OUR UNION WITH CHRIST - Part One

As believers, it is easy for us to say we understand that God now lives in us by His Spirit, and that we are now "ONE" with Him, but the reality of this truth seems to escape many of us in experience.   What took place at the cross was a mind-boggling event that has set us free in every area of life, but most Christians don't see it, nor have a revelation of this amazing truth.  Most Christians still view themselves as me and God working together.....but that is wrong theology.  It is not we and God.  It is God working in us. ( Philippians 2:13)
The Bible talks alot about us being vessels.(Rom 9:22-23; 2 Cor 4:7; 2 Tim 2:20; Rev 2:27)  Vessels are "instruments" to be used....they are the object that holds the substance.  That is what we are.  Man was made from the dust of the ground, formed by the Master Potter.  In His divine plan, long before the foundations of the world.....in eternity past, God had a plan for these vessels of clay that He had created and designed.  These vessels of which we are, were created to hold something.   How amazing is this God of love....that even before the beginning of time, He saw each and every vessel that would be formed from that one original design...ADAM.   And He had a plan and a purpose for each one.  Jer 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (NIV)

We can never stop learning, but learning and receiving revelation are two different things.  May our hearts have a longing for the deeper things of God.  May we pray as Paul prayed, ...that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give us the Spirit of WISDOM AND REVELATION, so that we may know him better. And that the eyes of our heart may be enlightened in order that we may KNOW the hope to which he has called us, the riches of his glorious INHERITANCE in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. (Eph 1:17-18)

There are mysteries and treasures to discover in the Word of God.  It comes through intimacy with Father God.   The greatest mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages was first revealed to the apostle Paul.  I believe the Lord showed it to him during his three years in  Arabia.  It became a burning passion within him.  Everything else was counted as dung compared to knowing Christ and the fullness of this mystery.   Paul referred to this mystery as a treasure.  ("But we have this treasure in earthen vessels..." 2 Cor 4:17).  

Paul told the colossians that this mystery that had been hidden throughout the ages and generations was now being revealed to the Saints of God.  (Col 1:26)   And the mystery that has been hidden for so long, even from the heavenly hosts, was  "CHRIST IN US THE HOPE OF GLORY!"  This is a wonderful, glorious truth for those who can see it!   Christ in us.....His substance in our vessels of clay......His substance being poured out of our earthen vessels.  Wow!   He couldn't do it without us.  God needed a Body, a container in which to dwell in order to take back what the enemy had taken.  Man, who had dominion in the garden and lost it in the garden, was now given back that same dominion.  The only problem is, we have been walking without it for so long, that we need to have our minds and hearts renewed to the fact that it is now back in it's proper possession.  Dominion was originally given to man and now belongs to man again!  I could get off on a rabbit trail here, but my focus today is the Christ-Man Union.   Christ and man have now become ONE.  No longer two, but one.  If you take a glass of hot water (US) and a cup of salt (JESUS) and mix it together, the two become ONE and it is forever impossible to separate them again.  They become so blended together that you can no longer even tell them apart.  When we walk in the newness of our identity and dominion, the enemy cannot tell us from Jesus!   That is how it is with us when we accept the truth of what Jesus did at the cross.......the realization of the union is what gives us that truly born-again experience, knowing that we are now children of God.  "To as many as received Him, (believed the truth about the finished work of the cross...to totally trust in and rely on that fact) to them He gave the right to become the children of God." (John1:12)