Friday, September 19, 2008

Shadow Boxing




What I have shared many different times and places on my blogs is but a growing increased knowing that is in my opinion the complete and objective understanding of the grace, Mystery Gospel given to us the church. And this is dealing with ‘the father of lies’ the unseen, undetected enemy of us all in the faith.
I know that apart from the Father’s timing, without Him bringing the continued revelation and discernment, at best much of what we see is in an abstract conceptual blurred perspective.
This reminds me of one of the many, the Father brought sight to through Jesus, and in this particular case it would appear something was off in that this blind man seemed to need a double hit of healing, or did he? See here.

Without an ongoing, ever expanding, deepening relationship with the Father, knowing and growing in His total unconditional loving acceptance of us, we will desire revelation only to make us look good, and folks that is not what it is about.
The story I have pointed out here is a story that speaks to me of, ‘In Him we live, move and become more and more His expressed will on earth as it is in heaven.’
Without the growing true knowledge of the Father’s love for us, we WILL get caught up in some wonderful side eddies, but miss out on the ocean of who He is.

I believe what the Father is allowing me to see is NOT something new or special, (It’s new to me) it is all part of knowing Him as our only Life, and yet without this being ever more deeply etched into the core of our being, the other father, the ‘father of lies’ will continue to reek havoc within the lives of the believers.
As long as I have been a Christian I have heard and seen the best doing what I call a Mexican hat dance, dancing all around the bush as it were in speaking out, pontificating on what is but in my opinion, beating the air-shadow boxing!

Wow, what an arrogant ass you might be thinking, well, hang in there before it’s over you might have a few more choice words for me~ha.
Through out the body of Christ in our being fully identified with our elder brother Jesus Christ, we are beginning to see and know, experience what mere words have pointed to but left us feeling left out from the substance these words spoke of.
Jesus himself repeatedly made it clear that it was only because of the oneness of Him and his Father and out of that abiding reality; he only said and did what the Father communicated to him. The son of man can of himself do ‘nothing.’

Because of our soul has not been fully transformed, we are most susceptible to being invaded by a foreign intruder and that source is the father of lies.
The Father of our spirit has purposed to leave this liar within our flesh whether we know it or not, and believe me, most of us do NOT even know of this liars unseen, hidden within us, activity.

Nothing that Father does is without purpose, now in this present time, and through out eternity. Here is an example; “For everyone who continues to feed on milk is obviously inexperienced and unskilled in the doctrine of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in purpose, thought, and action), for he is a mere infant [not able to talk yet]! But solid food is for full-grown men, for those whose senses and mental faculties are trained by practice to discriminate and distinguish between what is morally good and noble and what is evil and contrary either to divine or human law.”

There is a plethora of wonderful and descriptive places within the Scriptures that bring us to an understanding that the voice of God our Father is a matter of life and death. His voice brings into the life of the believer an inner illumination, exposing what show to be real from the shadows that have kept us perpetually locked into shadow boxing with what we think is us.
The father of lies will never be detected without this inner work of the Spirit, and until He does, the tail will continue to shake the dog, aka, being ruled by our flesh and the impetus is our unseen adversary, Satan.

Am I being devil-demon conscious, seeing a devil-demon under every bush, I don’t think so, but what I am being is, I’m becoming intensely more aware of what has plagued me all my Christian life and those around me, the exposure of the one I contend with daily.

In closing, I love what our dear brother Paul says; “Therefore I do not run uncertainly (without definite aim). I do not box like one beating the air and striking without an adversary. But [like a boxer] I buffet my body [handle it roughly, discipline it by hardships] and subdue it, for fear that after proclaiming to others the Gospel and things pertaining to it, I myself should become unfit [not stand the test, be unapproved and rejected as a counterfeit].”

I have more thoughts to share, but later.

Rich


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rich,
Again, excellent blog. I love what you said here:

"Without an ongoing, ever expanding, deepening relationship with the Father, knowing and growing in His total unconditional loving acceptance of us, we will desire revelation only to make us look good, and folks that is not what it is about."
AND...
"Without the growing true knowledge of the Father’s love for us, we WILL get caught up in some wonderful side eddies, but miss out on the ocean of who He is."
AND....
"I believe what the Father is allowing me to see is NOT something new or special, (It’s new to me) it is all part of knowing Him as our only Life, and yet without this being ever more deeply etched into the core of our being, the other father, the ‘father of lies’ will continue to reek havoc within the lives of the believers. As long as I have been a Christian I have heard and seen the best doing what I call a Mexican hat dance, dancing all around the bush as it were in speaking out, pontificating on what is but in my opinion, beating the air-shadow boxing!"

Amen!

(Okay, I clearly almost highlighted/cited your entire post. Hee hee!)

I love the metaphor you use of Shadow Boxing. Indeed, one is foolish not to acknowledge what goes on in the spiritual sense. Yet, thank goodness, we Believer's have the One who has already defeated our Opponent. And thank goodness, we can turn to Him, day-by-day to pin him when we fall from his blow, give into a temptation or receive a smacking.

Blessings,
~Amy :)
http://amyiswalkinginthespirit.blogspot.com

Tracy Simmons said...

Rich, I especially love this:

"Through out the body of Christ in our being fully identified with our elder brother Jesus Christ, we are beginning to see and know, experience what mere words have pointed to but left us feeling left out from the substance these words spoke of."

That really sums it up, being full identified with my elder brother...oh, I love it!