“Do not call to mind the former things,
Or ponder things of the past.
“Behold, I will do something NEW,
NOW it will spring forth;
Will you not be aware of it?
I will even make a ROADWAY IN the wilderness,
Rivers IN the desert. Isaiah 43:18-19
The roadway Isaiah points to here is the narrow path which leads to Life that Jesus Himself said so few find, not the wide roadway that leads to destruction that so many are walking today. "Perishing" as Paul so aptly puts it (I Corinthians 1:18), which is really the perfect word, because the death they continue to call Life and the darkness they call Light (Matthew 6:23) is the very thing that causes them to run after a separate life they call...their Christian life!
For you have died (past tense) and your life is (NOW) hidden with Christ IN God. WHEN CHRIST WHO IS OUR LIFE, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him IN Glory. Colossians 3:3-4
What Paul is saying; as the container (vessel, temple, branch, lamp) of God, when you are gazing IN the mirror and you no longer see two, or when you finally understand that seeing more than God is the only possible definition of the "divided house that cannot stand" and the "double minded man who is unstable IN ALL OF HIS WAYS", it's only then you will begin to see (perceive) Jesus Christ as the only REAL reflection (identity) there can be!
Joan Reilly |
It's kinda funny. I am learning for the first time that when you go through things with Him in your center, you have to share right then and there.. This stuff with Patrick isn't something I can just quietly go through alone so to speak, but it seems I have to blab my prayers to the world. Seems like God wants me to go through this in public so in sharing my fear, pain, weakness He is glorified. So all I can say is yes, I want to be a part of everything you and Rich say even if I have nothing to add. You minister Life and Life is where I want to be at all times.
This week Joan learns Patrick her son's kidneys have shut down at 39.
In sharing this "nothing to add", Joan is actually giving quite a key to how all three, Rich Linda and Joan all operate, as does Elaine Waterfield.
We're going public with a way of seeing...come hell or highwater.
How does Jesus "get revealed" when we are in a universe of appearances, living with a people who only see separation, that is themselves as : self powered "livers", and God off somewhere else, if he exists at all.
Part of the embarrassing (to the flesh) revealing...or let's use stripping off of the false dual seeing, is the stating quite deliberately that we do not believe this is so.
The Christian way has always begun this way, whether it's the public confession of that death in baptism, or the more recent "going to the front" in a Billy Graham crusade.
We believe in our heart according to the Word of God, we confess that word with our lips, and we are "saved"...or enter into the mechanics of salvation working by the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Romans 10:6 But the righteousness based on faith [imputed by God and bringing right relationship with Him] says, Do not say in your heart, Who will ascend into Heaven? that is, to bring Christ down;
7 Or who will descend into the abyss? that is, to bring Christ up from the dead [as if we could be saved by our own efforts].
8 But what does it say? The Word (God’s message in Christ) is near you, on your lips and in your heart; that is, the Word (the message, the basis and object) of faith which we preach,
9 Because if you acknowledge and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart believe (adhere to, trust in, and rely on the truth) that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart a person believes (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Christ) and so is justified (declared righteous, acceptable to God), and with the mouth he confesses (declares openly and speaks out freely his faith) and confirms [his] salvation.
11 The Scripture says, No man who believes in Him [who adheres to, relies on, and trusts in Him] will [ever] be put to shame or be disappointed.
12 [No one] for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. The same Lord is Lord over all [of us] and He generously bestows His riches upon all who call upon Him [in faith].
13 For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord [invoking Him as Lord] will be saved.
WHEN CHRIST WHO IS OUR LIFE, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him IN Glory. Colossians 3:3-4
Chris Welch |
try this one for size.
Today is the Day of Salvation.
God's Name is I AM.
He raised us up with Him to sit with Him in heavenly places...NOW.There is no other time.
Ecclesiastes 3 :11 Youngs Literal The whole He hath made beautiful in its season; also, that knowledge He hath put in their heart without which man findeth not out the work that God hath done from the beginning even unto the end.
I don't know if you are catching this.
These SECRETS NOW are all already encoded in your heart.
You don't have to wait.
But you have to enter deep into your heart.....way past the emotional surface. Way past your own subterranean agendas.
To find God. Who is there already. "IN YOUR MIDST"
Don't be as the gentiles who heap up prayers like catholics with hail marys, or witches with spells and incantations, or Anglicans with their weekly liturgies, or charismatics with their statutory 5 "free worship" song list....no don't be like them...no heaping...instead go into your inner room and close the door...close the door to anglicans, catholics, witches, secular rulebook types saying don't touch this and do things this way....no no no...we're Romans 12 -ing it here...we're being transformed in the spirit...in the inner recesses of what drives our mind.
Waiting on the Lord in Hebrew means in one version,interweaving, becoming interleaved with.
When it says my life is hidden with Christ in God...."hidden with" in Greek means as near as an angel's toenail the same thing.
New Agers meditate...but Paul says of this type of life in 1 Corinthians 12 drifting along by any which spirit "as you were wont to do"....(diverse spirits)".No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit."
Here's your check list.
We can't make Jesus Lord. But the Holy Spirit can so move within us as to make our being line up with the already existing total Lordship of Christ.
Go into your inner room and meet with your Father in secret.
WHEN CHRIST WHO IS OUR LIFE, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him IN Glory. Means TODAY. Means as we explore in our heart and find this Father of souls...our soul is REVEALED a BIT MORE...BUT IN HIM.
This is all PRAYER IS.
THIS IS ALL SOAKING IS.
THIS is all meditating upon HIM is.
THIS IS ALL a meeting of gathered saints IS.
WE leave a meeting having BEEN that bit more REVEALED in Him. As experience.
When we make love with our wives we don't remain unaltered.
THIS in the same way is TRUE WORSHIP. We connect with God....this eternity...THIS NOW...in our hearts.
I love the Young Literal translation of the Ecclesiastes verse. It sounds the most correct to my insides.
All the others say either He does everything just right and on time, but people can never completely understand what he is doing.NCV which isn't too negative
or uncharacteristically crap for the Message "but he's left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he's coming or going." which betrays Eugene Peterson's childhood spent I guess in one too many garbage catholic or Anglican sermons which lie continually about God's ways being too high to understand and we just muddle along down here until we die, and in a blaze of glory we go " Aha...Now I understand."
NOPE the Youngs Literal is fantastic wording."that knowledge He hath put in their heart without which man findeth not out the work that God hath done ."
In other words UNTIL we repent....meta noia...out from our nous, our conscious mind. Until we break with the darkened circularity of believing in things just as they appear to our senses...until we go down deep into our heart areas....we will never find the Truth of who we are, of who God is...both spirit....of UNION....of the secrets of living by the word of faith......in other words Christ is never revealed in us....our religion remains like a lifelong Catholic and Anglican service, never coming to a knowledge of the Truth, and having that Truth set us free.
Thank you Chris, I think this is a vital word for today's erring church! Bless you brother!
ReplyDeleteStop bragging about your relationship with your girlfriend on Facebook and honor your wife. Especially since she just died.
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