YOU Can't Live the Christian Life! Part Two

In Part One, I solidified the fact that only Christ in you can live your Christian life. Now what are the practical aspects of getting to know Christ in you personally so that you can trust him to live the Christian life for you?

Your mind wanders. You feel a sense of guilt when you get personal with Jesus in you. You also get sleepy. You don’t know what to talk to the Lord about. You get distracted. These are the present hindrances that you face in your prayer life. Is there a solution?

There are only two things that exist in our material realm that belong to and are native to the spiritual realm. One is the Scripture, which is God-breathed. The other is your spirit. Your spirit belongs to and is now part of the other realm – the spirit realm. Join these two elements together (your spirit and Scripture) and you have a key for dealing with these age old hindrances.

What I shall present to you is not the only way to enter into a meaningful fellowship with Christ within. It is simply A way. But we all need somewhere to begin, a starting point do we not?

You are about to enter into an ancient and greatly revered practice of the saints of all the centuries past, a heritage that has been passed down through two millennia of the Christian faith. You are about to turn Scripture into prayer.

Assignment One

Get alone. Get quiet. Calm your mind. Bask in the presence of Jesus within you for a time. Next, open your Bible to Psalm 23. Speak out loud, and TALK Psalm 23 to your Lord. Paraphrase or adapt something like this:
Lord Jesus, you are my Shepherd. You take care of me. You always have taken care of me. You are taking care of me now. You will take care of me in the future. I am a lamb. I was made for a shepherd. You are that Shepherd. And it is true, I have never wanted, and right now I have no real needs.

Take time to let this sink in. Then turn to Galatians 2:20 and adapt:
Jesus, I was crucified and died with you on the cross but now I live again with you living in me. And my life in the world is meant to be you living it for me and through me.

Take more time to let this sink in.

Maybe this is all your prayer life should consist of for many days. Do not read assignment two until you are very secure in assignment one.

Assignment Two

Assignment two is very similar to assignment one. There is one major difference, and that one difference makes all the difference in the world.

In assignment one, YOU were the entire center of everything that was prayed (see all the me’s and I’s). This is pretty typical of the vantage point of most of our praying, is it not?

Now you are about to go to a new approach, one you might never have taken before. You are going to step completely out of the prayer! Not once while proceeding on will you make a personal reference to yourself. This time you will be WATCHING the fellowship of the Father and the Son.

Your prayer from Psalm 23 might come out something like this:
Father, when Jesus was here on this earth, you were his Shepherd. He never had any needs. You met all his needs. You are all that Jesus has ever needed. Lord Jesus, while you lived here on earth, your Father was your rest. You rested in him. He replenished your soul. Your Father was your drink. He was your food. He was your full supply. Father, you are the righteousness of Jesus. You are his path. Jesus lived and moved in your righteousness. He followed you, and he glorified your name.

Notice that you are not part of the prayer. You just changed perspectives. Take time to let this new perspective sink in. Then continue with Galatians 2:20:
Jesus, you died on the cross by the will of the Father. The Father was in you before your death and the Father was in you again after your resurrection. The life that you led on this earth was always by the life of the Father within you. You lived by faith in the Father to direct his ways through you.

Again, nothing about you, only about Christ and the Father. Take time again to really acknowledge this new perspective in your relationship with Christ within you.

Assignment Three

You are going to reintroduce yourself back into the picture but only as a living union between you and Jesus. You are united with him. You can never be separated from him. The relationship is unique from anything known on this earth. But it is real and enduring – Christ/Bob; Christ/Mary; Christ/Joe; Christ/Jane.

Psalm 23 will probably come across something like this:
Father, you are the Shepherd of Christ/Bob – you take care of us in our union. We were made for a Shepherd. Father, by living your life in our union, we have never truly wanted and never will. Christ/Bob rests in you. You replenish the soul. You are our full supply. You are our path of righteousness. We, as a living union, will always glorify your name.

For as long as it takes, get settled in this concept of union with Jesus Christ. Think about you/him, you/him, in all that comes to your mind.

Galatians 2:20 becomes something like this:
Father, I know that Christ/Bob died on the cross but that this unique spiritual entity lives again – today, right now in the twenty-first century. And everything that we as a unit do in this world is done through the power of you, the Father, who continues to live his “Christian” life through us.

Assignment Four

Grow in this understanding. And what will you have gained in all this? You will have joined into the fellowship of the Godhead. You will be learning to differentiate between your spirit where Christ dwells in union, and your soulish emotions and will. You will have learned to love in this union of your spirit and the Spirit of Christ – to listen, to respond, to fellowship with him. And, hopefully, you will have learned (on more and more occasions) to absent yourself and simply enjoy the miracle of the Father’s “Christian life” living out from this union of Christ in you, as you, and through you.

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