Am I missing something in Christ’s reality? Adam

Hello Adam

Let me start out by telling you that you are NOT missing anything! Quite the contrary, it is the lie that says you are missing something that causes the lack of recognition of Christ’s miraculous work within you. In other words, a major portion of Christian teaching is designed to make you disappointed with Christ’s life in you by putting your attention on your apparent lack. This is pushed upon you in hopes of creating a sense of dependency so that you might run after those who preach it.

The same thing can happen in relation to eye-openings. There is no doubt that many have had some incredible eye-openings through which they may appear to have been launched into the Christ reality, but such insights are merely insights into something that is already true in Christ in you. In saying this, I’m not trying to downplay the miraculous work of God’s revelation, for He is pleased to reveal His Son in you. But you know what happens? Yep, somebody is going to tell you that you need to seek after the same kind of revelation they had and that until you get it you can’t understand God. Hogwash! The only true revelation is Christ Himself. When the focus is drawn to the revelation or the eye-opening, as if it’s an add-on, then the attention is in the wrong place.

Our experiences in seeing the miraculous are as varied as can be because our individual complexities play an important role in the dynamics of our re-telling of the insight we received. Just because somebody tells a better story than you doesn’t mean that your eyes haven’t been opened. As a matter of fact, just because somebody tells an impressive story doesn’t necessarily mean that they even know God at all. It has been my experience to discover that many who get a sudden eye-opening often fall into a pattern of extreme ups and downs in seeking out even MORE sudden eye-openings to counteract their feelings of inadequacy.

If you are in Christ you have everything you need. Now, your own expectations of what you THINK you need might easily affect simply resting in the reality of what you have. But God is faithful in His work in you anyhow.

I love your description of the on going plod. And you are right in accessing this as an often non-enjoyable experience. You gotta figure, we’ve been brought into a life that is diametrically opposed to everything we learned in this world, so the continual experiences of having that brought into our consciousness is often an unpleasant prospect.

During my senior year in Bible College at the photo-shoot session for the upcoming yearbook I was asked for my favorite Bible verse so that it could be included under my name. Favorite verse? Now, this was an evangelical school and most of my favorite verses were places like John 3:16. But I thought I should have more of a personal verse under my name so I chose a more impressive sounding one. It was this:

That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; Philippians 3:10

You know, the knowing Him and the power of His resurrection had a delightful ring to it, I’m sure, but I’m trying to remember what I might have been thinking in choosing a verse that referred to the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. Funny thing, over the next few years I really began to see a pattern of this working in my life. I can only imagine Jesus chuckling as He said, Oh yeah, it’s GOING TO BE one of your favorite verses.

Doesn’t sound very pleasant, huh? But this is what God is working into our lives. There is a joy being produced at the same time, though it is often overshadowed by the sense of the non-enjoyable personal plod. I have discovered more insight during this ongoing work of God in my life than in any sudden eye-opening, I can tell you that. It has been through the recognition of the death of the old that the power of the new has been made so clearly relevant. The one is just as much a revelation as the other.

Jim