Your thoughts please ......................oke.We have this in 2 Peter 1:3; "According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him (Christ) that hath called us to glory and virtue." This says that the education, sanctification, and growth of the New Creature are in "learning Christ." From conversion to his death the dominant theme of the Apostle Paul's life was summed up in these words; "That I may know him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death," (Philippians 3:10). Until it becomes a revelation of the heart that "Christ is all" (Colossians 3:11), we can never truly overcome this thing called "self'
Self is very subtle, like Satan it can appear as an angel of light. If it were possible the very elect would be deceived by it. Self can be very religious, and its greatest desire is to be accepted, to be recognized as righteous. The attitude of most Christians is that God should improve them. Their thinking is, I have been redeemed, I am a child of God, I must ask Him to make me a better servant of Jesus Christ. Further they believe that God should channel some love into their heart, some faith, some power, some holiness, and improve them. What we must learn is that self-improvement is both a sin and an impossibility.
To overcome this self, and to truly become the Christian God intends the revelation must come to the heart that "Christ is all and in you all." With that revelation will come the understanding that "God is love." Love is not something that can be channeled into you, love is a person; God is love, therefore, love is God loving. Power is not something that can be given to you making you a more powerful servant of Jesus Christ. Power like love is a person, and that person is not I. It is exclusively Christ, who is God; it doesn't matter whether you call Him Father, Son, or Holy Ghost. Finally, with the revelation that "Christ is all" comes the further revelation that "eternal life" is not something it is a Person. Jesus did not say that He had a life to give; He said, "I am life."
Perhaps at this point there is the question, "where do I fit into all of this?" It is all gathered up in the statement "Christ is all and in all." Christ is all not Christ has all. If Christ is all, what is left for me? We thought we were somebody and something or could get something. We found that God had taken the lot. Christ is all. Here is the link. Christ is all and in all. When this revelation came to my spirit I saw, and I pray that you see, that the reason for the existence of the entire creation is to contain the Creator! Not to be something but to contain someone. With this truth comes another important truth. We humans regard the human self as important; all of this shows us that self is extremely unimportant. There is only one Self in the universe that is really important. Why?
Because there is only one person in this universe who said, "I Am." There is only one person, and the human creation is brought into a living relationship with this One, so that He can manifest Himself in His perfection of life and love through us. The whole creation exists because Spirit must have a body to manifest Himself. The scriptures declare that "The whole earth is full of His glory." They also say that Christ ascended "that He might fill all things." If Christ fills all things, all things are containers of Him. Here is both the height and dangerous depth in humanity.
The height is this: The rest of creation can contain manifestations of God; we can contain God as a person. God can manifest His beauty through the flowers and the trees. We can look at them, mar\ el at their beauty, but we do not say, "That's God." The greatest marvel, the greatest height of personality, is when we can look at a human being and say, "God is there."
The depths, the dangers, of humanity are that personality means freedom. Intelligent choice is the essence of personality. Therefore God appeared to be on the horns of a dilemma when He created people, because the people He created could turn around and say, "I don't want you to live in me." That is exactly what happened. We make self our god, not God. We want to run our own lives, and that is our whole problem. There is not a single problem in humanity except our self reactions. Once we know how to handle the human self and put it back where it belongs, we have found the key to life.
Your thoughts please
06 May '06 10:521 edit
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