence (p. 54-56). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
(2) Ibid (p. 96). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition
(3) Couchey, Kriston. AN ADVENTURER'S GUIDE TO THE NEXT AGE: A prophetic Journey out of religion into union with God (pp. 55-56). Kindle Edition
*A free pdf version of the book is here.
Preface
The foundational nature of the incarnation for humanity, Godliness and sonship is expertly un-wrapped in in Leanne Payne’s book Real Presence. A summary of this work might be that only the incarnated presence of Christ in us is real-Godliness, and that other presences either muffle His Presence in our lives or are no presence at all. This is to say that they may range from idols to the suffocation of His reality in our lives. No more is this so when what we have attached ourselves to is an ideology rather than this Gospel of the Kingdom.
GOD IN-DWELLING YOU
Payne writes, “God by His Spirit may indwell man; Christians are therefore linked with the Absolute. With brilliant clarity, Lewis reveals that over this view of reality all the philosophies and ideologies of man stumble.
KINGDOM SIGHTEDNESS
Herein is Christianity different from all other religions. Unless one is literally filled by the Real Presence of the risen Christ, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
The infinite God is united with the dependent and the derived, with the feeble and mortal, by His Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit, indwelling a man, is capable of reviving the whole personality. Every faculty of man is to be developed and used to the glory of God who is saving man to the uttermost and who will bring to perfection the work which He has begun.” Given the centrality of the incarnation for Godliness it is possible that some communities of faith have never represented the Kingdom Jesus began.
ROOTED IN PRESENCE
Leanne Payne in her book, ‘The Healing Presence’ urges us as the church to live from the incarnation - the continual Presence – and not rely on the spasmodic nature of Holy Spirit manifestations of the kind that we may have experienced at our initial baptism in the Spirit. The basis of our life in God is not the gifts or our ‘shaping up’ in order to be accepted. It’s Christ incarnated in us.
DISCILINED MINDSET
Payne writes, “The acknowledgment that God is always with us - even when we are least aware of it in our sensory being - requires discipline. To acknowledge the Unseen Real requires a concerted effort of our will at first. This is why the term practicing the presence is so useful.”
NOT THE FOUNDATION
A friend of mine in India told me that he spoke in tongues for a week following this baptism. There are times when there is a clear manifest presence – but this is not the ground of our being in Christ. Our foundation is, as John asserts, ‘Christ come in our flesh’ which is Christ incarnated in us. Baxter Kruger elaborates on this as ‘the trinity in us,’ while Thomas Torrance unwraps the importance of our being alive in our spirit by the Mediation of Christ.* The eucharist signals and reminds us of our participation in the strong, steady presence of Jesus Christ Himself as a way of life.
CORE OF ENLIGHTENED KNOWING
Writing of our need to live from the incarnated Christ in us, Leanne Payne observed that, “Until we accept the new [incarnated] self, we are dangerous to ourselves and to others; even though we are Christians, we are still enthralled by the voices of this world and obey them. We fail to abide in Christ and instead remain self-conscious… In accepting myself in Him, I am no longer trapped in the mode of trying to win my own righteousness or God’s love, or in trying to keep the law, the very thing that Christ fulfilled.” (1)
WHOLE-PERSON AUTHENTICITY
There is a living way that is the genuine whole person approach to life. It’s not the law but it is Christ expressed as you from within our being. “A new self, with one face, turned up to God, seeing and hearing with singleness of heart, is born. Christ, the Word, comes to birth and is formed within that soul, and there is therefore the capacity to communicate with the Father. In this way, we find a new self (or new nature, or new man). We have been brought into Christ, and Christ into us. Completion. There is a profound beauty and simplicity in this way of getting a self, of finding healing and wholeness.” (1)
ESSENCE OF CHRISTIANITY
Our knowing of God and self is seeded into our spirit by Father, Son and Holy Spirit within our being. “Christianity is incarnational. We are linked to Ultimate Reality by His Presence within. Christian epistemology is unique in that our way of knowing is rooted in Christ’s Incarnational Presence.. “Christ in us and we in Him: this is the concrete reality. God was incarnate of Mary by the Spirit of Christ; man is in-dwelt, in-gifted, in-graced, in-godded” (2). Love and obedience to Christ is indicated by our living in His life rather than in ours.
MAKE THEIR HOME IN US
Christ is mediated directly to us by the Spirit. Christ lives in us by incarnation. It is the presence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in us and with us that makes us able to love and be alive with God’s spirit and life. This Presence is not intermittent. It simply is. We need not dilute it with the additions of religion or dull ourselves by placing our worship in the wrong place.
EXTERNALITIES REPLACED WITH LIFE
Kriston Couchey observes that, “Entering His ordained plan of COMMUNION in Christ with others releases a fullness and a Spirit flow that destroys the hardened outer shell of religion and inhibition in His people. This unity that releases power is found in Christ alone. It is not the false unity centred in attachments to the organizations, doctrines or leadership structures of the past. These false sources of unity are in fact the ‘shell’ .. and MUST be demolished!” (3)
Real community is not a matter of doing meetings. Union with God is the reality that is ours in our inner-most being. We need this union to be a whole and integrated ‘self’. This union with God, already ours, is the foundation of personal wholeness and with it the ability to live in communion with other Believers. It is the Living Way of Kingdom Life.
1) Payne, Leanne. The Healing Presence (p. 54-56). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
(2) Ibid (p. 96). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition
(3) Couchey, Kriston. AN ADVENTURER'S GUIDE TO THE NEXT AGE: A prophetic Journey out of religion into union with God (pp. 55-56). Kindle Edition
*A free pdf version of the book is here.
