Part IV: Drinking from the Source
In the mid-1800’s, European invasion and colonization of Africa led to a time of significant discovery of the continent’s unexplored interior. Adventurers and missionaries alike pressed deeper into the lush green jungles for enterprise, evangelism, fame, and adventure. These explorers included the likes of Henry Morton Stanley, Richard Burton, John Speke, James Grant, and Dr. David Livingstone.
Among the greatest mysteries of the heart of darkness was the source of the Nile River. Europeans knew it had to flow from higher elevations found somewhere in central-eastern Africa. In 1857, John Speke and Richard Burton speculated that they discovered the source as Lake Takganika (separating present day Democratic Republic of Congo from Tanzania). But in a subsequent expedition, Speke decided to investigate the northern part of what is today Tanzania. Leaving his base camp, Speke traveled with a smaller party over 500 miles in 47 days to discover a much larger lake at a higher elevation than Takganika. He claimed his discovery in honor of the queen by naming it Lake Victoria. While Speke is credited with discovering the “official” source of the Nile River, Lake Victoria was later discovered to have other rivers that fed it from even higher elevations. Ever since then, generations of explorers have pressed further into Africa’s heart to discover the “true” source of this ancient river.
In 2006, aided by global positioning systems and remote sensing satellites, explorers felt that they had discovered the most remote headwaters of the Nile in an isolated part of the Nyungwe rainforest in Rwanda. In 2010, another exploration party went to what is known as the Rukarara tributary, where, after hiking up a steep and nearly impenetrable part of the Nyungwe Forest found an appreciable source of water that they believe might be the actual source of the Nile.
We discussed in the previous post how having a conscious awareness of our indwelling is a foundational practice that enables fellowship and receptivity to the Lord’s will. But awareness alone isn’t enough to live by the divine life of Christ. Recall from an earlier post that mankind by ourselves is incapable of living the life God expects. Success is only achievable when the Lord expresses himself through us–directing and empowering us into His character and work. Because Christ alone is the source of His activity, we must be filled by His divine Life in order to express it. But this doesn’t happen automatically.
So how do we make it happen?
The traditional evangelical response to this question has been to do things like pray, read your Bible, and go to church. They say this is what we need to do to live the Christian life and grow spiritually. But I’ve found this to be a vastly incomplete (and potentially misleading) answer.
Like modern explorers of the African interior, we should not be terminally occupied with the tributaries (forms) that contain divine life. Intuitively, we recognize that such life flows from a single Source. It’s through these tributaries that we continue to press upstream, seeking the point of origin from which all life flows. The journey isn’t easy. The jungle is dense. Few may accompany us in our expedition. But once discovered, we can drink our fill directly from the Source whose water is clear, refreshing, uncontaminated, and alive (John 7:37-39; 1 Cor. 12:13; Ephesians 5:18).
In this post I want to provide a thorough explanation of the spiritual exchange that takes place between the believer and the Lord. I also want to provide some practical guidance on the part we play to take in and internalize the limitless, refreshing supply of divine life found in Jesus Christ.
Deep Calls Unto Deep
But before we discuss the practical piece, we’ll need to emphasize a couple points.
First know that, as spiritual beings humans have been given the ability to perceive spiritual things. Jesus Christ no longer walks the earth in the flesh, but is a life-giving Spirit that indwells the human spirit of every believer. We don’t perceive Him through our physical senses. It’s only through these spiritual senses that we can perceive Him.
Humans have five primary physical senses: Sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. But did you know that for each physical sense there is a corresponding spiritual sense? Here are some examples from scripture:
SIGHT>>>
…as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:18 (ESV)
SIGHT>>>
…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith….
Hebrews 12:1-2 (ESV)
HEARING>>>
Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.
Isaiah 55:3 (NIV)
TASTE>>>
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
Psalm 34:8 (ESV)
SCENT>>>
And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Ephesians 5:2 (ESV)
SCENT>>>
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God…
2 Corinthians 2:14-15 (ESV)
TOUCH>>>
Saul also went to his home at Gibeah, and with him went men of valor whose hearts God had touched.
1 Samuel 10:26 (ESV)
One might ask what’s the difference between perceiving with our spiritual senses and perceiving with our physical senses. I’ve found that a lot of it comes down to the “organ” used to process the information. Take sight for example. With physical sight, we’re using our physical eyes to sense photons that are interpreted through our brain to produce the image in our minds. With spiritual sight, we’re using our spiritual “eyes” to sense the light of Christ (John 8:12) that is confirmed and “revealed” through our spirits. Our physical sight allows us to perceive objects in the physical world by our minds. Spiritual sight allows us to perceive things in the spiritual world by our spirits. The spiritual cannot be perceived by the physical since the signal operates on a different “wavelength” (so to speak).
It’s the same with all the senses. If you’ve ever heard the Lord “speak” through another person, you know what I’m talking about. It’s not that you actually heard the voice of the Lord, but there was something about the quality and the content of what was said that resonated with your spirit. Your spirit sensed and revealed the Lord’s voice in the words and it brought them to your attention.
While we’ve become experts at using our physical senses, using our spiritual senses takes time and practice to develop. But those who have been given the Holy Spirit have been given instincts for spiritual sensing that become sharper with practice.
Second, we need to address a paradox.
In Part II of this series, we discussed the fact that each human is composed of three parts: the physical body, the soul (consisting of the mind, will, and emotions), and the human spirit (where the Holy Spirit resides within the believer). Despite the continuous presence of the Holy Spirit already inside each believer (Romans 8:9), we’re also at the same time required to internalize Jesus Christ (John 6:53-57). We must continuously drink from Him as our source of divine life (John 15:4; John 4:14; Eph. 5:18; 1 Cor. 12:13).
So in one sense, we’re unified with Christ and have immediate access to His limitless power. In another sense, we’re all together separate from Him and must do our part to remain oriented toward and connected to the Spirit inside of us to take in divine life. To bring divine life from the Spirit into our souls and bodies requires an intentional act of the will on our part. It requires the believer to intentionally engage the Holy Spirit with the human soul. This is our point of connection.
Does that make sense? OK, let’s continue…
Drinking from the Source
What then is this spiritual activity that we must do to engage Jesus Christ in our spirit? In other words, how do we drink from the source?
In 2 Corinthians, Paul offers us a deceptively simple but practical clue…
For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:14-18 (ESV)
In this passage, Paul starts by describing the distinction between the old covenant (that Moses ministered) and the new covenant (which the Spirit ministers). In it he’s reminding the Corinthians that when Moses came down from Mount Sinai after 40 days of fellowshipping with God, His face glowed from being in the presence of God (Exodus 34:29-35). It was so full of glory that he had to put a veil over his face so that the Israelites wouldn’t gaze on it. Paul explains that the same veil still lies over the hearts of many Hebrews whenever the Torah is read. But now whenever someone turns to the Lord, this veil is removed and we’re able to behold His glory unhindered. In fact, it’s through this act of beholding the Lord’s glory that we are transformed into the very likeness of Christ.
So how do we drink from the Source of divine life?
Simply by turning to Jesus Christ and beholding Him.
Let that sink in. It seems so impractical and squishy that we may have passed over it without giving it much thought. But I think this is a foundational truth. It’s a key that unlocks the Christian life.
Here Paul prescribes a means of spiritual transformation that runs contrary to the fallacy of insufficient information. For Paul, transformation is not found by merely cramming more scriptural data into our cranium. It’s not merely to engage in terminal spiritual activities weakly connected to the Source. He replaces all that, suggesting that our task is to simply turn to the Lord and behold His glory.
But certainly, scripture reading and memorization has something to do with transformation, right? Certainly, the person who regularly attends church stands a better chance of being conformed to Jesus’ image than one who doesn’t, right?
We’ll, yes and no. The distinction is whether we’re occupied with religious duties or if we’re engaging Christ through them. By the end of this post, I think you’ll understand the difference. And the difference is critical.
Turning to the Lord
According to this passage, the first step is to “turn to the Lord”. But what does Paul mean by that?
I don’t think this is anything complicated. In fact, Paul authored a couple other passages that explain the activity…
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
Romans 8:5 (ESV)
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
Colossians 3:2 (ESV)
To turn to the Lord is simply to turn our mind’s attention to Jesus Christ and everything that He is, wherever He might be found. While Jesus is not specifically mentioned as the object upon which we “set our minds”, it’s certainly implied. To set our minds on the things of the Spirit is to set them on Jesus Christ since the Spirit is continually occupied with Him. To set our minds on the “things that are above” is to set them on the treasure of Jesus Christ, since there is nothing higher or greater.
But where can Christ be found that we can turn to Him?
Jesus is resurrected. There is no grave to visit. There’s no memorial to lay flowers. He’s very much alive. And He’s everywhere (but not in a pantheistic sort of way). It’s the omnipresent nature of our King that makes this such an easy and flexible practice. But here are a few examples of places where He is and where we can turn to Him:
The Holy Spirit
Jesus Christ resides in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit has become one with our human spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). We can turn to Jesus Christ by pointing our mind (our soul) toward our spirit where He dwells. Like tumblers inside a combination lock, this alignment opens a clear connection. We turn to Him simply by “setting our mind” on Christ who is in literally inside of us. Setting our minds on Him doesn’t happen automatically, we have to be intentional about minding Him. But it’s nothing complicated. It’s simply a matter of turning our attention to Him as often as we can.
One Another
We can also turn to Jesus Christ when we’re in the presence of other believers. The Holy Spirit is not just in me… He’s in us. He doesn’t reveal the same knowledge to everyone. I think this is by design. Like a puzzle, He gives each of us a different piece of His manifold glory, so that only by revealing Him as individual believers can we see the whole picture. While this can include turning to the Lord found in the teaching of those gifted to teach, it can also include what Christ has revealed to the most shy among us. When we turn to one another in community, we’re turning to what Christ has revealed to each of us, that we might know Him even more. Of course, the exchange of divine life can involve more than just talking. It can also include singing, worship, loving one another, and the use of gifts for the building up of the church. We can turn to Christ who is very much alive amid such activity.
The Scriptures
You might recall from a previous post that, while scripture contains the words of God, it is not the Word of God. (That title belongs to Jesus Christ.) However, by reading it within its proper context we can turn to the Lord by opening up its pages and reading from the ancient words penned by those who were closest to Him. To me, this is similar to turning to the Lord in one another except that we’re engaging the words of those who have already gone on to glory. Unlike many believers throughout history, we’ve been given access to the spiritual wealth of scripture. We can turn to Jesus in scripture.
Writings of the Saints
John, Paul, Peter, and James are not the only people throughout history who have had a close relationship with the Lord. We can also turn to the Lord found in the writings of Christian authors and teachers throughout the centuries. I have been “mentored” by countless Christians through their written work. But I will also tell you that not every book penned by a Christian author carries equal spiritual weight. A lot of what is published anymore is nothing more than Christianized “self-help” books. In my humble opinion and with rare exception, the best Christian authors are now dead.
Also, you don’t have to agree with every word in a book to find the Lord in it. Some people are way too quick to part with a book immediately after reading one non-essential point of disagreement. Turn to the Lord who is content to dwell in that which is imperfect.
Nature
Because all things were created through Jesus Christ (Col. 1:16), a lot of what we see in creation will resemble Him in some amazing ways. When we look up at the heavens on a clear night, we’re reminded of the vastness of the Lord. The changing of the seasons give us an annual reminder of death and resurrection. The light of the moon reminds us of a Son that claimed no light of His own, but perfectly reflected the light of His Father. The trees remind us of beings who are firmly planted on earth, but stretch heavenward as they seek their source of Light. Even in winter, we’re reminded of the Lord’s source of provision to the birds and animals when things otherwise appear scarce.
Nature is all around us. We can turn to the Lord in His creation.
The Poor, Oppressed, and Marginalized
Jesus is with such people. In some inconceivable way, Jesus is those people (Matt. 25:40). Because He is among them, we can turn to Him by spending time with them, serving them, and loving them in tangible ways. My family and I make it a point to serve the community regularly. But unless we’re careful, it’s easy to begin seeing people as a “project”.
I have to continually remind myself that they are not a “cause”, but human beings who have found themselves in difficult circumstances. In some cases, they’ve made poor life decisions. In other cases, life has led them there. Some are thankful. Some are thankless and appear entitled to grace. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that when I look into their eyes, I’m looking into the eyes of my Savior. I serve Him by serving them. I can turn to the Lord who lives among them.
All Around Us
Jesus can be found almost anywhere. To turn to Him amid the circumstances of our life is to practice the awareness of the unseen.
Sometimes He likes to play “hide and seek”. Here we have to go exploring, remaining expectant that we’ll find Him in some obscure place and win the game. But sometimes He’s the one that turns to us–revealing Himself suddenly in a way that takes us by surprise.
I’ve been accosted by Christ in books, during travel, seeing art, listening to music, and in work situations. I don’t watch a lot of movies, but sometimes Jesus will make an appearance (and not necessarily in “Christian movies”). I’ve even seen Him in movies like The Return of the King (in the character of Aragorn) and First Knight (in the idea of Camelot). I’ve also seen Him very vividly toward the end of Frozen, Dunkirk, and Rogue One.
We can see Christ by carefully watching Him played out in the loving and selfless acts of others (who may not even be believers). We merely have to recognize Him. When we do, we can turn to the Lord who is all around us.
But turning to the Lord is only half of the equation. Once we have turned to Him, the second step is to behold Him.
Beholding the Lord
What is it to behold something?
This is more than just a quick look. It’s not a passing glance. To behold something is to gaze deeply into the object of our attention. It’s to open our eyes wide, fully apprehending it–taking in all its detail and hue. It takes time to behold something closely.
So how do “behold” the Lord when we can’t physically see Him?
Answer: The same way that the believers did in the first century and still do today… with our spiritual sight.
When we turn to the Lord, the Holy Spirit has given us the faculty of perceiving and apprehending Christ by spiritual sight. We then internalize Him by beholding His glory. This is the means of drinking from the Source. When we do, we’re imbued with the power, authority, and the direction of the Lord Himself (2 Peter 1:4).
Here are some other scriptures that mention the practice of beholding the Lord…
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith…
Hebrews 12:1-2 (NIV)
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (ESV)
Again, I want to emphasize that while the mind is involved in this activity, it’s not the primary means of beholding the Lord. It’s our spirit that’s equipped to process this signal. If we’re only beholding Him with our mind, we’re only getting a fraction of the picture. Seeing Christ with our spirit can feel foreign, but before long you’ll get the hang of it. Just practice and allow yourself the grace to figure it out. Be confident that you have been given spiritual senses and the Lord is faithful in directing you to use them as we pursue Him.
Now, the “return stroke” of our beholding the Lord is for Him to grant a revelation of Christ. Revelation is nothing mysterious, it’s just the noun form of the verb reveal.
You’ll remember from a previous post that there is so much depth, so much greatness to Jesus Christ that we will never discover His end. Knowing Him completely is an impossible task, even with all eternity. There will always be something new to discover about Him. When the Lord reveals the Son, He does it in bits and pieces. But to us these pieces can appear massive. Any time there is a revelation of Christ in our spirit, the Son will loom greater before us than He did before. We will see Him more glorious. But again, this is not simply achieving a greater mental knowledge of Christ. Because Christ is revealed in the spirit, apprehending Him by the spirit has a drastically deeper, more profound, and permanent effect on us.
What’s revealed about the Son usually consists of two things: His glory and His grace.
Glory and Grace
You’ve probably noticed that the words “grace” and “glory” are often grouped together throughout scripture (Psalm 84:11; 1 Peter 5:10; Romans 5:2; 2 Cor. 4:15; Hebrews 2:9; 2 Cor. 8:19; John 1:14). I don’t think this is a coincidence since they are the two most common attributes of the Lord. We spoke earlier about how Christ governs His Kingdom by His very life. This means that in direct contrast to worldly governments which rely on laws, manipulation, and intimidation to govern its citizens, the Kingdom of God is governed solely by the grace and the glory of the King. To appreciate what this means we have to take a look at the deeper meaning behind these two words.
The word “grace” is often defined as unmerited favor. In other words, we’re getting something that we didn’t earn and absolutely don’t deserve. We most often link it with God’s gift of salvation. But let’s go a little deeper with it.
Grace also means absolute freedom. We are no longer under the obligation of the law (or any guilt-driven expectation placed on us by others). We are absolutely free to act in response to our desires and inclinations.
Whoa there buddy, that sounds a little dangerous. I mean, are you saying that we’re even free to sin?
Let me repeat: In Christ, we are absolutely free (Gal. 5:1; 2 Cor. 3:17; John 8:36; 1 Cor. 10:23). We are chained to nothing. No worries, no doubts, no fears, and no expectations. Christ has given us liberty without limits.
But before you kick the dog, cuss out your best friend, and invest in an unscrupulous start-up, understand that the freedom that we’ve been given is shaped and directed by His glory.
So what is glory? Well, it turns out to be a very difficult but also very beautiful word to grasp. The Hebrew word for glory is kah-vode (כָּבוֹד) which connotes a sense of brilliance (light), a sense of weightiness. It’s something apprehended by the senses, most often visually. A good theological definition of God’s glory that seems to be circulated around the internet is:
Glory is the manifested presence of God, often displayed in dazzling magnificence…
the sheer weight of the reality of His presence
Whenever we’re apprehended by something glorious, our natural response is to offer ourselves in alignment and surrender to it. Glory motivates, directs, and emboldens us to act. For example, when we listen to patriotic music, the glory in that music may inspire within us a love of country. There may be certain movies that display glory in its acting, setting, or musical score that cause us to emotionally connect with the characters and demonstrate empathy with their situation.
It’s the same with the glory of the Lord–except that the light is infinitely brighter and the weight infinitely heavier. There are several examples in scripture of this happening to others who personally witnessed the Lord’s glory. (I’ll leave these for you to read on your own):
- Moses and God on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 34:5-9)
- The Calling of Isaiah (Isaiah 6:1-8)
- The Transfiguration of Christ (Matthew 17:1-8)
- The Throne of Heaven (Revelation 4:1-11)
As you read these passages notice the overflowing response to a glimpse of the Lord’s glory. It’s the same today. When we recognize in our spirit that we have been given complete freedom and we couple this with a revelation of the Lord’s fathomless glory, we are drinking from the Source. We become energized and compelled by the Lord’s divine life. When we truly behold His unmitigated glory through spiritual eyes, we’re compelled to align ourselves with the love and will of the King of Supremacy. When we see Him in this way all other pursuits of the world become a tasteless vapor in the light of His incomparable worth.
To drink of the source is to behold and be compelled by the grace and glory of our King. When we do, we share the experience of the Apostle John when he said,
…and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14 (ESV)
Summary and Questions
So, drinking from the source of Jesus Christ is summarized as follows:
- We are given the spiritual senses which, with the help of the Holy Spirit, allows us to perceive Jesus Christ, His words, and his activity.
- Despite the continuous presence of the Holy Spirit already inside each believer, we’re also required to internalize Jesus Christ. We do this by intentionally engaging the Holy Spirit with the human soul (specifically our mind).
- We do this by first turning to the Lord by setting our minds on Him in the various places He can be seen. Once we spot Him, we then behold Him–looking deeply into His glory and grace by our spirits using our spiritual sense of sight.
- Overwhelmed by the sight of His glory and grace, we’re compelled to forsake all else to be led by and conformed to the image of our King.
(Yes, I see a question in the back…)
So let me get this straight. Are you suggesting that the key to Christian living is just thinking happy thoughts about Jesus all the time?
Turning to the Lord is certainly a mental activity. It’s our means of initiating the spiritual dynamic. But it doesn’t’ end there. Beholding the Lord is both a mental and a spiritual activity. All spiritual activity requires engagement with the Holy Spirit (residing in our spirit) to be fruitful. Spiritual engagement is a practice that most of us are not familiar with. Much of it happens at a very deep, subconscious level.
As we said earlier in this series, the human spirit is not a “well-lit” place. It’s mysterious. As we learn to engage the Lord, He will reveal Himself in our minds through the Spirit. We can’t force this to happen. But when he does we behold Him in our minds using our spirits.
I’ll be honest, this is a very difficult concept to convey. I’m still working a lot of it out myself. But I can tell you from personal experience that it does seem to work as I’ve described it.
(Another question up front …)
Seems like you’re trying to exchange Bible reading and going to church for some sort of eastern meditation practice…
What I’ve described is a very broad and high-level presentation of how we drink from the source of Jesus Christ. I certainly hope you didn’t read this and somehow think I’m advocating throwing away Bibles and avoiding fellowship. The act of turning to and beholding Christ can be done in a variety of ways which I’ve mentioned. Scripture and a serious fellowship are two very important places where we can do that.
But having a cranial concept of Jesus Christ rattle around in our heads without spiritual apprehension is of limited value. We don’t stop at merely beholding the “container”. We have to take it a step further and behold Christ who is in the container. Only the Holy Spirit can do that for us. That requires intentionality. But it’s here where the real apprehension of the Lord happens and real change can occur.
As for whether this practice is eastern mysticism, I would beg to differ. Christianity as a “spiritual practice” predates Christianity as an “Aristotelian mental exercise” by several centuries. If there’s been a departure from original practice, it’s been to reject the proper function of the spirit in our relationship with the Lord. But if you carefully consider the passages I laid out, I think they make a compelling case for a vital, liberating, and game-changing discipline of drinking from the divine life of Jesus Christ.
In the last post we’ve covered the importance of having a continuous awareness of our Lord. Today we discussed the practice of drinking from the Source of Jesus Christ. In the next post we’re going to talk about how to practically follow our King.