Once more I will shake everything that can be shaken… Everything….
I find myself firmly situated in the middle of this scripture. I am too far in to be able to see all the way back to where I started, and yet I cannot yet see the other side. It’s like the place in the middle of the night where you lose track of whether it is the night before or the morning that is approaching. In so many ways it is a place of death, where so much of hope is being put to the test. The things that have been so immovable, so constant in my life… The things that have always made up the landscape of my reality… These are the very things that the Lord is trying with fire. Inside, I feel like a scared animal, fleeing from one room to the next ahead of the flames consuming the house all around me. And I am running out of rooms. God is chasing me down, making thorough, quick, relentless work of the chaff that I have built into a life for the past 29 years.
If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me… I want to know Jesus Christ and the power of his resurrection, and to share in the fellowship of his sufferings…
Jesus is teaching me about the cross. Everything in life is centered around the cross of Jesus. There is only one way into life, one narrow road. That road passes directly through the way of the cross. Our whole life in Christ is a measure of walking with him through the cross, through death, and into the resurrection. There is only one way to the resurrection, and that is through the cross. The reality that I am touching on here is so so deep, and there is only one way to even comprehend it: to walk the road with Jesus. Wow. It is so crazy. This thing is really not a religion. It is not some theological framework and position. It is not about knowing the right things, or even believing the right things. It takes faith, but I am just now discovering how much it is actually based in the process. This is a mystery, and hard to explain. But I had an encounter last night that shook me, and I see now in a way that I never did, and never could have. The whole thing is a matter or seeing and really perceiving, and then being able to turn and be healed. The most important thing you or I could possibly do is to cry out that the Lord would give us gold refined in the fire, and white robes to cover our shameful nakedness, and eye salve to put on our eyes so we can see. Beloved, hasten to the Lord, and cry out to him. Cry out and do not stop, until you begin to see. And then, don’t let go. Do whatever it takes to not lose sight of him. The way will open to you, you will see. And then you will understand.
If any of you thinks he knows something, he should realize that he does not yet know as he ought to know…
Onward and upward, ever higher, ever deeper. There is a way in, to actually know Jesus in the fullness of his revelation, in the fullness of his sufferings and triumph. It is impossible to know the full reality of his triumph without knowing his sufferings. Oh, to know Christ… He is desiring a people who will walk with him trough the fire. He is looking for friends who know him completely. This is the process that Jesus has the Church in right now. He is removing out of the Church every spot and wrinkle, and everything that causes offense. There is a purifying work that is taking place, and if you will allow it to happen, that purifying work of the Spirit will bring forth in you all that he sees in you, and all that you see in yourself. It is a work of grace, and you only have to yield. Yield. Deeper and deeper, yield. He is going deeper, always deeper. He is so passionate about those who are made in his image, about winning the full redemption that he paid the price of his life for. Meditate on Isaiah 53. That will get you there. Blessings.
