ARMED WITH THE MIND OF CHRIST

“Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.  And having been perfected ...” Jesus modeled the perfecting life we are to live before the Father as a son. “Suffered” means not only adverse and affliction, but also the suffering of Self denial, denying Self the tempting desires of life in this world: “For all that is in the world -- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life -- is not of the Father but is of the world.” And, “He Himself has suffered, being tempted.” For, “In all things He had to be made like His brethren.” Jesus was made exactly like us so we could emulate His life, the overcoming life He demonstrated.

 Obedience under pressure produced perfection in the man Jesus... and it will do the same for you... and for me! “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps ... Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin” Wow! Now there is a conditional promise worthy of all we may be called to endure. We too learn obedience in “suffering” the pressures... the speed-bumps of life, becoming spiritually mature as we die to Self releasing the nature of the perfect Son within to live out His perfect life in and through us as our life. And God will, “after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.”

“LET THIS MIND BE IN YOU WHICH WAS ALSO IN CHRIST JESUS”

(1 Jn. 2:16; Heb. 5:8-9, 2:17-18; Matt. 5:48; 1Thess. 3:3; 2 Cor. 4:17;

2 Tim. 3:12; Phil. 1:29, 2;5; 1 Peter 2:21, 4:1, 5:10; and others)

EAGERLY WAITING FOR JESUS

We live between the times, the Cross in our rear view mirror as we move forward in time toward our Savior’s second coming, fixed at God’s timing in our future. Saints are, in a word, “waiting” for their Lord’s return to fetch them to their forever home. The writer of Hebrews, after speaking of the greatness of our Lord’s redemptive sacrifice ushering in the “new and better covenant” of the New Testament (Chapter nine), commented  in verse twenty-eight on how we should be waiting through the use of the Greek word  apekdechomai. This compound word means to watch for, to wait for, expect, to be about to receive, and expresses the saint’s lifestyle of patient expectation based on our Blessed Hope. “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time…” (NKJV) Stated in the present participle apekdechomai expresses continuous action into the future, a continuously expectant lifestyle. The Amplified Bible captures the full force of the Greek text: Christ will appear a second time to “those who are eagerly, constantly, and patiently waiting for and expecting Him.”

Christ Himself is the content of our expectation, our only hope of eternal salvation. Apekdechomai therefore characters Christian life – our “waiting” – as one of expectation of the greatest climatic event the world will ever witness, an event which gives this life and the whole of creation true meaning. And, do not let the elephant in the room go unnoticed! Christ will appear only (implied) to those who eagerly, constantly, and patiently wait for and expect Him. This truth is borne out by many scriptures and parables. As the Apostle Paul said, the Crown of Righteousness is given to “all who have loved His (Christ’s) appearing.” (2 Tim. 4:8)

EAGERLY… CONSTANTLY… PATIENTLY…

WAITING FOR AND EXPECTING HIM!

DADDY KNOWS

God is all knowing, ever present, and all powerful, three attributes that God and only God possesses, distinctly inherent parts of His divine nature. As the repository of all knowledge, words, and thoughts God literally knows everything that was, is, and will ever be… infinite knowledge. As the ever present God He is everywhere, throughout time and eternity, at the very same time… infinite presence. And, as the all powerful God, He is able to do anything, anywhere, anytime, all the time, at the same time… infinite power.  Selah… pause and calmly contemplate the awesomeness of our Father!

A Christian pilot flying a Jet at thirty thousand feet suddenly experienced engine shut down, spiraling out of control toward earth. Facing sure doom in mere seconds the pilot cried out “Lord, help me”! Our eternal Daddy, who knows the beginning and the end of all things, is not bound by time and is never surprised, rushed or forced into action. You see, God dwells outside our four dimensional space-time continuum in a humanly unperceivable infinitely dimensional spaceless-timeless eternal continuum we can’t begin to define let alone understand. Before the foundations of the world... before His seven day creation wonder, God foreknew this pilot’s dilemma, heard his prayer and answered, countless millions of years before the event occurred in time. Ditto God’s saints: God resolved all our adversity, healed all our afflictions, solved all of our problems and difficulties, and gave us complete restoration eons ago. We human kind live in the “Present” with the Past behind us as a memory, and  the Future ahead of us as an expectation.  God lives The Past, Present, and Future simultaneously in timeless eternity… all at the same time. We space-time dwellers simply have to learn patience...  and trust.  God’s answer to our prayer is waiting for us in our future, waiting for us to arrive at it in time.  You see… God owns time! Awesome!

GOD OWNS TIME

“FOR THIS YOU KNOW”

This phrase occurs only once in scripture (Eph. 5:5) declaring emphatically something all saints should know. “For you know this”: No person who practices sexual immorality (fornication) of any sort, or morally impurity (uncleanness) in thought or life, or one who greedily desires (covetousness) to have more, worshiping (idolatry) the god of wealth, will have any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God... “For because of these things the wrath of God comes.” This phrase is a direct appeal to the saint’s conscious understanding of the eternally assured unalterable incompatibility of such sins with our inheritance in the Kingdom of God. We know because God has written it in our heart. The Apostle Paul wrote this to the church in Ephesus in 60/61 AD. What is commonplace in the 21st century church has been damned from the get-go!

The Amplified Bible makes God’s expectations crystal clear: “But immorality (sexual vice) and all impurity of lustful, rich, wasteful living, or greediness must not even be named among you, as is fitting and proper among the saints, God’s consecrated people. Let there be no filthiness, obscenity, indecency, nor foolish, sinful, silly and corrupt talk, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting or becoming; but instead voice your thankfulness to God. For be sure of this: that no person practicing sexual vice or impurity in thought or in life, or one who is covetous, who has lustful desire for the property of others and is greedy for gain -- for he in effect is an idolater -- has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one delude and deceive you with empty excuses and groundless arguments for these sins, for through these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of rebellion and disobedience. So do not associate or be sharers with them.”

“LET IT NOT EVEN BE NAMED AMONG YOU”

(Ephesians 5:3-7, Amplified Bible and NKJV)

IN HIM

Our experience of God’s presence is not more real when we “feel” something – goosebumps and the like – and less real when we feel nothing, or at least it shouldn’t be. Our experience of God’s presence should be based on our oneness with the Godhead. Saints, our union in the Godhead is a constantly abiding reality. We are in Christ, Christ is in God, and Christ is in us… so God is likewise in us. And, we are the temple, the Holies of holies, of the Godhead, the place where God’s Spirit dwells: As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.” Our union with God is all of His doing and nothing of our doing, an act of amazing grace, imparting divine life into vessels wrought with imperfection, so that His Life might become our life, “for in Him we live and move and have our being.” Our life is “In Him”, nowhere else… but In Him. So… whether we “feel” anything or not is of little consequence and even less importance. The lack of feelings cannot in the least inhibit the amazing reality of our ever present God who states emphatically in His word: “Fear not for I AM with you … “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Never? Never! Nothing can hinder, restrain, or prevent God’s presence from overshadowing His saints.

Endnote: Feelings are, for the most part, what we do to our self when we acknowledge God’s presence, and the emotional circumstances surrounding the experience play a significant role, such as during worship or prayer. An overreliance on feelings as an indicator of God’s presence can erode our faith in God’s ever abiding presence, a bad thing! Our experience of God’s presence should be our knowledge of His word mixed with our faith in its undeniability: God is always present with us… Period! When feeling come we should embrace them as icing on God’s cake – unexpected but appreciated -- never forgetting God’s cake is awesome plain… without icing.

“THE LORD IS MY HELPER; I WILL NOT FEAR”

(Jn. 14:11,20; 1 Cor. 3:16-17, 6:19-20; 2 Cor. 6; 16; acts 17:28; Is. 41:10; Heb. 13:5-6)

CHRIST IS OUR PORTION

Partaker: “One who has a portion, participates in, possesses or shares the nature or attributes of something.”: “For we have become partakers of Christ.” The Christian life is not an imitation of Christ; it is a participation in Christ. An “imitator” mimics the nature of Christ, professing a reality they do not possess. A “partaker” allows the nature of Christ to take control of their life and flow through them as their life. Self masquerades as Christlike, but only the indwelling Holy Spirit is Christlike. To be a partaker Self, our carnal fleshly nature, must give up the reins of control to the Holy Spirit of God so He can release the Christ-Life within.

Exceedingly great and precious promises have been given to us “that through these we may be partakers of the divine nature.” Christ is our portion. We participate in His life as He lives His life through us. We possess His indwelling nature... His DNA. At least this is the way our life is supposed to be lived. Saints, the real question is have we “become partakers of Christ”? To what extent are we possessing and releasing His nature -- His character, His virtues, His values, His attitudes -- in place of our old self-consumed Self-nature? We must transcend the natural realm, immersing ourselves in the supernatural nature dwelling within, relinquishing our Self-Life to be possessed by the Christ-Life. Saints, this is our overwhelming need, the only thing of importance after salvation, the only way to effectively fulfill God’s plans and purposes for our earth-life. We must relinquish control of our life through submission to the Lordship of Christ and death of Self: *To “be conformed to the image (nature) of His Son.” *To “become partakers of Christ”, partakers of His nature. *To “be renewed in the spirit of our mind.” *To “be transformed by the renewing of our mind.” *To “have the mind of Christ.” *To fully become Christlike! Nothing else will satisfy our Daddy...

 PARTAKERS OF CHRIST

(Heb. 3:14; 2 Peter 1:4; Eph. 4:23; Rom. 12:2, 8:29; 1 Cor. 2:16)

DEATH IS STILL OUR DESTINY

Saints are called upon to move against disease and suffering in prayer:

*Even though “for now we see in a mirror, dimly”

*Even though healing does not always occur

*Even though healing does not restore our glorified-body nature lost in man’s fall

*Even though healing does not stop the insidious disease of aging

*Even though we should be “eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body”

*Even though healing delays our translation through death’s door into the presence of the Lord, which is “far better”

*Even though healing is only a Band-Aid, a temporary fix, the desire of an earth-bound mindset

Hear the words of the Apostle Paul: “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better … For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven … Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee … We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”

Saints are still called upon to move against disease and suffering in prayer. But remember, death is the destiny of every saint until the Lord comes to Snatch Away His Jewels... So, we have to die sometime… And, we have to die of something…

“WE HAVE A BUILDING FROM GOD,

A HOUSE NOT MADE WITH HANDS,

ETERNAL IN THE HEAVENS”

(1 Cor. 13:12; Rom. 8:23; 2 Cor. 5:1-8; Phil. 1:21-23)