Straight Talk to the Church: The Nature of Risk

When it comes to Jesus Christ and His church, there is an element that we need to examine a little closer than usual.
 
Because of the nature of salvation, we definitely can know that when we die we will always be with the Lord. In this area of our lives there is no risk. Jesus took that all upon Himself.  

Now let’s talk a little about what risk in general is, and then we will apply it to our relationship with Christ and one another.  

Risk, in a nutshell, is partaking in something that gives us absolutely no guarantee. Yet, the prize at the end, if we reach it, makes the journey and potential temporary failure worth it.  

We think of Abraham and how he believed what God had told him; yet he saw these things far off into the future. He knew that even though he believed, he would never see the city of God while he was on the earth. Yet he responded in faith and walked the physical land that God had promised him.
 
Did Abraham have any guarantees in his lifetime? Absolutely none. All he knew is that he was promised an heir that would continue on his natural lineage and also an heir that would continue on the spiritual lineage.  

David also in being anointed king, waited and did nothing to bring about what he knew was what God had said he was to be. In faith he waited upon the Lord and eventually received his promise from God.  

While he was going through all of his struggles he had no guarantee except what God had told him. Yet amidst all of this he hungered to build the house of God.  
This is the attitude and way of life that we must be willing to live. Yes we know that God is building his people into something after His own heart. We know that the city that Abraham saw began with the physical coming of Jesus. Yet Jesus, other than a few close followers, never saw the fulness of His eternal purpose worked out while He was on the earth.  
He had no guarantee while He was alive that all of this would happen. Yet He also saw the end afar off and rejoiced over it.  

So what do I mean about there being no guarantee. From what I have been writing there seems to be complete guarantee about where things will end up.  

The key is to look at it from the point of view of our time we are on the earth. In this we have no guarantee of how far things will go or what will be formed of the purpose of God within us.  

This is by Christ’s design. Just like we are told that the Old Testament saints weren’t complete without us, so it is from generation to generation. We are to be wise to what Christ is doing in our generation and be faithful in it. Then we are to pass it to faithful ones of the next generation to keep things growing.  

The reason why this is, is to show all of us that we can’t make it without one another. We stand on the shoulders of giants of the faith that have lived throughout the centuries. We are all here because they were there. It will take the entire span of time that is allotted us by the Father to bring things to the fulfillment He wants.  

Knowing this should be humbling and take a huge burden off of us. We only have to serve God in our generation; we can do no more than that. From this we can feel released and enjoy the simplicity of our devotion to Christ as we walk deeper and deeper into Him.  

So why talk about risk? Again, we have no guarantee of how far we will go in our lifetimes. We are to simply walk in faith, hope, and love in relationship to our God, fellowshipping with Him and each other in spirit and truth.
 
As we forsake the systems that have been made throughout the centuries and join ourselves to one another outside of these props and crutches, we have no guarantee of how things will work out in our lifetimes. That can be scary and exhilarating at the same time.  

What an opportunity to think that we can live a life pleasing to God and yet have no inkling of where things will end up at the conclusion of our life on this earth. Whether you know it or not, it is risk.

But what a risk that we can ‘waste’ our lives for something that has eternal implications. Now that is something worth pursuing.

Knowing The Lord

by Bill Heroman


A teenager went to his dad one day and said, “Dad, can you show me how to drive The Car?”

Caught off guard by this, the dad felt a bit embarrassed to realize they’d never had this conversation. But he sat up straight, turned to the boy and said, “Son, I’d be delighted to tell you all about The Car. What would you most like to know?”

The boy said, “Well, mostly, I'd really like to learn how to drive The Car.”

“Of course, of course. Son, I’m so glad that you’ve come to this day. I can tell you all about driving The Car. I learned when I was your age from our old Youth Mechanic, and now it’s really an honor to get to teach you.”

The boy began to feel hope and excitement, thinking, This is it, I’ll be driving soon!

The dad stood up, went to the coffee table, and picked up his leather-bound, monogrammed Driver’s Manual with the gold-foil pages. “It’s Sunday anyway, son. Let’s go to the Garage!”

The boy started to protest, “But I don’t want to go to the garage, dad. I want to drive The Car.”

The dad grinned, “The best way to learn about The Car is to be in the Garage, son!” He grew more comfortable as he remembered this simple fact. He liked feeling like he was able to give his son some right answers.

Grudgingly, the boy agreed. “But dad, after the garage, do you promise you will show me how to drive The Car?”

The dad looked blank again. “Oh, sure, son. Of course. Now let’s go hear the Mechanic!”

They left the house together, the son full of hope, the dad with his Manual.

Then they walked all fifteen blocks to the Garage, through empty streets!

In the empty parking lot, they said hello to friends who were also walking to the Garage, holding their Manuals. One man called out, “Looks like Junior’s ready to grow up and find The Car! Good for you, Junior! Glad you’re finally smart enough to bring yourself in for service! Now, don’t forget to make your dad get you a Manual, and make sure you read it every day!”

But Junior felt confused. He whispered to his dad, “What does coming in for service and reading the manual have to do with actually driving…”

“Shush! We’re walking into the Garage!” his dad said.

Silently, they found their seats while the Garage Band was starting up. For a while, everyone sang some great songs about how much they all liked to drive. Then it was time for the Mechanic to speak. It was a warm, encouraging message, about how some people’s cars are different colors and that no color car was better than another. “The important thing,” the Mechanic said, “Is that you’re all trying as hard as you can to be courteous drivers!”

“But nobody drove here this morning,” thought Junior. Still, everyone else was nodding and calling out “That’s right!” so he figured he’d leave it alone. But it didn’t help him feel any less confused.

Just then, Junior looked behind him and saw, way in the back row, a man pulling something shiny out of his pocket. But no one else seemed to see it. It was on a string, and the man swung it around his hand until it made a clinking noise against his watch. But no one else seemed to hear it. (The Mechanic was now talking about minimum legal liability in the state of Texas.)

The man with the shiny thing turned to go, just as the service was ending. Junior had a strange feeling as if he wanted to follow.

Just then his dad said, “Wasn’t that great?”

Junior just looked at his dad, more confused than ever. “Dad”, he said, “Doesn’t anyone here ever actually drive The Car?”

“What are you talking about? We just DID!” Exclaimed the dad,” but inside, he was thinking, Maybe he missed it. Well, it takes time before people can see the truth about The Car. I remember it sure took me a while. Man, was I confused for a while, too!

Then Junior’s dad said, “Hey. Come with me to Car School. There’s a guest speaker today who’s going to be talking about two-way left-turn channelization lanes, which are everywhere, when you start to notice them! Or maybe you’d want to go in room 425, where they’ve been doing a series on the great Automakers of History, who pioneered what we believe about The Car. Does that sound good?”

Junior wasn’t sure. “I really just want to know one thing, dad.”

“Okay. What is that?”

Junior felt unimportant as well as mute, but repeated himself. “I’d like to learn how to drive The Car!”

His dad looked at him like he’d just asked for the moon or a pink pterodactyl. After a moment, he said, “Wait here, son. Let me go talk to the Mechanic.”

As his dad made his way through the greeting line, Junior wandered over to a bulletin board and began reading it, to pass the time. There was one article about giving money to build a new, larger Garage with more seating. There were notices of the Car School classes being offered, and a news clipping about last summer when the Mechanic went on a Mission to Africa to share the good news about The Car with people there, “to rescue them from life in the slow lane”!

An old lady saw Junior and walked up to him. “Isn’t it wonderful?” she said, “You know those people had never even heard about The Car over there. I think it’s so exciting!”

Junior was too single minded to be bothered by anything. He decided to ask her what he really wanted to know.

“Excuse me, ma’am. Did you drive here this morning?”

The old lady looked surprised and a bit offended. Then she smiled and laughed at him in a condescending way and said, “Of course I did, young man. I drive all the time. You do know The Car is inside your heart, don’t you?” Then she looked around. “Oh, excuse me, I see my good friend. Goodbye.”

Junior was stunned. And still confused. But he was starting to suspect that nobody in this place was going to be able to help him actually learn to drive The Car.

Just then Junior’s dad found him again. “Junior, good news. I talked to the Mechanic about what you said. It’s kind of advanced, and I wasn’t sure you were ready for this yet, but the Mechanic said you can come to a special class he’s teaching today about Driving The Car.”

Finally, the words he’d been longing to hear! Someone was going to talk about How to actually Drive The Car! Junior was surprised at that moment to feel his own hope and excitement mixed with a guarded sense of skepticism. Maybe the Mechanic was saving the “good stuff” for the inner circle – which would explain why he didn’t talk about it during his lecture – but he couldn’t escape the feeling there was something a little too slick about the Mechanic. Like maybe no one really understood how The Car even worked, and he was just coming up with fancy ways to tell them why it was really alright.

Junior pushed these skeptical thoughts aside, feeling guilty for doubting his dad and the important Mechanic. He reached again for the hope deep inside him, and he clung to it.

In Car School, everyone sat in rows of chairs while the Mechanic began to lecture again. He started talking about all the great daredevils of history who made it their ambition and goal to really, truly Drive The Car! He talked about how hard they had to work for it, and how much they had to want it, and how they spent their lives to uncover the secret of Driving The Car… the secret, he said, that they had now left for the rest of us to learn from.

Again, Junior dared to hope. His mouth went a little dry.

Just then, a glint of something caught Junior’s eye. He saw the man with the shiny thing again. The man was holding the shiny thing in his fingers, fiddling with it like a pencil, though it was smaller than a pencil. As it moved, it sent small flashes of light across the room… but no one else seemed to notice.

“Do you want to drive The Car?” The Mechanic had moved from the podium and was looking into the rows of chairs, right at Junior.

Junior couldn’t answer. He nodded, aware that part of him was afraid to find out what the Mechanic was about to tell them. Junior was afraid to find out one more thing that just wouldn’t seem right, or sound like it worked.

The Mechanic’s voice was building with passion and excitement. “The main thing you all need to know today, if you want to truly Drive The Car, is you need to understand that The Car is inside you! And The Car has also been placed inside the most precious gift ever given to human beings who want to Drive! That’s right! The Car Itself, has placed Itself, inside the Manual!!!”

Junior blinked, and looked around. Everyone else seemed excited. He looked for the man with the shiny thing and saw him, holding a fist tightly closed in his lap. Looking calm. Oddly, showing no expression whatsoever.

The Mechanic kept on. “That’s right, I’m telling you – The Car is IN The Manual! So you might say that Reading The Manual is a lot like Driving the Car!”

The Right-On’s and Oh Yeah’s from the audience were getting louder. Again Junior glanced at the other man in the room who wasn’t responding at all.

The Mechanic went on. “As a matter of fact, I have it by Divine Revelation that I can tell you this Great Mystery, that all the Mystic Car Drivers of history have used to learn how to Drive The Car in their own private lives… and here is the Great Secret!”

Junior was totally bracing himself.

“The secret,” said the Mechanic, “To Driving the Car.” (Then he paused for dramatic effect.) “Is to Read the Manual! That’s Right! Reading the Manual is the secret to Driving The Car!!!”

Junior was stunned. A part of him was not really shocked, but a part of him was crushed. He noticed one man in the room actually crying. Everyone else seemed to be very emotional about this – except for the man at the end of the row, by the door. Junior noticed he had just slipped out.

Everyone was standing up now, thanking and congratulating the Mechanic on a great lesson with such a positive, helpful, encouraging message in it. Junior’s dad looked at him and asked, “Well?”

Junior just said, “I’ve gotta go to the bathroom dad.”

“Are you alright, son? I know it’s a lot to take in. Would you like to go read my manual outside by yourself?”

“No, dad. I just need some air.” Then he left. Quickly.

The dad watched his boy leave, while a friend came and put his hand on his shoulder. “I guess it doesn’t happen all at once for some people, does it?” Junior’s dad said.

Outside in the fresh air, Junior’s eyes were adjusting to the light as he looked out toward the empty parking lot. Then he saw it again! The glint! The man with the shiny thing was walking alone through the lot.

Junior started running after the man – for no real reason other than one last, wild hope.

He caught up. “Excuse me,” said Junior, panting. And the man turned around.

“I wanted to ask you – I mean, I was wondering – that is…” and the whole thing burst out of him. “I came here because I asked my dad to show me how to drive The Car this morning and all he’s done is talk about his Manual and listen to this Mechanic and I saw you holding something I’ve never seen before and you just look different so I had to come out here and just ask…”

“Ask me what?” said the man.

Junior looked around himself. There was no one and nothing around them for a hundred of yards. He built up his courage again.

“Um… do you know how to drive The Car?”

The man smiled at Junior with his whole wrinkled face, with eyes that shone like they'd been patiently waiting for someone to ask that question for too many years.

“Why yes, I do.” Then he paused. “Is that all you wanted to ask me?”

Junior thought a moment and said, “No. I mean… can you – will you – show me how to drive The Car too?” And hope began to pound in his chest once again.

The man pulled the shiny thing out of his pocket again. It glinted in the light, and it lit up Junior’s eyes in return. The man said, “Would you like one of these?” And he reached in his pocket again, and pulled out another shiny thing! Junior reached for the small object, took it in his hand, and just as he was about to ask what do I do with it he saw… something!

All of a sudden, where it hadn’t been before, something large and beautiful just appeared right next to where they both were standing.

“What is THAT???!!!” shouted Junior.

“Oh, so you see it now? That’s fantastic!” The man was laughing out loud and shouting with joy! (The people back near the garage didn’t seem to notice – but suddenly, Junior had forgotten to notice them, too.)

Junior was practically crying. I’ve never actually seen… it’s so beautiful… is it really true that we can… oh, I just almost can’t even believe that we could…”

“Would you like to go for a ride?”

Junior’s jaw dropped. He managed to say, “YES!”

So the man said, “Hop in!”

And Junior said, “Hop? How? Where? You mean we can go IN The Car?”

The man smiled again, crying a little himself now.

“Here. Look.”

“I’ll show you.”

The man put the shiny thing into the side of the large thing. He worked it, and something opened. He removed it, closed the thing, and let Junior try.

It took Junior a few tries to feel like a natural. Just turning the shiny thing, and opening the other thing. "That's called a 'handle'," the man told him.

The man was patient. He didn't fuss. He didn't use a lot of words. Junior was exploring The Car. And the rest of the world just faded away.

The rest of the day was like that. Actually, the rest of Junior's life.

Junior never did manage to explain to his dad why he wasn't interested in the Garage anymore. He did read the manual every once in a while, but it was totally different. They couldn't talk about it. After a while, his dad stopped asking.

But Junior continued to go spend time with the man and his new group of friends. They did a lot of driving together. Somehow, oddly, no one ever noticed them.

Over time, the friends learned all sorts of things together about How to Drive The Car. Wonderful Things. Amazing Things. Things I could tell you about, if there were only words for such things, in our language. Or if it were possible to actually communicate about them in a book. But I can tell you this much:

They explored The Car. They practiced Driving. And they Knew. Over time, more and more, they found they deeply Knew.

How.
To.
Drive.
The Car!

*---------------------------------------*

So that's my story! May you all have eyes to see and a heart to find some people who not only say that they Know, but who can actually Show. How. To Know.

Not ideas, or books, or feelings, or thinkings, or fancy explanations of things that just don't ever seem to work out.

But actually, simply, purely...

Jesus Christ.
===============================================
Bill adds:

I live in this neighborhood with 17 others. We meet on the street, in our yards, in our homes. We remind each other that Jesus Christ IS our daily life... TOGETHER!
Bill has two good blogs you can read here:
The Jesus Story
and
Hero Bill

Why Union with Christ is Resisted

Throughout all of Christian history the reality of entering into a deep fellowship with Jesus Christ has been resisted.
 
There are several reasons why this has been the case. I will talk about two of the major reasons here.  

The first and foremost reason is that men have always wanted to interrupt the role of Jesus Himself. How is this done? They take roles upon themselves of hearing God for others. The modern-day practice of specialized priesthoods and pastorates are the prime examples of this.  

We are taught that we must be “fed” for our entire lives or that God has appointed some type of professional hierarchy that He exclusively delivers His will through. This of course is total nonsense.  

While there can be some temporary instruction that lays a foundation in the lives of believers, this is to be done only occasionally and with great care. Most of us can’t even relate to this concept. We have been brainwashed into believing that somebody can and should hear and relate to God on our behalf.  

The reason why this has been able to continue on is because many do not want to take upon themselves the personal and corporate responsibility of fellowshipping directly with God.  

Now along with this, those who have taken these roles upon themselves are forever telling us that we can’t make it without them. I want to tell you that we can. These people simply apply more importance to themselves than God or the scriptures do. Read the story. Where do you even find such a thing as a "specialized" priesthood in the New Testament or a functioning pastor? Even though the word pastor is used once in the New Testament, the example of what that is, isn’t even shown.

We have a bunch of apostles, some prophets and teachers, and one evangelist, yet in our modern-day church practices we emphasize the pastor and evangelist and teacher, while leaving out the most needed offices in the church today.  So the first reason is that there is a misconception of what the church really is. Those who know what the church is meant to be will never allow these kinds of things to continue.  

Now the second reason that union with Christ is resisted is because people have a natural desire to build everything into a system. While this is human nature, it isn’t Christ’s nature.  As a matter of fact, as you hunger after and pursue the presence of God in your life, you will find that systemization is really a substitute for not knowing God. 

Believers know that there are things that God encourages us to do. Yet if there is not a continuous fellowship with Christ and the Father, there will always, and I do mean always, be a push to organize and institutionalize. You will not be able to help it. It will just begin to happen. Whenever there is a vacuum, something will definitely fill it.  

Just like Jesus mentions when He cast out a devil and nothing fills that void, more than were originally within someone return, and it is worse than before. This is the principle of there never really being a vacuum. We will have to relate to something in a created world.  

The strange, bizarre thing about systems is that they can exist without life at all. As a matter of fact, feeding the system becomes the purpose of those that are part of it. If the system were to collapse, those in it would believe that everything in their life was devastated. This is the power and destructive nature of systems.  
In reality, a system begins to form when fellowship and union with Christ begins to stop. If there is no life of God in the midst of God’s people then there can be no pursuit of His eternal purpose.  

What is truly amazing is that once the presence of God isn’t valued, and a system begins to take shape, then any challenge to the system is seen as wicked and evil. The life of God and presence of God becomes the systems enemy. This is a true assessment. Nothing can live in a vacuum. Either we will seek the presence and fellowship of God or it will be replaced with something else. This is always the choice that is before us. This is the choice now set before you.  

So in conclusion, ambitious people attempt to take upon themselves roles meant for only Christ. Like John the Baptist, we all must deny ourselves and decrease that Christ may increase. Let’s allow ourselves to become smaller that He may be larger in our lives.  

Then let us, with all our might, pursue the abiding, continuous, fellowship and presence of God in our lives. This is the one true weapon against the natural inclination and disaster of systematizing the church of Jesus Christ. Do these things and we will begin to see who this magnificent Christ truly is.

Corporate Union with Christ

This is a hard topic to talk about because the great majority of Christians aren’t aware of the depths that one can enter into in relationship to the presence of God. So if you aren’t aware of it individually, it is even harder to talk about the corporate nature of it. Yet we’ll give it a try.  

First of all, when I talk about corporate I am not referring to sitting in those buildings people go to once a week. That is about as far away from corporate as you can get.  

No, I am talking about being one together in the pursuit of the presence of God in our lives on a continual basis, while living in close proximity to one another to facilitate it.

Of course the first step is to desire and pursue a deep, intimate relationship with Christ individually, as it is impossible to enter in corporately without the hunger and desire individually first. Again, one cannot exist without the other!  

Yet the purpose of entering into the presence of God individually is never an end in and of itself; being together in it - that’s the end that God has in mind.  

This reminds me of a movie I saw one time where the main character was seeking spiritual enlightenment. He eventually goes by himself up onto a mountaintop and reads spiritual books and contemplates. One day he gets some insight and starts to laugh to himself. He then takes the book he is reading and starts tearing the pages out and putting them in a fire.

When he comes down from the mountain and talks to his mentor, the mentor asks him what he learned when he was up there. His response was that it was easy to be a holy man on a mountain.

In other words, seeking God by yourself only, is nothing in comparison to doing it individually, and than together with others. That is the part that is harder than the other and more in tune with God’s ultimate purpose.

Seeking God by yourself is not enough. We must first seek Him and then together seek and enter into His presence.

This is what truly being the church is all about. Together we pursue his awesome presence and daily dwell in Him and He in us. That’s what God’s desire was from before the foundation of the world. What we must be careful of, as I have mentioned in another article, is to not make this our great disconnect!  

God’s heart and purpose has always been to have a corporate counterpart; a many-membered body, a woman.  

In other words, this is something to be lived out in reality in our lives. It is not something that you read about and intellectually agree with and then go about doing things the same way as always. This is what it means to be a Christian. That’s why the believers at Antioch were originally mocked, because they so much pursued Him in this way that they were deridingly called “Christians,” which means that they were Christ centered.  

Like I said, this is what it really means to take the word Christian upon yourself individually and corporately. It means that our lives are lived in His presence moment by moment; continuously on. That’s the great corporate endeavor we are called to participate in. That’s the heart cry of God.  

What is Mysticism?

One of the problems of talking about what has become called “Mysticism” is that people tend to immediately assume that it concerns something that cannot be known by the everyday believer in Christ. The word itself implies something that is hidden and almost impossible to comprehend. While I think that the word is an unfortunate one in reference to what we are going to discuss, it is the one that has been used throughout the centuries, so we will use it for our purposes and bring the mystery out of it.  

What has been called mysticism is nothing more than believers throughout history that have been dissatisfied with their walk with the Lord, and as a result begin a pursuit of Him that brings them into deeper union and closeness and intimacy with their Lord.  

While this is simplicity in itself, it also leads into the endless depths that exist in Jesus Christ.  

The great purpose of God is that He wanted to share the fellowship of the Godhead with man that He created in His image. That was the great motivating factor that resulted in creation of man. Because God is love, it was impossible to keep His greatness and love to Himself. The problem is that most Christians have no idea that we can enter into this fellowship on a consistent, non-stop basis.

This is the great goal of what has been labeled mysticism; to learn to dwell in the presence of God endlessly no matter where you are or what you are doing in life. 

It is here that everything dims before the majesty and unspeakable greatness of Christ. It is here that all things melt before His presence as we walk in fellowship with Him.  

And as we dwell in His presence, we truly learn to grow from glory to glory, changed as we simply center our beings in Him and as Jesus gave us by example: to do what the Father did and speak what the Father spoke and share in that together.  

When we truly hunger after this privilege we have been offered from God, we will realize that heaven truly has come to the earth in the presence of Christ; both individiually and corporately. 

The Great Disconnect and Christ

In the area of communion with Christ and close experiential union in our relationship with Him, there arises an important issue that must be addressed that affects all of us that know Christ. I call it the “great disconnect.”  

What do I mean by that?

For example, let’s look at the testimony of Jesus concerning the religious leaders when He was upon the earth. He exhorts the crowd that unless their righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees, they wouldn’t enter the kingdom of God. This is a disconnect. The Pharisees intellectually knew the right things to say - Jesus Himself tells the crowds to do what they say but not to do what they do – yet He rips into their hypocrisy.  

In the area of union with Christ and knowing God, we have developed this same unfortunate lifestyle. We read about it, yet we never enter into it. I don’t care how much you may know what the scriptures teach, you must then do what it says. In the case of entering into an in-depth, continuous fellowship with Christ, we are exhorted to do it but don’t enter into it. This is a disconnect.  

The great majority of us don’t even comprehend that there is this fantastic desire by God to be in continual communion with us.

In truth, He is of course always with us. Yet we don’t participate in this constant reality. Rather we are content to take an occasional moment to say a little prayer or spend a little time with Him. This is far from what He truly desires for us.  

When Jesus was on the earth, He revealed to us that He never did anything without the Father’s okay; neither did He speak anything unless the Father spoke it. This necessitated a continual union and awareness of the Father to be able to know what His will was at any given moment. This was given to us as an example of how we are to live.  

Remember the scripture that speaks to us of praying without ceasing? This involves the same concept in reference to God’s expectations of us.  This prayer is obviously speaking of moment by moment awareness of the presence of God with us. How else can we follow the example that Jesus set before us to live in? 

In another place Jesus tells us about what eternal life really is. He reveals that eternal life is knowing the Father and His son Jesus Christ. That was the entire purpose of Jesus coming to earth that we may once again enter into this fellowship with Him unhindered and through the veil that He opened up for us again into the presence of the Father.  

That’s why at His death the veil rent in two. Access to the Father through Christ was now available to all those who believed on Jesus. We have no need of intermediaries, for all of us are to know Him from the least to the greatest.  

The problem is that all of this sounds good except very few enter into this on a continuous basis. This is the greatest disconnect of all. One of Paul’s great prayers was that he might know Him. This was an experiential cry, not a desire to have some intellectual understanding of Christ. Again, even the Pharisees had that. That’s why we are even told that even the demons believe. That doesn’t do them any good.  

We must hunger to cross the threshold into this fantastic purpose and offer of God to enter into this extraordinary union with Him.  

It’s unfortunate that history has labeled this purpose and desire as “mysticism.” It attempts to make those who pursue this as weird or strange and not right in some way.  The truth is that this is the hunger of God’s heart from before time to have a people to be in union and intimacy with. To say that this is to be replaced by some type of special person hearing or relating to God on your behalf has been devastating to the church for centuries.  

This is the age of the reality that is in Christ. We no longer relate to types or symbols or any intermediary between God and man except for Jesus Christ. He is no respecter of persons and He will gladly encircle you with His presence and union if you simply ask Him.  

To not do this is the greatest disconnect of all.

The Bridegroom and the Bride

The fabulous reality of Christ being the bridegroom reveals to us the passion of God for His people. I want to focus on the main aspect of this: His union with the bride!  

John the Baptist tells us that he rejoiced that he heard the voice of the bridegroom. Before that he reveals that the bride is for the bridegroom. This speaks of nothing else than the union of Christ with His people; an intimate, passionate union that the church over the centuries has neglected.  

It has to be considered extremely important that the one chosen to testify that Jesus was the Christ, from the beginning revealed Him as the bridegroom, and that the bride was for Him.  

The bride of Christ belongs to only Christ and no other. He is jealous for her. He died for her. Yet most substitute something else for the bride to present unto Christ.  

We will do well to remember this: The bride is for Christ, the bridegroom.  
What is the significance of this? It’s the union of Christ and the bride that is significant. Without this, the mention of a bride and bridegroom is without meaning.  

When Christ died and the veil was rent in two, access to God was of course reinstated to those who believed on Him. Then as a consequence of belief, the Spirit was sent by Christ to dwell within all of those who believe on Him. 

Most of us don’t comprehend what this truly means to us. It is an offer of intimacy with Christ beyond any of our comprehension. It is an offer to eat and drink of Him that was passed up at the beginning of creation, but now was offered again to all of those who were hungry and thirsty.  

While the Spirit of God dwells within every believer, few take the journey of intimate fellowship and union with the bridegroom. And yet there is more to it than that. Not only are we to experience this individually, we are much more importantly to experience it corporately.  

Yet, the very entering into this journey causes problems immediately. The great majority of things that we see in the organized church begin to cause problems with that part of us that hungers for Christ and Christ alone.  

That’s why those of us that have been given the opportunity to see these things, will continually live out these things outside of any man-made system.  

There is a love relationship that exists between Christ and His church. No man, or system created by man, can be allowed to come between the Lord and His bride. That’s why we show forth history and where a lot of the practices of the church have come from so that you can see clearly what the purpose of God is in the earth. Now it is hidden in many ways because of the choice of many to substitute something else in the brides’ place. This is a tragedy that must be turned from.  

Are you part of the living bride of Christ outside of any system and carnal control of men? Are you yearning and hungering after Christ and Christ alone? Do you desire to be part of something bigger than yourself that has been in the heart of God from before the beginning of creation? If you can answer yes to these questions, than you may truly be ready for the adventure and exploration of a lifetime. I hope to meet you on this journey.