We all come in to the Kingdom with large amounts of cultural baggage and beliefs, and spend a lifetime replacing it with Kingdom truth and experiencing corresponding freedom John 8:31-32 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
One significant area is how we tend to mix our western mindset with how we view the nature of our relationship with God. How many times have we heard (and heard ourselves say) genuine heartfelt expressions like “I want to live FOR God.” “I want to do something great FOR God” etc. It’s scary what power there is in a small word – a preposition. It makes a profound difference to how we experience life and relationship with God. But the right preposition to use is always “WITH” not ”FOR.”
The nature of our relationship with God is that of a true loving partnership. It is a tricky partnership to work out – how much is God responsible for and how much are we; how much does He do and how much do we do? We are invited to do life WITH God, do something great WITH God, etc. His revealed name is “Immanuel” meaning “God with us.” Mk 3.14 tells us Jesus chose the 12 ”that they might be WITH him and that He might send them out to preach.”
Our relationship with God is about doing life WITH Him not FOR Him. Otherwise it is a very easy step to find ourselves getting worn out (and ultimately bitter and burned out) trying to do all sorts of things for God, give up things for God, to sacrifice for God, and so on – when all the time He wants us to experience life with Him.
Col 1.27 tells us the mystery of all time is that Christ is in us! That is what generations looked forward to. That’s the reality we live our lives from. We are not to spend our lives trying to impress Him with what we will do, or do without, for Him.
The Kingdom of God is always an invitation to live an integrated life. We live with the temptation to create false divides in life. For example, sacred and secular, spiritual and unspiritual. So for example we can be led to think that when we are in church that we are doing something sacred and spiritual, and when we go to the movies or go to work we are doing something secular and unspiritual. But Jesus will have no such divide. When we are in partnership with Him, He makes everything sacred and everything is spiritual.
To enter in to the Kingdom of God is to abandon a fragmented life. Jesus loves our whole life – not just when we are worshipping, or witnessing or praying for the sick – He does love that for sure. But He equally loves it when we are hanging out with friends, working our job, watching TV, loving our family. He loves it all, and sees no divide. If we live fragmented lives and have a secret area that God is not involved in or welcomed in, we set ourselves up for a fall. I have come to believe that having a secret area where God is not welcome is the reason Christians seem to suddenly fall into some area of sin. Safety & health are in having God welcome in every single part of our life. Christ is in us – and He loves that relationship.
The Kingdom of God is an invitation to a fully integrated life. We’ll take a look at a few key areas next week
