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The Complete Christmas; in Him…you!

“For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,  and in Him you have been made complete,”                                                                                 Col.2:9,10

Those three little words sum up the whole purpose of Christ’s coming; so that …in Him you!

Ephesians 4 declares that the effects of the five ‘ascension’ ministries in the Church is to so root and ground Christians in the truth of their identity in Christ that they can no longer be “tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine” but instead “grow up into Christ” (Eph.4:14,15). In other words, that they will be mature enough not to be manipulated by anyone who tries to intimidate them or guilt trip them through fear. To see how real this danger was, we only have to read Paul’s letter to the Galatians; an eternal warning on how legalism can creep into a Christian community and leave them powerless and merely religious.

The gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher are given to prevent this from happening, by ensuring that believers are equipped (Greek ‘katartismos’) and edified (Greek ‘oikodome’) (Eph.4:12). This is speaking primarily about the necessity of good teaching and for believers to be raised in a loving environment where they can witness and experience the power of the gospel to transform the thinking and so the lives of even the most hardened individuals. Such transformation can only follow a renewal of our thinking; a total change in how we see ourselves, the world and God. This allows us to live lives of confidence and generosity, not ignorance and selfishness (Rom 12:2). The foundation for such a life is the revelation of the believer’s union with Christ, the revelation that through Christ, we are not cut off from God and left to save ourselves, but are (entirely by His grace), as connected to God as the body is to the head (1Cor.3:11, Col.3:3).

From bitter experience, Paul had come to be convinced that without being rooted and established in this revelation, churches remained vulnerable to ideas based on worldly religious thinking. He knew that if a community of believers remain with their eyes fixed on Christ as their life, their life blossoms with the fruit of the Spirit (John 15:4,5). To be Christ conscious is to be union conscious, ever growing up “into the head” (Eph 4:15). It is to be persuaded by the Holy Spirit that we aren’t merely each living “separate” lives for God, but rather there is only one life that we are sharing in and that is the life of Christ (Eph.4:4-6).

But what happens when instead of being taught this continually and growing in the revelation of our union with Christ, churches are fed a diet of teaching that infers that separation from God (sin), is something that we have to work hard at preventing? What happens when more emphasis in teaching and practice is placed on sin (separation), than on Christ (union)? Think of a happily married couple who have eyes for no-one else but each other and are enjoying the peace, security and confidence of their lives together. Now imagine the husband comes home one day with an “idea”. He says that the last thing they would both want to happen is for one of them to start having eyes for someone else. Therefore, to prevent this from happening, each of them should now agree to start preparing a daily list to give to the other of any “straying” thoughts they might have had towards another person. In this way, by bringing their “sin” ever before them, this will keep their marriage stronger! Well, what do you think of that idea? In your opinion, would you think after six months of that focus, their marriage would know the same peace, security and confidence?

Separation consciousness cannot strengthen a marriage in the same way that love (union) consciousness can. It is a poor substitute. At some point the constant focus on finding fault will cause one or other of the partners to become defensive.

Separation (sin) consciousness inevitably leads to self-condemnation, which leads to an attempt to cover up. This attempt to “cover up” manifests in churches as self-righteousness. Keep pointing me to myself and soon all I can see is how well or how poorly I measure up to others. Keep going and the inevitable result is division. Now have a look at the body of Christ on the earth today!

The apostle Paul is very clear on the reason why believers do not grow up into union with Christ. “So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.” (Eph.4:17). Here he is not just telling, he is “insisting”, that believers, (those who are one with God in Christ, as connected to God as their body is to their head), stop thinking the way unbelievers think. They must stop thinking and so living as if they are separated from God because to think like that is futile. The Greek word translated “futile” is ‘mataiotes’ which actually means “devoid of truth” or “perverse”!

There is nothing more futile in this world that to see New Covenant believers (at one with God), act and pray like Old Covenant believers (separated from God). It is such a problem across the body of Christ, it has so dimed the light of the Church, that at River City Church I am afraid we insist on it in the Lord too, that believers grow up to live in the reality of their union with Christ, that they live and talk like sons of God.

• We insist on treating and speaking to Christians as if they are as connected to God as their body is to their head. (Col.3:3)
• We insist on speaking to you as if you are the very temple of the Holy Spirit. (1Cor.6:19)
• We insist on speaking to you as if you have already been blessed in the heavenly realms with every blessing in Christ. (Eph.1:3)
• We insist on no longer regarding you after the flesh but after the Spirit. (2Cor.5:16)
• We insist on preaching the justification and the sanctification of the believer by the finished work of Christ, not by our unfinished efforts at church. (1Cor.1:30. Heb.10:10)
• So we insist that in Christ you have already been made righteous by grace, and in Christ you have already been forgiven by grace, and in Christ you have already been healed by grace. (Rom.5:17, Col.1:14, 2:13, 1Peter2:24)

And we insist on speaking these truths to each other continually for this one reason, that although God has already freely gifted these things to us in Christ, by grace, it is by faith that we receive and walk in the reality of the ‘in Christ’ life and that very faith, that ability to receive what God has freely given, comes by hearing. (Rom.10:17)

Hearing what? By hearing the gospel; the grace of God in truth (Col.1:6). Faith doesn’t come by hearing what you need to do, or do better for God. Faith comes by hearing what God has done for you. This is why we teach Christians that they don’t need to give more, pray more or do more to receive from God. They only need to listen more to the enormity of what has already been freely given to man in Christ and that listening heals our hearts; our ability to believe and receive.

This Christmas, millions will remember that the baby in the manger was “the fullness of the Deity dwelling in bodily form’. But what excites heaven is when millions start to see that “in Christ” all the fullness of the Deity still dwells and guess who is in Christ now? Have a look in the mirror Church! “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,  and in Him you have been made complete,” (Col.2:9,10) Those three little words sum up the whole purpose of Christ’s coming; so that …in Him you!

Church, have a completely amazing Christmas, for ‘in Christ’ you are the amazing completion of Christmas!

Praying from heaven.

“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”                                            Mark 11:24

The prayers that most glorify God by their effectiveness, are not those which rise to heaven…but those which come from heaven! (Col.3:2,3). It is in discerning the voice of the Spirit, that we can begin to see how heaven sees and what we see is the magnitude of Christ’s victory and the scale of Satan’s defeat (Col.2:15). Such a heavenly perspective allows us to cease praying to victory and start praying from victory! (1John.4:4). The prayers that shake the Kingdom of darkness are those that proclaim its demise, not those that list its achievements! (1Cor.15:55,57).

Let us pray from the revelation that whatever the Spirit leads us to come to the Father for, has already been given in Christ, for in Him are not all the promises of God Yes and Amen? (2Cor.1:20). In Christ, have we not already been gifted every blessing in the heavenly realm? (Eph.1:3). This is why Jesus instructed His disciples in Mark 11:24, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

Hannah had cried out for years for a child. Through a word from Eli, the priest at the temple, revelation came and she saw her child as already given and her countenance changed and she went home and conceived (1Sam.1:12-19). In believing that she had already received…she received. Note Hannah’s faith was not in her prayer, but in the Word from God and even that faith was a gift that came by hearing! Let’s pray that many of us across the church, experience a fresh revelation of our union with Christ as already given, that we may conceive great fruit from that revelation. From the mind-set of union (the mind of Christ), we can begin to understand that the Lord is not asking us to do one thing for Him, but everything with Him. Let it be so too when it comes to prayer. Let us not come to Him saying “Listen Lord, we are speaking”, but rather “Speak Lord, we are listening!” (1Sam.3:10)

What is the mind of Christ on prayer? Listen again to what Jesus said in Mark 11:24, “When you pray, pray believing that you have already received what you asked for and it will be yours.” How could Jesus pray like that? Because He prayed knowing His Father. He didn’t pray in ignorance, He prayed in faith and faith can only operate when the will of God is known. How can someone be praying in faith, if they are in doubt as to whether what they are asking is in the will of God or not and so doubting whether He will give or not? (James 1:7). Because He knew His Father, when Jesus prayed, He would pray from a place of thanksgiving (John 11:42). This is the place we must pray from. It helps to live there!

Imagine if we believed that the only place we could pray from, the only place acceptable to God, was a certain building, on a certain street. Eventually, to save us the trouble of travelling to that building multiple times every day, we would consider moving there. How can we continually pray from a place of thanksgiving? Move to there! Start living from the place God prepared for us, this place called IN CHRIST, this place called UNION (2Peter 1:4), of ONE MIND with God. (1Cor.2:16, 1Cor.6:17)

How could Jesus always pray from a place of thanksgiving? Because He and the Father were of one mind entirely and so whatever Jesus asked for, was already as good as given. This meant that when Jesus prayed, He prayed believing that He had already received what He had asked for (Mark 11:24). When we pray from our spirit, joined to God’s Spirit, we are only ever asking what it is the Father’s will that we have! To bear fruit in prayer, we only need to remain, to abide, rooted and connected to the mind of Christ, through the Spirit (John 15:4.5). Apart from thinking the thoughts of God, we cannot speak the will of God and this is precisely why we have been given the Spirit who knows all things, even the mind of God. It is that we may think the thoughts of God and pray the prayers of God. Listen to how Paul described the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the Corinthians; “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, ¹³ which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, ^[e]combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.” (1Cor.2:12,13) So, the best way to learn to pray, is to learn to think the thoughts of God.

This way of thinking is taught by the Spirit of God through “ascension ministries”, the ministries of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher. The ministry gifts are of Him, to raise up a people who would live in Him. The Apostolic Church is known for believing in ascension ministries. But those gifts were not given that men and women may believe in ascension ministries. They were given that men and women would live in ascension life. What’s the point of believing in food, if you never eat.

What’s the point of believing in teachers, if you never grow in understanding. If believers are not rising into the mind of Christ, it is usually because the mind of Christ is not being communicated to them. How is a child to feel like a son, if he is continually spoken to as an orphan? How is a bride to think of herself as a wife, if she is continually spoken to as one separated from her husband? How is it possible for believers to grow up into the head, to start to live from our position of union with Christ, if we continue to think of ourselves as separated from God by our sins? (Eph4:14)

In that same passage that proclaims that our words are to be taught by the Holy Spirit, through the renewing of our thoughts, the apostle Paul warns that to speak or pray in this heavenly manner can only sound foolish to the earthly minded man. “But ^[f]a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually ^[g]appraised.” (1Cor.2:14).

I have often heard very impressive sounding prayers, where the believer praying is passionate, emotional, full of zeal ….but praying as if the life, death and resurrection of Christ achieved nothing. They pray as if the intent of their prayer is to get God to move, to bless us with some blessing that we have not yet received. Here is the gospel; God moved! As the song goes, He moved from heaven to earth, from the earth to the Cross, from the Cross to the grave and from the grave to the sky and then He moved again in the pouring out of His Holy Spirit into the spirits of every generation of the Church. Believer, God moved. He moved to you. Your move!

Only it is no longer your move alone, for now, because of the Cross (Col.3:3), every believer, everyone joined to the Lord, is one spirit with Him. This means that it is no longer you alone, but you “together with” God, you “hidden with” God in Christ (Eph.2:5-7,Col.3:3) who prays.

This is how the body of Christ is to pray; as Christ prays, “of one being, one mind, with the Father”. When challenged as to the key to His effectiveness in ministry, Jesus pointed to the fact that He was not speaking “on my own”. He was thinking and so speaking from a mind in union with the Father. In John 8:28 He declared, ‘When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me,'” Again in John 12:49,50 He repeated this truth; “For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”

What those two scriptures and others establish, is that Christ and the Father were of one mind, so if we are to pray as the body of Christ, then we must pray as Christ prayed, we must pray from a place of union with the Father.

In your life and mine as believers, the place of union with the Father, is our spirits.

“He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” (1Corinthinans 6:17) So, when our prayers are spirit led, they are always prayers of faith and thanksgiving, for we can say as Christ said; “Father we know that you always hear us” (John 11:42)

But if we have not learnt to think from, see from, speak from, the place that the Father has placed us in; Christ; the divine union, one mind, how can we expect to pray from that place?

• If we don’t pray supernaturally, as people joined to God by His Son, then we will pray naturally, as people separated from God by our sin.
• If we will not regard ourselves after the Spirit, then we will regard ourselves after the flesh.
• If we don’t pray as New Covenant believers, then we can only pray as Old Covenant
• If we will not see that it is because of Christ’s obedience, His holy life, His prayer, that all God’s promises are Yes and Amen for those of us in Christ, then we will pray as if the answer to our prayers depends on our obedience, our holy life, our prayers.

As spirt-filled New Covenant believers, we don’t pray that God would change. We pray that we would change, in that our vision of who God is and what He has done would grow and grow. We don’t pray that God would come down. We pray, that we rise up, to see from God’s perspective just how much was accomplished when He did come down. We pray that we may see, truly see as Christ sees; God as “our father.”

The prayers that most glorify God are not the prayers that rise to heaven, they are the prayers that come from heaven and the Holy Spirit desires to pray those prayers through us. This is why He is continually witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God (Rom.8:16), that we might pray as children of God, so that the voice of our Father and the knowledge of Him would cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

How God sees.

“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:24

Jesus said to the woman at the well and to us, “You cannot worship whom you do not know.” God is spirit, therefore to know Him, we can only know Him by the spirit. So to worship God in spirit and in truth, we must see by the Spirit of God who He is. You and I cannot rely on our natural senses to tell us who God is. You may feel that He is disappointed in you, you may feel that He is angry with you, you may feel that He is ignoring you and so come to a conclusion about who He is through your natural feelings. That is not knowing Him by the spirit. You may see some disaster in the world or some terrible tragedy befall a particular type of person or people and make up your mind about who He is by what you see. That is not knowing Him by the spirit. You may hear tremendously moving or persuasive accounts of men, who think they know what He is like and make up your mind about Him by what you hear. That too is not knowing Him by the spirit.

For each one of us, the only true revelation of who God is, comes by the Spirit. “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.”  (1Cor.12:3) To see God as He truly is, you must see by the Holy Spirit. But what does that mean? What does it mean….to see by the Spirit?

One day, about 2018 years ago in the temple in Jerusalem, it was an ordinary day with many hundreds of people coming and going, including many new mothers bringing their babies to be dedicated to the Lord. An old man called Simeon, being full of the Holy Spirit, walked across the temple court, picked out one particular baby; Jesus, picked him up in his arms and to the shock of Mary and Joseph said “Bless you Lord. Now I can die in peace, because my eyes have seen your salvation” (Luke 2:29,30)

What is it to see by the Spirit? To see by the Spirit, is to see what the Spirit sees.

We must understand that what the Spirit sees as perfect and full of the glory of God, our natural eyes, our natural understanding sees as weak and foolish, –like a new-born baby, looking just like all the other new born babies.

As believers, if we do not allow the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to see what He sees, then we will live like mere men. If we only see ourselves in the natural, then all we will ever see of ourselves as believers, is that we are weak, foolish and sinful and we will remain blind to what the Spirit sees; that we are perfect and full of the glory of God, ….for here is what the Spirit sees, He sees Christ in you and you in Christ.

What do you see?

Jesus came to open the eyes of the blind, to bring sight not just in the natural, but that men would see what God sees. What does God see when He looks at us as believers? He sees us in Christ as His beautiful, perfect bride, for when He looks at us, He sees His new creation in Christ, He sees His perfect work of redemption. When He looks at us, He does not see our work, He sees His. He does not see our life (separated/apart from Him/fallen short of His glory/sinful life). He does not see a separated life because He does not see two lives, our old life and our new life. He sees one life, for as Jesus declared in the garden of Gethsemane, we are made perfect in one (John 17:23). Atonement is all about at-one-ment.

That is why the Holy Spirit ministers to our spirits, to the new man in Christ and speaks to us as if we are complete in Christ, because that is the reality He sees (Col.2:10).

The Holy Spirit does not see us, nor speak to us, according to who we think we are, or feel ourselves to be. He speaks to us according to who He knows us to be.

You may say, ‘are you seriously asking me to see myself from heaven’s perspective?’ Yes! The Gospel is seriously asking you to see yourself from heaven’s perspective. “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Col.3:2-4) Set your mind on things above, not earthly things, for you died and your life is no longer a self alone life but an US life. The Holy Spirit doesn’t waste His time speaking to a dead man, He only speaks to the new creation. If we want to know who the Holy Spirit sees us as believers to be, we need only read the Word, for He wrote it. He wrote this in 2.Cor.5:17. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Now that is how the Spirit sees us, ALL NEW, …..but many of us Christians have a problem. We don’t see very well in the Spirit. We just can’t seem to see ourselves as the Spirit sees us! According to what Jesus declared to this Samaritan woman, if we can’t see what God sees, we can’t worship Him in spirit and in truth. When we think of worship, as Christians, we think of singing and being in church. But to God, our life is our worship; how we are living and how we are living all comes down to what we see, what we are believing (Prov.4:23, Prov.23:7)

Eager to impress God the people said to Jesus, “What should we do that we may do the works of God?” Right the way across the Church today, the same question is being debated; “What should the Church be doing, to be about God’s business, to be doing the works of God? In John 6:29, Jesus gave the answer to that question; “This is the work of God, “Believe in the one he sent.”

To be fruitful in God, we must not define ourselves, we must not see ourselves, by what we do. We must believe in His work, not ours. To worship God in spirit and in truth is not about singing the right songs, or putting on the right sort of meetings, it is about living each day according to how God sees us, not how the world sees us, for how God sees us, is the only truth that God sees (1Sam.16:17, 2Cor.5:16)

When you are a father or mother, you see your children as the most precious things in the world. But every day you know that they will go into a world that does not see them as you see them. They will be in a classroom, or a bus, or a street, or one day a factory and to everyone else they will just be another nameless face in the crowd. The world will not treat them as you treat them. They will not speak to them as you do, for they do not see the truth that you see; they do not see how precious and perfect they are. Your hope and your prayer is this; that your children would not grow to see themselves through the world’s eyes, but through yours; that they would grow in the truth of how special, how wonderful they are and in knowing that truth about themselves, that truth would appear in their lives, so that they would lead the wonderful and precious life that you always saw in them. Welcome to the Gospel that abolished religion. Welcome to the message that still opens the eyes of men and women to see in Christ how God sees us.

How God sees us, is the only truth that God sees. Most of us as Christians, when we look at ourselves, all we see is our old record. As long as that is all you see, then that will be all you sound like; the same old record. Here’s the Gospel; God changed your record. If any man be in Christ, the old record has passed away, behold all things have become new. Keep looking to Christ as your life and your life will be worship to God, in spirit and in truth.