Zombie Christians! Zombie Churches!
I want to mention briefly what happens when Christ within us isn't the focus of our lives.
What one of the great tragedies of Christian history has been, is the creating of structures to endure, regardless of whether the life of Christ is active within His people. This is the purpose of these structures: to endure no matter what happens.
An amazing part of this tragedy is the effect it produces. Now you have something claiming to represent Christ which is in fact dead. The horror is that even though it has no life, it walks and talks as if it does. That's what I call zombie churches and Christians.
A number of people even think this is a good development; existing and going on whether the life of Christ is there or not. This is the evil of organization and institutionalism as it relates to the people of God.
To this day the confusion and effect springing out of this zombie existence is a heavy taint on the person of Christ.
This is why whenever we look to see Christ glorified on the earth, it never lasts and eventually people turn it into an organization or stop pursuing Him altogether.
To be "organic" as the people of God, is not a testimony to a certain methodology, but to the fact that there is a current and ongoing, intimate fellowship with Christ within in a corporate manner. Anything else will simply be a horrid zombie; either individually or corporately, that names the name of Christ, but has long been out of intimate fellowship with Him.
By this I'm not saying that any type of denominational or setting in a building is good if the life of Christ is there, what I'm saying is we can throw all that away and still not have anything. We can meet in homes, live in neighborhoods together and enjoy a lot of freedom. But if that isn't coming forth from Christ within, it has no meaning other than changing a physical location or hanging out together.
Being truly organic means nothing less than sharing the fellowship of the Godhead together: both individually and corporately. Anything less is simply doing things as the "walking dead."
In the end, everything in Christ must be experiential. Anything less than that is going through motions that are completely devoid of life, and living off of something that you once or never had.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
a
Showing posts with label Eating Christ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eating Christ. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
When we talk of Christ in you, it of course goes beyond personally alone (although it definitely includes it) to experiencing Him corporately in His people.
There is no other place to start in reference to the purpose of God than to have a fellowship with the Godhead within a people together. Of course it has to be in each person, but from there it is meant to be shared and expressed among a people together. That's how Christ is to be seen on this earth: through a visible people with His life in them.
This obviously goes beyond just some type of general presence that feels good, just like any person we get close to will end up changing and challenging our lives just by spending time with them. It's the same with Christ in His people.
Through the ages we always get people talking of the desire to see things restored in the church, but if Christ within isn't the place we start, there's no hope that it can end up in the right place.
Christ in us is the hope of glory, and that glory can never be expressed and lived unless we give Him permission to live His live there, and we do so as a people.
Having said this, the element missing in most of this is the willingness to endure the cross over our lifetimes in order to make room for Christ. The work of the cross weakens and devastates our old man in order that Christ can be seen.
I know that our old man has been buried with Christ, but he does like to try to act like he's alive. The work of the cross ensures that we keep him dead and buried.
There is really no other place to start than this. If this isn't done, it really doesn't matter what follows, it will be off center very quickly, and will not survive long; at least as a testimony to who the Lord really is.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
a
There is no other place to start in reference to the purpose of God than to have a fellowship with the Godhead within a people together. Of course it has to be in each person, but from there it is meant to be shared and expressed among a people together. That's how Christ is to be seen on this earth: through a visible people with His life in them.
This obviously goes beyond just some type of general presence that feels good, just like any person we get close to will end up changing and challenging our lives just by spending time with them. It's the same with Christ in His people.
Through the ages we always get people talking of the desire to see things restored in the church, but if Christ within isn't the place we start, there's no hope that it can end up in the right place.
Christ in us is the hope of glory, and that glory can never be expressed and lived unless we give Him permission to live His live there, and we do so as a people.
Having said this, the element missing in most of this is the willingness to endure the cross over our lifetimes in order to make room for Christ. The work of the cross weakens and devastates our old man in order that Christ can be seen.
I know that our old man has been buried with Christ, but he does like to try to act like he's alive. The work of the cross ensures that we keep him dead and buried.
There is really no other place to start than this. If this isn't done, it really doesn't matter what follows, it will be off center very quickly, and will not survive long; at least as a testimony to who the Lord really is.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
a
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
Friday, December 14, 2007
I want to talk about something here that I am not sure I've heard talked about among us outside the religious system. It is my intention that after you read it, you can never be the same again.
What I am talking about is those of you outside the religious system and one of the great dangers that exist which can destroy everything that God intended to do.
What is it? Let's take a look at the first couple of chapters in the book of Genesis.
Here of course you have the creation of all things. You have all of this stuff happening for a period of six days. During this time, you see the dividing of things: such as the waters. You have the emergence of land and eventually: trees and all green things that grow.
In other words there is this fantastic environment that now exists there; waiting.
Now, you have the creation of man. After he is created God puts him in Eden. He puts Him in the eastern part where God Himself had planted a garden.
Adam names the animals and he finds that he is missing something and so God takes Eve out of his side.
So here we have Adam and Eve in the most fantastic environment that existed on the earth. Actually it was the blending of heaven and earth. A paradise.
God had revealed something fantastic in showing Adam that it wasn't good that he would be alone.
Still here we have him no longer alone; living in the most beautiful place in the universe.
Here is one of the most amazing insights you will ever receive about the simplicity of Christ.
Adam and Eve had everything at this moment of time, and yet they truly had nothing at all!
You see, there were two trees in that Garden that stood before the human race. Two trees that will continually be eaten of until a time in the future.
Now what is the point of all of this? For those of us outside the religious system, we can have all the trappings of paradise, and yet not have anything at all.
You can have all the closeness, unity, fellowship, friendship, and joy together that it may be possible to have on this earth, and still completely miss the whole thing. You can still completely miss the whole reason for your existence.
What am I saying? I am saying that it is all about a tree! Everything was ready to go in Eden. God had revealed His will to Adam and only gave him one restriction, which was of course to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Still, before they rebelled against God's command, there was the potential.
What is the significance of this moment before their sin? They had everything. Or rather almost everything that could be possibly desired given to them by God.
So do those of us who see that God has always had something much deeper and profound than we are currently seeing in the religious system.
The problem we face is that we can enter into the fellowship of the saints outside the system, have everything that Adam and Eve had, and still never do the most important thing that must be done.
Even though Adam and Eve were temporarily sinless before God, and living in the most bountiful environment that has ever existed, they lacked the only thing that really mattered.
So can we who are outside the system be potentially completed misled about what is truly important to God. Really it is the only thing that is important.
Remember the story of Martha and Mary? Martha was complaining to Jesus about Mary not helping her serve. Jesus response was that Mary had chosen the only thing that really mattered and He wasn't going to take that away from her.
It is similar to when Paul writes to one of the churches and tells them that he is concerned that in the same way that Adam and Eve were deceived into rejecting the simplicity of being devoted to Christ, they also would be led astray from that same, pure, devotion.
In another place we are told that the disciples were called to be "with" Him.
Jesus also reveals that eternal life is the intimate union, or knowing of the Father and the Son.
Again Jesus tells us that He is the vine and we are the branches.
This issue caused almost everyone to leave Christ while He was on the earth.
When He told them that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood, they would no longer walk with Him.
We can be outside the religious system, seem to be doing what the will of the Father is, and still miss the whole thing.
You can look around in your present environment and believe that this is what makes things work. This is the ultimate deception.
Just like Adam and Eve, we can be dwelling in Eden, and yet not do the most important thing, and the truly only necessary thing that is needed.
You see brothers and sisters: it's all about eating from a tree! We just need to be sure it's the right tree!
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