God’s Work Now Is “In Us”

This is part 2 of God's Work Now Is,"In Us"
Please read part 1 first on this same blog.

Rich

Paul says we need to let Jesus’ attitude or mindset become our mindset. Philippians 2:5 (NIV) Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: What was Jesus’ mindset? Jesus attitude was that He trusted and relied upon the Father unto death. Though He is God, Jesus did not exert His self to act independent of the Father (John 5:19).
Well-meaning self-effort of Christians applied according to “the mind of the flesh” is absolutely impotent; making them unable to live out the Christian life. Thus our corrupted soul’s mind needs to be renewed. Romans 12:2b (KJV) …be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…
But how is our mind and mindset to be changed? Genuine change in our soul’s mindset comes about only through the work of the Father’s hand, working through “all” of the situations and circumstances of our lives, which are “working…for the good.”
Romans 8:28-29 And we know that ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate TO BE CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Only the Lord can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. God is working by using “ALL things” that occur in our lives.

Today, under “the dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph 3:2), God’s relationship with His own is as a literal loving Father of His Spirit-birthed children. His work is deep within, deeper than our mind. He, as Father, placed His Spirit “seed…which is Jesus Christ” (Gal 3:16, 1Peter 1:23) into the womb of each believer’s human spirit, birthing them to new life.
We can rely upon our loving Father because He is also omniscient (all-knowing) and sovereign. He is over all things in the lives of His beloved offspring. He works “all things” according to His will, grace, and mercy. He is at work in the believer’s life working “all things…for the (eternal) good” (Rom 8:28) of each one of His children, who are “predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom 8:29). Only the Father loves, cares, and knows what is best and necessary for each of His children, for them to come to maturity. It is only by the continued work of His hand that the believer may be “conformed to the image of His Son.” While we are involved in the “working out of our salvation” (Philip 2:12), Paul tells us how that inward “salvation” (sozo) or “completion” occurs. It occurs by the work of God within us.

“[Not in your own strength] for it is God who is all the while effectually at work IN YOU [energizing and creating IN YOU the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.” (Philippians 2:13 AMP)
Salvation of our soul is not salvation from judgment; that was finished at the cross. It is a salvation from our old fallen self. Thus, God’s concern today is not so much for the believer’s outer deliverance from trials; rather, He is at work through the instrumentality of our trials in order to bring about an inward metamorphosis in our soul. Each trial is instrumental in our learning to let go of self-reliance, to trust Him and His loving hand in our lives.

Each trial is an opportunity for the mortification of our flesh (Rom 8:13) and its mindset of self-reliance. He is at work through each trial, that we might become “conformed to the image of His Son” as the “first born of many brethren” (Rom 9:29b). Paul writes, Galatians 4:19 …I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you. This word “formed” is from the Greek word “morphoo,” meaning “shaped.” The Lord is at work forming Christ in our soul, such that we would become the expression of His life that flows from within our spirit.

Every believer needs to become reformed in their soul’s mind, emotion and will, so as to become pliable to the Lord – making them fit for His use. Though our soul is not of physical material, it needs to be reshaped in its mindset, such that Christ may become expressed in and through our soul’s faculties of mind, emotion and will. Metaphorically, the formation of a shape out of pliable clay is more easily accomplished than with stone because clay may be shaped more readily than rigid stone. The renewal or reformation of a Christian’s soul is a somewhat painful process, whether we are as clay or as stone in the Lord’s hands. For those of us who are as stone in the Lord’s hand, we require chipping that occurs by the many difficult situation in life that the Lord uses to push us to let go of our self-interest and our self-reliance, to trust Him as our all.

The work of renewing our soul to its proper mindset belongs to God our Father. No clay or stone has ever reformed itself – likewise, our reshaping requires the intervention of God’s caring hand in our lives. We must be made to be as pliable to the Lord within us as a rubber glove is to the living hand. Thus, God’s first work in the renewal process is to make us pliable, often by our coming to face seemingly insurmountable situations of life. Only by His work may our soul-self become reformed to His image. Paul calls this reformation being “renewed” in soul, which is also referred to as our “inner” or “inward man.” 2 Corinthians 4:16 … the inward (soul) man is renewed day by day.

Is Being His Enough

In listening to the recent pod cast on the God Journey-“Thoughts on Structure” I was jerked up straight when I heard Wayne saying to a couple of folks he was recently with, even though you are not wearing the official badge of being a “pastor” you are pastoring these people you are engaged with.

Look, let’s cut to the chase okay, what the hell does having an official or unofficial name-title have to do with being His?
The pastoring, equipping that is being done in the church which IS His body, is being done in and through us (that’s you and me) as us.
I’m convinced it’s only because of not knowing whose we are that we need someone to confirm to us by saying stuff like this that we are pastoring, equipping the saints even though we wear no official name tag.

Folks it’s the gifted One in us as us that is doing this miraculous further transforming work of grace in each of our lives.
Is He not fully able to touch, impact, arrest, and get their attention through you, through me as you, as me?

I love what Paul has to say, “Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.”

In another translation it says of the Christ, “But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.”

More and more I am wondering if Jesus just might have known what he meant when he said, “He also told them a parable: "No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.”

Folks I want to say this as lovingly and truthfully as I know how, it’s NOT a seminar, it’s a revelation of Whose we are, and only He is able to make that yours personally!

The reality of His life this new wine is that which is wanting to transform us fully into His likeness and image, spirit, soul and body from the inside out, and in the process of being processed folks will be drawn to Christ in us as us, without any official or unofficial tags or titles except for BEING His!

Rich

Teachable Moments

It’s wonderful how thoughts are triggered, and the stimulation of those thoughts having the potential of launching us into further discovering and embracing life and what that encompasses, rather than merely surviving or existing.

What I’m pondering isn't something confined to any particular demographic – just to anyone who has 'flesh'! There are some who would say that those of us who are being awakened to His finished work are speaking against the 'holy place' (the institutional buildings) and the Law (scriptures). But in fact we are not railing against anything; rather, we are addressing the fact that there is a failure to 'recognize' the new thing that God has done and it is this: the geographic location (temple, building) has been replaced with Him being present within us as Life, ‘Do you not recognize that you are the temple of God?’, and the law/scriptures have been fulfilled in Christ-the Word.

There is no shame attached to any of us having limited objective understanding on any matter, especially in regards to those wanting to know the ‘ways’ of the Lord better. But it is a most critical matter when I (we) choose to limit our understanding because of fear of thinking ‘outside the box’ or outside of what is normally accepted as ‘truth’. Without being malleable, teachable, and receptive to further and broadened understanding and insight which is only possible (in my opinion) because of the Father’s love, we will take the posture of being combative, argumentative, and challenging.

Here is an example of what I am considering, and hopefully the setting will further illustrate what I am trying to flesh out.
Two of Paul’s traveling companions on his missionary journey were a couple named Priscilla and Aquila, a husband and wife team that made a living along with Paul in tent-making. For all intents and purposes these were two very ordinary unobtrusive people, but what was operating within them was not ordinary at all. This extraordinary insight and understanding they had regarding a ‘more perfect way of the Lord’ was in my understanding, a byproduct of them learning of the Father’s unconditional love, ergo, living loved. Nothing about this couple indicated they needed an opportunity such as this encounter with the ‘mighty’ Apostle Apollos, to inflate their languishing egos or to be recognized as VIPs in disguise!

These words from Proverbs epitomize the spirit and teachable attitude I sense within this man named Apollos:

If you correct those who care about life, that's different—they'll love you for it!Save your breath for the wise—they'll be wiser for it; tell good people what you know—they'll profit from it. Skilled living gets its start in the Fear-of-God, insight into life from knowing a Holy God. It's through me, Lady Wisdom, that your life deepens, and the years of your life ripen. Live wisely and wisdom will permeate your life; mock life and life will mock you.

The fruit of Apollos’ choosing - to move beyond his limited understanding and not choosing to ‘limit’ his thinking because of fear - had the result that the message of who the Christ is was able to penetrate even deeper into the hearts and minds of many.

With the ever-increasing experiential knowing of the Father’s love, I am beginning to see how totally ludicrous it is for me (due to fear) to pick and choose to listen to only those brethren of my liking who can further expound and deepen my awareness of this awesome God and Father.

It is my opinion that the glue that appears to stick so many of us together is more a fear-based thinking versus faith working through love. First and foremost within my own life, along with any member of the body of Christ, I am longing and eagerly anticipating a time whereby we believers can mutually be open and receptive to the Father’s loving correction, freeing us to come into the ‘fullness’ of all that God the Father has for the church which is His body.

Rich