Editor’s Note
by Editor(s)

We hear about “Xtreme” sports—bungy-jumping and other foolhardy, life-threatening adventures. As you read this issue of The Intercessor, we hope you will be challenged to believe and live the “Xtreme” life—the very life of Jesus Christ in and as us.

“No Independent Self,” published as a pamphlet in 1990, explores the Biblical explanation of how a human functions—that we have no independent “human nature” of our own; humans are operated by a deity-spirit—either the true God, Jesus Christ, or the false god, Satan. Point by point, Norman Grubb clearly builds upon the scriptural basis of this radical and revolutionary truth. In the article that follows, “The real problem, Satan’s Lie,” Page Prewitt illustrates the bondage that results when Christians live from the false idea that they are self-operated, independent selves and the freedom we find when we replace Satan’s lie with the truth.

This issue’s “Letters from Norman” is a response to a dear missionary friend who wrote Norman to express her concern about his “replacing the container aspect of Christ living in me with this strong emphasis in the being aspect…” Gently, Norman guides her (and us) through the transition in Galatians 2:20 from Christians as a “pots” containing Jesus Christ (“not I, but Christ”), to persons operating out of our spirit-union with Jesus Christ (“the life I live…by the faith of the Son of God”)—Christ as us: our pivotal but often misunderstood truth. Occasionally Norman wrote this as a letter-within-a-letter, attaching a short explanation to his original correspondence and forwarding both on to other friends who were hungry to understand our union with Christ.

Further exploring the radical nature of our Total Truth, the article “Yes I Am” (taken from Norman’s book of the same name) explains how “this union life is different from a committed, dedicated relationship to Christ in which we still see ourselves as two…It is radical because I have stepped over the line into ‘Him as me’ as well as acknowledging ‘Him in me’….” “Less than that,” Norman emphasizes, “is still short of a union leap.”

Brett Burrowes’ “Bible Study” in chapter 1 of Romans enters the dark realm of man’s sin and its affront to the holy and just character of our Creator in a piercing exposition of the wickedness of man’s sin, the consequences of unbelief, and the role of God’s judgment on sin to bring us to repentance. By contrast, “The Faith Life has Its Tight Times” provides illustrations from Norman’s early years of the rewards of trusting God alone for every need that provided the necessary foundation of faith for Norman’s fruitful life and ministry.

Most of us have faced the “adventures” of adversity—the trials and failures that are the springboard to faith. David Hoffmann’s testimony, “Sin Ruled My Life,” describes his personal struggle with sin/addiction that, in his words, “moved me from a person where sin ruled my life to becoming God’s man, the person I am meant to be.” In “Reminiscences of Rees Howells,” however, we see that adversity has another purpose in the life of the mature Christian: intercession for the lost. Led of God to ignore the conventions of his day, Rees faced personal humiliation and loss “that he might identify himself with the lowest, to die to the opinion of the word, to his friends and especially to his own family” and was brought through by the Holy Spirit to “glory in the triumph of the Savior over all the power of the enemy in human life.” Ginny Mansoor’s article, “Intercession,” clarifies the difference between prayer and intercession, that highest level of the faithlife, as taught by Norman Grubb. And in Brett Burrowes’ Zerubbabel we are again reminded of our high calling of faith—“not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit.

Finally, this issue highlights two excellent resources on living from our union with Jesus Christ. In her Tape Talk review of “I John,” Joanna Langley discusses Norman Grubb’s excellent teaching on how we function in union with Christ as visible manifestations of the God who calls Himself love. Irene Gilsenan’s book review of The Law of Faith underscores the value of this “step-by-step guide” to the principles of faith by which God runs the universe—and which He makes available to us today.

e hope you enjoy reading this issue’s emphasis on the “Xtreme”— radical, revolutionary, costly, and abundantly fruitful life of Jesus Christ—available to us in our day-today adventures of faith.