Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
One day Jesus was walking down the road, and a certain man came to Him making a typical Old Covenant statement. His statement concerned a willingness to follow Jesus, but Jesus’ answer to Him revealed that following Him is not what God desires. The New Covenant minded man, Jesus, responded to the Old Covenant minded man with the following words:
Luke 9:57, 58 As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.” And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Jesus wasn’t saying that if we follow Him, we won’t know where we will sleep each night. He wasn’t saying that if we follow Him, we won’t have any guarantees of what is next. His statement was one of “being”, while the statement of the man was merely one of “doing”.
Jesus’ illustration of the fox and bird are quite simple and profound. The fox affects the world from beneath the ground with fox stuff, simply because he has found his place of habitation. The fox doesn’t look for a hole in the ground to find a night’s rest. He builds his home in the ground and then he lives a fine old fox empowered life. The bird doesn’t look for a nest to have a place to sleep. No, the bird finds a stick, then another, then another, and the bird builds a nest to live from. From the place of his nest the bird and all of his family affect the earth from the air, fulfilling the destiny and purpose of a bird. Jesus was simply saying to the man that He wasn’t looking for anyone to follow Him. He was first looking for a place to call His habitation. He was looking for a body! He was the Head and He was looking for a place to rest His headship. He was looking for that part of humanity that would say yes to His habitation in their lives. He was looking for those who would discover that they are a dwelling place for God in His Spirit.
We must lead the body of Christ in a way that inspires men and women to find Christ as the head of their lives. God wants to rest in their lives and empower them to live out a Christ filled destiny! The first and foremost purpose of the body of Christ is to be a place for His habitation. In Him we live!
Jesus continued in His words to address the issue of “doing”. After He spoke those words of “habitation” to the one man, He spoke to another concerning “following” Him.
Luke 9:59, 60 And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”
I don’t believe that Jesus was advocating never going to a funeral again. He wasn’t advocating not showing honor to the loss of our loved ones. His illustration was addressing the subject of our “doing” in Him. Our “doing” is not with an objective of being free from our past. Our “doing” is meant to be a testimony of being joined to Him in a continually unfolding future of His life. Our aim in life is not to fix the things of our past, but to embrace all that God has for us in Christ. Just as we live in Him, we also move in Him in all things. We must influence and lead the body of Christ in doing works that speak of their faith, not works that appease the loss of their past. Our works are from justification, not for justification. If we spend more time trying to fix things in our lives than in living for the life of others, we are missing the mark. We need a revelation of “habitation” before we can continue in being an expression of God’s life to our world.
In this story found in the book of Luke, Jesus continued to address a third aspect of humanity. This again pertained to the issue of following God – a following God in all things!
Luke 9:61, 62 Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
In this third example, Jesus addressed the issue of fully following Him. God doesn’t just want a relationship with men whereby they do a few good things in life. He wants a relationship that empowers us to become a full testimony of Him in everything in life. We have our being in Him. Jesus wasn’t advocating cutting off relationships with friends. He was simply revealing the full reality of being friends with God. We were born for the kingdom of God.
We must lead in a way that inspires the members of the body of Christ to know that the whole purpose of their lives is for the glory of God. Jesus came into our world as a man that we might be the body of Christ born for Him! Because we are a habitation for God, we can do works that speak of our faith in Him. Because we have faith toward Him, we can know that everything in our lives is for the glory of His purpose and will. We can know a partnership with God whereby He gives us all things for His kingdom to come and His will to be done in our lives, even as it is in heaven.
We must lead and influence the body of Christ in a way that inspires them to live, move, and have their being in God. We are a place where God can rest in the earth and thus all of God’s enemies will be made His footstool in the earth. All of God enemies can be placed under our feat when we live to know our identity, testimony, and purpose in Christ.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
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