OUR RESIDENT KING

OUR RESIDENT KING

                “For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day. Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.” 2 Tim. 1:12-14

                “For God, who said, “Light shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves… always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” 2 Cor. 4:6, 7, 10.  

                “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” 2 Cor. 3:5, 6.

                How often do we actually live the Christian life in any given day? The truth is we are walking on a narrow road with very deep ditches on either side. We fall into one ditch as we struggle on in the flesh promising God that we will do better at keeping the Law. As such our faith is in our own supposed ability to please and obey God.

                In the other ditch are those who presume upon God’s grace that we can go on living like the world and God will understand.

                We tend to go through life in one or the other of these ditches… feeling justified when we are doing good works and feeling condemned when we are not. Back and forth between hot and cold, up and down we go and either way, we are living like someone who is pushing the car, rather than benefitting from the powerful engine that resides within.

                It seems the hardest thing for us to live by the fact that “our bodies are temples of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in us.” 1 Cor. 3:16.

                Our problem is that the Holy Spirit dwells in our born again spirit. He doesn’t dwell in our flesh and blood. He dwells in our spirit as demonstrated by the tabernacle of Moses. He dwells beyond the veil in the Most Holy Place (our spirit) and even though Jesus tore that veil in two from top to bottom upon His death, we replace the veil between us and God even as we choose to live by the flesh rather than by the Spirit.

                Paul spoke to those who lived in the New Covenant, but had Old Covenant minds saying:

                “But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; BUT WHENEVEFR A MAN TURNS TO THE LORD, THE VEIL IS TAKEN AWAY.  Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit.” 2 Cor:14-18.

                We know these things theoretically, but in all honesty we spend very little time living in this reality because we spend most of our time going back and forth from one ditch to the other.

                When we live by the Spirit and we meet someone else who is living by the Spirit, both of our lightbulbs seem to brighten a little more and there is an unseen, unspoken bond between us that can’t be explained in the natural. At some invisible level Spirit filled, Spirit empowered people recognize each other in the Spirit. Likewise you can tell when you walk into a church how much of its life is of the Spirit and how much is just flesh trying to be spiritual.

                Sadly, there is a mixture in even the best of churches so that the overall effect is often best described as being “lukewarm.” People, still living in the flesh are squabbling and gossiping and playing church politics and judging one another. These individuals tend to lower the temperature of the church. They tend to be the self-appointed arbiters and score keepers. But a shaking is coming.

                I would guess that a majority of Christians live as if under the baptism of John. They make a decision for Christ, accept the doctrines, get justified, get baptized in water and there they park for the rest of their lives. But John said: “As for me, I baptize you in water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I and I am not even fit to remove His sandals; He Himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Mt. 3:11.

                How many Christians in the world today, move beyond the baptism of John, to the Holy Spirit and fire of Jesus? This is what was poured out at Pentecost you know. And yet so many people sit in their churches satisfied that they are right while others are wrong, even as they deny both the Holy Spirit and the fire of Pentecost. They keep the Holy Spirit on an intellectual shelf… to be honored from a distance… but not to be experienced and lived by on an experiential  or tangible level.

                This is why I have centered my ministry in Romans chapter 8. It is as though most of Paul’s writings are spent laying the groundwork, (Issues of law and grace in one facet or another) in order to bring us to Romans 8. Here in Romans 8, the Law is fulfilled in those who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. (V4) Here in Romans 8, Paul says, “And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.” (V 10) And here we find out that if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells us.” (V11)

                No wonder Paul calls this the Treasure we hold in earthen vessels. This self-same Spirit that lives in us will also raise us from the dead at Jesus’ return. Should we not treasure His presence above all things?

                Then Paul goes on to tell us that all of creation is eagerly waiting for the revealing of the sons of God… and we are those sons, for the Holy Spirit, having taken up residence in us, has adopted us into the royal family. V. 19-23

                So it is through this Holy Spirit and fire that we both live in this present world and will be resurrected, or caught up into the world to come.

                This being the case then, should we not pursue the Holy Spirit at all cost? Should we not study to understand what is involved and what the fruit and gifts of the Spirit are and how to live in them and operate in them? Should we not make fellowship in the Holy Spirit our priority? Should we not seek out those who are leaving all to pursue the Holy Spirit, counting all that has gone before to be dung or rubbish compared to knowing Christ?

                Paul said in Phil. 3:8, 9: More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from
God on the basis of faith., that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead…” Phil. 3:8-11.

                We would pretend to know Christ apart from the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit is the very presence of Christ sent to us from heaven to dwell in us and to empower us and to gift us so that we can continue the work that Christ started in the world.

                Many people love to talk about the finished work of Christ… and yes, the fulfillment of the Old Testament was completed on the Cross, but it was fulfilled in full so that we could live in a new covenant, with a new kind of power and a new commission to carry on the works of Christ in this world and to make disciples of all nations. The finished work of Christ is not made complete until we embrace it and live by it. By His Spirit He has empowered us to follow in His footsteps and to do the same works that He did and even greater works. So why are we sitting around in the halls of academia, wrangling over the meaning of the finished work if we have only a form of godliness but deny the power thereof?

                Friends, the last great outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the final harvest is not going to occur until we Christians rise up and embrace what Jesus has really offered to us through His living Gospel. Oh yes, He may sovereignly pour out His Spirit with or without us, but we will not be prepared to participate in it because priests had to go through a lot to purify themselves before operating in the presence of God and we are called to be a kingdom of priests unto God.

                We have something that they didn’t have. They had the symbols, but we have the living realities of those things and the power and presence of Christ. We have the Holy Spirit and fire. It is time to enter fully into those things and to live by the powers of our resident King.