With complete consecration comes perfect peace.
~Watchman Nee
So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God Who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In Him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed His offspring.’ Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a Man Whom He has appointed; and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead.”
~ paul, Speaking Truth, and quoting both Epimenides of Crete, and Aratus
Oh beloved, it is true.
There comes a time in our lives where we need to decide something. We have to decide a number of things actually, but this one is the biggest. So many things in our life are really just the manifestations – or symptoms – of our choices. Our diets. Our habits. Our actions. Our everything, really.
And, the choices, while they seem so little, are really big beyond our wildest imaginations. They form a pattern, like the infinite wave forms of a stone splashing into a pool of water. However, the forms have an amazing dynamic wherein some of our patterns work to cancel out the expansion of possibility in our lives.
Said more simply: we can work against our own lives. And when we do, everything gets smaller and smaller. We trap ourselves into myriad little corners, that themselves then have no escape. Oh, we think we are running towards freedom, but really all we do is inherit sorrow and bury ourselves behind barriers that do not protect, but smother us.
However, there is another pattern that can emerge from our choices. And all of this comes, actually, from a decision.
Can we see it?
Look at what the Apostle Paul is saying, and it is exactly what Jesus, King of The Universe, was saying in throughout the Gospels. The relationship we have with G_d, is not some sort of give and take. It is not a transactional sort of guanxi (关系) relationship.
This is a decision to enter into something entirely different than a contract, or business partnership. We are being invited into a relationship that is one of complete communion with our Creator. We are to actually enter into Him, and He into us. The image in the physical should evoke something quite physical, even sexual. There is a piercing and commingling of our spirits.
But… When we chose this (this entire allowance of His overtaking our existence), the entire pattern of our lives moves from canceling, entropic, and entrapping waves, to an amplification of our lives beyond our ability to comprehend.
Suddenly, instead of living within four dimensions, we are walking in the milieu of eternity. However, what we do realize upon entering this state, is that there really is no going back. Oh, it is not that time is irrelevant, it is just downgraded to one of the 11 dimensions we now inhabit. And we see that any of our old ways are terribly destructive and get us nowhere.
What is all this mystical stuff?
Pretty simple actually. In our old lives, we were constantly trying to game the system, and to try and come up with ways to make it out of the traps we had set for ourselves in our foolishness. We had not only a ‘Plan B,’ but B-Z+.
But now, everything is different. Being in Him is not just an advantage. What we find is that He is The Way we were seeking for all the time. There is no ‘Plan B,’ there is only Him. There is no more time in play. There is only seeking His will on an issue, because we realize that that is the way through anything.
Yes, it is an odd state. It is a place where the mind becomes much more quiet. We are actually focused on a Person, rather than an outcome. However, once we see it, we are overwhelmed even more. This is exactly the way through on everything. We see it: Relationship is the final stuff of reality.
So, are you struggling with the things ahead in your life? Are you trying to make things happen, but find yourself even more trapped than before? Perhaps you are missing something. There is no ‘Plan B.’ There is only Him. Look at Him. Walk through the ‘wicket gate’ that Bunyan spoke of, and walk into His Presence. It is there – and only there- that you will find The Answer.
Tonight is your night. Time to let go. Let Him come into you, and you into Him. The answer is there.
After sanctification, it is difficult to state what your aim in life is because God has taken you up into his purposes.
~Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)
