RIVER OF LIFE PEOPLE
07/10/24 09:49
“The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you--they are full of the Spirit and life’ John 6.63 NIV.
We fall short of our vocation if we are creeks of religion. With Christ as your life, you are spirit and life, with the result that you will speak living words because you are a ‘living life’.
IN CHRIST AT ONE WITH GOD
We are surrounded by the presence of God. God is with us and God is in us. This is the prize of the post cross age. Even before the cross, God indicated that He did not live in temples made with hands. Moses of the burning bush saw this as did David of the Psalms and the sheep. They were aware of God - not as an object but as The Person of their life. Curiously the Burning Bush and the Tabernacle of David were the prophecy of the coming incarnation in which God would dwell with people and be in people as in woven into their being.
THE LIVING WAY
Yet God was not in those people in the way that He is in us today. The were amazing miracles in the Old Testament but not one person was incarnated with God. That came after the atonement of the cross and the coming of the Spirit of Christ to inhabit men and women.
In this new and living way God is woven into our being in Jesus Christ. These days are better than ‘the days of Elijah’. The trinity is incarnated in you and in us. This is why any Believer in the New Testament era is ‘greater than John the Baptist’. The trinity is in you.
‘Jesus replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them’ John 14.23 NIV.
NOT RELIGION. BUT INCARNATION
What is His teaching? It’s that Jesus is your life. You are in Christ and Christ is in you. Let’s be clear. ‘In Christ’ is not ‘doing Christianity’. ‘In Christ is not you in some contract with Jesus. It’s not five mission field expeditions or churchgoing*. Christ’s teaching is that His life begins in you.
IN CHRIST IS CHRIST EXPRESSED AS YOU.
Francois Du Toit writes of Jesus, "He vanished from their sight" because Jesus could no longer be any more present in his physical body on earth than what he is present in the Word incarnate in us! Mankind's co-Ascension in Christ is the culmination of the gospel! Eph 2:5,6 Col 3:1-3.
REAL PRESENCE
God is not somewhere else. He is not in some other place more religious than under your clothesline or around your barbecue. He is in you and in us. God is not more present and some days than other days. He is present every day. The chief sacrament is not the wine and the bread. The foundational sacrament is His life as your life. This is your peace, rest and Kingdom agency.
THE SUBSTITUTE
Many of us when called on to give a devotional, might read a passage from a book. This might be because we are short on time. But it may be because we work in a Christian institution but we have no real life with God. So must enlist the aid of someone who has. So, we dig up a piece of religion? Have we no life because we have divided our life into our life and His life? We live our life 6 days and give Christ some salt and pepper one day? Why do this when we can live oneness with Christ everyday?
THE PIT
You might be surprised at how many think of ‘spirit and life’ as ‘new age.’ But not so surprised when Jesus who was life in Himself was accused of ‘having a demon.’ Let’s be clear. Religion as a thing is not alive. Adhered to in place of Christ it is the number one Christian idol.
Have you noticed that there are parts of the world with class groupings that hate political leaders who are gracious, intelligent, kind to the poor and who take a stand against parasitic vested interests and actually do things?
When we live as who we are, as sons/daughters – when Christ is our life, we are life personified. As a result we speak words of spirit and life. We live spirit and life because we are not living religion. Jesus is living as us. We are Life-Multipliers.
*Often confused with a relationship with Christ it is a relationship with us.
