IN our selves, but not OF our selves...

"I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world."  (John 17:14-16)

Four times during this portion of Jesus's prayer to the Father just prior to His crucifixion, Jesus makes the supernatural distinction between Himself and His followers, and the world: They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  Today, many who are disciples of the risen Jesus have either heard or probably used the phrase themselves of being "IN the world, but not OF it." 

So briefly, what does it mean to be IN something but not OF it; in this case, the world?  Please share your thoughts,  but what this means to me is that one may be existing within a particular environment or  in certain surroundings but not bear the same characteristics of those surroundings...not share the same overarching philosophies of that environment...not walk in the same "way" of that world.  

Soooooo...based on that definition, it occurred to me that as Believers, we can, should, and need to also apply that saying to ourselves:

We are IN our selves, but not OF our selves...

One of the biggest tragedies that occurred when Adam and Eve chose to listen to satan rather than believe God's care for them (Genesis 3:1-6) was an ushering into the world of yes, Sin, but as a result of Sin the unleashed "terror" of being imprisoned by self-focus:

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.  (Genesis 3:7)

Can you even imagine?!  Prior to them being made aware of their nakedness, and thus their vulnerability, Adam and Eve probably walked in a way that we will never know (apart from a supernatural release - Isaiah 61:1): without that ongoing, gnawing, yet automatic "pull" toward self-knowledge, self-gratification, self-preservation...

Yet once our eyes are opened (a second time!) to the Reality of Jesus and the Truth that He can and will send His Spirit to live within us (Galatians 4:6), we have the opportunity to begin being set free from the prison of self-focus; that is, being OF our selves.  If you'll bear with me a few moments longer, please let me explain using God's Word, how we CAN in fact be IN our selves but not OF our selves this side of heaven.  

We are IN ourselves:

We are still fragile creatures, flesh and bone -- that is the individual "environment" or "surroundings" which we inhabit...

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 
(2 Corinthians 4:7)

I ask that when I am present I need not be bold with the confidence with which I propose to be courageous against some, who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh...  (2 Corinthians 10:2)

whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.   (James 4:14)

This "earthen vessel," this "flesh" that we inhabit, is but a vapor and is a fragile bundle of desires, feelings, emotions, thoughts, and resulting actions.  Without Jesus living within, not only do we live IN this package, but we bear the characteristics of it...succumb to whatever philosophies happen to sound good to "it"...and walk primarily in a direction based on the "guidance" of those thoughts, feelings, and emotions...we are both IN and OF our selves.  In fact, due to being of one's self as well as in it we in essence are prisoners of that self; and like Adam and Eve, our eyes are automatically directed first and foremost to that self. 

but not OF ourselves:

For those who have received Jesus, we no longer have to bear the characteristics of that fallen flesh, that creature who responds so easily to cravings, emotions, desires and the like...some good and others not so.  For there is now One Who is living within us Who has "adopted" our environment and intends to do some house cleaning to it!  And this so that we can soon bear the likeness of Him...He Who was and is totally surrendered and selfless (1 John 3:2-3, 16). 

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.   (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.   (Galatians 2:20)

 

For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you.  (2 Corinthians 3:4)

 

Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.   (2 Corinthians 4:16)

That inner man is "Christ in us, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:26-27) and is He of Whom we can now be "of" -- bearing His characteristics (e.g., Galatians 5:22-23); believing in the ULTIMATE Truth which is the Reality of His Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 3:6, 14-16; Matthew 22:32; John 17:3); and walking in His most excellent way, which brings us closer and closer to Perfect Love (1 Corinthians 13).  Satan wants us to focus on what/who we are IN ourselves - the part that is wasting away, sometimes losing heart, the fragile vessel that is affected by feelings, emotions, and circumstances.  But now, because of the Holy Spirit within, we can slowly have our eyes turned to the One we are now OF: the One Whose Life is being renewed within us daily, the One whose strength compensates for that fragile vessel's weakness, and the One Whose Power and Love have been given to those who believe.  It is this same One, Jesus the Messiah, by His Holy Spirit, Who reminds us:  

 

You are OF GOD, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world...  (1 John 4:4)

May we BELIEVE this Truth and LOOK TO AND LIVE AS the One Whom we are now OF.  

(And man, do I pray this for myself too...)

In His Precious and Mighty Name,
Terri

Glory to the Reality of Jesus!

Hello.  Oh what a luxury it is to be able to read God's Living Word and to be able to worship and "hear" Him and "feel" His Presence in the midst of it all!  We need to NEVER be deceived that ANYTHING else can nourish us as we need to be nourished other than by God's Holy Spirit - His Eternal Flame - let all else upon which we "try" to feed ourselves become like chaff or straw so that we can be brought to that necessary place of hunger for that which ONLY God can give...

 

"Behold, I send My messenger,
And he will prepare the way before Me.
And the Lord, whom you seek,
Will suddenly come to His temple,
Even the Messenger of the covenant,
In whom you delight.
Behold, He is coming,”
Says the Lord of hosts.

 

“But who can endure the day of His coming?
And who can stand when He appears?
For He is like a refiner’s fire
And like launderers’ soap.
He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver;
He will purify the sons of Levi,
And purge them as gold and silver,
That they may offer to the Lord
An offering in righteousness.

 

“Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem
Will be pleasant to the Lord...
(Malachi 3:1-4)

 

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:...  (Matthew 1:1)

 

Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament and precedes Matthew, the first book in the New Testament, which lays out the arrival of our Messiah on earth.  And oh what a smooth flow it is from one to the other. 

In Malachi chapter 3 (above), God so clearly announces His intentions to send His Son, our necessary sacrifice and Savior, to rescue us from our hearts turning from our Creator, our God. 

Prior to chapter 3, God laments about and severely rebukes the priests, those who were specially appointed to represent Him to the people.  To speak His Truth to them....(Malachi 2:1-2, 7-9).

No doubt, there are worse-than-critical problems in the institution called "the church" these days: that which, under the leadership of elders and deacons, is supposed to likewise be a place where congregants can come and feed on the Word of God...to truly hear from God Himself...to be set free by His Words of Truth (John 8:31-32).  We have come a far cry from the time when David spoke about how he delighted in the law of God (Psalm 119:174) and how the Truth flowing from God's Word enabled one to truly hear (Romans 10:17) and to be freed from the lies and deceptions of this world and of the enemy, satan (1 John 2:15-17; John 8:43-45; Acts 9:17-18).  We are receiving, overall, what Bob Dylan would call a "Watered Down Love" when those who claim to be spokespersons for God become captivated by the world and lured by satan and offer a message not of Truth, but what congregants' (fleshy and old-natured) itching ears want to hear...which amounts to nothing at best, poison to our souls at worst (2 Timothy 4:2-4). 

 

But this is a whole other story...or devotional...and one that is thankfully coming out more and more through solid Christian sources who both see and know the need for us to hear the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing BUT the Truth. 

 

Yet I believe that the anger expressed by God in Malachi extends to all of His Creation (not just the leaders in the church) for choosing to or allowing ourselves to be deceived into worshiping - giving our lives to - everything and everyone else but Him (Matthew 16:25-26)...the One Who Loves us with a love greater than we could ever understand (John 15:13), and Who would...and did...die for us...(Romans 5:8).

 

...which is right where the beginning of Malachi chapter 3 comes in! 

 

The "Messenger of the covenant (promise)"...the "He" who "is coming"...is the Son of God, Jesus, Himself!  Sent not just to die for the whole world and then to just leave it just like that, but to rise again in order to be able to come live within (by His Spirit) those off of whose eyes the scales fall and as a result are able to see their need for a refining of their hearts...a purging of the yuck within...a need for a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:26-27).  And who realize that anything we think we have on our own merits to offer God is really like "filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6) compared to His Holiness and Beauty...and that we somehow need a "new righteousness" as well...one that can come only from and through and in Jesus...(Romans 3:21-26; 2 Corinthians 5:21):

 

For He is like a refiner's fire

And like launderer's soap.

He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver;

He will purify the sons of Levi, (He will purify us...)

And purge them as gold and silver, (He will purge us...)

That they may offer to the Lord

An offering in righteousness.

 

"Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem

Will be pleasant to the Lord...

 

Then we can be reunited with and bask in the Glory and Love of God...

 

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.

 

For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

 

And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— 

(Colossians 1:18-22)

 

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:... 

 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 

 

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

 

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.  This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe.  He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.  That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.

 

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.  He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 

 

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:  who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.  (John 1:1-13)

 

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God...

 

There is no other way...

 

“But who can endure the day of His coming?
And who can stand when He appears?
For He is like a refiner’s fire
And like launderers’ soap.
He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver;
He will purify the sons of Levi,
And purge them as gold and silver,
That they may offer to the Lord
An offering in righteousness.

 

 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me..."

(John 14:6)

 

"I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me."

 

"...except through Me..."

 

In His Eternal and Glorious Love, 

Terri