DWELLING IN HIS PRESENCE

DWELLING IN HIS PRESENCE

                “If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.” Colossians 3:1-4

                Every moment that we are not consciously aware of the presence of Christ within us is a moment in which we are in the flesh rather than in the Spirit. Think about it for a minute. If Christ actually dwells in us, should we not know it?

                “Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” 1 Cor. 3:16.

                Paul asks the question: “Do you not know it? Do you not know that you are a temple? Do you not know that you are holy because of His presence?

                It is the Holy Spirit of Christ that is our new life for Paul says: “Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words…for who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Cor. 2: 12, 13, 16.

                Being actual temples, in which Christ dwells, should we not, as Christians, become aware of His presence at some point? Should we not sense His Person… hear His voice… know in some way the ever growing union between our soul and His Spirit?

                After all, our new birth and our union with Christ are primarily spiritual. When we are born again, Christ creates a new spirit in us and then He takes up residence in that newly created spirit and that is what makes us new creatures. At the New Birth our flesh remains largely unchanged. It still wants what it always wanted and craves what it always craved. It is in fact a large part of our growth in Christ, to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10:5.

                This brings us back to the subjects of Justification, Sanctification and Glorification. The saving of our spirit as Christ creates it anew and takes up residence in us is our justification. His sinless life becomes ours. His death becomes ours, His righteousness becomes ours. He IS our righteousness. Our sins are covered by His blood and we are reconciled to God. This is the saving of our spirit also known as justification. But this is not the end of our salvation story.

                Our spirit has been saved, but our soul and body still want their own thing. And whereas Jesus can quickly and easily create a new spirit in us and inhabit that spirit, the saving of our soul (mind) is a great deal more involved. It requires our agreement and cooperation. We must invite Him in. We must learn to live by His indwelling Spirit rather than by our flesh. This is the whole subject of Romans 8.

                Christ has planted this new spirit, this new life in us and we must now learn to live by that spirit rather than by our flesh. Our new born again spirit is born into a battlefield. The spirit wars against the flesh and the flesh wars against the Spirit. What are we going to do? How are we going to win this internal struggle?

                Paul says in Romans 8:12-14: So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh- for if you are living according to the flesh you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live, for all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.”

                So, once justified, reconciled and indwelt by the presence of God, we enter within the first veil into the arena of sanctification. This is where the salvation of the soul takes place. The soul, or the mind, must be surrendered to Christ. This is where we take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and in case we don’t know what the obedience of Christ involves, this room, called the Holy Place, has in it the Menorah (Lampstand) of the Holy Spirit lighting our way. There is the Table of Showbread, the Word of God that is to be eaten and digested and integrated into our being. And remember that Jesus is that bread is the word made flesh and Jesus made this clear by telling us that unless we eat His body and drink His blood we have no part with Him.

                These things are spiritual of course, for even as the children of Israel were required not only to smear the blood of the Lamb upon their doorposts, they were also required to eat the whole lamb, even so we must partake of Christ through His word and through His Spirit. WE must also apply His blood to our lives for forgiveness and cleansing.

                The last piece of furniture in the Holy Place is the altar of incense, which represents our fellowship with Christ in prayer. This altar sits right before the final veil and the glorification of our bodies which we have as a hope both sure and steadfast and one that enters within the veil where Jesus has passed before us. He is the first fruits of a large harvest to come.

                Our salvation has been aptly described as a three part deliverance wherein we ARE saved, we are BEING saved and we WILL be SAVED. As demonstrated by the tabernacle service, our spirit is saved first. Then our soul is in the process of being saved as we choose to live by the spirit rather than by the flesh, and thirdly, having lived by the spirit rather than by the flesh, our body will be saved and glorified at the resurrection or catching away of the body.

                I speak about this often, because I don’t think that many Christians understand the process we are going through and what it is that Christ is doing in the process of saving us and preserving us entirely spirit, soul and body without blame at His coming. 1 Thess. 5:23. There are so many Christians that never move beyond justification to actually walk and talk with the Lord.

                All of this is done by His power and not our own and that is why it behooves us to become aware of His presence and work in our lives. How can we remain unaware of His presence and Person in our lives since He is so vitally connected to us and so powerfully transforming us? Should we not seek to hear His voice and to become aware of Him in us? We often think of Him being far away up in heaven, but as the scripture says, He is near us even in our mouths as we speak.

                There are many voices clamoring for attention in our lives, should we not, by the Word and prayer and the Holy Spirit, begin to sort out His voice from the rest?

                Jesus said, “My Sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.” John 10:27, 28.

                Now we know that our being called sheep is a metaphor. We are not literally sheep. We are humans who follow Jesus Christ. But do we believe that our hearing His voice is a metaphor also, or is it literal?

                Well, I have literally heard His voice at a couple of critical junctures in my life, but more often He communicates with us through moments of revelation, visions, dreams or epiphanies. This He does because our stubborn carnal minds are dull of hearing and so He must bypass our rational thinking to bring us a revelation. This is also the reason for the gift of tongues. Our mind, as Paul says, doesn’t understand it but our heart or spirit does understand and we are edified even as our logical mind remains clueless… at least for a time.

                I once had one of these “epiphanies” during a time of prayer and it is so perfectly described by an unknown monk in the book “The Way of the Pilgrim” that I will quote him here to describe what I experienced as well.

                “As I began to pray now with my heart everything around me was so delightfully transformed. The trees, the grass, the birds, the ground, the air, the light- all seemed to proclaim that they exist for the sake of man and bear witness to the love of God for man. All creation prays to God and sings His praises. From this I understood what the Philokalia (A prayer book of early church fathers) calls  knowledge of the language of all creation and I saw how it is possible for man to communicate with all God’s creatures.”

                Sometimes we get so religious that we forget that all of creation sings His praises. Paul says, “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together with us until now.” Romans 8: 19-22

                Should we not join in with creation’s cry for the return of the Creator and the restoration of all things? Should we not also come to know the voice of the One who calls us? Should we not come into intimacy with the One who has joined with our new spirit to bring us into the new creation?

                Let us seek to know Him then… not just as a list of doctrines or creeds… not merely the God of an institution, but very life itself calling us unto life… a Shepherd calling His sheep… a Bridegroom calling for His Bride… a Lover dining with us by candle light in the Holy Place… the secret place of the Most High.