Still ‘ME’ [1]

Personal Matters

I find it difficult to consistently live out the promise, ““In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”” (Isa 30:15). After an extended period of restfulness I recently found myself returning to a well worn path of interrogation, asking myself and others close to ‘ME’ many questions about what was happening and where were things headed. These patterns of trying to “join the dots” and plot a clear path ahead were learnt early in childhood. As the youngest in the family I always had antennas up for the decisions others were making concerning ‘ME’ and my welfare. The need to plot trajectories to avoid suffocation by an omnipresent mother was however a sure recipe for a habitually restless soul.

In a Christian meditation session recently I sensed the Lord saying that these sorts of struggles are always about power. Only as we are freed of the impact of the unjust power differentials of life can we be still enough to acknowledge the sovereign presence of God (Ps 46:10).

Who’s Word?

It was in the silence of reflection that I could sense the Lord speaking to me about his “performative Word” which makes things happen simply by being uttered. When the LORD says, “Let there be…” the world comes into existence (Gen 1:3 etc; Heb 11:3). God’s Word alone can do God’s work; only he who is eternal can produce anything that lasts forever (John 15:5). All Christians know these things, but it is another matter to live them. We are so conditioned by a world in which human thoughts and words seem to have the power to bring about results that we habitually become stuck in our own mind’s imaginings about our future welfare. This is especially the case when we feel that we are subject to the powerful decisions and words of others who do not have our welfare fully at heart. This to and fro between us and others, both mentally and vocally, is based on a deep deception.

It was during my quiet reflection that the Lord made it clear to ‘ME’ that my life is truly lived in the realm where the ascended Christ is the only speaker (Col 3:12-3). I have been raised above any power struggle between my words and the often more powerful words of others. As far as my final destiny goes all my thoughts and words are impotent and must submit to the Word of Christ (Col 3:16). Only Jesus has the power to bring something out of nothing and it is his voice alone I must obey (Heb 1:2; 3:15). This awareness brought tremendous stillness to my heart for all things are in God’s safe hands. My self-centred thought world does not however give in that easily. Only a deeper revelation of who Jesus is can deliver ‘ME’ from myself (Rom 7:24-25).

Jesus

When “the Word became flesh” the Son of God emptied himself of the ability to create by the power of his own utterance (John 1:14; 2 Cor 8:9; Phil 2:6-7). In saying, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.” (John 6:63), Jesus pointed away from merely human words to the presence of the Creator’s Spirit within him. Christ publicly disowned our sort of ‘ME’ at the centre of his speaking, “And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.” (John 14:24). It was this humility that was responsible for Jesus continuous connection with heaven, his ability to work signs and wonders and to bring the words of eternal life (John 6:68). Even in the midst of the most intense conflicts he possessed an undisturbed quiet strength at the centre of his being, for he was constantly aware of the all sufficient presence of the indwelling Word of God (Luke 4:29-30; Matt 26:62; 27:14).

The great crisis of Christ’s life, the cross, is the single place where he is left alone without the witness of the Spirit to the creative power of the Father to overcome the force of sin which clung to him so closely (Mark 15:34; Heb 12:1). This was his identification with the weakness of our words in the face of overwhelming evil. The resurrection makes everything new; it reveals that the performative Word of God in Christ has abolished every injustice disturbing the restfulness for which we were created (2 Cor 5:17; 2 Ti 1:10; Heb 2:14).

Performance

The constraint to perform as workers, parents and Christians is a terrible epidemic which drives most of us. Many are plagued by a sense of the injustices of life that fill them with a depressive helplessness or an unrighteous zeal to “put things right” (Hab 1:13). Only through seriously meditating on “the Word of Christ” can we come to the realisation that in Jesus all things have already been put right (Col 3:16; Heb 2:5-9). This peace-bearing state of mind demands no super-spiritual achievement for the power that brought Jesus down from heaven and exalted him up again already dwells in our hearts (Rom 8:6; 10:6-8; 1 Cor 2:16).

There is only one condition for the release of this wondrous presence, ‘mental weakness’. The universe contributed nothing to its creation and the mortal flesh of Jesus added nothing to the resurrecting power of God’s performative word. Likewise the crucifixion of ‘ME’ demands an end to every attempt of my mind to plot out a better world. I am called to faithfully submit to the revelation that in Jesus the equity of heaven will triumph over all the injustices of this world (Col 3:10; Heb 6:10; Rev 21:4-5). By faith I enter into a still place where even in the midst of pain I am aware of another presence: of a Lord who has endured death and disability and lives again, not only in heaven but in ‘ME’ (Ps 23:2; Rev 1:18)!! Such a stripping of the power of self-preservation does not destroy ‘ME’ but remakes me into the person I was always meant to be; I am Still ‘ME’.

Conclusion 

The rarity of abiding in a still place is an embarrassing truth we as the children of God must all face.  At times we are vitally conscious of the indwelling Word and at other times dominated by our own vigilance about the thoughts and potentially damaging decisions of others. To be delivered from our personal preoccupations we need a new vision of the presence of Christ in all things (Eph 1:22-23). The stillness of the new creation in Christ is not a private mystical experience but a powerful presence poised to penetrate all the dimensions of modern life; the marketplace, the home, the Church. It is a tangible testimony to Jesus’ triumph over all the unsettling powers of evil from which ordinary mortal flesh cannot free itself.  To be Still ‘ME’ is to be on the cutting edge of a genuine spiritual revival in our time. If you have wandered away from such a still place may I encourage you to stop, pray and re-centre on the Lord’s performative Word right NOW.