Let me ask you something.

[resurrection33]

In 2 Corinthians 13:5, the apostle Paul asks the Corinthian believers a question: “Or do you not realize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you?” We might find this phrase, “Jesus Christ is in you” surprising, or perhaps we just read over it without thinking too much about its significance. But what does this phrase mean? And what is its importance for our Christian lives today?

In saying, “Jesus Christ is in you,” Paul wasn’t speaking poetically or metaphorically. He truly meant that Jesus Christ is literally, practically dwelling within the believers. Many other verses in the Word of God confirm the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ actually dwells in His believers.

We too, like the Corinthians, need to realize this fact about ourselves. Christ is not merely outside of us, a Helper in our time of need, but He dwells in us, living in and with us all the time.

1. “But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.”—Romans 8:10

We human beings were created by God with a body on the outside and a soul and spirit on the inside. Our spirit is our deepest part, created to contact and receive the Spirit of God. When we received Jesus as our Savior, He cleansed us of our sins and He came into our spirit as life. Thus, because Christ is in us, our “spirit is life because of righteousness.”

2. “Because the God who said, Out of darkness light shall shine, is the One who shined in our hearts to illuminate the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not out of us.”—2 Corinthians 4:6-7

The apostle Paul describes the believers as earthen vessels that contain “this treasure.” What is this treasure? It is Jesus Christ, in whose face we see the glory of God. Christ lives in us earthen vessels as a precious treasure, revealing to us the glory of God from within.

3. “But when it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me.”—Galatians 1:15-16

We might think this verse should read, “It pleased God…to reveal His Son to me.” But in the original language of the New Testament, Greek, the verse reads “to reveal His Son in me.” God’s plan is to reveal His Son in us, from within, rather than to us, from without. Or, to put it another way, God reveals Christ to us from within us. To those who have Christ in us, God is pleased to reveal in us more of the wonderful Person of Christ.

4. “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.”—Galatians 2:20

Here, Paul did not say “I live in a Christ-like way,” or, “I glorify Christ through my behavior.” No, he said, “Christ…lives in me,” clearly telling us that Christ lives in His believers. The Christian life is not a matter of behaving like Christ, but of allowing Christ Himself to live in and through us.

5. “My children, with whom I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you.”—Galatians 4:19

Paul viewed the believers in Galatia as his spiritual children. He had labored to help them receive Christ at their salvation, and in this verse, he continues to labor on them so that the Christ they received would be fully formed in them. Christ lives in us from the time we are saved, but He wants to be formed in us in a definite way. Day by day, we need to give Him the opportunity to be formed in us. As we do, Christ will be able to express Himself more fully through us in our daily life.

6. “That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith.”—Ephesians 3:17

When we believed into Christ, He came to live in our spirit, the deepest part of our being. But Christ also wants to make His home in the rest of our inward being: our hearts and our souls. By living in our spirit, Christ is the new source of our new life. But our soul—our mind, emotion, and will—can still choose to ignore Him as our new source and go on just as before. In this case, Christ is in us, but He’s limited in us, kept only in our spirit. So He cannot be expressed through us very much. The Lord Jesus wants to make His home not only in our spirit, but also in all the parts of our soul.

7. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”—Colossians 1:27

This verse shows that Christ is in us in a particular way: as our hope of glory. When we believed in Him, Christ came to live in our spirit. Now He is making His home in our hearts. In the future, when He returns, He will even spread to our body outwardly so that God’s glory can shine through us in a full way. The Christ who lives in us is our hope of such glory.

8. “When He comes to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled at in all those who have believed.”—2 Thessalonians 1:10

Christ’s second coming will surely be a marvel. But according to this verse, the most marvelous thing will not be the outward display of His coming; it will be His glory revealed from within His believers. The Christ in us, who lives in us and is being formed in us, will be revealed from within us, and even our bodies will be transformed to match Him.

Thanks .

 

[sharkwhales]

I think the future destination is called the resurrection.

Ok, well there's the answer to your original question it seems. People disagree with you because they think resurrection is an event, not a place. And that heaven is a place, not just a state of being.

(John 14:2-4) "My Father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going."

(2 Corinthians 12:2) I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know--God knows.

It's important when you have a spiritual experience, not to build an entire new theology around it, but to stay flexible and humble and let God continue to lead you -- because others have their spiritual experiences too, and these experiences are what led people to believe in heaven as a place. If you decide to believe they are wrong, no reason to act surprised when people decide to think the same of you.

It's my belief that people have a wide range of experiences because of the vastness of the truth God is leading us into -- and also to teach us to rely on God and his working through the body of christ instead of only his work in us individually.

 

[tooldtocare]

Not necessarily. I'll even go along with the erroneous definition of "repent." (It seems people are hell-bent on "modernizing" the word, so be that as it may.)

What I am saying is that if John is telling people they have to have ended their sinning before coming to God, then he might want to study a bit more.[/QUOTE]

Yes, it is a good time to look within...,yourself

as one of the many -

 

[duewell]

Let’s say John Doe did as Jesus commanded and repented of his sin. Then most of John’s worries disappeared. "This is heaven," he thinks to himself, "just as Jesus described:"

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matt 4:17 RSV

Naturally, John is excited about this and wants to share what he has learned with others. To his surprise, others do not welcome the news. “It’s unbiblical!” they say over and over again.

So, should John keep what he’s learned to himself?

1 corin. 2-14 you can plant or you can water,its pointless to debate with each other over who is doing the job better or who understands it better. its not even our garden. if the ground wont take seed move to new ground. if the seed wont take water move to a new seed.

one way or another i'm gonna find ya, when you're ready we can share the wine..

mark 4 v11-13
duewell