Quest for Christ - Going deeper with God
Phillipians 3:10
That I may KNOW HIM, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffering, being made conformable unto His death.
This was the cry of the apostle and I believe that the Holy Spirit wants to bring us to a place where only Christ is left. It pleases the Father to reveal His Son in us. (Galatians 2:20) The work of the Holy Spirit is to this end: to reveal the Son. It was during a sabbatical that I found that the "excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord" became my only quest and I counted "all things but loss" for His sake. A bit of humour here: I had been in the same church for twenty years ( no question about my faithfulness), was an associate pastor (as someone said, I had almost reached the top of the hierarchy), was Dean of the Bible School (I was very clever), was Chairman of the Church's Missions Projects Board (was known as 'Mr. Missions') and so on and so on. Yet I found that in the hum-drum of institutional church life and trying to keep everybody happy, something huge was missing! I was doing the stuff, but I felt quenched to say the least. After resigning overnight (after an agonising, sleepless night) and entering into a sabbatical, my quest started and has never stopped. Not long into my sabattical, a dear friend fave me a cd and asked me to listen to it for my opinion. The teacher on the cd, by the Holy Spirit, revealed Christ as my life for the first time. All along it had been the "ministry" and the "church" now it was Christ Himself! Now it was "all Him". Everything else that I was used to, started losing it's grip. Churchianity, my need for a title (pastor), my need to always be busy, the expectations from men, all of, started slipping away. I felt that Jesus had said to me: "come unto me all ye ... Matthew 11:28-30" I began to understand the trappings of religion (in Latin religio means to hold back, or to subdue) and church law had been done away with by Christ. In fact I began to understand how I also had been crucified with Him and that he now lived in me (Gal 2:20) and that the only life I have is His life in me. There are no other substitutes. I even live by His faith. It was all of Him and none of me. The fact that I found myself "complete in Him which is the Head" (Col 2:10) was for me one of the most liberating things that I have ever encountered. We cannot "add" to Him. He is perfect and complete in us. He is our very life! What a joy! My quest became a determination only to know "Christ and Him crucified". I soon also realised that I had a changed paradigm which had come by revelation and it was the revelation of the mystery that took hold of me. This revelation was "Christ in me". For many, this seems too simple, but for me, my quest was leading me into the "hidden wisdom" (1 Cor 2:7) which the Holy Spirit was revealing as the "deep things of God" (1 Cor 2:10) For me, it was a new wisdom to them that are perfect. What is this perfection that the apostle is writing about? It is Christ Himself. The Apostle said it the best regarding his quest.
Phi 3:12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Phi 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
(More to follow soon)
That I may KNOW HIM, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffering, being made conformable unto His death.
This was the cry of the apostle and I believe that the Holy Spirit wants to bring us to a place where only Christ is left. It pleases the Father to reveal His Son in us. (Galatians 2:20) The work of the Holy Spirit is to this end: to reveal the Son. It was during a sabbatical that I found that the "excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord" became my only quest and I counted "all things but loss" for His sake. A bit of humour here: I had been in the same church for twenty years ( no question about my faithfulness), was an associate pastor (as someone said, I had almost reached the top of the hierarchy), was Dean of the Bible School (I was very clever), was Chairman of the Church's Missions Projects Board (was known as 'Mr. Missions') and so on and so on. Yet I found that in the hum-drum of institutional church life and trying to keep everybody happy, something huge was missing! I was doing the stuff, but I felt quenched to say the least. After resigning overnight (after an agonising, sleepless night) and entering into a sabbatical, my quest started and has never stopped. Not long into my sabattical, a dear friend fave me a cd and asked me to listen to it for my opinion. The teacher on the cd, by the Holy Spirit, revealed Christ as my life for the first time. All along it had been the "ministry" and the "church" now it was Christ Himself! Now it was "all Him". Everything else that I was used to, started losing it's grip. Churchianity, my need for a title (pastor), my need to always be busy, the expectations from men, all of, started slipping away. I felt that Jesus had said to me: "come unto me all ye ... Matthew 11:28-30" I began to understand the trappings of religion (in Latin religio means to hold back, or to subdue) and church law had been done away with by Christ. In fact I began to understand how I also had been crucified with Him and that he now lived in me (Gal 2:20) and that the only life I have is His life in me. There are no other substitutes. I even live by His faith. It was all of Him and none of me. The fact that I found myself "complete in Him which is the Head" (Col 2:10) was for me one of the most liberating things that I have ever encountered. We cannot "add" to Him. He is perfect and complete in us. He is our very life! What a joy! My quest became a determination only to know "Christ and Him crucified". I soon also realised that I had a changed paradigm which had come by revelation and it was the revelation of the mystery that took hold of me. This revelation was "Christ in me". For many, this seems too simple, but for me, my quest was leading me into the "hidden wisdom" (1 Cor 2:7) which the Holy Spirit was revealing as the "deep things of God" (1 Cor 2:10) For me, it was a new wisdom to them that are perfect. What is this perfection that the apostle is writing about? It is Christ Himself. The Apostle said it the best regarding his quest.
(More to follow soon)
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