GROWING WHOLE IN CHRIST
07/10/24 12:29
Many people have a desire to achieve wholeness. The several modes of addiction are the result of looking for wholeness and the completeness of the self in the wrong place.
HOLLOW MEN
Jesus invites all to come to Him to be whole. But many Christians having sated themselves with the junk food of religion do not know they are not whole. Hence, they do not search for it and if wholeness comes to them, they deny it and erect one of their many fictions to shelter from their confrontation with truth. Not a few are more hooked on their religion about Christ than the Christ who transcends religion. It helps when seeking wholeness to know that outside of Christ we are sick.
We will find neither wholeness or holiness in the law.
FRAGMENTED BEING
Non-wholeness is caused by seeking wholeness in the wrong place and seeking to be whole from things that are empty. Christ our life is our life. A religion about Christ is not our life no matter how revered it is and how dependent we are on it for an identity.
IDENTITY THAT’S PARTIAL
Leanne Payne in her book, The Healing Presence writes, “When I pray with someone who is seeking wholeness, one of the first things I do after invoking the Presence of the Lord is look to see in whom or in what this person is attempting to gain his or her identity. From what person or thing (money, status, professional degree, accomplishment, sexual prowess, etc.) is he or she demanding, “Tell me who I am”? We then know what the person’s idol is, what “loves” need either renouncing or setting in perspective and right order.
MISSION ABOUT US
“In the absence of finding our identity in God, we fallen ones love selfishly. The drive to dominate, possess, or manipulate persons and things in order to meet our own needs taints (or replaces altogether) the healthy, satisfying relationships we are designed to have and by which we are to be nurtured. The key to healing these bent ones is simple but profound, and the same for all: It consists in renouncing and utterly forsaking the “bent” posture toward the creature, and “straightening up” into Christ.” (1)
CHRIST OF GOD
Payne is telling us that in order to find healing and genuine eye-sight we need to repent of our pseudo-christ which is some version of the self and encounter the Christ of God who is waiting to be known as He is in order to heal us into who we actually are.
(1) Payne, Leanne. The Healing Presence (pp. 59-60). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
