What is Jesus Really After?

To answer that question we must go to the end. And what is the end. The final step and result of everything in connection to His purpose in creating man is that He may be all in all.

There is no other vision greater than this for Him, that's the end.

Of course the question then arises: How do we get there?

The answer is through a lifetime of God bringing us through circumstances that deal with our selfishness. I could call it the old man, the flesh ... but in the end, it's just another way of saying self, selfishness, self-centeredness and caring only about yourself.

Those looking for something far better than the man-created religious systems of our day, will never be able to bring forth something better, if the self isn't dealt with. The only way self is dealt with is by embracing willingly the inner work of the cross of Jesus Christ.

This is one of the reason so many things, even in the over 30 years I've been outside the religious system, and fellowshipping with those on a similar journey, who are looking - like Abraham, for a city whose builder and maker is God, have fallen by the wayside.

It doesn't take long amongst a group of people who have to face the reality of living close together, to find out they aren't very lovable. God doesn't love us because we're lovable, but because He's love.

One of the reasons so many people resist moving into what they instinctually know is the way of God, is because they understand there will be a great cost if they do.

The reason those who do go out and make the attempt fail, is because of their self life.

Self is so strong, it takes the extraordinary weakening through the work of the cross to become a human being of the type the Lord is looking for, not through our work of effort, but from taking everything that comes our way as from the hand of God Himself.

The Lion from the tribe of Judah overcame not because he was a lion, but because He was the lamb of God. It's the lamb that overcomes. It's the work of the cross within us that will eventually bring forth the life and image of Christ.

We must ask Him to help us hold to Him and keep our hearts open before Him as He does His work within us. We aren't even able to do that. We are totally and completely dependent on Jesus and we need to ask Him for his grace and mercy in order to walk on the path He has set before us.

The weaker we become in our self life, the stronger he'll become within us, and the more we'll be able to walk in the fellowship and extraordinary life He as also planned for us in Him. When we are weakest, He is the strongest. We need Him to be strong, not ourselves.

All that He wants for Himself in us will never happen if these things aren't part of our lives.

Where the heart of Christ Leads to

Knowing Jesus is more of a desire of the heart than anything else. Even there we can't even desire that on our own, as without Him we can do nothing.

About all we can do is ask Him to open our hearts unto Him on a continuous basis. There's really not much else to it.

Having said that, there will eventually emerge a way for you that, for whatever reason, works the best. If we don't start with the heart's desire for Him, we will simply have another legalistic, dead burden to perform in life, as we struggle and strain to know Him because we have to, or because someone else pressures us to.

While it's a good thing to encourage one another to continually keep our hearts open to Him, it still must be something He does and we respond to.

When it comes down to it, Jesus doesn't want much more than to have us open our hearts to Him continually, and allow Him to live His life in us; with our permission and cooperation. Jesus never forces Himself upon us - that's His nature. But when we give Him free rein to live fully within us, He's more than willing to comply.

Of course once we do that, there's that thing called the cross, which works in us so His image can more fully be seen and expressed in us.

One of His great desires is to have it done individually, and from there expressed through a corporate people. I have seen Him working for this throughout my whole life. He will never stop working for it either.

In only say individually above because if we don't have it to start with, the corporate is almost impossible to emerge. Of course we need both to be a healthy people of God.

What happens when we start to seek out the corporate side, is we're faced with the sad reality that it can't happen within the existing practices of the Church. The practices disallow a people emerging centered in the life of Christ, as the next thing that happens is everyone wants to share that life together. Picture that in a building with a professional clergy talking all the time.

To search for a deeper walk with Christ will always lead to wanting to share that walk with others. It's there that the challenge emerges, and you start to discover the problem you have. You either quietly go about doing things as usual, or you start to want to see things change. Many people are tired of being bystanders of an age-old system created about 17 hundred years ago at the time of Constantine, and have entered into a journey outside the existing structures of the institutional church.

That's where the path leads to all those that want to share a corporate, organic experience of Jesus Christ together.