What do you think Christ has asked you to do in the Kingdom?

Earlier this year a church-learder asked me a few questions and asked me submit answers in writing to him. The excercise of writing these answers was really great, made me think, and made me draw near to Abba Father, the Father of our hearts and our lives. Several months after writing these I find the answers to be difficult, but even more heart felt than ever.

What do you think Christ has asked you to do in the Kingdom?

I believe Christ has asked me to be a part of His Body and to surrender my own will and flesh to His Spirit, in order that He might be glorified in the Kingdom, and that outsiders might “see Christ.” Christ followers are, together, His incarnation, the second Body. We are present in this Earth to bring others to Christ. Christ is the only way to the Father.

More specifically, and more practically, I believe that in the Kingdom Christ asks us to (1) passionately love the Father; (2) to love and take care of the family He has entrusted to us; (3) to love and support the people around us in the Kingdom of God; and (4) to use the gifts of the Spirit which He has put within us to be a part of the whole and to help build up the Kingdom . I’m only numbering these to better write about each of them below. In my mind these are all at the same level or priority. They mix together day in and day out as God leads. All four of these are of equal importance.  

Do you feel you are doing it?

Hmmmm. Trick quest. First, the proper spiritual answer, one which Paul would likely give. 

Whatever we do that is of God must have come from God; there is nothing good in us and no ability within ourselves to accomplish His will in the Kingdom. We pray for Christ to do His work through us; this is accomplished only with spiritual surrender. So that’s the real question. This is MY question to myself: Do I feel I am surrendering to God to allow Him to work fully through me? That's always the real question, I think. 

There will always be areas of surrender, areas which are uncovered almost daily. So, in essence, we are always both “doing it” and “not doing it enough,” for surrender is an ongoing work, one which we know will be our lot to the grave. But what a glorious lot this is, far better than no desire to surrender at all! The desire to surrender also comes from the Spirit of God within and not from our own spirit.  There is in fact NOTHING good in us at all. So every good and perfect gift comes from above and from the Father of our hearts. What good we do we do because of Christ the Lord.

In what way are you trying to do it?

Mainly, right now in my own life in the Kingdom, I am trying to surrender to God’s Spirit more. Where I do, I am learning new tools for interacting with people, of seeing needs, and over-looking faults. “Trying to do it” is about right. But we’re all “trying” in some sense. No one is perfect. And I definitely have much to learn. 

As for the four areas I listed above, am I doing these? As for loving God, there is always a sense in which we are both “loving God perfectly” and “trying to love” Him as well. This is because he has deposited Himself into us as a way of bringing us to Himself. If we aim to love God with all our heart, we do so because he taught us to lean on Him through the hard times, for He alone is our strong tower. It was in my own 20s that my prayers were answered, when I cried out to the Lord and He began to rescue me, creating a love with Him and a real closeness to Him. I say this but I also know it is not even possible for me to really love Him; that my flesh is too weak. We are called to love God with “all our heart.” But it’s really the heart He has put within us which yields love to Him. So in essence it is even God’s Spirit who loves God through us. In the end we are only a vessel, even in the warmth of loving God. So we can only pray,

I am to weak to love thee

This frail and fallen heart replace

Surrender the only coarse for me

A Love your Spirit to embrace  

This indwelling love brings great glory to God for it is once again a reminder that there is nothing we can do to earn our salvation, nor even increase our closeness and love for God.

Third, loving people is certainly in the heart of God. I tend to be pretty self-sufficient and independent by nature. But God is dealing with me more and more in this regard, and increasing my love-awareness. Any love for people in us is an overflow of what God has done for us, of the love He has shown us over the years. So many times my heart was crushed with experiences of seeing brokenness and poverty in people.

I grew up protected and kept, but I found myself serving in children’s homes, homeless shelters and inner city ministries in my 20s. Those experiences completely undid me. Time after time I cried myself to sleep at night, feeling what I guess is a sort of divine despair. I would imagine God’s heart-ache over the state of His beautiful creation and how people suffer so alone. In spite of “Bible” training God was opening my heart to truly feel love and concern for people.

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This is where my answers to the Elder ended. I never heard back from him. But I've added this today: There really is no conditions to unconditional love. I've placed conditions on friends and for that I am very sorry. No more. God showed us how to love everyone with **His** love. This is the only perfect love and it can only flow through us as we surrender to Him. Our flesh always wants to place conditions on this love. But God's perfect unconditional love will never let this be the case. Love covers over a multitude of Sin. That's OUR sin love covers; that's our flesh.

Here's to a new day and a new direction in Jackson!! It's time to really jump in!!

Jackson Updates, and a personal confession about Judgementalism, coming soon....