The Meaning of Union VII
The Child sees his “Christian” life as how it benefits him – “my sins are forgiven”, “I’m going to Heaven”.
The Young Man sees his “Christian” life, also, as how it benefits him – “I am strong” – “I know the bible” – “I can whip the devil”. Or worse – the Young Man can get into doing this or that to obtain “blessings” or “wealth” or “health” or whatever. The Young Man can be very self-centered.
The Father is different. He knows the difference between the improved life and the replaced life. His life is not about him or for him. The Father knows he lives his life for others. He is Christ in his world.
“I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning.”
I John 2.13
Let’s not forget one thing – you already have Union – His Spirit joined eternally and unchangeably to your spirit. What does that mean? It means you are already a Father.
The question arises – why should I know my union? The answer is simple – “Christ must be formed in you” – and He already is – but the “forming” is the “knowing” – intuitively, permanently, unquestionably.
Why is that so important? Why must I know this? In the Old Testament He tells us His name - “I am”. Jesus also said “I am”. But that sort of begs the question – “I am who – I am what?”.
Well He answers that question also – “God is love”. So, one thing we know is that love is not an emotion – although love can be felt. It is not a thing to be obtained. More properly Love is a Person - the Person. You will not get more love as if it were a thing to be obtained – but you will be an expression of the Person who is Love.
Why is this important? Because - Love exists for others. Love has no other purpose. If God made a choice – and that is hard to imagine because “choice” is really a temporal word – a word for time and space – but let’s say He sat down one day and made a choice. Well His choices are obvious. He could be alone – or - He could have created all that exists to serve Him – or - and the choice He obviously made, was that He could serve and, in fact, die for His creation. Well, if that’s not the best definition of love – I don’t know how to define love.
So – we are now the expression of Him who is Love. And, we are in fact Love ourselves.
More on that in Part VIII
The Meaning of Union VIII
by David Heisler on Monday, 11 April 2011 at 19:39
We know we are Fathers. We know that it is important to know this – but why?
Well, what is His purpose in all this? Are we created to be a race of immature Children and Young Men? Is there some eternal purpose in all being self-centered – “getting the blessings” like kids in a candy store? No. Of course not.
The truth is we are mature. We do know who we are. We are safe. We are His expression. He is the lover. We are lovers. He is the creator. We are creators. He gave His life. We shall give our lives. This is truly Christianity. This is who we are.
The process of going from the consciousness of Children to Young Men to Fathers is what Paul described as the “renewing of your mind”. “… be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind …” [Romans 12.2] “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind …” [Ephesians 4.23] Understanding that, as a Father, you exist for others is very different than your original thoughts about Christianity.
The Father’s mind is renewed. He does not see Christianity as a religion to improve his self. His self will never be improved, only replaced by Christ Himself. Fathers do not look to “get something” out of Christianity – rather – he sees himself as one who gives all because he loves and is love himself.
Look again at how John describes the Father: “I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning.” [I John 2.13] There is such clarity in that vantage point – knowing Him – the One from the beginning. All the nonsense of religious Christianity drops away at that point. That statement is beyond human grasp – except by intuition.
More in Part IX
The Meaning of Union IX
So how do you get it? How do you “know” your union? Well, for one it is real whether you know it or not. You are a Father whether you appear to be or not. Your feelings are irrelevant. Appearances are irrelevant. Feelings and appearances are irrelevant as to the eternal truth of who you are.
There is one thing you must know. He always gives confirmation of what is real – eventually. That old missionary always talked about expressing faith like committing yourself to sitting in a chair. Have you ever seen someone sit in a chair and the chair broke. It’s very funny if it’s not you. It does happen. Sometimes chairs break. However, He does not break.
But you must fall backwards into Him like you would fall backwards into a chair. The only difference is that He will never, ever fail you and, most important, is that at some point you will realize that it is not you that hold Him, but He that holds you. You will realize that you do not hold Christianity together by anything you do – praying, reading, singing, fellowshipping, tithing – or any of the other “so-called” Christian activities. All is dependent upon Him, period.
At some point it will simply occur to you that – what you have said a thousand or ten thousand times “He lives His life as me” – is true. It may hit you like a ton of eternal bricks. There will be confirmation.
But, as sure as the sun will rise in the east – the reality [truth] is that you were crucified with Christ – and – now the life you live is Him living as you.
The good thing is that it is not your job to give the confirmation – it is His. So, basically just forget about it – let Him be Himself.
And, so, in the words of Forrest Gump, “that’s all I have to say about that [for now]”.
Response to Union
by David Heisler on Wednesday, 13 April 2011 at 13:51
Here’s a response I got from a good friend:
“Hey David,
What's interesting to me is that everything in the Christian life works this way:
Objective leads to Subjective.
Our problem is that in natural religion, we want to see it, feel it, experience it first before we accept the truth as true.
All the truths of Christianity are only true objectively, completely apart from myself, or my
experience, or my feelings or will. They are true in heaven before we were even born in time
and space. But God's word tells us they are true nonetheless, and true of us, even before we
subjectively experience them. Because we were truly baptized into Christ Jesus death and
resurrection long before we were born, even before time began, because He is the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. And all men were placed into Christ Jesus.
Your testimony below reminded me of this because this is what I've been dealing with. "You're
already dead, how can you die to self when I already killed your old self 2,000 yrs. ago?"
And as we accept the Objective truth, it becomes subjective. Natural religion, even Christian
natural religion, always puts the experience first, whether that be fruit, obedience, works, the
will, the mind or the emotions or our behavior. All of these things come after faith, not before.
We have to die to our own religion, our own self, as we take His objective truth, completely
outside of what we know to be ourselves, as true on our behalf. Then as we go forward with
that truth simply by faith and meditating on His truth, the subjective experience comes along
after to prove that it was already true. It doesn't become true when we "get it" or feel it or
experience it, it's true beforehand.
"Faith is the substance," the substance isn't the substance, faith is. "Faith is the victory," the
victory is not the victory, faith is. This relaxes us because we don't have to "get it" to get it.
We've already got it all, in Him. But as we receive that, then we will experience it, but it's only
a byproduct, it's not the substance
The Anna Approach (union message X? adjunct)
by David Heisler on Thursday, 14 April 2011 at 16:36
More and more, for my own understanding of things, I take the “Anna” approach -- I refer to “Anna” as in “Mister God this is Anna”. See how Ann broke things down to their simplest parts and ideas.
P.19 of “Mister God this is Anna”
The local parson talked with Anna, then age 5 or 6:
The Parson said to Anna, “Do you believe in God?”
“Yes”
“Do you know what God is?”
“He’s God!”
“Do you go to church?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I know it all!”
“What do you know?”
“I know to love Mister God and to love people and cats and dogs and spiders and flowers and trees … with all of me.”
Do we need more theology or doctrine?
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