15.1 The Means of Devotion: Part 1
Give and it shall be given to you (Luke 6:38). – God is a “living” God. That means, in part, that the relationship between God and those who believe into Him is dynamic and fluid, a continuous reciprocity of Life and Love. Everything exists in a symbiotic relationship with God through Spirit and Word. This flow of Life and Love operates by “freely you have received, freely give.” When that which has been received is freely given, then more flows in, though always with increase.
Here is the law of devotion. – Be devoted to Me, for I am devoted to you (1 Peter 1:16). God is always the initiator, the Source of all flow. Devotion is the deepest form of belonging.
The Power Flowing Through. “Means” in this context refers to how something operates. A car engine operates by the means of gasoline explosions pushing pistons which then turn the wheels. Thus “means” is both the power and the mechanism that harnesses and utilizes that power. Synergeia and Symmorphy, power and form, always work together.
The power of entrance, meek and lowly of heart, is the power to call God into our world. But the power of means is the manner in which God operates as the life force of all interaction inside our world. Life and Love cannot sit still. They must always move on to the next interaction. Thus, time as every next moment, is an essential form through which Life and Love move.
The Pathway Itself. The power flowing through is always God, by Rivers of Spirit filled with Word. Thus – we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the power might be out from God and not out from us.
Gasoline exploding by itself can only destroy. This is why the means of devotion is so important. How can God, a Consuming Fire, move as Life and Love into the experience of all? He must have a pathway DEVOTED to Him, shaped to fit Him, made to energeo with Him. The working of a car engine is easy to describe, whereas the working of a living body is much more complex. Thus we see that the Means of Devotion is a body prepared for God, Christ Community, the flow of Life and Love.
A Flow of Gospel Words. Be fruitful and multiply – Behold, the maidservant of the Lord – Give, and it will be given to you – every good act of giving comes out from the Father – your bodies are members and part of Christ – God energeoes all inside of all – For just as the body is one, but has many members, so also is Christ – have all been made to drink one Spirit – that the members might have the same anxious care for one another – sharing the same suffering – sharing the same joy – of Christ we are a fragrance of God – you are a letter of Christ, written with the Spirit of the living God inside tablets of hearts of flesh – reflecting the glory of the Lord to one another – are being metamorphosed into the same image – we have this treasure inside earthen vessels – the life of Jesus made visible in our mortal flesh – that what is dying may be swallowed up by life – placed inside of us the Word of reconciliation.
We are the living temple of God – I will dwell inside of them – completing devotion inside of the fear of God – My power is brought to full completion inside of your weakness – Christ lives inside of all that is me – I live inside the faith of the Son of God – you have already enclothed yourselves with Christ – until Christ shall have been formed inside of you – carry one another’s great weight of value – we are saved by His life – grace rules into age-unfolding life – we walk inside of newness of life – speak yourselves as living connected with God – that we should bear fruit as now connected with God – give life to your dying bodies – the Spirit joins as help together with our weakness – the Spirit personally brings us in line with Father for the sake of others – He joins us together with God – symmorphosed with the image of His Son – speaking Christ into salvation – be metamorphosed, share the same pattern of expression with Christ Jesus, by the renewing of your mind.
Put on the Lord Jesus Christ – His energeia energeoing in power inside of me – Christ who is your life – Christ is all inside of all – bearing with one another – such that the fellowship and sharing of your faith might be energeoing – the surpassing greatness of His power into us – out from the Energeia of His mighty strength – the gathering together – inside of Whom the whole building, being fitted together, is increasing into a temple, devoted inside the Lord – Inside of Jesus, you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God – that Christ might dwell inside your hearts through faith – that you might be filled with all the fulness of God – according to the power energeoing inside of us – out from whom the whole body, being joined together and being held together through every joint of its supply, according to the energia inside the sharing from every part, causes growth of the body into the construction of itself inside of love – be kind with one another – For we are one flesh with Him.
God is the present and active energeoing inside of you, both to desire and to Energeo – we have become partakers of Christ if we hold our confidence firm until all completion – to whom is our word of account in return – we are already made devoted – approach everything inside of Devotion with full assurance of faith – You will be devoted to Me, because I am devoted to you – the Word became flesh and dwelt among us – will become inside a spring of water bubbling up into life – abundance of life – the seed planted in the ground bears much fruit – you will know that I am inside of the Father, and you inside of Me and I inside of you – We will make Our home with him – make them pure and devoted to You inside of the truth – that they might be brought to full completion inside of one – our fellowship is companionship with and among the Father and Son – we have fellowship with one another – loving one another in full reciprocity – we love because He first actively loved us.
A More Complete Picture. It should not surprise us that there is more gospel word concerning the Means of Devotion than any other pathway of power, for here is where everything else works. First, we have the church as one body, the dwelling place of God, devoted utterly to Him, as God’s full Means of accomplishing everything. Inside believers is the Energeia of God, and in their gathering is all the working of the Spirit inside of fellowship together. We also find reciprocity, which is part of the circle of giving and return, but with its own unique definition.
Then we see that the place of devotion is the flesh, the Word made flesh, the life of Jesus in our mortal flesh, that Church, which is His body, flesh of His flesh.
Acknowledging God as Father. God energeoes all inside of all. – If Paul’s claim here is true, then this fact of all reality for believers must be front and center in every Christian’s thinking. God energeoing is the Pillar of Fire touching down upon the Mercy Seat. This Pillar of Fire seen by all Israel was not small. It would have been thousands of feet tall and hundreds of feet wide. Yet it’s tip point was gentle and the fabric of the Tabernacle was unharmed.
This same Pillar of Fire, according to Paul, is swirling with all power inside of you and me, yet as our Personal Father. According to Jesus, recognizing this only reality is age-unfolding Life. Walking around in the dumbness of pretending not-God is only death. We acknowledge God.
A Flow of Our Words. God, my Father, You are God and You are inside of me, bubbling up as Springs of Living Water and energeoing all inside of me as a vast Pillar of Fire. Father, I acknowledge You. I acknowledge Your finger writing Your Word, the Lord Jesus, with Spirit ink upon my heart of flesh. I acknowledge the power of Your Devoted Spirit leading me forward inside every next step.
But Father, it is when I gather together with my brothers and sisters in divine Fellowship that the real revelation of God becomes visible to all, for You, Father, are all Love working among us, a mighty pillar of All-Consuming Love. I am overwhelmed, Father, by Your UTTER Devotion to me; You cause me to be devoted to You in all like return.
The Tension. For Life and Love to flow freely, there must be a continuous return. The tension of Devotion is the expectation of a return. This is the power of an endless life. The Greek word used in Hebrews 7:16 is best translated “indissoluble,” an indissoluble life. This means that it is impossible for the flow of Life and Love to cease in any way, or even to fail to increase.
If I give away all Life and all Love, will I receive back what is mine, and more? Devotion means the certainty of the flow. Faith that receives belongs to entrance, but faith that is CERTAIN belongs to devotion. A heart not Devoted cannot be Certain. You see, the word for “endless-indissoluble” also means, cannot be unyoked or unharnessed. Here is the tension – Have confidence in God.
The Entrance of Perversion. This shows us the extraordinary wickedness of “Let’s go to heaven to see Jesus.” Death is the shattering of the flow of Life and Love. The expectation of death is the expectation of not-God. Death denies the immediate and present symbiotic relationship between God and all things. Death denies Christ Jesus.
Yet death has the brashness to promise its victims that it will “take them to God.” Even while God is their only present Life. Death claims that you cannot know God now, but it promises to take you to “meet Him” someday. This lie is the meaning of hades, or as Christians know it, “hell.” Thus we see that death, as the enemy of present Devotion, is our greatest enemy. Devotion defeats death.
A Flow of Darkness. Jesus is far away right now, in another place. When you die, then you will go to see Jesus, but right now you have to make it on your own as best you can. God is too holy to look upon you, for you are a sinner. When you see God, you will know how evil you are. Get back on the cross, sinner, you are not dead enough yet.
Everyone dies. You are appointed to death. – Then, in the world, we have two lines sung by Queen, “I wish I had never been born” and “Who wants to live forever?” There is a deep misunderstanding of the motivation of those driving the world into death. It is assumed that the motivation must be power over humans. What is not understood is that the most powerful are devoted to death; not self and not Satan, but death is the one they serve.
The War Against the Church. Normally, we place the actions of overcoming immediately after the flow of darkness, for good reason. But here I want to expand on the overwhelming attack of Death against the Church. Death has been victorious against the Church since the passing of John, by persuading all Christians to look to it as the “means of devotion” rather than the Church as the present dwelling place of God.
These two claims stand in full opposition to each other. One is true, the other is effective because it contains a tiny bit of truth. “Jesus takes you now to Church, the dwelling place and visibility of God as Love.” vs “Death takes you to see Jesus.” Brethren who die are kept safe inside of Jesus, as they have always been, but Jesus as He IS – is the Church, the fulness of Christ who fills all inside of all.
The Place of Devotion. The gathering together of believers is the Place of God’s absolute Devotion. And God is devoted!!! To say, “God is not here because He is displeased with us” is open and savage rebellion, proclaiming what cannot be true. Any ministry who sees a gathering of believers as those to “preach at” is blind, the blind leading the blind.
Any ministry who has eyes that can see will fall on his face in utter awe before the gathering of believers, for all he can see is God energeoing ALL inside of ALL. If that ministry is granted the honor of speaking Christ Jesus into that gathering of profound Devotion, then he is honored indeed. When we see God as He is already, the Means of All Devotion, then death can be no more.