Triumphant Reality

I don’t live in this reality.

I live in the Reality of my Father in Heaven. I don’t belong here.

I belong to my Redeemer who became a servant upon earth but rules from all eternity. When I live in this world, despair, self-pity, and fear flood my soul. When I lift my gaze to my Heavenly Bridegroom, joy, hope, and assurance pour into my heart. My mind is refreshed and renewed with Faithful Promises from Scripture and the sweet, gentle voice of the Holy Spirit.

He is in me. I am not my own (I Corinthians 6:19-20). I don’t belong to myself any more than I belong to the world or people like me. I belong to a Risen Savior, a Resurrected Christ who never sinned and didn’t stay in the grave. He defeated death and the fear of death for me. Hallelujah! “Oh, death where is your sting? Oh grave, where is your victory?” (I Corinthians 15:55).

I don’t belong here. I walk in flesh and blood, but this body is a garment that I’ll one day put off and exchange for immortality (II Corinthians 5:1-4). In the meantime, my spirit is being rejuvenated every day, transformed into the glory of God as I throw open wide the doors of my mind and heart to Him—His Presence, His Truth (II Corinthians 3:18). Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). He is a Person, and He is passionately pursuing intimacy with every person He created.

The Bible says, “Let all those rejoice who put their trust in You! Let them ever shout for Joy because You defend them. Let those also who love Your name be joyful in You. For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous. With favor You will surround him as with a shield” (Psalm 5:11-12).

Do you hear the exuberance in that? The utter triumph? David is rejoicing with all his might—David who brought down Goliath and hid from Saul for years before he was anointed king. God fulfilled His promise, but David learned to worship when nothing was going well. His wife and children were stolen, his men wanted to stone him, the Israelite army pursued him. How could he rejoice? What was going right? His relationship with God! His favor! His anointing! David believed in the faithful love of God, and he rejoiced in it!

Even later in his life, after he became king, circumstances seldom went smooth. He fell to temptation, his favorite son rebelled, his other sons were slain by an older brother. His land was plagued by an angel of judgment when he became proud and numbered the able-bodied men. God was moved by David’s heart, though, and forgave him and intervened time and again. And in the midst of it all, David praised the Lord. He LOVED the Presence of God. He knew that in God only were joy and pleasure found (Psalm 16:11).

David lived in a reality above the earthly realm. And he learned how to worship in the very middle of disaster and touch the Father’s heart. He knew how greatly the Father longed to fellowship with him, and he recognized rightly that the blood of animal sacrifices could never take away his sin. Rather, a broken and contrite heart releases mercy from the heart of God (Psalm 51:16-17).

Jesus said, “I Am”(John 8:58). He is the Reality Today that we’re called to abide in. Abide: Make our home, dwell, rest, remain. Why? Because He is the safety we crave. He is the Joy, the Peace, the Delight, the Freedom, and the Strength we desperately need.

We look for pleasure in sex, material possessions, games, and addictions. We look for strength in intelligence, body building, and weapons. We look for peace in compromise, control, and global treaties. But none of these things satisfy. Why? Because we were made for more. More goodness. More holiness. More glory than this world can imagine or ever offer. Only Jesus can.

All we have to do to receive these precious gifts is embrace His reality. Really. Just walk in. His arms are open and all the hosts of Heaven are holding their breath…

Waiting.

A New Wardrobe

I’m not much into clothes shopping. 

In fact, I don’t like shopping much at all except for my kids at Christmas time and when their active play puts holes in their jeans a lot sooner than growth spurts put their shirts into storage. My unconcern with staying in style means that my personal wardrobe consists mostly of items given to me by my mom and sister who enjoy using their fashion sense to help me out.

So it comes as a huge blessing to find out that my Heavenly Father is also intent on helping me dress in style—heaven’s style! My wonderful Daddy tells me in His Word that He’s selected the right wardrobe for me. His tags don’t read Calvin Klein or Levi Strauss. His handmade garments come crafted by the Holy Spirit. Eugene Peterson, in The Message Bible, translates Colossians 3:12-14 this way:

So chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgiven an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.

These qualities are reflective of the fruit of the Spirit. And there’s more:

             God has given us “the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (Is 61:3).

             “He has clothed me with the garments of salvation…the robe of righteousness.” (Is 61:10).

He has also provided the right shoes so we can be “shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace” (Eph 6:15).

Eugene Peterson offers us an even more spectacular picture in his translation of Ephesians 5:26-27 where he writes, “Christ’s love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything He does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant in holiness.”

Wow. I want to be dressed in Christ’s wardrobe every day. And that means spending time with Him, letting His presence drape me with the robes of compassion, mercy, and grace.

We abide in God's presence as we lift our thoughts up to Him—every worry, every fear, every hurt, every need, every delight. When we do this, our entire thought life is transformed into communion with God. And that transformation affects far more than our thoughts. It influences the whole of our personality, attitude, actions, and demeanor.

The psalmist wrote, “In Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11). Dressing in our new wardrobe--the one created for the new "us"--fills us with incredible delight in our Heavenly Father who sees all that we need and gives us His very best.

F.F. Bruce declares with laughter, “God’s peace is joy resting. His joy is peace dancing.” Yes, Holy Spirit, weave faith, hope, and love into my tunic of salvation so that it sparkles with glorious, insuppressible joy and peace!!!

Divine Union

“But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”

I Corinthians 6:17

At the beginning of creation, God designed marriage to illustrate a vital truth about His relationship with humankind: the loving fellowship, mutual service, and intimate fidelity between creature and Creator. The unity of two distinct items does not occur merely as an exterior bond, such as two lanterns glued together, but as a shattering of the glass that keeps each flame apart followed by a merging of the two flames into one. For the human soul united with the Triune God, this experience can be pictured as two hearts of flesh, soft and pliable, ripped into pieces by pain and suffering: the first, a human soul broken by the realization he or she can never be good enough or strong enough to be everything God requires; the second, Christ’s soul broken upon the Cross when He took upon Himself all the sins of the world. At the moment of divine union, all these hurting pieces are gathered together in the grace-filled hands of God then fused together into one new heart by the power of the Holy Spirit, the pieces intermingled to such a degree that every thought, every emotion, and every desire vibrates with love for the other.

As with every experience of God, divine union occurs only through sheer grace. No amount of ascetic piety, good deeds, vigilance, or temperance of heart and soul can merit divine touch or divine presence. God, by His very nature, is Love; therefore, He longs to pour Himself into every human soul. However, like an adulterous wife, each of us runs after other loves, and so He waits. He waits for us to come, broken, before Him, longing only for Him and for His touch. Brokenness produces humility, which frees a believer from the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—all of which hinder the awareness and experience of God’s active presence in a believer’s life. God knows the moment when the soul is so depleted of all false, fleshly, and demonic loves that He is able to pour Himself utterly into the cavity of the believer’s heart, enabling the believer’s emotions and neurons to experience a pure and fulfilling mergence with the fullness of Love Himself.

Origen of Alexandria, one of the earliest Church fathers, perceived this passionate romance in the Song of Solomon. He wrote in his commentary, “It seems to me that this little book is…a marriage-song, which Solomon wrote in the form of a drama and sang under the figure of the bride, about to wed and burning with heavenly love toward her Bridegroom, who is the Word of God. And deeply indeed did she love him, whether we take her as the soul made in his image, or as the church…who has been joined to him.”

Indeed, the Bible is replete with analogies of Christ and His people being presented as Husband and Wife. The prophet Hosea utilized mystical language when he presented Yahweh’s passionate appeal to His people: “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her…. And it shall be, in that day, says the Lord, That you will call Me ‘My Husband’ and no longer call Me ‘My Master’. I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness and you shall know the Lord” (Hosea 2:14,16,20).

For the New Testament believer, spiritual transference into the Kingdom of God occurs at the moment of salvation: accepting Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior (Romans 10:9-10). At that moment, this person receives the Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry out, “Abba, Daddy!” (Romans 8: 15). We become members of the Church, Christ’s bride (Revelation 21:7-8); yet Christ’s love is not limited to the whole. Instead, divine union occurs as a subjective experience within an individual because the Lord passionately pursues and bestows His loving grace upon each individual member (I Corinthians 12:27).

As a Christian struggles to overcome sins of the flesh and of the mind as well as demonic temptations, the covenant of spiritual marriage to God is much like the legal document signed by husband and wife. The covenant is solid and binding, declaring a legal truth: the two are a couple. Yet, as with every human marriage, acting as one takes time. Every decision made for the good of the other person, with a conscious awareness and desire to act in accordance with the spouse’s will, deepens the feelings of intimacy. Such degrees of intimacy also exist in a believer’s relationship with God.

Unfortunately, since encountering the Risen Lord is a subjective experience within an individual’s heart, some Christians believe the only way to be free of spiritual deception is to reject all mystical experiences. They believe spiritual unity occurs in heaven, apart from feelings, through a believer’s adherence to fundamental doctrine and Biblical morality. However, late Christian counselor Brent Curtis points out in his book The Sacred Romance, “Above all else, the Christian life is a love affair of the heart. It cannot be lived primarily as a set of principles or ethics. It cannot be managed with steps and programs. It cannot be lived exclusively as a moral code leading to righteousness.” Many Christians in both Protestant and Catholic traditions testify that God can be experienced through the senses and that He desires to reveal Himself in this way.

Bernard McGinn, professor emeritus at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, explains the lifeblood of mystics throughout Church history: “The mystic wants to penetrate to the living source of the biblical message, that is, to the Divine Word who speaks in and through human words and texts.”  Evelyn Underhill, a contemporary Christian mystic, summarizes the muscle tone of a mystic’s heart this way: “The Christian mystic therefore is one for whom God and Christ are not merely objects of belief, but living facts experimentally known first hand; and mysticism for him becomes, in so far as he responds to its demands, a life based on this conscious communion with God.”

TobyMac, a popular Christian pop/hip-hop singer, expresses divine union with beautiful clarity in his song Captured. Speaking of Jesus, he says, “Like blood in my veins, You’re my sustenance. The moment of trust, the ‘me’ becomes ‘us’, the ‘we’ become ‘one’. Your gift is my gust of wind ‘til we meet again. All I want to do is get into You. You’ve got me captured by Your love. All I wanna do is stay here with You. You’ve got me raptured. Can’t get enough!” Yes, Jesus is real, present, and powerful, and He disregards man-made religious boundaries. He is Himself, the Word of God made flesh, and He is above all human pride, fear, and prejudice. For a mystic, spiritual connection with Christ means that the unseen indwelling of the Holy Spirit develops into a deeply felt, conscious awareness of Christ’s interior and exterior presence.