The old self is a hindrance to my intimate fellowship with God. So how do I go about slaying the Hydra robbing me of relationship with Jesus? The simple answer is: it is dead.
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live,
but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh
I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
This old nature died with Christ on the Cross, but this doesn’t preclude my having to go to my own daily cross. At any point, I can dance with that old man. He is dead but oh-so-willing to rise and party. But God doesn’t have intimate relationship with him. This doesn’t mean that He doesn’t speak to him, because God talks to everyone from the serpent, the donkey, Cain . . . etc. God speaks! But what I am discussing is an intimate, relational conversation and more than that – a getting to know the One who is behind the voice. You don’t speak with your spouse as you would a store clerk, and Jesus doesn’t speak to just anyone as He speaks to His bride.
To review so far:
• I saw that silence is a womb where words gain power, strength and meaning.
• The key to listening is not by creating a vacuum of silence but purposing to listen.
• Seeking the love I already have blocks my receiving and seeing of HIM.
• Intimate prayer must stem from an engaged heart rather than rote formulas.
• A new self is required to have intimate relationship with God.
The next seeing in this journey: “With whom was God wanting to speak intimately?” I am an only child so, “It was with me, right???” No, the Father has relationship with His Son and if I want that to include me then I need His Life in me as me.
“it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me . . .”
Galatians 2:20
“. . . this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Colossians 1:27
Fellowship is for the Son from the Father. My life is in Him, so there too is my fellowship. This all is such a spiritual seeing. It took me time to comprehend this truth and I am convinced no words can communicate it sufficiently. This is a revelation I had to have birthed in me through the Spirit.
For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
Colossians 3:3
“Is your life truly ‘hid with Christ in God’? If it is, your continual request is—‘Cause me to hear Thy voice.’ Can we hear the voice in which there is no self-realization, no self-interest, no individual preference? Spiritual muddle comes because we have other interests and loyalties, and these loyalties break our intimacy with Jesus Christ. When there is the clash of self-realization, and individual preferences come in and compete, we have to put them on one side and remain loyal to our Lord and to nothing and no one else.” – Oswald Chambers
The old nature is fallen. It is focused on self-awareness and self-interests. The new man is Christ in me. My current life is hidden in Christ though I am here. Now if this isn’t a matrix moment, I don’t know what is – here’s Morpheus asking me to take the red or blue pill. I know it by revelation and experience it by faith.
