Tag: Spiritual maturity

Through Isaiah the Lord asks something very interesting.

¹  Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest?” Isaiah 66:1 (NKJV)

The obvious answer is that nothing we build or create can contain Him or be a place for Him to rest. Yet what He did when Israel journeyed in the wilderness was have them build a place where His presence would dwell and rest. This place was the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle of Moses. His presence dwelt and rested between the wings of the cherubim over the Mercy Seat on the Ark of the Covenant. Later Solomon built the first temple in Jerusalem and God’s glory came and filled the temple when it was dedicated and He was there in the Holy of Holies over the Mercy Seat (2 Chron.7:1-14).

Given the Tabernacle of Moses and the Temple of Solomon predated Isaiah we need to better understand Isaiah’s prophetic point. In seeking to understand Isaiah there is something else to consider.

⁴¹  “Now therefore, Arise, O LORD God, to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your strength. Let Your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, And let Your saints rejoice in goodness.” 2 Chronicles 6:41 (NKJV)

⁸  Arise, O LORD, to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your strength. ⁹  Let Your priests be clothed with righteousness, And let Your saints shout for joy. ¹⁰  For Your servant David’s sake, Do not turn away the face of Your Anointed. Psalm 132:8-10 (NKJV)

The passages above both speak of Yahweh arising, ‘to Your resting place.’ We generally arise FROM rest, not TO rest, yet scripture says the opposite. The idea was Yahweh wanted somewhere not just to be but a place to rest in and upon. As already noted, Isaiah raised His prophetic point after the Tabernacle of Moses and the Temple of Solomon had been erected so clearly Isaiah was looking to something else. That something else began long after Isaiah had stepped from time into eternity.

Whether he knew it or not Isaiah’s question pointed forward to the birth of the church. Stephen (Acts. 7:48-49) and Paul (Acts 17:24) both affirm that God does not dwell in physical structures, temples made with human hands. What we know from the New Testament is that He now dwells in flesh and blood temples.

¹⁶  Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16 (NKJV)

¹⁹  Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? ²⁰  For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NKJV)

So, this answers part of Isaiah’s prophetic question, He dwells in His body birthed through Jesus death and resurrection. He made His own house. Now, we need to answer the other part, are we walking with Him in such a way that in us He can arise TO His rest? Though Jesus is now dwelling in us through the Holy Spirit is He relationally at rest in us?

Imagine walking through the forest along a well maintained trail and looking to one side and seeing signs of a faint path in the woods that is covered with dead branches and underbrush. It is an old path but to explore it will require a fresh clearing of the path for it to be usable.

Similarly, a path in the church that is given little focus and is largely overgrown is an understanding of the corporate nature of His body. So to that end let’s clear away some theological underbrush so that we can see this path and explore it.

We may at times reference Paul’s use of the different parts of a body in exploring spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12) but we need to go beyond think of our role/body specifically and see our in His body when we hear the term. In the West we live in a very individualistic culture, however the New Testament (NT) was written in the context of a culture that focused on community over individuals. While every individual is important and of incredible value because of Jesus sacrifice, the focus of the NT, just like the first century culture, is where we as individuals fit into His body, the larger community. We are called to find our place in the body to serve and encourage the other parts of the body (Gal. 5:13, Heb. 10:24-25).

Here is a sampling of verses that highlight this truth.

⁴  Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, ⁵  you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:4-5 (NKJV)

²⁰  having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone, ²¹  in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, ²²  in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Ephesians 2:20-22 (NKJV)

¹⁴  For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵  from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, ¹⁶  that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, ¹⁷  that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸  may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height– ¹⁹  to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. ²⁰  Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, Ephesians 3:14-20 (NKJV)   

Peter is saying we are individual stones in a larger building. The ‘you’ in Ephesians 2 and 3 are both plural, not singular. Paul’s prayer is for a corporate rather than individual experience. He wants us to know that the church corporate is what we are being built into and that our growth is to be into Jesus. He is the foundation and the purpose of our growth, as Peter also notes, is that we are shaped to align with the cornerstone. We need to look like and reflect Jesus to properly fit into His body. Paul also prays that we as the church corporately would experience the width, length, depth and height of Jesus love.

So, if we want to grow let’s walk a corporate path, looking for ways to build up and serve His body because when one grows we all grow.

Your will be done. This is a simple statement from Matthew 6:10. Living by it is not as simple. There are many examples in scripture of people who struggled to walk in God’s will. Among them Abraham, David and Jeremiah. We are in good company if we struggle to always submit our wills to His, yet that is our assignment.

Embracing His will means that in difficult situation we need to look to Him for direction. We look to Him because He not only wants us to see with His eyes, He wants us to see with His heart. A great example of this is the well-known Ezekiel 37 passage.

¹  The hand of the LORD came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. ²  Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry. ³  And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” So I answered, “O Lord GOD, You know.” ⁴  Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!’ Ezekiel 37:1-4 (NKJV)

The context is Ezekiel being given another prophetic assignment. He had just been directed to prophesy to the mountains and now he gets dry bones! When we read further in the passage we know that the bones represent that nation of Israel and that when Ezekiel prophesies as directed that the bones come to life and take on flesh. An impossible situation is changed when Ezekiel accepts his assignment to release life, a nation is restored.

It is easy to read this, be amazed and keep going. Yet there is a message for each of us. He has given us authority (Matt. 28:18-20). He has told us that life and death are in the power of the tongue (Prov. 18:21). We carry His presence (Col. 1:27). Finally, He regularly brings us to dry bones to see how we will respond. Our dry bones may not be a dead nation or even a broken city. Our assignment may be the one we run into while shopping, our spouse, our neighbour, the person beside us on the bus. The size of the assignment isn’t as important as our response.  

The principle of speaking life is not a suggestion to sugar-coat everything and ignore reality, it is a call to walk like Jesus. Jesus confronted sin and evil many times in His earthly walk, but He always kept His focus on the bigger assignment, laying down His life that others may live. He did this daily and finally. In the same way as we pray ‘Your will be done’ each day we are being given the opportunity to release life into situations around us, are we taking them?

Speak Life by Toby Mac https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeBv9r92VQ0

In a number of places in scripture there is an exhortation to wake up!

¹  Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city! For the uncircumcised and the unclean Shall no longer come to you. Isaiah 52:1 (NKJV)

¹¹  And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. Romans 13:11 (NKJV)

¹⁴  Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.” Ephesians 5:14 (NKJV)

One reason for the call to wake up is that the Lord wants us to see the bigger picture, to understand that our actions have consequences. Psalm 51 is David’s famous psalm of repentance, probably almost as well known as the 23 Psalm. While most of us could likely quote a portion of Psalm 51 the last two verses are likely not the portion we would quote.

¹⁸  Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem. ¹⁹  Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, With burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then they shall offer bulls on Your altar. Psalm 51:18-19 (NKJV)

In the Psalm David acknowledges his sin, asks for purging, cleansing and forgiveness then seems to shift gears in closing off this famous psalm. David’s focus shifts from addressing his individual sin to asking the Lord to do good to Zion and build the walls of Jerusalem because  David recognized that his sin not only affected him personally, it exposed Jerusalem to danger. In the same way, all actions have consequences. Whether public or private, if what we are doing is good we are extending His kingdom, if we are engaging in sin we are strengthening the domain of darkness. Hence the closing focus of Psalm 51 and why Paul addressed the issues in the Corinthian church in the following manner.

³⁴  Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. 1 Corinthians 15:34 (NKJV)

So, if we are asleep let’s wake up. If we are awake, let’s remain alert and continue to see His kingdom extended in our sphere of influence.

Find Me Faithful by Jenn Johnson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPOGEjKuLT4

When we are rightly joined to the Head we learn to live from His perspective rather than ours. We are sensitive to hear what the Spirit is saying and live from heaven toward earth. One way to assess our adherence to living from His perspective is whether we are following the guidelines of His word. Yet, there is more than the letter of the law.

When we go beyond the letter of the law we learn to assess both what we are doing and why we are doing it. A simple example. Recently I saw a post on Facebook and the poster was referring to poor customer service at a well-known store. While the complaint was real and appeared justified when I went to comment on the post I felt a check in my spirit. My comment would have been true yet and it would likely have been appreciated. My comment would have also helped entrenched the poster and other commenters in a negative mindset. Which is not what we are called to do as an ambassador for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20). We are called to represent Jesus not our opinions.

One way to embrace Jesus perspective and represent Him is to embrace the twofold injunction in Philippians 4. ⁸  Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy – meditate on these things. ⁹  The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:8-9 (NKJV)

Paul says think this way and act this way. If we are thinking about things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely and the like then we won’t participate in some types of talk even though they may be true. This isn’t about degrees of harm, it is about obedience to the Holy Spirit as He leads and guides.

We are likely familiar with the idea of Jesus being the head of the body.

¹⁵  He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶  For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. ¹⁷  And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. ¹⁸  And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. Colossians 1:15-18 (NKJV)

In the above passage it is clear that all things point to Jesus. Everything was created both by Him and for Him. This includes the visible and invisible. While we may recognize that the creatures in the spirit realm are part of the invisible, another aspect to consider is that the structure of relationships is part of the invisible realm Jesus created.

While not obvious or visible Jesus in fact created the ways we can relate to Him. Look at what He says. ¹⁵  No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. John 15:15 (NKJV)

Here Jesus is speaking to the 11 (Judas has left to betray Him) and He identifies a change in His relationship to them. What is clear in the text is the relationship changed over time. I believe this is Jesus desire for all of us and it is not automatic, particularly given His warning in Matthew 7 that people could appear to follow Him but not really know Him (Matt. 7:21-23).

Jesus has built into the structure of relationships that when we seek Him and choose to spend time with Him we have the privilege of becoming His friend. I think if we could see in the spirit realm we would be able to see a change in us, we would know when we moved from servant to friend.

What would others see if they could look at us?

We are likely familiar with the exhortation to walk in the Spirit yet there is a need to see the link between walking in the Spirit and our walk in the word, the scriptures.

¹  I will praise You with my whole heart; Before the gods I will sing praises to You. ²  I will worship toward Your holy temple, And praise Your name For Your lovingkindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word above all Your name. Psalm 138:1-2 (NKJV)

Here we are told that the Father has exalted His word above His name. Many want to be led by the Spirit, as do I, yet our walk in the Spirit needs to be anchored in His word. To use an analogy think of our walk in the Spirit like a kite flying high in the sky. The kite can soar, dip, flutter, swing, all because it is anchored by the person flying it, in this case, the scriptures. Release the kite and it will soon crash.

In a similar manner many have crashed over the years because they exalted their experience over the scriptures. The scriptures do not tell us whom to marry nor what house or car to buy. They do however give us principles by which to weigh what we are hearing or sensing in our decision making.

There is an expression, ‘you can’t give what you don’t have.’ I have learned some things over the years and can share them with others. In terms of our individual walk it is harder to be led by the Spirit if we have not taken the time to sow the scriptures into our lives. The Spirit says to us;

¹⁷  Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise, And apply your heart to my knowledge; ¹⁸  For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you; Let them all be fixed upon your lips, Proverbs 22:17-18 (NKJV)

¹⁵  And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. ¹⁶  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Colossians 3:15-16 (NKJV)

So, as we seek to soar in the Spirit may we deeply value first being anchored in His word.