17.2 Sustaining and Energeoing

Sustaining all by His power-filled Word (Hebrews 1:3). – There are varieties of the effects of Energeia, but the same God who energeoes all inside of all. (1 Corinthians 12:6).

I did not know “sustaining all” until just before I started writing Symmorphy I: Purpose, and I did not know “energeoing all” until I was writing Symmorphy IV: Covenant. From that time forward, I have not stopped writing about these two words, for if they are true, then they rule the substance and reality of every single thing that exists. For that reason, I want to know what these two things mean. And here, we want to know what they mean inside the basic facts of daily human living.

Certain and True. Albert Einstein said, “God does not play dice with the universe.” He was correct in that the universe runs by specific laws that do not change with any passing whim, that God does not ‘gamble’ with people’s lives or the movement of stars.

The laws of physics are certain and true; that’s why “black holes” are non-scientific; that is, they are the invention of mathematical minds void of actual observation. No laws of physics ever allow such an unreal thing. In fact, the well-known laws of electricity explain easily the very phenomena a “black hole” was invented in order to explain. Yet, because the laws of physics are constant, most Christians are deists in their thinking, that is, they separate a personal God from the ongoing operation of all created things.

Personally Involved. The constant beating of my heart can be explained precisely by the laws of physics, and I continue living because those laws do not change. For this reason, most people assume that God is not personally involved with the beating of my heart. Yet the opposite is true.

It is the personal involvement of the Lord Jesus through His power-filled Word that causes the laws of physics by which my heart continues beating to operate consistently. Then, as I go through my day, I do this and then I do that. Yet Paul claims that whatever it is I might be doing, it is God who is energeoing that doing inside of me, personal and close. God has always been personally involved with everything I do.

Acknowledgment. Life is the knowledge of God and the knowledge of God comes to me through acknowledgment, that is, through agreeing with God that He personally sustains and energeoes me every moment. There is always a direct connection, through Christ Jesus, between Father God and every aspect of my human living, physical, spiritual, and social. This has always been true and is true of everything and everyone. Life comes by acknowledging, through faith, that it is true.

Yet this acknowledgment is also war, for every muttering voice, human and demonic, will speak against your acknowledgment. Faith wields the sword, speaking what God says is true, until every enemy falls, until every opposing voice vanishes. This is how a human brings the knowledge of God into his or her life.

Energeoing All. No human can “bring God” into their lives, for God is already all inside of all. Knowing God, personal and real, is entirely our choice. Yet when we choose to acknowledge God, we become aware of a whole lot of Jesus-sustaining and God-energeoing going on inside of us, causing us to be every moment.

We usually think of God-energeoing in terms of Christian service, but what about the regular daily aspects of human living? Does God energeo me in my tiredness? And by that, I do not mean – Does God fill me with strength when I am tired? I mean – Is God in even my tiredness? Most think that tiredness is the absence of God. Yet this way of thinking is only the self-exaltation of the “strong.”

As We Are. But when I can rest all my tiredness into the energeoing of God sharing my life with me, than I can truly rest, and my soul is very glad. I would rather know Father with me in all my tiredness than to have the strength of those who do not know God.

God energeoes us as we are. Jesus sustains and carries us in all our humanity. Giving thanks inside of and for the sake of all things is the doorway into knowing the energeoing of God, personal and close, as central to our daily human life. Giving thanks places us in tune with God-Energeia. Knowing Jesus carrying us enables us to carry others.

Defining the Human. Let’s bring all these things into the definition of the human. Remember that we are describing Jesus in His humanity, and we, just like Him. Also, our purpose in this chapter is to bring the energeoing of God and the sustaining of the Lord Jesus into the weave and fabric of our daily and mundane human living.

Something else is taking place in this chapter thus far, and that is a further clarity of the true definition of evil. This clarity is coming in conjunction with other things I am writing, in particular, on the nature of this world. Understanding God and the human also enables us to understand what evil is, something different from what we have assumed.

A True Human. A true human, just like the Lord Jesus Christ, is one who acknowledges that every part of their being in mundane daily living, whether their heavenly parts or their earthly parts, is coming out from God through the good-speaking of Jesus and is the very energeoing of God in all things. A true human is one who acknowledges that Jesus is Lord, regardless of any outward appearance, and that their entire life is an expression of Him and of His power-filled words.

This acknowledgment, which is the central essence of purity and truth, establishes inside this one’s being the full and continuous knowledge of God sharing life together with them. And from this knowledge of God comes the joy of blessing other people, even while affirming one’s self as whole and good.

Defining Evil. This is what James said, that a Christian who acts contrary to God is one who has forgotten what he is. Acting contrary to God, then, is a deliberate act of the present moment, an action that comes out from the twisted story of self that always fills the place in the human meant for the knowledge of God through the act of acknowledgment.

The word “nature” means that it’s made that way. If there was such a thing as an “evil nature,” then such a thing must be coming from the same sustaining power of Word that is Jesus. And if something is evil through the becoming of Jesus, then how can there be any judgment, for it is simply doing what it was made to do? Evil, then, is first a momentary human action of twisting what is good.

That Which Is Ordinary. The most important thing to understand about evil is that it is humdrum and every day, the ongoing action of most everyone. Evil is – been there, done that. Just as people are looking for a super-Christ rather than an ordinary man, so people are looking for a super-Evil rather than the ordinary daily practice of most everyone. Both the super-Christ and the super-Antichrist are how humans excuse their refusal to acknowledge Jesus sustaining all.

Yet there is a further evil, and that is the “world.” The world is all the interrelationships among humans and angels that is absent of the acknowledgment of God. ALL human organizations in this world, then, are evil in totality.

Because We Are True. Just as a true human acknowledges Jesus as sustaining all that they are every moment and God as energeoing all of their shared life with Him, so a true church is a gathering of true humans who acknowledge God among them as all their connections together.

God is energeoing all, regardless. God does fill all things with all that He is, regardless. Evil is the deliberate ignorance of God. And life, according to Jesus, age-unfolding life is to KNOW God-is through Jesus Sent.

Just as the Word of God is living and energeoing, so is the knowledge of God, for both Word and Knowledge are Jesus Sent into us, now our very and only life. Because we are true humans, we acknowledge that God is telling us the truth.

Everyday Living. The next lesson is titled “Human Action,” that is, a study of practical economics, what humans do and why they do it. And the purpose of this entire chapter is to bring God in all knowledge into the mundane and every day of human living.

Evil is the very mundane, common, and everyday refusal to acknowledge God-Is, and as such, it is very, very evil. And the evil that is this world, humans operating together without acknowledging God among us, is more evil than we have ever considered, even though it is utterly normal to us.

But when a small group of true humans, those who acknowledge Christ as their everyday living, acknowledge the Father as all their connections together, you have what God calls glory, His Jerusalem, and what we call the revelation of Jesus Christ.