Heart Tracks - Living Solo

"My prayer for all of them is that they may be one, just as You and I are one, Father - that just as You are in Me and I am in You, so they will be in us, and the world will believe You sent Me." John 17:21....."We whisper, 'You are never alone,' to frightened children. We offer 'God is with you,' to grieving souls. We affirm, 'Your Savior is near,' to the lonely. And then proceed to live alone in our heads.......God invites us to a continuous duet, but in practice we live most of our lives as a solo." Alicia Britt Chole...."My goal is God Himself: not joy nor peace nor even blessing, but Himself my God." Oswald Chambers

So many today look to John 17 as a call, a plea, for unity within the Body of Christ. Certainly, there is a deep need for that. We are so at odds with each other over so many, at root, trivial things. Yet we seem blind to the reality that though we want to see us be one with each other in Christ, we don't seem able to live as one with the Lord Himself. Chole says that "we live alone in our heads," and that we "live as a solo." The truth of this is seen in how we deal with the day to day challenges, pressures, obstacles, and impossibilities of life. When we're faced with these things, our response is generally to start searching for an answer, or a way out, or the means to get through, get out, or get over. We exhaust ourselves looking for solutions, answers, and deliverance, and we miss Him in most all of it. We may have a vague sense of His Presence, but He is not a living reality for us in these places. Watchman Nee used the spiritual illustration of a boat floating upon a river suddenly encountering the obstacle of large rock blocking its way. The human response is to find a way to get past the "rock." Nee said that the way of the Lord is to seek for the water the boat travels upon to rise above the height of the rock. The Father is not nearly as concerned with solving our problems as He is in raising the level of our Life in His Spirit. When we live solo, the burden is upon us, and it crushes us. When we live in what Chole calls a "duet" with Him, where "God Himself" is our end, as Chambers says, we live in the power of a life that Scripture says, "cannot be destroyed." This is the inheritance of those that are His. This is the inheritance that is for you and me. Have we entered into it.....or are we to go on "living alone in our heads.....living solo?"

Jesus said that when we live as one with the Father, Son, and the Spirit, we will give proof of the life and ministry of the Son sent by the Father. The fruit of His life is seen in and through ours. Scripture says that "In Him we live, move, and have our being." We're one with Him. Chris Tiegreen said that we are to live lives that are rooted in eternity, and that in doing so, we're "signposts pointing to eternity." We are not floundering about, trying to survive the constant batterings against all the "rocks" that stand in our way. We rise above them in His Life. They're still there, and they need to be faced, but faced in union with Him...who gives songs in the night....and victory as well.

If you are His today, then you are His while living in a completely fallen and hostile world. Will you seek to navigate through this world in your own, or even another person's strength, understanding and ability, or upon His? Will you live alone in your head, and so at the mercy of the endless darts of satan? Or will you live in Him, with the ongoing renewing of your mind, having more and more of the mind of Christ, as you live more and more in Him?

Blessings,
Pastor O