Abiding In Christ

And I do not pray for these alone, but for those also who shall believe on Me through their word, that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. And I have given them the glory which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one, I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me. ~  John 17:20-23

So that if any one is in Christ, that one is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. ~ 2 Corinthians 5:17

But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved us (even when we were dead in sins) has made us alive together with Christ (by grace you are saved), and has raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. ~ Ephesians 2:4-10

Did you know that when Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross and rose from the dead, He established a covenant between Himself and our Heavenly Father? That is the New Covenant, the New Testament. It is a covenant between Jesus and our Father that is eternally established. No person can break it, change it or mess it up. The devil can't touch it. Once that covenant was established, all of mankind was invited to take part in it. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we enter into that very covenant and a miracle takes place. Our spirit is reborn. Our spirit, which was dead in sin, is made alive unto righteousness. We are unified with Christ. We are in Christ and He is in us. We become Citizens of Heaven.

Some years ago, I taught a bible study in a women's prison about "Walking in the spirit". I talked about the importance of knowing who we are in Christ, knowing that our identity is forever settled in Him. We are a new creature in Christ. I compared walking in the spirit to a fish in the water - that fish is in its element and can swim, move, breath and live fully as it was designed to. When it is in the water, the fish can act like a fish. However, a fish out of water ceases to act like a fish - it can't swim, can't breathe and just flops around uselessly, struggling to get back in the water. A fish out of water is like a Christian walking in the flesh. The fish is still a fish. It doesn't stop being a fish when it is out of water, it just stops acting like one. I believe the same is true for Christians. We don't stop being Citizens of Heaven when we give in to our flesh, we just stop acting like it. Which brings me to my point:

Being a Christian is not based in what we do, but in who we are.

Yes, we become a Christian by action - we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths. Believing and confessing are actions. Those two actions bring us to a place of being. We become something new. Our spirit, our truest inner being, is reborn and made righteous. Our spirit is made alive and is no longer subject to sin. However, we are a three-part being - spirit, soul (mind, will and emotions) and body. Our spirit may be reborn, but our soul and body are not. Our body seeks comfort and ease, so it pulls on our thoughts and our will. Our soul, our will, is the decision maker of our lives. Our soul will decide either to walk (act) according to our spirit (which is in Christ) or to walk (act) according to our body, our flesh. Those actions do not change the reborn status of our spirit. They do not change who we are in Christ, unless those actions lead us to the point of renouncing Christ.

In my opinion, one of the biggest mistakes made by Christians (myself included) is to give too much place, attention, and power to our actions - to the fruit of our souls. Yes, we need to be mindful of our actions, to an extent. The Bible tells us to be doers of the Word and not just hearers only. But, if we become so focused on what we are doing, or not doing, that we lose sight of who we are in Christ, then we have missed the mark. We must guard our focus. I can sit down in the church sanctuary and focus on worshiping the Lord or I can let my focus drift off to my job or my kids or the bills or the bank account. My mind can be totally absorbed with all of those things, but that does not mean I have left the sanctuary. Most of the time, my mind will return to where I am. My focus will shift back to where I am truly seated. Granted, if I think about all those distractions long enough, I might just jump up, drive home and try to deal with it all. That is exactly what the enemy is after - to deceive us into shifting our focus from where we are to where we are not, from who we are to who we are not. Dangerous stuff, this. If that crafty enemy can get us focused on the pit, focused on doubt and unbelief, focused on our mistakes, he can get us to move in a wrong direction. But, if we keep our focus on who we are in Christ, on our Heavenly Citizenship, we will not be moved and our actions will line up with our focus!

It is the very nature of who we are in Christ that should direct our actions. Not vice versa. Faith declares that I am seated in Heavenly places with Christ Jesus and no one can snatch me out of my Father's hand. Not even my own actions!! Faith declares that my actions must line up to who I am in Him. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them." Therein lies the key - we are created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Who we are leads us unto what we do.

For myself I will say that if my salvation, my justification, my obedience to His Word and my destiny are dependent solely upon my own actions, decisions and choices beyond that one which forever placed me in Christ; then I am utterly hopeless.  HOWEVER - I rejoice that this is not the case!! In Christ, I am saved! In Christ, I am justified and made righteous! In Christ, I can do all things! In Christ, my soul is renewed by the washing of the water of the Word! In Christ, I am a doer of the Word! In Christ, I am accepted in the beloved! In Christ, I have an inheritance! In Christ, I fulfill my calling! In Christ, I abide FOREVER!!!!!!

For to them God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory... ~ Colossians 1:27

Hearing God

And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day...
~ Genesis 3:8

And He said, Go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains, and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire was a still, small voice. ~ 1 Kings 19:11-12

And the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend....
~ Exodus 33:11

Truly, truly, I say to you, He who does not enter into the sheepfold by the door, but going up by another way, that one is a thief and a robber. But he who enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. The doorkeeper opens to him, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he puts forth his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him. For they know his voice. And they will not follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. ~ John 10:1-5

As a child, I conversed with Jesus. I have snippets of memories of those conversations. I did not hear Him with my natural ears, but in my heart. It made perfect sense to me, since I had been told that Jesus lived in my heart. I heard Him with the faith of a child and did not question, until the notions of a doubting world began to creep into my thinking. "Only crazy people hear God." "Who do you think you are, that God would speak to you?" "After all, they burned Joan of Arc for thinking she heard God." I have no distinct memories of being told these things, but the ideas got in and took hold. I stopped listening. I began to think of prayer as a one-sided conversation. I prayed, God listened. Yet, in the depths of my heart, He still spoke. I was just too afraid to hear. I was afraid to be "different" or "crazy". I was afraid of being deceived. So, I went through life wearing spiritual ear plugs.

Ten years ago, I found myself in a new church and surrounded by people who spoke very casually about "hearing God." I cannot express the joy that rose in my heart to hear such conversations. I so desperately wanted to hear the Lord again. But I was still so bound in fear. And I had so many questions. Could I really hear God? Was it OK to hear God? How would I know it was really Him? Was I crazy? Gradually, I found the answers to my questions in the Bible, in the scriptures above and so many more. I learned that the Lord loves to speak to us. He created us for relationship, for fellowship. Conversing is part of that.

Our ability to hear the Lord is bound to our relationship with Him. The more you know God (not just know about Him), the deeper your relationship grows and the clearer His voice becomes. This is best accomplished through His Word. Reading the Bible not only teaches us about God, but it draws us into a living, growing fellowship with Him. The Word is alive. Jesus is the Word made flesh. When we commune with the Word, we commune with God. Draw close to Him and He will draw close to you. One of the ways that I retrained my heart to hear God was by reading the Word with Him. I would read scripture and ask the Lord questions. Understanding would always come. That is His voice. Sometimes I would hear through words spoken to my heart, but other times I would just know. It's an amazing thing to suddenly have understanding of something that you did not possess a second earlier. That is God.

So, how do you know that it really is God? First of all, He will never contradict His written Word. That's how we know that God will never tell someone to kill their child or commit adultery or to spread gossip. Because those are all behaviors that He condemns in His Word. Also, God will never tell you anything that goes against His character and nature. God is love (1 John 4:8). He will not speak outside of love. But, remember that God is bound by His definition of love, not ours. We don't always like the corrective nature of love, but it is so necessary to our well-being. Seek love and you will hear God's voice.

When I sincerely began to seek God's voice, I was terrified of being deceived and going off on some wild goose doctrine and completely messing up my life. That fear got in my way. Fear opposes faith and we must have faith to hear God. Reading scripture built faith in me that I could hear and I would hear correctly. It also built faith in God's ability to correct me if I went wrong. There have been several occasions that I made wrong decisions based on what I thought was God's voice. But in every one of those situations, I saw God's hand of protection. That doesn't mean there wasn't pain or discomfort or regret; but God turned every one of those situations to my good, just as He promises in Romans 8:28. Those mistakes also helped me to distinguish the Lord's voice more clearly. We tend to learn more from our mistakes than our successes.

In my own experience, my greatest difficulty to hear God's voice is when my own will or motives get in the way. If I am double-minded about a decision, it's difficult to hear. If my will is strongly set on something to be a certain way, it's difficult to hear. If my motives are selfish and impure, it's impossible to hear. Surrender is the only way. I am learning to surrender my will and my motives. To want God's will more deeply than anything else. When I can get to that place (usually after long struggles and many tears), His voice comes so clearly. And when I'm struggling, I ask for His help. I ask Him to make His voice clear to me. And He does.

One of my favorite things about the Lord is how He speaks to people so personally. He speaks to me so much through His Word, but also through nature, painting, movies, parenting and writing - the very things that I enjoy and understand. He speaks to Rick through mechanics. He speaks to others I know through computers, video games, music, poetry, cooking, and so many other ways. He cares about our lives and wants to connect with us in personal ways to which we can relate.

In the Old Testament, God was only able to speak through His prophets, a very select few. But, since Jesus, every believer has the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit to connect us with our Father. Every one of us has the ability to hear and know His voice. Our covenant is so much greater than that of the prophets of old. It is our Lord's delight to converse with us, teach us, give us wisdom and guidance and comfort. He loves us. He wants to speak with us. I have such a reverential awe of the Lord, that I marvel at His desire to speak to me. I never want to lose that or to take His voice for granted. I am eternally grateful for His desire to have a relationship with me.

I once heard comedienne Lily Tomlin say, "Why is it that when we talk to God we're said to be praying, but when God talks to us we're schizophrenic?" I laughed so hard I almost fell out of my chair. It hit home. I guess I have finally reached the point in my life that if I must choose between hearing my Lord's voice or being thought of as sane, I will choose to hear Him. Call me crazy if you want, but I hear the Lord laughing and saying, "Oh Carol, it's about time."