As He Is part 1
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!