"Identity Check................"

My pastor singled me out in part of his message last Sunday, pointing to my coming to Christ in my living room, not the church, and being unaware of all the dogmatic theologies stipulating what made me “saved”. In truth, I explain my own faith in terms of being anchored in the reality of that initial encounter, as well as others known along the way in the course of these last forty-three years. While Bible has been a working manual, a source of study, and revelation, it is an inner re-connection with an Easter resurrection down in the depths of what used to be no more than a tomb, turning it into an oasis to which I return again and again that has kept me from the beginning. There I continue to find confirmation, not of any loss of faith in Him, but of my faith in me, my stagger down the road sure not close to being anything to brag about. In finishing my January commitment to read the Book completely through once again, I found myself this week in revelation, closing in on such goal, when a verse just “jumped out at me”. As the Apostle John fell at the feet of some fellow pronouncing himself not worthy of such worship, being one of those who possess “the testimony of Jesus”, he then adds that this same “testimony of Jesus” is “the spirit of prophecy”. Whether Moses, or Elijah, or but one of many martyred saints, however, he need not have stopped there with his analogy. Why not go farther and also declare it to be “the spirit of prayer, the spirit of witness, the spirit of whatsoever we might do to know Him and to share Him with others”? In the 2nd chapter of John’s gospel, Christ is quoted as saying He “needed not that any should testify of man: for He knew what was in man.” That could be taken a couple of ways, but I’ve always seen it in terms of a man’s heart being “deceitful above all things”. Even with good intentions, we fall short of what He is able to do within us. In such perspective, then, my point is: the focus of our journey with Him, no matter what the event or the task before us, should be on, not just knowing Him in the middle of it, but success in surrendering what we bring to the table unto that which abides within us because of Calvary and His subsequent victory over death via the Resurrection. Holy Ghost “in” me ought to be more than a Scriptural statement we hold in our head. He, alone, is a force consummating our claim of knowing Him in all that He is…..