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Consider the following phrase: “having a form of godliness, but having no power”. What does that mean to you? Could ‘having a form of godliness’ have anything to do with the anti-Christ spirit which seeks to transform a person into something resembling a well mannered, domesticated house pet?
I can personally attest to the toxic corruption of religion and its influence being used to keep me tightly bound up while giving the illusion of being free. To clarify: as believers are being unplugged from the matrix of religion, anything which to any degree has established within them a false identity is going to be targeted by the Father of their spirit. It has nothing to do with them “processing” anything as much as it is Jesus Christ in them as them, He being their only life, processing them. In being “birthed” of the Father (not created like Adam and Eve), they received an indestructible life, the very life and nature of the Father. This unshakable life is designed to shake everything that can and will be shaken.
I love the following line spoken by Morpheus in the movie The Matrix: “Welcome to the real world, Neo”. Prior to being disconnected from the Matrix, Neo like everyone else had been living (if you could call it living) in a dream world. Similarly, as our loving Father begins to extricate us from the lies of the religious leaven we have consumed, which established our so-called “Christian” identity, we are going to feel much like someone coming off prolonged drug or alcohol addiction… only worse.
This is one of the reasons the beginning steps into freedom from the bonds of religion are so precariously fearful. As we are being set free from all life-support props that previously made us look and feel good, once again we begin to hanker after going back, even though we know how harmful this could be for any further maturation. No one likes the stigma attached to or associated with living outside of the religious camps. I like how a friend of ours has described this season of the journey as “living in the leper colony.” What we do not see or know yet with any sobriety or clarity is that we are in fact being stripped of anything that motivates us at an unconscious level to “boast in our fleshly ability.” For those who say that they have escaped this process, cool. But hear me: He has a specific and unique arrangement set up just for you as well. He’s so good at what He does!
I want to end my thoughts by including this quote from my dear brother Oz Chambers:
“Unless we get hurt right out of every deception about ourselves, the word of God is not having its way with us. The word of God hurts as no sin can ever hurt, because sin blunts feeling. The question of the Lord intensifies feeling, until to be hurt by Jesus is the most exquisite hurt conceivable. It hurts not only in the natural way but in the profound personal way. The word of the Lord pierces even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, there is no deception left. There is no possibility of being sentimental with the Lord's question; you cannot say nice things when the Lord speaks directly to you, the hurt is too terrific. It is such a hurt that it stings every other concern out of account. There never can be any mistake about the hurt of the Lord's word when it comes to His child; but the point of the hurt is the great point of revelation."
"Have you ever felt the pain, inflicted by the Lord, at the very center of your being, deep down in the most sensitive area of your life? The devil never inflicts pain there, and neither can sin nor human emotions. Nothing can cut through to that part of our being but the Word of God.”
Rich
5 comments:
There is so much truth here packed into one short post, Rich! Excellent and so true!
Tracy,
Thanks so much for this!
If you haven't read this yet, you might enjoy it very much from Alex over at http://oikosnwa.blogspot.com/2009/02/reality-strikes.html
He hasn't put up a comment yet I made this morning after reading his post, so I'll include what I shared here.
Alex,
I loved this whole thing, thanks!
You might like to read a couple of posts I put up on my two blogs dealing either directly or indirectly with much the same line of thinking.
I especially love these encouraging words from our Father through our dear brother Paul. ““Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.”
Isn’t in interesting that the concern, direction the spirit was motivating the believers to move, was in accordance to the truth which was only available to them IN Christ!
I love the line from the movie, The Shadow, where it says, “A clouded mind sees nothing!”
Yes that is and what has been happening for a very long time within the body of Christ in my opinion, although gloriously ‘saved-born again’ yet because of Not having the growing, liberating truth of Whose we are, we do not yet see ‘who we are’ in that relationship.
The unrenewed mind is fertile ground for a residual futility and darkened understanding which only facilitates a further alienation from our Only Life source!
Again, thanks so much for what you’ve shared here bro, it speaks of Him who is our only Life!
Rich
Rich, thanks for the link--what an excellent, excellent post!
Rich,
I call this state spiritual free-fall. After being unplugged it is as though everything is foreign. We are simultaneously unlearning and relearning creating a feeling of instability. Our reflex response is to grab ahold of what seems solid so as to steady ourselves. We want to avoid the "leper colony" effect. As you so rightly say, "the beginning steps into freedom...are so precariously fearful."
It brings home to me the great responsibility we who have undergone this process have towards those who are just entering. To nurture, support and lead by example. But mainly, to stay out of God's way during their reconstruction.
Plowman,
I whole heartedly agree with you.
I can't help but laugh thinking how in the movie The Matrix where neo is going to do the "jump thing" and his friends are wondering if he is going to do it right the first time out.
As the scene moves ahead, Neo does not jump successfully over onto the other building like Morpheus did, instead he plummets all the way down to the ground.
His team mates are wondering if Neo is the One, wondering why he fell, when one pipes up and says, "Everyone falls the first time!"
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