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You'll Recover Your Life
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Deborah P. Brunt
His proposal comes out of nowhere.
Traveling through Galilee, speaking to the crowds gathered around him, Jesus chats about John the Baptist. Then he denounces the towns where he has performed so many miracles yet the people have not believed. Then he says, "Thank you, Father ... You've concealed your ways from sophisticates and know-it-alls, but spelled them out clearly to ordinary people" (Matt. 11:25 MSG). Then he speaks briefly of his own unique relationship with the Father.
Right then, while everyone's still mulling the startling statement Jesus made three topics back, he takes another leap where no one would have guessed he'd go:
"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion?" he asks.
"Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly" (Matt. 11:28-30 MSG).
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Like the crowds who first heard the proposal, you're caught off-guard.
Deep inside, you wonder: How would I know rest if I saw it? How could I possibly do it? Especially now. Or ... ever in the foreseeable future.
Something interrupts your thoughts. It's silence.
After all his bouncing, topic to topic, Jesus has suddenly, in effect, gotten down on one knee. He's proposed, "Come to me ... and I will give you rest." Then, he has stopped talking, as if waiting for a reply.
The pause is as unexpected and disconcerting as the invitation. You don't realize you're holding your breath. You don't hear yourself sigh.
It sounds so simple. It seems utterly impossible.
- You listen for a voice your ears can't hear,
- in order to come to a person your eyes can't see
- so he can give you something that sounds lovely but unrealistic, and you don't have a clue how it looks.
As is often his way, Jesus' doesn't explain, to the crowds or to you, how any of the above can actually work. But in all that he's already said, he has offered a subtle hint. For his random array of teaching topics in Matthew 11 revolve around a single subject: the mystery of divine-human relationships in the kingdom of God.
In one breathtaking sweep, Jesus alludes to: The mystery of one God who relates to himself in different Persons. Ways this unfathomable God initiates relationships with people. Ways people embrace or reject the relationships God offers. Consequences of those choices.
Later - on the eve of his crucifixion, in fact - Jesus will say more on the subject. As he prepares to die and be buried, to rise and ascend, he tells his followers:
"Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them ... All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you" (John 14:23-26).
To you who love me in truth, says Jesus, I have spoken. The Father, who loves you, will send. The Holy Spirit will come. The Father and I will come. We - he - will dwell in you. He who is Spirit and Truth will teach you.
It's mystery, all right. In relationship with the God of the kingdom, you can know what you can't grasp. You can embrace what you can't fathom. You can receive what seems utterly impossible.
It all begins as you say Yes to a Spirit-to-spirit journey.
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In our society, beliefs about the spiritual realm tend to take one of two directions.
One view has become wildly popular in the US in recent decades, as Eastern mysticism has fed New Age thought. It may not be the approved stance in your church, but it's rampant in our culture and, knowingly or not, many Christians have adopted it.
According to this view: The spirit realm is alluring and often deliciously frightening. Exploring every nook and cranny brings thrills and chills - and maybe also secret knowledge and power - much of which is beautiful and none of which causes any real harm. What's more, people can happily embrace whatever they find there that satisfies their view of god.
Wayne Muller, a Christian pastor, espouses this view in his book, Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives.
Paradoxically, Muller says many things that are true. He gives helpful insights into our need for rest, exposes the reasons we fight against rest and offers creative ways to practice it. As he rightly indicates, anyone who makes time to stop and be still, regardless their religious persuasion, can experience the benefits rest gives us, body and soul.
But Muller does not make clear that it matters very much which spirit you seek when practicing Sabbath. In fact, Muller says just the opposite.
He writes of his steadfast belief in "a persistent luminosity of spirit, an unquenchable resilience" within people. He adds, "Through my seminary training and meditation practice I would learn that the spiritual traditions of the world dearly love this inner resilience, and call it by many names: inner light, still, small voice, Buddha Nature, Kingdom of God, Holy Spirit" (p. 41).
This is grievous error, made especially dangerous when spoken by one who purports to be teaching as a Christian. The Kingdom of God does not equal the Buddha Nature. Further, the Holy Spirit, the human spirit and evil spirits are dramatically different from each other - not different ways to describe the same thing.
The Holy Spirit is God. He, the Son and the Father are one. God the Spirit is beautiful, comforting and fierce. He's past finding out, yet he reveals mysteries. He's filled with explosive power, yet he alone gives the rest that refreshes completely - spirit, soul and body.
Your human spirit is your truest essence as a person created in the image of God. You owe your being to the Spirit of God. You were made to relate to him:
"The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life" (Job 33:4).
"The Lord ... forms the human spirit within a person" (Zech. 12:1).
"God's ways are as mysterious as ... the manner in which a human spirit is infused into the little body of a baby while it is yet in its mother's womb" (Eccl. 11:5 TLB).
"The human spirit is the lamp of the Lord that sheds light on one's inmost being" (Prov. 20:27).
Certainly, God has endowed the human spirit with great inner resilience, but your spirit is not God. In your inmost being, you can seek and receive rest; but the Spirit of Christ, not your human spirit, gives the rest you seek.
All other spirits - all other beings that exist in the spirit realm - are not neutral, and they're not God. Some are angels, who worship and serve the Lord. They adamantly refuse to be worshiped themselves. When the apostle John prostrated himself before one of these beings, the angel cried, "Don't do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers and sisters who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God!" (Rev. 19:10).
The remaining spirits are demons, evil spirits who lust for worship and will take it any way they can get it.
None of these beings, not even the angels who serve God, can give you rest. The spirits who do not serve God, but who rather proclaim themselves to be gods, will go to any lengths to deceive and destroy you. They promise rest - and then give torment. They promise to lift your burden - and then crush you with heavy loads.
When you encounter the view that any spirit you welcome can give you rest, remember: That's backwards. You're headed toward enslavement, not peace, when you pursue the occult or any false religion. Ah, but you're also barreling toward bondage when you try to serve Christ with a divided heart. Either way, you open yourself to deception and oppression by evil spirits and the brutal sabotaging of rest.
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Greek meets Enlightenment
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Another view of the spirit realm gained popularity in Western culture centuries ago, when Greek thinking met the Enlightenment. This may well be the approved stance in your church, and it too is rampant in our culture. According to this view: The spirit realm is superstition. Exploring it is foolish and dangerous. And rational people will leave the subject alone.
Thus, in countless US evangelical churches, people try to grow spiritually, while:
- sidestepping any real relationship with the Holy Spirit,
- denying the existence and workings of evil spirits, and
- ignoring and pushing down the human spirit.
We see the devil and his demons in Scripture but cannot see them doing the same things today. Often, we explain away evil spirits using psychological terms, as if there cannot be both soul and spirit components to people's inner woes.
At the same time, we do everything we can to control the Holy Spirit, rather than to be filled with and controlled by him. We do everything we can to "figure out" God's will, without having to know the Spirit's voice. Deep within, we fear that opening ourselves to the Holy Spirit will open us to evil spirits - the same evil spirits that we tell ourselves do not exist and cannot bother Christians.
We feel justified in avoiding the Holy Spirit when we see people who identify themselves as "Spirit-filled" being moved by spirits we're just sure are not God.
We don't realize: Sometimes, we are seeing God at work, but because he doesn't fit into our box, we don't recognize him.
We haven't learned: People may call themselves Spirit-filled when they too are trying to control the Holy Spirit, rather than to be controlled by him.
When deception and oppression happen in charismatic ranks, it's not because people are opening themselves to God the Spirit, but rather because they're seeking him with an impure heart. Some try to manipulate the Spirit in order to gain special revelation, significance or power. Some seek the Spirit like an addict seeks drugs, to experience a spiritual "high" or to numb inner realities they don't want to face.
The Holy Spirit refuses to relate to us in such ways, but other spirits who want our worship come running.
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Holy Spirit meets human spirit
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Truth is: The devil and his minions will try to get you going and coming. If you seek the Spirit, the enemy will tempt you to do it for selfish ends - and, thus, to connect instead with unholy spirits. Ah, but if you choose the seemingly "safer" alternative - if you run from everything in the spirit realm in order to avoid the counterfeit - you'll run blindly into the arms of the very spirits you're seeking to avoid. Indeed, such naiveté and denial will make you particularly susceptible to the enemy's wiles.
Further, to try to become "spiritual" apart from communing, Spirit-to-spirit, with the Spirit of God is to ensure your own defeat. By the very way you seek God, you rob yourself of knowing him. "For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24 NLT).
By the Spirit, you know your Lord and his ways. By the Spirit, your eyes are opened to the Word. By the Spirit, you experience life, healing, deliverance and fullness of days. You grow in wisdom and in discerning of spirits. You gain strength to refuse temptation and authority to stand against all the devil's schemes. You grow strong in spirit, becoming more and more the person your Lord designed you to be. By the spirit, you come to Jesus - and he gives you rest.
Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion?
Embrace the Lord, who is the Spirit, and all he chooses to show you of the spirit realm. As you keep company with him, he will teach you how to take a real rest, even when it seems impossible. As you walk and work with him, you will begin to echo the unforced rhythms of grace. Watching what your eyes can't see, hearing what your ears can't hear, you will learn to live freely and lightly.
Spirit-to-spirit, you'll recover your life.
. . . . . . .
"You'll Recover Your Life" is excerpted and adapted from Return to Your Rest: A Spirit-to-spirit Journey, by Deborah P. Brunt. Watch for this e-book to be released in early 2014.
Unless otherwise noted, all other Scriptures quoted are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2001 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved. Also quoted: The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (MSG), New Living Translation (NLT) and The Living Bible (TLB).
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also from keytruths.com
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Walk in the full redemption Jesus purchased for you
See real royalty. Be real royalty.
Live in the flow of grace.
Love fiercely. Live fully.
Don't be taken out by the two-headed snake.
We can't undo the past. But we can redeem it.
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