Letters on Spiritual Formation #12
Man Shall Cleave - Part 2
This is article is part of a series of letters on spiritual growth and maturity. To read the previous letter in the series, click here.
As man is united to God physically, his actions begin to change. There is an observable difference in who he was and who he is becoming. As man is united to God spiritually, he begins to reflect the light of God into the world. His spirit houses the very light of God and is shown to those around him, as Jesus said, "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden." As man continues investing in the divine nature he begins to bear God's fruit. As when man and wife cleave to one another in a marriage ceremony there life begins to form around one another, so when man is united to God his inner and outer life are formed around the divine nature. As kind cleaves to kind, human to human, so mankind created in the image of God cleaves to God.
As anyone who has ever married another can attest, cleaving and becoming one flesh is not a simple task. There is work involved. True relationship involves un-learning and re-learning. And as a marriage grows, each spouse begins to learn the things that bring pleasure to their partner. They begin to learn how their partner communicates, the rhythms of their life, what they are passionate about, etc... As they learn about their other they (hopefully) begin to accommodate what they have learned and uplift the individual. In this accommodation, their lives are knit together.
When Adam and Eve were "born of God" they immediately went about doing what God had been doing:
“Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” Genesis 1:28
God had just subdued creation by bringing order out of a dark, shapeless void. He then filled creation with land, sea, and life. Adam and Eve, born of God, were united in will to God. In fact, they never even needed to ask God what to do. When your will is united with his, it is not a matter of discovering what to do, it is a matter of becoming who he created you to be.
When Jesus stated the fatherhood of the Pharisees, he made something clear:
“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires...” John 8:44
The thing you are born of you act on. Your family dynamic will help determine the way you act. The Pharisees had more in common with the deception of the serpent. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and bought into the deception of the serpent, they were "of their father the devil." They had just acted according to another's parentage.
Being born of God means you would do the kind of things that God desires. Your union with God finds its outworking in your will. The first action of man in relation to God was to respond to his will, and the first action of man in response to another was to cleave. In this we have a picture of the divine union.
Maximus the Confessor, an early church theologian, states that being born of water (John 3:5) “bestows the grace of adoption, which is entirely present in potency in those who are born of God,” and being born of Spirit is “wholly by active exertion, that grace which deliberately reorients the entire free choice of the one being born of God towards the God who gives birth.”
In other words, our born again experience is twofold. The first is the potency of grace bestowed at adoption, or the power of grace is made available to the new believer. The second is the active engagement with that grace, whose singular purpose is to pull you towards the one who granted spiritual birth in the first place. It is your free will gravitating towards the will of God.
Just as in cleaving, being born of water and Spirit is intended to change everything about you. When Jesus demonstrated this life of the Spirit, he showed us the highest form of life imaginable. The ultimate expression of the life and will of God in the individual is that you would give your life for others.
So, why does God leave difficult people in your life? What purpose could he have in leaving people that seem to be spiritual irritants to you?
David said regarding God, “Your thoughts towards me are as numerous as the sands on the seashore.” Every one of those thoughts has the ability to rewire your brain.
Laying the axe to the root of the tree means our patterns and habits of response dictated by the formation of our brain must change.
My wife and I were great friends before we started dating. We spent a year developing a deep friendship before we became romantically involved. It took all of a week for the openness we had cultivated as friends to be challenged by pre-conditioned responses ingrained from past pain.
Imagine that your brain is like a forest. There is a vast interconnectedness of leaves, branches, and underbrush. You decide one day to carve a path through this forest.
The revelation of his care in the midst of my inability to walk in the way of holiness completely undid me. As I was in this gathering, teaching these students, the revelation of that care hit me.
Dark nights of spiritual struggle are not normal seasons of the spiritual life. There will be seasons of great joy, increasing fruit, successful initiatives, incredible intimacy, watching others frolic and play with God, sweetness before the Lord, and many other incredible moments to celebrate in the grand scheme of life in God.
...the dark night begins to effectively erode pride from your life, and you become more fully aware of your brokenness then you have ever been.
The ongoing cycle of spiritual growth will include periods of dryness, emptiness, and perceived distance from God. They are all designed for your benefit.
Our temporary pain betrays the eternal love of God. He is more concerned about your eternal destiny than he is in your temporal comfort.
When I would ask my father questions about the bible or theology, he would never give me a straight answer. He would maybe give a couple of thoughts, point out a verse or two, and then leave it at that...
Sometimes our pain tells us the degree of separation between our God-breathed destiny and the reality of our actual day to day life.
As those who are united with God are joined together with his Spirit, there is a beautiful harmony in the way life is shared in this metaphor. The vine exists to nourish, feed, and grow the branches, the branches exist to bear the fruit of the vine.
Developing disciplines in your life makes room on a consistent basis for God to speak to you, and for you to respond to his presence.
We fail to realize that the question, “What should I do?” is often unanswerable for this simple reason: if God were to answer it directly we would either run from the answer because of the immensity of the task or fall into pride over the great plan he has for us.
As man is united to God physically, his actions begin to change. There is an observable difference in who he was and who he is becoming.
Man and woman, who are of the same flesh, cleave to one another. God who is Spirit creates man with a spirit, and calls man to also cleave to himself.
You are made in the image of the God who is light. You are to grow in this light, and as you grow you will partake in the very nature of God. This is a mystery.
When your framework, or your total expression, is integrated with the truth of who God created you to be, peace reigns. This is the united heart.
Truth is that which straightens what is twisted. It makes our ways straight. The light within you will either twist or straighten. It will lead to righteousness or licentiousness. It will hurt or heal you.
Proverbs provides us with the clue to understand the function of our spirit: "The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all the inner depths of the heart."
As you grow closer to Jesus, light shines upon you to reveal his thoughts about you. This is your original and true design. This light brings truth.
It was the twisting of the perception that Adam and Eve had regarding themselves and regarding God that caused them to fall. This twisting changed their belief structure.
There exist beliefs that we hold at the core of our being, regardless of how true they are. These beliefs are shaped by our triumphs, failures, courageous moments, fears, successes, hurts, and many others moments in life.
There are numerous examples in scripture where, in a moment, God defines an individual. For Moses he said, "I have known you by name and you have found favor in my sight" and "the man Moses was the most humble man on the face of the earth." For David he whispered, "You are my friend," and "Seek my face."
For weeks I couldn’t stop thinking about these dreams. I shared them with friends, I mulled over them, and I prayed about them. My spirit was troubled.
How do we grow in Christlikeness when we are still stuck in pain and trauma? The first step in embracing the character of Christ is embracing the healing of Christ.
The underlying principle behind God leaving difficult people in your life is this: If a difficult person in your life needed a touch from God, God would never be able to send them to you.