Have you ever heard people interpret the rugged misery of their broken lives as God’s will? As if using positive claims, Bible cliches and spiritual terminology magically hides grief and transposes sadness into happiness. As if a desired reality is created by interpreting things with ‘happy words’. My friend, random circumstances, occur from self-centered living, not God’s will. It is heart-breaking to deal with this.
If only a little humility was used the outcome would be to UNDERSTAND God’s will. Then, the happiness that people pretend to be real, could actually become real.
The common death-trap is to claim “I already know what is necessary to be saved”. It is poison. I have never met a musician or artist who says anything like this. They express a natural humility in light of the vast sum knowledge of their field. Yet, todays “Christian” conveys presumption as the apt tendency of spiritual pride. What person, in their right mind, would equate 10 words (I accept you Christ as my personal lord and Savior) to a fixed end of knowing the omniscient eternal will of God?
The truth is that we all, as sin infected human beings, wander into the rugged scenes of this lost world. God does not display Himself like an image on a TV. There are no defined paths on this earth. Every choice renders unknown consequences. No signs posted: THIS WAY TO GOD’S PERFECT WILL. We define reality by our senses. We want a feeling like a sugar-high from coffee and donuts. But God is Spirit and says we must become spirit to find His will (John 4:24,3:3/1 Corinthians 15:45).
In fact, be honest, everything seems a guess, so vague, both in, and around us, that natural human instinct ultimately predetermines the outcome of our choices to be whatever is most safe, comfortable and familiar. Right?
But let’s consider the supernatural. How do we get THERE? Let’s consider what truth might bring us. What if one day, we see a wrinkle, or two, or three in the mirror, and realize time is on a fast track rushing us to death. We get scared. We choose to challenge the rugged appearance of things. We slap fear in the face. We demean comfort for not being all it claims. What if we replace compliance with defiance to our natural instincts?
A professional photographer ventures into the wilderness with just a hope and a camera. His goal: capture that one picture when all the fascinating elements of nature converge to display the absolute glory of one pristine happening. What if you could venture into the rugged challenges of life and learn how to acquire the capacity to capture moments of divine destiny? To “see” the Son in you is His promise (Col.1:27)?
The Wasted Grief over “Accidents”
People expend so much human energy on grief rather than discernment. Accidents and failures can become the means to become spiritual, rather than remain natural. You see my friend the truth is that ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, all of life, in this world, is an accident. But long ago the Father designed a plan to turn everything around THROUGH FELLOWSHIP in His Son.
Everything in life is a result of Adams sin. Everything in us and everything we touch and see is corrupt. Nothing we will ever experience from this world is perfect. Everything is held in the grip of Satan. It holds the potential for tragedy because sin is the essence of this world all around us. Sin is the curse upon this world and every man (Galations 3:10-16).
All our encounters with this world, with people, places and things, are in the rugged setting of the “accident” called sin. Our senses are inaccurate. But we can find destiny in every accident by a simple choice of faith. To bring faith to determine, rather than allowing things to determine. Jesus appeared in order to transform our every encounter with this world. When we are IN HIM He does this by bearing the grief in every situation, through the cross. He takes on the bad stuff of every encounter, then uses all the struggle to bring us into His Spirit, to see how everything it geared to glorify “the ONE seed”.
Instead of an accident we can enter His destiny; the Presence of the Father.
Everywhere we turn, everywhere we look, everything we touch in life is abounding in sin. Nothing is right. No one is right. Everything is an accident from what it could have been if Adam did not sin. Everything is rugged. But being IN CHRIST we can enter beyond the veil of outward circumstances to inward promises of God.
To consign ourselves to the safety and comfort “promised” by this world we settle into a future in a canoe headed over a waterfall.
Please my friend, let me explain something very beautiful. It scares away some but it offers the the thrill like walking a high wire. It is walking on the edge of divine reality. No other way to describe what the Father offers us.
The secret of “IN”
The Word of God is exactly this. He speaks and reveals His will but who “hear”. Who obey? Paul writes “Now the promises (words to find His will, here and now, His blessing in our inner experience; the actual eternal Character of Jesus) were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as referring to many, but rather to one, ‘And to your seed,’ that is, Christ” (Galations 3:16). In other words ALL activity of God is towards, in and with Jesus. Nothing He does is towards us; i.e. our body of flesh.
To claim that God is blessing YOU and YOUR life, when indeed, all men are under the curse of sin is just plain ignorant of truth and stupid. God does not bless any man. His blessing is to His Son; “not referring to many, but rather TO ONE”. Period. So unless we are IN Christ, what we claim to be a “blessing” is nothing more than good feelings of the flesh. The only way out of the flesh is IN Christ.
Paul uses the term “in Christ” over 220 times.
Faith is the only means to be in Christ. There is no ritual required. Remember any specific times when you were playing as a kid? Go back to those moments. Go back before the age when the world began to poison your mind with all it’s complicated pressures. That’s where you find faith. Remember when you first laid under the stars or realized the magnificence of creation? That was the “place” of innocence that God built His image for you to identify Him in all of His creation. That’s where faith is born. Abraham was the father of faith and it was conceived when he simply looked up at the stars and believed in God.
Abraham (Isaac, Jacob) became….IN CHRIST. David became…IN CHRIST. Job became…IN CHRIST. Every prophet became…IN CHRIST. Christ came upon men in the Old Testament but could not yet come within man due to sin. So Paul explains that the promise of Abraham, which was long before the giving of the law, actually supersedes the moral behavior demanded by the law.
Paul goes on to explain how ‘obeying the law’ (“trying to be a good better Christian”) can not “impart life”, but indeed, only results in further sin; self-righteousness (v. 21-22). In other words, the presumption of becoming a good Christian, is nothing but proud flesh. To relinquish this is to still the flesh and allow the spirit to believe God and receive His Son within you.
Scores of people claim God’s will is this or that: a job, marriage, car, circumstance, etc. They claim something that is not. God’s blessing is found in one simple way; to be IN CHRIST. Jesus fulfilled all things concerning the demands of the law for perfect moral behavior.
Paul explains that everything God does, is never an isolated focus on “seeds” (men), but always solely focused on Jesus. As wicked sinners we are unworthy of His holy eyes. Unless we are IN JESUS we can never receive His promises. Never. Our fallen flesh is despicable to Him.
My precious brother or sister let me help you figure out how to break through this rugged world and travel the terrain of our disgruntled human nature. You can yet capture and live in the Spirit of the Son. You can yet enter the destiny of God’s plan of redemption IN THE LIVING JESUS.
God brought all His “high and lofty” ways down to earth in Christ. He brought the very destiny of Jesus within our grasp. Don’t let this world win. Don’t let the picture of the rugged scene cause you to settle. God is waiting to lead you within His Son that you might be His love here to men. There is no greater joy than to be in the actual compassion of Jesus to men.
P.S. Over the last month we have been to over 20 prisons throughout the South. It has drained us beyond anything we’ve ever faced. Performing in 90 degree prison yards. We have touched such brutal suffering of so many individuals damaged by a system that breeds mental illness. Just imagine, every day behind barbed wire, secluded to one room, facing 30 years as a 20 year old living in a room full of thirty guys. Every night hearing screams, crying, coughing, sickness etc. Please, I beg you, do not turn a deaf ear. I am not lying or exaggerating. In our nothingness we have clearly seen the magnificent workings of the Spirit bringing the gospel of Jesus to wounded men.
If anyone is in a position to help us we need a Cargo trailer. We almost bought one before we went to Brazil and when Covid hit all the prices soared so when we got back things were double the price. It’s been quite rugged. Now what used to be three thousand is twice the price. We just don’t have the room in our RV for all the stuff to work in the prisons. Surely the Lord can provide and I hope that mentioning it here might be a way. Thank you very much! We love you.