"Practicing the Presence of Christ"Part Two
Alan Mc Savage
Demonstrating Christ in God.
Col 3:3-4
For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
What are we looking for? Is it Christ that we are looking for?
Or are we looking for some thing from Christ in God?
The very moment that we are looking for a home, a car, or money or a better job, or any such thing, we are looking in the wrong place for the wrong things.
God is SPIRIT. Christ is the Anointed One and His Anointing is Spirit.
Man is a spirit, who has a soul and lives in a body.
When Christ enters our life He joins together with our spirit and we become One in Him and the Father through the indwelling power of the Spirit.
When we look God for material things we are looking in the wrong place for the wrong things.
Until we have Christ we have nothing; but the very moment we have Christ, we have all there is in the world. There is no such thing as God and, or Christ and!
To look for money, cars, homes, jobs or companionship is an impossibility Spiritually, because Spiritually, there are no such things. Spiritually there is only God; but when we receive Christ into our lives we receive all that God is.
Nothing is more important than this point: Are we looking for a manifestation of Christ in our lives, or are we trying to reach through to God in order to get some material thing from God?
When we first come to learn about God, we nearly always look for some good for ourselves. It may be a healing - physical, mental, moral, financial - or it may be peace of mind, but whatever it is, as a rule, we are looking for it to benefit our self. Very quickly, however, we discover that as the presence of Christ begins to come into our lives, it not to benefit ourselves alone but also the rest of the world.
The person who is learning to Practice the Presence of Christ soon has no real problems, no real needs, and no real desires. Those things which are necessary for our health and supply have a way of taking care of themselves.
Christ is working out His Life as our life. Through our death, burial and resurrection that we experience through His death, burial and resurrection, we find that it is no longer I (old self) with selfish carnal wants and desires, but I (New man in Christ) who has arisen from the dead with a far more broader and spiritual vision.
Luke 12:22-31
Then He said to His disciples, "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on.
Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.
Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?
And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest?
Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith?
"And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things.
But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.
You may well ask at this point: How is it possible to say "Do not worry about it" when I have no money to pay my bills etc.
How can I trust God when year in and year out I all have these financial problems confronting me all the time, and it really was no fault of my own?
I see here in Luke that I am not supposed to worry about things. Well I am looking to God as my source of supply, I''m naming it and claiming it and I''m still coming up short every month?
I need money, food, clothing, and a good car etc. and I don''t know what''s the matter with it all? I am exercising my faith, I''m only speaking positive things, I''m rebuking the devil, I am giving 10% to the church and I''m still coming up short.
Can someone help me to understand?
Well my friend the answer lies in this:
God is our source of supply, BUT (money, food, clothing, a car etc) are not supply they are the result or effect of supply. There is no such thing as a supply of money, food, clothing, or automobiles. All these things constitute the effect of supply, and if this Divine supply were not present within you, there never would be "the added things" in your experience. The added things of course are those practical things like money, food and clothing that are so necessary at this stage of our spiritual walk.
Since money, food, clothing, and automobiles are not supply, what is?
Around where I live in the golden horseshoe of Southern Ontario Canada, we have many orchards of different kinds of fruit.
We have Apples, Pears, Plums, Peaches, Cherries, as well as Grapes, Blueberries, Blackberries, Strawberries, and do you know what, I have never seen a fruit farmer wringing his hands in dismay at the end of a good season.
Those fruit trees, with a little care, will produce fruit year, after year, after year.
As the last apple falls or is picked off the tree the farmer knows that the though the apples are gone for the season the supply remains for the next season, because within that tree, there is a law of supply in operation.
Call it a law of God or a law of nature the name of the law is not too important, but the recognition of the presence of the law in, through, or as, the tree is important.
The law operates to draw in - through the roots - the minerals, substances, elements of air water, and sunshine which it then transforms into sap that is drawn up through the trunk of the tree and distributed through branches and finally sent into expression or manifestation as leaves and blossoms. In due time, this law transforms the blossoms into little green buds and they become full grown apples, pears, peaches, cherries plums, all according to the type of tree we are talking about. The principle is the same for all.
As long as this law is present we will have fruit. So we see that the law is the supply and the apples etc, are the fruit, the result or the effect of the tree.
Within you and me, there is a law in operation - the law of life - and our awareness of the presence of the law is our supply.
Money and things necessary for our daily living are the effects of the awareness of the activity of the law within. This understanding enables us to take our thoughts off of the things of the outer world and abide in the awareness of the law.
John 14:6
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
What is the law which is our supply? This is the Christ consciousness within you and I that tells us that:
Matt 21:22
"And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."
Heb 13:5-6
Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
So we may boldly say: "The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?"
Rom 8:32
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
James 1:17
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
As we keep our mind stayed upon Christ and absorb His precious promises, keep His commandment to love God our neighbor as our selves, will He not freely give us all things!
How long does it take you may well ask?
Just as long as it takes for you to keep your mind stayed upon Him.
1 Peter 5:7
Casting all your care upon him; for he cares for you.
To be continued
Alan
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