1) Seeking God does not constitute a diversion from everything else in life: everything else in life is supposed to exist as means by which to seek and glorify God. Glorifying God, in everything, in other words...is all there had ought be, if we recognize anything of His majesty. Strive for that.
2) The Great Commission is for real: preparation consists of having entered a personal relationship (i.e., not merely religion) with Christ--thus honestly knowing Him:present-tense-effective fellowship with God, baptism in the Holy Spirit, and immersion in the Word of God (taking up the full armor).
3) The sort of discipling we're called to conduct, as part of the Great Commission, entails necessity that we actively practice the teachings we're relaying: in order to know them sufficiently as to teach others how to do the things we have been taught, we must necessarily be practicing those things, ourselves (otherwise, enter the Pharisee). It all begins with, revolves around, and resolves in our relationship with Christ, ultimately: seeing Him, as He is, further removes the veils from our own hearts and minds, renewing and transforming us further into His image: discipleship is effectively constituted by progressive evangelization (as heard by one preacher, called "Gospelizing"--same difference, either way, entailing continued revelation of further breadth of the unfathomable Gospel of Christ).
Seeing Christ as He is opens our eyes to who we are, to who we had ought to be, and to the preciousness of all those around us: every new revelation, realization, encounter with who and how Jesus Christ is has the power to alter our view of everything.
Like as: "We shall know the truth, and the truth will set us free"-sort of effect. Taking into account that He is Truth.
Knowing Him sets us free:
Free from sin, from self, from the world: Free from self-regard, self-centeredness, self-esteem, self-sufficiency, self-confidence: Free from self-concern, then come to peace by way of increasingly abject worship of God. Such self-denial, as freedom, yields to increasing death to self--upon a cross as with Christ, ever taking up that cross daily--then all the more does Christ become visible and evident in the yielded, emptied (peaceful) vessel which remains.
Every bit more we see Him, can we further surrender ourselves upon an altar as a living sacrifice: gladly denying self, so as to serve God more fully. Until all that remains (some blessed day!) is Christ.
Humiliation: mortification of self, so that Christ alone will live in and through us.
Possessed by the Holy Spirit, completely.
Pride doesn't want to die, but it must. In all its forms. Pride in intelligence, pride in ability to provide for self, pride in ability to serve--whatever form it's taken, it must go. It must be crucified upon that cross daily carried, in pursuit of Christ.
I'm still struggling to understand what humility even means, however. There seems so much less a means of defining it, except to experience it...and then wonder at the limits, less and less boldly.
Hearing how God humbled Himself in becoming Emmanuel, though: that's mind-boggling. One account, yesterday, going over Christ's simultaneous humanity and divinity, touched on some aspects of how vast a humility did He condescend to, in coming to walk among us.
God of everything. Beyond--exceedingly, incomprehensibly beyond--our ability to conceive of His true majesty, power, and glory... ...made Himself to be seed of a human, going through the entire process of gestation, unto birth and infancy... ...He placed Himself in a position of inconceivable incapacity, in terms of who He is. He emptied Himself, to become a human. Even going through the process of being raised, as subject to the authority of "parents," and subjecting Himself to all the normal physical laws of humanity. He was even tempted, as we are: never sinned, but He was tempted. Struggling with temptation, perhaps, but never sinning.
He didn't operate on His own distinct authority, in being a man: He was wholly, admittedly, forever subject to and dependent upon Father God. His human will was forever kept subject to the will of God the Father. And, yet being also wholly divine, He never sinned by asserting anything other than abject, persistent humility, in terms of His human nature: any boldness evidenced would only have been in keeping with the will of the Father, as explicitly directed and given to express.
As we had ought be.
And of His power and gifts? He was explicitly dependent upon the Holy Spirit, which rested upon Him--given without measure by the Father. Yet, He didn't boast of it. He didn't go around performing miracles for the sake of showing people He could. Even folks who said they would believe in Him, if He would perform something miraculous...He didn't do. In accord with the Father's will.
People who "could have been saved" if He had exerted effort to convince them, even? He didn't entertain them. And He didn't make excuses for not having done so, either: the choice was the same as it always had been: either believe on the evidence you've already received and submit to the will of God, or don't believe and stand condemned by your own actions.
He was wholly dependent on the Father and the Holy Spirit, though. More gloriously dependent than any of us may ever be able to conceive of comprehending.
Another teacher recently spoke of it in these terms:
Christ remained fully aware that His life had been given by Father God, and so trusted Him explicitly to provide for all its necessities and to keep it according to His will. Unto the end. Without question or qualm, always giving thanks.
I wonder, sometimes, what it must have been like for Him, in youth: His mind perhaps a blank slate, as all ours are, as a babe..as a youth. Only, His nature didn't tend to rebellion against God, as ours does. His conscience was pure and remained pure: He listened to it, without fault. He was wholly devoted to Father God, in humility. He wanted to obey the Father.
Didn't question. Didn't plan. Only rejoiced in pleasing God, in seeking Him. So, it wasn't necessarily a matter of "planning" for anything, it was just a matter of doing whatever was given next.
That's all laid out, in the Gospels: The way He talks about Father God, the way Christ's described by others, and even the teaching He gave--He taught us what we needed to know, discipling us along the course He had been directed, having known.
Being God, incarnate, yet subjecting Himself even to "relative" ignorance: relying upon Father God, entirely, as for wisdom, insight, knowledge, understanding (thus, possessing all).
And we're called to be His siblings, you know.
We're to be like Him.
He prepared the way for us. He lived in all those ways, even dying as He died (suffering the very wrath of God Almighty which was due each and every one of us who are sinners, so that those who come to Him could be saved), then resurrected and ascended to reign...He did all those things so we can live as He lived.
As He lives in us, moreover--the means by which we're able to live as He lived, in subjection to the will of the Father, in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. And ever greater the surrender of ourselves, our base fleshly natures, then the more the Lord may be known to us...the more we may conform to His image.
Seeking Him is all, in that process. But there's really nothing else: everything else is a fleeting, temporal illusion.
So, seek Him now--while He may be found.
I get frustrated, still, sometimes. Not knowing even how to seek Him seems the most vexing thing: do I spend the next eight hours reading the Bible, do I spend the next six watching sermons by people in whom I see Him (thus, sort of by-proxy listening to Him, as through them--discerning for missteps, all the while), had I ought to go and just be silent in His presence for some span, or converse with Him? Or music, or worship? Poetry or verse?
How can I seek Him, more?
Longing for Him always seems the first step. Yearning for Him beyond absolutely everything else. Requiring a deeper knowledge and fellowship with Him, as a vital necessity. Requiring Him as a vital necessity: desperately craving more: to know Him more, to understand Him better (inconceivable as the mere idea is).
Always, always more of Him, though: knowing Him is the most vital, wholesome, cleansing, edifying, fulfilling, secure pleasure, peace, joy, love, and fulfillment I've ever known: never having even realized the capacity for feeling so was possible, prior to the actual experience.
Otherwise, I'd not have wasted so much time, elsewhere, prior. This, especially now knowing how horrid prior acts, thoughts, and all else...really were. Not that I'm flawless--never sinning--now (still being sanctified), but, oh, how I long for that day! In the meantime, I'm doing everything I know, everything I can, to refrain from acting according to the flesh, though: seeking to be holy, as He is holy: having hope in Him, I'm seeking to be pure, as He is pure.
The only way I've found to do that is to abide in Him, is all: ever seeking to press further into His presence, into knowledge of Him and His ways. Praying, always, that He'll continue to remove the veils from my heart, my eyes, my mind, that I'll be brought to repentance through greater revelation of who He is.
Just so many things constantly seek to distract and detract from single-minded pursuit of Christ.
Just so many things constantly seek to distract and detract from single-minded pursuit of Christ.
I renounce all else, for the sake of having Him. He has kept me, He will keep me. Come what may, I'm His, and He is all which is mine. For better or worse of it, as the world might view things, yet there's no other course worth pursuing.
And knowing Him, serving Him, is worth any which might come.
However He wills.
Strange days, being so blessed as to pursue Him ardently, awaiting...
Whatever He wills.
So, learning to wait.
Learning who He is.
Getting to know Him better.
And sharing of the overflow.
While watching faith flourish in the garden of trust.
He is so good.
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