TO LIVE FROM LIFE
10/10/24 13:53
‘Hearing God’. I didn’t’ believe this was possible once. I thought it was reserved for Biblical figures, apostolic times or strange figures living beside creeks who claimed to be prophets.
THE SPIRIT
The fundamentalist lives less from being – and more from a jangle of positions and proof texts. There is a theology that is words and a theology that is being. This is the difference between the letter and the spirit. One is life and the other is death. This is a function of our oneness with God. We celebrate the Lord’s Table to instil into ourselves that we are one substance with Christ.
MADE THE TWO ONE
Life in the Spirit with the gifts is not something distinct from us. It’s part of us. It functions well when we are living in the union with God that is our union with self. Separation is normal in the law. It has ceased to exist in the spirit. You are alive in the oneness with the self that is similar to the oneness that is the trinity.
ONENESS WITH GOD IS MORE BEING THAN DOING
Cultivate what you have – union with God. Learn to listen to God. Don’t push it. Rest in it. God does at times speak with an audible voice but not a lot. He does speak through dreams, visions and gifts of the Spirit as Peter said, but He does it more in a voice that manifests as our thoughts. We are speaking incarnation – which means that we should be alert to hear what He is saying through the scriptures, good friends, Godly preachers and life circumstances. *
IN OUR BEING
Sometimes we will just know things. An understanding will seep into our mind that our heart recognises as truth. Sometimes we might read a book by an informed theologian that articulates an awareness that has been resting in our hearts for some time. When Jesus says, ‘Realise that I am in you and you are in me’ He is alluding to the inner witness of The Personified Truth.
ONE MASTER
If you have made following Jesus wherever He leads unconditionally, you can expect to know the truth in this way. But not if your agenda is to maintain an inherited religious position or foist a template onto the scriptures that is not there. The pure in heart discern God and God’s truth. The double minded do not. They are known for their lack of spiritual discernment.
God wants us as sons and not as workers. He wants us to be ourselves and not some religious construct created by religion. You can be the expression of God and are meant to be as yourself when Christ is your life. Christ in you is the hope of glory because hiddenness in Him is the uncovering of your sonship.
THE FRAME
It helps to hear God well when we are in the right frame. The correct frame for the post cross age is the new covenant, defined by Paul in Galatians 2.20,21. In this oneness with Christ that is now ours we are able to see as Jesus sees and become our real selves. As such we become an authentic witness of God to ourselves and to others. As such Brian Zahnd observes, “Grasping for greatness is the way of the rat race. But as Walter Brueggemann says, the problem with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat. Or as Jesus put it, what do you gain if you win it all, but lose your soul?” (1)
THE NEW AND LIVING WAY IS NEW
Get the right mind. As expositors of the old covenant, we are not rats but we are expressions of separated Adam rather than one with God in Christ. As such we are always workers but never sons – well not sons in spirit and in truth and as such still outside our real selves. Genuine obedience is living from the inheritance we have been given: Union with God in Christ.
We can spend a life of service in old covenant mode and due to grace release a few cups of water. But by living in oneness with God as is our right, we release rivers of living water just by being us. What’s the point of a religious discipline that prevents you ever being your real self? None. When Christ is our life we gain more than our soul. We grow into our real selves.
* Some of the offerings that present as ‘words from God’ should be seen as what they are: Nonsense. They are nonsense when they disagree with scripture or show a gross lack of spiritual discernment – often because they are still held captive in the separation that is the old covenant. However Believers can and do speak out words from God. If you have made a point of following Jesus beyond the bounds of your inherited ideas or religious beliefs you will know beyond doubt where their words are coming from. If you have dual loyalties aka ‘two masters’ probably not.
(1) Zahnd, Brian. The Unvarnished Jesus: A Lenten Journey (pp. 10-12). Kindle Edition.
