Am I Alive Yet?

Sept. 26th, 2005
"You used to be dead because of your sins and acts of disobedience." Ephesians 2:1 (CJB)
"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins." Ephesians 2:1 (NAS)

Biblical language runs so contrary to my way of thinking. I believe that I have a handle on the abstract theological concept of being "spiritually dead", especially since I can regurgitate the following synopsis on command: Spiritual death= being separated from God due to not receiving Christ as source of salvation and therefore being destined to eternal punishment in Hell. But, it remains an abstraction since I live with very little awareness of the spiritual world that I surrounds me. To be aware is to be freaked out: too much Eastern mysticism, New Age stuff, or just fear of seeing things that I don't want to (i.e. spirits, angels, demons, etc.). So, I maintain my connection with the physical and emotional realm, thus never experiencing or comprehending the truth of spiritual death, or life.

"But God is so rich in mercy and loves us with such intense love that, even when we were dead because of our acts of disobedience, He brought us to life along with the Messiah...". So, God has made me alive. Spiritually. Therein lies power. Unimaginable power according to Eph. 1:19-21. Yet, again, not power as I would conceive it. When I think power, I think of the ability to make happen what I want to happen. To enact my own will. Yet, there in the latter part of chap. 1, the power is available and moving within us in order to understand, appropriate and experience life as defined by Christ. "In my prayers I keep asking the God of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, the glorious Father, to give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you will havve full knowledge of Him. I pray that he will give light to the eyes of your hearts, so that you will understand the hope to which He has called you, what rich glories theree are in the inheritance He has promised His people." (v.16-18)

Power is not for enacting my own will. Power is for connecting to the Divine and Holy. Power is to realize that Life Himself is dwelling within me. Power is there to walk in what He has called me to. Power is to "taste and see that the Lord is good". To savor Him. To bask in His pleasing aroma. Power is not for getting what I want, but to touch what I need--the Living One Himself.

In union with the Messiah, we are alive. Romans 6:9-11; 14: "We know that the Messiah has been raised from the dead, never to die again; death has no authority over Him. For His death was a unique event that need not be repeated; but His life, He keeps on living for God. In the same way, consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive for God, by your union with the Messiah Yeshua. For sin will not have authority over you...". (emphasis added)

The irony is that I am still dead. I am not dead to God, but to sin. Being in union with Christ means that sin has no authority over me. It means that I am alive to and for God. Romans 6 is loaded with death, the best death: (snippets following) "How can we, who have died to sin...", "Don't you know that those of us who have been immersed into the Messiah Yeshua have been immersed into His death?" (i.e. Don't you know that you are dead? Wake up!) "For if we have been united with Him in a death like His...", "We know that our old self was put to death...".

We have been struck down and through the Power of the Living One have become more powerful than we can possibly imagine. Powerful because we are in the very Life of the Living Christ, Lord of Lords. Powerful in that we have shalom with God. Power to love: to love God, to love people, to love you, to love myself without selfish motive. How curious...

I have rambled long enough. Shalom to you all.

KiltedJedi