16. The Holy of Holies
Audio Only16. The Holy of Holies - For Notes
This lesson is about your first season of time living inside the Holiest, inside of Christ your only life, Jesus living as you. This is your “first year of high school.” It is not a time for ministry out. It is a time marked by these words, “Learn of Me.”
I said in an earlier lesson that, “In fact, you will spend some time in the joy of learning Christ in your weakness before God will suggest to you the possibility of turning around.”
I have also said this many times. “You will never know Christ in His power until you first know Him in and as your human weakness, full and complete.”
Learn of Me. I spent just over 3 ½ years in this first year of high school, learning that Jesus is my only life, before God ever took me on to the next grade level.
“Learn of Me. Learn of Me. Learn of Me.”
The primary task of your first season in the Holiest is to learn the full and personal meaning of union with Christ, to know “Christ as me.” These next three lessons are all concerned with this first season in the Holiest. And your confession of faith through this time is every way of saying, “Christ is my life; I have no other life. Christ is all there is in me.”
Union with Christ. The first and simplest definition of living in the Holiest is John 14:20 – you inside of Me and I inside of you. And Galatians 2:20 – I live, but no longer I. Christ lives inside of all that is me. More than that, the life I now live inside of flesh, I live entirely inside of the faith of the Son of God.
We know of this wondrous way of living as “union with Christ” and as “Christ as me.” Here is a third verse saying this same thing. – Just exactly as He is, so also are we in this present world (1 John 4:17).
We are no longer “going into” God; now, we learn just to rest in the wondrous joy of knowing Jesus our only life.
Jesus Already Has. What is union with Christ?
First, union with Christ is NOT something you can do; Jesus is the One who has already come into union with you. Accepting that Jesus has already come into union with you is your greatest surrender to God and the true repentance God desired right from the start.
Jesus is the initiator, the cause, and the ongoing unfolding of all that your Salvation is and means. Your part is to believe that He is with all confident joy, and to accept all of your human weakness and failures as key parts of His expression through you.
One Spirit – One Flesh. For the one joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17). The Spirit of Christ IS your spirit; your spirit IS the Spirit of Christ. You share Sspirit with Jesus, and that shared Sspirit is pure and incorruptible, always out form God.
We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. “…into one flesh the two will be” (Eph. 5:30-31). The Flesh of Christ IS your flesh; your flesh IS the Flesh of Christ. You share Fflesh with Jesus, and that shared Fflesh is the revelation of all the life of God.
That the life of Jesus also may be made visible inside of our dying flesh (2 Corinthians 4:11).
Sharing Sweet Communion. You are ONE with Jesus in Spirit – union. You are ONE with Jesus in flesh – expression.
But what about your soul and Jesus’ soul, how are you and Jesus one together in soul? In Soul together with soul, you and Jesus share continuous and sweet communion together.
Union with Christ MEANS you are NOT alone. Someone, just a bit stronger and just a bit wiser is with you always, communicating with you and you with Him through the thoughts of your shared mine together. Your fellowship with Jesus is the treasure of your life.
The Words of Your Self-Story. Then, that greatest of all treasures, sharing continuous fellowship with your dear Friend, the One upon whose breast you always lean your head, extends out into all that Soul with soul can mean.
Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 2:11, that you and God share the same makeup – the spirit of man/God knows the things of man/God. Those “things” are your self-story, the story you tell yourself about yourself out from your heart and all the way through your being.
Your soul and Jesus’ soul are the Wwords of Yyour self-story, told inside of Yyour shared Sspirit self-awareness.
Two Stories Entwined Together. Your own story is never lost inside of Jesus, for inside of Him, your soul is true. Jesus’ own Story is never lost inside of you, for inside of you, His soul is true.
Instead, Jesus Himself actively takes your self story as His very own and then enables you, as you believe into Him, to take His self story as your very own. Your self story and Jesus’ self story are thus entwined together, neither one lost, both fully shared.
Jesus always calls you by name, by your own name. He always honors you, personally, as part of Himself.
Until You KNOW. The source of your existence is the Spirit you share as one with Jesus. Your every expression outward is the flesh you share as one with Jesus. Yet inside the intertwining of your self story with His, you and Jesus share communion together always.
Speak this always, so that you might think and see this always. Call it to be true until you KNOW. That is your complete and present union with Christ right now; indeed it has always been so. Now you know.
What then is Christ as you? Christ as you is a way of thinking that you must learn over time.
As He IS. Learn of Me. – As He is, so also are we.
You ARE as Jesus IS. How do you know Jesus as He is? You know Jesus as He is by knowing yourself as you are. And you know yourself as you are by knowing Jesus as He is. This knowing is always a reciprocal togetherness centered around you visiting with Jesus and Jesus visiting with you.
Never leave Jesus Himself in Person out of your equation of Christ living as you. Never lose your own person inside some ambiguous and meaningless “oneness.” Look then at yourself, in all your humanity, your ups and downs, your ins and outs – Christ lives as you.
Made Perfect IN Weakness. All your Christian life you have imagined that Jesus was opposed to you and you to Him, that He and you were completely “other.” All your Christian life you have heard preachers say that Jesus is “perfect,” and you are NOT.
Here is the truth. For we have this treasure inside of earthen vessels, so that the surpassing beyond-ness of the power may be of God and not of us. – My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is brought to full perfection and completion inside of your weakness (2 Corinthians 4:7 & 12:9).
No human weakness MEANS no perfection of Christ.
Jesus Sent into You. Union with Christ is your foundation; Christ as you is your ongoing experience. Christ as you cannot be known as a “truth”; it must be hammered out inside your every moment over years until you KNOW Jesus SENT into YOU.
This is age-unfolding life [that is, LIFE unfolding all your days and moments forever], that _______ [put your own name in the blank – He calls you by name] might know … Jesus whom You have SENT (John 17:3 – modified).
Jesus SENT – as He is you are. As you are, you are what He is. Only Jesus, in your fellowship with Him can teach this to you. – Learn out from Me.
Frustration. When you are frustrated with someone and say shockingly unkind and hurtful things at them, allow Jesus to show you in your own mind and heart that your frustration IS His frustration, that He feels the same way that you are feeling. For He is as you.
Then hear Jesus say to you, as He honors your heart, “Can we together now place our shared frustration into Our Father’s love?” For you are as He.
See every part of your ongoing expression in the same way, the good, the bad, and the indifferent, that is, allow Jesus to show you Himself to you as you.
Stupidity. We you do something really stupid that causes loss to someone for whom you are responsible, allow Jesus to speak to you in your shared mind. “_______ [your name], please forgive Me for allowing that awful mistake? It is entirely My responsibility.”
And then say to Him, in the middle of your humiliation, “I do forgive You, Lord Jesus.”
And then hear Him say to you as well, “Can we place our shared humiliation into Father’s Heart now ours, as He is travailing through us by His Spirit for the sake of others?” And say, “You and I live together for Father’s sake.”
Every Difficult Place. You cannot know Christ living as you apart from Jesus actively teaching you of Himself. Those who try to know “Christ” without Jesus inside their hearts actively towards them, know little more than self.
Yet this learning of Christ Jesus actively towards you, showing you in every step how He IS living as you, sharing all things together, takes time.
You will pass through many difficult places until you KNOW Jesus SENT into YOU for real. Embrace Jesus with you, sharing with you, living as you in every difficult place of every kind.
Inside of Travail. We also exult boastfully now inside the pressures of travail, knowing that such pressures bring forth steadfastness, and steadfastness, proof …because the love of God has already been poured out and shed abroad inside of our hearts through Spirit Holy, the One having been given to us (Romans 5:3-5).
It is inside of and through the pressures of travail that you know the proof of Jesus as Christ now living as you.
Hear Jesus call everything you are, your thoughts, your words, your frustrations, your joys, your actions, your inactions as His own, now showing Himself through you as you. Hear Him until you KNOW.
You Are Become Real. We are saved and made whole inside of His life (Romans 5:10). Your life has been hidden together with Christ inside of God. Whenever Christ your life may become visible and clear [to you], then you also will become visible, clearly with Him inside of glory (Colossians 3:3-4).
Its all about you becoming REAL as you ARE.
Everything you have ever thought about yourself as separate from Christ, all of it is only fakery and pretending. Become real; become yourself. Become Christ as you.
You will always be human and weak forever; you will always be yourself. You will always be the glory of God forever.