Glimpse

Actually... to amend something in my earlier post... I had a brief glimpse on my walk tonight of what it means to be in the Body as I talked with Jesus about it... it means to be identified completely with Christ. The ministry of Jesus... he loved, healed the sick, gave truth, gave hope, raised the dead, healed the blind, and more. That is in the identity of the Body. And that, my friend, is something to look forward to living in!

True Identity = Body of Christ, Trust = Rest

Hello Again!

I've been wanting to start writing again. Today is the perfect opportunity for me to do so. After a couple of incredibly crazy weeks and sleepless nights, I am taking a day off. I've needed some serious Bible study time and today I am getting my fill... so I thought I'd share.

I've been doing A LOT of processing on the Body of Christ. However, that is not what I am writing about today. Today I am going to write about faith and trust- however- it all stems from my processing/study on the Body of Christ. As I was dialoguing with the Holy Spirit today about the Body and coming into a deeper integration with the Body, I was working through questions of identity. We live in a cultural system that is consumed with identity. Its everything to people. The majority of time in our culture is spent maintaining our stand-out, individualistic, 'I' centered identity so we're seen and acknowledged.

This way of living is contrary to the Gospel. Paul says "I have died with Christ and therefore I no longer live..." So if I am taking Paul's words and identifying with them, I no longer live. If I no longer live then my worldly identity no longer lives either. What is my identity then? To a degree, I've answered this already in my life. I know that my identity lies in Christ. I know that I'm a Son. I know that I'm a new creation with access to to the King and in him is every good thing.

I am finding that I return to this question every so often as the Gospel goes deeper within me. It was only natural that this question come up again as I've been looking at the Body of Christ. What is the identity of the Body? What are the implications of that identity in my life? If I've died and been raised with Christ and am in His Body, who are we? All these questions are too great to handle in any one blog posting or even many... so allow me to focus in.

As I sat in my apartment this afternoon pondering this question of identity a second question rose up from within me: "Will I trust God to bring me in deeper into this Message? Deeper into his Body?"

The reality is, my question of identity is bringing me into a new way of living. Its bringing me out of a place of independent identity and into an identity that is truly connected to the Head (Jesus). My and your independent identity are not in Christ. There is an identity that is greater than our individual agendas for ourselves and our lives. When we start to come into contact with this greater identity we can start to freak out... or at least I did momentarily because Jesus is wanting to deliver me out of a comfortable world system that is so focused on separating myself and achieving things for self-gain. When we identify with the Body of Christ, we are identifying with a mass structure. We are a part of the mass structure, but we are not the entirety of the structure. We are not the ones holding it together. We are not the ones creating agendas and plans. We have a place and a role, but we are not the focus. Jesus is the focus. Jesus creates the agendas and plans. Jesus even creates our place. Are we really willing to let him be in control of that?

So back to my question of trust... I began to think about how over the past years as I've learned to live in this new and living way, I've had this question before. Its actually a good question. I'm recognizing what God is doing and realizing that there is some level of fear involved on my end. Its my job to ask the Holy Spirit about what I am afraid of- most importantly remember how he's met every single fear or need every time I've gone deeper into knowing the Truth.

I happened to pick my Phillips translation of the Bible and started to read Hebrews. And there it was plain as day in Hebrews 3 & 4.

"You should therefore be most careful, my brothers, that there should not be in any of you that wickedness of heart which refuses to trust, and deserts the cause of the living God." Hebrews 3

Woah! Do you see that? If we refuse to trust God then that results in deserting the cause of the living God, then we have wickedness of heart. It makes me ask myself "Father, where am I not trusting you?" because I don't want wickedness of heart to be found in me. I have no desire to desert the cause of the living God.

Hebrews 3 (and into 4) goes onto say: (Its talking about the Israelites in the desert.)

For who was it who heard the Word of God and yet provoked his indignation? Was it not all who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses? And who was it with whom God was displeased for forty long years? Was it not those who, after all their hearing of God's Word, fell into sin, and left their bones in the desert? And to whom did God swear that they should never enter into his rest? Was it not these very men who refused to trust him?

Yes, it is all too plain that it was refusal to trust God that prevented these men from entering his rest. Now since the same promise of rest is offered to us today, let us be continually on our guard that none of us even looks like failing to attain it. for we too have had a gospel preached to us, as those men had. Yet the message proclaimed to them did them no good, because they only heard and did not believe it as well. It is only as a result of our faith and trust that we experience that rest."

Later in Hebrews 4 it says: "There still exists therefore, a full and complete rest for the people of God. And he who experiences his rest is resting from his own work as fully as God from his."

Here is what I am seeing in these passages:

Faith

The Israelites heard the Word of God and as a result of hearing, faith had entered into them. I think we can all identify with this. God gives us a Word of something he is going to do, we get excited because its powerful and true and are in complete agreement with it. And then suddenly they were out of Egypt and walking in the desert.

The Journey

It was probably much easier for the Israelites to remember the Word in the beginning of their journey then it was a year or two into plodding along in the desert. Maybe even a year into it there were those that still did not waiver. At some point, they stopped believing the Word that had been given to them and all they could see was the sand in the desert. All they could see was the physical surroundings. They forgot to keep looking with their spiritual eyes. They had been called out of a land that was only focused on the material way of living and into a new land that required them to use different eyes. At some point, they stopped trusting God. The moment they stopped trusting God and receiving his provision for them, they entered into a place of self-effort, distress, and unhappiness. They decided it was much better to go with their own plan then with God's.

As I've been looking at this question of will I trust God as I dive into this new place of knowing him, its very clear to me that if I do not trust him, I will end up as the Israelites in some form or fashion- with my bones being left in the desert. Bones that were full of purpose and the "cause of the living God' to being dry and empty and producing no life.

There is a purpose for the journey- whether long or short. I like what Pastor Pete said on Sunday "If you are praying and not hearing an answer, its because the Holy Spirit is wanting to draw something out." As a culture, we are not comfortable with things taking time. I am finding that Jesus enjoys the journey. He wants to teach me to see him and celebrate the moments of overcoming and watching him display himself. He wants me to really know him.

Rest

I've been given this message of the Gospel. I've heard it. God has finished his work. He's at rest. Why am I still trying to work so hard? He really wants me to receive his provision. He really wants me to receive my true identity. He wants me to exchange my illusion of identity for the real thing. In that exchange is his rest, is the cause of the living God. The very thing that I am really crying out for. If I don't trust him, if I don't trust in the provision made for me through Christ's death then I cannot enter into His Rest. I have to work to create a solution. Even when it comes to our identity. He wants us to receive identity through the provision made for us as a result of his death.

I'll keep you posted on how it all pans out... I'm onto something.