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being born again, compassion, dying to self, ecstasy, experience, freedom, God's love, Jesus Christ, joy, love, peace, sanctification, the Kingdom of God, the new self, the promised land
Behind the Veil (Painting in watercolors by Susanne Schuberth)
Sharing the heart of God, our view of life and people changes dramatically. Being set free from old habits, we can change our former “automatic reaction mode” into the new seeing-as-God-sees and feeling-as-God-feels “unconditional compassion mode”.
“And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.” (Mk 1:40-42 KJV)
A miracle? Most certainly, yes.
If we approach Him who has got the whole universe in His hands, His compassion will always be stirred by our needs, and He will touch everyone who comes to Him, giving him what he needs to be healed and to be set free.
Recently I have been thinking about the odd thing that we normally believe it would be a great loss to lose our old self in order to live a life (for God) that we, perhaps, would not like to live at all. Oh, what a lie has been spread since the fall of mankind!!! A lie that is particularly suitable to prevent people from searching God because they think He robs them of everything they love.
In fact, as soon as our old self with its “Either I do what others want me to do so that they will love me or I rebel against it so that I can love myself” has died, the scales fall from our eyes and we burst out in surprise, “Hey!! I AM finally FREE to be ME!!!”
Eventually, there is no more indecisiveness; we always know intuitively when to say, “Yes” and when to say, “No”. And all at once we have no stress any more, but peace, and joy, and love. And ALL good things…
Being ONE with God means that His will has become our own will. That does NEVER mean He would ever urge us to do something we do not want. Instead, we are being made able to give others what we might have longed for beforehand, but now as we have received more than ever hoped for from God, we want nothing more than that everyone shares in this abundance of spiritual life and love from above (cf. John 10:10).
Jesus said,
“And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” (Mt 10:38-39 KJV)
Dying to our old and kaput self which is not able to be happy for a long time until it is disappointed and sad again means that we find the life we always wanted to have. Of course, in a certain sense we knew before what we loved and what we didn’t, BUT what we did not know is that there is waaaay MORE to it. Indeed, there is a heavenly life we did NOT know before. And it is so much better than everything we might have experienced already that our old and past life is not worth mentioning any longer. As the apostle Paul so aptly realized,
“But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.” (Phil 3:7-8 KJV)
I had several experiences of sharing heaven’s life on earth, but I only want to address one of them here.
Some years ago as I was ready with doing the housework, I stood in the kitchen and was looking out the window. It was late in the evening and I gazed into the distance, not thinking about anything in particular. The only thing I was aware of at that moment was a softly illuminated window of a staircase in the kitty-corner house across the street. Staring into space a bit longer, I suddenly felt that an invisible veil had opened for me. In a split second I saw and realized that “I AM, I was, and I always will be.” Period.
WOW! Indescribable joy…
No doubt, this is God’s life, the awareness of having been IN Him since the beginning of time (and even before!). That is a life our old Adam and Eve with their limitations regarding time and space cannot offer. Therefore our old self MUST die so that we may live in our NEW SELF – again. Though still in a frail and mortal body, our spirit shares in the resurrection life of Christ. Living like God on earth – who would have thought that such a thing exists?
😉
Entering the Promised Land 
We’ll Sue when I was in my unregenerated state I would never have even tried to imagine it but now in my regenerated state I seek every day to experience it a little more every day..and what do I find? His peace.
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Amen, Kenneth. Very well said, my brother! 🙂
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Susanne, thank you for this post. I have not entered in to all that the Father has prepared for me, but I hunger for it. You shine the light on truth that I pray that I can come into.
Love,
Pat Orr
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Thanks so much for your sweet comment, Pat. ❤
As Kenneth so perfectly described it, it is a divine condition we can experience "a little more every day". EVERYONE of us, wherever we might be on that way. We are all connected to one another through Jesus who is THE WAY, and thus, neglecting the time factor, we have already arrived at our common goal.
Oh, may He awake us all so that we can enjoy His heavenly life on earth with Him and with each other!!!!!
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Susanne, as I read your comment to Kenneth the following verses came to mind,
But everything that is exposed to the light becomes visible, for everything that is visible is light. That is why it says, “Wake up, O sleeper! Arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.” (Ephesians 5:13-14 ISV).
Yes, may He awaken us all to see that we NOW dwell in heavenly places IN Christ Jesus!
Light and Life… they always seem to go together… “In Him was Life and the LIFE was the Light of men.”
Thanks for sharing your hidden LIFE in Christ with us… you have salted my oats, as the saying goes here out west, and how I long for the Waters of Life to flow freely in me!
His love to you all,
Michael
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Great Scriptures, Michael! Thank you for your precious comment, my brother. Also, I have salted your oats? Wonderful! 🙂
Speaking of oats…though…That reminds me of porridge, composed of water, salt, and oats – a mixture I hated as a child whenever I got it offered while being sick. Even the thought of it was enough to make me puke. 😛 How much better are sweet oat cookies with butter, aren’t they?
And here’s a quote I just found regarding our Light and Life in His LOVE issue.
“Love is the only bow of life’s dark cloud. It is the Morning and Evening Star. It shines upon the cradle of the babe, and sheds its radiance upon the quiet tomb. It is the Mother of Art, inspirer of poet, patriot, and philosopher. It is the air and light of every heart, builder of every home, kinder of every fire on every hearth. It was the first dream of immortality. It fills the world with melody. Love is the magician, the enchanter, that changes worthless things to joy, and makes right royal kings of common clay.”
(Robert Green Ingersoll)
Love to you and all others,
Susanne
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Susanne, as I read the prose above by Robert Ingersoll I found it interesting how he describes love as the morning star…
Jesus said, “I, Jesus, send My messenger to testify these things to you in the ecclesias [called out ones]. I am the root and the race of David, the resplendent morning star. And the spirit and the bride are saying, ‘Come!’ and let him who is hearing say, ‘Come !’ And let him who is thirsting come. Let him who will, take the water of life gratuitously.” (Revelation 22:16-17 CLV). Jesus is our Morning Star and He said,
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you: continue you in my love. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That you love one another, as I have loved you.” (John 15:9-12 KJ2000).
May we be moved always by the power of His great love which is even more creative than Ingersoll observed, for in HIS love there is life and it gives life where there is only sadness and death. “We know. that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.” (1 Jo 3:14). Yes, COME, Lord Jesus, Fully IN US!
Keep listening to Him and sharing His life and love with us all, my sister and friend!
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“May we be moved always by the power of His great love which is even more creative than Ingersoll observed, for in HIS love there is life and it gives life where there is only sadness and death.”
So very amen I say, Michael. That is my experience as well. It is only IN His love when, finally, all things make sense – our whole (past) life, all offense, all hurt and wrongdoing, and every failure. God never lost control in any situation. However, since we usually do not comprehend His thoughts and ways, we are inclined to think, time and again, that God might be against us. It is only later when we may realize how wonderful His ways with us have always been.
Your Scriptures hit the nail on the head, my brother and friend. And they remind me of another Scripture.
“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” (Is 55:1 ESV)
Of course, it is Jesus’ voice we can hear here. He wants us to come to Him so that He can bless us with His divine love (i.e. wine) and give us His innocence and purity of heart (i.e. milk).
And in this particular book we can hear Christ’s voice – and the voices of those who already know and live in His love – more clearly.
“He: I came to my garden, my sister, my bride, I gathered my myrrh with my spice, I ate my honeycomb with my honey, I drank my wine with my milk. Others: Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love!” (Song of Songs 5:1 ESV)
May we all be drunk with His love that He has poured into our very hearts (Rom 5:5).
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“And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation works patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope makes not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us.”(Romans 5:3-5 KJ2000).
Susanne, what an interesting sequence of happenings that Paul names off here that build up to Jesus’ love being shed abroad in our hearts!!!
He starts off with tribulations! I know that the love of God did not just drop into your heart, nor did it mine. We both went through many tribulations and abuses in our lives first. All those sufferings worked patience and endurance in us. Then in all this HE worked experiences into our lives that brought us hope. God, somehow came through when all men failed us. We started experiencing His love for us as we came out the other side of these dark tunnels of pain, though the humans that we knew were not all that loving, HE was there loving us and healing us. Though we felt shame for the things we went through at the hands of evil men, He took away our shame with His love for us. We love HIM because He first loved us and brought us through it all and wiped away all our tears.
He has given us beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for morning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. That we might be HIS Trees of Righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that HE might be glorified!
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Amen, Michael.
You said it all so well. Leaves me speechless… 😉
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