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Articles 2024-2026
the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints…
We often think of our inheritance, of what God has promised to those who love Him. And since Scripture tells us that we are heirs of God (Romans 8:17), then He Himself is our inheritance. This truth is really good news.
But we do not often think of His inheritance in us. Or the glory of it. We often say that since we got God and He got us we definitely came out ahead in that exchange. Certainly true. But Paul says that we need our hearts enlightened in order to understand the riches of His glorious inheritance in us.
When we look at the Church, do we see the glorious potential that God sees? If we only see where His house falls short of His glory, we will fail to gain His perspective and then we will relate wrongly to His prized possession.
That would not be wise.
In World War II, the allies invaded Europe on D Day. When they did, and at very great cost where many lost their lives, they established a beachhead. And in the days following, the fighting continued with great intensity. But from that beachhead they slowly began to liberate Europe from the grip of the Nazis.
Similarly, when we repented of our sins and were plunged into Christ through water and Spirit, God moved into our lives establishing Heaven’s beachhead. And immediately He began to take ground in us. He put His finger on such areas as unforgiveness, pride, anger, lust, etc. And just when we began to think that we had come to a certain measure of Christlikeness, He would then go deeper and expose where our hearts needed new depths of change. And sometimes we wondered if we would ever become like our Lord.
And then we would consider the Church at large. Sects, streams, and denominations were everywhere. What could God possibly do with that? How would Jesus’ prayer ever get answered?
I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.
Is God really up to the task of unifying His people into such oneness with Himself that we would submit to His work of integrating us into oneness with each other? Will Christianity ever look more like a corporate body than a collection of organizations? And to be clear, attempts to unite the organizations will only result in a bigger one. That is not where God is headed.
The answer to the question is in the next part of Paul’s prayer. He prayed that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened to know:
…what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
The problem before us is huge. But the power of God committed to the task is far greater. When obstacles to His purpose seem insurmountable it is only because we are not seeing correctly. Today, as in Paul’s day, we desperately need the Spirit’s work of enlightening the eyes of our hearts. And like Paul, New Testament apostles today will lead the way in crying out for Heaven to open the spiritual eyes of the Church to see the glory of God’s inheritance in her. And the massive power of Heaven committed to getting us to His glorious goal.
Where we are is not where we are going. But it is on the way.
Consider Christ’s tomb on the day after Calvary. We see a lifeless corpse. No breath. No movement. All the dreams of the disciples crushed and despair filling their hearts. What an insurmountable obstacle to the Kingdom of God.
Not really.
The death of Christ by itself was not where God was going. But it was on the way. Calvary was not a hindrance; it was the foundation of what was to come.
And Paul informs us that God’s power toward us today is the same as that released into Christ’s tomb two thousand years ago. Did He succeed on Resurrection Morning? All believers know the answer to that question. And if He succeeded then, will He not also succeed in opening the eyes of His people to see both the glory of His inheritance in His house as well as His mighty power committed to leading us into it?
People settle where they are because they do not see the glory on the other side of the next mountain. But whether we see it or not, God tells us that it is there. Then He tells us to trust Him and to follow Him. That is how Abraham lived. And we are his children.
Gideon thought that his future would be simply more of the same – beating out some wheat in a winepress in order to get just a little grain to feed his family. He saw neither the glory of God’s inheritance nor Heaven’s poised available power. But then God arose and everything changed.
The Church must not settle for being a collection of sects and streams gathered around various doctrinal emphases, gifted personalities, or diverse ethnicities. Heaven’s vision is for a singular people speaking with one voice and making known the thoughts of the One who is our head.
Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
That one mind and judgment is the mind of Christ made known among us. Here is an obvious question. How loud will God have to speak in order to interrupt all our various thoughts, plans, and agendas?
Some centuries ago, in the days of Martin Luther, God raised His voice and established a beachhead. And He has been moving out from there ever since. The question we must face is whether we have settled along the way.
I have heard some say that the word “awakening” is the wrong description of what the Church needs from God. But another great awakening is exactly what we need. When one awakens it is not as though the alarm clock suddenly appears from out of nowhere. It was already there. The furniture was there; the dresser was there. What was ours was already right in front of us. We were just not seeing it.
Is the present condition of Christianity the full expression of what was in God’s heart when He paid the purchase price for it? Or is what He paid for still coming into view? When Paul prayed for the spiritual eyes of the believers at Ephesus to be enlightened, he was praying for them to experience a spiritual awakening. Here is one element of the apostolic task – to cry out for God to arise and sweep across His Church in another great awakening.
An awakening will mean new insight concerning the glory of God’s inheritance in/among us and also His amazing available power in/among us. Did He skimp His power on Resurrection Morning? Neither will He restrict His power from bringing forth the full expression of the Holy Spirit’s ministry among us.
Paul asked the Corinthian believers that if the Old Covenant came with glory:
…how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?
Notice that Paul was looking forward into the future. The Old Covenant certainly came with an amazing manifestation of God’s glory. Pillars of cloud and fire, the Red Sea deliverance, the amazing manifestation of Heaven’s power on top of Mount Sinai, the glory radiating from Moses’ face. Pretty amazing stuff. Yet starting in Acts Chapter 2, God poured out His holy presence in order to reveal among the nations a far greater expression of His glory. Again, where we are is not where we are going. But it is on the way.
Finally, notice the key element in God’s purpose when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him far above all the powers. He:
…gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Christ’s goal from the right hand of the Majesty on high is an integrated corporate body of people expressing Him in His role of being their head as they make known His mind among the nations. “Bodyness” is the future of Christianity.
Donald Rumble – July 2024
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1 Name : Bunny OtterbeckClick to compress comments
Subject: In Christ Jesus
Time : 2024-07-06 20:57:00
Love the new format!
He in us and we in Him. Complete wholeness.
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