Christ for us...Christ in us...Christ as us...

The plan of the Father is not just for a family of birthed children but that these children should also be grown up to the full measure of Christ: “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the (true) knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13)
This is not a call to each of us to become Christ but to become the full expression of Christ as you (and me) that God intended that we should be. This is the full and complete expression of the heart of the Father. The deepest expression of God’s desire for His creation is that we would be a family of birthed children for Him and that we would realize the full expression of His life as our life.It is in this fulfillment of both birth and growth that the family of God will be a complete and perfect manifestation of the deepest desire of the Father’s heart. It is for this birth and growth event that the entire creation yearns: “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.” (Romans 8:19) The revelation of the sons of God is the outcome of our allowing the Father to grow us up to the fullness of Christ. Our growth in this way is the last frontier of the battle between Satan and God.

We only impose a desire for the Father’s heart on ourselves if we elect to go on in growing in our relationship with Him. The saddest aspect of this part of the Christian experience is that we so often let it be hijacked by either Satan through religion or by deceptions of our minds. I believe that this routinely occurs in church organizations and in our own thinking. The failure of people to seek God is rooted in our failure to ever let God deal with our flesh directed self and the religion it produces.As a result of never letting the Father deal with us as selves living independently from Him, we are trapped by the deceptions of organizations and religion. We long for the full expression of God: “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” (Romans 8:22-23)

The full expression of the family of God requires only our open-minded acceptance that this is God’s work to be done God’s way.

Rich