Do you long to be more Christ-like? To have more fruit of the Spirit in your life: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (Galatians 5:22)? I’ve been doing some self-reflection on this fruit and assessed that while I could use more of everything, my Achilles heels are longsuffering and gentleness.
As much as I pray to be loving with others, I still sometimes get irritated, snippy, and impatient with people. I really want to stop that! But there are obviously “rats in my cellar” as C.S. Lewis talked about. I could say that I become unloving because something came out of left-field and took me by surprise like lights being flicked on in a dark cellar. The rats scurry in the light, but it isn’t the light that produced the rats in me. They were already there. The suddenness of the light simply revealed them. (Paraphrased from C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York, McMillan Publishing, 1952), pp. 164-165.)
How do I get rid of those rats?
How do I keep my knee-jerk reaction from being one of impatience, irritation, or resentment? Obviously, I need more Christ in me. I need less of the natural woman and more of a heart converted to Christ and transformed to be more like Him.
Becoming One with the Father and the Son
My daily prayer has been, “Please help me be one with Thee. Let my heart be your heart, my mind be your mind, your thoughts be my thoughts. Live in me!”
This is the theme of Jesus’ intercessory prayer found in John 17:
“That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”
John 17:21
Jesus’ greatest desire was that we be one with the Him and His Father. The purpose of this is that His works may be manifest in us so that the world may believe that the Father sent His Son to redeem us. As we are One with the Father and Son, we live a Christ-like life — an abundantly good life — bringing forth much fruit as Jesus’ explained in His parable of the Vine found in John 15:4-5:
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”
John 15:4-5
That I may bring for the fruit of the Spirit more abundantly, I have been praying earnestly to be one with Christ. Then, I came upon this verse in Paul’s writings to the Ephesians:
“But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.”
Ephesians 2:13-15
While pondering and praying about this verse, I heard God telling me the following:
Ephesians 2:13-15 refers to “a wall of partition (or veil) between us.” This is a partition which Christ bridges and makes “both” … “one.” This partition seems to be in several places:
He’s speaking to Gentiles who converted to Christianity. There once was a wall between the Jews and Gentiles which Christ bridged, adopting the Gentiles unto Himself, thus making them the seed of Abraham and heirs to covenant blessings. There is also a wall between Spirit prison and paradise which Christ bridged. (See 1 Peter 3:19-20)
Making the Spirit and Flesh Allies in Christ
While reading this passage in Ephesians 2, an illuminating understanding came that there is a wall inside of us. There is a veil within the human mind between our spirit (or what I call the Core Sacred Self™) and our human “natural man” (mind/ego and body). The Core Sacred Self™ (the spirit) is willing. It wants to live in harmony with the Spirit of God and be One with God. It’s the light given to every man and woman who comes into the world (see John 1:9).
The flesh (the body / ego mind) is weak. It is the natural man who is selfish, prideful, and prone to rebellion.
Christ bridges the gap between the two so that the flesh no longer controls our lives. As we allow our spirit (or Core Sacred Self™ ) that is aligned and one with Christ to be at the helm, we experience more peace within. At this point, the wall is brought down, and the body becomes subjugated to the Spirit. The good works that abound in us (enacted by the mind and body) are actually made possible by the grace of Jesus Christ (the Vine) who flows through us (the Branches). We become “one” with Christ, “that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” (2 Timothy 3:17)
The Process of Becoming One
At this point, the flesh, which was formerly the villain in our story, becomes the teacher. Our bodies alert us to where we are out of alignment with Christ. While we may be converted and our hearts changed, there is old programming, old limiting beliefs, and old fears that may remain and usually show up in our bodies or thought processes.
If we are living from our spirit (our Core Sacred Self™ ) with the Holy Spirit, we will be more alert and aware of the weak points in our flesh that are out of alignment. In other words, most of us have some “hold outs” within us that haven’t fully come to Christ to be one with Him. As we identify these parts that are out of alignment, we can bring them to Christ. He can heal the deep unmet needs and fears and bring down the wall of separation for that aspect of ourselves. The Core Sacred Self™ acts as a mentor to the flesh, bringing it to Christ for victorious healing.
We become one with Christ through His redeeming blood and through our covenants with Him:
“For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
Galatians 3:25-29
Christ has the power to create oneness and peace on all levels and layers within us and with others. But we must choose Him to activate this in our own personal lives. We must choose to be one with Him. As we do, Christ creates peace between the Jew and the Gentile, between life and death, between the natural man and the saint, between the spirit and the flesh. What was two is now one. What was at odds is now at peace.
Once you have chosen to enter a covenant relationship with Christ and applied His atoning blood, you are one with Christ. As you repent, remembering and recommitting to your covenant relationship with Him, you remain one with Christ.
Now it’s a matter of
- believing you have access to His grace (his enabling power to be like Him),
- acting in alignment with His Grace
- clearing away the last vestiges of the flesh by bringing them unto Christ — that all may be One within you and with Him.
Total oneness is a process. Keep praying to be one. Keep noticing when you aren’t. Keep bringing the hold-out parts within yourself to Christ, and allow Him to heal them.
May God bless you in your endeavors to become with Him and the Father.
You can learn more about the Core Sacred Self™ and accessing the peace, joy and love available to those who seek to become One with Christ in “Finding Peace in a Turbulent World: Living in Sacred Nature” available in audio, Kindle, full-color paperback and hardback.
