"He has put eternity in our hearts"..."Christ in you, the hope of glory!"   (Ecc. 3:11, Col. 1:27)

I read something humorous on facebook recently: A girl was going through the airport check-in, and she was asked, “Was anything put in your luggage without your knowledge?” Now how would she know it was there if it was done without her knowledge, lol..

I started thinking about this and realized that when God created us He put something (Someone!!) in us without our knowledge! Now the mystery is revealed – Christ is in us, the hope (sure expectation) of glory (God’s presence manifested)! If Adam had known what had been put in his luggage at creation, he would never have eaten of the knowledge tree, because he would already have known that he was full, complete, perfect, and one with God, being made of God Himself and having the dear and precious Christ within as constant companion..but ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” – not knowing everything that he was, and not believing his Daddy that all was well and nothing was lacking in him or in his relationship with Him, Adam partook of the knowledge tree and the rest is history…yet it is truly HIS story, for His story is so much bigger than our messy story! Our story is really a bad dream and HIS story is what’s real! We fell into believing lies about separation and inferiority and lack, but HE always knew the truth…HE was still in the luggage, no matter what terrible turn we took on our journey, no matter what dark alley we ended up in!
And with the incarnation, He sprang forth and revealed Himself and showed us that our story was the dream, His the reality, and we were only ‘going all the wrong places’ in our minds, while our true self was safe at home with Him in eternity all the time!

Oh what a relief to find out what was with me, in me, part of me, making up the real me, all along – Christ Himself! We are so close we are one..I was never lost, never missing anything, never inadequate, never alone, never separated, never inferior, never lacking, never an orphan, never unwanted, never shameful, never a mess…I was always with Him, in His arms, His precious and innocent little child..and Christ had been in me all along as my true nature, as the One I’m made of, as the One I’m united with forever in perfect fellowship and oneness..oh how good to have something put in my luggage way before time began, and to be rescued from those lies and to wake up and find this treasure within, where He had been all along..No matter where our thoughts have taken us, no matter how dark everything seemed to be, the truth was always that we were and are His adorable and perfect children, dwelling constantly in the light of His presence and love…

So what does this tell me about temptation? Adam didn’t completely know what a perfection he was or the fullness he had, the oneness with God and how perfectly he was created with the DNA of God Himself…he didn’t know WHO was in him, and that he already was all he needed to be and had all he needed to live…he didn’t know he was God-like, an expression of God’s very nature and being in an earthly body! And so, he was vulnerable to temptation and to believing a lie of inadequacy, needing more, not being enough, not being close enough to God, not being like God.. As Andre Rabe says, if he had known all this, he never would have eaten of the knowledge tree, it would have been so obvious!

So that means that the only thing that makes temptation attractive is lack of knowledge (ignorance) of what and who we ALREADY have, and what and who we ALREADY are, and the perfection that ALREADY exists in our relationship with Him! Jesus came to show us the truth – we look in His face and see ourselves there, and we realize all that He has, we have; all that He is, we are; all the depth of oneness He has with the Father, we have!! And no ‘sin’ appeals for we are so full of this knowledge that we are just satisfied and drunk with His love and presence in us..so wonderful that HE has brought us to know ourselves in His face..and now we can say we know ALL things in our spirit..and we can look forward with hopeful expectation that one day the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as waters cover the sea…and all flesh will see and remember and return to the Lord, who never left them (short trip!)..Wow, thank You, Daddy, and thank You Jesus for setting us free from the darkness, which was ignorance of the truth..how wonderful to know as we have always been known!!

So how is the darkness dispelled? Not by focusing on the darkness, fighting the darkness, or thinking of the darkness as ‘real’ or ‘strong’, but by turning on the light/opening my eyes in the light that I’m already in! I open my eyes and it’s not dark anymore, and I realize it never really was, the darkness was a nothing, and I’ve been standing in the light with Jesus all the time…so instead of being afraid that the darkness will swallow me or that I’ll give in to temptation, I am able to just sink into the light that I am already in, joyfully finding that the darkness has no substance when He is present, and He is always present in and around me!
No matter what went ‘wrong’ when Adam/I was trapped in lies, something was RIGHT all along: my relationship with Him and my own self, made completely all right in His eyes and kept that way in the spirit realm, in Christ, through it all!.. I feel like God is saying He wants me to just look into His eyes and see that look of complete and perfect love and adoration that is there, with nothing amiss, and to just see that I am – and have always been – his innocent and precious and perfect little daughter, so loved and cherished and held – THAT is reality, THAT is what the light shows to be true, THAT is the story God is telling about me and Him, THAT is eternal truth, THAT is the expression of His heart toward me forever!