Embodied in Jesus
“If you have really experienced the Anointed One, and heard his truth, it will be seen in your life; for we know that the ultimate reality is embodied in Jesus! And he has taught you to let go of the lifestyle of the ancient man, the old self-life, which was corrupted by sinful and deceitful desires that spring from delusions. Now it’s time to be made new by every revelation that’s been given to you. And to be transformed as you embrace the glorious Christ-within as your new life and live in union with him! For God has re-created you all over again in his perfect righteousness, and you now belong to him in the realm of true holiness.” Ephesians 4
Embodied means to be an expression of or give a tangible or visible form to. Other words you can use here is give human form or shape to, manifest, represent, or express. Why am I giving you the meaning of embodied? In Ephesians it says IF you have experienced Jesus and heard (this word in Hebrew means to obey) his truth it will be seen in your life. The ultimate reality is embodied in Jesus. This means when we encounter Jesus, we must value this encounter to such a degree that we become the human form/shape of who He is in the earth. This is the moment we pause, Selah to reflect on our daily lives. Do we represent Jesus to those around us? Have we manifest the person of Jesus to our families?
This reflection is about allowing the Holy Spirit to shine his light or put his finger on a certain area of our lives and speak into it. We should never feel discouraged or embarrassed about an area we still need help in. Our response must be “thank you” for pointing this out so I can manifest you even more. Every encounter or experience with Jesus must prompt us to a greater degree of intimacy.
The teaching of Jesus has taught us to let go of the old way of thinking. The ancient man is no longer once you enter into union with Jesus. He is only allowed to stick around if you allow him/her to remain. No one intentionally allows the old nature to remain so how does it? For too long we have been taught to focus on the behaviors of sinful and deceitful desires but that is not the problem. The behavior itself is not the problem. I love the way Pastor Tim shared it on Sunday.
“Our entire existence we have gone after the fruit; we never get to the root of it. We talk about how you dress, what you do and don't do, what you say, where you go, what you listen to, what you drink, the day you go to church, we talk about all of this nonsense, but we never get to the root of the problem. Sinful and deceitful desires come from one place. This is why Jesus didn't come and say stop sinning stop having deceitful desires. He said change the way you think. Sinful and deceitful desires spring from delusions.”
Now is the time to be made new. Now is the time to be transformed. How? By the way you think about Abba and yourself. We must stop focusing on a person’s behavior to include ourselves and focus on the heart of Abba for each one of us. Even when you don’t express Jesus to your family or coworkers it does not disqualify you from your union with Jesus. We must stop focusing on the dos and don’ts and focus on His love, His voice, His face. As we go deeper in union with Jesus and embrace this new life with him, the areas we need to stop will change without us focusing on them. The root is this: we are re-created in His perfect righteousness and belong to him in the realm of true holiness. Nothing changes this truth.
A beautiful testimony from yesterday. I spoke to someone who had been ill last week. She said, I kept saying, “I am your beloved daughter.” This is the fruit of an experience with Jesus that has changed how this person thinks and because of it she is made well. We will all go through hard things. Sickness, even the death of loved ones, heartache, loss of jobs, financial struggles but we must continue to stand in who we are. We are the righteousness of Jesus!
