If we make the commitment to always choose LIFE
(Deuteronomy 30:19), we will of necessity have to undergo a major paradigm shift. For it is impossible to continually choose LIFE
while remaining in the orthodox way of looking at things (see Choose Life (Part 1) and Choose Life (Part 2)).
The bottom line
shift that must be made is from thinking that we are separate from God to knowing that we are one with Him and that He is living His Life as us. As long as I think that God is out there
and that I must somehow persuade Him to give me what I need or desire, there is always the possibility that I won’t receive what I pray for. I CANNOT believe that I receive when I pray (Mark 11:24) if what I am praying for must come from outside myself.
But when I know as Jesus did, and as Paul did, that Christ is my life (Colossians 3:4), that Christ is living as me (Galatians 2:20), that I am one with God (John 10:30; 17:11, 21-23) and not separated from Him, I never have to get
anything from God. For all that I could ever want or need, I already have (Luke 15:31 … Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.). In recognizing and accepting this, I am able to bring into my actual experience whatever is needed at the moment.
We see this demonstrated when Jesus fed the five thousand (Luke 9:11ff) and when He performed the other miracles
—which were not miraculous but very natural to the realm He was operating from, the realm referred to in Scripture as heaven
or above
(John 8:23 And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.), the realm of the kingdom of God
which He said is within
us (Luke 17:21). Jesus knew He was one with His Father and that in that Father was no lack. And by that recognition and acceptance, He brought into visibility the food that was needed to feed the multitude.
Likewise, He knew that in that Father was no leprosy, blindness, deafness, crippling arthritis (Luke 13:16) or epilepsy (Matthew 17:14ff) —and this knowledge enabled Him to bring forth healing to those who believed those conditions to be a reality for themselves. He didn’t have to get anything from a God outside Himself. He knew that He and His Father were One being —that He (Jesus) was the Father in expression (the flesh and blood body through which God was expressing Himself). He knew that He was the I AM (Before Abraham was, I AM
—(John 8:58)). He knew that He was THAT I AM which appeared to Moses (Exodus 3:14). In saying I and my Father are one
(John 10:30), He was saying I am THAT I AM.
And when He prayed that we would also know our oneness with the Father, He was praying that we would be able to say with Him, I am THAT [same] I AM
—that we would also know that we are the flesh and blood bodies through which God is expressing Himself, that we have no identity apart from the Christ who is living as us.
- John 17:11,21-23
- And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. … That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
- Galatians 2:20
- I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
If we have this revelation, when we have a need or desire, we simply recognize and accept that God knows what we have need of before we ask (Matthew 6:8) and has already answered our prayer before we even pray (Isaiah 65:24). In praying thus, we receive when we pray (not when we see it) and, according to Jesus, we shall have
brought into visibility what we pray for (Mark 11:24) —just as He had what He prayed for.
Because there is no doubt in our heart,
(Mark 11:23), we take no thought
about how or when it will appear. Since God is living as us and we are not separate beings being helped by God, we know that God performeth the thing that is appointed for me
(Job 23:14), that He will perfect that which concerneth me
(Psalms 138:8), that all that is required of me is that I believe
on Him that sent Jesus into this world. Then I have passed from [the] death [of trying to get what I need from God] unto [the] life
[of knowing that I already have whatever I could ever need]:
John 5:24 (KJV) Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
But I cannot believe
until this paradigm shift is complete —until I know for a certainty that I and my Father are one.
I know that I don’t have to say or do anything to get the Life that I am seeking (in whatever form, be it healing, provision, joy, peace, assurance) because that Life is who I am and is ever present to bring into manifestation exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh IN us
(Ephesians 3:20). I must know that that power
is God working IN me —not from the outside.
Because Jesus knew that the I AM
which had appeared to this world
in the form of Lazarus was LIFE (John 14:6 (KJV) … I am the way, the truth, and the life) and could never die,
He was able to use the incident of Lazarus’ so-called death
to show us the truth of our being. His prayer
before calling Lazarus forth from what Jesus called sleep
(not death
) was not asking God for anything, but just acknowledging His oneness with that Life He was about to call forth once again in the form of Lazarus (John 11:41-42). In so doing, He demonstrated that our true being is the I AM
taking upon Itself the forms that we call Lazarus, Jackie or whatever you call yourself —and that that form
can be picked up and laid down by the I AM that I am
at will. Jesus said this very explicitly on another occasion:
John 10:17-18 (KJV) Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
When I have this knowledge of God
(1Corinthians 15:34; 2Corinthians 10:5; Colossians 1:10; 2Peter 1:2) expressing Himself as me, knowing that of myself I can do nothing
(John 5:30) that I am just presenting my body as a living sacrifice
(Romans 12:1) to Him for Him to use, I never think for a moment that He is lacking anything that He needs or desires to live His life through me. I just keep my mind stayed
on Him, enjoying that perfect peace
which comes thereby (Isaiah 26:3), listening for any instructions, knowing that the government of my life is upon His shoulder
(Isaiah 9:6). See Government of My Life.
As I recognize and accept this as reality (rather than all the begging, beseeching, struggling and striving to believe
that I experienced in my orthodox paradigm), I see everything needed brought into visibility. I, Jackie, like Jesus, just observe and enjoy the Father that dwells within me doing the works (John 14:10).