I was hungry to experience deep intimacy with Jesus Christ, but had become distracted by my busy lifestyle. I had allowed the mechanics of “living a Christian life” to suffocate the exhilarating awareness of the indwelling presence of Christ.
The enemy had used his classic weapon against me – causing me to focus more on “the Christian life” than on Christ Himself. I sincerely loved the Lord, but had temporarily lost that sense of intimate union known only by those who are in love with Jesus. Can you relate to my dilemma?
The specifics of our circumstances are probably different, but most of us in the modern church face the same basic temptation, namely that of allowing ourselves to become so busy with life that we miss the promised abundance of the Life that God has given us. (See John 10:10).
God has chosen you to be His bride for a specific reason. He wants to pour out His love on you.
Jesus said in John 17:3 that the meaning of eternal life revolves around knowing God.
The word is the same one used by the mother of Jesus when she questioned the angelic announcement of her giving birth to a son by saying, “How can this be, since I know no man?” The word denotes experiential intimacy with someone.
God saved you because He wants to know you.
He is consumed with a resolve to love you like you’ve never been loved before, with an intensity and commitment greater than you can possibly imagine. Meanwhile, in the modern church, most of us don’t have time for love-making. There are too many other things that need to be done.
Since God’s greatest desire toward his bride is to love us with a love that is divine, it makes sense that our adversary’s greatest mission would be to prevent us from experiencing that love.
If a frontal attack from the Enemy can’t make us turn away from Jesus Christ by seducing us back to the world, he will utilize another battle plan. He will cause us to become preoccupied with everything else, in fact, with anything else, other than Jesus Christ.
Many believers have been taken prisoners of war through a covert attack from hell and, the saddest part of it is, they don’t even know it. They are being held captive in a prison of busyness.
They sincerely desire to advance spiritually and often wonder why they aren’t making more progress. They don’t know that the reason all they seem to do is to walk in circles is because that is all anybody in a prison cell can do.
The ongoing awareness of His indwelling life as our own isn’t a legalistic discipline which we grit our teeth and determine to practice.
It is an underlying state of abiding in Christ at all times. To abide in Him is to assume a continuous posture of totally depending on Christ as our life source at every moment and in every situation.
It is the default setting of one who is living out of the union he shares with God through Jesus Christ.
P.S. If interested in learning more about this abiding, feel free to pick up a copy of Divine Invitation.
