1 John 4:16 tells us, "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." I base a lot of ministry on this verse. Or, rather, on the phrase, "As He is, so are we in this world." Because what that means to me is exactly what Jesus said in John 10:30, "I and my Father are one." It's that total and complete identification with Jesus. It's that understanding that He IS our life. He IS our true identity. Jesus: God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in MY flesh. Love in MY body. But here's kind of the tricky, sticking point. We base a lot of what we think we're supposed to do on what Jesus did. We try to follow in His foot steps. And here's the problem with that: If I'm trying to follow in Jesus' foot steps, then the emphasis is on what I'M doing. Not to mention the fact that I can't follow in His foot steps, no matter how hard I try. Nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus. BUT, since we are one, since we are as He is, we don't have to try to live His life. We can let Him live His own life in us and through us and as us. Look at what the verse says, "As He IS, so are we in this world." Not as He WAS. We're not supposed to try to act like Jesus. That will never be anything more than an act. What we need to do is understand how He is right now, and then live our lives accordingly. Let HIM live HIS life accordingly. So. The finished work of the cross included Six Steps to the Throne. I wrote a whole book about this so I'm not going to rewrite it here in this Rant. But I want to touch on it because in order to know how He is right now, we need to see what He did 2,000 years ago on the cross. The Six Steps are: Crucified, Died, Buried, Quickened, Raised, and Seated. The first three steps was Jesus getting rid of all of the old. Undoing everything Adam did. Fulfilling the Law of Moses and nailing it to the cross. And the last three steps was Jesus bringing forth everything new. A New Day. A New Man. A New You. And for today I want to focus on the last step. Seated. Because in order to understand AS He is, we need to understand WHERE He is. Luke 22:69 (NLT) says it like this, "But from now on the Son of Man will be seated in the place of power at God's right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven." Where is Jesus? Seated at the right hand of the Father. Seated in a posture of rest. AND He's coming on (or in) the clouds of heaven. WE are the clouds! Hebrews 12:1 tells us that we are a great cloud of witnesses. So where is Jesus? He's in us! Seated at the right hand of the Father--the place of power, the place of ruling and reigning as kings and priests--and coming on the clouds. Coming on us, and in us, and through us. He's in us, and He's coming out with all of that power! 

Abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life is the conscious awareness of God--of LOVE--in your life. Love is what makes it abundant, and eternal, and everlasting. Love is what we are conscious of--or aware of--because of Jesus' resurrection. He gave His life FOR us and He gave His life TO us. He gave us His Holy Spirit, the love receptor, so that we could KNOW and BELIEVE the love that God has always had for us. He came, not to make "evil" people "good," but to make dead people alive. He came to wake us from sleep. In the garden God put Adam to sleep, and humanity has been asleep at the wheel ever since, stumbling around in the darkness of sin (or unbelief). And it wasn't until the light of the world began to shine that a New Day could dawn and we would awake to righteousness and sin not! It wasn't until Jesus gave us something (someONE, Himself, love) to believe in that He could take away the sin of the world and destroy the works of the devil. And now we have the ability to follow Paul's instructions in Romans 6:11, "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Now we can SEE the finished work... and what we see is what we be. WE are the finished work. When God made all things new, He made US new. He transformed us (from an Old Man to a New Man) and conformed us (into His image). He made us aware of how things really are. He shined the light so that we could see clearly. See God clearly--as our heavenly Father who loves us--and see ourselves clearly--as His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. Jesus became sin and died. And He had drawn us into Himself when He did it. So when He died, we died. That's why (and how) we can reckon ourselves dead unto sin. Not because we try really hard to stop sinning (the harder you try, the more you end up failing, because with man it is impossible), but because HE took away our sin! Now we can stop trying and start resting. Now we can ENJOY the gift of eternal life that we've been given. The gift of eternal life that is knowing the Father, and the One who the Father sent. Knowing God in the context of that Father/Son relationship. Knowing God's love... and sharing that love with others. Knowing God's love BY sharing it with others! Guys, THAT'S how we love God; by loving each other. That's how we live His life; by letting Him live it in us and through us and as us! And that's what it means to be alive unto God. It means that we are alive to love. We're not searching for it anymore--looking for love in all the wrong places--we've found it at the source. We know that we are loved. We are awake to it. Aware of it. Conscious of it. It fills us to overflowing and touches everything and everyone around us. It's the difference between life and death. The difference between the Kingdom and the world. The difference between "living" and truly being alive. Adam was a living soul, but he was also the walking dead. Jesus IS our life, and in Him we live and move and have our being. In us HE lives and moves and has HIS being!

The difference between being "self-centered" (or self-conscious) and "Christ-centered" (or Christ-conscious) is, in a word, love. It's the difference between being asleep and being wake. Being dead and being alive. Jesus said it like this, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24). And notice this: "He that HEARETH my word." Jesus NEVER said, "If you don't accept me you're damned and you're going to die." Guys... we were already dead. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. Adam (representing all of humanity) ate of the tree of death. And only one thing could possibly come from that--death. Jesus didn't come to make "evil" people "good." He came to curse that whole tree of knowledge of good and evil and make it pass of the scene. He came to make dead people alive! He came that we might have LIFE and have it more abundantly. He came that we might have HIS life! On the cross Jesus gave His life FOR us, and He gave His life TO us. See, the truth will set you free (and make you free), but not unless you KNOW the truth. Remember that Paul spoke to the Corinthian church's shame because they KNEW the Word. Jesus said He that HEARETH the Word. Because faith comes from HEARING and hearing from the Word of God. We need to stop condemning people for what they're not aware of--a "sinner" is going to act like a "sinner" because they don't know any better--and we need to start waking people up to what is already true. Not trying to change people, but showing them the change that took place on the cross! And the best way--really the ONLY way--to make people aware of the change that took place on the cross is by sharing with them the gift that we've been given. The best way to show someone that "God loves them" is by YOU loving them. When you're conscious of God's love for you, it manifests THROUGH you. Because God's love is too big to hold inside. It overflows like a river of living water. When we know that we are loved--when we hear the Word... when we know and believe the love of Christ--we then begin to love. Because we then know the change that took place on the cross. We know that we ARE love! Being Christ-conscious means being love-conscious. Being aware--every day in every way--of the love that our Father has for us. That's why He gave us His Spirit, the love receptor. So that we might be able to receive and release the love that He has always had for us. So that we might receive it BY releasing it. Jesus, the light of the world, shined in our hearts so that we could see things clearly. So that we could see who WE are (by seeing who HE is), and see WHERE we are (the Kingdom, not the world), and see why we're here (to be loved and to love one another). So that we could truly live a life filled with love!

What you are conscious of is what you are aware of. What you are focused on. What you are... awake to. In the garden of Eden Adam (humanity) fell asleep. Our natural eyes were opened when we ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but our Spiritual eyes closed. We couldn't see things clearly. We couldn't see GOD clearly. And if you can't see God clearly then you can't see yourself clearly, because you are dead and your life is hid with God in Christ. The day Adam ate of the tree of death... he died. Then, at the appointed time, Jesus came to wake Lazarus (again, humanity) from sleep. To bring us--who were dead in our trespasses and sins--to life. And not just any life, but HIS life; abundant, eternal, everlasting, Resurrection Life. And look at 1 john 3:14, which spells out the difference between death and life: "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death." To be dead--spiritually speaking--is to be without love. And I say "without love" because the only way you can NOT love your brother is if you don't know (and believe) that YOU are loved. You can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you DO have. That's why Paul spoke to their shame when he told the Corinthian church to awake to righteousness and sin not. He said, "...for some have not the knowledge of God..." (1 Corinthians 15:34). He said, "Guys, WE know this. And since we know it... we need to throw it. Since we have it... we need to share it!" That's what Christ-consciouness is all about. It's about knowing and beleiving that we are loved. Seeing God--seeing LOVE--everywhere we look because we are looking with the eyes of grace. Seeing clearly because the light is shining in us, and shining OUT of us. Shining THROUGH us! If I'm awake to righteousness that means I understand that Jesus became sin (and took away my sin) so that I might be the righteousness of God in Him. If I'm awake to righteousness that means I'm awake to--or conscious of--who I really am. Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in MY flesh. Love in MY body. And if I'm aware of love IN my body, that means it can (and will, and does) flow OUT of my body like a river of living water. And watch this: When the light shines the darkness flees. So I don't even have to be conscious of the darkness. I don't need a sin consciousness. I don't need to focus on the "bad stuff," even to fight it. Why should I keep fighting when Jesus already won the war to end all wars? The ONLY fight we need to take part in is the good fight of faith. Laying hold of eternal life. Believing the truth and letting the truth set us free and make us free. Being conscious of the cross and what it means that it is finished! (And what it means that it is finished is that I am conscious of just how loved I am. And because I'm loved... I can love. I AM LOVE!)

"Awake to righteousness, and sin not: for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame" (1 Corinthians 15:34). This was Jesus' mission. He didn't come to make "bad" people "good." He came to make dead people alive. When Adam ate from the tree of death, the natural consequence was that he died. His natural eyes were opened, but his Spiritual eyes closed. He fell asleep, and it wasn't until the cross that the New Day dawned and it was time to wake up. But here's the thing, we always seem to get it backwards. We always seem to think, "In order to awake to righteousness, I need to stop sinning." We always put the emphasis on ourselves, and what we're doing or not doing. But the truth is, Jesus--the Lamb of God--took away the sin of the world. He got rid of unbelief by giving us something (someONE, love) to believe in. So it's not an if-then statement, "If I stop sinning, then I'll awake to righteousness." It's actually, "Awaking to my righteosness--the righteousness of God that I AM in Christ--is what allows me to stop sinning!" That's why Paul said, "Some have not the knowledge of God." Our knowledge of Him, and what He did both for us and as us, is what allows us to wake up. God put Adam (mankind) to sleep and then Jesus woke us up! Jesus said it like this about the dead man, Lazarus (who also represents humanity), "...Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep" (John 11:11). THAT'S why Jesus came! To wake us up. To shift our consciousness away from our dead selves--the old man, the beast nature, the carnal, unregenerated mind--and towards our TRUE selves--the inner man, the New Man, the hidden man of the heart, the mind of Christ... Jesus. When we know the truth, it sets us free because faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God. Paul was saying, "You know what the cross was. You know the work is finished. Now wake up to the truth about yourself!" Guys, being Christ-conscious doesn't mean I'm aware of Jesus over there. It doesn't even mean I'm aware of Jesus right here with me. It's more than that. Christ-consciousness is knowing and believing that He IS my life. He gave His life for me and He gave His life TO me. Now I live this life in the flesh through the faith of Him who died both for me and as me. It's being conscious of Christ and Christ alone. Not Jesus AND me, but Jesus AS me. Awaking to righteousness. He became sin so that I could become the righteousness of God in Him. That's not just what I do... that's who I am. Who He is IN me and AS me. In Him I live and move and have my being and in me HE lives and moves and has His being. The best way I can say it is to quote Jesus Himself, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). That's what it means to be totally away. Totally conscious. And that's what the cross made available to us!

I don't know how else to say it: What you see is what you be. What you magnify is what will manifest. What you believe is what defines your reality. That's why it is so vitally important that we are not self-conscious, but Christ-conscious. (And, really, being Christ-conscious IS being self-conscious, because He is our true idenity.) Let me show you something that I think is important: "And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept..." (Genesis 2:21). The Bible tells us that Adam was put to slept, and he slept. But the Bible never tells us that Adam woke up. I think what happened when Adam fell asleep is that he fell asleep to reality. Because the very next thing we see is that God took woman out of man. All of a sudden there was duality. And then the serpent shows up and attacks the weaker vessel and it's all downhill from there. The woman (or the soul... the mind, will, and emotions) started making decisions, and she started making decisions based on lies that she didn't know any better but to believe. The woman was decieved. When we are ruled by our mind (instead of our heart... instead of the mind of Christ), or our emotions, that's when things start to get messy. When we are ruled by our own will, or when we are self-conscious, when we try to go our own way... that's when we stray from the path. Basically, at that point Adam (the representative of all mankind) was asleep at the wheel. And that's no way to get where you're going. Especially when you consider that Adam was already where he needed to be. He was already in the garden of Eden--the finished work that God told him to dress and keep. Let me say it another way: The serpent told Eve that when she ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil her eyes would be opened and she would be like God. But the truth was she was already like God! When she ate of the tree of death her NATURAL eyes were opened, but her spiritual eyes closed. God had told Adam the truth about the tree of death, "The day you eat of it you will surely die." And that's not punishment. That's the natural consequence of eating of the tree of death. What else besides death could have come from it? But lies were believed--which, to me, is the very definition of sin, "unbelief"--and things went bad. Fast forward to the Apostle Paul. Fast forward to the New Testament. After the cross everything changed. BECAUSE of the cross everything changed. Mankind was asleep at the wheel. Then Paul writes, "Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame" (1 Corinthians 15:34). Paul got it. He knew man had falled asleep, and his message was, "WAKE UP!" The natural eyes that were opened by the tree of knowledge of good and evil couldn't see God. Because they weren't seeing from a pure heart. They were seeing from duality. Light AND dark. But Paul knew the New Day had dawned. The light of the world was shining, and the darkness had fled. Now we can see with the eyes of grace. See things as they truly are!

"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8). I started this Rant series this way and I'm going to end it this way. What we see is what we be. So in the never-ending circle of love feeding on itself we can understand that this is not an if-then statement. It's not, "If you make your heart pure, then you'll see God." Because that puts all of the emphasis on YOU and what YOU'RE doing. The cry of man's heart has always been, "I'm not good enough, and I want to be better." This is because of the lie that the serpent told way back in the garden of Eden. The lie that says you have to do in order to be. The lie that says you're not good enough but through your own effort you can be. All you have to do is this, this, and this. But here's the problem with that idea (over and above the fact that it's a LIE): There's always one thing you lack. No matter how good you act... that's all it ever is. An act. And think about this: You can't have good without evil. They come from the same tree. The tree of death. God isn't insterested in good and evil. He's interested in the other tree--the Tree of Life. Jesus came that we might have LIFE and have it more abundantly. Not just life, but HIS life. Eternal, everlasting, abundant, Resurrection Life. That's why on the cross He gave His life FOR us and and He gave His life TO us. That's why on the cross He gave us the desire of our heart. He made in us a clean (pure) heart and an upright Spirit by the circumcision made without hands--the cutting away the flesh of human effort. He revealed that pure heart IN US. We don't have to make our heart pure, and in fact we can't. But He DID make our heart pure by getting rid of everything that wasn't what a pure heart beats with. A pure heart beats with love, love, and only love. When we try to do it ourselves, in our own strength, there's always one thing we lack. We see the darkness even as we yearn for the light. But when we understand the finished work we lack nothing. We have been blessed with all spiritual blessings. We have been given all things that pertain to life and godliness. We are filled to overflowing with love and there is nothing BUT love inside of us. The light shined and the darkness fled. We've moved past the cultural based "morality" of religion and into the pure, undefiled love of a relationship between Creator and creation. The relationship between loving heavenly Father and beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. Now we can see God as He truly is. Now we can see Him everywhere we look. In everything--and, more importantly, in everyBODY--we look at. When we are filled to overflowing with love, that's when we see things with the eyes of grace. When the light shines, that's when we see things clearly--see things as they truly are. That's when we see God. That's when we see love. And while we are not what we try to be--we are not what we act like--we are what we see. What we behold is what we become. When we see love... we be love. We rise to the level of love that we are shown. Jesus showed us love--showed us the Father--by laying His life down for us, and picking it back up so that we might have it!

It's just like love to feed on itself. When our heart is pure--when we have nothing different than love in our hearts--then we can fill ourselves with the fulness of God. And when we fill ourselves with the fullness (of what we've already been filled with) then it manifests in our lives. So basically, in order to see God--in order to see LOVE--we have let God--let LOVE--see us. We fill ourselves with what's inside us and it overflows out of us. When you see it, you be it, but you can't see it until you be it. If that makes any sense. It's about receiving it and releasing it--but the most real way to receive it is to release it. Because you can't give what you don't have. Faking it until you make it doesn't work. But if you "step out in faith" (and remember, we walk by faith and not by natural sight) and love somebody, that means that you HAVE received it. If you give somebody love, it means you believe (at least on some level) that you ARE loved. And the more you release it, the more you receive it. The more you EXPERIENCE it. A pure heart is what allows you to see God. See Him in yourself, and in your surroundings, and in each other. Having a heart that's full to overflowing with love is what allows that love--that IS inside you--to come out of you. Where we get in trouble is when we start dealing with that false sense of duality. When we start judging things according to "good and evil" or "darkness and light." God is light and there is no darkness in Him at all. He's in you so how could there be any darkness in YOU at all? There can't be. When the light shined--and it shined way back in the beginning when God said, "Let there be light" and then it shined in full manifestation on the cross at Calvalry--when the light shined the darkness fled. We were translated OUT of the power of darkness and into the Kingdom of God's dear Son. We were transformed. We were CONFORMED into His image. We were given a circumcision made without hands and the flesh (of human effort) was cut away from our hearts... revealing God's heart deep inside us! All of the surface stuff, all of the external stuff (the Law, and the demands of behaving a certain way), was cut away. The consuming fire that is love--that is God--consumed everything that wasn't Himself and left only a pure, clean heart. A heart that beats with love, love, and only love. He did the work so that we could finally have the desire of our hearts--by delighting ourselves in Him. He took the veil and tore it in half from top to bottom--giving us complete and total free access to Himself. He cleaned us, washed us, and presented us to Himself as a bride without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing--pure. He emptied us of everything else and filled us with Himself. He did it all so we could get it all. The "all" that He did was the cross. And the "all" that we got... was Him. He took up abode in us. He dwells in us. He lives in us. That means LOVE dwells in us. We dwell in love when we see Him dwelling in us. And, again, when we see it... we be it. When we know and believe that our hearts are pure--filled with nothiing but undefiled love--that's when what's inside us flows out of us like a river of living water. That's when our true identity--Jesus, God in the flesh, love in a body--manifests and we can stop trying to be someone else and just be who we really are!

The only way we can see God--really SEE Him--is with a pure heart. Because a pure heart is a clean heart. A heart that is undefiled by anything different than love. A heart full to overflowing WITH love. And to me, that's the key. Because what's in you--what you BELIEVE is in you--comes out of you. If you know and believe the love of Christ... then the love inside comes out. If you believe that the light of the world is shining IN you then it shines OUT of you. It (He, love) shines THROUGH you. But here's where we seem to get messed up: We think about ourselves (and each other, and everything else) in terms of good and evil. Duality. We think, "I have some good qualities, but then I also have some evil qualities. And I'm trying as hard as I can to make sure the good outweighs the evil." And that's the struggle. But Jesus didn't come so that we might struggle. He came so that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. Look at 1 John 1:5, "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." Did you catch that? God is pure. He's not "good and evil." He's not light AND dark. He's life. And His life is the light of men. Abundant life. Eternal life. Everlasting life. Resurrection life. So we need to stop thinking in terms of "good and evil." That's the completely wrong tree. That's the tree of death, and only one thing can come from the tree of death. Death! Jesus is the Tree of Life. And if He dwells in us--if the light is shining in us--then there can't be any darkness. In Him is no darkness at all. He's in you. In YOU is no darkness at all! Let me quote one of my favorite passages to hopefully sum this up: "That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God" (Ephesians 3:16-19). Filled with the fulness of God. Undefiled by anything else. Pure. Seeing God with that pure heart because there is nothing else at all. The light shined and the darkness fled. Now we are filled with the light and can see everything--everyBODY--clearly. We can see God IN everything and everybody. We can see--and again I mean really SEE, or experience--love in everything and everybody. We can see the height and the length and the depth and the breadth of His love. We can see it (Him, love) everywhere we look. We can connect to one another on the deep Spirit to Spirit, Holy to Holy level where surface stuff stops mattering. We can truly begin to be different parts of the same body. Celebrating our differences and bearing each other up instead of tearing each other down. We can help each other to comprehend what it's all about. And what it's all about... is love!

A pure heart is a clean heart. That's one of the things that was accomplished on the cross. God made in us a clean heart and renewed a right spirit--He revealed HIS heart in our chest by cutting away the flesh of human effort with the circumcision made without hands, and He gave us HIS Holy Spirit so that we could receive and release His love. And that's why--that's HOW--the pure in heart can see God. We see God when we see love. And we see love through the eyes of grace. Through the Holy Spirit--our love receptor. A pure heart, a clean heart, is an undefiled heart. There's nothing in God's heart except love. There's no mixture. No duality. Look at Dictonary.com's definition of pure, "free from anything of a different, inferior, or contaminating kind; free from extraneous matter." So full of God's love--the God who IS love--that there isn't room for anything else. That's one of the things we sometimes miss in Jesus' parable in Matthew chapter 13. He likens the Kingdom of heaven to a grain of mustard seed. The mustard seed is the only seed that cannot cross pollinate in order to become something else. A mustard seed is pure. And from that pure seed grows a tree--the Tree of Life. See, in the garden of Eden there were two trees, and one of the trees dealt with two things (the tree of knowledge of good and evil). That tree wasn't pure. It couldn't see God, it could only see exterior actions. And when Jesus came to the fig tree (which represents that tree of death) He cursed it because even though there were leaves on it--even though it LOOKED good--there was no fruit on it. THAT tree couldn't produce anything. Before Jesus finished the work on the cross people saw Him... but they couldn't SEE Him. They didn't have a pure heart. They struggled with actions. Good and evil. Surface stuff. What was buried underneath--the inner man, the hidden man of the heart--couldn't be seen. So Jesus cleaned up our mess. He cut away the flesh. God--who is a consuming fire--burned away all the chaff and revealed Himself to us and in us and through us and as us! He showed us what was pure by washing away everything else. Hebrews 10:22 puts it like this, "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." Did you catch that? Pure water. The living water that flows out of our bellies (or hearts). He washed us with it, and filled us to overflowing with it. He took out all the contaminants of an evil conscious and showed us that pure heart. Showed us how to see Him. And when we see Him, we be Him. We behold what we become. A pure heart is what allows us to see God--in ourselves and in each other. A heart that is free from anything different than love. A heart that beats with love, love, and only love!