INYOU WINDOW, January 2006: “Jesus in the NOW” Series
INYOU WINDOW, January, 2006: “Jesus in the NOW” Series Intro.
from Jan. 28 “Jesus in the NOW” Discipleship Conference
“Jesus in the NOW” is about the Eternal One dwelling INYOU. I believe the eternal life that Jesus promises (Jn. 17:3) is not so much about a quantity of time somewhere out there in the future (in heaven after you die) as it is a quality of life in the here and now—an altogether different kind of life! A life that is not out of reach for even the very weakest of believers; a life that is only available in the moment—what I call “living in the now”; a life that is found “in Him” who is eternal, a life that is lived by faith and not of ourselves, a life that is literally HIS life living in you and you living in Him; therefore, a life you cannot live apart from Him “for He is your life” (Deut. 30:20, Col. 3:3); a life I believe Jesus was pointing us to when He said, “If you abide in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit for apart from Me you can do nothing!”(Jn. 15:5) and “whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (3:16).
So out of this revelation, this new paradigm, this altogether different way of looking at the Christian life—a life we cannot live—the question changes from “How do I live it?” to “How can I not live it?” for “God is not far from each one of us; in Him we live and move and exist” (Acts. 18:27-28). “For me to live is Christ”(Phil. 11:21), Paul said, “for I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me…”(Gal. 2:20). You see, for God to put His life in us, He must first convince us that we have no life in ourselves. This is the lesson of life: “for whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses himself for My sake, He will find it.” (Matt. 16:25) The very weakest of believers, being convinced of the death of a life lived to self, is actually most quail-fied to enter into His life. There is not a list of steps to God, but divine escalator, which ushers us into His presence at the point of surrender. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:3). At this point, there are little options: abandon to Him or die.
So it’s not what we do, but faith in what He has done; and it’s not what we need, but what we already possess in possessing Him: “everything pertaining to life and godliness in Christ Jesus” (2 Pet. 1:3-4). Over the next 12 months, I will emphasize 12 dynamic truths that reveal what every believer already possesses in Christ. In January, the word is “COMPLETE.” INYOU’S letterhead reads: “We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ” (Col. 1:28). We are not working FOR completeness, victory, nearness, wholeness, holiness, assurance, acceptance, belovedness, etc., but FROM it. What we are seeking, we already possess, but our focus is often on something other. C.S. Lewis said, “within every human being are longings for something we’ve never seen or experienced before. The only conclusion we can draw from such desires is that we were made for somewhere else.” True! Anytime you look outside yourself for completion, you are sunk, whether job, money, intellect, image, Christian “do’s”, or especially relationships!
Do you look for yourself in others? Do you define yourself by how you think or feel others think or feel about you? To what degree are your words and behavior affected by other people’s words and behavior? Are you living to people? It is illogical to think that your problems are “out there”—that the “out there” has an answer for the “in here”—that if your circumstances were okay (e.g., if your spouse were different), then you’d be okay. I can almost guarantee you that the person you set your hopes on, or the situation you seek to control, or the habit you are unwilling to give up is the cause of your misery. Trying to get your needs met by such means is like trying to milk a rat!
God allows all sorts of circumstances in our lives to get us to realize all that we need and all we are looking for to complete us is found in Christ! God has done some amazing things, as we will see this year, to press us into His life. The Scriptures witness to His acts and His words, telling us a story of His mercy and love toward us who believe. [See Deut. 30:11-20; 1 Cor. 1:30; 3:16-17; 6:19; 2 Cor. 3:18; 5:4-5; 5:17-21; Eph. 3:14-21; Phil. 4:19; Heb. 10:19-25.]
