Personality

I have been teaching at our youth services recently, about our union with God through Christ. This post was inspired during my last message, so big ups to Ground Zero Youth, who continue to draw out the treasures in us!

This is the big idea: We limit our experience and knowledge of God to our Adamic nature! We still think of ourselves according to Adam and not according to Christ. We think in terms of limitation and not in terms of fullness.

We say stuff like “some people are like this” and “some people are like that”, which is true to an extent, but this is ultimately based on our  (adamic) humanity and not in the work of Christ! Yes, everybody is different and with absolute good reason, but the effect and application of the work of Christ is the same! WE have been given a new nature, we are new creations and that is why it is important to have the gospel rewrite everything we think we know about ourselves! WE are like HIM, but our expressions of Him will differ.

I guess the point I’m struggling to make is that, we should allow the gospel to work it’s way through us and not limit our experience and knowledge of God to our personality or our natural understanding! WE should embrace His work completely and it’s repercussions what ever it might mean, so that our humanity can rightly display His divinity!

Jesus is the How and Where, the truth about God and the truth about Man and He is the Life that vitalizes our Humanity!

Agency

I am in the process of developing a personal transformation/empowerment course, specifically geared at creating an awareness of our agency as human beings, which basically means that things not only happen to us but that we can happen to things! It also focuses on the fact that we’re supposed to be internally governed and not externally controlled which translates into freedom. For instance, someone makes the statement, “John made me so angry!” Really…? Did John invade your internal processes, find the reaction/response button “anger” and switch it on? No, you got angry! Lets say, that was possible, who let him in? You did! Believe it or not you chose that reaction/response even if  it’s at a subconscious level.  Simple example, but you get the point! This shift from external control to internal governance affects every sphere of life and many people aren’t even that they’ve given they’re “power” away!

Why is this important to me? I believe that you can only make powerful decisions if you are aware of and understand  your agency. I’ll illustrate. In 2004, my brother died in a car accident and this event ‘shook me to my senses’ ! At that stage, I was living  the party life, high on drugs most of the time and believing I had everything under control and that I knew stuff, but the news shocked me to such an extent that I cried out to God and asked Him to show me what was going on in the world, because I realised didn’t know! A year later, in the same week, I received  my salvation. I came to an awareness of my agency in the world but also aware of others agencies and I wanted to understand how it worked… I’m still wanting to know:) I can list other examples, but I think my point is clear. (If it’s not, let me know,  I would LOVE to elaborate)

So, I believe you can only make powerful decisions if you are aware of your own agency. This make perfect sense and finds full expression in my spiritual context, because of my fusion with God, but how do I communicate this to someone who does not share my belief, because it still remains true about them! Even on a natural level, we have men and women achieving great things, without recognizing God, because they are made in His image! What they achieve might not have eternal significance or be in vain at the end, but they were  and are change agents while they are here!

And here is my dilemma, how do I share and impact people lives with this truth without motivating them beyond context and without alienating them! In other words, how do I tell them that they have the capacity of God without deifying them?

posing for a light test (photography)