Identity and Action

We've been going through a series of sermons at Ada Pathway on "Our Identity in Christ," which has been a favorite subject of mine for the last several months. It's something I find myself returning to in my thoughts on a regular basis, because it's such a central issue. It really does make all the difference between either living a victorious life in Christ, or living the worn-out, beat-up, fatigued, just-get-me-to-heaven-so-I-can-end-this life of religion.

Identity drives behavior. Who you think you are ultimately determines how you will act. If my local postman believes himself to be the King of England, he will start wearing a crown and attempting to issue royal commands to me - and I would consider him to be quite literally insane. His actions are consistent with who he believes he is, but it doesn't line up with the reality of who he really is. More on that in a moment.

I want to touch on another major principle: there is a difference between what we do and who we are. I know, I just said in the last paragraph that who we think we are determines what we do, but there's a slight shift here that's really important to catch: identity drives behavior, but behavior does not cause identity.

In other words: there's a difference between tripping and being clumsy; between stealing and being a thief; between rebelling and being rebellious; in short, between sinning and being a sinner.

But we empower whatever we focus on, so if I sin, then label myself as a sinner, then put my focus on my identity as a sinner, I'm going to continue to commit that sin. It's a vicious cycle, and there's only one way out: embracing a new identity.

There's a big difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. We know that. But I see a tendency among Christians to quote certain Old Testament verses as though they were still true today, forgetting that those verses are describing people under an Old Covenant. Here are a few examples that touch directly on the issue of identity:

"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure." (Jer. 17:9) I sometimes hear believers quote this verse in reference to themselves, when they're trying to say that they don't trust their own motives. But this statement is simply not true of New Covenant Christians. The truth of our current situation is that "God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 5:5), and that God "put his Spirit in our hearts" (2 Cor. 1:22). And that Spirit is the same Spirit that Jesus called "the Spirit of Truth." (Jn. 16:13) Truth is the opposite of deceit. I don't have a deceitful heart that is beyond cure, I have a heart that is full of the Spirit of Truth.

Here's a quick "one-two-punch" combination that settles it for me: in the Old Covenant, God promised through the prophet Ezekiel that there was day coming when He would establish a new relationship with His people. He said, "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean ... I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you." (Ezek. 36:25-26) In Hebrews, we find that this sprinkling and cleansing that gives us a new heart has been accomplished: "let us draw near to God with a sincere [lit., "true"] heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water." (Heb. 10:22)

No more deceitful heart.

"I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another." (Is. 42:8) This verse gets used to put (and keep) distance between us and God. He's powerful, we're not; He's holy, we're not; He gets all the glory, and shares it with no one.

I'm not denying that God is powerful, holy, and deserving of all the glory. I'm saying that if we see Him as wanting to keep us at a distance, we haven't understood His heart as our Father - His heart is to give us everything He has. Let's look at the entirety of that verse: "I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols." When God says He won't share His glory with another, He's not talking about His children, He's talking about idols.

For God's view on sharing His glory with His children, you have to listen to the words of Jesus as He prayed to His Father concerning believers: "I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one." (Jn. 17:22) God gave His glory to Jesus, and Jesus has given it to us, so that we can all be one.

Ok, one more.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways ... As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Is. 55:8,9) This is another one of those "distancing" verses that can really mess with our identity, if we forget who this verse was written to and when it was written. It was written to an Old Covenant people who were in the midst of major idolatry and rebellion. Of course God's thoughts and ways were a thousand miles apart from theirs - they were worshiping false gods!

In the New Covenant, it's a different story. Not only are our thoughts closer in proximity to His thoughts, He's actually gotten His thoughts into our thoughts! Paul says, "we have the mind of Christ." (1 Cor. 2:16)

These are all issues of identity. When I became united with Christ, I got His identity (Gal. 2:20); I went from being "slave of sin" to "son of God" (Gal. 4:6); I became a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17); I became a participant in the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4); I got His mind (1 Cor. 2:16); I got His heart (Eph. 3:17); I got His inheritance (Rom. 8:17); I got His glory (Jn. 17:22).

What this means is that it's not natural for me to keep on sinning. I might still commit sin, but I'm doing something strange and foreign to my nature - it's out of character. But if I believe that sinning is "natural" for me, and completely in harmony with my character ("Well, I expect that of myself, I'm still just a sinner who's been forgiven"), I'll keep on doing it and lock myself into a cycle. Thinking that way about myself just hands the power and authority over to the enemy, when in reality, he has none.

So, back to my insane postman. He's insane because he believes he is a king, and out of that belief he is acting in harmony with his perceived identity. He's crazy. But if I believe that I'm a sinner, out of that belief I will act in harmony with that identity, and I will be just as insane as the postman.

I trip sometimes; but I am not clumsy. I fail sometimes; but I am not a failure. I sin; but I am not a sinner. Those things are not my identity.

I'm a saint, and a child of God, with full access to my Father's inheritance.

Jacob

Ada Pathway @ Prayer - February and March

What sort of prayer raises the dead?

That may seem to be an odd question, and I'm not planning any upcoming trips to the morgue to find out, but I figure if I can master the sort of prayer that can raise the dead, I can handle the "easier" prayer that removes MS, regenerates missing limbs, knocks out incurable viruses, makes metal pins in bones disappear, and so on.

(Yes, I have heard first-hand testimonies of all of those things happening, right here in these United States, all within the past decade.)

So what kind of prayer raises the dead?

As always, I use Jesus as my model and my standard. He demonstrated for us what sorts of things are possible for one human being who lives in the complete embrace of the Father's presence. So how did He do it?

The story of Lazarus gives us the key. I'm sure most of us have this story basically memorized, but it's a really good story, so let's just re-live it again, for the first time.

"Take away the stone," he said. 

"But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days." 

Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone. 

Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me." 

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" 

The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

(John 11:39-44)

Lots of things to take away from these few verses. Lots of things. Here are just a few, off the top of my head:

- Jesus doesn't get distracted by the unbelief of others. 

- Jesus doesn't allow Himself to enter into an agreement with the idea that what He's about to do is, technically speaking, impossible. 

- Jesus doesn't let Himself settle into a meditation on the size of the problem. 

- When Martha says that Lazarus has been dead for too long, long enough to start rotting, Jesus re-focuses her attention on two things: faith, and the glory of God. No problem looks too big when it's compared to God's glory.

- Technically, Jesus didn't "pray" for Lazarus to come back to life. He just told him to do it. Sort of like He didn't tell us to "pray" for the sick, He just said, "heal the sick." (Mt. 10:8)

- The prayer that Jesus prayed started with thanksgiving. If we have the faith that can thank God for the miracle before it even happens, we're 99% of the way to seeing the miracle happen.

- The prayer of Jesus moved from thanksgiving to a stunning confession of 100% confidence: "you hear me ... you always hear me." This is kind of prayer that will raise the dead: 100% faith, 100% confidence, 100% awareness of who the Father is.

I'm not there yet, to that place where my confidence that my Father always hears me is strong enough to outweigh my recognition of the size of the problem. But that's my standard, and that's where I'm heading.

Thanksgiving, faith, and confidence in the knowledge that God always hears us. That's how to raise the dead.

Here are some reports from February and March that should help us build our confidence:

REPORTS

• Two of our intercessors began praying for a woman who needed a job. Within a couple of weeks, she got an unexpected job lead, had the interview, and got hired. Our God's name is "Provision."
• Another intercessor prayed over a man with heart congestion who had been experiencing periods of dizziness, shortness of breath, high blood pressure, and fatigue. The next day, the man's blood pressure was near-perfect, he felt an incredible resurgence of energy, and has had no congestion issues since. Our God is healer, awesome in power.
• One of our prayer teams prayed over a man at our February healing service who was struggling with a habitual sin. A few weeks after the service, he reported that he had not been experiencing those temptations any more since the prayer time. Our Father liberates minds and hearts as well as bodies!
• At our March healing service, a prayer team prayed over a man with MS, who had to wear a leg brace because of weakening muscles. After receiving prayer, he took off the brace and walked up and down the aisles a few times, saying that his leg felt stronger. He left with the leg brace in his arms, not strapped to his leg. Our God's name is "the Healing One."
• An intercessor felt led by God to go to a local coffee shop and pray for someone wearing blue shoes; after sitting in the shop for a while, he saw a young woman walk in wearing blue shoes, and was able to talk to her and minister to her. Mysterious ways, indeed.
• In our most recent listening prayer services, we've seen multiple instances of God speaking to and through His children in unusually creative ways
• One intercessor received a vision of an apple slice, and when she drew it on paper, the person being ministered immediately knew what personal meaning the image had. Daughters of God having visions - sounds a bit like Joel 2, doesn't it?
• Another intercessor had a vision of a sand dollar, and the person being ministered to remarked that he had just broken a decorative sand dollar earlier that week, and had been thinking that he would need to replace it. God cares about the details.
• On three occasions, we have seen two intercessors in the same prayer group get the same word from God for the same person. One intercessor saw an image of shoes being laced up, and so had another; one saw an image of a family gathering around a kitchen counter to make lunch, and another saw the same image, but from a different angle; one person got the word "tabernacle," while another in the same group had heard the message, "call the Brooklyn Tabernacle." God confirms His word through repetition.

One final thought: God always entrusts us with more when we prove that we're willing to spend what He's already given us. We're seeing Him lead us now into "more challenging" prayer arenas (humanly speaking), and we're hearing Him speak to us with increasing clarity, which is an awesome privilege - because with the more difficult assignments comes the commitment to entrust us with even greater power to complete those assignments. 

In short: let's keep spending. The resources are, as we're about to find out, unlimited.

Jacob

"Turn or Burn" and the Kingdom Gospel

I wanted to share a few thoughts on one aspect of yesterday's sermon, which dealt with the subject of evangelization (one of the five "purposes of the church"). Our pastor talked a little bit about how real-life, love-your-neighbor evangelism doesn't really need to fall back on the crutch (and it is a crutch) of highlighting the sinful state of the person you're witness to, or the fear of future hell - in other words, when I'm sharing the gospel, I don't need to convince the person of how wicked/lost/miserable they are, because (and this is key) chances are, they already know that part.

(That's my paraphrase, of course, or how I understood this part of the message.)

Maybe they can't say it in "Christianese," but they know it.

Not in words. 

By experience.

Terms like "propitiatory sacrifice," "forensic justification," or "substitutionary atonement" mean nothing to them.

What does mean something to them are words like "we're barely making ends meet," "I'm not sure my life has meaning," "my son can't wait to move out," "my husband just left me and my kids," "I have trouble sleeping at night," "I'm on anti-depression meds," "I don't know if anyone would notice if I fell off the face of the earth," "I drink to hide the pain," "my sister was just diagnosed with cancer," and so on.

(Let's be honest: don't those words have meaning for us, too?)

I guess I don't see the need to tell someone that they're a sinner, and if they don't put their faith in Jesus, they're going to go to hell. I'm pretty sure they already know that life is (or can be) a living hell. I'm pretty sure they're already looking for "more."

(Again, let's be honest: aren't most Christians looking for "more," too?)

And the fact of the matter is that the "turn or burn" gospel tends to usher people into the kingdom (if they come at all) through the medium of fear, because they're afraid of the "burning" part. Welcome to Christianity, meet your new God, the one who was going to send you to a place of eternal torment if you didn't believe. 

Fear-based relationships. They only last for as long as the fear holds power.

Besides, John says that's the basis for a broken relationship with God, one that still needs fixing: "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." (1 Jn. 4:18)

Whatever you think about certain parts of Rob Bell's book Love Wins, I think he absolutely nailed it on this point. He talked about seeing the kids in Rwanda whose arms and legs had been hacked off by enemy soldiers; he talked about women who had been raped for years by a relative or by a pastor, and all the damage that was done; he talked about seeing drug addicts, counseling suicidal people, and seeing the effects of people who deliberately do evil things to hurt their loved ones. He says:

"... there are all kinds of hells, because there are all kinds of ways to resist and reject all that is good and true and beautiful and human now, in this life ... There are individual hells, and communal, society-wide hells, and Jesus teaches us to take both seriously. There is hell now, and there is hell later, and Jesus teaches us to take both seriously." (Rob Bell, Love Wins, p. 79)

Hell (or hells) on earth. It's all too real, and people know it - and they (and we?) are looking for some real answers, not to the question of how to avoid eternal hell-fire in the future, but how to deal with the tangible hells-on-earth that are right now.

And if the best we can offer them is "just trust in Jesus, He'll give you a one-way ticket out of this mess, and you can join me on the station platform while we wait for the Glory Train to come and get us," then we haven't really got much to offer.

Hell isn't just a future thing. Everyone knows that (at least by experience).

But how many people know that heaven isn't just a future thing either?

How many people know that the Gospel of Jesus is so much more than a glorified evacuation plan that gets us out of earth and into a distant, "out there" heaven, someday, in the "hereafter"?

How much more effective would our witness be if, when our neighbor shares her current real-life "hells" with us, we offered to pray for her on-the-spot, speaking life, healing, restoration, wholeness, and blessing into her situation, with the firm conviction and faith that those prayers are actually powerful enough to release the kingdom and punch holes in the "gates of hell" the minute we speak the words?

I haven't done enough "street evangelism" to present a conclusive statistical analysis, but the little bit that I have done has already shown me a trend: the majority of people will politely decline if you ask them if they want to hear about Jesus; on the flip side, the majority of people will happily welcome you if you offer to pray for them.

(It's probably time to admit that the church has hidden for too long behind the axiom, "the gospel is offensive," as a way of excusing unsuccessful evangelism; our message isn't nearly offensive as the way we've presented it, the way we've used it as an elitist badge, and the way we've failed to live it.)

Why are people more likely to let you pray for them than they are to listen to a presentation of the gospel?

Because the head doesn't need more information - the heart needs an encounter with God's touch.

Because "let me tell you something" isn't nearly as attractive as "let me show you something."

Because "the kingdom of heaven is upon you and within you" (see Mt. 12:28, Lk. 17:21) is far better news than "grin and bear it, we'll be out of here before too long - I hope."

Because "the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power." (1 Cor. 4:20)

The fear of God may be the beginning of wisdom. But it's the goodness of God that leads people to true repentance (see Rom. 2:4).

Pastor Don read a blog piece called "7 Tips for Talking with Your Neighbors About Jesus." I think I'd like to add to (or maybe condense?) that list.

1) Show them you're interested in them as a person, not as a project - If you decide to go see a movie with them, do it because you genuinely want to spend time with them, not because you think it will create an opportunity to "witness." People can tell the difference.

2) Demonstrate your love for them before you try to tell them about God's love for them - Your message about God's love is far more likely to ring true and "harmonic" if you've already shown that you're willing to help move a couch, pay for the drinks, call and see how things are going, help hang some drywall, pinch-hit as a babysitter, and so on.

3) Offer to pray, not to preach - People don't need more religious platitudes, and they don't need more promises of prayer, they need right-now-with-them prayer. They don't need to hear about how God loves them, they need to see that He loves them, and He will demonstrate that through your prayers, sometimes in rather dramatic ways. (Ever seen someone's head cold vanish on-the-spot, or find out that they got a job within a few days of you praying for them? It's way more fun than preaching at them.)

That's it, in summary. Preach God's love and heaven-on-earth, or better yet, don't preach at all, pray instead.

Jacob 

Release the Blessing

Proverbs 18:21 says that "Death and life are in the power of the tongue." The Apostle James expands on this truth in his epistle when he points out that we can use our tongues for either blessing or cursing.

Personally, I've heard plenty of instruction in my life that focuses on the negative power here: the power of the tongue to curse and bring death. This kind of instruction is usually followed up with warnings and exhortations to watch over the tongue and keep it under tight control.

I'm convinced, however, that when we understand the power of the tongue to bless and bring life, we won't even be thinking anymore about the potential danger of the tongue. We'll be too busy speaking life into dead situations and seeing them get resurrected.

We're made in our Father's image, so I anticipate that I'm going to be reflecting something of His nature in who I am. Actually, as a Christian who is a "partaker of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:4), I anticipate that I'm going to be reflecting a lot of who He is and how He acts, and one of the things He does is to create through speaking. He spoke the universe and all of creation into existence, simply by calling it forth. It would appear that He's encoded some of this tendency and ability into our spiritual DNA as well.

There's something of this principle in the words of Jesus, when He said "Whatever you bind upon the earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on the earth will have been loosed in heaven" (Matt. 18:18). It's not so much that we speak and then God rubber-stamps it in heaven, it's that His perfect will has already been executed in heaven and needs to be reflected as reality-on-earth; whatever needs to be bound has already been bound there, and whatever needs to be released has already been released there. Our job is to see what He's doing there, and declare it here so that the Lord's Prayer may be fulfilled: "on earth as it is in heaven."

So how powerful are words? How powerful is the tongue?

God instructed the high priest of Israel in how to bless the people in this famous passage from Numbers:

This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: "The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace." (Num. 6:23-26)

That's as much of that passage as you'll typically see quoted. But what I really love is the very next verse: "So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them." (Num. 6:27)

When the priest pronounced the blessing over the people of God, those words had weight. Those words had value. Those words, in fact, accomplished a kind of transfer in the spiritual realm, because with those words the people were marked with the name of the Lord: "So they will put my name on the Israelites." The end result of speaking blessing over the people? God says, "I will bless them." It's almost as if God promises to back up with power the words that we speak. "You bless them," He says, "and then I'll bless them, because your blessing puts my name on them."

Maybe that was just an Old Testament anomaly? Maybe that was a power reserved for the priests?

Well, we're all priests now: "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood" (1 Pet. 2:9). And the power to bring tangible blessings into earthly reality is very much part of our inheritance in the New Covenant. Paul instructs us in Ephesians 4 to speak blessing: "Let no corrupt word go forth out of your mouth, but only what is good for necessary building up, that it may give grace to the hearers" (Eph. 4:29). Just like in Numbers 6, our words of blessing carry real weight and cause a real transfer in the spiritual realm. When you speak words of "building up" it gives grace (the NKJV says "that it may impart grace") to the person who hears you.

Here's the practical side. It's so easy to get stuck in a tough patch of life and respond with complaining, and complaining is usually just a continual declaration or announcement of what's gone wrong. But that's also the best way to guarantee that the situation never changes, because those words have power. "He's so lazy!" becomes an almost prophetic promise that he'll stay lazy; "She's such a selfish person!" is a declaration that perpetuates the problem. "I'm going to be stuck in this dead-end job forever!" is a good way to make sure you stay stuck. 

But speaking blessing and grace into those situations, and over those people, releases the transformation of heaven. "You are compassionate and caring, and you will touch the lives of other people" is a word of building-up and blessing that opens the grace channels for that person to become more compassionate, more caring, and more influential for other people. "God has a destiny in mind for me and plans to prosper my life, and today I'm going to take another step towards seeing that become reality" is a blessing that can change your current situation.

The power of life is in the tongue. The power of changing earthly realities so that they line up with heavenly realities is in our speech. When you bless, God blesses with you. When you loose what is loosed in heaven, God speaks with you, and His word never returns without first accomplishing its purpose.

So who could benefit from your blessing today? What situation in your life can you begin to change and transform by speaking God's blessing over it?

Jacob

Ada Pathway @ Prayer - January, 2012

"I don't care what the devil plans to do. The Great Commission puts me on the offensive. I've got the ball. And if I carry the ball effectively, his plans won't matter." (Bill Johnson, When Heaven Invades Earth)

Jesus made an amazing promise concerning the church. He said, "the gates of hell will not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18). I've always understood that verse to mean that, even though all the powers of hell will attack the church, in the end those attacks will fail and the church will still be standing.

I missed one important aspect of this imagery: Jesus said the gates of hell will not prevail against the church, not that the gates of the churchwould successfully stand up against the attacks of hell. It's a shift in perspective, but a necessary one. We are not on the defensive, we're on the offensive, and we've been promised that the gates of hell won't hold up under our advances. The gates are under attack - but not the gates of the church.

We pray from a position of strength. 

We pray out of victory. 

We pray from the high ground. 

January was another "high water" month for the prayer group at Ada Pathway. Here are some highlights:

• We held our first healing prayer service of the year, and God made His presence known
• We prayed for a man with dementia who had been experiencing a lot of inconsistent "normal vs. abnormal" periods; a week after the healing prayer service, he reported that he'd had "a string of 'normals' that would make anyone shout"
• A man in the prayer group went out to visit a friend who had just had her tonsils removed; after praying for her, she reported that her throat felt a lot better
• We prayed for spiritual reconciliation for the daughter of a man in our prayer group, and he reported two weeks later that she has expressed a desire to come back home
• We prayed for a young woman with sepsis (due to kidney stones) whom the doctors said probably wouldn't live - less than a month later, she returned back to work
• A man in our prayer group told us about a friend who had been in the hospital suffering from a kidney infection, and she was unable to leave the hospital until her fever broke; he asked another woman in our prayer group who had also recently been through a kidney infection to pray, and his friend later reported that on that same day, it was if "a light switch turned on," and the fever left her
• We've been praying for reconciliation and restoration for a family in the church, and we've heard reports of progress being made
• A man in the prayer group was teaching his young daughter how to hear God's voice; she had been having pain in her thumb, but while she was practicing listening for God, she said she "saw" Him touch her thumb, and the pain left immediately
• Last, but not least, our prayer group has continued to grow this month - a strong indicator that God is continuing to strengthen our church body

All of these answers to prayer (and there are many more than I have recounted here) are fulfillments of Jesus' promise: the church is advancing the Kingdom, and the gates of hell are giving way.

A final thought: it's easy to get caught up in the "evil reports" of our time. The headlines are full of bad news, and some Christians get lulled into the mind-set that things will just continue to deteriorate until Jesus comes back. But that's not the nature of the Kingdom, and that's not the promise of Scripture. The promise of God is this: "Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end." (Is. 9:7) It's the nature of the Kingdom to always be advancing, and it is our privilege to be the agents of advancement as we pray and demonstrate the power of the Kingdom in the territory around us.

"O great and powerful God, whose name is the LORD Almighty, great are your purposes and mighty are your deeds ... You performed miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt and have continued them to this day, both in Israel and among all mankind, and have gained the renown that is still yours." (Jer. 32:18-20)

Jacob

Jesus and Religion

You've seen this video, right? The one where the guy recites his poem about how Jesus is greater than Religion?

Check it out, if you haven't already.



Apparently it resonated with a lot of people, because the video went viral and, as of the time of this writing, has over 15 million hits. Everyone is talking about it, including the Washington Post blog, the Huffington Post, and even Yahoo! News.

Most of the reactions I've seen have been in support of the video, but I've seen a few "rebuttals" here and there as well.

The whole thing comes at an interesting time for me. I just heard a message about a month-and-a-half ago that pretty much said the exact same thing (links to highlights from that sermon are at the end of this post). Inspired by that message, I posted a comparison chart on Facebook that showed the difference between living life "on the way to the cross" and living life "on the way from the cross." That chart, in turn, became the focal point of discussion for two consecutive Sunday School lessons this month.

I think there's a lot of truth in this video, and I really hope it isn't the last word on the subject. What I mean is this: there may be some major discrepancies between Jesus and "the church" (or "religion," if you will) at this point in history, but that rift can be healed. I'd love it if a video like this had no link to reality 20 years from now, if the majority of people in the world could honestly say, "I actually don't see a huge difference between Christianity and Christ, except for maybe in one or two off-the-beaten-path groups here and there."

Healing that rift has to start with individual Christians and how they understand themselves in relation to God, how they understand what the New Covenant really is, and how much they grasp the revelation of the Father's heart.

We're not there, as a church-across-the-world ... not yet. There are a lot of Christians who have stepped into the New Covenant, but never left the Old Covenant mindset behind. Christianity is just a super-polished version of the Old Covenant in a lot of peoples' minds. My creed says I'm following after Jesus, but my life says that Moses is my traveling companion.

In "Moses Christianity," I acknowledge that my heart is "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked," but in Christ I am conscious of the fact that I am a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) - and that new creation did not include a desperately wicked heart. (If it did, then the new creation isn't much better than the old creation, and Jesus should probably come back to earth and give it another try.)

In "Moses," I am conscious of my "sin nature," but in Christ I rejoice that I am a participant in the Divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4).

In "Moses," I try really hard to obey God's laws so that He will bless me, but in Christ I remember that the requirements of the law have been met (Rom. 8:4), and I focus on simply receiving my inheritance (Rom. 8:17).

In "Moses," I see crises and tragedy in my life and I assume that God must be punishing me for having done something wrong, but in Christ I know that I am unpunishable (Rom. 8:1) because God doesn't play "Double Jeopardy."

In "Moses," I think God causes bad things to happen to me sometimes because He wants me to repent, but in Christ I know that it is the Enemy who does the stealing, killing, and destroying (John 10:10), and when God wants me to repent He employs the remedy of His goodness (Rom. 2:4), not the remedy of destruction.

In "Moses," I think of myself as an unworthy servant, but in Christ I know that I am a beloved son (Rom. 8:16, 1 John 3:1) who is worth everything to my Father.

In "Moses," I try to get a greater revelation of God's love and grace by focusing on my sinfulness, but in Christ I get a greater revelation of God's love and grace by focusing on God's love and grace.

In "Moses," I think that I have to hang my head in "humility" (which is really shame) in order to get God to move on my behalf, but in Christ I lift up my head in order to see the King of Glory come in (Ps. 24:7).

In "Moses," I try to content myself with what I have because I don't expect God to give me much, but in Christ I realize that God supplies my needs according to His riches (Phil. 4:19), not according to the limitations of my needs.

In "Moses," I work hard at becoming more righteous by obeying the law, but in Christ I know that I am already the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21), and my obedience comes from love, not for love.

In "Moses," sorrow and tears are the trustworthy signs that the Spirit is working, but in Christ I know that the fruit of the Spirit is joy (Gal. 5:22), so when He moves in my life I experience rejoicing.

In "Moses," I think of repentance as beating myself up and wallowing in shame before God, but in Christ I know that shame was completely dealt with at the cross, and repentance is renewing my mind so that I can be transformed (Rom. 12:2).

Healing the rift between religion and Jesus starts with healing the rift in ourselves, where we're living with one foot in each Covenant. When we embrace the full reality of the New Covenant and our own identity as sons and daughters of God, we start reflecting more Jesus and less religion. When we stop focusing on what we were (dead, depraved, sinful, miserable) and start focusing on what we are (alive, righteous, co-heir with Christ, dead to sin, unpunishable), we position ourselves to be conduits of God's love and grace to the world. When we get really good at focusing on our "sin nature" and our struggle to be righteous, we get really good at focusing on everyone else's sin and failure as well, and we position ourselves to be accusers.

When Christians start stepping, en masse, into their full inheritance, then churches across the world will start preaching (and demonstrating!) the extravagant goodness of God, which leads to true repentance. And when that happens, there will be no more distinction between Jesus and religion, because the "religion" practiced by the church will be nothing less than a continuation of the life and work of Jesus.

Enjoy the videos!

Jacob

WWJD?

"Repent [metanoeite], for the kingdom of heaven is near." (Matt. 4:17)

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Metanoeite: present-imperative verb, from metanoeo: "to change one's mind, i.e. to repent -- to change one's mind for better." (Thayer and Smith, New Testament Greek Lexicon)

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Jesus made a promise in the presence of His disciples, and the words of that promise show that it was meant for every believer in every age: "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father" (Jn. 14:12).

Just to get a clearer picture of what Jesus was saying, take a look at the preceding sentence: "Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves" (Jn. 14:11).

Line it all up, and we get this: Jesus says "believe that God is in me and I am in Him, at least on the evidence on the miracles I've been doing - and anyone who believes in me will do the miracles I've been doing, and will do even greater miracles than I've been doing, because I'm going to my Father."

The original Greek text makes it really clear because it uses the same word repeatedly, hammering the point home: Jesus says "believe me on the evidence of the erga [works] ... anyone who believes in me will do the erga [works] I've been doing, and will do even greater [meizona, "stronger"] than these, because I'm going to the Father."

It used to seem to me that it was almost borderline blasphemy to think that I could do the miracles of Jesus, because Jesus was God, and I'm not. The problem was in my head, in my thinking, which is why I needed to experience metanoeite-repentance - a change of mind.

The New Testament suggests in several different places that Jesus performed miracles by letting God work through Him, by the power of the Holy Spirit, not that Jesus did what He did by the power of His own divinity. Luke says in his gospel that as Jesus was preaching to the crowds, "the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick" (Lk. 5:17). Reflecting on the works of Jesus, the Apostle Peter said that they were "miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him" (Acts 2:22). Jesus Himself said, "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing" (Jn. 5:19).

If Jesus performed all of those mighty works and miracles through the power of the Holy Spirit, by being completely dependant on His Father and becoming a vessel through which His Father could work, then you and I can do the same. That's why He said what He said: "anyone who has faith in me will do the works I have been doing."

There was also a time when I used to think that, just as Jesus uniquely did miracles because He was divine, so also the Apostles were unique in their ability to work miracles, because they were specially authorized by Jesus to do so. In other words, Jesus did miracles because He was unique among men, and the Apostles did miracles because they, too, were unique among men.

But the Apostles themselves point us away from this line of reasoning and tell us that it's a faulty way of thinking. After Peter and John healed the cripple at the temple gate in Acts 3, they (understandably) attracted a crowd of curious onlookers who wanted to know what had just happened. Notice what Peter says about himself in his explanation of the miracle: "Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? ... It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see" (Acts 3:12, 16). Peter denies that it was own unique power that healed the cripple. He even denies that it was his own unique level of godliness, or righteousness, or holiness that accomplished the miracle. He entirely denies that it had anything to do with him at all, and confesses that the healing miracle came through the name of Jesus.

I'm not sure why I used to insist on contradicting Peter's own words about himself. He says "it had absolutely nothing to do with me or who I am," but I kept thinking "well, he could do those things because he was an Apostle."

Jesus paid the ultimate price to obtain the "all authority in heaven and on earth" that His Father gave to Him. That was the inheritance that He received, as we see in the Psalm: "You are my Son; today I have become your Father. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession." (Ps. 2:7-8) It makes me sad when Christians embrace the attitude reflected in a comment I recently read on an Internet forum: "Since Jesus has all authority, then there is none left for anyone else. Everyone else is a bond-servant."

Oh, but the good news is so much more beautiful than that! The inheritance of Jesus was "all authority" and dominion over the nations and kingdoms of this earth, and Paul says "if we are children" - and we most certainly are - "then we are heirs -- heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ" (Rom. 8:17). I am a co-heir with Jesus. Yes, He obtained all authority in heaven and on earth, but He obtained it to share it. The prophet Daniel saw a vision of the future, in which the Messiah "was given authority, glory and sovereign power," and he saw that "his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed" (Dan. 7:14) - but the next thing he saw was that "the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever" (vs. 18), and that "the sovereignty, power and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will behanded over to the saints, the people of the Most High" (vs. 27).

Let that sink in! The "power and greatness of the kingdoms" which Jesus won at the cross were "handed over to the saints."

I share in the inheritance of Jesus, and I share in His dominion, because that's just how generous and good He is. Contrary to the opinion stated in the comment which was quoted above, I am most certainly not a "bond-servant" in the kingdom of God. Jesus says that I am no longer a servant, I am a friend (see Jn. 15:15). 

We've got to experience greater metanoeite-repentance, the kind that sees us changing the way we think! Did you know that God wants to share His glory with His children? I used to read this passage in Isaiah, "I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another" (Is. 42:8), and I would get this picture in my head of an all-glorious God who was completely distant and light years away from me. He was the all-holy God, and I was the lowly worm, and that's how He wanted it: "I will not give my glory to another."

I needed metanoeite. I had to correct my thinking and get a greater revelation of my Father's heart, and of my identity as His son, and that's when I understood that, while God says "I will not give my glory to another," as His son I am not "another," I'm a privileged member of the divine family. Jesus shows us the heart of the Father when it comes to His glory: "I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one ... I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one" (Jn. 17:20-22). Isn't that awesome? God gave Jesus glory, and then Jesus turns around and says "I have given them that glory, so we can all be one."

Here's the good news: if you have faith in Jesus and possess the Spirit which causes you to call God "Abba, Father," then you are a co-heir with Jesus, which means you've inherited with Him the authority, power, dominion, and glory that He won through His victory at the cross. And as a co-heir with Jesus, the promise is yours, "anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing, and will do even greater things than these."

What would Jesus do? Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leper, drive out demons. Restore the lost, bind up the broken-hearted, bring reconciliation and peace.

You're a co-heir. Go out and do what Jesus would do.

Jacob