fusion- the process or result of joining two or more things to form a single entity.
- the merging of diverse, distinct, or separate elements into a unified whole.
- the union of atomic nuclei to form heavier nuclei resulting in the release of enormous quantities of energy when certain light elements unite.
Above are some definitions of the word "fusion". I found that the definitions added clarity in our topic today. There are people for whom I am currently praying that desperately need a healing miracle. The situation is literally "life and death". Perhaps you also have people in your prayers who desperately need a miracle. I wondered, "Where are the miracles of Christ?" I have indeed seen miracles, and received them myself, but I cannot say that miracles, signs and wonders are routinely pouring from my life as I would hope to see. As I once again began to pray, I thought, "But healing isn't a thing...He's a Person."
Fundamental truths that I learn regarding salvation, healing, everlasting life, resurrection, atonement, sacrifice, life, holiness, righteousness, faith itself, prosperity, deliverance, peace, joy, prayer, and many other parts of our walk, are thought of as "blessings", "promises", "works", etc. Thinking of them in that manner though makes all of those powerful fundamental truths become "things". However, all of these are an aspect or quality of a Person. I create a distance from the Person when I think of these aspects as things to be achieved or received. Saying, "I need healing", "I need provision", "I need a miracle", "I need deliverance", in a way de-Personalizes, making an aspect of the Living God into a thing we receive from Him. I hope I am explaining effectively what I am feeling in a way that it can be understood.
Our Father has always been a very personal God. Although He is eternal, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-present in character, God has always dealt very personally with the individual: from the greatest kings to lowliest leprous outcasts; from small children, even children who have not yet been born (Ps. 139:13-16, Jer. 1:4-7, Lk. 1:41-44), to people who were very old; with sinners, and with those whom He called righteous.
From the beginning, God walked and talked with Adam in the Garden, and was personally connected to him. God knew immediately when His preciously created man fell.
When God introduced Himself to Moses, He spoke the very personal "I AM...". He used His personal relationship with men, to identify Himself to other men: "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."
When God provided His salvation, He didn't send a thing, He sent a Person, whose very name IS "Salvation", Yeshuah, Jesus.
Salvation isn't a concept, or even a miracle. He is a Person. Healing isn't a doctrine or an answer to prayer, He is a Person (Ex. 15:26) . Peace and joy aren't just things we all desire, but a Person (Jn. 14:27, Neh. 8:10). The provision of everything we need for our lives is a Person (Jn. 6:35, 48, Gen. 22:14, 2 Pet. 1:3). Resurrection and everlasting life isn't a goal, promise, place, or thing. He is a Person (Jn. 11:25). Faith isn't just a thing we should try to have and speak. He is part of a Person, as in "the faith of the Son of God" (Gal. 2:20). The force of life in all men isn't a thing to be debated regarding "when" or "how". He is a Person (Jn. 1:4). Even light is not a thing, but a Person (Jn. 1:9, Jn. 8:12). Truth is not a thing, but a Person. Our daily spiritual walk and progress is not an effort we make, but a Person: "I am the way (road; journey; course of conduct; a manner of thinking, feeling, deciding; a progress; a mode or means), the truth, and the life" (Jn. 14:6). Is it possible to "become" what we are called to become if we think of all of this as doctrines, tenets, blessings, works, things, rather than Christ, Himself?
The victory of Christ is not to make "things", even miraculous things, available to me. The victory of Christ is to reconcile me (bring back a former state of harmony: definition-pleasing combination of elements in a whole) with Himself, and His Father, my Father (Rom. 5:10-11, 2 Cor. 5:18-19, Col. 1:19-22, Eph. 2:13-18). The victory of Christ is to make me one with the Persons of the Godhead. Jesus prayed to His Father:
"...for those who will believe in Me...that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as we are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one. and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world."
Jn. 17:20-24
The commands, "Be thou holy as I am holy", and "Be thou perfect as I am perfect", are not for the purpose of demanding that I attain some sort of spiritual goal I don't think, but to call me to a fusion with the Person who is holy, with the Person who is perfect (2 Cor. 5:21, Col. 1:21-22) until it can no longer be differentiated where I end and He begins. Then I become holy also, and then I become perfect also. The Father wants us to find Christ and cling to Him, meld into Him. We understand that scripture tells us that we have received Christ, that it is "Christ in us, the hope of glory", and "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation...", but our walk is often about ourselves, and what we do, and who we are, rather than this fusion with Christ. There is no "us" or "me" if I am one, fused, with Him. There is only Him. Jesus also said:
"Abide (Grk-meno-remain, not to depart, to be held, kept continually, to remain as one; Heb.-yashab- dwell, remain, to sit down, seat, marry) in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, bears much fruit; for without Me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned."
Jn. 15:4-6
The fruit comes with abiding in and with Christ, as a branch is one and the same with a vine. Jesus also said:
"If I do not the works of My Father, do not believe Me: but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him." Jn. 10:37-38, AND
"Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves. Most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it." Jn. 14:10-14
Usually we read these verses with the emphasis on the works. However, I am now reading them here with the emphasis on that to which the works point: the fusion relationship. The "works" came from Christ's fusion with the Father, His inseparable relationship and identity with His Father. He said even if we don't believe Him, believe the works that He does, because the works are His Father's.To Jesus, the words and works were evidentiary of the fusion with His Father. Even His own identity was secondary to this fusion relationship: Believe Me or not, but believe the works of the Father in Me.
We look for the works apart, but do not sacrifice ourselves to the necessary fusion into the Father's identity, as Jesus did. Jesus speaks above about going to His Father. We accept that the greater works that Jesus spoke of would result from His bringing His blood offering to His Father. It is also the result of the even greater fusion accomplished once His flesh body was cast off. That last separation, that veil, which was His flesh, is rent, and the way into the reconciling unity that He provided for all of us with the Father is completed (Mt. 27:51, Heb. 10:19-20).
In John 17, Jesus prayed that the world will come to the knowledge and belief that Christ was sent to us from God because we are one in Christ and the Father. We wonder why we seem to see such indifference of the world toward the Christian faith, even its disgust. Is it because they have not seen the Christian faith as it has been intended all along? Trying to bring the world to Christ when we have not been willing to come totally to Christ ourselves is futility, and would seem also hypocritical. The Holy Spirit has come to us for the purpose of fusing us into Christ, but we, perhaps unaware of the opposition of our natural mind, desire to keep the distance and separation, and retain our separate identity. If we want to see His glory, if we want to be "Exhibit A" to bring the world to belief, if we want to see the "works" as they were always intended, then it will require fusion with the Person of Christ.
What is the beginning point of this process? Perhaps just the acknowledgement of the depth expected in our relationship with Christ, and the Father. Keeping this at the forefront in our minds, which tend to pull us the opposite way. Having my focal point as entering into Christ, and He into me, growing into the unity, the knowledge, the perfect, the measure of the stature of His fullness, growing up in all things into Him-Christ (Eph. 4:13, 15). Saying as John the Baptist said, "He must increase (become greater, cause to grow, enlarge), but I must decrease (make less or inferior in dignity, make lower, to lesson in rank, influence, authority, or popularity, smallest, least)." (Jn. 3:30). Perhaps understanding that the real meaning of taking up my cross daily and following Him is not only about others persecuting me for my faith as He was persecuted, but that I lay down my own life, my own identity, freely- no man takes it from me - in order to enter into Christ and the Father:
"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me..."
Gal. 2:20
Look at what we have been called to do according to the above verse. This is the standard that has been set for our relationship with and in Christ. Are we prepared to enter into Him in such a way? Is the world seeing Christianity in its intended fullness as stated above? Or have they only seen people who talk, but are not being? Are those coming with prayer requests who are perishing, either spiritually or physically, receiving that above effective standard of care from me? It is a standard in which I cease, and He lives instead. This is where I can, from this experience, also be directing those who have needs: "Come, fuse into Jesus and into the Father with me."
These are going to be my first steps in understanding.
I've had it all wrong. Healing isn't a thing, He's a Person. As we pray for needs, whether for ourselves, or someone else, let us, as a first step, seek a deeper fusion with the Person who IS all in all (1 Cor. 12:6, 15:28, Eph. 1:23).
Our Father has sent a Person, Jesus, for our reconciliation and fusion into Him.
