In order for us to come into these parallel realms of “communion” with Jesus as His Bride, and a “cooperative relationship” with Him as a son, we must not settle for less than, or come short of the development within us of a “single eye,” which has clear focus and discernment. Our having this single eye is essential, so these “stairs” will become increasingly visible and accessible to us.
Eph. 1:18 AMP says; By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can “know” and “understand” the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set apart ones). May each one of us be “enlightened” with this higher level of spiritual perception and understanding of knowing Christ intimately and personally. It is time for His children to move past the mere shallow, “intellectual” sense and reasoning, relationship with Christ, and on into a deep spiritual covenantal relationship. Many only know “about” God, through their intellectual perceptions and personal religious or denominational lenses based on what they were taught from others from the bible, but have never or rarely experienced for themselves, His manifest presence. “The hope to which He has called you,” the rich and glorious inheritance in the saints, for all of us, is know and understand that Jesus Christ Himself deeply desires to bring us into a relationship with Him, that far exceeds anything that most of us have ever even imagined. One where we meet with Him daily, actually experiencing His manifest presence as a lifestyle and communing with Him, not just reading the bible or a book about Him. Anything less is mere intellect and that prevents us from truly experiencing “the abundant life” on every level. Romans 8:6 AMP says; Now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit ] is death [death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter] But the mind of the [Holy Spirit is life and {soul} peace both now and forever].
Most of us do not want to admit that we live by ( make our every day decisions by) sense and reason, or by a carnal mind, but the fact is we do. Romans 8:7 goes on to say, ….because the mind of the flesh [with its carnal thoughts and purposes] is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God’s Law; indeed it cannot. We need to come to a place in our lives where we honestly “realize” that we are not walking in the Spirit but living and making our every day decisions from our soul and not from our spirit man, connected to His Spirit. This is evident by lack of true spiritual fruit and peace in our lives. Most of us live and make our daily decisions based on personal need, wants, desires and emotions and not out of a living, thriving, one on one, personal and intimate relationship with Christ.
Our purpose in talking about the difference between an intellectual and deep spiritual relationship with Jesus is not to condemn but rather to help us understand what God has made available to each of us and to create a hunger deep within us that can only be satisfied by Him, and Him alone. “One thing…that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and inquire in His temple.” Psalm 27:4. The Lord desires to bring us into this same experience of having a single eye for Him. We were created with the ability to “focus” our desires. Our inner man (spirit), quickened and inhabited by Holy Spirit has the ability to “respond” to His presence and to come to know Him intimately. All we need to do is become willing to lift our spirit upward toward Him. One of the greatest miracles is that an infinite and mighty God finds pleasure and satisfaction in His times of fellowship with us, mere mortals.
It should be natural and normal for us to move into the deeper things of God and enjoy His manifest presence and fellowship. We were created for this purpose. So why don’t we? What prevents this from happening? In one word, “flesh”. The carnal mind. Sense and reason. Our surface, self, soul life, who wishes to dominate our thinking and decisions, prevents us from entering into this higher spiritual life with God. The good news is we can choose, today, to allow Holy Spirit, by His grace, to help us move away from this carnal Christian living, and on into a deeper relationship with God, than we ever imagined. It is simply impossible to be “complete” without Him. John 15:5, I am the Vine; you are the branches, Whosoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me], you can do nothing.
S.of S. Solomon 2:14, O My dove, that are in the clefts of he rock…..This “Rock” is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Through direct intervention (clefts), He will become active in our behalf and begin to remove from us, and from our surroundings, all that hinders our relationship with Him. It is His determined purpose to make us “one” with Him, as His Bride. He alone is the Rock Foundation upon which we are built and established. Paul in Philippians 3:13 put it this way; I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration] forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. Vs 14; I press on toward the goal to win the [ supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward. Jesus Christ is the ultimate prize and our supreme calling is “knowing” Him.