This Past February 13th Calvin held a service of healing and communion. Our prayer group spear headed this initiative, with Annette taking the lead on this. It was a wonderful time of worship (our youth praise team lead the worship element) and prayer and a great time of teaching from Annette. I thought what she had to say was so good, I'd ask permission from her to place her words on my blog so you too could be blessed by them.
She agreed, so below is her talk. I learned a great deal from her words of wisdom. I trust you will too...... : ) It's entitled:
"The three three's"
Today I would like to talk to you about 3 things. The Greatest commandment, the Trinity and the Spiritual man.
The first two topics are certainly familiar to us and the 3rd will be an introduction to a less familiar way of thinking about who we are and the Spiritual man.
As we look into each topic we will see that there is something that they all share in common. In each one there are 3 parts. That is, in each one there is a unity and 3 different parts at the same time. The picture of a juggler with 3 balls comes to mind. When you are juggling and don’t maintain focus on all 3 balls at the same time, you’re in trouble. It’s a bit like that. It’s one act with 3 different balls. When the unity is lost we’re in trouble. When the separateness is not appreciated or recognized, we are in trouble. We need to keep all the balls in the air at the same time.
In fact but for the grace of God we ARE often troubled.
Let’s start by considering The Greatest Commandment.
Turn with me to Mark 12:28.
28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Keep your finger there as we’ll come back to this later.
As this is a healing service I think it is only fair to admit to you that while I was growing up I must have been in need of some serious healing. When I heard the teaching on these commandments I WAS troubled. Actually there were only 2 words that bothered me.
As yourself.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
• What if you didn’t know how to love yourself?
• What if you didn’t feel lovable?
• Or, was it even ok to love yourself?
In reading The Reformers Pledge by John Arnott last year, I was interested to find that I was not the only one to have misunderstood something about the Greatest commandment.
Arnott talks about the commandments as the 3 journeys.
“The inward journey, the upward journey, and the outward journey.”
Arnott goes on to talk about how as a new Christian he remembers the emphasis quickly being refocused on the outward journey of reaching the lost and building the Church. He says,
“If I had prioritized the three journeys at that time, I would have listed them in this way:
1. Outward journey—most important
2. Upward journey—needed to maintain your mission
3. Inward journey—not really needed; must die to self.”
Arnott goes on to say:
“It was as though the inward journey was for self-centered people who continued in carnality and did not really die to self. Therefore the inward journey was to be discouraged. It was for the “consumer Christians” and for the weak or unstable. The healthy, strong, and “really saved” didn’t need a lot of personal ministry and attention and could simply get on with the outward mission. That was my perception anyway.”
I don’t know that all the church had the same trouble in understanding the teaching of the Great Commandment. However, it was something I needed to wrestle with and get straight in my own head.
The unity in these commandments is that you love. Your commandment is to love. The diversity is there are three directions for your love.
I get that part of it.
Now what I am coming to understand more clearly are the parts that are not stated.
I’m talking about the different relationships that spring up as soon as you follow the first commandment.
When we love God first and foremost, God is not going to “not respond.” In fact long before any commandments were given God loved us. When we obey the first commandment He is going to continue to love in the context of relationship with us. Back and forth.
He has not commanded us to love Him so that He can later qualitatively measure how we’re doing with that. This is God eager to practice relationship with us.
When we obey God and love Him with all our soul mind and strength then we position ourselves for receiving God’s full love extended back to us just as in intimate friendship here on earth. God is a relational God.
As we enter into that first commandment putting our self in the place of love going back and forth with the best lover known to mankind, we stand in a really good place to have the AS YOURSELF part of the second commandment taken care of. In fact if there ever is a problem or need for healing the best hospital is right there in the First Commandment. God commands us to love Him. We have some choice. We obey or we don’t.
As we throw ourselves into that commandment loving Him with all we’ve got then we are in the place of receiving His love which of course is perfect.
If we are not getting the love, if we are not receiving the love that’s by nature meant for us then that’s the problem that needs to be looked at. That’s where blockage is.
For example why didn’t I understand the second commandment? I believe that many of us base some of our living on lies that have seeped into our thinking, at various stages of our lives.
John 10:10 says: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
These kinds of lies often have deep roots. They need to be pulled out again and again until the root weakens and they die.
Various lies came and told me, “You should do this” or “You should be that” because, “if you don’t” or “aren’t” then, “YOU ARE A FAILURE”. As I gave ear to the lies the truth of the First Commandment, the source of life that comes from obeying the first commandment, got kind of messed up.
The commandment becomes a duty, something I need to accomplish rather than a law of love which positions me for being in relationship with the Creator of the universe, the creator of me.
You see, when we love the Lord with all we’ve got; we must enter that commandment in relationship so that the truth of His love returning back to us cancels the lies that crop up around us. When we are in the position of receiving all that He wants to lavish on us, in the context of relationship, then the second commandment flows naturally out of the first.
It’s almost like a mother eagle pushing out of the nest her young one who is ready to fly. Or it’s what parents experience when their children “leave the nest”. You are loved here you know who you are and we will always be here, now go on out into the world and be who you were meant to be. You have everything you need.
And did you know kids often come back to visit their parents. And the parents love to have them come to visit. The loving in a parent/child relationship doesn’t stop. Of course God loves it when we come back to share our love with Him again and again.
Love the Lord your God with all you’ve got. In receiving His response of love then go out let it overflow on to your neighbor. There is no commandment greater that these.
The second topic I’d like to talk about is the Trinity.
If we are going to love this God, who is He anyway?
Let’s look back at Mark 12:
Starting at verse 28 again,
“Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”
Jesus says this right before He gives the teaching on the Greatest Commandment.
Jesus makes a declaration of who His Father is but also of who He is and who the Spirit is.
Jesus is completely confidant in who He is in relation to His Father and to the Spirit. To look at Jesus while He was walking around on earth it would be natural to see Him and know Him only in the natural. He’s a man standing in front of me. But Jesus with the Spirit in Him and on Him was always aware of who He was in relationship to His Dad. He had Spiritual eyes and He was inviting those He spoke to look to Him with spiritual eyes as well.
The Lord is One.
When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist then we hear God the Father make the declaration of who Jesus is. Along with that declaration is the accompanied Holy Spirit. In Matthew 3:16,17 we read:
16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
In the Greatest Commandment God calls us to practice relationship with Him.
Within the Triune God we see God modeling relationship for us.
I love the way William P. Young sets up dialogue with Mack and the Trinity in his book The Shack.
Mack is having a powerful encounter with the triune God in the setting of the shack. In this novel God is portrayed in 3 separate persons. (pp121,122)
“He(Mack) never had seen three people share with such simplicity and beauty. Each seemed more aware of the others than of them self.”
“We have no concept of final authority among us, only unity. We are in a circle of relationship, not a chain of command or ‘great chain of being’ as your ancestors termed it. What you’re seeing here is relationship without any overlay of power. We don’t need power over the other because we are always looking out for the best.”
The trinity is a classic example of 3 in 1. We know we can’t understand it with our minds and as Christians around the globe we declare it to be true by faith.
Once again because this is a healing service I must share with you about the person in the trinity who in the past I had separated from the Godhead. In doing this my relationship with God suffered some limitations. In pursuing relationship with this person of the Triune God many limitations have fallen away as I have been and continue to be restored to who I was created to be.
I am talking about the Holy Spirit.
I believe it was close to twenty years ago where I really began to get excited about worship. I began to understand that when you are in worship in that place of the presence of God, change, freedom, sanctification, seem more accessible. Living in England, in the early 90’s John and I went to an Anglican church there. I got to know Hilary and she introduced me to Holy Spirit. Her husband Paul is the vicar of that parish, and He was teaching on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. That was a part of the Holy Spirit that had always been dry words for me before. About that time Hilary and I went to a Celtic Renewal weekend. There I began to be aware of coincidences that were in fact the Holy Spirit at work. And after that weekend Hilary helped me to understand and put into practice, and receive the gift of tongues.
Just before John and I moved back to Canada a major renewal broke out at the Toronto Airport Church. At that time it was called the Toronto vineyard church.
One thing this church does and has done is steward the presence of the Holy Spirit. What has been the fruit of that? That is definitely a long conversation for another time. In my own life there has been definite change. For example when John and I were first married I was a very moody person. Moodiness is no joy to live with. It’s great when you’re up but a “thief of life”, when you are down.
In the following years, my hunger for more of the Holy Spirit has increased. In the natural when you are hungry and you eat you are full. What I’ve discovered in the spiritual realm is as you are hungry for more of the Holy Spirit; your hunger grows without leaving you unsatisfied.
When I had problems with understanding the Greatest Commandment part of the blockage was that I didn’t really know how to love all 3 parts of God. I knew they were there but I didn’t know Holy Spirit. That’s what I mean when I say I had kept separate the Holy Spirit.
The more I have gotten to know Him the more complete my own healing has been in answering some of those basic heart questions that stumped me in the first place.
If you don’t know how to love yourself, Jesus says, “come to me you who are burdened and weary.”(Matt. 12:28)
If you don’t feel lovable this is His promise to you.
“I will cover you with my feathers, and
under my wings you will find refuge.” (Psalm 91:4”
Is it okay to love yourself? Yes. Simply yes.
When we need healing of any kind the possibility of it can look so monumental. But as it comes, Ephesians 3:20 begins to thrill us with hope.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
The third topic I would like to talk to you about is the Spiritual Man.
It must be a year ago when I first heard clear teaching presented on this topic of who we are. Until then if I thought about it at all I would have said we are made up of Body and Soul. Two parts. The body is the body obviously and the soul pretty much comprises everything else like the heart, the emotions, intellect, will etc.
Another view of the Spiritual Man is that we are actually tripartite. That is, that not only are we Body and Soul but that we are Body Soul and Spirit.
Or you could think of it like this.
Man is spirit, he has a soul and he lives in a body.
Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:23
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
How I heard it taught was like this.
1 The Spirit relates to the spirit realm.
2 The Soul (which includes the mind, will, emotions)-relates to the intellectual, emotional and relational realm.
3 The body-relates to the physical and earthly realm.
Interestingly enough this view has the same 3 in 1 quality similar to that which we’ve seen in the Greatest Commandment and even in the Trinity.
Let me try to illustrate the Spiritual Man in this way.
First you have your body. You can see mine. You can even come up and give me a hug and feel that it is there.
If I could unzip my body from me then underneath you would find my emotional self, intellectual self, and my will. This is the seat of my personality.
Although you wouldn’t see my body you would recognize the character as being exactly like me.
Then if you unzip the soul part of me, you are left with the spirit me. This spirit is also me. It’s the inner me. You might recognize this is as “your knower” What I mean is that sometimes there are some things that I know that I know that I know. I can’t always explain it but I know it because my “knower” knows. Maybe the spirit man is connected to that gut instinct. Whatever the case, in this deep part of me the Holy Spirit lives.
In fact 1 John 3:9 says this born again spirit man does not sin.
No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.
Did you realize that there was a part of you that does not sin? I think Satan would be very happy for us to base our understanding on what we see in the physical and earthly realm. There is plenty of flesh around to tempt us and lure us away from knowing who we are in Christ.
What do we understand by the flesh?
The flesh is the carnal nature, the “old self” relates to the unredeemed nature of man; the part of the body and soul that is set against the spirit; this is the self-rule part of man.
When the bible tells us who we are it is speaking of who we are in Christ, in our inner spirit.
When we accept Christ into our lives the Holy Spirit takes up residence inside of us. Where the Holy Spirit lives there is no sin.
Did you know that the spirit man is eternal?
Of course we know that. That is why death does not have its sting.
What about the soul part and body part? Don’t we see the body and soul affected by sin all the time?
Perhaps we are more impressed by the affects of sin than resurrection power of the cross. What I mean is sin is all around us but the devil has been defeated. I’m not saying to close our eyes to sin and not live in repentance and forgiveness.
Instead I want to become more aware of the Holy Spirit in me; the Holy Spirit in my spirit man.
Galatians 5:16 says
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
What would happen if we looked with spiritual eyes to each other? That is, what if we looked with the eyes of Christ toward each other? Christ see’s our spirit man. He see’s who we are and who He created us to be. He is calling out the gold in each of us.
What if we declared the truth of our own spirit man within us? What if we allowed the declarations of boldness to appear in our language and in our thinking?
I am a new creation in Christ; old things have passed away and all things have become new.
I am reconciled to God and am an ambassador of reconciliation for Him.
I am a saint.
I am God’s workmanship, created in Christ for good works.
I am a citizen of heaven.
I am united to the lord and am one spirit with Him.
I am righteous and holy.
I am hidden with Christ in God.
I am the light of the world.
I am an expression of the life of Christ.
I am a partaker of a heavenly calling.
Wahoo!!! The bible goes on and on telling us who we are in Christ.
Galatians 5:16 says that my spirit man under the influence of the Holy Spirit is to rule over the soul and body.
This is the created order that has been restored to us through the death and resurrection of Christ.
So then as the Triune God models relationship to us we have someone to follow.
When God commands us to love Him with all our soul strength and mind we do that and in doing that we position ourselves through relationship to receive His love.
Where do we receive that love? We receive it in our spirit man which has the Holy Spirit living inside of it. And out of that place we live and we love.
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