Friday, 16 May 2008

• Food and water

  I was mulling about a remark Pastor Henry made. 

  It was made in relation to choosing a life partner but it is applicable generally.

  After caregroup, we were fellowshipping over food and teasing a sister, telling her we were going to *matchmake* her and Pastor was talking about criteria.  He said that since the male was the leader in a relationship - for example, when a couple undergoes stressful situations, like health, finances; the husband needs to know that He can rely on God, needs to know how to pray.  "You don't expect the woman to take the lead and wear the pants."

  True true.  I'm all for independence and woman's rights and all, but not at the expense of our femininity.  I want someone I can lean on. 
  

  So yes, criteria.  Pastor went on to remark that the man needs to pray in the spirit (tongues) and read the Word regularly.  Once this two criteria are satisfied, the rest will be "easy".

  At first, I thought this seemed very dry and bordered on "religious".  Personally, I don't like it when people boast about fasting or how long they pray.  Jesus said (in relation to the pharisees) that you can fast but you don't have to show everyone that you're doing so.  It's a personal thing between you and the Lord.  But Pastor did not mean that..

  Think about it.  The Word is bread for us, manna.  "Man does not live by bread alone, but by the every word of God" and Jesus is the bread of heaven today for us (John 6:58) and Jesus is the Word made flesh and the Word is Jesus.  So by meditating on the Word and reading on it, we are feeding our spirit man.

  The water to us is praying in the spirit  (Isaiah 28:11-12, John 7:38), "building ourselves up in our most holy faith" (Jude 1:20)

  It occurred to me that Jesus came to give us life! (John 10:10) Pastor Prince said "Jesus did not come to make bad people good but to make dead people live"  We were once dead in our sins like Adam.  God told Adam that when he ate the apple from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would die.  And he did, physically, 900+ years later.  But before that, at that point, he died spiritually. 
  

  When Jesus came, He made my spirit man live again.  Anyone who receives Jesus as Lord and Saviour had their spirit man resurrected.  And Pastor Henry during caregroup said, "Look, we need to eat food and drink water to live.  Can you imagine a day without drinking water?  Without eating?  You will be famished.  If our physical bodies have such requirements, what about our spirit?"

  Whoa.  That really caught my attention. What is the condition of my spirit man?  I mean Christ gave us life!  My spirit man now is alive to Christ.  But how often have my spirit man been eating and drinking?

  Because the *real* us in our spirit man, born of God.  But we are a tripartite - made of a spirit, soul and body.  And many times, the body or the mind may reign - and this is the flesh.  But a true walking in the spirit, is when the spirit man is pre-eminant, and dominates the mind (soul) and body.  Walking in the spirit does not mean quoting bible verses, going to church, wearing the right clothes or listening to the *right* music.

  Think back on that instant when you had that revelation, or when you were worshipping in church and you felt close, or when faith rises so that all your troubles seem small before the Lord.  Instances like that are when our spirit man is dominant.  We were "walking in the spirit"
  

  But do we build our spirit man up?  In the spirit, our spirit man is glorious and radiant.  However, the spirit and the physical realm exists as if in a different dimension, and the breakthrough comes when we eat and drink the Word and bring the mind and body (our flesh) under (1 Peter 1:13)
  

  I believe that everything we need and have, the abundant blessings of Deutronomy 28 is wrapped up in the person of Jesus.  But of the manifestation of blessings?  Eat and drink the Word.   Rejoice in hope. And we can only do the latter when as spirit beings (the real us) we measure reality on "another" plane - the only truth we recognise is His Word.  When we have eaten and drank to our hearts content, and our spirit man is built and then faith becomes effortless, whatever simply believe in God's Word, and it happens! (Mark 11:23)
  

  So back to the topic; when Pastor Henry mentioned these 2 criteria, it no longer seemed religious.  You want to be with a person who is alive, not dead.  To put it bluntly, (my POV) it's not a matter about marrying a Christian only, it's about being with someone who knows Whose He is.  Someone who is alive! in every sense of the word, spirit, soul and body!

  A person who is alive! in Christ is oh so attractive.  I mean, the Lord Jesus is so cool, steady and manly and glorious!  Have you seen men and women of God lit up from the inside?  That's the Christ in them.  It's awesome to look into someone's eyes and think, "hey Jesus, You're in there too!"

  Although I love to go to heaven one day, the time for victory is on the earth.  Everything IS wonderful in heaven, but the Kingdom of God is not a place, it is within us.  Can you imagine?  God calls us citizens of heaven ALREADY.  "We are IN the world, but we are not OF the world."  Can you imagine what it means?  It's like "a thousand may fall at my side, ten thousand at my right, it shall not come near me" and "the last enemy to be put under our feet is death" (that means all other enemies are *already* under our feet) and "greater things will we do (than Jesus!) when He goes back to the Father"   I really want to see God back this up in MY life!
  
  

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