Can we see it? As our heart merges with the character He is inscribing on us and within us… This is the process of sanctification. For, as character and heart merge, we cement our destiny – Either in communion with Him – or alone in our own selfish little hellish fiefdoms forever.
~ Makala Barnabas Doulos
But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it.
~ paul, in Thessalonians 5
Oh beloved, there are those days. There are the days when we come to understand one astounding truth. We crash up against something we never expected to be true.
We Love Him.
Jesus has so changed our hearts that we are actually beginning (in ever more moments) to actually look a bit like Him. He has been hammering channels of goodness into our hardness. And as our hearts continually turn toward Him, the inner man and what is visible to the world are beginning to be the same all about.
We see a group of dirty little children in a neighborhood and instead of feeling pity or anger or doubt or despair – we simply abound in Love and care and friendship for each individual in the crowd.
We go through a really difficult time and we – before even entering the zone of the storm – were rejoicing at the victory He was having in our lives. We are beginning to enjoy suffering, now knowing its real purpose.
We open His Word and eternity – both invades our consciousness – and pours out before us as we see the Kingdom and its King shining before our spiritual eyes.
We are so full of Love for our Beloved that we can (when quiet enough) simply speak with Him. To know Him and be known by Him is now the great joy of our life.
We are finding that we already know what we are going to do, for He has forged into us an intuition that no longer flinches at the mystery of faith. We know we are on Solid Ground and there is no need to ever (read ever again) fear.
We have been so changed by the ongoing changes He is making within us that we actually desire to do the right thing. The sin nature we had is dead already, and the haunting tapes of memory are beginning to fade. The profile of our desires is coming into alignment with Him.
We are – to put it bluntly – free in Him.
We are no longer constrained to somehow try to be good enough to make some god happy with us. For we, in going through this process, have become so convinced of our utter uselessness apart from Him that that we laugh loudly at our former concepts of self-righteousness and rights to ourselves.
We look back at the vector we were pursuing in the past and are simply amazed we were so tenaciously tied to such a path for self. For we now know that the Loving G_d with whom we now enjoy communion, Loves us enough to let us push Him away. But it is this astoundingly free Love that gives us insight into the true end of living a life that rejects true freedom. We now know that the end of a life lived only for self will bear its own wretched fruit of eternal alone-ness, and an ever-worsening continuation of the pain and fear and anxiety of a fleshly life.
Can we see it? We are on a collision course with forever. And the question is exceedingly simple in light of the freedom He has for us. How do we want to spend eternity? Do we want to exercise our right to maintain our own identity and try to navigate through The Day when we will all have to give an account? Or, do we want to allow our Best Friend to begin preparing us now for that moment?
This fool of a writer is sure that the only collision of this magnitude that i ever want to see is me finally crashing into His near presence so alive and in Love that that moment is a consummation of an eternal marriage rather than a finalization of an everlasting divorce.
How about you dear reader? Do you know Him? He already Loves you. Come to Him tonight!
