The Implications of the indwelling Christ

I have been a born again believer since 1981 so roughly 35 years. I was formerly a drug abuser and High School drop out. My conversion happened after coming close to committing suicide after having what I will term demonic oppression due to LSD, as I stood with a butcher knife in hand praying if God were real to make the oppression stop, and it did! I had a friend who was in jail for several months, he began to read the bible. When he got out he wanted to start a bible study, I showed up at his house stoned on pot and listened to bible teaching tapes by Pastor Chuck Smith, Calvary Chapel, who recently went to be with the Lord. I began to read through the New Testament and in several months I lost the desire to use drugs or alcohol. I also quit smoking cigarettes just because they felt dirty to me. I lost a lot supposed friends due to my newly found love for the bible. Eventually I remember understanding that I had been born again by the Spirit of God. I had prayed for the forgiveness of my sins, understanding the work of the cross and the resurrection of Christ for the first time in my life. I new something substantial had changed on the inside of my life, and that it was overflowing to the outside of my life as well. I had this sticker on my window in my bedroom that said, Born of the Spirit, which when walking to the store it dawned on me that I was born of the spirit. I was baptized only a few weeks later and I had this incredible peace come over me that lasted months. There was this huge awareness of God's presence, it was almost as if Jesus was going to materialize at any moment. I cannot describe the emotions, but I was like I was wrapped in unconditional love, a bubble of love and grace, emanating within me. This was the beginning of a long journey that continues to this day, a journey with the indwelling Christ.


So the purpose of this thread is to discuss the Lord Jesus life living within us, the parable of the vine and branches playing out in our lives. Christianity is nothing more than Christ's life being born in us through his Holy Spirit. This is the essence of true and genuine Christianity, stripped of all the rubbish, it is faith in the atoning work of the cross by God who was in the flesh, Jesus, who rose again bodily, and is seated at the right hand of God, and who supplies spiritual life and new birth by indwelling those who believe by His Holy Spirit.

So what can be learned over 35 years, profound wisdom gained by countless hours of study, quite to the contrary, what is learned in the Christian life is that we forever seek to complicate the work God seeks to do in us. We clutter our lives with activities, often in many lives these are church related, we read the Bible, study the Bible, fire off quick prayers, and we call it devotions. Well let me tell you what I have learned for real.

It is not the quantity of activities you surround yourself in the Christian life, nor the quantity of your devotional time, but rather it is the quality of that devotion. What make the greatest impact on my life is the degree of revelation of the Lord Jesus himself I receive on a daily basis. When I read Gods words I seek the revelation of Jesus to my soul, when I pray I seek that Jesus would reveal himself anew to my soul. This hunger for Jesus is the key to a fruitful and lasting Christian life, all else proves useless. It is purely the life of Christ revealed in me, to my heart, my mind, my inner man, that life overflowing into my thoughts and behavior, that is what I find profitable. Christ in me is to live....

Revelation is somewhat needing to be defined. It is a process initiated by the Holy Spirit, something Jesus said He would do, notice I said He and not it. The Holy Spirit is a person, not an entity. You can talk to the Holy Spirit of God, he is your life long companion. He takes the things of Jesus and presses them into your soul. Like a soft clay receiving an impression, he presses the image of Jesus into your inner being. That image is the revelation of Jesus, it is supernatural and encompasses his very life and being, it is more than just an idea, it is an ID. It forms within in your spiritual man, or woman if you will, the image of Jesus. That image is like a spiritual DNA, it is not a picture...It determines the life that progresses forward from that point on. You need that Jesus DNA so to speak to reproduce spiritual life, for the Flesh profits nothing. He reproduces his nature in us as individuals without negating our personality, it is organic and natural as in the vine and branch allegory, your life is connected to and sustained in Christ the vine, and your simply an extension of that vine.

Nothing we try to describe the process will suffice because it is purely supernatural. You will know it when it is happening, you most often will be brought to tears, you will see Jesus nature in a new fashion and it will be even more glorious than before, perhaps it might be the beauty of his humility, or the wonder of his perfect sacrifice and all that entails for my security in his love, it can be a manifold array of many aspects of his nature or work, or simply a glimpse into one aspect. You always know when it happens because it leaves you tearing up and asking for more of Jesus. It might take you by surprise during worship, or even just going about your daily affairs, it always follows prolonged periods of hungering and thirsting for it, He seems to draw you into the process, he just draws you into wanting more Jesus, it is natural spiritual life, just get out of the way and respond.

We all with open face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed from glory to glory.... It is as I gaze with the inner man on the revelation of the glorified savior, illuminated to my spirit by the Holy Spirit that I am changed from glory to glory.

I know that this will reverberate with some, and I hope it might bring some comfort to know that God is actively working in your life, but let me go on to say what can happen when he does,

After some of these times when you are hungering and thirsting for God, crying out in the inner man for a deeper reality of the Lord Jesus in you life, well he fills the cup but then he asks you to pour it out. It goes hand and hand, God wants to fill us over and over again, but he asks us to pour the living water out to a thirsty world. This could mean simply praying for those who need the Lord around you, which when the Holy Spirit is filling your life, well you will get unprecedented opportunities to share the Lord, I am telling you it is HIS supernatural work. Do not get me wrong, I am not saying your going to be going around trying to tell people about the Lord, but like Phillip being swept away to talk to the guy going to Jerusalem, or Peter sleeping on the roof, the Lord will place you in situations where you will be asked sincerely about faith in Jesus Christ. You will not have to do anything but be ready to speak on HIS behalf, and then rely on the Holy Spirit to give you the words to speak.

I mentioned having a real relationship with the Holy Spirit, this is essential to your understanding, when Jesus promised another comforter, the Holy Spirit, he meant exactly that. Just as the disciples of old sitting at the feet of Jesus, walking those dusty roads for hours on end with Jesus by their side, so we have the Holy Spirit as our companion. When we begin to understand this blessed truth we can sense that Christ is indwelling us indeed. The Holy Spirit abides "with" us and also "in" us, but he can come "upon" us as well. The Greek language uses three distinct words to describe this, and when Christ breathed on the disciples and said receive the Holy Spirit, they were indwelt by the Spirit and re-born, understanding the death and resurrection of Christ. He told them to tarry in Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Father, and told them they would receive power (Dunamis, where we get our word Dynamite). They were sitting in the upper room praying and the place was shaken, drawing a crowd, and cowardly Peter is suddenly a first century Billy Graham.

People get all hung up doctrinally over this issue, do yourself a favor, just take God at his word and believe that as HIS child he has a special anointing to pour over your head. It will simply give you the inner might to share when HE gives you the opportunity, and I mean He will arrange everything, just be open and attentive, as well as expectant, waiting on the Spirit to show you who he is leading you too. Sometimes, like Peter, you will have to be shown that carpet full of baggage that is holding you back from sharing with those he is leading you to, other times he might divert you like Phillip and you will just happen to be in exactly the right place at the right time.

I say all this because the source of the Christian life, the life of Jesus, well it always has the lost in mind. As Jesus said he came to seek and save the lost, so must we allow the heart of the Savior to move us, and by sharing his heart you allow Him to continuously fill your life. What stops this flow is a focus on ones self, protecting my wants and desires. You must abandon control, and allow God to meet your needs. Faith is imperative, but God supplies that as well, it is also a gift. I share this from experience that mostly was born out of failure, and defeat, and then crying out to God. There is certainly an easier way but I seem to find myself on the road of hard knocks most of the time, being prone to try things my own way and in my own strength, I thank God for HIS merciful and loving patience, HE always is waiting to greet me when I finally surrender.

Well to answer the questions above it is God in Christ in me, working both to will and to do his good pleasure. God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, three persons. The three persons have come to indwell me, I have the Trinity living inside of me, they cannot be separated. Many people are confused, Christians have lost an understanding of what is true conversion, as well as what is living the Christian life. To some it is only a prayer and go my own way, making God my debtor because I prayed the prayer to be saved. Well it is not something you can half heartedly consider, becoming is Christian means dying to yourself and your own desires, putting sin to death, repenting, and following Christ by taking up your cross. While Salvation is the free gift of God it will cost you everything, your own ambitions and loves must be nailed to the cross, what is resurrected is a new nature born within that seeks the glory of God at whatever cost.

Of course Christians wander back into seeking self, that does not mean they have lost their salvation, but rather misplaced it and put it on the shelf. True believers will not stay in a state of sin and unbelief, they eventually are brought back into the fold, if someone is hardened against the Gospel, and unrepentant concerning sin, chances are they were never in the Faith. There are those who prayed a prayer and never surrendered themselves to Christ.

While our surrender is never perfect, it always draws us back to the Savior, and to walking in the light of truth, turning from sin and obeying the word of God. It can be messy for some of us, and I know full well that you might at times feel as though you were lost, but if you cry out to God and seek him anew with your whole heart, you will find he has been waiting for you all along. For the one who is questioning whether they are saved, grieving over their failures, well I think that is indication enough, the un-saved individual is quite content where he is at, and does not have this conflict of heart. It is symptomatic of real salvation when your grieving over sin, and seeking to escape self, that is the life of Christ in you drawing you back.

I know some of what I am sharing through this thread sounds lofty, but trust me in that I have found these things to be true in the worst of places, having been a backslider and stumbler with the best of them. I often see the old nature creeping up and usurping the throne of Christ, trying to bring me back into subjection to its whimpering appetites and affections. Like many of you I fall to those cries and have to drag myself out of the mire more than I would ever care to explain.

God is never surprised by our failures, although we are, ask Peter after the [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse] crowed. Jesus already told him he was going to fall, but more gloriously that Jesus had prayed for him, and that "when", not if, he was restored, that he should strengthen his brethren. Peter is about to deny ever knowing Christ on the worst night of the Lord's earthly life, and the Lord is praying for him, and promises him not only to restore him, but to also give him a ministry of strengthening others. Much could be learned from this one story, but I think you can get my point. God is on our side, and as Paul said, If God be for us, who can be against us.

When I have found myself in situations where know one understood me, or maybe even misunderstood me, where the Church seemed like it was on a completely different page to what God was doing in my life, brother, those were the times that God's work was clear and simple to my heart. There are times when you need that lonely spiritual place, it is just you and God. I know that I could not communicate to others what God was doing in my life, it was just not that easy to explain. I met my wife at Church, in about a 1 1/2 years we were married. God truly knew I needed this woman as my soul mate, I was 36 and she was 39 years old, neither of us ever married. We did not even really kiss till we said "I do". I have been married now going on 16 years, and to this day she is the only one I feel can understand most of my spiritual journey. I did not even see it coming at the time, God just put us in each others lives at the right moment, and it was surely worth the wait.

I still think that some things are strictly meant to be between us and God, meaning that know one can fully understand us but God, and that is a good thing. When you look at the Church members around you, realize the passion you have for the Lord will fuel the flame in their hearts over time. It is only natural for fire to spread, so just keep burning. I used to pray for certain things to transpire in the Church, and even when it seemed not possible God somehow answered those prayers. Anything is possible to God, even stirring up complacent Christians. The biggest part of the problem is complacent pulpits, most believers are not taught the inner life of Christ. So much emphasis is put on self improvement and mans wisdom, it is not the same Gospel.

Lord, please put the fire back into the pulpits of your church, men whose passion for you is all consuming. Blow again rushing wind through the upper rooms of your church, may tongues of fire rest on those who preach your word, may the place be shaken, may the lost come flocking to our door to see what You are doing anew, may the world see your Church as a beacon burning bright to light men's way home. Lord may believers the world over re-discover the reality of your life within them, to understand the simplicity of yielding to your Spirit, of the grace you have supplied for all our spiritual needs, of the promises you made and indeed keep.

May your Son, Jesus Christ be glorified in all things, amen