I have come to identify (8) eight stages
of the experience of any Christian who desires to go onto experiential union
with Him. Such a union may take 30 or more years as we traverse the spectrum
of churchianity’s offerings, only to find that religion is all of
self-interest. It is only in a wonderful, blessed submission to Him alone,
the indwelling Christ that we come to the spontaneous fruit of our union
with Him – peace, rest and love. We find that He was there all the time,
so close at hand – in our spirit all the time, waiting for our turning to
Him in trusting belief.
Stage 1 - Independent and Unsaved
All
of us come into the world as being conceived in the state of sin that is
sourced in our first father, Adam. We are a self, living by what I call the
original lie - living by the notion that we are capable of doing what we
please (good or bad), as the God of our own lives. Per the following
scripture this is precisely what the Serpent told Eve would happen if the
ate of that tree called the Knowledge of God and Evil. (The
Serpent saying>>) “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof,
then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good
and evil.” Genesis 3:5.
God Himself confirms this observation as we see.
“And the Lord God said,
Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil:
and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and
eat, and live for ever:” Genesis 3:22
From this we see that man in fact had gained a knowledge that was
God-like in it capacity to know good and evil. The illusion is that man
assumes thereby that he can simply choose and then live accordingly out of
self-will. Only God has a righteous nature, and this is spontaneous,
according to His righteous life.
The
experience of the man that Paul describes in Romans 7:16-23 is evidence that
man has a correct and noble knowledge, BUT he is not able to
live according to that knowledge. “And
if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As
it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I
know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I
have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For
what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to
do--this I keep on doing. 20Now
if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin
living in me that does it. 21So
I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with
me. 22For
in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but
I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against
the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within
my members.” Romans 7:16-23 NIV
Hence,
we see that anyone who reduces the Christian experience to a matter of
gnosis (mind knowledge) and “doing” apart from the power of the
indwelling Spirit of life we have by Christ in us, is destined for failure
and frustration. We know from 1Cor. 15:56 that such knowledge of the law,
which leads one to an effort to adhere to the law for righteousness by ones
self-effort, is what in fact empowers sin. 1
Cor. 15:56b “… and the strength (dunamis, power) of sin is
the law.”
This
hopelessness is the true state of all mankind. Coming to the realization of
our hopeless state is designed to lead one to the next stage – Saved, by
the grace of God.
Stage 2 -
Saved, Yet Still Independent
Realization of our sinful state brings
one to a place of acceptance and receiving of God’s salvation in Christ
– which initially is enjoyed simply as being “delivered from
“perdition.” (apoleia, Greek 684, Strong’s, ap-o'-li-a; … ruin or
loss (physical, spiritual or eternal) :- damnable (-nation), destruction,
die, perdition, × perish, pernicious ways, waste.
At this stage, we are thrilled by a level of peace we had never
before known, and a sense of newness of life. However, after a short while
we see that we still living by our independent “self as God of our own
life.” In fact, though we were born again and gained all that God can
furnish us in Christ (“ye are
complete in Him: Col 2:10), we persist in living as being in charge
of our own life. We as a self have yet to come to embrace the indwelling
Christ as “Lord” (Gk. kurios, controller) of our life. This requires a
transformation in our soul self. Our initial experience is that we have
gained all of Christ into our human spirit, but we persist in living by our
soul as a soul-self, by our “natural” (Gk. psuchikos, “of the soul”)
wits and abilities. We are yet to realize that we are infirm in our soul,
which has been tainted by our sin-infected body of flesh. Failure in our
self-effort is failure to accomplish our independent pursuit good or evil.
Failure is beneficial to cause us to see our state as we really are. This is
to push us to find an answer, a life that is capable of living righteous in
the midst of a crooked and perverse flesh body in a corrupt world. Jacob,
meaning, heel grabber, manipulator or usurper, must come to have his thigh
(symbol of self-strength) put out of joint in order to become Israel (The
son of promise). We all must come to walk with a limp as to our
self-reliance.
Stage
3 - Suffering
As we have just seen, there must be a
suffering to go on to intimacy with Him. The suffering is greatest for us to
learn that we just do not have it by our self-will, when we want to do such
and such and perhaps be like so and so. We do not in ourselves of the soul
have the capability to live righteously and be as loving toward anyone but
ourselves. Often we must be brought “beyond natural strength” or ability
to control our life let alone the life of anybody else that we thought we
were called to control. The Lord permits a suffering that we would no longer
trust in ourselves. Paul recites such a realization from his experience. “For
we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us
in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength,
insomuch that we despaired even of life: 9But
we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we
should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: 2
Cor. 1:8-9.
While
we may have entered suffering of the sort described, it is not for us to be
martyrs, or even to learn any object lesson so we will try harder, no we
learn only to believe in, trust in and to cling to Christ, whom we received
that day we first believed and were saved – born-again by His life coming
into our spirit. Such trust is demonstrated by a proper resignation to His
will in our life. We do this first out of recognized neediness, and later
because we have come to know, we can embrace suffering as being for our
good. This is good because this is the road we must travel repeatedly as go
deeper into union we Him. As John the Baptist said, “we must decrease”
and “He must increase.” Yet as noble as the wisdom John possessed was,
he violated that understanding and for that, lost his head. A careful read
of Scripture indicates that John foolishly kept his own ministry AFTER
Christ had come and was baptizing on the other side of the Jordan.
Stage
4 - Resignation
By
suffering beyond our strength, we arrive at yielding to the situations and
circumstances of our life as being “of God.”
“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.” Romans
8:28 “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have
learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”
Philip. 4:11
It’s here that we finally arrive at a measure of genuine peace and
rest in the midst of living in any situation He permits to come into our
life. Many quote Bible promises but few quote the 2nd promise of
John 16:33 … In
the world ye shall have tribulation:” Here, “tribulation” in
Greek is thlipsis, meaning “pressure.” This implies that we are
pressed – often beyond our strength. “In the world” is where Jesus
promised we would live to experience pressure. Jesus also in the same verse
offered an alternative. These
things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world
ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
John 16:33
So we see that rather than being “in the world” we can be
“in Christ.” This kind of successful overcoming is not simply by simply
being saved or born-again. It is by abiding (staying) in Christ, by
maintaining our subjective union with Him who lives within us.
We
do not have our trust in an ethereal God but a living Christ who is so near
at hand that He is now the life we live by and trust. Galatians
2:20b…and the life
which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of (Gk. ek, from
and with) the Son of God, who loved me, and gave
himself for me.
From this Scripture we see that we must cling to Christ in our
spirit because it is then “His faith” at work in us that
overcomes. It is not our faith but His that overcomes, as we cling to trust
Him. Christ is the Christian in me. When we are resigned to trust Him, we
enjoy the power of His life and His overcoming faith for our living.
Stage 5 - Self-Purgative
It is at the point of resignation that
we really have come to enjoy a measure of union with Him. However, we then
may become jealous, still having a self-desire to exert our self-will to
purge ourselves of all unrighteousness and be like Him. Once again, we have
lost sight of the fact that it is not a matter of being like Him but rather
a matter of us giving up trying and simply trusting Him. Nevertheless, we
must again experience suffering failure. We again see the Romans 7
experience of trying and setting the mind and will against sin but with
bitter failure as its end. “For
the good that I would I do not: but the evil
which I would not, that I do. 20Now
if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that
dwelleth in me. Romans
7:19-20
The
experience of suffering failure ultimately brings a level of illumination.
It is in the stream of light through a window that we can see even the
tiniest impurity floating in the air. However, we cannot see it unless we
are turned to look and see the light. Our failure is so as to make us
give up our self-efforts to be a Christ-like and humbly turn to Him within.
Seeing
Our Failure, Our Heart is Turned from Self-effort (law) to His Grace.
“…
when Moses (law) is read, the vail (flesh) is
upon their heart. Nevertheless when it (the heart) shall turn to the
Lord, the vail shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that Spirit: and
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we
all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are
changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the
Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Cor. 3:15-18 Please note that we are not turning our heart from
sin or evil but we are turning from the law that empowers sin. When it is
turned we are turning to the Lord who is the Spirit in our spirit and enter
a liberty – liberty from what? It is liberty from the power of sin, which
is of the flesh, and from self-effort to deal with sin. It is when we are
turned to Christ within that we are in fact so illuminated that we not only
see ourselves as our state may be but by contrast we see Christ and are
transformed by that seeing, from one level of glory to another level of
glory - by the Lords Spirit. We, in soul, then spontaneously become
expressions of the Lord within.
Stage
6 - Illuminative
The
light of His shining is the light of life. Light always precedes the fruit
of life (Psa. 36:9). Note in Genesis that light was the first item restored
to the creation. Then the levels of life followed. First, light came to us
and we received Him and were born-again. Light comes to precede each level
of the growth of His life permeating our soul.
His
shining light in our later experiences as Christians then “divides our
soul and our spirit” to expose “the thoughts and intents of our
heart,” with the purpose of revealing to us who He is to us – He Is ALL.
Formerly we were only perhaps interested in our acts – good or bad, but
now He goes deeper to the "thoughts and intents of our heart."
For the word (Christ)
of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged
sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and
of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
Christ
shining within is as a Word, able to convict our conscience and expose our
self to us. He already knows us completely. It is we who are ignorant of our
state until His light shines. We come know the difference between our self
in our soul and Him in our spirit by the sense of Him. The actions of our
“joints” (soul) are for action or movement, but to be governed by the
inner hidden life in our “marrow” (spirit). We all know that the marrow
is the source of the life we have in the blood that supplies our entire
physical being. Likewise, our spirit source is hidden, but to govern all our
doing.
We
may say, “Well I just don’t know if it is God or me.” Actually,
we DO know because we have the “sense” of His life within us and it
teaches us all things to do with our living. “But
ye have an unction from the Holy One (Christ), and ye know (eido,
sense knowing) all things. 1 John 2:20 “But the anointing which
ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any
man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things,
and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide
in him. 1 John 2:27
Here we see that we have been equipped with all we need to
know by Christ in us as the governor (Lord) of our life.
His
shining light that exposes us is at the very same time the healing light,
the transforming light of 2Cor. 3:18. This is the goal of salvation.
Salvation really is “much more” than reconciliation according to Rom.
5:10. Salvation really is for us to be partakers of divine life and nature
(2Pet 1:4), not only in our spirit, but also in our soul’s expression.
Thus, this transforming by the shining light is the fulfillment or
completion of the purpose of His shining. Not that we are complete as yet in
soul transformation but this is the ultimate object of His indwelling – to
flow out of us, to our soul’s mind emotion and will, according to His
governing life. Our soul’s expression becomes changed into the image of
Him. He took on our likeness that we might ultimately take on His likeness,
expressing His glorious life.
Stage
7 - Conformative
Knowing
Him by the inward sense of Him, we simply conform to His will in matters, as
a matter of free will choice to turn or yield to Him as our source. We do
not do what we think He would like Christians to do. Out Goes WWJD. He works
within us to will and to do of His good pleasure and we know by listening to
that sense we have of Him within. “For
it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good
pleasure. Philip. 2:13.
Inwardly, we are in fact exactly as the resurrected Christ is.
That is in our spirit we are complete and as He is. Choosing to yield to Him
is to conform to Him and His inner speaking, thereby we in effect are
purifying our soul-self, but only by Him being the life source within us who
is pure. “Beloved, now are we the
sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that,
when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 3And
every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is
pure.” 1John 3:2-3
In this way we are righteous “as He is
righteous” in that moment, as we but submit to or yield to Him being
expressed as the righteous life in us.
“Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness
is righteous, even as he is righteous.” 1 John
3:7
This
is the goal of our walk in Christ. Having repeatedly “learned Christ”
within us (Eph 4:20), by our failures and now the sensing of His life,
we come to a walk whereby we know it is He in us, as us, who is all. Even
Jesus learned obedience by the things He suffered. “Though
he were a Son, yet learned he obedience (hupakoe, attentive hearkening)
by the things which he suffered” Hebrews 5:8
Know that being “in Christ” is our default position. We
ultimately learn to trust Him in us that we may live by the first impulse so
long as it is accompanied by a peace within. We are in Him; it is only by
our self-assertion that we leave Him – ignoring Him in our spirit –
preferring to have our way. We can safely assume that we are in Him and it
is He who is working in us so long as we have no contrary sense from Him in
our spirit. As with our physical bodies, it is when something is wrong that
we know it – our injured leg, hand, etc. When all is well, we have no
awareness of anything wrong. We have awareness by our spirit. Thus, we walk
according to Him with a sense of okayness, buoyancy, lightness and freedom.
We can rely upon our default position because we are crucified and He is
alive in us. “I
am crucified with
Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me: and the life
which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the
Son of God, who loved me, …” Galatians 2:20 “Herein is our love
made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as
he is, so are we in this world.” 1 John 4:17 - END