15.2 The Means of Devotion: Part 2

The relationship between God and those who believe into Him is dynamic and fluid, a continuous reciprocity of Life and Love. The means of devotion, then, is giving to others what God freely gives to us. God loves us first, and then we turn and give that same Love that is God to others, thus it returns to the Father from whence it came, to come again into us in ever greater Joy.

The place of devotion, then, is the Church, for God reveals Himself through His Body, through the fulness of Christ. And we must understand this, the critical point, the required moment for all the power that is God to be released into the knowledge of all, is reciprocity, brethren loving one another with pure hearts fervently.

The Actions of Overcoming. Consider the words Mary spoke, “Behold, the handmaiden of the Lord.” We have turned these into “Look at me, God, I belong to You.” We said that Devotion defeats death. The Blood is the cause of our belonging to God, but Devotion is the means of Life. Devotion says, “God, You are always free to move through me towards others as Life and as Love.”

John saw the overcoming out from devotion as authority upon all the peoples, whereas Paul said that we “reign in life.” We now know what these mean. Devotion does not know obligation. We retain always all authority over the Flow of God through us. As the Means of Devotion, we direct the makeup and flow of the Rivers of God.

The Meaning of Victory. Completing devotion – bringing devotion to completion – inside of the fear of God (2 Corinthians 7:1). We are speaking of the defeat of death, of Life swallowing up death through our Devotion. Why the fear of God? Very simply, because the free flow of Life and Love has only one alternative – death. We prefer God.

Adam broke the flow of Life and Love by theft, grasping for his own advantage that which was freely given. We break death by giving ourselves in Devotion to the Father for one another’s sake, as the Ark of the Covenant at the bottom of the Jordan. Victory is every single believer in Jesus living in all Joy inside all the Life that is Christ. The substance of devotion becomes the appearance of Joy through our utter Confidence in God.

The Cause of Devotion. In the prayer that birthed the Kingdom, Jesus spoke these words, “For their sakes, I make Myself pure and devoted to You, that they also might be made pure and devoted inside of the truth” (John 17:19).

This is the law of reciprocity, we are towards God what Jesus first is towards us. Jesus’ devotion to the Father for our sakes is the cause of our devotion to the Father for one another. This is the firmness upon which we stand, the Rock of all Salvation. If the bottom of the Jordan is beneath our feet, then we stand only on bedrock. The certain assurance that “Jesus cannot be unyoked from me and I cannot be unyoked from Jesus” (devotion) is the power and means of Life and all fruitfulness.

The Meaning of Reciprocity. Reciprocity is the Greek word typically translated as “one another.” It is the critical transition of Paul’s Gospel. Reciprocity does not mean equality of form or of power or of place. Reciprocity means equality of heart. We are equal with God in heart, for Jesus is God’s Heart and Jesus is our hearts, we share Hheart with God.

Thus the writing of Jesus upon our hearts by the finger of God and the subsequent loosing of that scroll to be read by all, is essential for all reciprocity with God and one another. We are different from one another and from God in every conceivable way except one – we share all the same heart. The shaping of our hearts to fit God’s Heart and His ours is also the shaping of our human hearts of flesh to fit one another.

Sharing with One Another. When I know that your heart is the same Lord Jesus who is my heart and God’s Heart, then I relate with you and you with me quite differently from how we have ever done. I know that we have not known this meaning of reciprocity, and I know that God becomes visible through no other point. In fact, we could say that this point of “love one another” is the “singularity” as looked for in the world, but completely not understood.

A study of the gospel verses of our reciprocity, particularly Ephesians 4:16, the energeoed sharing from every part to all in each local gathering, would show us that point of singularity, that moment when no-God becomes God-all, in all and to all. Our shared Love is God’s means.

The Flesh of Christ. The place of the singularity, then, is our human hearts of flesh inside our gathering together as the flesh of Christ, one flesh with Him. The LIFE that is Jesus must be made visible in our mortal bodies, our dying bodies, first.

Here is the verse we have been discussing. We all… are reflecting the glory of the Lord [to one another] as a mirror and are being metamorphosed into the same image. The first place I will see Jesus as He is must be your face, your present face of flesh, out from your heart, your present heart of flesh, a heart that is Jesus. Yet this reciprocity is not just found between two, rather, it must be found among many to be the unveiling of Jesus Christ. This is the place of the Word made flesh.

Abundance of Life & Fruit. Here is what we are saying. Inside of the Most Devoted, we seize hold of everything that is God given to us already, that we might SHARE God with ONE ANOTHER. Then, our sharing of God with one another acts like a sling shot, one might say, to give God-known, God among us, the momentum God needs to enter into the knowing of all.

All the abundance of Life verses, then, all the bearing of much fruit, all the making of disciples, all of it comes out from you and me sharing all the fulness of God with one another inside the gathering of Christ Community. Sharing God with one another in Christ Community, the flesh of Jesus, is the means of God by which He becomes all abundance of life and fruit of goodness towards all creation.

Personal Fellowship. The deepest Value inside of God as God, God’s very knowing of Himself, is Fellowship. The most staggeringly Valuable thing Jesus does for us is to bring us into the very Fellowship of Father and Son. Can I believe that Jesus and Father welcome me as a treasured part of their Fellowship together and that the Devoted Spirit, now part of me, enables me to participate?

Yes, this Fellowship is the deepest meaning of Devotion, the Holiest part of the Holiest, one might say, but how do I truly know such a thing? I know such Devotion only when I VALUE my fellowship with you and yours with me as the very meaning of God.

Relationship with other Pathways. The premise of Symmorphy I: Purpose is that God manifest in the flesh is considered by humans to be the greatest of all crimes – the charges for which they found Jesus guilty and executed Him. The awful reality for humans today (in their minds) is that God is committing the same “crime” again. The passage from Purpose to Faith through Love is God’s motive. The passage from Propitiation to Glorious Liberty through Love creates God’s opportunity. And the passage from Life to Devotion through Love is the means, how God accomplishes the deed of showing up inside human affairs.

Devotion gives back to God all the Life and Love it receives. To one side of Devotion is sacrifice, the essence of Devotion, and to the other side is faith, the acknowledgement of God.

Two Principles for Kingdom Building. Synergeia: Faith works through Love. – Power builds the Kingdom, the Energeia of the Spirit who energeoes all. The flow of that power must be back to the Father, that is, to creation for Father’s sake. The pinch-point, the key, to all that flow of God in abundance is reciprocity inside Christ Community. All goodness becomes by giving.

Symmorphy: For power to be effective, it must flow through a form designed for the specific work intended. The form made for the flow of God-Energeia is the reciprocity of the Church inside the fellowship of local Communities, the dwelling place of God. Local Communities of Christ, scattered among the peoples in every land, provide the form of God through which Rivers of Living Water can shape all society.

Guiding and Influencing. The Means of Devotion is authority upon all ethnic families. The Means of Devotion is our rule of Life, resurrected sons of God having direct influence on everyone. We receive from God of Himself, His own Person. What we receive becomes part of us as we share God with one another. Then we give of God to many, yet what we give has become part of ourselves and our fellowship together.

Thus we give ourselves to human society, with all loss, yet always expecting a return, that is, the cycle of Life, the law of giving. People everywhere will align themselves and their doings with such men and women among them. This very quality, of enjoying all things as belonging to us, yet holding nothing, but releasing it to others, is how God rules.

Building and Protecting. The Gospel is always first “Come and see.” There is no “Go and tell” except as brief extensions out from “Come and see.” For the reciprocity of Love inside Community to continue in all wholesomeness, the life of the Community must be protected, that is, the honor and respect given to each.

The world can be wholesome and real only as the local Church is wholesome and real. The world knows God only through an assembly of believers who together know God. Nothing of God’s Kingdom can be by compulsion. People everywhere must build their own lives and communities. They will know how to do that when each local Community of Christ stands high as the Light of the world.

Interaction and Sharing. I find a need to set out a more mundane line of thinking.

What is a tariff? A tariff is a barrier to the free flow of trade. The American people were using their money to freely buy things from the Chinese people. The tariff was the government taking that money from the American people by violence so that they could no longer buy from the Chinese. The immediate result was that Chinese young people could no longer buy university programs in the U.S. The loss of money suffered by American educators was greater than the amount of money the government stole from Americans to prevent them from buying freely from the Chinese. Theft, especially legalized theft, has one name – Stupidity, and one result – Poverty.  You see, no return is “direct.” Giving is always circular. Wealth comes from true freedom of trade.

Economic Law. This is very important, for envy, not greed, is the thing that always destroys wealth and has done so since the beginning. Envy is the deep need to control and even to break the flow of interaction so that others cannot improve their lives. The story of the goose that laid golden eggs is a description of the Law of Giving. You see, the means of creating the golden egg was the living flow of the goose. The eggs were not in the goose, they were flowing through the goose by the means of life. Killing the goose to seize the gold for one’s self ended the means of devotion, resulting only in poverty and loss.

All regulation by “experts” of the free flow of interaction between other people is the arrogance of Death, “I am wiser and better than God.” Control is theft resulting in ruin, which is another Bible word for hades.

The Question of Hades. Is hades forever? What does that mean? Yes, forever and ever, there is one alternative only to the free flow of Life and Love, and that is ruin and loss. Can a child be born bound to God and unfree? That is impossible. Jesus was not bound to God; He was free of God and almost broke the flow of Life on the cross. Yet the Means of Devotion is always pressing through the gates of hades, by permission, in order to rescue those who stumbled foolishly into breaking the flow of Life – by theft.

Evil itself cannot endure. Yet the tension of Devotion remains part of God. God leaves all free of Himself, the essence of Devotion is Jesus buying us from the slavery of hades and then freeing us of Himself. Forever, Devotion must be from the heart; forever, Devotion must be freely given in return.

Our Conclusion. The world is sustained in all practicality by the flow of Life coming to it out from each local Community of Christ, a flow of Abundance. That flow comes out from the Fellowship each Community shares together, knowing God, knowing one another, even inside and as the weakness of the human form. This is the meaning of the River of Life, coming out from the Tree of Life, as God intended from the beginning.

Devotion, our devotion to God and to one another, is what makes it all work. Devotion swallows up all that is death. Devotion is of the earth, it stands upon absolute confidence, upon the Rock. It is rooted and grounded inside of Love. Of truth, Ephesians 3:17-20 contains the entirety of this path.

Reading for Next Time. As you can see, my lessons became too large and so I had to add a chapter into this section of Symmorphy VII: Completion. The flow of topics remains the same, but I have spread them over three chapters instead of two. Chapter 15 is now titled “From Devotion to Faith.” The next lesson is 15.3 “Acknowledging Response.”

I now understand just how important the distinction of two kinds of faith truly is. Acknowledging faith always comes first before full assurance of faith can stand firm. Apprehending everything of God inside the Most Devoted is full assurance of faith, something we cannot know if we sit in the Altar of Incense refusing to believe we are already Devoted.

Let’s Pray Together. “God, our Father, the time is come, the hour is now. Let there be such a Call go forth now from You, the Call of our Devoted Spirit, calling every single believer in Jesus to run now into all the Life of Christ. It is the time of the gathering together unto Christ, all things in heaven-earth.

“Father, we are no body by ourselves, for the body is many together as one. We call those whom You have appointed to be gathered to each one of us and we to them. Release to us all Means of Devotion, oh God, let the reciprocity of Love become our togetherness with other precious believers in Jesus.

“Father, we recognize the flaw of the human, that we would seize for ourselves that which is freely given. We are fully aware of our human anguish over loss. Yet we know, oh God, that Jesus devoted Himself to You for our sakes, that we might KNOW that You alone Devote us to Yourself. You give Yourself to us, Father, just as Jesus asked You to do.

“Inside of You, Father, we know that we can never suffer loss, but that we can freely give to others that which You have made part of our wondrous fellowship together. Therefore, Father, we give You our full permission, our wide-open hearts, that You might give Yourself to Your entire Church and we utterly with You. We know, Father, that You are doing all that we ask, even right now, in Jesus’ name.”