Connected

Acts 1: 8

 …and you will be witnesses of me…

Are You Independent or Connected?

One of the early stages of childhood is independence.  As a child develops, she gradually acquires her sense of self, that she is separate from others.  She wants her way, asserts her will and uses biting, hitting and tantrums to get her demands met. Parents often want to throw up their hands in frustration at this stage of child rearing.  Most of us successfully navigate through this phase of life and if we don’t, we develop sophisticated ways to tantrum and bite that make us seem “adultish”.  Nearly everyone at some point begins to reconnect with the human race, finding that complete independence is not a great way to live.  We learn to get along, work as teammates, accept the fact that someone who disagrees with us is not our enemy and perhaps someone worth building a close relationship.  Marriage is one of the great laboratories for developing a balance between independence and unity.  It doesn’t always go well.  Sometimes it is tough accepting the realization that not everyone likes chili with tomato sauce and there might be at least one in the world who thinks Sabrina is a great movie.  The first argument Mary Jo and I had was when I laughed at her pronunciation of the constellation Orion.  What an eye opener for me to discover that someone thought you pronounced it O’ ree on.  At some point we begin to accept the fact that not everyone thinks like us and they are still good to be with anyway.

Perhaps the most important philosophical question of all time is, “What part does God play in my life?”  It pivots on the point of independence.  Either you are completely isolated from God or “godness” or on the other end of the continuum your life is thoroughly bound up to God and His sovereignty.  Perhaps you fall somewhere in between those two sides of the spectrum.  You are somewhat connected to God and somewhat disconnected too.  Most people say they believe in a god but there is a growing disconnect between belief and the sense of self.  Once the journey toward independence is started and you think of yourself as yourself and not others, the shift back to seeing yourself connected and not just yourself is impossible for many.  It seems like intellectual suicide to believe that God is a part of you too and that you are not independent but with Him in a supernatural bond.

The Bible presents a unique perspective on human personality and what sort of people we could be.  Nearly every other religion in the world is built upon the premise that you are independent of God and not a part of him or her or them.  There is a god or gods in those religions but they are separate and different and operate outside of people.  There is a clear boundary between the god or gods and the individual human being.  Yet here is what the Bible says is the case when you become Christian.  I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20 NIV)  This is in a sense the destruction of the self and the creation of a new self.  It is the joining of you and God.  The Bible says that this is a mystery, something that does not make sense to those who don’t know how magnificent God is.  To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27 NIV)

The field of psychology, when God is not seen in how things are has no explanation for what we find here.  There is the possibility of a completely new personality in the place of the old.  You and Christ become someone that was never before in existence.  It is like the combining of oxygen and hydrogen and the result is water, something totally different from just oxygen and just hydrogen.  You are a new substance when Christ becomes a part of you.  It is like a seed that is buried but emerges as something different.  The different you, when Christ literally joins Himself with you, is a connected personality, never again independent but in union with God.

As long as we want to live separate from God He will let us.  If we don’t need Him, the Lord will not stop us from going our own way.  The moment though we realize we are sinners and we need a Savior to give us a new life, Christ comes with His forgiveness and His mercy and makes us someone completely new, what the Bible calls born again.  In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."  "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"  Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.  Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.  You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.'  The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." (John 3:3-8 NIV)

What our Lord is describing is a transformation by the Spirit of God that no magician, psychologist or psychiatrist can recreate.  It is the work of God as He enters into the human personality and makes that person new.  We see the physical manifestation of this work described in John 20 when Jesus gathered His Apostles together after He was crucified and returned to life.  Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."   And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.”  (John 20:21-22 NIV)  Perhaps though the Apostles did not think anything really happened that day.  It was so silent and seamless; the Holy Spirit becoming a part of them that the Lord put on display for them and the world what it actually is to have the Spirit of God become part of you.  When the day of Pentecost came, they (the Apostles) were all together in one place.  Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.  They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.  Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.  When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. (Acts 2:1-6 NIV)

What we see coming into clarity is the great miracle of the ages.  The mind of God, joined with the minds of His people.  How did they all know this really happened?  They were able to think beyond their natural capacity, with the ability God possessed.  Languages the Apostles never had learned they could speak with the mind of the Holy Spirit part of them.  Something so mystical, so wonderful as God being a part of you must make a difference in how you live.  Yet, it is so common that God’s people live as if there was nothing as supernatural about them as the Spirit of God joined to them that the question is raised in the Bible, Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV)

Do you know and really know that God has become a part of you?  Do you live like it?  Are you in fellowship with God or mostly ignoring Him, disconnected, acting as if you are independent?  Paul reported that one of his close friends who had the Spirit of God a part of Him turned his back on that great miracle and started living as if God wasn’t there in Him.  Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. (2 Timothy 4:9-10 NIV)  It is so easy for you to do, to grow indifferent to God joined to you.  You begin to lose the power of Christ in you as your mind disconnects from Him.  Your ability to love, to forgive, to pray with supernatural power, to encourage and to live at peace and free of worry diminishes rapidly as you disengage from the Spirit of Christ who is a part of you.  What a waste of life to act as if you do not have God in you, as if you are independent of Him!

Connect with the Holy Spirit.  In faith pray through Him.  Talk with Him.  Believe He will work through you as you go about the day.  Meditate upon Jesus Christ crucified.  His death on the Cross is the power of God to be a part of you.  That is the entry point to connection with God.  Think about the details of His lashing, His humiliation, His last breath.  Pause and then receive all the goodness and joy of having Him a part of you.  Take time through the next hour and see the living Christ joined with you in each thought of yours.  Connect with God.