Psalms 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
About three days ago I received a call from a friend of mine concerning a call she had received from a mutual friend of ours. This friend was in the hospital where she had contracted one of those dreadful infections that people sometimes get when they are in the hospital, one from which few people recover. She was sure that she was about to die and was very unsure that she would be with God when she left this realm. Of course she was very tormented by these thoughts.
I knew that we were to stand in the gap
for her (see Ten Righteous Men). I just began to listen to the still small voice inside as I went about my daily routine. This morning the words came to me: Be still and know that I am God.
In orthodox Christianity we have believed that this is God telling us to know that He, not us, is God. Those of us who have read a lot outside orthodox Christian literature know that there are those who have thought themselves to be God and have done nothing more than had a giant ego trip—because they thought their humanity to be God.
Yet we read where Jesus said, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?
John 10:34. What does this all mean?
As I continued listening, I recalled all Jesus’ words about receiving whatever we need or desire when we believe. This friend in the hospital expressed the fear that she didn’t really believe even though she has spent most of her life going from one ministry to the next in search of the truth, even to the extent of uprooting her family. I can certainly relate to that. Those of us who are hungry to know God will stop at nothing but will do whatever we think may help us in our quest. Sadly, most of us have been like Paul said of his fellow Israelites, For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge
Romans 10:2. Our knowledge of where to find God has indeed been limited.
I continued to hear, Be still and know that I am God.
I remembered that it was for this that Jesus was crucified:
John 5:18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.
John 10:33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.
Then I saw it. It was Jesus’ assumption of His being one with God that ENABLED Him to believe and then do the works that He did (see One with God). And this was His prayer for us in John 17.
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.
This is to say that what Jesus called Father
and Paul called Christ
is actually who we are in our true identity. This is the one of whom Jesus spoke when He said, The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
Jesus knew that in His humanity He could do nothing John 5:30. This humanity that Paul referred to as sinful flesh
Romans 8:3 Jesus called the devil
and the father of all lies John 8:44.
At this point I realized that in our humanity we can NEVER believe
the truth. It is only the Christ or Father within (our true identity) that CAN believe—and always DOES believe the truth and therefore is able to receive whatever is needed. That’s why Jesus went unto the Father
within when He fed the five thousand and called forth Lazarus from the dead. In His humanity He could no more believe than you and I can. So we may as well stop trying.
I too have made statements (even in these contemplations) such as, I find that in the deepest part of me there is still the belief that my experiencing the kingdom of heaven is somehow dependent upon my performance
(see The Strength of Sin Is the Law). No, only in the deepest part of my human mind does that belief reside. In the real me
(which is the Christ) only the truth CAN reside. And that is all that matters. What I have to renew my mind to believe is that the I Am
that I am can never believe anything except the truth and rest in that because what is tormenting me in my mind is nothing but a lie. I don’t get rid of the lie by believing the truth with my human mind (that father of lies
CANNOT believe the truth). I get rid of the lie by accepting my true identity as God who CANNOT believe the lie. In other words, Be still and know that I am God.
That, and only that, is what gets rid of the lie. I don’t have to do anything; I just have to recognize and acknowledge who I am.
Until I can look in the mirror and ask myself the question, Whom do you say that I am
and answer it, You are the Christ, the son of the living God
without believing that I am committing blasphemy, I will continue to believe the lies that my human mind is telling me and continue experiencing all the consequences of those lies. Some of those lies are that I don’t have dominion in this earth, that I am subject to any and every disaster and disease and that anything and everything can harm me, that I can be separated from God’s love for all eternity, that I do not prosper in whatever I set my hand to, that God does not perform that which is given me to do—and the list goes on, denying every promise of God made in Scripture and corrupting
my mind from the simplicity that is in Christ
2Corinthians 11:3.
But when I can answer the above question with the truth that I am the Christ, the son of the living God,
then this Christ (that I am in my true identity) will be exalted both in my life and in the lives of everyone whose life touches mine—just as it was in the life of Jesus as He walked this earth:
Psalms 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
Never again will I attempt to believe
with my human mind. It will just lie to me and convince me that I don’t really
believe, that I doubt in my heart
and therefore cannot receive. I will know that the mind of Christ
which I now have (because I am the Christ) already believes. The struggle is over, and I can rest, for I have at last come unto me
—the true me,
—the Christ of God.
When I am afraid, I won’t TRY to believe with my human mind that God’s perfect love from which I can never be separated will cast out that fear and try to feel unafraid. I will KNOW that the true me
already believes that and just rest in the promise that because I believe I will receive whatever I need whenever I need it see BELIEVE—Then Receive and All I Need Is God. And this knowledge will bring to me the peace of God, which passeth all understanding
Philippians 4:7, the sweetest promise of all.