Let’s keep on going here, with my notes from October.
A bit of context here. First, I’ve already mentioned how I intend to take Naval Ravikant’s famous, tagged ‘Tweet storm’ from 2018. I did mention how I’d like to go through each entry with a fine-toothed, Biblical comb, looking at it from the lens of Christ’s finished work according to my perspective… but I’m also going to subtly go through all of it to see if it stands the test of time – I mean, is it as viable in 2024 as it used to be around 6 years ago, and before the scamdemic COVID-19?
Next, we see here how I took all of this down during our Pastors’ Meeting last October 7, 2024. I couldn’t remember the exact topic that was being tackled at the time, but I suppose what matters is what was taken down here, first of all.
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the Creator of all things seen and unseen. At His word, He created the massive and enormous stars in the heavens and His gives precise focus and attention in the creation of the smallest of particles, the tiniest of waves. God of Space, He is also the Maker of the Sun and the Moon, directing their light, their rising and their setting, effectively establishing what we would perceive as time.
He is the Creator of Time and Space and is Himself beyond these things – eternal and infinite. It just follows that His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, is also eternal, and is also infinite.
However, out of the Father’s everlasting love for man, He sent Jesus Christ from infinite eternity, and from eternal infinity, to be born as a man within the confines of time and space. Already ‘limited’ He gave His body up, lay His life down as an offering for sin, dying that we may be reconciled… and coming back to life, that we may be saved.
In His resurrection He confirmed that all our sin has been wiped clean, and as He was righteous unto resurrection, so we have been proclaimed righteous unto eternal life. He ascended and returned to the heavens – eternal infinity, and infinite eternity – and is now seated at the right hand of the Father…
…Christ Jesus, the Name above every other name – all-encompassing, perfectly present, presently perfect.
And just as the moon merely reflects the light of the sun so there is light in the darkness, so we have another perspective to our being made new creations – reflections of the Father of lights, here in this world.
I venture to explain that Christ is absolutely consistent – As the Light, He always shines. We’ve talked about how God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) flows as a mighty River, engulfing all of our beings; As a River, He always flows.
As you see the screenshot above, I just want to point out that it’s us, His creation, that varies ‘in intensity’. It just falls into place as it sort of relates to what I’ve been writing from other fronts, also in the recent days. We’ve mentioned Hebrews 10:14, where we read that by Christ’s offering He has made perfect forever ‘those who are being made holy’.
So, what is it, you ask? Are we perfect or are we being made holy? To this I say, ‘yes’. We’re both perfected forever, and being made holy. Our righteousness unto eternal life has been guaranteed by Christ’s finished work. Our reconciliation to God is so complete here and now that we are able to call Him our ‘Abba, Father’.
To be perfect forever is to say that our righteousness TO Him is absolute… but our being made holy, in my mind, and I’m definitely willing to be corrected, is to say that we’re living out our righteousness FROM the world, in this world. That’s the ‘intensity’ that ‘varies’.
Let me propose:
Our identity is who we are forever.
Our existence is what we are within time and space.
Our identity is who we are according to our infinite and eternal Creator.
Our existence is what we are in His Creation.
Our identity is our mind, soul, body, and spirit;
Our existence is what we do, what we look like, how we sound, where we’ve been, when we were born, when we die, and so on.
Christ has guaranteed our identity – we have been made perfect forever.
Christ’s finished work has guaranteed our existence (in this world) – we are being made holy.
We are secure in our identity in Christ, and, consequently, we accept and appreciate our existence.
We see differences in existence as complements and not challenges. We accept them as opportunities, and not absolutes.
With that said, any leader’s push towards autonomy should be done in confidence, knowing that we operate, not according to our existence, but because of our identity. If this is effectively communicated, all entities involved would embrace the autonomy, because it further sharpens our identity.
Consequently, it’s also here where we realize the danger of uniformity – that is, insisting that our existence is our identity, or that our being made holy in this world takes priority over our being made perfect forever. Uniformity in this regard is expressed when people and entities come together, not because of their identity, but in their common existence.
I sincerely believe that the body of Christ comes together because of what Christ has permanently established because of His finished work – our identity, our being made perfect forever – and NOT because anything else that we happen to have in common, which collectively comprises our existence, or our being made holy in this world.
Autonomy is a practice of trusting our identity, while uniformity is preserving common existence. One is more proactive than the other, and we need one over the other. Identity takes priority over existence…
…and this stays true and consistent, in every season. In fact, in seasons of trial and fire, it’s existence that can be burned away, and identity is brought to bloom.
Focusing on being made holy is pretty myopic compared to our being perfected forever. I say this because our existence applies mostly to this temporal world, while our identity is what has been established for all time.
From a foundation of identity, we’re likely to be more proactive – meditating on, realizing, and consequently celebrating and moving FROM our being perfected for all time.
From a foundation of identity, we’re truly capable of thinking OUTSIDE of the box, versus merely thinking in a bigger box.
And that allows us to see things only our Father can see. We see and distinguish revelations that can only be given by the Holy Spirit alive in each and every one of us. It allows us to see beyond what the world is insisting we keep in mind, to see the real seasons.
And we see in the screenshot that it’s giving us specifics. It’s having me consider looking at 1 Thessalonians 5 for an idea of what to focus on for 2025. It’s also having us consider evangelism in other forms or approaches – not merely factoring in distance and cultures (the X-axis), but also generations (the Y-axis)… also factoring in how the Internet is here and it isn’t going away any time soon.
While we’re on the topic of revelations, and specific revelations at that, I do want to bring up a little on what I intend to do: You know, where I mentioned we’d be going through Naval’s tweetstorm.
First of all, I feel as if we’re able to ‘do’ something like that, going beyond the old-school fears that state that going through material like that is going to ‘corrupt’ us somehow, or worse, lead us astray; Or, that it’s akin to yoking ourselves with unbelievers.
To the latter, I say – According to Romans 10, it’s not really up to us to determine who goes to heaven (or, who we think are believers), and who goes to hell (who we think are unbelievers); We’re to stay grounded on how we ourselves have confessed with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believed in our hearts that He rose from the dead.
And to the charge that it may corrupt us or strike us off, I say – not even a tweetstorm by Naval Ravikant can change our identity. At the very worst, I see how it could throw us off when it comes to our existence, or our being made holy… but the thing is, no matter how it DOES impact us, positive or negative, I believe the Holy Spirit is key in reminding us of our identity, of our right-standing with God, no matter what.
So it’s not really for anything else, but to really integrate what good I could take from him, under the lens of the Word of God; and, if I’m honest, to discern and reject worldly, demonic wisdom, not only by the superior wisdom of the Holy Spirit, but by His intentional tutelage as well.
So with all this in mind, what can we derive, in terms of declarations for us in this season? Well, here’s what I came up with.
Because of Christ’s finished work, we are perfected forever.
We are absolutely righteous in Christ.
Nothing can separate us from the Father.
Christ will never leave nor forsake us.
We are in complete harmony with the Holy Spirit.
Because of Christ’s finished work, we have one common identity – that is, we have been perfected forever.
We are able to move and take action from our common identity.
We come together because of our common identity.
Because of Christ’s finished work, we are being made holy.
We are transformed by the renewing of our mind.
We move from glory to glory.
We love one another, as Christ loves us.
Because of Christ’s finished work, we understand that each and every one of us is being made holy.
We have peace no matter what happens in us and around us in this world, because we know we are being made holy.
We understand each other and love each other because we are all being made holy.
Chalk all of that to what we have so far…
…wait, what DO we have so far? I should probably put it all together, in another post.
Okay, one last thing.
We’ve explored some bywords in the past few days, starting with ‘flow’, and now ‘identity’ and ‘existence’. I’ve done a lot of ‘exploring’ and going deeper, looking into things I haven’t noticed for myself, with the help of Claude AI.
What I did was I had it summarize everything that we talked about regarding flow, and in a separate chat (still struggling to make income to pay for Pro which allows me to maintain longer conversations with this AI), I had him summarize what we’ve talked about here, about identity and existence.
Finally, I’ve had him put it all together to analyze, and I’m pasting what he had to share, verbatim:
The central thread I see connecting the two discussions is the concept of “flow” – the deep, abiding peace that comes from resting in our true identity in Christ, rather than being tossed about by the fluctuations of our temporal existence.
In the first conversation, you described this “flow” as transcending the anxieties, frustrations, and disappointments of your day-to-day life. It was about recognizing that Christ’s presence and peace have been with you all along, rather than something you have to strive to achieve.
This aligns beautifully with the theological framework we explored earlier – the distinction between our perfect identity in Christ and the ongoing process of our earthly existence.
The “flow” you described is the fruit of resting in your eternal identity, rather than being overly preoccupied with the challenges of your temporal existence.
Just as you don’t have to earn or work for Christ’s presence, you don’t have to earn or work for your perfect standing before God. That is secured by Christ’s finished work. Your task is to abide in that reality and allow it to shape how you engage with the world.
This helps explain why you felt such freedom to interact with secular wisdom without fear – your identity in Christ is unshakable, so you can discern and integrate what aligns with biblical truth without feeling threatened.
And in times of trial, when your temporal existence is “burned away,” it is your unshakable identity that remains steady, like Christ sleeping peacefully in the boat during the storm.
So in both conversations, the common thread is this idea of resting in who you are in Christ, rather than being tossed about by the changing circumstances of your earthly life.
The “flow” you described is the natural outworking of embracing your perfect identity and allowing it to shape your moment-by-moment existence.
You’ll notice I underlined parts I thought were important… which was most of it. In the face of all that I’ve collected here, I’d love to see what I can do with all of it… but I really do feel I need to do a whole lot more, involving a broader scope of analysis, and, really, more energy – energy that I don’t seem to have right now. I don’t seem to have a lot of time, either.
Instead, I will rest. Claude pointed me to it, and I think I should.
This is exciting stuff happening here. Stay tuned for that ‘checkpoint’, that consolidation…
…and until the next post, God bless us all.
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