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The Daily Word of Righteousness
The Real You, continued
After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you." (John 17:1—NIV)
When Jesus prayed He never prayed to the Father in Him, although the fullness of God was dwelling in Jesus. The Lord lifted up His eyes to Heaven and prayed. This is important for us to remember in the present hour when there is a danger of regarding Christ in us in such a manner that we pray to "the Christ in us," or imagine that by joining many people together in whom Christ is dwelling that there is more power than if only one person were praying or working.
Christ is at the right hand of God in Heaven and we are there in Him and with Him. We always pray to God in Heaven in Jesus' name, never to the "God who is in us." Yet as we press forward in Christ the day will arrive when we are filled with all the fullness of God.
And to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:19—NIV)
You may have observed by now that as we approach the hour when the Kingdom of God invades the earth there are many false ideas that can lead us astray. This is why we must meditate in the Scriptures day and night, pray without ceasing, and, above all, patiently carry our cross after the Lord. We must pray always: "Lead me not into temptation but deliver me from the evil one."
A verse that has been a favorite of ours for fifty years is as follows:
Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name. (Revelation 3:12—NIV)
Once we overcome the wickedness and distractions that fight for our attention God makes us an integral part of His eternal dwelling place. We will never leave that position again. We will always be busy somewhere in the great Kingdom of God, either on earth or in the heavens (or in other worlds if such exist). But in another very real sense we still will remain as a pillar in the Temple of God.
Although, like our Lord Jesus, our presence can be in different places at the same time, it is important to keep in mind that each presence is real and significant, not an illusion. The idea of our present life on earth being nothing more than an illusion is part of Gnostic philosophy, not Christian doctrine.
It is true also that even though our present world is a shadow of the realities of the spirit realm, the shadow is real and significant in the sight of God and we must treat it as such.
To be continued.