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Humanity vs. Spirit
by: Jeremy George
Mankind has a serious dilemma on its hands. We are trying to interact, communicate, and become intimate with God, yet we are dangerously hindered by our cultural ideologies. We are far from being able to flow freely in a symbiotic relationship with the Spirit of God. The Spirit is the giver of Grace and the catalyst for the unconditional love of God. I want to convey what the Spirit is speaking to me about where the breakdown exists between the fleshly world and the spiritual world. Allow your mind to shift and question your existing paradigm of how mankind should relate to God. I will begin by discussing how man is hindered, then show where the Spirit wants to bring us.
HUMANITY
All religion is born in the mind and imagination of man. It seems right to man because man invented it. Man realized that there was a great separation between him and God, and decided that it was his job to create an avenue to reconnect that broken relationship. Mankind felt (and most still feel) that if they can be "like" God by performing certain rituals, wearing certain clothes, eating and drinking certain foods, and doing specific religious duties, that then they will be more acceptable to their God and therefore they will be "in". Those who do not keep these religious laws and perform these religious duties are "out". If you've noticed so far, I haven't mentioned the spiritual yet. That is because the religious activity of mankind is void of the spiritual connection. As soon as I become motivated by the physical duties, I am not free to be spiritual. Or maybe there will be a little bit of time for the spiritual when I have finished the duties. Man tries to interpret the Spirit through the confines and cultural paradigms of his/her religion. Whether it is Hinduism, Islam, Judaism or Christianity, the approach (in most cases) has been the same. We have devised a way to work towards being more like God by performance. It is so subtle!! That is why Jesus was so adamant about warning against the Pharisee's teaching in Matthew chapter 16. He called it leaven, yeast, because it works silently, and has taken over before you even notice that it is there. Do you know what I am talking about? The idea that we say and read in the scripture that we are beloved of God, saved, loved unconditionally because of GRACE! But how many of us continue to live as if we are trying to gain God's acceptance. Honestly, evaluate your own motives. I'm not saying that if you love God you won't want to serve him in many capacities. I am saying though, that believers secretly believe that what they do or do not do affects their standing with the Creator. We think that if we do more religious activity, we are somehow better than if we weren't doing something religious. Are you following me? Is it Grace? Grace alone? You have to answer that question. It is either Grace through the cross and resurrection - or - you are having a good try at it! Who can add to what Jesus has accomplished? Did He do it all? If He did, then you truly are free! What a beautiful reckoning to come to! I will define freedom later. Let's continue with man's struggle. (Please know that when I use the term "Man", I am speaking of all of Mankind).
Man is frustrated because the Spirit of God doesn't fit into the mold of any religion. The frustration is resulted because the formula that man has built does not contain or move or make the Spirit which it claims to be involved with. Therefore, extreme frustration and a sense of failure continually overcomes man because he/she cannot make it work. When that happens, we begin to work harder to please God and make up for the failures and all of the sins and lost time. We beat ourselves senseless! And the cycle never ends. We feel the presence of the Spirit in worship or in life and automatically we start thinking of all of the things that we have neglected to do for God. That conviction of guilt and the pressure of the shame that our cultural ideologies place on us is too much to bear - so we begin to re-dedicate our lives to working for God to please Him. When we continue to dedicate this and re-dedicate that, we are setting ourselves up for failure. (You know in your own heart that you don't keep all of the silly little rules that you have made up for yourself). Why do we do that? I'm talking to the Christian community as a whole. Why do we continue to live our Christianity as if we are almost good enough to approach God, or almost worthy to be His children? Why do we enjoy His presence during worship services and in our own meditation time, yet we then fall right back into our ideologies structures of how we can complete that bridge that we feel is our job to do? We find ourselves trapped! The sad thing is that there are shepherds in pulpits all over the world who are not teaching the "True Gospel." They are not teaching that this experience is through faith! As Martin Luther quoted the apostle Paul (Romans 4) in the midst of the greatest power on earth (the Catholic Church) in the 16th century, "The just shall live by faith!" By Grace alone! Living in Grace and resting in the Spirit is where the strength and fruit of the Spirit reside. "We need to stop living for God, and start living from God!!" (Malcolm Smith)
Man hopes to create - subconsciously - the will of God; and hopes that the Spirit will carry it out through him. If the Spirit doesn't come and do it (what man believes to be God's will), then he/she will make it work on his own strength. The result = BURNOUT! This is crazy! Man, who is supposed to be dependent upon his God, the Spirit, to lead, guide, and direct him in all of his endeavors, resorts to forcing the plan to work in his own strength. Who can build the kingdom of God? Who can weather the trials alone? Who, in their own will, can produce the fruit of the Spirit? No one! God never intended for us to do it. "He never intended for us to even try." (Charles Stanley in the context of working for God outside of the Spirit)
On your own, can you produce something once, let alone over a lifetime? No! It is impossible? It is the Spirit that lives that life through the believer! That is why it is called the fruit of the Spirit, not the fruit of the believer. Jesus said in John chapter 15 that we must abide in the Vine. For it is the Vine that produces the fruit through the branches. How does a branch bear fruit?
Does a branch work harder and harder and strive and strain day in and day out to produce fruit? No! The branch simply rests in the vine! It is the Vine Life (the Spirit) that flows from the roots of that Vine up through the branches to produce the fruit. In religion, man is not content in resting and waiting for that process to take place. Man has to do something! It is in our nature. We must do something, add something so that I can achieve the desired end: acceptance from God. That is what man is ultimately after. Somehow the promises in the Blood Covenant and the beautiful liberties in the Gospel are overshadowed by our insecure, selfish need to add to what Christ has already accomplished. Either Jesus did it all on the cross and resurrection, or we are having a good go at it down here on earth. Is He our all in all? Do you really believe that? If you do, then your rest begins now! How beautiful a salvation! But a sad fact is that much of the time man is motivated by a debt that they feel they owe to God. They are not motivated by His unconditional love through the Spirit. I saw a Christian sign by campus the other day that said, "God gave his life, what have you given?" I know what they were getting at, but what are the implications of that statement? The implications are that now that we have received God's forgiveness and are waiting for heaven, we must somehow repay God through our discipline and work down here on earth (as if the later has some bearing on our fellowship with the Spirit and our position in the afterlife). The implication that the level at which God accepts us and our standing before Him is based on what we do or do not do, is a direct affront to the Gospel. That implication puts conditions on us! I thought God's love was unconditional? Many will say, "it is, but....." I, with the apostle Paul say, "It is!!! Period!!!" The second we reason in our minds that mercy, grace, and above all God's love is conditional from the divine to the human, we do not have Christianity anymore! We have put what Jesus described as the "leaven of the Pharisees" into a teaching, that at the heart is good, but has been corrupted!
If you have a Gospel that is fed by the desires of man to prove his worth to God, then you have a Gospel that will bring humanity into retched bondage of an impossible goal! That goal is to build a bridge of acceptance from my God to myself, in order that He will love me and receive me. That goal, so subtle as it may creep in to our thoughts, drives many believers to exhaust themselves trying to do what they cannot do - what God never intended for them to even try to do. What earns our acceptance by God? His eternal, unconditional love, displayed through the death and resurrection of His Son, the Lord Jesus, has earned our acceptance by the Father. This acceptance is forever! God does not break covenant! Even when all around Him do, he never does and never will! That is the beauty of the Gospel! That is why we rejoice! He did it! He accomplished the work! If left up to us it is utterly impossible! Thank God He did!
A typical scenario that I have seen is that people will be caught up in the rapture of an ecstatic worship experience and they will cry out over and over again to "be free" from the religions of man. Yet after the service they go right back to their thought processes of how religion works for them. They are not entering into the freedom that their spirit desires. They enter back into the bondage of their dreary religious lives. I don't mean that they don't love Christ and have genuine, good desires to be more like Him in their life; but they live from experience to refreshing revival type experience instead of walking in the Joy of the Spirit daily. Do you really want to be free from the religions of man? Search out the truth in the Gospel. The Spirit leads us. Cast off the weight that so many preachers and teachers of "the word" try to lay on you. If you don't want to be free in the Spirit, to live spontaneously, free from the judgements of man, then continue trying to please a God that loves you right now as much as He ever will. God will never love you more than He does right now! He has chosen you, you have not chosen Him. He is pleased. He can't be more pleased with you than He is right now as He looks at you through the atoning sacrifice and resurrection of His beautiful Son Jesus! The hard thing is that mankind is scared. We are afraid and trapped within the paradigms and traditions that come through history. All cultures revolve around it in one way or another. It doesn't matter how you change the outer package - if it's not the Gospel, people will be bound and will be just waiting for this whole thing to end so that we can get to heaven. You can change the atmosphere at any church - take out the pews, put in a coffee bar, have hour and a half worship services, wear jeans, read the "message version" of the scriptures, sing Darrell Evans songs, wear hip clothes from the Gap or Abercrombie - but if you are not teaching the "True Gospel" message, it will have the same ole' leaven that the Pharisees were adding to the original law. We have to break out of how the paradigms of man have shaped our approach to God and Spirit. Let me ask you this: can you approach Spiritual things with the flesh? Or let me put it this way: does the spiritual realm operate in the same way as our flesh, human way of living? Is not the spiritual something so totally different? Isn't it a whole other world? It is! Then why do we try to approach it as if it were just another part of earthly life? We build formulas to make it work most effectively (in our minds). If the Spirit is on a whole other level, why do we continue to approach it as if it were in the physical. I hope you are grasping the concept of what I am saying. I am saying that our daily communion (walk) with the Holy Spirit is something so different then just reading Bible verses and having devotions. It is waiting on the Spirit to lead us, to fill us with joy! It is resting in the unconditional love of the Father and believing that He is leading us through His Spirit as He promised through His Son Jesus. There is no life outside of the Spirit! If you try to get away from the Spirit actively speaking to your spirit and walking with you daily (abiding), then you are rejecting the way that God has laid out for us to walk in. This is the abiding life. I believe that this deserves some serious thought. Thinking, that is another area where many Christians need to expand and develop. Test the teaching of man against what the Spirit is speaking to your spirit. To accurately assess the Spirit, you have to have an accurate foundation of the truth in your life. The "True Gospel."
The sad thing is that man has condemned himself. He is so tired and worn of trying to earn God's favor. And when he trips up, he blames the enemy for getting in his way of getting close to God. But half of the battle is knowing the truth, so that it may set you free. You have to apply the truth to truly be spiritually, mentally, and emotionally free from the trappings in the religions of man. And the hard part is these trappings of the "False Gospel" are so subtle. Pastor "so and so" gets up on Sunday morning and preaches that we just have to work a little harder and the blessings will begin to flow. We just need more faith, and then miracles will happen in our life. This guy is respected by the general community, he/she has a theological degree from some big joint, so therefore we assume that what they are saying is the truth and I better start applying that formula right away to my life (and subconsciously we are thinking of how what we are doing right now is not working, maybe this one is it). Then when we slip up or don't have peace, we feel the condemnation come on us. It slips in the back door and begins to go to work on our minds and spirits. We feel guilty or shameful for not doing enough "church stuff" or not giving God the time He deserves (as if He is incomplete and needs us to get up earlier for devotions so that He won't be lonely). This condemnation is so subtle when it comes in, but it weakens us, it kills us! We then feel like we can't fully approach the loving arms of the Father until we start doing more stuff. The Father no longer is a loving Father but one who is disappointed in us for our lack of devotion and dedication to Him. This condemnation is a lie from the pits of religion that thinks if I am just a little bit better, a little more righteous in my acts and thoughts, God will love me more and accept me. This is a terrible trap to be in. So many Christians live here. They are not walking in the Joy that the Spirit has for us daily. I will never forget when reading Romans chapters six, seven, eight and nine, that I suddenly knew for sure that I was free! If you have never studied these chapters closely, I urge you to before you do anything else. Paul has a special grasp of the "True Gospel" more than any other New Testament writers, because he was an ex-Pharisee. He was more religious than anyone, and as equally more retched than anyone. He admitted that about himself. Therefore, what a great choice of Gods (of course all of His choices are excellent) to use him to be the main communicator of this freedom in the Gospel and liberation in the Truth! In Romans chapter six, Paul goes into detail about how Christ has triumphed over sin for us, "once for all." He has taken us from slavery in sin to freedom in righteousness. Then in chapter seven, he describes the most peculiar situations that seem to fall on the deaf ears of the religious. In the context of the conflict between the Law judging his sin and him loving God and being liberated by the death and resurrection of Christ; he says this:
(7:14-25) , "For we know that the Law is spiritual; but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not wish to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which indwells me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin."
Paul is speaking of this incredible struggle "waging war" in his being. He loves God in his heart, yet struggles with sin and the pleasing of the law. Who will set him free? Who? Will he set himself free by keeping to the law more strictly? Will he be free if he becomes more devoted to God? If he gives more tithes? If he reads the scriptures and prays more? If he does more church work and activities? No!!!!!!! He answers us with some of the most beautiful words of all Scripture. The above passage flows into the next chapter where he says:
(8:1-3) "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit."
PRAISE GOD WE ARE FREE!!!!!!
Mankind has found ourselves blinded by our own rules, laws, regulations, and our duties for performance. We have long forgotten the author of the scriptures and the truth from which these misguided teachings have come from. That is what is difficult, that this leaven of the Pharisees comes from the same scriptures that we derive the truth from. That is when it becomes difficult. It is easier to look at the Muslim, Hindu, and witchdoctors and say that they don't have the Spirit of God guiding them because they are not looking to the same scriptures for Truth. But when it is "Christian" folks, many times sincere, good people who love the Lord, it is hard to come against them and expose the falseness of their teachings. They are using scriptures, so most people just except what they are saying! That is the danger! Jesus had many nasty confrontations with the Pharisees in only three years of teaching. One of the confrontations He had was with their love and belief in the scriptures, yet they rejected Him, who was the essence of all Truth. In John chapter 5: 39-43, He says,
"You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal Life; and it is these very Scriptures that bear witness of Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have Life. I do not receive glory from men; but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another will come in his own name, you will receive him."
Jesus said that to the Pharisees! These were some of the most devout, religious people who have ever lived. They used the Scriptures as their bases for living (plus a myriad of laws and duties that they added to them). Jesus was saying that they loved and regarded the Scriptures as the highest point of truth, but they rejected Him who the Scriptures testified about! They saw the empty husk of the Scriptures but did not have the Life of Him who is in the Scriptures. The Scriptures should not be our ultimate focus. The Spirit of God, who breathes in us through relationship the life of Jesus, should be our focus. Don't tune me out, I'm not against the Scriptures by any means. But only since Martin Luther, in his plight to liberate the German peasants from the tyrannical manipulation of the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century, have we hailed the Scriptures as the total focus above all things. As a result we have bound ourselves to a life of serving the Scriptures, and the doctrinal systems that we have derived from them, to make humanity more like Christ (in the physical); so to prove to God and the world that we are going to make this "Christianity" thing work! And boy do we plow forward at all costs. We may be miserable inside, burned out, but we are so righteous! "See God", we think, "I am doing all I can to be like you; to gain your acceptance!" And we think, "I am showing the world just how wonderful it is to be your child. I will convince them that the Bible is true and my way is right by keeping all these disciplines and keeping myself from worldly sin and a worldly lifestyle." That is what we think. God is not interested in us doing a bunch of religious activity. That only glorifies the flesh! When we do religious activities and perform for God, our flesh gets a buzz out of it. We feel like we are really doing something now. Just like when groups go out and street witness or do some other religious activity and they are not led by the Spirit; they are just doing it because that is what good, strong Christians do. They were sitting around their youth group or church rooms and realized they haven't done anything to evangelize lately, we better do something. This is horrible! This is acting religiously out of performance and some other motivation other than the Spirit's leading. This activity is abhorrent to God and the world looks at us as a bunch of idiots! Jesus only did what He saw the Father do! He waited on the direction of His Father. He rested in the Love of His Father. He is the ultimate example of the Spiritual person. He was totally dependent upon the leading of the Spirit, as we should be! Jesus knew that the Pharisees (and religious people all over the world today) searched the Scriptures but missed Him who the Scriptures testify about. They miss the Life that the Scriptures talk about! What a sad life to live. To have the empty husk of a religion that is utterly impossible to live out without the Life in the Spirit. Without the Spirit, Christianity is the most miserable of all the religions; because it is set up to work totally dependent upon that relationship with the Spirit. If you are outside of that - all you are left with is - YOURSELF! Do you get it? It is either Christ through His Spirit, or it is you doing a bunch of religious activity that gives your flesh a buzz and makes you feel good about this performance act that you are putting on to receive (or feel) love from God! And don't you fool yourself and think for a moment that we don't interpret God's love for us based on how we feel. We do all the time! Think back to all the great worship experiences that you have had, all those great times of ministry. You felt so good and internalized that as God really loving you now. It is absolutely false and deceiving to believe that it is then that God loves you most -or more- because he looks down on you at that point and sees you worshipping or doing something in His name and overflows love out to you that He hasn't overflowed to you at other times! We fool ourselves because we are human! We are emotional beings! When we "feel" loved, we label that experience as one where God was pleased, therefore He gave more love to us! That is a lie! So if our experience and memory tell us that by acting, we feel good about what we are doing with our faith, then our God loves us more! It is logical to us based on the systems of man that we operate under here on earth and in our culture! But understand this, and I stand fixed in all eternity on this point, this ideological approach to Christianity has invaded the Church and is heretical to the True Gospel. The Good News is that God has once and for all displayed His Unconditional Love through the covenant He made with mankind through the death and resurrection of His beloved Son Jesus, who is the Christ! Praise be to God and His majestic ways now and forever more!!!!!!
[Selah.
Christians often speak of and have this strange sense that life is about getting saved and then waiting for Heaven. We somehow are just holding out for the end of time (or the end of our time) so that we can join Jesus and then everything will be great then. We are so afraid of sin and that becomes our main focus. Should sin be our focus? If it is our focus, what does that mean? It means that that is what we are constantly consumed with: am I sinning, am I disappointing God, did I do things right in this or that situation, is it a sin to go here or there, drink this or that, wear this or that? If our focus is on that, we are not free to live spontaneously! We are constantly fearing that we are going to sin and that that will separate our relationship with our Father. This is a very different mindset and lifestyle than what Jesus modeled for us. Jesus didn't worry about where he was when he was eating, who he was eating with, what he ate and drank, who he ministered and hung out with, and entering into the moment (wherever He was at). Jesus lived spontaneously! He lived each moment to the fullest. He took advantage of each breath and each day that He had with the people. He wasn't concerned with the letter of the law, he was concerned about the spirit of the law and how that could be applied in love to those around Him. Who He was with and what he was doing was never an issue concerning His standing with His Father. He lived and operated out of this incredible love relationship that He had with the Father. Jesus lived in the now!
An interesting thing is that man thinks, and has been educated wrongly; thinking that this whole God relationship really only takes off when he/she initiates it with God and disciplines himself/herself more. That through performance of doing certain things and refraining from other things is the basis of the interaction between man and spirit. That is the trap that the world religions and philosophies have gotten trapped in. They teach that if mankind can somehow deny the flesh and all other distractions around them and if they perform certain religious "ceremonial" rituals, that the divine will then except us. So life is an endless search to deny pleasure in life and get yourself to that holy place, that place where you are "really" doing it, where you are "really" set apart and becoming more holy. This brings us to a very important place in our relationship with the divine. What is Holy? Who is Holy? How does one become Holy? Is it a God thing or is it a human thing? Paul says that there is not one who is righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God, they have all turned aside (Romans 3). He is talking there about the nature of mankind before we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Who then is Holy? How then is Holiness obtained? Entering on the scene here is the only one who is Holy! The only one who is Worthy to open the seal (Revelation 5)! The Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David! Jesus the Christ! He is Holy! He is the essence of Holiness! He is the definition and embodiment of all that is True, Just, Right, Holy, Pure, Good, Strong, Compassionate, Broken, Redemptive, and Loving! He is the Lord! He is all in all! He is Lord! Can I say it again, He is Lord!!!! He is the One who brings holiness to us. Holiness is given to us through propitiation (the transfer of the work on the Cross and the Resurrection to those who are called children of God). Holiness is not the striving of a weary people that are trying to please an impossible God. Holiness is the trading of dirty, filthy rags for the richness of Grace and Mercy. Holiness is the inner sanctuary of the Great Spirit where we have communion with Him (worshiping in Spirit and Truth)! To begin to earn Holiness and Righteousness is a direct affront to the message of the Gospel. The Gospel is the Good News! It is the announcement of an event that has already taken place and is freely given to us. No strings attached. If there are strings, then we need to redefine Grace. No strings. It is all Grace. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying live recklessly, but I am saying that Holiness is just as strong in the worker who has worked the fields for years as it is for the one who has just been there a few hours (today you will be with me in paradise!). The overall point that I am trying to make here is that we do not perform for God to gain his favor therefore live our lives as if the giving of His love to us was dependant on how we act. He gives freely on His own initiative, and don't make him out otherwise! That is a warning!
So where does this leave us? This puts us in the 21st century after our Lord, a beautiful spot in history where democracy reigns in much of the world and where people of these new generations are crying out for more than just the empty husk of religion. We are in a time where experience is valued! People believe their experiences, in many cases, much more than they believe written words. This is a beautiful place for Christians to be because this is where the Spirit enters in and lives the life of Jesus through us and Loves people who are around us so that they can see and experience the true forgiveness, mercy, grace, and love that is plastered throughout the past two thousand years of Christendom. Enters here the beauty of the promise of the Gospel, and that is the Spirit on the earth. We can now start unfolding here how our Lord desires for His people to relate to Him, to the Body of believers, and those precious lost daughters and sons who have yet to be called by name into the kingdom (let it be, let it be)!
SPIRIT
I said that religion comes from within man because it is born out of his own mind, what seems right unto him as the best way to approach God (and in the end thereof are the ways of death). The Spirit of God has a much different approach. It comes from outside of man, something so high above humanity, so separate (at it's roots) from the way mankind has learned to operate after the fall. The Spirit has a whole new and fresh way to approach life; a vibrant way of communing with our precious Savior. The Spirit is beyond the control of man. The Spirit is not manipulated by the programs and rituals of religious activity. The Spirit (Godhead) wills Himself on the universe of man, not motivated by the thoughts and actions of mankind but moves on man as the weather does (so we see it, although it is immaculately orderly and smooth). When I am speaking of the working of the Spirit in this section of the paper, I am not speaking of weird stuff that might happen in some charismatic service, I am speaking doctrine! Understand that I weigh my words heavily here!
The Spirit reveals the will of the Father to the believer. The Spirit is the communicator of the wonderful thoughts of the Father and of the loving compassion of the Son. The Spirit lived and breathed through Jesus as He walked so humanly on this earth. Jesus drew all of His strength from the Father through the Spirit! Jesus said that He only does what He sees His Father doing, for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing (John 5:19-21). How did Jesus know what His Father was doing and what He must do? The Spirit showed Him! That is the operation of the Spirit. To lead us and guide us in all truth. It is interesting that Jesus only did what He saw His Father in Heaven do. He wasn't continually busy doing a bunch of works down here on earth. He had a mission like each of us. He stayed true to His mission until it was completed! He wasn't doing anything he could get his hands on. He wasn't involved in every church activity that there was going on at the time. He didn't do what wasn't in His calling! Why then do we find today so many Christians who are running around doing all these "good works", which many of them are good in their own right, but are not what God has for that particular individual. They are outside of their calling many times, exhausting themselves trying to do something that God has not called or gifted them to do. This is where the classic cases of Christian burnout exist! People are getting burned out because they are drawing on their own resources, trying to do ministry that isn't even their calling in the Spirit! Have you ever seen someone who is walking in their calling? Look at their life and the ministry that the Spirit is doing through their life! It is a beautiful demonstration of what Christ is doing through His people here on earth today! These people who are walking in the Spirit this way are not full of anxiety. They are free!!! Don't you want to be free? It is time to begin to seek out, listen, and see what God is speaking and doing in you as an individual and then you will begin to understand where you fit in in the Body of Christ. Did Jesus ever burn out while involved in His calling? No! He is the prime example. Always watching, listening, only doing what the Spirit showed Him the Father was doing! So then He was never trying to draw on resources that were not there to do a job that he was not capable of doing! We are not all capable of the same things. We are different and have a uniqueness which is there for us to bring out, not hide. The Church today is too afraid of our differences when it should be celebrating them! Our differences make us stronger and help us complete the whole work of God in His Kingdom!
So then we see that the Spirit of God wants to do something different with us, through us, and in us than we naturally see from our human perspective. Paul continually talks about our calling from God in terms that "it is not because of him who works or him who wills but on Him who calls" (Romans 9:11). God calls us to our unique experience and ministry through His spirit. There is no Christianity or relationship from man to God without the Spirit. Without the Spirit, the relationship is dead and we have lost our meaning. The Spirit is mystical. Therefore, we must enter into the consciousness of a mystical relationship and mystical experience when we approach God. If the Spirit is in the mystic while interacting with humanity as He does, we must then be in the mindset and approach the Spirit with our spirit. Jesus said in John 4:23-24 that "true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." Christianity in the Western World has strayed far away from the mystical approach to God. But we have to remember that Christ was born into a culture and of a people who were of an Eastern, mystical background. They too (the Jews) had gotten away from this spiritual/mystical relationship with their God and that is why Jesus was leading them to the place of the verse in John that I just quoted (worship in spirit and truth). Western culture is so tangible minded. If we can't touch it in front of us, it is not there. We are not in the practice of meditation for the means of a spiritual/mystical experience between our spirit and the Spirit of God. We scoff at the Eastern religions for being into meditation and yoga. I hear Christians who speak about the evil spiritual activity that seems to be more prevalent in third world countries (especially in the Eastern world). I believe that is so because these people's culture, traditions, and religious practices open them up more fluidly with the spiritual realm; and if they are not tapping into the Spirit of God, they are connecting with spirits of the world. What if we were to delve into our spirits deeper and open ourselves up for the mystical experience with Christ that he speaks about and shows us in the scriptures? How much more might we be in tune with what God's Spirit is wanting to show us and speak to us? I would argue a tremendous change would occur. This is part of what Jesus was speaking about in John chapter 15:4-5 when He gives the greatest example of how a Christian's life should be in relationship to the Godhead. He says, "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing." Jesus is speaking of us being in Him and He being in us; Him being in us and us being in Him. He in me, me in Him. How can I be in someone who lived two thousand years ago? How can I be in Jesus? I am in Him through His victories on the cross and His resurrection and I am in Him by a mystical joining in the spiritual realm where my spirit and His Spirit call unto each other as deep calls unto deep. We really have to get real and genuine here when we are talking about having this union with the divine. I mean honestly, can our flesh approach the divine? Do we really think that by acting religiously (regardless of the religion or faith) we can join the human and the divine? No, God forbid! As Christians, we are experiencing something so unique, so beautiful, so amazing, something that is so beyond our imagination that if we were able to comprehend it we would have to leave this casing which we call flesh and return to our original place as pure spirit! This is the wonder, the mystery which Paul talked about. Paul speaks all through his letters in the New Testament concerning the notion that he has nothing except what he has it IN Christ. He is so redundant when he speaks about being IN Christ. He is making the point concerning the mystery that this Christ is different than anything ever before in history. No other culture, religion or people group had experienced this but now here it is, open to everyone. That is, that Christianity is the only faith which believes that God lives in the believer. Have you ever studied this? Look at the other religions. They are all about their god being outside of them, over far away, up there, over there. But Christians believe that our God lives inside of us, dwells IN us. If that is not a mystical belief than I don't know what is! Listen folks, I'm not talking about some weird stuff here where you have to light candles all around and chant and do weird postures and stuff. I'm talking about the Lord of Host dwelling in us with His Spirit and desiring to interact with us on another level than our consumer, capitalistic, materialistic, post-modern, twenty-first century Western mindset! I'm talking about laying down the religious, dutiful mindset of working religiously to please God and start pressing in with spirit and in truth. The Divine is mystical!! You can't escape that fact! Do you see Him sitting right in front of you right now in the physical? No! But He is here, right next to you, all around you, inside of you! That is mystical!! I think it is time to re-evaluate our approach to God. This is a mystery like Paul talked about. But because it is a mystery of such proportions, we have almost dismissed this truth as not relevant or not applicable to our faith. Wake up! Study the truth for yourself. The problem is that we have sheppards and teachers who are not educating and leading their people in the whole truth. They don't even know it themselves! So they just keep on keepin' on, hoping that they get people saved instead of also focusing on teaching people how to live in Christ. Learning how to live in Christ is not learning what are good things for you to do and what are bad things that you need to stay away from. It is learning to commune with the Spirit of Christ, to abide in Him. When your spirit is one with the Spirit of the Lord, you don't need anyone to tell you about what is right or wrong, good or bad. The Spirit has come, has been sent to lead us in all truth. When pastors, religious institutions, and Christians try to regulate people's lifestyles by putting laws and rules on them that are not biblical, they are in essence saying that they do not trust the Spirit of God to lead believers in the way of the truth. That is what they are indirectly saying! And if they say that young people or young believers need those laws and rules because they don't know yet how to "live in Christ", that is only because these same institutions and people who are laying down these laws of heavy burdened chains on them are the same teachers and sheppards who have failed to raise these people up from the very beginning with a trust of God and freedom in His Spirit! Religion at its heart is an abomination to the freedom that God has for us! Religion dismisses the sweet communion of our spirit with God's Spirit and trades it for a rigid set of disciplines which have lost all of their meaning in the quest for righteous performance for God. It is sickening and very disheartening to see the Body of Christ in this place! Don't take me wrong, I'm not saying that discipline is wrong; but what I am saying is that discipline for the sake of earning God's acceptance is an abomination and slap in the face of the cross of Christ and His beautiful resurrection! So if the sweet communion is there as deep calls unto deep in the mystical realm of the Spirit, then discipline may very well follow, but now it is as of spontaneous worship and fellowship with my God, not some rigid, empty husk of religion. The Spirit of God wants to bring us into this living union with Christ.
The Spirit does not condemn! Paul takes a lot of time to discuss how the law came and condemned but the Spirit came with life (zoe). The Spirit of God has to make us free. Freedom has been the cry of mankind from the very onset of the sin of man in the garden. Ever since we became spiritually bound, institutions, governments, religions, and racism have perpetuated us down a dark tunnel of bondage. Throughout the world's history we have seen small glimpses of freedom through democracy and other "rights" causes; which only mirror mankind's ultimate desire to be spiritually free. I remember in my own experience of being rescued by the saving grace of my Lord, that it was the freedom that called me. Freedom has come to me in so many ways since I have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. I am free to express who Jeremy George is, totally and uninhibited. I do not have to mirror myself off of others around me to gain my self-esteem. I am fulfilling my divine purpose in life by containing and expressing the person of Jesus as He works His love and ministry through me. In knowing myself as a child of God, loved unconditionally, unable to be separated from my Father by the atonement and resurrection of Christ, I am free to live joyfully in the security that is now mine because I have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him, (I), after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of (my) salvation - having also believed, (I) was sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of (my) inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1:11-14). He has liberated me to totally be myself, to be a geek! I love being me! I love laying back and resting in the secure, strong, loving arms of my precious savior who delivered Himself up for my sake, yet holds the world in the palm of His hand with the power and ability to crush it in a single thought, or pour out His love and mercy as He does!
God's plan is to bring us to our individual potential as His children so that all of our unique characteristics can together express His character in its entirety! We are unique! The Body has so many facets. Why would we ever try to mold ourselves into each other's vision? It is time for the Church to accept and support the individualism that exists in the ministry of Christ's body. Our uniqueness and individual expression together make us Christ's body! That's it! Ask yourself why I don't act like you? My life is about being true to who I am in Christ and following His vision for my life as it relates to His Body as a whole. Seek the Spirit of God, walk with the Spirit, Abide, Rest in Him, Sing with Joy all of your days for He has overcome the world!
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