Christ in me.

The other day I was reading a blog from a prominent leader of a church movement, on his post there was a comment about the importance of Christ within me and that is the key to seeing the kingdom outworking (it was slightly understated and to be honest it’s the only way we can exist as believers, in both relationship and function) so I wanted to explore the depth of  importance of this and also if this is so important how do we release the spirit of God from within us?

Scripture tells us is Romans 8 v 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

1 Cor 6 v 19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

1 Cor 3 v 16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are Gods temple and that Gods Spirit lives in you?

Romans 8 v 14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God

1 Corinthians 2 v 12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.

And there are plenty of other verses that point to this reality, so here are a few thoughts.

Christ gave up his divinity and lived a perfect life and the manner of which he would like us to live, by being fully dependant on the Holy Spirit,  he didn’t simply shelve his powers and occasionally let them out in a restricted form, like in a super hero movie where the hero acts like a normal human but in fact has a constant access to his super power,  he left them behind when he stepped into humanity, with the intention that we could follow in his footsteps and do what he has done, He was the first of his kind and he wants for us to do what he did, live as he lived.

At the point where we are born again and filled with the spirit of God (and it is possible to have confessed Jesus as lord and not be baptised with the spirit see acts 19 v 4),  we start the process of learning to be dependant on the leading, prompting and teaching of the holy Spirit. it is from this point that we start the process of being transformed and learn to live as Jesus lived, but there is only one way to do this successfully and that it through intimacy with that spirit.

So here we have an image of God stepping into humanity and putting on a man suit, restricted to only do what the holy spirit (the spirit of the father) does. The Incarnation, subsequently when we are baptised in the spirit, we become the vessels by which the spirit of God now flows through us to humanity, just like it did through Jesus.

Much of our weakness and powerlessness is that we are too ready to do things off our own back and not lean onto the spirit for guidance, generally only when we’re in a crisis do we fully lean on God.

I want to try and expose the importance of this reality, if the same spirit that flowed through Jesus and by which Jesus did all the amazing things he did, consider all the healings, miracles of provision and countless others (to many to contain in all the books in the world) surely then those things are also accessible to us,

-all of them.

But there does seem to be a condition, and that is that we surrender our will, our pride and learn to be fully reliant on the spirit. Living sacrifices, our hearts willingly placed on the altar of God. And that means dying to self. It’s amazing how much we can achieve with enough money or influence, but just consider what is achievable once we realise that God’s very presence lives within us and can flow through us. There is no force able to withstand the Glord of God.

I totally believe God is starting to strip away so much of our self in all it’s forms and reveal to us just how much he wants to be made manifest in us, that we become the incarnate image of God, “little Christ’s” it’s not about what we do but it’s all about who we are, that we are image bearers of God, that we are living tabernacles of Gods glory and presence. The temple system was where God connected to earth, now that is done away with we are now the temple of the Holy Spirit, we are the dwelling place of God, where God once dwelt in the temple now he dwells in you and I and it’s down to us to allow him to flow through us into the world around.

When we allow the spirit of God to completely posses us, our heart, minds, body’s, everything, we start to manifest his kingdom through us, everywhere we go, it’s impossible not to if were living like this, as if it’s possible to walk through a cloud and not get wet, it’s impossible to hang out with God and his presence not rub off on us. This is what Gods wants. This is why God wants us to worship him, because we become like the thing we worship, when we worship God it changes us and we become like our Father, prayer is about spending time in his presence, so is worship, it all about his presence.

I remember being taught as a young believer “too much word and you dry up, too much spirit and you’ll blow up” what rubbish, Jesus is the Word of God and you can never have to much of the spirit, the spirit of God is life, you cannot have too much of Jesus, ever. It might ruin you forever, but you can never have too much.

Many men and woman of God of the past have walked in that intimacy, consider the stories of Smith Wigglesworth, John Wesley, George Whitefield, Evan Roberts, and others who in their very presence people were convicted of sin and cry out to God, it’s not that they were somehow special, but it’s that they and the father were one, they had given up themselves and stepped into the fullness of Gods promise for them, that they became true sons of God, completely and utterly grafted into the tree of life and they become the dwelling place for the Glory,  I believe that is what God is doing now, its not about the ones or twos but he is wanting to manifest this through the body…globally?

Can you imagine what that would look like, if all the believers around the world would be so completely and utterly submitted to being united with the spirit of God that everywhere they go things are changed because they simply show up, there is a huge call to our generation, as I imagine as there has been to every generation previously, are we going to answer the call?

The scriptures tell us we are children of light, but sadly so much of the church is afraid that we’re going to get infected with darkness and we’re  often so intimidated by the enemy that we stay hidden and behind the walls of our institutions and we build doctrinal walls to keep us and other in there, but that is not how light and darkness work, when you are in a dark room and you turn on the light, what happens? the darkness retreats and is expelled and so that is what it is like for us, when we are consumed with the light / presence of God, when we walk into a dark place the darkness is expelled or we’re asked to leave there’s no middle ground, the question is do we go or do we stay? when we stay everything changes! Light and dark can’t mix. We have to remember that we are in a spiritual battle, it is not flesh and blood that we’re struggling against.

So will we be lay down lovers for God, will we lay down everything we have, will we be like the man who finds treasure in a field and sells everything to have it? The promises of the kingdom are well worth the cost, that we may know God and know his presence.

That we will carry his presence and be the people God has called us to be, Glory carriers.

What a hope, what a promise…rise up, rise up.