Colossians 1:26-29 (The Message) The Mystery in an nutshell is this. Christ is in YOU so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God's glory. It's that simple. That is the substance of our message. We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the message....TO BE MATURE IS TO BE BASIC. Christ! No more, no less!
To be mature is to be basic. That is my focus and my desire in my Christianity. BUT, it was not always that way. I declared. I shook. I cried out. I declared breakthrough. I ran here and there. There is more to say but I pray you get the picture as I say the same thing 1000 different ways over the past year. :) What is flowing from my life is a thirst for simplicity in Christ - a hunger for the basics for that is maturity.
In seeking the basics, such as our glorious salvation, the power of the blood, the glory of the kingdom, I am allowing the basics to open up a wide realm of revelation in grace in Him for me. The basics are not boring. Christ is basic simple. He came in simplicity, not pomp and circumstance. Yet in seeking Him in simplicity I am finding a door with a great and glorious expanse of revelation concerning Him and His person. People seek so much extracurricular activity in Christianity. I seek Christ and in seeking Christ I get it all in His way and in His timing. I assure myself of safety when I stay close to the Living Word in my life.
As a prophetic preacher, I used to believe that I had to search the Scriptures for the latest trend or fad to preach to enter the 'cutting edge' zone. I have hundreds of sermons on glory, encounter, fire, rain and much more. I now discover I have disposed of most of them. I also disregard any teaching that mixes old covenant theology with new covenant theology. I am discovering so much in His grace and that is the new covenant in Christ. Why seek anything else but Jesus Christ?
Hebrews 1:3 (The Message)
The Son perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God's nature. He holds everything together by what He says - powerful words!
To know the Son is to know the Father. To know the Father is to enter an eternal realm where you discover eternity flowing through your life. Is that I lot to digest? I think so and I am the one writing it. The entrance into the open heaven of revelation and the eternal realm of glory is through focus on the simplicity of the Son, Jesus Christ who then shows us the Father. How glorious is that!
John 17:1-5 (The Message)
Jesus said these things. Then raising His eyes in prayer, he said: Father, it's time. Display the bright splendor of your Son so the Son in turn may show your bright splendor. You put Him in charge of everything human so He might give real and eternal life to all in His charge. And this is real and eternal life: That they may know You. The one and only true God. And Jesus Christ, whom you sent. I glorified you on earth by completing down to the last detail what you assigned me to do. And now Father, glorify me with Your very own splendor. The very splendor I head in your presence before there was a world.
I am focused on Christ and not the extracurricular. Not the greatness of ministry or the wonders of the call of God in me. That is quite evident when we focus and gaze upon the One who is Christ Jesus. I am in union in Him and in Him is all I need.
My challenge is to each of you to get back to the basics. No hype! No pretense! Meditate on the purpose and plan of your salvation. Glory in the wonder of the cross. Revel in the beauty of the blood of Jesus. As you do this in your prayer times and times of meditation, you will discover your life changing and being conformed to Jesus Christ by the simplicity of focus on Him and Him alone. Over time, in time, you will discover that your journey into the basics of our salvation, the cross, His blood takes us on a journey into Him. He is enough! Paul said it best.
Colossians 1:15-18 (The Message)
We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank of angels - everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body. He was supreme in the beginning and - leading the resurrection parade - He is supreme in the end. From beginning to end He's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is He, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in Him without crowding. Not only that but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe - people and things, animals and atoms - get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of His death, His blood that poured down from the cross.
In Him,
Debra
