AND COMMUNICATE REAL TIME
Christians, now, it is very important to realize that we ourselves must experience a relationship with the Godhead, to be used to bless others, do good deeds, heal and deliver, and do the works of the Kingdom.
Jesus must be abided in, and He in us, to be walking the walk and talking the talk.
It has nothing to do with my work, it has everything to do with HIS Work through me.
If I focus on my ability or inability, nothing will take place. I will fall short because without Him I can do nothing.
I participate with Jesus, and He gives me the honor and privilege of working WITH Him.
My job is to believe that God is really good at his job! This gives faith. We all have been given a measure of faith.
Yet, now I know, it’s time to get serious! I must PLUG IN!
As a branch adheres to a vine…nothing in itself gives it life, or power, or the ability to produce fruit.
Jesus said, “I am the vine. You are the branches. Whoever lives in me, and I in him, bears much fruit… however apart from me (cut off from vital union with me) you can do nothing.” (I John 15:5)
The Lord showed me personally today that a more modern way to think of this is to think of ourselves, as believers, as a USB plug, for most of us know how those work.
Like a USB plug, we have no power in ourselves, yet put into a power source, the plug is able to receive from its source, and transmit that power, or information, to another device.
Interesting about a USB drive… it can plug into all that’s inside the computer and have full access to it. Much vital information can then be copied down into its drive, and then that same USB, plugged in elsewhere, can be used to convey that information. (Perhaps this is what my article is doing for you… taking what I have received, by plugging in, and am now conveying to you!)
I have a fan platform that my laptop sits upon. It is run by USB plug alone. When plugged in, the fan runs…but only if the computer is on, for it’s my source of the power. If it doesn’t stay plugged in, it will not run, for there is no other power available for that fan to run on.
- Do I need power for myself? …or to give it to others? … as with the USB plug?
- Do I need Wisdom and Revelation for myself? … or to give to others…as with the USB drive?
- Which USB device should I activate? … and for what purpose?
- May we realize we have BOTH available to us as believers:
We can choose to receive. We can choose to give out.
- We can plug into the source and receive what God has for us personally, AND we can plug into others to give to them what He has given through us.
In fact, modern technology has also given us USB charging stations now, right? Where we can power up more than one of those USBs at a time. Maybe this is what “fellowship” and “church” is all about.
I hope you can see with your mind’s eye what I am trying to share. It is the principle of IN and THROUGH Christ. We must be IN Christ so that he may work THROUGH us. That which He activates in us is able then to be activated toward others.
Let me just share a quick little writing that I did as I was meditating on this:
- Jesus’s peace IN me, allows his peace to be given out THROUGH me.
- Jesus’s joy IN me enables his joy to shine out THROUGH me.
- Jesus’s character IN me, allows his nature to flow out THROUGH me.
- Jesus’s love IN me, allows his love to work THROUGH me.
- Jesus’s healing IN me, allows his healing to flow THROUGH me, so that others may be healed.
- Jesus’s faith activated IN me, allowing his faith to flow out THROUGH me to perform miracles.
- In other words, I must ALLOW his work IN me….so that He can work outward, through me, toward others.
- It starts with me, myself, plugging in. Ideally, I will ABIDE in Him…not unplugging and then plugging in, etc.… But remaining in him.
If I unplug to plug in, to others, as a USB would do, it is temporary, and then I must be careful to plug back in, so I can receive power or wisdom again for myself. I can’t always be in output mode. If we plug in, however, I can keep the power flowing inward, to give out later.
Which leads me to a final spiritual picture…using technology as our analogy… The Body of Christ needs to come to being as a Bluetooth connection than even a USB! I believe this is what The Holy Spirit is desiring to do! He, The Connector of us all!
I believe this should be the goal of every believer: Our reaching maturity in Christ… wherein we stay linked up and plugged in, all the time!
Let me explain. For those who may or may not know… Bluetooth is a device that is paired to another device. The two become one. They access the same controls and do the same things. It’s direct. It’s real-time. For example, my cell phone here at the house is paired to my home phone system via Bluetooth, enabling me to get cell calls throughout the house, from where various phone handsets are plugged in. So, with a louder ring, I can hear the incoming call and not miss a call, and I can grab a handset in various parts of the house too so that I don’t miss a call. All phones are plugged in and paired up.
Well, friends… if we are always paired with God and Christ via the Holy Spirit… abiding… we have become as a Bluetooth device. Our listening to God and our reaching out to others will be at the same exact time…real-time. We don’t have to wait to act.
We don’t have to pray about the will of God for days… we will instantly know His mind and heart on a matter.
We will hear His Voice and know his Will right here and now…linking people together in purpose…and in power.
We aren’t plugged in sometimes and unplugged at other times, as with a USB.
Modern-day Bluetooth Technology has given us this “communications picture” of Jesus’s prayer of John 17:
“that they may be one, just as we are one… I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected in unity… so that the world may know that you sent me…and loved them even as you have loved me.”
My dream is to have Believers across the land reach maturity…
communicating continuously as linked Bluetooth devices…
paired to the Lord, and to one another…
that indeed WE may be ONE.
The Spirit of God would do this work of communications between us all, that we might execute God’s plans flawlessly on earth!
Can you envision how powerful The Church could be?
How amazingly God could work among us?
Never a missed opportunity!
Never missing the voice of God!
Never a poor signal from ‘his trying’ to get communicate with us?
The others hearing real time can fill us in?
Our intention and aspiration are that the world will see Christ Jesus in operation, giving us power and wisdom, and authority in His Name …and that He would be given the glory due Him as such an awesome Lord and Savior!
Christ IN us, the Hope of Glory!
…the mystery was hidden until now!
Read Colossians 1:27!
And that all would see God, as all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere present, and as Love… His power holding us all together in his wonderful and amazing purpose and plan: the plan of redemption and grace, and restored fellowship with our Creator!
So, to summarize in one sentence:
Let us all be alert…and allow Christ to operate IN and THROUGH us!
YES! May Jesus’s own prayer of John 17 be answered!
It takes us, in cooperation with The Holy Spirit, to make this answer come about, staying PLUGGED IN to Christ!
That He can do His Works THROUGH us….
IN and THROUGH!
For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen. Romans 11:36