27.3 Engage with Abiding
© 2015 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Abiding in Jesus and Jesus in us is not an idea to contemplate, but a life to live. Jesus is real; He lives in your heart; abiding means a continual engagement with Jesus, all and now, Personal in you.
Yet this Jesus carries you; He takes full responsibility for all that you are. When you forget, He carries you. When you stumble, He stumbles with you. When you laugh, He is laughing; when you cry; He is crying, and always together with you, in you, as you. Jesus and you walk always together as one.
Walking in Resurrection
Abiding in Jesus and Jesus in us is an exercise of faith. That means we believe that abiding is real and true even when we have every outward reason to believe that it is not. In a sense, abiding is war, but not in the sense we once knew in which we imagined ourselves separate from Jesus. The war is against the accuser, that we would refuse to consider his voice, regardless. Yet we are not refusing to consider his voice except that we actively proclaim, in some form, our present union with Jesus.
So we walk in the reality of resurrection life: speaking Christ, asking and believing we have received, and giving thanks. By doing these three things, we remember Christ our only life.
Remember Me
For the HOW of abiding in Jesus, go back through the lessons in Sessions 19-21, the HOW of walking in life – same thing. But in this lesson, “Engage with Abiding,” I want to give you a simple and, in fact, fun exercise that you can use to fill your own mind and heart with the knowledge of the closeness of Jesus, your only life, utterly one with you, always expressing Himself by you as you find yourself to be. You see, walking with Jesus as one person together is simply the most fun thing in the entire universe.
And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19)
Put ME in Your Thinking
Do this in remembrance of Me.
Because the Bible translators do not reckon with the gospel Paul preached nor with a very present Jesus full and complete inside of us, this line from Jesus is always presented as, “Remember what I did for you.” We always remember the Atonement, but that is not what Jesus meant.
Eating the bread of communion MEANS always bringing the immediate and real presence, the Parousia of Jesus inside of us every moment into the forefront of our minds. Do this to actively and purposefully bring Me, alive in you, into your thinking.
NOT “Positive Thinking”
But we must draw a line here: bringing Jesus alive and living in union with us into the forefront of our thinking is NOT the same thing as “positive thinking.” First, most “positive thinking” leaves Jesus out of the picture. But even more, “positive thinking” places the weakness of human flesh as the “enemy”; “positive thinking,” then, is in league with the serpent in condemning God’s appearance. “Positive thinking” will drive a wedge between Jesus and you as you find yourself to be, and it will do so by redefining Jesus as some super-hero who does not know weakness.
(That does not mean we cannot use some of the principles of positive thinking as we fill them with Jesus in our weakness.)
Jesus IN Weakness
The clearest pictures we have of the appearance of Father is a Man on his face in the mud under a cross He cannot carry, and a Man hanging bloody and naked upon a cross because He will not defend Himself, saying, “Father, forgive them,” to the most offensive bullies on earth.
Union with Jesus MEANS that Jesus has taken upon Himself ALL of our difficulties, our weaknesses, our infirmities. Jesus has become us as we find ourselves to be.
Thus we look at every part of ourselves, the mundane, the blemished, the tired, the sick, and we see Jesus. But we see Jesus in two ways: always giving thanks, that is, always speaking good grace, and always expecting God to arise.
Four Stacks of Cards
For this little exercise, you will need four stacks of index cards, maybe a different color for each stack.
Jesus said: You abide in Me. Then He said: I abide in you. You can see that we have four distinct concepts, but first those four concepts are going in one direction, and then they are going in the other direction. You – abide – in – Me. <> I – abide – in – you.
Your first stack of cards will be “Jesus,” second will be “Abide,” third will be “In,” and fourth will be “Me” (instead of “you”). Each card in a stack will contain one definition of each word.
Jesus
Write on your first cards every different thing that Jesus is, both from the Bible and personally, or meaningfully to you. Let me give you some examples. As you can see, the list for Jesus is endless; make your own choices, add what is important to you.
| Jesus | ||
| The Lamb of God The Door The Life The Truth The Way The Son of God The Son of Man The Word Savior Salvation The Vine |
The One upon whose breast I always lean my head The Person of my heart My every connection with Father Alive in me My every breath The only One I see My Shepherd The only Voice I hear |
The Creator of the universe The Sustainer of all things The Word God is always speaking The Savior of all men The Revelation of Father The Light of the world The Delight of the ages King of kings The Resurrected Messiah |
Abide and In
We go to the dictionaries for definitions of “abide” and “in.”
| Abide and In | |
| Stay Continue Have one’s abode Dwell Inhabit Live Rest Sojourn Make one’s path Remain Remain fixed Continue undiminished Continue unchanged Endure Conform to Harmonize with Symmorphose |
Surrounded and bounded by (something). A part of (something). In or part of the scope of, the influence of, the character of (something). Inclusion within a limit of time (never outside of). In the manner of, in the form of, in the arrangement of, in the extent of, in the measure of (something). In the material of, in the substance of (something). Limited entirely (in something), not found outside of (something). A direction of entering (something). Enclosed or contained Inside the sphere of Involved In active possession of (something). In legal possession of (something). To enclose, to take in Enclosed, taken in |
Jesus IN Our Weakness
Your final stack of cards is in some ways the most important. Jesus cannot be real to you unless He is real INSIDE of ALL that you are. You will never know Jesus in His power until you know Him first in and AS your weakness. If we separate our weakness from Jesus in any way, we immediately fall short of Him. Separating our weakness from Jesus is SIN, the sin of Adam, the only thing that can keep us from knowing Him.
Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:4-5).
Me
Use your papers on “Personal Weakness” and “God’s Liking of Me” from which to draw some of this list.
| Me, Daniel (put your own name here) | |
| A man (or woman) A living soul A heart that desires A mortal A mind that thinks A writer Husband and father (wife and mother) Brother and uncle (sister and aunt) A son (or daughter) A teacher A builder and woodworker A believer in Jesus |
Asperger’s, autistic, overly sensitive and protective Tired and blocked in mind and in heart Mentally gifted on literary lines Lover of books and reading A professional college instructor A lover of the Bible Limited in relationships with people A lover of Christian community One who caves in and runs so many times One who always gets back up, hoping in Jesus A gentle and tender heart A hater of lies and pretending |
Lay yourself out. What ARE you? Jesus MUST enter into ALL that you are and All that you are MUST enter into Him.
Make It Personal
Let’s add something vital to your lists of “Jesus” and “Me.” Make both personal. – On every “Jesus” card, write the words “I, Jesus, the Lamb of God (etc.). Place “I, Jesus,” in front of every description of Him so that it is Jesus, Personal in you speaking directly to you, something He is always doing. Then, write “Me, (your name)” in front of every “Me” item.
This connection of Jesus Personal in you personal is LIFE.
My sheep hear My voice and they follow Me. (your name in blanks) You, _________, hear My Voice; You, _________, follow Me. I, _________, hear Your Voice; I, _________, follow You.
Your Task
Now, daily, hourly, whenever, take a card from each of your four stacks and place them in order, first one way, I in you, then the other way, you in Me. Write out both onto another sheet of paper as meaningful sentences and shout them out loud into the heavens. Spend the next while thinking about what those specific lines might mean.
Here is an example. Me, Daniel, the one who always makes mistakes, remains fixed inside the sphere of you, Jesus, the Revelation of Father. I, Jesus, the Lamb of God, conform Myself to you, Daniel, surrounded and bounded by you, the one who likes to write.
Father
One more exercise. I have included a portion of my letter titled “Father.” Go through “Father,” follow the directions, speak the prayer of Jesus out loud with your own full name in the blanks. Come back to both of these exercises often; make speaking you in Jesus and Jesus in you a part of your daily life, a full and continual habit, the practice of your mind.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18). Be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2).