Inside Out part 2
"But John intervened: 'I'm baptizing you here in the river. The main character in this drama, to whom I'm a mere stagehand, will ignite the kingdom life, a fire, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He's going to clean house--make a clean sweep of your lives. He'll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he'll put out with the trash to be burned'" (Luke 3:16-17 MSG). I know I just used this verse in the "Ignition" Rant series, but I'm kind of stuck on it. And my pastor once told me, "If you get stuck on something, preach it until your heart is empty on it." I just feel like if we could really get this truth... that it is the finished work of Jesus that changed EVERYTHING... we would be able to stop trying to change anything. We would be able to rest instead of struggling with works and labor. See, when Jesus drew us out of the power of darkness and into His Kingdom... when He ignited the Kingdom life inside us... it was a fire that consumed everything except itself. The Holy Spirit filled us so completely that it squeezed everything else out. There's no room for anything else. Or let me say it like this: "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" (1 John 1:5). Which makes it even more glorious when we understand that WE are the light of the world! As He is, so are we in this world! That means in US there is no darkness at all. And listen, I know sometimes it LOOKS dark. But that's why we walk by faith and not by sight. We have moved out of the appearance realm--the senses realm where outside circumstances dictate reality to us--and we have moved into the most holy place where we know the truth, and the truth has set us free and (more importantly) MADE us free! When the light shines it doesn't change things. Jesus' work on the cross already changed everything. When the light shines it reveals the change that took place 2,000 years ago! When the light shines it reveals things to be in divine order. Again--it doesn't PUT things in divine order, because that would mean things aren't already IN divine order, and they are--it simply reveals thing as they truly are. If we're trying to change things there are two problems: 1. We don't believe that things have already changed. 2. We believe WE--through the flesh, or human effort--can change things. We're trying to work from the outside in. And that will never work. Because it's not by might, not by power, but ONLY by the Spirit of God! His Spirit IS the Kingdom. So we can't experience the Kingdom without it. The Kingdom is within us because His Spirit lives within us. And that's where the "change" comes from. Not from outside in, but from inside out. It's not really a "change" at all. It's a manifestation of what is already true. It's what's already inside simply coming out!