When we
come to God, we only have two basic questions in life: how do I get my sins
forgiven, and how do I live the life?
We may have
found out how to get our sins forgiven, but most of us haven’t yet discovered
how to live the life. You can’t. That’s the first thing you have to learn. He
can. And He will. He will live His life in us, as us.
We go
through a series of ‘gates’, where we lay down the externals that we tried to
draw life from, as they can’t fit through the gates (which are narrow). When you
go through the gate, it’s like the Old Testament priest going into the Holy of
Holies. He was in there with just one Person – God. Everything else was
external. It was just he and God.
After
receiving Christ, in your awareness you have a little internal, and still a lot
of external. In your experience you go through a series of gates and each time
you have a little more internal. In the end, God brings you to your Holy of
Holies, to let Him live as you – with no more trust in the externals. When you
have entered into that knowing in your inner being, no external (or ‘prop’) can
tell you anything about yourself. Your identity and your life come from God.
We all have
different ‘props’ or externals that give us a ‘validity.’ Some people have
props called children. Others have a prop called a profession. Others have
possessions, wealth, addictions or a finely cultivated image. Anything that’s
external, that’s telling you something about yourself, God has to take you to
the gate where you shed it, so He can be your all in all. When you see that,
you praise God for it.
I remember
meeting a fellow who took his identity from his position of authority at work. He
had lost his job, though, and he had no identity left. He was rather pathetic
to see, because a few months before he had been someone with power and
influence and now, in his own mind, he was nobody.
Even
ministry or our church membership can be an external, a prop, something giving
us a personal sense of validity.
We have to
be grateful to God because He drives us to Himself. But He does it with LOVE. He
says to us, “You want that, you can have it. You want that external, go get it.
I know you’re going to lay it down. I’m not going to keep you from picking it
up, touching, examining it, playing with it a while, and finally putting it
down. Then you’ll pick up and put down the next thing, and the next thing, and
the next thing. One day you’re going to get to the final gate where you finally
meet Me and Me only, and you’ll have the answer.
“Good Teacher, where is the life?”
“Well, you’ve been religious.”
“Yes, Lord, I’ve done the denominational thing.”
“Well, you tried the other religious route.”
“Yes, Lord, I’ve been charismatic.”
“And you’ve done the success thing.:
“Yes, Lord, I have, but where is the life?”
When you
are perfectly prepared, Jesus whispers the old news, which is still the good
news:
“I am the life. You take
Me into you, and you have the life.
I live the life as
you, just as the Father revealed His life as Me.”
Then the
years in the wilderness turn into a blessing. The lost job yields a blessing. The
wayward child becomes a blessing. The failed marriage reveals a blessing. You
can thank God that you came out with one precious possession – Him. You’ve
arrived at the pearl of great price. There isn’t any place else to go. Your ‘validity’
and your LIFE is now realised in Him.
Where is
the life? “The gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life.”
(adapted from intro to The Rest of the Gospel –
Dan Stone)
