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The Power of Love's Wisdom

As the divine nature, the very being of God which is love empowers his creation. As sentient beings with both internal and external awareness we sense at a very early age a presence greater than ourselves. We attempt to orient ourselves to both the internal and external environments, generally with an imperfect balance—some of us more internally perceptive, some more focussed on the external as a frame of reference for life. Some, however, conscientiously seek to reconcile the internal with the external, the spiritual with the physical, by heeding a consciousness of a wisdom that seems at the periphery of our attention. Or perhaps it is really at the core of our being veiled sometimes lightly or sometimes heavily by imaginations and distractions from the world. This internal wisdom that can be sensed seems imbued with kindness, with a love that surpasses emotional earthly love, is attractive and gives a sense of well-being. Yet, in spite of its goodness, it is not always valued because it appears at odds with the kind of group-think people strive to gain approval from in the world, and so is rejected as not being expedient to fulfill immediate desires. Instead of trusting this inner wisdom, people become oriented to physical perceptions and the emotions that become their framework for making choices between what they judge as good and evil. And yet, in the midst of a life oriented to worldly perception that all but drowns it out, the inner wisdom quietly and persistently calls. This wisdom bears a heavenly atmosphere that can imbue our conscience with the values of God. It is rooted in the mystery hidden from the ages, now revealed as Christ in us—Christ who is our wisdom. This is the wisdom that will lead us to the enduring truth that pervades and upholds creation from the heart of the Creator. Can you distinguish this wisdom from its earthly counterfeit? It is not our mental constructs, it is not our religious doctrines, and it is not discerned by our emotions. It is wholly not sourced in the earthly dimension, although it permeates it with beauty. It is in the world, but not of the world. Although it transmits deep understanding that can be translated into our metaphorical native languages, it is not an intellectual idea. It is the language of God’s divine nature of love—it is the presence of his being and consciousness that he shares with us. It draws us to him through his presence as Christ in us with whom we are one spirit. This beautiful wisdom is spiritually discerned by a heart and mind set on knowing God and our own true nature. The power of this wisdom that God gives us through our shared being is his very nature of love. When we receive and live by this wisdom, we are spiritually empowered by love—love which vitalizes and transforms us into the likeness of Christ, love which surpasses all earthly knowledge with the deep wisdom of God, love which casts out fear so we abide in the liberty of the children of God with his nature of love issuing from our hearts. It is this love-imbued wisdom by which we are and by which we recognize God’s ambassadors of peace and reconciliation in the world. It is this wisdom by which we can appear foolish to the worldly wise, but which irrevocably changes the spiritual atmosphere to touch hearts wherever it is dispensed. We should never ignore love’s call through this glorious wisdom who is Christ in us—both to renew our minds and lovingly share it with others in words and actions—for it is God’s own power and wisdom born by love to us in Christ.

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Do you believe in a physical resurrection of Jesus?

I do. I believe the physical and spiritual are intimately intertwined with God in Christ Lord over all and sustaining all things, both the visible and invisible. I also see the eyewitness testimonies of the various New Testament accounts as agreeing on the subject of the cross and resurrectIon—with the apostles willing to die for the declaration of it. The apostle Paul in particular, once an adamant denier and exacting intellectual, came to what he refers to as a knowledge of the truth of the gospel of Christ. I don’t think he could have done that had he not believed the disciples testimonies of the risen and ascended Christ.

J.C. McLarty

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Struggling with Darkness?

What will help a believer who is struggling with darkness, nightmares, fears, or temptations?

One remedy is memorizing and pondering on scripture verses that confirm Christ’s life in us like Galatians 2:20; the Acts 26:18 verse that depicts true repentance (metanoia); and Romans 8:7 / James 4:7. Also, Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3 is powerful to pray for oneself and ponder; and knowing that the Spirit of grace trains us to renounce ungodliness (Titus 2:11,12) gives a view of what happens when we “submit to God” so we are dead to sin and to the power of the world and alive to God.

As these are pondered, the Holy Spirit will bring revelation and renewing of the mind. Christ in us is our wisdom. We should always expect to receive that wisdom “from above” (which is actually in us) and become familiar with how it is gently impressed upon our minds so we know the voice of the Lord.

Pondering scripture and seeking wisdom is a means of turning to the light and not dwelling on darkness which has a cumulative result of helping us follow the voice of the Lord. At various points, or present moments, during the journey we have epiphanies that help direct our course and release greater light. I recall many moments when verses I had pondered all at once became the way, truth, and life personally for me. Of course belief is a key factor, yet the Spirit can anoint a written text, so to speak, to influence belief. The light of Christ has a gentle way of overcoming our darkness.

J.C. McLarty

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Christ Formed In You!

On the cross all died with Christ and became a new creation. Our new creation spirits are sanctified, that is, pure and set apart in Christ. But what of our souls—our mind, will, and emotions? The apostle Peter tells us that obedience to the truth purifies our souls. So what is this obedience? Obedience is belief that precipitates a love response to the truth that we are one spirit with Christ. It becomes experiential in partaking of His divine nature of love and persistently following His Spirit into all truth.

Godly obedience is a receptive response to revelation of the truth that sets us free from the works of darkness and lusts of the flesh. Now Christ is in fact that Truth. In our union with Christ’s Spirit, it is His Spirit working in our new creation spirit that trains us to renounce all ungodliness so that our souls are sanctified and transformed into the likeness of His divine nature. The apostle Paul describes this as Christ being formed in us and says that the aim and consequence of this sanctified nature is divine love issuing from pure hearts. Herein is the kingdom we are to seek and it’s leaven.

J.C. McLarty

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What Does It Mean: Die Daily?

It is most probable Paul simply used the analogy of dying daily to reflect facing physical death by persecution every day for proclaiming the gospel. It is unlikely he presumed we should somehow self-inflict death on our old nature, for in his writings he makes clear we all died in the last Adam at the cross (1Cor. 15:22). Our part therefore is only to believe the old man in each of us died on the cross with Christ (Gal 2:20) as we have our minds renewed to the truth. After we turn from darkness to light, receive forgiveness and follow Jesus, we are thereafter trained by the Spirit of grace to renounce all ungodliness (Titus 2:11-12). This renouncing correlates to 1 John 1:9, where at the very moment the light of Christ in us reveals a truth that exposes something contrary in need of renewing, we confess (agree with God), renounce it and move on (it was already forgiven at the cross), as we are led by the Spirit of the Son and our consciousness is evermore imbued with the light and mind of Christ. This is the only sense we die to the old—that is, we recognize it as dead and let it fall away, as we move deeper into and grow up in the fullness of Christ in us. J. C. McLarty

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First Principles: Belief in the Truth

In the garden, unbelief preceded choice, it did not proceed from choice. Sin was conceived in the heart based upon belief that formulated choice and resulted in action. What God says about Adam is that he "listened" to the voice of his wife--with the Hebrew meaning of "understand." Who do you think he believed and disbelieved before sin was conceived in his heart? Believing the Lord is what is counted as righteousness. In the beginning and the end, belief or conviction of the truth (faith) is everything--it is what leads us to obey. Obedience without belief in the truth is dead works. The truth exists. Whether we believe it or not is another thing. Unbelief precipitates disobedience to the truth which is sin. Alternatively, belief in the truth sets us free. It really doesn't matter how many angels or satans or demons or devils inhabit our unbelief, what matters is believing the Truth who is Christ wherein obedience becomes a loving reciprocation to pure love. J. C. McLarty

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Did God Create Evil?

Our Triune Godhead had foreknowledge of what would transpire when the desires He placed in the nature of the first couple were employed other than according to His own good and loving will and desire. What we can fathom is that God placed desire in the nature of man—the root of evils or in the metaphorical story he placed the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden (of the heart). God Himself has desire, it is an aspect of His divine nature—now it's likeness is in a created being who is in the midst of a created environment that he can see, feel, taste, and touch. In this is the root or potential for evil, which evil I see as misdirected selfish desires of the heart resulting in sin. Man's challenge is distinguishing what is influencing his desires: The fulfillment of the flesh? Or of the heart of God? And then following one or the other. J. C. McLarty

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Do Dreams Reflect What We Eat?

Dreams arise from the spiritual venue where we abide most of the time. If we have Christ alone dwelling in our hearts, are citizens of the heavenly city, and have our conversation with God, our dreams will be graceful and prophetic. On the other hand, if soulish things of the spirit of the world dwell in our hearts (from the media, self-condemnation, anger, gossip, sex, whatever), and we are mostly conformed to the world, our dreams will reflect those soulish and even scary things we are entertained by. The venue of our dreams is generally a reflection of what we spiritually eat. Do we spiritually feed on life or death? Jesus told us He is the true bread that gives life. Reading the Bible and praying and seeking wisdom—who is Christ in us—before we retire at night, and then above all putting on love and pulling it snuggly up around us as we rest in the Father’s arms—and finally being still to know God—will put us in that place to behold Christ and be transformed into His likeness even while we sleep. J. C. McLarty

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Finished and Completed in Christ

If Adam and Eve perfectly knew the truth, in other words, had a perfect consciousness of righteousness, how could they have become deceived? Something was needed. There was a void to fill designed for God's love that surpasses the knowledge of good and evil. That void is unbelief, the same unbelief God's Spirit convicts the world of even now. God's creation was made good, but there was some completing to do, for only in full belief in the truth are we made complete in Christ—the Author and Finisher of our faith. Jesus on the other hand, the first begotten, the first fruits, was perfected in righteousness—he had the spirit of man united with the Spirit of God and became life-giving, not just of the image of God, but to perfectly express God's divine nature. Paul, to whom Jesus gave the ministry of the gospel of grace, says the aim of this gospel is love issuing from a pure heart, a good conscience (consciousness) and a sincere faith. Hence, we see that the void is filled in the Author's finished work. Only God is said to be good, and in this completion in Christ, we see mankind with this consciousness of God's goodness, also His divine nature of love, and perfect faith--the conviction of truth--that proceeds from Christ, that is, conviction of the truth of who He is and who we are in Him. J. C. McLarty

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Kingdoms of This World

Things come into being through both faith and fear. Faith brings heaven to earth, while fear brings manifestations of the counterfeit of and opposition to God's will. Faith brings forth the manifestations of belief in Christ, while fear brings forth rule, authority, and powers founded upon unbelief in the Word of life who is Christ Jesus, God with us. There is a heavenly Spirit of God reality and an earthly spirit of the world counterfeit. Fruit of two very different trees. It is our part to stay tuned to Christ—that is, to rest in Him, partake of His divine nature and have the mind of Christ—so to discern truth from error, good from evil, the Kingdom of God from the kingdoms of this age. And then, as we walk in the faith of Christ by speaking His truth in love, we release God's will on earth so that we are the leaven that advances His Kingdom. Rev. 11:15 "And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." J. C. McLarty

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What In The World Is Christ Doing?

There are some keys that answer this question about what Christ is doing in the world. I think it is awesome to see these for ourselves in Scripture, yet here are some pointers: 1) Jesus gives us a parable that the kingdom is like leaven that will expand until all is leavened; 2) There is a prophecy in Daniel about the stone [Christ] becoming a mountain that finally fills the whole earth; 3) Three times in the New Testament Psalm 110:1 is repeated to tell us that Christ remains at the right hand of God until all of his enemies become his footstool; 4) Then, when he (presumably through his body the Church) has destroyed all [opposing] rule, power, and authority, he consolidates his kingdom with his Father's with the culmination being the restoration of all things. These things all agree with scripture telling us that meanwhile, it is us, his body, who are to be as he is in the world. We are to grow up, being transformed into his likeness here and now, overcoming evil with good. We are to reign in life and be the appearance of his glory as we open people's eyes so they can turn from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, and receive the once for all forgiveness of God in Christ (Acts 26:18). I believe, like Paul told Timothy, the aim of our charge for ourselves and others, is love issuing from a pure heart, a clean conscience, and a sincere faith. This is the reality of our redemption. It is God working in us—Christ and his Father making their home with us. This is Christ working in his body, the Church. It is the New Jerusalem coming down—God's will being done on earth as in heaven. J. C. McLarty

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Overcoming Powers of Evil

Christians who are in agreement with revenge and court battles and killing to overcome evil actually empower it. Instead of wrestling in prayer with the cosmic forces of evil and overcoming with the authority, blood, and testimony of Christ, and in their walk, overcoming evil with good, they actually submit to darkness by engaging mentally and spiritually in it's tactics, and of course, it does not flee. Jesus is very clear in his commission to Paul that there is the power of the Adversary (Satan) in the world that people can turn from to God (Acts 26:18). In Paul's letters he variously refers to this power as cosmic powers, spiritual forces of evil, and power of the air (Eph. 6:12; 2:2); while John states that the whole world lies in the power of evil (1John 5:19). In admonishing believers not to be conformed to the powers of the world but to Christ (Rom. 12:2), one clear intention is for the Church to manifest the wisdom of God that will overcome the power of evil with the goodness of God (Eph. 3:10; Rom. 12:21). In light of new covenant teaching, it seems clear that as Christ dwells and reigns in hearts, and as these believers manifest the forgiveness, love, and wisdom of God, their effective faith and good works will render the powers and authorities that are contrary to God unproductive in all institutions and walks of life--which will ultimately result in the fulfillment of "destroying every rule and every authority and power" (1Cor. 15:24) but God's. It seems to me that the admonition to be subject to God (James 4:7) must be preeminent in resisting in order to overcome the powers of evil and to manifest the light of Christ that exposes and judges evil while sowing peace. This also means that peace and righteous government begins in individual hearts before it can manifest collectively in governing bodies. In order to be peacemakers then, it is essential that the peace of God first rule in our own hearts. J. C. McLarty

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Christ Forsaken?

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? ...For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him." (Psa. 22:1,24) Since God was in Christ on the cross reconciling the world to himself, and Christ was the Son of God, and this was a finished work of the entire Trinity, then of course God did not forsake the Son of Man—just as the entirety of Psalm 22 testifies. Rather, since Jesus became sin and suffered all things for our sake, he suffered the “feeling of being forsaken” just as man does—that is, he suffered unbelief (which is sin), and in particular, unbelief in God just as man does. Remember, God made Christ to be sin on our behalf (2Cor 5:21), and consider that sin proceeds from unbelief in the truth. If we fully believed only the Truth, there would be no sin conceived in our hearts—yet Jesus became sin which is always derived from unbelief; hence, momentarily at least, the Son of man in his humanity did not believe that God was with him nor even his own identity as the Son of God. The bitter cup. And likewise, we are no more forsaken and separated from God than Jesus was at that moment on the cross—except by unbelief, the same unbelief that is the cause of our forsaking him. J. C. McLarty

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Overcoming the Darkness

Have you noticed that when we view things on a sort of legal scale of holiness or goodness, our goodness pendulum can swing abruptly from good to evil and back again regarding persons in a situation of conflict? First we see someone is the victim and the other the aggressor, then something is revealed about the victim to indicate he/she was in the wrong and the other was defending and in the right. Back and forth the pendulum swings so we are divided over the issue or until we take sides and foment opposition. This is what partaking from the tree of good and evil breeds. Then there is the tree of life and God's perspective. Consider how Jesus viewed Saul/Paul when he encountered him on the road to Damascus. Did Jesus judge this man on a scale of holiness? Did God condemn this man who harbored murder in his heart to fiery endless torment? This is how Paul describes what happened: "The grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus." (1Tim. 1:14) So what about us? Are we peacemakers walking in the new and living way that Christ opened to us at the cross? Are we seeing with the mind of Christ so that we are truly "as he is in the world" or are we double-minded and tossed about? Christ judged and condemned Sin and Satan--not people--at the cross so to set us free of the cosmic forces of evil. He then, by speaking to and through Paul, tells us to open eyes so they too can turn from darkness to light and receive God's forgiveness and a place amongst those who are sanctified. Is there any doubt that those who walk in darkness need to see our great light and experience the grace and love of God pouring out of our hearts? J. C. McLarty

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If We Truly Understand Worship, Will Our Expression of "Worship" Change?

How does our three-in-one God worship? How have the Father, Son, and Spirit always worshipped—even before creation? They are each holy: Holy, Holy, Holy. Dedicated to each other. Relationship—being dedicated to each other—seems to be the essence of worship, each a living sacrifice with rapt attention toward the other, serving one another. So it seems to me. I think Isaiah describes this when he describes a fast where our focus is shifted from ourselves to serve others (Is. 58:1-14). Jesus told the Samaritan woman that true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth because, he says, God is spirit. To worship in spirit, it is essential to recognize the spiritual truth that when we are born again of imperishable seed, we become one spirit with our Lord and are consequently in union with the Father through the Son by the Spirit. We have entered into the fellowship of the Trinity where we behold and partake of God’s divine nature. As for worshipping in truth—an essential work of the Holy Spirit in us is to lead us into all truth, so we will constantly turn to and come into agreement with this revelation of truth who is Christ. This then is how we worship the Father in truth: by loving obedience to the truth revealed in the Son. When we do this, Jesus says he and the Father will come and make their home with us (John 14:23)—which is the very presence of God filling his temple. This is the very presence of worship and wherefrom all expressions of true worship manifest. This I think is how we become holy, that is, dedicated in love one to another. "As he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.'" (1Pet. 1:15,16). "Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness." (Psa. 29:2b) J. C. McLarty

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Blessed are the Peacemakers: Atonement vs Wrath

God was in Christ on the cross reconciling the whole world to himself and forgiving all sin. The crucifixion was a Trinitarian affair wherein the whole world was reconciled to our incredible Three-in-One God. This is the atonement. This being the case, did God's wrath come upon himself? Only if we see the crucifixion as God's "intense passion" (in the purity of the Greek understanding of the word wrath). But his intense passion wasn't poured out upon Jesus as proxy for mankind for satisfaction of law or vengeance. Rather his passion was his great redemptive love for the world ("for God so loved the world"), wherein he took upon himself the iniquity of the world (reconciliation), and executed judgment on the ruler of the world (Satan). In so doing, he opened up the new and living way of at-one-ment with mankind. But didn't the Father pour out wrath (hostility) on the Son? Didn't Jesus drink the cup of God's wrath? No, if it was, then James and John drank of the same cup (Matt. 10:35-39). No, it was not God's wrath poured out on Jesus, rather what came upon Jesus was the wrath of lawless men (Acts 2:23). Meanwhile, God in his foreknowledge literally incorporated this circumstance to judge Sin and Satan. In summary, the atonement was God at the cross reconciling to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven: making peace (Col. 1:20). The atonement is in essence manifested at the cross by the heart of God to restore relationship with himself—so we can see him in Christ and come into union with the divine nature of God's truth and love. The cross also dealt with evil that inclines people to be hurtful and unloving to one another and transmuted death to life. God did this by making peace by canceling the sin debt, reconciling the world to himself, and overcoming death through resurrection and a new creation. So, why don't we see it? Because we mostly don't yet believe it. That is why the Holy Spirit convicts the world of unbelief (John 16:8,9), for it is belief in the Christ who is the truth that is the leaven of the kingdom. So what are we to do? First of all, turn from darkness to light, from the spirit of the world to God and follow the Holy Spirit into all truth. And then, those being led by the Spirit are to be peacemakers—opening eyes so people can turn from darkness to the light of the truth in Christ, receive God's once-for-all forgiveness, and be transferred into the kingdom of his Son. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." (Matt. 5:9) J. C. McLarty

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What Does it Mean: Washed by the Word?

How are we to understand Ephesians 5:26, “That he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word”? What is this word (rhema) that washes? First of all, we can understand from John’s Gospel that the Word (Logos) is Christ, and we see in Titus 3:5 that Paul qualifies what washes us is the Holy Spirit. Paul also explains in Ephesians 6:17 that the rhema, not scripture (graphe), performs the transforming work of the Spirit. When we look closer at the purpose of this washing and cleansing process, we see from John that it is to bring us into accord with the truth: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word (logos) is truth” (John 17:17). These words are spoken by Jesus to his Father, where Jesus is not speaking of text on a page, but of the very logos of the Father who is Jesus himself! Paul speaks of this sanctifying we partake of when he says: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27). We are baptized then into much more than a belief system, but into the very One who is grace and truth! So what is the distinction between the logos which is the word of God and the Greek word rhema which is also translated as “word?” We see in the following passage written by Paul that rhema is the expression of truth spoken by he who is the truth: “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word (rhema) of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit’” (Acts 11:15,16). These words that Jesus spoke are active and alive, and it is this logos-life conveyed by the Holy Spirit through the spoken words (rhema) that is effectual in washing. We already saw that both Jesus and Paul point to the Holy Spirit as he who washes and sanctifies. So what about reading the Biblical text and hearing the preaching of it? Once again, Jesus and John give us “insight,” which true insight or revelation we should by now recognize comes by way of the rhema (expression) of logos through the Holy Spirit. "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come" (John 16:13). "But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him" (1John 2:27). In these passages we understand exactly where spiritual wisdom and understanding proceeds to us from to inform us with truth. The Holy Spirit whom John calls the “anointing” is the one who both conveys and breathes life and truth into the written and spoken rhema. We can read or hear words, but it is not the person speaking or the text on the page but the Spirit of God we must ultimately listen to who teaches, sanctifies, and transforms us. Then when we hear him who does “not speak on his own authority,” and in turn we live and speak what we hear, we are both purified and likewise speak the rhema of the Word of God to others. This is how we speak the truth in love. When we do this, we not only build one another up, but we are truly ambassadors imploring others on behalf of King Jesus to be reconciled to God—that is, that others too may be washed of the darkness and lies of the world and walk in the light and Spirit of truth. J. C. McLarty