When I was a young man, just saved, I learned about “spirit, soul and body”. Well as best as I could understand,. I was taught that “I am a spirit, I have a soul, and I live inside a body—with a simple Sunday school diagram that I found very helpful as I began the journey of discipleship. My spirit, born-again, was eager to rejoice in God, my Savior. And for a time, my soul did an exemplary job in magnifying God. Even my flesh was energized in this new “Jesus thing”, adding its zeal to my efforts.
But, it didn’t take long (about 6 months) for my fragmentation to catch up with my decision to follow Jesus. It was like my soul and flesh decided they had strong feelings about things, and began again voicing their thoughts. My soul (mind, will and emotions) started breaking into the pieces again of its former state. Emotions could no longer sustain my devotions as old emotions returned. My will began wobbling, and my mind, through years of drug abuse, was a mess. I was falling apart in Jesus. I held myself together through prayer and His word but could not rest. My soul was always striving and my flesh had to try and finish what God began in the Spirit. I was a mess.
Today, 41 years later, I walk in wholeness. Not MY wholeness but Jesus’.. I found that “I am a mess” but Jesus is “magnificent.” Moving from fixing myself, disciplining myself, and bemoaning myself, I have found a Savior, Who loves my humanity while transforming me at the same time. He is so large, His victory so complete, that I am not afraid. Wholeness is not our being made whole, it’s our entering wholly into HIS wholeness.
Once I practiced bringing all of me, spirit, soul and body, in honesty and trust, Jesus became everything—His blood-my answer, His word-my future, and my life-in His hands. The accuser lost his voice, condemnation its sentence and death lost its sting. Sure my soul can, in an instant, make me flee like wild horses dragging a chariot, but I know my way back. So do you. JESUS – all of me into all of Him. Fix nothing but yield everything – JESUS saves!
Next Wednesday, January 31st: Cammy and I want to share the truths we have learned that brought us into Jesus and His wholeness.
