Walking with Jesus from Incarnation to Ascension - Day 26 - Introducting a Person to Christ

I feel in this class I have been introduced to Christ all over as if for the first time! And it has truly been a Spirit encounter, encountering God as Unconditional Love right in the midst of my confusion and messiness and failure, which has shown me that this Love of God, this relationship with Him, has never been based on me to set it up or keep it going – it has always been about Him! I’ve seen with great relief that it has always been about God’s initiative, not mine. For HE has come and brought me to see that truth, it hasn’t been my work at all. All I did was get myself into a dark hole full of lies and confusion and failure. He revealed Himself to me in that hole and pulled me out by simply showing me the truth, by simply loving me back to sanity. And the biggest lesson I learned was that if He could love me THEN in that dark place, He really DOES love me no matter what, unconditionally, I really am completely accepted! If He really stick with me and be with me THEN in that confusion of believing lies about myself and Him, He really WILL be with me and stick with me forever, I really am safe and secure!   He has awakened me to the truth, the reality that always was and always will be, that I am His beloved child, held constantly in His tender care, and all the dumb things I did were never from the real me at all, they were a product of lies I’d believed and all along I’ve been His, I’ve been loved, I’ve been one with Him, I’ve been home!


For me it’s been so amazing over the course of the last few months to watch Him bring me:

- from thinking “what do I have to do” to realizing I don’t need to ‘do’ a thing…
- from thinking I am so wretched and shameful to seeing that I’m an innocent child, His ‘very good’ girl…
- from feeling I had a sin nature to seeing I have a good nature, His own DNA being my true core essence…
- from feeling alone and unloved to knowing that He loves me, no matter what…
- from trying to hide my sins and ‘look’ okay to being able to admit that I’ve failed in some big ways and am sometimes a mess (being able to do that because I found out He loves me WITH those problems and sins – WOW – that has blown me away!)….
- from being argumentative over doctrinal issues to just realizing the rest that comes from knowing Him loving me….
- from seeing others as ‘the other’ or ‘the enemy’ to seeing us all as one big family of good little children, some of whom have forgotten whose they are, all of us just needing to know we’re loved, needing to experience that love, but really wanting to love deep down…
- from being absorbed in my own problems and troubles to actually being at peace and full and suddenly able to see others and their needs and finding joy in blessing and helping other people…
- from being so hesitant to pray, withdrawing from God, to being able to talk to Him more freely…
- from having self-loathing to having self-acceptance..
- from seeing God as so separate from me and so harsh, demanding, and disappointed in me to seeing Him as Pure Love, always love, always open and friendly and happy with me…
- from seeing Jesus as someone who satisfied God’s violent retributive urges so I could barely be tolerated by Him, to seeing Jesus as my older brother that God sent to show me how much He loves me, to free me from false ideas about Him…
- from condemning and judging myself (thinking everything is the ‘law’ way) to seeing myself as never judged, never condemned, only totally accepted and loved and embraced (seeing things in the ‘grace’ way, which is the real way it is!)
- from thinking in a dualistic way to thinking in a oneness way…
- from thinking God is all about ‘needing a payment’ for wrong in a police or law type justice, to seeing God is all about forgiving and restoring, as a much better and healing definition of justice….
- from thinking we must get all our ducks in a row or we’ll be rejected eternally to daring to hope that God is so big and so loving and so smart that He has found a way to bring everyone home and heal all hearts with His love, without violating anyone’s free will at all…
- from seeing God as waiting on us to move to seeing that God has moved in an eternal way for us all and that Jesus has put us right on His lap in glory…
- from thinking we must do our part to realizing that Christ has taken care of all the ‘parts’ and we are home free already, we’re just waking up to it…
- from seeing faith as a work to seeing faith as a natural and automatic response to the good news He tells us…
- from trying to get home to realizing I already am home
- from feeling so out of the circle of love, of the Trinity, to seeing I’m within the circle!

Those are the exact things I want to share with other people! The things that already ARE true about them and God and their relationship with Him! It is so exciting to think of us all experiencing God and just knowing His love for us and seeing ourselves as He sees us, realizing we are ALL the beloved ones of God!
So if I think of introducing someone to Christ, I would want to have it happen just as naturally as it did for me, just watching God awaken another person to reality, just sharing with them the good news of what’s already true for them. Evangelism is so different now, it’s more like sharing some wonderful news with a friend, rather than trying to ‘change’ anybody…we don’t need to ‘be changed’ but to hear the good news of what is already true, who we already are, and how close and loving and favorable He already is! Introducing someone to Christ really is helping them relocate themselves mentally and see that they’re in the throne room with God, as one of my friends, Susan, says so beautifully! It’s also introducing them to themselves – I love how Andre Rabe puts that, how Christ always is revealed as in a mirror, someone you find within you, and in whom you find your own likeness – in whom you find yourself. When I looked into His eyes I found myself, I found out I’m the one Jesus loves. So to me, sharing about how loving and good He is with someone else (not ‘doing evangelism’ on someone, but just talking about Him as it comes up naturally in conversation, or just loving on people because I want to, not because I have to or because they are some ‘project’ for me to ‘minister to’), well when that happens, they get to look into His eyes and discover the same thing, that He is the Lover and they are Beloved! And they hear that ‘echo’ from within them, have that inner knowing that this is true! He touches people through us and also rises up within each person, revealing Himself both TO them and IN them!

My friend Kristian Holmes describes living and sharing this good news in this way:   "You are a witness of a firsthand encounter you have had with your Father. This encounter affects the way you live your life and causes you to touch people with your true DNA. Every person has the same DNA and as we live in harmony with our true selves other people awaken to who they really are."  Amen!

Nowadays I don’t want to ‘do evangelism’ at all, it is not about ‘doing’ anymore. I just feel that life is all about being loved, and thus naturally overflowing with love, and that from that overflow people encounter Him and feel His love for them…It’s like we’re standing under the waterfall of His love and grace, and the spray naturally bounces off of us onto others around us, and they get a love-soak too! It’s like having an infection (in a good way!) called Jesus and infecting others with His love without even being aware you’re doing it!! It’s like we’re just dancing around with Jesus, locked in His loving gaze, and one by one, more and more get caught up in the dance of love, the dance of the Trinity! It’s like a well of living water gurgling up and spilling forth from us all, spreading to flood everyone everywhere with the experience of His invigorating Spirit of love! “And the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea!” Wow!