“Now the Lord is Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
(2 Corinthians 3:17-18)
Not many have experienced the true “Body of Christ” that is available for those who surrender and come just as they are when they hear our true Father invite us to “Come home”. Jesus invites us to come and “enter” His rest as the Son of the Father. Don’t let yourself be fooled by the things of the world. Don’t flatter Satan by believing he is telling us to wear a mask. When Adam and Eve willfully disobeyed God, they immediately felt “shame” and put on a mask, a fig leaf. “In Christ” there are no fig leaves allowed. That is what New Testament believers found as they came to the Father and received power and were baptized and clothed with power by the Holy Spirit.
(Acts 2:42-47)
We can hop from one church to another trying to identify with people that have the same fig leaf as we do. Religion and our carnal nature not only allows, but also requires fig leaves (masks). There is nothing new under the sun (Son). The Lord is Spirit and where the Spirit is – there is freedom. The only offering that is required is to give up the right to take care of yourself. Jesus made the way for us to come into the loving arms of our Father but He will not seduce, entice or in anyway influence us other than what was made available to all humankind by the love shown at Calvary. He wants that all would come, but His will is that each must choose. Our Father loves us too much to force us against our will to spend eternity with Him if we don’t want to be His Son or Daughter now. Jesus invites each of us to take off our mask by denying ourselves and picking up our cross daily and to be His. Eternity is not an event or place – it is found only in Christ Jesus and is only a heartbeat and breath away. Love, Church, praying and even giving are not activities, programs or events – they are a person, Jesus Christ, and you can’t come in as long as you are convinced it is about you. For that reason we don’t rely on our love for Him, but rather on His love for us. The Church is not an organization. It is an organism, the Body of Christ, with the heart of the Father, the mind of Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit.