What Does the Body Look Like?

We, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. (Romans 12:5)

I want to be sure to explore this verse with careful attention to the surrounding context, especially what has come previously. And what I see there is a lot of time spent talking about the differences between Jews and Gentiles and then the fact that from God's point of view they are all really in the same boat. (11:32)

Immediately following that Paul explodes in a gusher of praise and admiration for some of the incredible attributes of God that demand our attention and that reveal His extreme greatness above all of our petty arguments and theological discriminations. As he moves into this section about the body of Christ it must be considered always in view of the Head of that body which is described in 11:33-36, this section where Paul describes the greatness and superiority of God.

Chapter 12 (remember – no chapter breaks whatsoever in the original) begins to move beyond Paul's lengthy exposé on the problems between Jews and Gentiles and launches into finishing his letter by describing what the true body looks like and how it gets that way. I think is it very helpful to not read this section without being sure to start this chapter back at 11:33 so as to keep the head and the body together in our consideration. It is extremely crucial to the health and well-being of a human body to have its head properly connected to the body – that is quite obvious. But it has far often been too easy for religious people to forget that the same applies to the mystical body of Christ. If every part and cell of the body is not linked closely with the energy and instructions from the brain to coordinate the whole, then you are left at best with a vegetable simply being kept alive on life support systems but not useful for any other activities.

Likewise, if any part of the body is not closely intertwined and intimately connected in its proper place with the rest of the body but is severed from it somehow, then it will soon become lifeless and useless as well. The body itself may continue on and will heal the damage from the loss of that part, but the part itself, if not restored in a timely manner through careful surgical methods back to its proper place will soon die and no longer be a viable part of the body. It might become preserved in some way so that it looks like a body part, but its only usefulness after that point is for study and observation to learn important truths about staying connected to the only real source of life.

Paul is making a very solid case here for our need to view ourselves always in the context of our relationship to God as a part of the body, not as independent bodies without reference to anyone else. I am not referring here necessarily to being part of a human church or group that desires to wield control and manipulation over others in the name of the body of Christ. I discussed that last time and there are far too many examples of the abuse of this kind of thinking around to consider. Personally I believe the real body of Christ described here is not very evident at this point in time, at least in large and obvious ways, despite the claims of many. I believe that there are many people who are not now viewed as legitimate members of Christ's body are in fact being cultivated and nourished secretly in their hearts that will suddenly be moved into key positions when the body is quickly and more obviously assembled by the Master Designer and Coordinator, the Holy Spirit. These “dark horses” are presently in living in various places and circumstances that would shock and surprise many but are secret agents for God under His protection and guidance. But many – probably most – of those presently claiming to constitute Christ's body will be very surprised and insulted when they are found to not be connected to the right Head or be fit to integrate into the real body.

In fact, I believe that most of those unfit for the real body of Christ will not know for a long time that they are not part of the true body. Since their concept of the body is much more external in nature and they have carefully crafted and assembled themselves into what they view as the right body, they will feel scandalized at the emergence of the true body being assembled by the Holy Spirit himself and will accuse those who are part of it of being fanatical, of being too expressive and emotional and even of being too rigid and devoted in their absolute obedience and allegiance to their passionate Lover. What I am saying is that there is going to be more than just one body when the time of revelations comes on the earth. But only one body is going to be the true one led by the Holy Spirit who will act as the central nervous system bringing every particle of that body into harmony and synchronization with the Head and with each other.

All other bodies claiming to be the body of Christ will be depending to some extent on external measures to keep their bodies together and functioning. They will be doing everything possible to achieve the results described in the Bible that should be seen, but because they are trusting in alternative methods and principles and faulty bonds to bind the body together they will not realize until it is too late that the body they so fiercely defend and protect and promote is in fact, a counterfeit. They will be completely blind to this in their vehement defense of their theology and their determination to be saved by conformance to knowing the right things and performing the proper activities at the right times. They may indeed achieve unity with like-minded people and produce the results they were looking for; they may even feel a great sense of supernatural power endorsing their cause. But none of these outward accomplishments and inner confidence are the hallmarks of the true body of Christ.

From the words of one of the most respected leaders of my church I find these frightening words about this very situation. They are taken from a revelation received from God about this very condition that is fast taking place today. After describing essentially what I have just shared above I found these quoted words to be vital in unveiling the true depth of this deception over those who have long been worshiping Jesus and obeying His teachings:

I turned to look at the company who were still bowed before the throne; they did not know that Jesus had left it. Satan appeared to be by the throne, trying to carry on the work of God. I saw them look up to the throne, and pray, "Father, give us Thy Spirit." Satan would then breathe upon them an unholy influence; in it there was light and much power, but no sweet love, joy, and peace. Satan's object was to keep them deceived and to draw back and deceive God's children. {EW 56.1}

Love, joy and peace are the missing ingredients noted here. But equally interesting is the presence of increased light and much power. This is a perfect illustration of the danger of what can happen to us when we focus more on external religion instead of being diligent to have a real heart transformation that replaces our roots of bitterness and bigotry and spiritual stubbornness with sweet love, humility and peace. Love, joy and peace are all descriptions of heart conditions far more than intellectual accomplishments. These people did not realize that Satan had taken over in place of Jesus. They honestly believed they were still following the guidance of Jesus and were trusting that their views of truth were still valid and reliable.

But it is very easy to feel that a thrill of power inside of our hearts could be just what we were looking for as our heads receive fresh insights that make a great deal of sense to us and are greatly enlightening. Power is a wonderful substitute that seems to satisfy the longings of our hearts. It makes us feel important and influential and valuable. It gives us a sense of assurance and confirmation that we are right and it gives us boldness to assert our rightness on others.

Many believe that if they just keep focused on having light and searching for light by persistent pursuit of greater intellectual truth that they will be safe from deception. They discount or ignore the heart work that the true Spirit wants to do in them because it is too frightening and painful to have their emotions and memories and feelings exposed that is inevitable when this work by the Spirit is allowed to progress. They insist that there is no need to revisit the past because it is now behind them and is covered under the blood. In fact, it is not really behind them at all despite all their insistence and instead of being under the blood it is being held under the rug – held down firmly by suppression and determined denial.

Just because we have said some words of regret and asked forgiveness for things we have done or felt in the past does not mean that they are resolved and no longer affect our current behavior and attitudes. Far too many believers misunderstand and seriously underestimate the underlying power that their past still has to influence and trigger their emotions when they may least suspect it. They are baffled as to why they continue to struggle with urges and compulsions or reactions that are out of line with their profession and they work even harder to suppress and deny and pretend and believe harder so as to overcome these things in their life.

But being an overcomer does not mean successfully suppressing all the negative urges from within and keeping a secure lid on all our triggers so that we accomplish a measure of external perfection. Believing that claiming God's forgiveness and hiding under the blood of Jesus is all that is needed to be an overcomer is to fall short of the grace of God and allow the roots of bitterness to remain in our hearts. We may faithfully cut off every shoot that shows up in the soil of our hearts but until the roots are exposed and dealt with we will never know the joy of true freedom. This kind of thinking leads to a life of externally-focused religion (which is what nearly all religion today is) but lacks the true heart-transformation needed to knit us together in the bonds of sweet love, joy and peace.

The true body of Christ is bonded and knit together, not with the faulty, unstable glue of fear and conformity but with the heavenly super-adhesive of love, joy and peace. And we will only experience these things as we focus on the love, joy and peace in the character of God Himself. If we view God in any way as One we must be afraid of we are trying to bond ourselves with fear. But God has not given anyone the spirit of fear.

Fear comes from the enemy of God, Satan. The word Satan means accuser and that is very much what he delights to do. But he is also keen on camouflaging his techniques so that his religious bodies appear to be the one designed by God. He is eager to supply whatever element we are expecting to receive from our internal pictures of God and if we desire power he is more than ready to supply our needs. If we want more light to supplement our dependence on knowing “the truth” he will supply our desire. But when these things are received without the requisite atmosphere of the spirit of sweet love, humility, joy (intensely happy to be with each other) and inner peace as well as peace with each other, then we are deceived but have no idea that we are deceived.

The diabolical thing about deception is that a deceived person seldom has any clue that they themselves are deceived. It is always someone else that is deceived because they do not agree with our perspective. Therefore it is always impossible to escape deception by discovering it in ourselves. That revelation must come through light that enters into the heart much more than the head. The light that unmasks deception is the light of the sweet Spirit of Jesus, not primarily the light of intellectual truth. I am more and more convinced that God is far more focused on trying to communicate to our spirit than with our intellect. He does not ignore our intellect, but that is not the primary access point for the transformation needed to prepare us to function properly in this body of Christ.

Only those who are motivated by and give priority to sweet love, joy and peace coming from Jesus more than wanting increased light and power will be able to synchronize with the body of Christ and utilize their gifts to strengthen and nourish that body. We then will not desire to control others or force them to agree with us. We will allow God to synchronize and instruct and lead each person in the freedom and at the speed that He knows is best for them. We will also realize that we have our own blind spots and discrepancies in our own perceptions of truth and will remain open and willing to continually reexamine what we have assumed in the past. We will allow Jesus to be the leader for all of us instead of trying to convict and intimidate others into conforming to our narrow views of truth.

As we focus on the beauty and attractiveness and the real nature of God's glory and character, we will be transformed at the heart level and our hearts will burn more and more intensely with the same passion that throbs in the heart of the Father. And as we live this way we will find that our hearts will be attracted and knitted with everyone who shares our passion to know God more intimately and will share our own experience and insights without any sense of coercion or fear to poison our witness. We will find pleasure and joy in indulging in the servant-spirit of Jesus as we come into closer harmony with the spirit that permeates all the rest of heaven. This is entering into the joy of the Lord.

(next in series)

Where is the Body?

For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. (Romans 12:4, 5)

It occurs to me that many of the problems that I observe within a church setting are caused because we are not believing something this verse is teaching. At the same time we try to use it to justify artificial distinctions that inflate our opinions of ourselves due to some office or position we may hold. Either way, we are failing to view ourselves and those around us through the eyes of heaven and instead are stuck in the same attitudes of discrimination as that used by the world, only using our own unique measurements of internal traditions.

One of the things that my heart looks for whenever I enter a church or come into a group of people who profess to be Christians is the attitudes and subtle messages given off by individuals about what they believe about the social structure they are in. This is often very different from the words they may be saying or the messages posted in bulletins or on the walls. What I really need to know is whether they are genuinely glad to welcome me and are willing to respect me as an equal fellow believer in the same God or are they more interested in seeing in me another potential subject to build their growing empire. These are not things generally talked about in the open and are even strongly denied sometimes, but I think many people know what I am referring to.

I am sad to say that most churches I enter do not have an atmosphere of real openness, compassion and personal interest in me as a person apart from my potential to swell their own membership roles, and some of them don't even have that much interest. I have attended some churches for many months and even years without ever being invited to join their membership (which given the atmosphere I am sort of glad they didn't). Some try to show me friendship and stay in touch, but underneath the external friendliness I get a strong sense that they are more interested in locking in my allegiance to their local group than they are in joining hearts in searching for God. This has long been a source of deep disappointment for me.

On the other hand I have recently been meeting a number of people in various circumstances that provide indications that they are themselves hungry for a deeper experience in knowing God and my heart gets very interested in knowing if they might join me and synchronize our mutual desires to know God better in some way. So far nothing very substantial has developed from these contacts but they give me hope that God is preparing many people to soon come together with honest and open hearts who are sincere in following His leading.

Because of these observations I am very reluctant to believe the labels that many of these various people or groups wear that sometimes conflict with what I am feeling in my relationships with them. I have an ever intensifying hunger to bond more closely to others who are honest and sincerely searching for truth and to know God much more intimately. I believe that these are the people that constitute the real body of Christ that is not evident as an organization. Of course there is no shortage of organizations and churches laying exclusive claim to being the only legitimate body recognized by God as His true people, but claims are easy to make and proof-text, but heart language is a far more accurate indicator of what is really going on in the spiritual realm.

What does all this have to do with many members in one body not having the same function? Maybe I am simply using this verse as a launching pad for one of my complaints. Or maybe it stimulated a deep hunger in my soul that is still looking for God's guidance and a personal need to remove much of the prejudice and narrowness of my lifelong thinking. I know most all of the arguments used to prevent people from associating with other people considered outside the approved body, but many of those arguments are now falling apart in the presence of the God who uses very different ways of viewing things.

When I read this text I wonder if the prejudices we employ to reject close connections with those outside our approved group are not exposed as an inner belief that everyone approved by God must look, act and believe in strict conformity to our carefully honed list of requirements. Some organizations have hammered out their systematic theology over many decades and are loath to allow any tampering with or careful and open reexamination of what the forefathers and highly educated experts have put together as pronouncements of final truth. This is not an attempt to discredit those who have invested many years trying to understand the Bible and share their findings with others. But the spirit of narrowness and bigotry that is becoming so prominent in the attitudes of many that I meet in most churches is a source of deep concern for me.

I have sensed that there is almost no difference between the attitude and spirit of the Pharisee's in Jesus' day and many who profess to have the truth today. They are so absolutely certain that they have a corner on the truth that they seem to believe they can look down on anyone who does not subscribe or adhere to their rigid ideas. They seem to become more and more hardened in their hearts and more and more determined to squeeze everyone into their carefully shaped mold or be discarded as outside of God's salvation. I am appalled at how many times I hear religious people condemn “outsiders” and sometimes even consider them destined for damnation if they are not willing to come under the control of their preferred church or swear allegiance to their own unique set of beliefs. This is not the Spirit of Jesus working here but another spirit that is anti-Christ. I struggle against this spirit inside of myself because I am so familiar with it, but I do not want to allow it dominance any longer.

I believe that the real body of Christ is vastly different in its composition today than anyone might possibly imagine. This is primarily because man looks on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart. Therefore man tends to segregate according to intellectual assent and profession and outward conformity whereas God is measuring the spirits of men and weighing the motives of the heart that oftentimes is impossible to discern when not in close communion with His Spirit. The more sure we become of our airtight arguments and logic the more prejudiced we become towards many whom God may view as more legitimate children than most of those professing to follow Him in “truth”.

The differences of function in the true body of Christ I suspect may be far vastly different and greater than the simplistic, artificial notions we have typically used to talk about this subject. We usually limit our discussion to the few descriptions listed in the next few verses and then believe that anything not listed here is suspect at best and likely is not a very valid or useful gift for the body. In addition, we tend to view these gifts through the distorted lenses of the world's value system and so turn them into arguments about hierarchy and power and control within the church. We give lip service to the servant/leadership model taught by Jesus but we do not embrace it with our hearts and thus deny the real power – ... holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. (2 Timothy 3:5)

I am afraid that many of the people trying to honestly serve God in many churches are severely restricted in their ability to utilize their true gifts because churches generally have such narrow views of what acceptable and legitimate gifts really are. Therefore most people are forced into predefined molds created by some committee long ago who gave them a label and job description that must be filled each year by new committees to keep up appearances. This may keep the status quo firmly in place and give the appearance of unity, but the body of Christ is stifled and suffocated as wonderful gifts go unused, unrecognized and millions lose out on the blessings they could be enjoying.

I have seen a surge in programs and formulas designed to identity and bring out into the open people's spiritual gifts. I believe this may be a real source for encouragement and breathes life into the stifling narrowness of many church organizations. But most of these programs still rely on definitions that use external measurements and predefined roles that the person might potentially fill within a rigid structure. I still do not see very much of the real creativity and spontaneity that I believe will be manifest when the true body of Christ emerges under the direct influence and coordinated guidance of the Holy Spirit and the glory of God will fill the whole earth.

I guess what I am saying is that I think it is time for believers who are hungry for fresh revelations of God to be willing to think outside the box and allow God to stimulate the natural and abundant gifts He has placed in the hearts of His children without trying to regulate and control them using human and external dictates and definitions. External religion strongly inhibits and sometimes prohibits the outworkings and expressions that will occur when the real Holy Spirit is allowed to take charge. I am not referring to false emotions unleashed and the sanctioning of chaos in the name of Spirit manifestations. I am talking about allowing our hearts to be filled with the passion of God's heart while living in the humility of Jesus so crucial to effective ministry.

Conformity according to verse 2 is the method recognized and utilized by the world. It is the attempt to force our symptoms to align with the results expected from conversion in hopes that the heart will then come into line and love will somehow take root. Transformation is something that must take place initially on the inside at the heart level and must be a work performed by the Holy Spirit as we allow our minds to be renewed by God and by exposure to His Word, which is another way of saying we must think outside the box. We have far too many boxes into which we demand God must restrict Himself if we are to acknowledge His workings. But God is far too big to fit inside any of our boxes and we must learn to discard our restrictive boxes and give God freedom to lead and move His body as He desires instead of imposing our human controls to perpetuate our selfish agendas.

What does this all mean for my life right now? Am I just venting about my own discontent and spouting off to the wind? Maybe so, only time will tell I suppose. But I do know that I have a desire inside that I believe was implanted and is encouraged by God to somehow find my place in His real body. So far I have not seen a place to connect with up to this point. I am not willing to just play the games of church and pretend spirituality; I want the real thing and nothing less. I am listening with my spirit to sense other kindred spirits who are willing to synchronize in their passion to know God and I desire to connect with them as we join our minds and hearts to know and experience God more deeply together. I have to trust God to lead me to these people and to establish communication and bonds with them. My connecting skills are very crippled and so I have to trust God to do most of that work and teach me His ways in His time and connect me with His true body the way He designs it to be.

(next in series)

Formulas for Faith

For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.

Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith. (Romans 12:3, 6)

I recently wrote some thoughts about formulas in life on my other blog site. As I look at these verses I see phrases that look to me like they contain pretty obvious elements of formulas. These two verses not far from each other seem to repeat something very similar that creates opportunity to learn much from both their differences and their similarities.

The subject or values used in these formulas is grace and faith. Both of these, according to these verses, are received from God and not something we can come up with ourselves. The first verse talks about the grace given to Paul and the next refers to the grace given to each and all of us. The first verse talks about a measure of faith and the next uses the term proportion of faith. Those two words are similar but add additional meaning to our understanding of how to quantify faith, if that can really be done.

This whole section is addressing the need for each person in the growing body of Christ to have a proper understanding of how they fit into that body and how they are to relate to others. Paul is speaking from a vantage point of experience and wisdom and is modeling to his readers what it looks like to relate and function from within the body. He starts out by saying more or less that in using the grace and gifts that he has been given by God he is going to share with others by instruction and example how to best live and operate within the true body of Christ, the bonds of believers.

His very first instruction speaking from the grace received is to admonish us to first of all have a correct evaluation of our relative relationship to those around us and to have proper balance within our own thinking. I spent some time on this verse previously and I believe that implicit in this verse is the exposure of our need to have a healthy and proper balance between our mind and our spirit, our left and our right brain, to be properly experiencing what is called the joy/peace cycle that is most conducive to having a healthy and thriving life. That means that we should not only resist the temptation to think of ourselves using the world's false system of comparisons (hierarchy or variegated values) but we should learn to have a solid, bold, yet humble, proper sense of our enormous worth in the eyes of heaven.

Humility, I am coming to understand, is not feeling worthless or degraded, discounting ourself or being put down by others; that is not humility but humiliation which is something completely different – a counterfeit. Humility is really freedom from false notions about ourselves, freedom from feeling worthless and then trying to do, say or act in ways that might make us feel more superior and valuable. When we begin to see the real truth about God and how He sees us as infinitely valuable to Him and worthy of everything possible to save us and restore us to intimate fellowship with Himself, when we begin to grasp this with our hearts even more than with our heads, we will have the freedom to be humble and not worry about what anyone else thinks about us because none of our true value can ever be received from any other source.

This is really the grace that Paul is talking about in these two verses. The grace that we receive from God is the value and blessings that we receive for no reason that we can produce or earn. That is in sharp contrast to the assumptions of most religion but it is the real truth as taught in the Bible. When that grace is received at the heart level, that sense of value and worth and being cherished by the greatest Being in the universe, then we experience true freedom from all our attempts to get others to like us and fill our emptiness inside. The more we understand and accept the grace of God which includes the gifts of God as itemized in the following verses, the more free we become to not only live in confidence and peace and joy but we can also learn to view others as just as valuable and equal in the eyes of heaven.

But verse six also points out that though we all receive the same grace that doesn't mean we are all carbon copies of a single pattern. God has made everything beautiful and everyone special but also different. Our differences do not in the slightest affect our worth in God's eyes, though in the world's system it has everything to do with our value. In the body of Christ, the kingdom of heaven, everyone is always equally valuable but is widely variegated in the heart expressions of their reflections of God. God intended it to be this way in order for us to be dependent on all the rest of the body in order to function properly and truly find our highest fulfillment.

In Genesis we are told that God created man in His image, male and female He created them. As the human race has expanded and also seriously deteriorated since that time it is very necessary that for a more complete reflection of His image more and more people are needed to fill in the many details and nuances that need to be revealed about God. For anyone to somehow think they have a better handle on what God is like than most other people is to live in a most sad state of self-deception and illusion. Fresh truths about God can easily be discovered by observing differences in cultures, personalities, genders and the unlimited other various differences of categories of people in this world. Instead of focusing on differences as being opportunities for finding faults in others we should view them as positive opportunities to catch fresh glimpses of facets of God.

Of course Satan has exploited this aspect of God's creation to terribly distort the image of God in humanity which is one of his primary objectives. He wants to obliterate the face of God from the earth in every way he can, so many of the differences we see are far from accurate revelations about God. Many of them have taken on the evil image of Satan instead. But we must learn to look past the externals which is primarily Satan's arena of life, look past the artificial and the damaged and we must utilize the eyes of our spirit conditioned with the corrective lenses of heaven to see others as God sees them and appreciate their value and contributions as heaven values them instead of our “normal” way of seeing things. Like Paul we must approach the body of Christ in humanity through the grace given to us and not through our prejudices and bigoted opinions about our superiority.

God has alloted to each a proportion of faith. This word proportion is really like the word percentage. Very clearly a portion is not the whole, it is only a part of a whole. This clearly indicates that God has in a sense divvied up His reflection in humanity into many small pieces that need to be assembled tightly together to better see His true nature and beauty. He has done this, according to this passage, by investing many different gifts that, while different complement each other. These gifts never make one person more important or valuable than another but all are important and valuable because they partially reflect the real and only Source of value anywhere.

These gifts are also designed to be needed by the rest in the body so that we will become completely interdependent as God desires us to be. The most basic description of real love, which is the essence of God Himself, is other-centeredness, a focus on living for the good and benefit and increasing happiness of others. This is not only the principle that should make the world go around but is the basic principle that makes the whole universe go around. It is the core formula by which everything has been created and until we are restored into living and thinking and functioning in perfect harmony with this most basic of all formulas we will be at odds with the rest of the universe and reality itself.

But even more than that, we must learn to live this love from a spontaneity that can only spring from a transformed spirit that is vitally connected (like with an umbilical cord) with the heart of God. Anything less than this is a counterfeit and a cheap imitation that will not be able to stand the fiery exposure to the presence of the center of love. If we are to be truly prepared to face the presence of God successfully – and everyone will be exposed to His presence whether they believe in Him or not – we must be first transformed by the renewing of our mind and have our spirit come alive and be the leading part of our being as it was designed to be by God. Our spirit is our primary communication tool with which God can lead us and influence us. When we cling to an intellectual-heavy, unbalanced religion based primarily on doctrines, lists, proof-texts and fool-proof arguments instead of allowing God's Spirit to transform our hearts into reflections of His heart, we are inevitably setting ourselves up to be disqualified to live in the presence of God and be able to walk in the fire of God. (read Isaiah 33:13-17)

Faith is the natural and spontaneous result of heart-trust that is ignited whenever we encounter another being who demonstrates they are worthy of our trust. It is not something we can work up ourselves or force ourselves to do. It is something innate that just happens at the heart level and it increases as our relationship deepens and our experience proves more and more how trustworthy this person really is. God has implanted in every heart a seed of faith so that no one has any reason to not trust at least to a small degree. Jesus talks about faith the size of a very tiny mustard seed that has the potential to grow dramatically when given opportunities and nourishment.

While we cannot produce faith ourselves, we certainly have the ability to cultivate the conditions to encourage its growth. Faith is a very robust seed and if we give it a chance and feed and water it properly we can experience amazing transformations in our lives as that seed of faith, our proportion of faith, is awakened by exposure to the trustworthiness of the One who put it in there to start with. I have come to realize that instead of focusing on vain attempts to whip up more faith (sort of like trying to pull on a plant to get it to grow faster), I simply need to expose my faith to the real source of life that makes it thrive and flourish – the trustworthiness and the real truths about what God is like. The more beauty and attractiveness that I perceive in my changing perceptions of God the more faith is naturally awakened in my heart.

The whole purpose of all these listed gifts in this passage is to promote this very process. These gifts are not given to make us more or less important than others, or to assault people with facts and doctrines and ideas to coerce them to join our church or to comply with our rules and traditions. These gifts are given to us to empower us to share fresh revelations of God with others and each other in ways that complement each other's gifts and enhance the attractiveness of God to those who are starving from their lack of feeling valuable. Gifts are given to nurture and care and attract, not to force or intimidate or create fear. Our gifts need to be exercised from the context of hearts warmed and filled with the sweetness and purity of God's true Spirit that reveals the passion of His love for every creature.

We are each given a percentage or proportion of faith to begin with but we should not be content to let it remain locked in that small seed forever. For faith to have its intended effects and transform our lives it must spring to life, put down deep roots and spread its branches out into the open for all to enjoy. When it matures it will also spawn more seeds of faith that will infiltrate the hearts of others and spring up to produce even more fruit and the cycle of life is expanded.

The following verses in this passage are all relative to this phrase in verse six that I will take a closer look at later. Each gift is to be used and exercised according to the proportion of our faith.

God, please increase my faith by showing me Your faithfulness, Your beauty, Your heart today. Show me the gifts You have given me and how I can better use them to induce faith growth in others. Bless me abundantly today and make me a clear channel of blessing much more than what I am accustomed to. Fill me with Your Spirit and give me the corrective lenses of heaven for the eyes of my heart today. Show me Your glory and reveal Your glory through me.

(next in series)

Sacrifice - part 2

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)

Yesterday I took a hard look at many of my preconceptions about this word sacrifice. I did not progress very far into what might be right or wrong about those ideas and I really didn't have a lot resolved in my own mind. It was basically a question that I left open for God to continue to communicate with me about as He chooses. I realize that this understanding is not going to be conclusive, possibly at any point in my life on earth. But I also need to face it and mature in my perceptions so that I can better understand what God wants me perceive whenever this word is used.

There are two descriptive words used ahead of this word here in this passage that indicate some important aspects about the kind of sacrifice that is acceptable to God. In contrast to most of the typical sacrifices of the Old Testament times, my body is to be alive as it is presented to God as a sacrifice. In addition this verse says that this sacrifice is also supposed to be holy. That is not so much in contrast with the Old Testament sacrifices but is more in line with them. In fact, if the sacrifices were not considered holy they were an affront to God and were not acceptable just as Cain's sacrifice was not acceptable.

I also see that the next verse is really an expansion of the description of what God is wanting in our sacrifice. He is not looking for a body and mind (which is definitely part of our body) that is conformed to this world or squeezed into its mold, but He desires a body and mind that are renewed and transformed by the presence and work of His own grace. This sacrifice is somehow to reveal or prove what the true will of God is. That would implicate that God wants to reveal the truth about Himself through not just our transformed spirits but also through our bodies so that others may catch a small glimpse of the attractiveness of God.

We usually think of the will of God as mostly an intellectual set of ideas or beliefs or an external set of standards to which we must conform. We often wonder what the will of God is for our life in reference to what we are supposed to do, to say, where we are supposed to work, our life occupation, etc. As regards to our bodies there are many who have very definite and restrictive beliefs about what our clothes should look like and what we should eat and not eat. They often become very dogmatic about these ideas and tend to often feel subconsciously more pious or holy than those who do not share their rigid lifestyle, though that is not always the case. Is that the kind of will that we are supposed to prove through the sacrifice of our bodies?

Given past experience with people like this I find it pointless to discuss this matter very much, at least directly with them. Too many of them are so emphatic about their strict beliefs and strivings for holiness that my spirit tends to withdraw and feel repulsed by the spirit I sense coming from many of them. On the other hand, I don't think that it is wise or safe to ignore God's will for how we look, dress or eat. All of these things have a great impact on our ability to commune with God and function in this world and they also have a great impact on how other's perceive God in our lives. But the spirit in which these things are done is so far more important than the actions or beliefs themselves. Unfortunately the net effect is often the very opposite of what the person intended to convey. This is because their picture of God is so stern or distorted that their lifestyle and appearance becomes repulsive to others about God instead of attractive for Him.

These things often become a means used to judge others who do not look like or agree with our particular way of living, eating or dressing. This too is a spirit that poisons our witness for God and really is counteractive to this verse's instruction to have a living sacrifice, one that is really, truly alive and thriving instead of tainted with the poison of bitter roots. The example of Jesus was one of being so fully alive that many of the common people and “regular sinners” were unavoidably attracted to Him which seems almost bizarre given their usual repulsion by people claiming to represent Him today. Jesus not only gave His own body as a sacrifice on the cross but was a living sacrifice all of His life here on earth. And He is the one who declared:

"Are you still lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man...." (Matthew 15:16-20)

As I continue to ponder what the real meaning of sacrifice might be, it seems evident that whatever it means it involves releasing our grip on something we value or cherish, whether it be good or bad. It involves letting go of our rights to ourselves which is usually terrifying. It strikes at the very center of sin in our hearts which is the basic ingredient of selfishness. To sacrifice means to relinquish control, and we are usually desperate to remain in control to some extent or another. Letting go of control is synonymous with dying in our subconscious mind and our natural instinct is to keep ourselves alive at all costs – survival.

However, I think it is important to note here that letting go of control or giving up our opinions, as important as that is to finding true freedom, is not synonymous with turning over control of our minds and wills or bodies to that of another human being, no matter how righteous or wise they may appear to be. God expects every person to be personally accountable to Him first of all and He does not excuse us to allow anyone else to be responsible for the decisions of our heart. We should never abdicate our personal responsibility for our character growth or even our search for truth to any other human. That is to put them in the place of God and to make them a false god in our lives. No one has any right to impose that kind of relationship on us just as we have no right to give it to them. It is to God and God alone that we are to surrender our sovereignty and rights and opinions for He is the only one who knows what is true and best for our unique hearts and circumstances.

I think of the example of Isaac when Abraham took him up on Mount Moriah to offer him as a sacrifice on an altar. Isaac could have easily rejected Abraham's explanation and could have escaped to preserve his own life. But he willingly cooperated and laid down his own life in respect and love for his father who was so emotionally torn and devastated by this confusing command by God. There is a lot of things to learn from this story, many of which are misunderstood by most people. But the point I want to relate to here is the willingness of Isaac to relinquish his rights and control over his own life in trust for his father and his father's God.

There are times that I suppose we can say that giving up bad habits or cherished attachments that will prevent us from bonding properly to our God can be called sacrifices. But they seem to be somewhat different in nature to other things that we are asked to sacrifice, or maybe I'm wrong on this and haven't thought it through completely yet. Sacrifices when viewed in the light of the bigger picture of eternity usually become something very different in our minds when compared with the enormous benefits received as a result of our willingness to relinquish them. But most of the time we fail to see or believe in the benefits as much as we want to remain attached to what we presently enjoy. It takes faith to trust in a God we don't know very well yet to somehow work things out for our good down the road when we believe we already have something that makes us feel good right now. But dying to self is part of the core message of Jesus to all those who wish to have real, abundant life for eternity.

I believe that it is a mistake to try to define sacrifice using external terms most of the time. That is what has created so much confusion in my heart about this issue and plays into the problems of external-oriented religion that insists on ever-increasing lists and definitions that can be tangibly identified, quantified and categorized. It seems increasingly clear to me that this word sacrifice may have much more to do with describing an event in the spirit much more that its resultant effects in the external world. And the spirit can never be created or induced by working on the externals to produce the symptoms.

But that brings to light the fact that there is a counterfeit spirit that promotes itself as the true spirit of sacrifice. And maybe it is because I am so much more familiar with the counterfeit than I am the genuine that I have so much inner turmoil about this word. The counterfeit is often mingled with a spirit of force, sternness, and deprivation. It is a negative spirit purporting to be the Spirit of Jesus but does not reflect the sweetness and faith of Jesus very much at all. It is the spirit commonly found in religion and human piety but has a darkness to it that makes one feel deprived and gloomy in an unconscious attempt to placate a demanding God. It is not often recognized in such strong outlines but that is the emotions that are aroused when I try to remember this kind of sacrifice.

The counterfeit also often involves impositions onto the lives of others in a desire to control them. We sometimes demand sacrifices in the lives of others under our influence in a misguided belief that it will produce the spirit of true sacrifice in their hearts. But what really happens is that it only produces secret resentment that feeds roots of bitterness. Or it may teach a person to believe that their sacrifices will somehow sway how God feels about them because it surely has an effect on what other people think about them. A blatant example of this is the extravagant lifestyle and privileges enjoyed by the top leader, Mr Spriggs of the 12 Tribes communities while the many trusting and blindly obedient believers are demanded to work hard and sacrifice everything for the benefit of the common good. This pattern is seen not only in religious institutions but is prevalent in politics and all areas of life where selfishness takes predominance at the expense of others.

I believe that unfortunately this word sacrifice might possibly be irreparably damaged for my use, at least for awhile until my heart gets a revised definition more firmly in place. As with many other religiously abused words, I have to find alternative words to use in their place that are more accurate and reflect the true meaning and original intent of the word until the negative connotations can be disassociated with that word in the deeper places of my mind and heart. But there is always the problem of having to communicate with others who are still using this word including the Bible itself.

I believe that this may all be part of the renewal process talked about right here in these verses. God knows that we all have screwed up definitions in our hearts implanted by His enemy and that is why we need to release our grip on our own ideas and opinions and beliefs and allow His Spirit to expose these false and damaging notions buried in our hearts to be replaced with the glory of His truth. I am not talking about conforming to the definitions and doctrines of a group of people here. I am talking about a massive transition into a completely different mode of thinking and perceiving of reality that God is drawing us into as we are willing to let go of the old and familiar.

This is the path where we can discover and prove what the real will of God is, what God looks like living through our bodies. That will always end up reflective of the goodness of God and will lead to maturity which is the real meaning of the word perfect. This is what is acceptable to God and will bring all of us into harmony, not only with God but closer and closer to each other as we respond to the promptings of the same Spirit guiding us from the inside.

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