One Translation

“He whose teaching originates with himself seeks his own glory.”

This is the AMPC translation, in part, of John 7:18. The classic amplified bible version often expands the normal translations to include thought patterns not included in general translations. That doesn’t mean they are wrong, more perfect, nor relevant or irrelevant. They are just that, thoughts about how the scriptures can touch the mind of another individual.

The reason I am even bringing up this issue is because I thought about myself and who I am. When I came to Christ there was a general agreement among everyone that knew me at that time. “He isn’t being himself.”

Praise God, I was in fact a new creation and I had lost my “self”. At the time I never considered the possibility of losing my “self”. I was on a journey of discovery to know who God was and everything that He was saying and doing in my life. It did not occur to me to identify the Trinity, the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. He was I AM.

It wasn’t until I joined a gathering of other believers that I discovered tenets, disciplines, definitions and administrations of faith. Up until then I was happy to be lost in my relationship with my God. It never occurred to me that I might not be doing it right. So many people had their insistent counsels about how important is was to believe the same way they believed.

How much of what I encountered during those years was exactly that opening translation? “He whose teaching originates with himself seeks his own glory.” Having lost my “self” how much did those teachings influence me into discovering my “self” in Christ? It became a contest of wills to discover my “talents”, “gifts” and “callings”. If I was going to serve God then I had to do it according to those teachings.

It has only been these past few years that I discovered I had it right to begin with all those decades ago. I was discovering who Christ was in me in the absence of self.

Christ in You

Luke 24:35-36 And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread. And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

Here we have the end of the story, Walk to Emmaus. There are several encounters recorded where disciples did not recognize Jesus until He did something significant to the time He spent with these men. In this case it was the breaking of the bread that allowed them to see Jesus.

Now here is the significance for us, here today. What is Jesus doing in your life to reveal Himself in you? I do not mean what are you doing to show Jesus, I mean what is He doing? The real danger in trying to show Jesus in us is that we are moving in our own strength.

Philippians 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Man cannot replicate the power of God. We can only obey by faith and wait on God to move. It might be in that instant or at another time, but it will always be at His good pleasure. I know because I have delivered a word in due season that fell on deaf ears. A year later that person would come back and tell me how God had made what I had said real to him. It isn’t about my expectation because I know that God’s word works in me the same way.

It is much like those two men on their walk to Emmaus. They heard the words that burned in their hearts even though they did not know it was Jesus. God can and does use us to speak in the Spirit the same way. Our utterances come from our heart, His abiding place. It does not come from the mind that is convinced it can do all things in Christ but rather the heart that is Christ in us.