Many people today will struggle to comprehend what it was Margaret Barber saw decades ago when she wrote a letter to D.M. Panton concerning Watchman Nee.
For a little background, Watchman Nee was only recently saved when he came into contact with Margaret Barber, a wonderful servant of the Lord based in China. Very little is known about Margaret Barber, yet she was one of the choice believers on the earth at the time.
Watchman Nee said of her that she taught him more of the Lord than any other person on earth, and Watchman Nee had traveled around the earth and met many great ones of that time.
Margaret Barber wouldn't have cared about any of that, but I only mention it to underscore the situation this letter was written in.
Watchman Nee came to visit Barber a number times, taking advantage of a shelf of books she had. He would even attempt to trick her into giving them to her, and if she thought he wasn't ready for them, he would figure out where to get them elsewhere, even if Margaret Barber didn't approve.
What Barber saw was that Watchman Nee was going to be a major influence in China for Christ, but he was in extreme danger. The danger wasn't in reference to suffering in Christ or the future imprisonment of Nee, rather, the danger was that Nee was focusing on a mental apprehension of the Lord rather than experiencing Him.
Here's a portion of what Barber wrote to Panton:
"Please do not let Faithful Luke & Watchman Nee worry you with letters. It is so good & kind of you to have written once to them. They are likely to be tiresome. They write to Mr. Wright Hay or any Editor whose address they can get & do not understand how precious time is to a busy Editor. For many reasons I think you should not be feeling obliged even to answer their letters. These two young men are in great danger. They have a mental apprehension of God’s Truth which unless lived out will be their peril."
What's amazing about this letter to me is the fact that someone saw the danger at all. Today most believers in contact with someone like Nee would think they were spiritual giants or potential giants because they mentally acquired a knowledge of the scriptures and "truths" concerning Christ.
Barber understood the extraordinary danger Nee was in by pursuing that path, and she graciously pointed that out to Panton.
Again, a reason I think Barber took the extraordinary step of writing this way to Panton was because she saw what the Lord wanted to do with Nee, and if Nee traveled the wrong path, those that followed him would take the same path. She was fighting to see this not happen.
In our day and age of cheap Christianity and self-focused lifestyles, it's amazing to recall this great (in God's eyes) woman of God who saw the extreme dangers that can come about for a zealous believer apprehending truth without practical and experiential living out the life of the Lord.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Before we get into some important aspects of the matrix of Christ, let's get a basic definition of what matrix means, as many will think of the movie and the artificial world it revealed.
First of all, matrix comes from the Latin word "mater," which means mother, essentially referring to the womb.
It's a place where something originates, takes form, develops or is embedded.
While the word and what it means can be applied across many disciplines, we only want to look at it as it applies to Christ, because it gives some valuable insight into who He is and the purpose of His church.
Now, have you ever wondered what it would have been like if Adam and Eve hadn't eaten of the wrong tree, and instead had partaken of the tree of life?
You see, Adam and Eve were supposed to be a matrix of Christ. They were supposed to internalize Him by eating of His fruit, as portrayed by the tree of life. If that had happened, they would have had children born outside of what we call the old man, the first adam, and would instead have seen the new man spread across the earth from
the beginning.
For even though Adam and Eve were without sin, they were in reality incomplete in the sense of not partaking in the most important reason for their creation: fulfilling the eternal purpose of God, which was to fill them with Himself in Christ. That's what Jesus as the tree of life in the center of the garden was there for.
Adam and Eve were made in the image of God, but they weren't in the order of God, in that their spirits didn't have Him indwelling them. To have eaten of the Christ as the tree of life would have enlivened their spirits unto God, and as such, began the fulfillment of the purpose of God in creating man.
When I say they weren't in the order of God, I mean their souls hadn't subjected themselves to their spirits because to do that they had to eat of Christ. Once they did that their spirits would have been filled with God and their beings subject to and from heaven, rather than to the earth and flesh.
Basically Adam and Eve were between two worlds. The world of God and Satan, and they had a choice of which life they were going to live by, they had a decision to make. The decision was which world they were going to allow to enter into them.
In other words, man was built to be a container, a matrix. One way or the other that will happen, that's a choice we're not given. It will either be from a higher life or a lower life. There is no middle ground.
Those that attempt to live in the middle ground end up with mixture, which is one of the more hated things in the eyes of God, as it brings confusion to those viewing and/or partaking in it. That's the counterfeit woman called Babylon, also mentioned in book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ as the Great Whore.
It's interesting to note that the offer to eat of the tree of life was rejected again when Jesus physically appeared on the earth. When did that happen? When He told his followers they must eat His flesh and drink His blood. They again decided to reject God's eternal purpose of filling His chosen matrix of His people with
Himself.
To help us understand this a little, Jesus followed up His statement by saying His words are spirit and life. In other words, quit looking at things outwardly or hearing things He taught carnally. We must learn that He lived from another life than His own, and so are we to. And the words He spoke were about and from another realm.
That's why He encouraged us to pray for His kingdom to come and will be done on earth as it was in heaven. This is one reason why what is called the Lord's supper by most, where Jesus told us to eat it in remembrance of Him, is more than likely not referring to simply remembering His name or what he's done, as that's not too hard to do for any halfway serious Christian.
Rather, I think He's referring to what internalizing Him as the tree of life means; what it means to eat His flesh and drink His blood. We are to remember as we digest food and get physical sustanence, to also digest or internalize Him, and to receive our much more important spiritual sustanence.
What does it mean? That we are one with Him. That we are to be in union with Him. He is the bread of life that we are to eat of and internalize. I think that this is much more in line with what the rest of the scriptures reveal than simply eating unto the Lord to remember Him with the idea that we somehow forgot He existed.
What being a matrix of Christ means One important aspect of all this in our practical lives is that being a matrix is much different in being a place where Christ dwells, than it is in how He dwells in the overall universe.
Christ dwells in the physical universe, which is said to be continually expanding. The universe or heaven of heavens can't contain Him.
So when He dwells in the spirits of His people, He's doing something different than simply having a general presence there. He is very active within us, and He is working to shape and form Himself within.
The only matrix or container that can hold who He is is His people. That's much more than just carrying Him around within us, it's a deep working and shaping of Himself within us: individually and corporately. It's a very practical process that happens over our lifetimes if we have a revelation of it and allow it to. It is primarily meant to happen organically within a group of believers.
What is it God wants to happen in all this? Looking at it from the garden of Eden perspective, He's bringing two worlds together, which in reality is what the garden of Eden really was. It was where physical man and the invisible God met. Both worlds at the time were able to be seen by Adam and Eve.
When I say He's bringing two worlds together, I mean that what is real in the invisible world is to be just as real or mirrored in the visible world. Eden was the invisible and visible worlds meeting and where invisible and visible beings interacted and lived; most importantly God and man, who were created in His image.
Now of course the two worlds are out of balance because of the sin of man, but the people of God are meant to bring the two worlds back together again, in the sense of His kingdom coming and His will being done in both realms. (Realms is probably a better description than worlds.)
Bringing the two worlds together as one can only be done through redeemed believers in union with Christ. Not in union theoretically, positionally or revelationally - but practically.
The amazing gift of God to His people as it relates to the realms we dwell in, is that He has made us into a hybrid creature, built to dwell in the visible and invisible realms at once.
The whole idea of the eternal purpose of God is to reveal Himself in man in two different realms, where there is nothing that contradicts one another. He does it through filling everything with Himself. That is the road Christ has given us to travel, and it's what has been in the heart and mind of God from before the beginning.
First of all, matrix comes from the Latin word "mater," which means mother, essentially referring to the womb.
It's a place where something originates, takes form, develops or is embedded.
While the word and what it means can be applied across many disciplines, we only want to look at it as it applies to Christ, because it gives some valuable insight into who He is and the purpose of His church.
Now, have you ever wondered what it would have been like if Adam and Eve hadn't eaten of the wrong tree, and instead had partaken of the tree of life?
You see, Adam and Eve were supposed to be a matrix of Christ. They were supposed to internalize Him by eating of His fruit, as portrayed by the tree of life. If that had happened, they would have had children born outside of what we call the old man, the first adam, and would instead have seen the new man spread across the earth from
the beginning.
For even though Adam and Eve were without sin, they were in reality incomplete in the sense of not partaking in the most important reason for their creation: fulfilling the eternal purpose of God, which was to fill them with Himself in Christ. That's what Jesus as the tree of life in the center of the garden was there for.
Adam and Eve were made in the image of God, but they weren't in the order of God, in that their spirits didn't have Him indwelling them. To have eaten of the Christ as the tree of life would have enlivened their spirits unto God, and as such, began the fulfillment of the purpose of God in creating man.
When I say they weren't in the order of God, I mean their souls hadn't subjected themselves to their spirits because to do that they had to eat of Christ. Once they did that their spirits would have been filled with God and their beings subject to and from heaven, rather than to the earth and flesh.
Basically Adam and Eve were between two worlds. The world of God and Satan, and they had a choice of which life they were going to live by, they had a decision to make. The decision was which world they were going to allow to enter into them.
In other words, man was built to be a container, a matrix. One way or the other that will happen, that's a choice we're not given. It will either be from a higher life or a lower life. There is no middle ground.
Those that attempt to live in the middle ground end up with mixture, which is one of the more hated things in the eyes of God, as it brings confusion to those viewing and/or partaking in it. That's the counterfeit woman called Babylon, also mentioned in book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ as the Great Whore.
It's interesting to note that the offer to eat of the tree of life was rejected again when Jesus physically appeared on the earth. When did that happen? When He told his followers they must eat His flesh and drink His blood. They again decided to reject God's eternal purpose of filling His chosen matrix of His people with
Himself.
To help us understand this a little, Jesus followed up His statement by saying His words are spirit and life. In other words, quit looking at things outwardly or hearing things He taught carnally. We must learn that He lived from another life than His own, and so are we to. And the words He spoke were about and from another realm.
That's why He encouraged us to pray for His kingdom to come and will be done on earth as it was in heaven. This is one reason why what is called the Lord's supper by most, where Jesus told us to eat it in remembrance of Him, is more than likely not referring to simply remembering His name or what he's done, as that's not too hard to do for any halfway serious Christian.
Rather, I think He's referring to what internalizing Him as the tree of life means; what it means to eat His flesh and drink His blood. We are to remember as we digest food and get physical sustanence, to also digest or internalize Him, and to receive our much more important spiritual sustanence.
What does it mean? That we are one with Him. That we are to be in union with Him. He is the bread of life that we are to eat of and internalize. I think that this is much more in line with what the rest of the scriptures reveal than simply eating unto the Lord to remember Him with the idea that we somehow forgot He existed.
What being a matrix of Christ means One important aspect of all this in our practical lives is that being a matrix is much different in being a place where Christ dwells, than it is in how He dwells in the overall universe.
Christ dwells in the physical universe, which is said to be continually expanding. The universe or heaven of heavens can't contain Him.
So when He dwells in the spirits of His people, He's doing something different than simply having a general presence there. He is very active within us, and He is working to shape and form Himself within.
The only matrix or container that can hold who He is is His people. That's much more than just carrying Him around within us, it's a deep working and shaping of Himself within us: individually and corporately. It's a very practical process that happens over our lifetimes if we have a revelation of it and allow it to. It is primarily meant to happen organically within a group of believers.
What is it God wants to happen in all this? Looking at it from the garden of Eden perspective, He's bringing two worlds together, which in reality is what the garden of Eden really was. It was where physical man and the invisible God met. Both worlds at the time were able to be seen by Adam and Eve.
When I say He's bringing two worlds together, I mean that what is real in the invisible world is to be just as real or mirrored in the visible world. Eden was the invisible and visible worlds meeting and where invisible and visible beings interacted and lived; most importantly God and man, who were created in His image.
Now of course the two worlds are out of balance because of the sin of man, but the people of God are meant to bring the two worlds back together again, in the sense of His kingdom coming and His will being done in both realms. (Realms is probably a better description than worlds.)
Bringing the two worlds together as one can only be done through redeemed believers in union with Christ. Not in union theoretically, positionally or revelationally - but practically.
The amazing gift of God to His people as it relates to the realms we dwell in, is that He has made us into a hybrid creature, built to dwell in the visible and invisible realms at once.
The whole idea of the eternal purpose of God is to reveal Himself in man in two different realms, where there is nothing that contradicts one another. He does it through filling everything with Himself. That is the road Christ has given us to travel, and it's what has been in the heart and mind of God from before the beginning.
a
Another way of looking at the question posed in the title of this post is, "What do we have to give Christ that He wants?"
Do you know?
If we even have an inkling of a desire to please Christ within us, we know that there isn't much we have that interests Him. While He loves us because He is love, that isn't a reflection upon us as being attractive objects of love for Him, rather it's a reflection of His nature - which is love itself.
We know that God created with the ultimate intent of filling all things with Himself; specifically mankind.
So we know that Christ created man for Himself in order that man would be filled with His person. Overall that's the culmination of the creation of mankind, but there's an obvious path we must travel to get there.
We must understand that eternal things are always; they are there or happening at once without the effect of space or time upon them. But when those eternal things are created or brought into the physical realm, they are progressively unveiled and made.
It would take a lot of impartation to reveal much of the practicals and revelation of what was just said. But there is a simple but powerful thing to learn in the light of all of this, and it relates to where it all begins, and in reality, how we travel this fantastic path initiated by Christ Himself.
When considering all of this, there is something Christ looks for above all other things in us. Without it there really isn't any hope that His purpose will ever have a chance of being fulfilled in us to His satisfaction.
Is there anything we have to give to Christ? Is there anything we have to offer that He doesn't already have? Is there anything we can do that will add to who He is?
The obvious answer to these questions is "no"!
So when we clear all the mist away and get get down to the very basics of and foundation of Christ in relationship to His people, there is only one thing we have to offer Him that He has an interest in: our hearts!
No matter what He does in us or strength He adds to us, there is nothing in that which is really satisfying to Him. In the end and at the bottom (or really top) of all things as it relates to the heart of Christ, is that we are willing to have Him open up our hearts to fellowship openly with Him first, and then out from there with one another.
When we look at New Jerusalem coming down from heaven, we see only a few things within her. We have light, a throne, a tree, a river, and a golden street or path. That's it. That's what Christ's bride is filled with.
The path? That path travels through the hearts of God's people. It's the very center of all that is contained within the bride of Christ. Christ is of course that path or street, and that path is meant to be the heartbeat of the people of God.
If Christ doesn't have our hearts, there is nothing else He's really interested in. Without our hearts nothing else matters.
But if He has our hearts, than we are on a journey, a journey within that includes His throne, the tree of life, the river of the Spirit and the life of Christ lighting it all up.
In the end, we can offer up nothing to Christ but our hearts. Everything else of fellowship flows from that.
Having said all this, we really don't have the will or power to do this without Him. Ask Him to help and empower you to offer up your heart to Him. He is more than willing and able to do it. It's the starting place and foundation of everything else in connection to our relationship with Christ.
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