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SONS AND DAUGHTERs In spirit and in Truth

In Spirit and in Truth - Sons and Daughters

You will find these words in the introduction to Jeff Turners’ book, ‘Saints in the Arms of a Happy God.’ The quote represents what it means to be possessed by Christ our life, rather than to possess a religion or be an adherent of a ‘belief system’ and a member of a denomination. We can be sons of God. We can be this notionally or we can be this in spirit and truth which is what Jesus was talking about to the Woman at the Well. Paul in describing the difference between notion and reality used the figure of sons of the slave woman and the sons of the free woman.

Jesus as Grace makes you one with God and sets you free to become your best self - a son/daughter of God.

Alan Watts (1915-1973), a British philosopher, put [the same truth] this way: “From the beginning, institutional Christianity has hardly contemplated the possibility that the consciousness of Jesus might be the consciousness of the Christian, that the whole point of the Gospel is that everyone may experience union with God in the same way. . . as Jesus himself.” That’s it: Union with God in the same way as Jesus lived in union with God. Here's is Turner’s quote, “This book is much more than a collection of haphazardly put together writings. It is my heart. My journey. My life.” (1) When Christ is our life we will not be bound by our own ideas, imprisoned in the understandings of our parents or paralysed in gospels that are not really the gospel of Jesus, Paul and John. We will know the Christ of God, accurately understand His gospel and know who we are as ourselves because Christ is our life.

Not only with you but woven into your being

His Life, Your Life

In the new covenant each person is an expression of Jesus – not notionally but actually. This is our reality when we are living in what we have been gifted with: Christ in us, Christ as us, all that is Christs is our daily life (daily bread).

God is love. God is trinity and far better than we think

You belong and you are included in the Family of God

Turner writes, “When I was still in Bible College a preacher came through and presented a very simple message on living free from condemnation, and for some reason it hit my soul like rain drops on the dry, crusty desert sand. I gulped and I drank, hardly giving any thought to what it was that I was hearing and taking in. Something in my soul had snapped and I knew that this was truth and that the abusive preaching and mindset I’d grown accustomed to living with was not. His words were so refreshing, so life giving, and so freeing. I walked out feeling as free as a bird. However, after returning home and mulling over what I had heard, I went to God in “prayer” and consciously renounced the preacher’s words. Once I’d had time to sit and try rationalizing the love of my Father, I rejected it, simply because I could not believe that He was that good.” (2)

Free from condemnation. Free to become who you are: A son/daugter in spirit and in truth.

Most teaching is not openly abusive. Just subtly so because the agenda is 'try harder' at something that is expected but which you will never achieve. Thus many Believers are absorbed in a contractual routine in which they attempt to 'be godly' in exchange of acceptance with God. It's called Try Harder Religion in which you try harder to overcome the separation between you and God that has been abolished by the cross.

In Jesus we become free of ourselves, free of an accusing conscience and free to become our True Self.

Thankfully Turner repented of this ‘repentance’ that rose up as a result of his Christian socialisation (brain washing). But he is not Robinson Crusoe in this. Many Believers simply cannot believe that our salvation is that good, that God is so loving or that Godliness as us can be so simple and so profound. So they stick to their proof texts, their law based hermeneutic, their suspicion of the Truth Teller and burrow further into their ideology that is a slander against Father and an abuse of themselves. Jesus lives to set such captives free.

Can it be that simple, that good? Yes.

Christ's realtionship with Father and Holy Spirit is your relationship

As Alan Watts says, “The whole point of the Gospel is that everyone may experience union with God in the same way. . . as Jesus himself.” We can leave this treasure in the field and confuse circling our mulberry bush of denominational icons and rites as life. Or we can become the expression of Jesus who lived in His Father and did what He was doing because He expressed His Father as a son.

Father's love for Jesus is Father's love for you. You belong.

You are included already in the Family of God. Live where you have been positioned.

Once reborn we will know we are sons and daughters in spirit and in truth.

(1) Turner, Jeff. Saints in the Arms of a Happy God: Recovering the Image of God and Man (p. 7). Jeff Turner. Kindle Edition.

(2) Turner, Jeff. Ibid. Recovering the Image of God and Man (p. 8). Jeff Turner. Kindle Edition.

Created By
KEITH ALLEN
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