His Heart, My Home

Our life, as believers, is to be Christ-centered.

Our eternal identity is unalterably connected to Him.

● We were crucified with Christ. (Galatians 2:20)

● We died with Him. (Colossians 3:3)

● We were buried with Him. (Romans 6:4)

● We were made alive with Him. (Ephesians 2:5)

● We were raised with Him. (Colossians 3:1)

● We are seated with Him. (Ephesians 2:6)

We are one spirit with Him. (1 Corinthians 6:17)

He is the center of our universe. He is the gravity that holds us eternally within the Father’s heart.

It is vitally important that we understand the truth of our UNION with the Lord. Otherwise, we will be tossed to and fro by our circumstances, our feelings, and our flesh, as we live unproductive, barren lives.

But if we accept and appreciate the reality of our spiritual UNION with Him we will experience the “abundant life”… the overflow of love, peace, joy, and fruitfulness found only in Him.

Our UNION with Father-God is forever established and secured by the completed work of Christ in our redemption, and by the ongoing work of Holy Spirit in our sanctification.

“For by the one offering He has perfected forever and completely cleansed those who are being sanctified [bringing each believer to spiritual completion and maturity].”
(Hebrews 10:14, Amplified Bible)

Our spirits have been born again. Eternal life has been imparted to us. We have entered God’s kingdom and are now a part of His eternal family. (John 3:5,6 and 1 Peter 1:23)

Our spiritual UNION with God is a one-sided, unilateral transaction. It was and is His work totally from start to finish. All we contribute to that UNION is our faith.

When we receive and embrace what He has done for us in Christ, we come into that living unbreakable connection with Him.

“For by grace you have been saved by faith. Nothing you did could ever earn this salvation, for it was the love gift from God that brought us into Christ!” (Ephesians 2:8, Passion Translation)

“For it is by grace [God’s remarkable compassion and favor drawing you to Christ] that you have been saved [actually delivered from judgment and given eternal life] through faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [not through your own effort], but it is the [undeserved, gracious] gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8, Amplified Bible)

Since our salvation is “not of ourselves”, but is totally God’s work of grace, we can neither add to it, nor can we subtract from it. Our UNION with God, through Christ, is unchangeable and eternal.

Sincere Christians sometimes say, “I want to get closer to God.” The desire is commendable, but the concept is wrong.

In reality, when we say we want to get closer to God we are expressing a desire for a deeper, more intimate COMMUNION with the Lord, not a more perfect UNION with Him.

Intimate COMMUNION with God blossoms from the living, growing Christ-life that God has already planted within us!

We are already “in Christ” and He is “in us”. It’s not possible to get any closer than “in”!

It’s important that we understand the truth of our UNION with the Lord, and how it influences and produces intimate COMMUNION with God.

UNION and COMMUNION, though intertwined and closely linked, are two distinctly different truths

UNION is a one-way street. COMMUNION, however, is a two- way street.

God does not simply save us from something (i.e., sin and death).

He saves us for something (i.e., a living, loving relationship with Him.)

We call this two-sided, bilateral relationship with Him, fellowship or COMMUNION.

Our COMMUNION and fellowship with Him is our response to His love, and our salvation in Christ.

Our COMMUNION with the Lord is based on our covenant with Him, and is experienced through:

☆ giving to Him and receiving from Him
☆ pleasing Him and being pleased by Him
☆ delighting in Him and being delighted by Him
☆ loving Him and being loved by Him

God gives us life, forgiveness, righteousness, freedom, hope, healing, and so much more.

We respond by giving God our faith, our devotion, our obedience, our love, and our worship.

But our imperfect response to the Father’s perfect love is the problem. We call those imperfections, wrong choices, lapses, mistakes, and failures “sin”.

When we sin, we have not affected our UNION with the Lord, but we have interrupted our COMMUNION with Him. Our ability to enjoy fellowship with Him is adversely affected. Our ability to partner with Him, to hear His voice, to sense His presence, and to receive His blessing, is temporarily blocked, by unconfessed sin in our lives.

Sin is like an injection of Novocaine we receive from the dentist. The drug desensitizes and numbs a part of us. Our face, gums and teeth have been “deadened”. The sensation is like a part of us is just not there.

Sin does the same thing to us spiritually. It numbs, desensitizes, “deadens”, and eventually hardens a part of us… our hearts. We feel God is no longer with us. It seems like He’s just not there.

And that’s when the enemy piles on, deceiving us into believing that God no longer wants to have anything to do with us. Satan’s lies are designed to convince us that God simply doesn’t love us anymore. If we believe those lies, it breaks the Father’s heart.

Thank God, the truth is that even when we have sinned, our UNION with Abba doesn’t change! He is still our Father, and we are still His children.

And because of this eternal love-relationship with Him, we can run to Him, repent of our sin, and be instantly restored to fellowship with Him.

This has been said many times but it is worth repeating again. You should write this in your Bible near 1 John 1:9:

“Don’t run from God when you sin! Run to Him!

“But if we freely admit our sins when his light uncovers them,  he will be faithful to forgive us every time. God is just to forgive us our sins because of Christ, and he will continue to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
(1 John 1:9, The Passion Translation)

UNION and COMMUNION with God are both crucial to our walk as Christians. Realizing our UNION with Christ enables and facilitates our COMMUNION (our love-relationship) with the Father and with Holy Spirit.

The more the truth of our UNION with Christ becomes established in our hearts and minds, the more confidence we will experience in our COMMUNION with God.

Finally:

“The grace (favor and spiritual blessing) of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the presence and fellowship (the COMMUNION and sharing together, and participation) in the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen (so be it).”
(2 Corinthians 13:14, Amplified Classic)