THE REALITY OF LOVE IN YOU

Anyone who has had a direct experience of God will tell you that they had an encounter with love itself – or more precisely, LOVE HIMSELF. Love is why Jesus lives to ‘bring all things together in Himself.’ This means all sentient beings and all of the creation. Togetherness is what the trinity is all about and you are included in this togetherness.

ENCOUNTER

Godly people have told me of their encounters with the Holy Spirit. Some have spent days in this kind of manifestation of the Spirit. Sometimes it has marked the start of a mighty fruitfulness in their ministry.

But this in itself is not the Gospel of the Kingdom. It’s a result of the Gospel – specifically of the incarnation – of the trinity alive in us and us alive and living from the trinity.

REALISE REALITY

‘On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you’ John 14.20 NIV. The day we realise this and live in this is the day we experience continual healing and fruitfulness. Never forget that the bottom line is not that you had a manifestation. The foundation of your fruitful life is that you and Father are one on account of Jesus.

Intimacy is a form of togetherness. A husband and wife’s intimate togetherness results in children. The intimacy and joy of the Holy Family produced us! Jesus’ prayer in John seventeen is about togetherness – about His soon to be accomplished project of achieving union with God for all human beings. Our union with Christ leads to our birthing sons and daughters of God – and projects that are alive with His spirit and life. One with God our ‘branches’ are sons of God and Spirit-filled projects.

DEGREES OF TOGETHERNESS

Enoch in particular and the patriarchs walked with God. Companionship with the almighty was their life. David enjoyed God and He David. But here is the thing: Any Believer in the new testament age can enjoy more intimacy with God than any old testament giant of faith. Why? Christ lives in you. Jesus has made you and our Father one. The trinity lives in you thanks to Jesus. God is incarnated in your person. In the old testament the Spirit anointed people. But God lived in none of them. But He does today!

The third person of the godhead is a human being. Not only that – the Son of Man joins you personally and intimately to our Father. Jesus taught us to pray, ‘Your Kingdom come.’ His Kingdom has already come. It began when Jesus rose from the dead and catapulted itself into humanity with the outpouring of Holy Spirit. You have this inheritance. The inheritance is that you can have the oneness with Father than Jesus had and which Jesus enjoys now.

GIFT OF GOD ONE-WITH-GOD-LIFE

What’s more you get this without earning it. Jesus earned it. It has been gifted to you by the trinity. We were always sons and daughters. But following the cross we became sons in spirit and in truth through the person of Jesus. He is both our union with God and the righteousness of God taking ground continually in our being. The accomplished at-one-ment of God resulted in the incarnation of God in His fullness in you. Scripture declares that the trinity takes up residence in those who believe. So there’s no separation in the age of union with God. You and our Father are one.

NOT SIN CENTRIC

Paul spoke of Christ living in us and Christ being our life. He is much more than our life in respect of the annulment of our sin. He is our life in regard to the fact that in Him we are joined to heaven and heaven is joined to us. This is what John and Paul and the early Christians where living in – before the dynamic of Christ directly manifested and multiplied as people became stultified and institutionalised as ‘the church.’ Let’s be clear. We do not honour Jesus by being a ‘church-goer’ or mouthing off about how ‘we love His church.’ God is honoured and Jesus is worshiped as we embrace the Christ who is in us; as we facilitate the expression of Jesus AS US by receiving Him as our life.


SPIRITUALITY IS UNION WITH GOD

The essence of spirituality is expressed in Jesus words, ‘On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. This, in contrast to religion and its externalities, is genuine spirituality: The interweaving of the Spirit of God into your spirit, soul and body. You become what you are. You become part of God as a son of God. He expresses His being through you as a daughter or a son.

As a son of God living in new covenant union, you can be a spiritual leader in your appointed sphere. Living in the old covenant in self-constructed separation you can have a following but you will not be a spiritual leader – other than one who maintains people in pits.

Gatherings of the church Jesus builds are different to collections of Christian consumers living in dependence on institutionalism and its figures. Jesus’ disciples are expressions of Christ in them. Where ever they happen to be the fullness of the Godhead bodily lives in them.

Jesus commanded us in the ways of His life.
‘Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them’ John 14.20,21.

Here is the key to knowing God, living in intimacy with God and being mentored in the truth of who God is. He is not talking of Moses commands. Jesus commands us to find life in Him; to see Him as the way and the truth in Himself; to embrace Him as The Way to our Father. These are the commands of Jesus and the teaching of the apostles.

Spirituality is ours as we live what we are – PART OF GOD. ‘To live is Christ’ is not to live in Christianity. It’s oneness with the trinity. No abstractions here. To live is Christ is to be the manifestation of Christ who is your life.

PHANTOM LIFE

There are kinds of communities in which we can live and never be a spiritual person. This happens should we be living from the law and a belief system. None who live in the law are spiritual. They are religious. Law separates us from God. Law was a function of a separated life in Adam. Today we have the radical privilege of Jesus and all that is Him being our life!

We are spiritual beings in fullness when Jesus becomes us. This is His meaning when He talks of our eating Him. He said those who eat Him would live because of Him. They would live as sons – not as separated workers but as new creation beings. There is no work here – other than agreement – agreement with what Jesus has done and who we are in Him. By agreeing, He is personally is our life. We step daily into this reality. As Paul says, REALITY IS CHRIST.

‘On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you’ John 14.20 NIV.