The Daily Word of Righteousness

Three Aspects of the Rest of God, #7

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, (Colossians 2:9—NIV)

In addition to His creative work God poured all of His Life into Christ. In Jesus dwells all the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form. Jesus now is Heir of all that God has planned.

Jesus is ready to pour His Life into each member of His Bride, His Body. As He does we become coheirs with the Lord Jesus of all God has planned.

Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's. (I Corinthians 3:22,23)

What does all of this mean to us in practical terms? It means everything! Because of Adam's sin each one of us was born into the world with a willingness to live his or her life apart from God. Throughout our lifetime we seek our own security, our own pleasure, our own achievement. We attempt to create our own heaven and earth. We do all of this apart from God.

If it is true that God has planned our life from the beginning, knowing before we were born where we fit in the new world of righteousness that is to come, then our efforts to create our own heaven and earth are misdirected, confusing, and fruitless.

Given that God has foreseen all events to the coming down to the new earth of the new Jerusalem, given that God has a plan for each individual, given that God knows the very hairs of our head and the sparrow that falls to the ground, given that we have no knowledge of any of this, then the appropriate way to conduct our life is to cease from our own works and enter God's Sabbath.

If all has been designed, if all has been finished in the Divine vision, if God is good and is seeking our good, and if it is true that we have no power to resist Him whether His intentions toward us are bad or good, then wisdom tells us that every decision we make should be made in prayer, seeking to understand God's will for us. (Calvary reveals clearly that God's intentions toward us are good and so there is no doubt about this.)

None of this is to say we are to become passive and wait for God to move us. We are not to become puppets. We are not to wait as does a medium for the communication of spirits. We are to plunge ahead in all of our carnality, doing whatever is set before us with all the strength we have. But meanwhile we are to pray mightily, watching for the leading of the Lord, cheerfully waiting on the Lord as He frustrates our intentions, defers our intense desires for many years, and keeps us in a detestable prison.

Do you see the vision? You are to do all you can but you are to commit your way to the Lord. You must read the Scriptures, pray, assemble with fervent brothers and sisters, give, serve, put to death through the Spirit of God the passions and appetites of your flesh, and do all else that the Apostles have commanded in their epistles. If you do these things diligently and conscientiously you will find yourself flowing with the wisdom and energy of God as His eternal plan is unfolding.

To be continued.