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Destined to Become - part 3 of 3 (Amplified and KJV) Over the past several months the following question has been ringing in my spirit: “Where is the house that you will build me?” “Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that you build unto me? And where is the place of my rest?” {Isa 66:1} David prayed, “For thou, O Lord…hast revealed to thy servant saying, I will build thee an house…” {2 Sam 7:27}. To Solomon, Ahijah prophesied: “I will be with thee, and build thee a sure house” [I Kings 11:38a}. While we are busy trying to build a house for God through our ministries and talents, He desires and waits for us to become His house, the place of His dwelling, His holy habitation. Of the building of God’s temple, Zechariah wrote, “…behold –look at, keep in sight, watch – the Man [the Messiah] whose name is the Branch; for He shall grow up in His place, and He shall build the [true] temple of the Lord. Yes, [you are building a temple of the lord, but] it is He who shall build the [true] temple of the Lord…And He shall be a priest upon His throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between the two [offices] [Priest and King] {Zech 6:12-13}. Yes, the King of Kings is building His temple in us and through us, even now preparing us to become fully developed kings and priests unto our God. The destiny of God’s people is both individual and corporate. “Do you not discern and understand that you [the whole church at Corinth] are God’s temple (His sanctuary) and that God’s Spirit has His permanent dwelling in you – to be at home in you [collectively as a church and also individually]? {I Cor 3:16} As members of Christ’s Body, we are called both to do and to be; but unless our doing originates from our being in Him and He in us, we exhibit only a religion of works. As an individual, Paul was destined to be an apostle and to do the work of an apostle, laying the foundation for the Church of which Christ Jesus is the Chief Cornerstone. Prior to performing the work for which God had predestined him, Paul first underwent a character transformation, a laying-down of his own life and a taking-up of Christ’s life. Even now the Father is blending Paul’s faithfulness, both to become and to do, into the forming of Christ’s many-membered Body. Likewise, our individual gifts and callings are essential for the growth and development of the Body. With each trial, the fruit of our character is tested for maturity and sweetness. “For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus…that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned, beforehand) for us, (taking paths which He prepared ahead of time) that we should walk in them…” {Eph 2:10}. Our destiny is not merely to be Christ-like, but rather to become manifestations of Christ’s life. While Paul urges the Ephesians to “Therefore be imitators of God… --as well-beloved children [imitate their father]” {Eph 5:1}, he also admonishes, “let us grow up in every way and in all things into Him, Who is the Head, [even] Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One” {Eph 4:15}. Striving to be Christ-like may be compared to a child who imitates a parent’s gestures or words. As we mature, we move from copying His life to allowing the Life we contain to manifest Himself through actual character change: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” {Gal 2:20 KJV}. If we are to become as He is, we must walk as He walked. Just as Jesus, the Pattern Son, learned obedience through the things which He suffered, so must we. Indeed, we are ordained to manifest both His life and His walk, His sufferings and His glory. Only that portion of Him of which we have partaken and which has been worked into us can be manifested through us. Otherwise, the world is left with a distorted imitation and the Body remains imperfect (incomplete and immature). “[God’s] intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people)…that [we might arrive] at really mature manhood – the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ’s own perfection – the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ, and the completeness found in Him” {Eph 4:12-13}. Neither individually nor corporately do we have any righteousness of our own. Until that truth takes root, we will struggle to attain Divine requirements through human endeavor. And we will continue to fail. “For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it. – I have the intention and urge to do what is right, but no power to carry it out” {Rom 7:18}. Whatever God demands, He provides. Whatever He commands, He enables. But only Christ’s life in us can meet both the Divine demand and the Divine provision. Ours is the choice: the deadness of our flesh or the Life of His Spirit? Too long we have been satisfied with believing that Jesus Christ died for us so that we can experience the glory of His Presence when get to heaven. Rather, He gave His life that He might begin to live His Life through us even now. As we feed on Him, we partake of His Life; and as we partake of His Life, we complete the Father’s destiny for us, that we be conformed to the image of His Son and that we allow Him to manifest that life through us “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” {Eph 3:10-11 KJV}. To demonstrate that destiny, we must continually yield to God’s progressive process of perfecting us into the image of His Son Who delighted both to do and to become the will of God. -Ruth French December Newsletter 2002 | Presents or Presence | Spiritual Intimacy Pastor's Journal December 2001 | Christmas Lights | Destined to Become part 3 of 3 |
Biblical Counseling for Leaders
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