The Mystery part 1
I like to be right about things. Not a state secret, eh? It's surely better than the alternative. But the thing about God is that He doesn't want us to lean on our own understanding. He wants us to trust HIM. He wants us to know that He's in control. Be still and know that HE is God, right? Every time man tries to do it himself, it goes south fast. But every time man puts it in God's hands it becomes exactly what it's supposed to be. I talk a lot about God equipping and empowering us. Because I believe that's what He does. But He equips us and empowers us... to love. By filling us up... with love. With Himself. It's the power of God working in us to will and to do of HIS good pleasure. It's not God winding us up and letting us go. Giving us a pat on the back and a kick in the butt and saying, "Good luck. Don't screw up." It's God doing what HE wants to do in us, and through us, and as us. It's Jesus living HIS abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love (one more time) in us, and through us, and as us. It's all about the journey, not so much the destination. It's about God working in mysterious ways... because He works through people. And people are pretty mysterious. Let me quote some Bible before I run out of room. "But we speak of the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory" (1 Corinthians 2:7). We speak of widsom... in a mystery. We see... through a glass darkly. We have an unction from the Spirit and we know all things... but we're continually coming into the understanding of that which we know. It's all about letting God reveal Himself to us. Here, "Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:51). Or, amd this is actually my key passage for this Rant series, "Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:26-27). The mystery. Who am I? Where am I? Why am I here? (Answered, at least in part, in "The Answer Trilogy" books I wrote, if you can forgive me for a shameless plug.) And the answer, in a word: Jesus. Christ in you. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in YOUR flesh. Love in YOUR body. The mystery... that has been revealed. It was hidden, not it is made manifest. Christ in you. The hope of glory. The hope of REVEALED glory. The outerworking of the inner man. What's inside--what's REALLY inside, which is the love of God--coming out. Naturally. As we know and believe that it's in there. As we receive it and release it. As we experience and enjoy the gift we've been given... by giving it away. And that's why it's a mystery--it seems to make no sense. The first is last? The last is first? It's more blessed to give than to receive? Humble yourself to be exalted? Give everything you have in order to have something? But that's point. The Kingdom is different from the world. It should be. It has to be. It's a mystery because you can't figure it out with the "carnal" mind. You have to let the mind of Christ (that's already in you) BE in you. You have to let God reveal it to you. Let God reveal Himself to you. Let God reveal LOVE to you!