Then that which is in part shall be done away
We are living in a post-doctrinal era. That one statement strikes fear and outrage in most of the Christians who read it because their whole way of life is based on doctrine. Though each church group practices a different flavor of dogma, all have teaching at the center of their belief system. However, what we all have is, at best, a partial understanding of the truth. Therefore, when that which is perfect comes, that which is in part shall be done away with. Now we see through a glass darkly, and what we see through are darkened shards of an incomplete understanding.
The “perfect” that Paul speaks about is not the canon of scripture, as some assume, it is the perfected Bride of Christ. We are coming into a time where the Body of Christ reaches the fullness and stature of Christ. It is at this time when the five-fold ministry fades into the background because the perfected saints do the work of the ministry.
Here is a truth,
The Bride of Christ is the “perfect” and the New Testament scriptures are the “partial”
What’s been the standard of fundamental Christianity for so long, the Bible, also fades into the background as we hear His voice. People don’t read what God said centuries ago when He speaks to them moment by moment today. What we need to know today, God gives freely; therefore, we don’t pour over His love letters from yesteryear. While we keep His letters in an honored place, now that He is with us, we don’t read them that much.
For many who understand what I have just written, my words seem like blasphemy. They cry “he degrades and discounts the oracles of God!” No, I do not, I am just putting them in their proper place relative to where we are in God. We are the perfected Body of Christ; therefore, because we are near to Him, we hear His word directly.
Knowledge shall vanish
Bible knowledge shall vanish away simply because we are led by His revelation at every moment of every day. Scriptures still exist, they just don’t occupy the same place of importance in our lives now that we are one with Christ. Jesus did the will of God daily rather than reading what others did centuries ago. Though he knew the scriptures perfectly, He didn’t spend all his time in the synagogue pouring over them. Moreover, He did not have to follow the past, because the God of his forefathers led Him in the present.
Jesus says,
“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”
Matthew 5:4-47
Likewise, you believe you must study to show yourself approved, but I say to you that knowledge shall cease, replacing it with pure revelation, received like manna, each and every day. Therefore, your doctrine shall fade in importance as YHWH takes direct control over His future wife.
Throwing off the yoke of bondage
What has taken place, slowly over many centuries, is that the clergy usurped God’s place in people’s minds. They have positioned themselves between God and His people, permitting only what they felt was appropriate. Leaders, filled with their knowledge of good, relegated His Holy Spirit to the corner of people’s lives. Thinking they knew best, they forbid believers to live as God intended. What’s happening now is that God is breaking that yoke of bondage off of the apple of His eye. We are in a post-doctrinal age because God has descended from His holy mountain, taking His rightful place as Lord of our lives.
So says God.
Dear Connections,
It amazes me how we just can’t see these things until we’re upon them in the Spirit. Obviously, the “perfect” that scriptures speak about is the Bride of Christ, yet for so long that truth has been hidden from so many. Once God reveals it, it seems obvious, yet until His does, nothing seems clear.
Moreover, our slavish devotion to the notion of knowledge as a way to serve God, has blinded us too. We have become those who are ever learning, yet never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. Clinging to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we exclude ourselves from the very tree of life which we crave.
It is good to live to the light we have, yet when God illuminates us further, we must be willing to change our position. Being with Him means that we must move as He moves. the very people that made the doctrines we cherish are those who risked all to be different in their generation.
Nothing that Christ did violated any of the previous things God said through holy men as they were moved by His Spirit. However, most of what Christ did offended those who had fallen into a form of godliness, but left off following after the heart of their God. Let us train ourselves to be open to His Spirit moving in our midst even when we cannot yet understand Him.
Sincerely,
Michael
Interesting thought!
I like what you said in your comment: “Being with Him means that we must move as He moves.”
Like you said, it’s not that this “moving like He moves” violates scripture – Jesus walked like that and fulfilled all of scripture. Rather, the ideal for us, I think, is to have the submission to the Father that He had, to do what we see Him do and say what we hear Him say. This freedom to be led by the Spirit envelopes and subsumes His Word into how He leads us, as the focus becomes letting His Spirit lead and following where He goes, trusting that as He leads by the Spirit He will not lead us into sin. (Galatians 5:16).
This whole idea seems to connect closely with Romans 12:1-2: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
I wonder if it takes giving of ourselves completely – our bodies as a living sacrifice – and renewing of our minds before we can reach this place? Seems like its that kind of sacrifice and mind renewal that we need in order to be truly “open to His Spirit moving in our midst even when we cannot yet understand Him.” But when we do, then we can truly discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and “perfect”.
Thanks for sharing your insights!
Big hugs and lots of love –
Dear CL,
As Christ hung dying on the cross, the Spirit of God left Him. This is why he cried,
“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Mathew 27:46
So, the servant is not greater than his master, therefore each and everyone who walks in Christ comes to our own crisis of faith where we feel like God has forsaken us. At that time we must simply trust, not what we have been taught, but what God has said to us personally. Our walk with God is a total sacrifice, not a partial giving of ourselves. A burnt sacrifice became ashes, because there was nothing left of what it once was.
Big hugs and lots of love,
Michael