8.3 Devotion
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Be holy, for I am holy (1 Peter 1:16). – Be devoted to Me, for I am devoted to you.
You would not have come this far in your desire to know Jesus as He is except you were already devoted to Him as your life. Nonetheless, you find yourself in this present riddle, one might say. You cannot know Jesus as He is except you be just like Him, and you cannot be just like Jesus except you know Him as He is.
Many, on learning their precious union with Christ, that Jesus is living as them in this world, are content with such knowledge inside their limited sphere and desire nothing further. That is their right, and God will bless them.
God’s Entrance. The problem is simply this – until you turn around in the Holy of Holies, God’s desire, to be seen and known by all, cannot even begin to be fulfilled.
Up until you turn around in the Holy of Holies, inside all the fulness of Christ, your life is an entrance into the knowledge of God, into knowing just what your Salvation is all about. From turning around on, your life is an entrance of God the Father through you into the knowledge of all, into Salvation revealed in every place.
To “turn around” means to sit down with Jesus upon the Mercy Seat of God, your own heart, and to be that Mercy Seat, the beating heart of Father, towards all.
Being the Mercy Seat. Here is being the Mercy Seat, the throne of heaven, in its simplest form. – Love one another just exactly as I love you (John 5:12).
And here is God’s commandment to you to BE His Mercy Seat in a slightly larger rendition. – And be kind with one another, tender-hearted, forgiving [giving favor to] each other, in exactly the same way that God inside of Christ gives favor freely to you. Therefore be just like God, as beloved children and walk inside of love, in just the same way that Christ also loves us and gives Himself to us for our sakes, an offering and a sacrifice to God, into a sweet-smelling aroma (Ephesians 4:32-5:2).
Only God Is Love. You are incapable of love. In fact, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13 that you can perform all the actions of love your entire life and it’s all a waste of time, for there is no love inside any of it. God is love (1 John 4:8). To love is to “God,” something you cannot do yourself, something God IS in Person through you.
But because God is love, He will never compel you to love Him, nor ever force Himself upon you. For you and Father to walk as one together, you must desire Him in just the same way that He desires you. Jesus says to you, in your heart, and living as you, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” Matthew 22:37). – Your response to Him speaking to you is always, “Let it be to me according to Your word.”
Your Own Choice. Your entrance into agreement with God up until now has always been based on your own choice, your own willingness to devote yourself to a God who has already and absolutely devoted Himself to you.
When you entered the Gate into Jesus your Savior, you surrendered your heart to Him. When you entered the Door into Jesus your Bread and Light, you surrendered your soul to Him. When you entered the Veil into Jesus as your only life, you surrendered your flesh to Him.
Never did God force you in any of that; nonetheless, here is His right. The moment you said, “Yes, Lord,” at every step, your Father sealed you, in that moment, into the choice of your heart to be devoted to Him.
Most Private and Personal. And that is why God has never paid any attention to all your screaming “NO’s” since then, for they have no meaning to you or to Him. That is why every single time you have fallen flat on your face in the mud of foolish humiliation, Jesus has simply picked you up, loved you, and continued on living with you and as you as if nothing had ever happened.
But this time it’s a bit different. This time, as God turns you around inside Himself, He wants to share something with you, He wants to give you something of Himself that is His most private, most personal, most precious quality of Being.
God wants to give you His Heart; God wants to share Hheart with you.
A Terrible Thing. The love of God has [already] been poured out [has been shed abroad] inside of our hearts through His Holy Spirit, the One having been given to us (Romans 5:5). That word, “poured out” or “shed abroad” (the Greek word means both) denotes being the Mercy Seat, sharing Heart with God.
Sharing heart with God is a terrible thing. What will you do with His Heart? And how will you live inside of and as a Consuming Fire? For our God is a consuming Fire – let brotherly love remain [abide] (Hebrews 12:29-13:1).
And so God must protect His Heart and yours, and He does so with the seal of love, the seal of devotion.
Be Devoted to Me. Be devoted to Me, for I am already utterly devoted to you. God is going to take you places together with Himself you have never known or considered. BUT, before He can do such a thing, He must CONTEND with you.
Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone should love the world, the love of the Father is not inside of him (1 John 2:15).
You can know Jesus as Savior and still love the world. You can know the power and giftings of the Holy Spirit and still love the world. You can live inside of union with Christ and still love the world. But if you do, sharing Heart with Father will never enter your mind, you will never know such a thing.
The World Outside and In. The world, in this instance, means two different things that always work together, both of them deadly to your faith.
On the outside of you, the “world” is all those associations of humans and demons in this present age, all the countries and flags, all the causes and pursuits, all the glory of man in defiance of God. To pledge your heart to the battle flags of human “countries” is to seal yourself against knowing God’s heart inside of yours.
Then, on the inside of you is your own imagined “life” in this world. That imagined “life” is what you do to line yourself up with what you think other people think about you, whether to control them or to be controlled by them.
Turned Away. You can see how those two things are what turned Adam’s heart away from God in the garden, the outward show of the serpent on the one hand and the face of Eve (what Adam imagined Eve to be thinking about him) on the other hand.
You are perfectly free to love what you think other people think about you or to love identifying with the horrific “glory” of this world and of the kingdoms of men; the truth is, Jesus bears even that inside Himself. It’s just that Father cannot share His Heart with you, for you would certainly abuse His heart.
And so, for this moment right now, Father contends with you, “Be devoted to Me, My dear one, for I AM devoted to you.”
Pray Out Loud. “Father, sharing Heart with you is the only thing I want. For Your sake, Father, I devote myself to You, and to Your Heart, in the same way that You are utterly devoted to me. Father, I want Your Heart to be safe, here, inside of my own heart. Father, I would share Hheart with You.
Father, I separate myself from all the deceit of this world and from all the boasting of humans. I separate myself from ever wanting to be somebody in the eyes of anyone else.
Father, I give you my life, all that I am, and every circumstance you and I share together, to be Yours, that You might walk as One together with me, sharing me with Yourself and Yourself with me. Father, I belong only to You in the same way that You belong utterly to me.”
The Points of Confidence and Devotion. Confidence and Devotion are married together. There is never one without also the other. Here are the points of knowing both.
22. Absolute confidence in God is the only thing that pleases Him, declaring with all certainty that His Word, the Lord Jesus, is true and Personal inside of you and giving thanks in all.
23. Believers put the Lord Jesus Christ upon themselves entirely through faith, sinking into Him living now as them in every circumstance and moment of their lives.
24. As Father God is devoted to you, so you also devote yourself utterly to Him, to share His Heart together as your own. And as you are devoted to Father, so you separate yourself from the outward human “glory” of this world.