Questions & Answers
by Editor(s)

Q: I’ve enjoyed reading your articles in The Intercessor and have a question regarding our union with Christ. Am I so taken over that nothing is demanded of me?

A: Thank you for your question. I am not sure what you mean when you ask whether it demands something from us. I certainly do not believe that my spirit merges into and is absorbed by the Spirit of Christ so that I lose my distinctness. I am not an advocate of a pantheistic mysticism in which all distinctions between creature and Creator are blurred or denied. Instead there is a duality within the union, such that God’s character is expressed through the human person. Our human selves do not become God and God does not become us, but Christ lives His life through us and as us. The union is personal, and operates through our faith or trust in God on a moment by moment basis so that the Spirit of Christ is enabled to express His divine love through us. So yes, there is something demanded of us–a choice. But not just any choice. The choice that we make is whether or not to trust God to be who He is in and as us at every moment in our lives and not to rely upon our own illusory resources to live life. To put it differently, the one choice we have is whether we choose to believe Satan’s lie that we are independent, self-operating selves who are able to run and control our own lives. We are making this choice at every moment in our lives and is the real choice behind all the decisions we think we are making.

Q: What does Paul mean when he says in Colossians 3:5, "Mortify, there-fore, your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil desire, and covetousness (which is idolatry)"?

A: Paul says "mortify," which means put to death. This means to me that I see myself as dead. Since I don’t have a self-operating self, my seeing and believing this fact puts to death the self Satan has convinced me I am. I mortify by pitching out the lie and believing the truth. In other words, I do it by faith. Then the "putting on of the new" is the same thing–I see myself as who I really am. I take by faith (put on) that as Christ, I am all the Bible calls me to he. Recognition is the key. I recognize and dare to believe I am all, because He is who I am, and He is all.