Greetings!
Seriously - Christ lives in the born-again?
At the beginning, when the first Adam fell short of God’s glory, the first way that flesh made its appearance was that Adam and Eve, who had never noticed their nakedness and surely didn’t even have a word for it, suddenly became obsessed with their exposure. The first thing they felt compelled to do was to cover themselves. Naked is scary. Naked feels vulnerable and unsafe. They had never experienced any of these emotions before, but now they were laid bare and humiliated and ashamed and afraid.
The first effect of flesh was to make
the human guiltily self-conscious. before, he had majored on God-consciousness. Instead of flourishing, as God had designed them to do, they began to try to disappear. They began to have feelings for which they were not created— feelings that didn’t fit them. Flesh pulled them into the realm of emotions and lies and the first thing they did was try out being their own source. “I’m naked! I’ll fix that. Let’s see . . . what resources do I have? Ah, look! There’s a leaf. I can pluck that leaf all by myself.”
We weren’t designed for fear or shame. It throws everything off. Decisions made from flesh-based emotions like fear are always off the mark. When flesh flowered, the humans began to live a life for which they were not suited. Never again did a man or woman born in Adam’s line experience their emotions as they were designed. Emotions, which were designed to
express
the human personality , now
ruled
the human personality. From then on, instead of walking in truth, mankind began to walk in emotion. “I feel like this would make me happy. I feel like exploding in anger. I feel like I am not good enough. I feel like she meant to insult me. I feel, I feel, I feel.”
We were built to be God-focused.
That’s the condition under which we thrive. “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1–4). Self-consciousness is not our natural state. No one except God is worthy of such concentrated attention. The proper focus of all aspects of our personality is to put God first (Matthew 6:33).
What happens when we fix our minds on ourselves? We begin to loathe ourselves. We find unnumbered flaws and uncover specks and spots and weaknesses. We can’t care deeply for others because we don’t have time. Every interaction with others in some way becomes a reflection of us. We’re looking at them, but scrutinizing them for what they think of us.
We were not fashioned to be self-focused.
It doesn’t work. We break down under it. Why? because we are not worthy of worship. The world was not created to revolve around you. You can’t handle it; it’s not your role. We were made to be worshippers.
I think that almost everything else that we struggle with could be traced back to the fact that we are self-focused and ruled by emotions. That is how flesh works. Through our Adam heritage, we are born wounded. We are born damaged. We are born old.
When we are born again
of the Spirit, then we become new creations. Old is passed away and new has come. As we learn to live in an altar’d state, the new can life in us can expand and inflate and distend and start oozing all through our personality, driving out the last vestiges of the old with the power of the new. I’m imagining it like hair mousse or shaving cream. You squirt a little out and it starts growing and taking up more space. When you give the Spirit an inch, He’ll take a mile.
We altar our flesh by keeping our eyes on Jesus. “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). We don’t find that altar’d state by focusing on resisting our flesh, or by straining to think and do the right thing. We can’t altar by trying really hard to believe what we know is true. We win the battle by being true to who we really are— worshippers.
How many times have you heard
that you will find peace if only you can make yourself believe who you are in Christ? And, indeed, the Scripture references “in Christ” many times. Yet, I could never make myself believe it, hard as I would try. Then one day I realized that is because it is keeping the emphasis on me. “I am righteous! I believe it. I am accepted. I believe it!” and that was true, except I didn’t and couldn’t get it to settle in. How could I quit trying to force the issue and lean in to the present Jesus?
I had an epiphany. It’s not about who I am in Christ. It’s about who Christ is in me. That shifted the center of gravity and it all clicked. No more working hard to believe, just being present to the presence.
“My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken”
(Psalm 62:1–2).
Jesus, Be Jesus in Me
I found the formulation of my prayers to be less “Jesus, do” and more “Jesus, be.” That was more restful because I started learning (am still learning) to be aware of His nearness and that He could handle anything that came my way. I realized that I didn’t just save up leaning in to the present Jesus for big challenges, but I could live in that position. Leaned in. Altar’d.
Live life in moments. bring the awareness into this right-now moment. I find that when I take joy and comfort in His companionship, I am just loving Him back. He is always aware of me, always actively loving me. I am never out of His thoughts. I’m learning to respond in kind.
The more keenly aware of His presence, the more natural it is to live in an altar’d state. Every flesh-based thought interrupts my easy restful relationship and it is so obvious in contrast that I waste no time altaring it. Well, sometimes that’s true. I wrote that, then felt compelled to say, it is true more often than it used to be, and it is true more and more often. It is true often enough that I see the pattern. More of Him, less of flesh. That works best. That’s what fits me. Now, I’m at home on the altar, and a stranger in my flesh.
The beginning of our salvation is what Christ did for me.
The fullness of our salvation is who Christ is in me. Forgiven of sins, and being purified of unrighteousness. Full spectrum salvation.
REFLECTION
Do you recognize any ways that your flesh keeps you self-conscious?
Can you begin to rest in who Christ is in you?.
Jennifer Kennedy Dean
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Jennifer Kennedy Dean 2019
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