The Road Back to Eden – Pt. 2
I want to continue this week to discuss the subject of abiding in God, and I do so because I feel it is the key (or at least a big part of the Christian faith) that we have still been missing.
As I said last time, salvation is the beginning; it is what allows us to get back to God, to unravel the power of sin at work in the world so that we can be with God. But it doesn’t stop with salvation. Christ is like a bridge connecting two cliffs, us and God. Our problem is we tend to accept that there is a bridge now to get to God, yet we stay on the side we are on. Or we might decide to walk across the bridge but every so often make our way back to the other side. Any power sin has is because we gave it the power. We don’t venture over to God or walk back to sin once we have God because sin still holds authority. We allow sin any power it might now have.
If you still have an habitual problem with lying, manipulating, pornography, pride, anger, etc, it’s not because you haven’t been fully redeemed. The work done by Christ on the cross is finished, completed, absolute, perfected, and fulfilled. Every sin we have ever committed and will ever commit is covered by the blood of Christ. But does that mean we stay on the other side, never crossing the bridge to God? Or does that mean we can go over to God but then make our way back to the other side here and there? No! And most people who struggle with sin don’t want that either. I mean, who would want to be with God in all His majesty and wonder and still go back to sin? But for some reason, we cannot seem to break out of the cycle of giving sin a place in our lives.
Here’s my conclusion and why learning to abide in God has become a burning desire in my heart. We can’t fully make it back to Eden until we learn how to abide in God. Any power we have given sin will not be broken until we learn to abide in His presence. Now I’m not talking about getting back to where we are in a Garden with God, running around naked! I’m talking about getting back to the relationship that man and woman once had with God. As we draw closer to Him, the habitual sins and old world perceptions of who we are literally melt away. We become LIKE Him! His Word and His presence are like a compass that points us back due north, that gets our focus off of the sin and on Him! Remember sin has been defeated, stripped of all power and authority. We just have to get the focus off of sin and onto God.
Holiness produces separation from sin, but mere separation from sin cannot produce holiness. It is not the absence of sin that produces our sanctification; holiness comes from the presence of God. Christ in us is our holiness, for as close as our relationship is with Him, to that degree we reflect His holiness.
-Francis Frangipane, Holiness, Truth and the Presence of God
Our goal is to be holy, set apart like Him for holiness completely separates us from a life of sin. The more we abide in Him, the closer we are in relationship with Him, the more holy we become.
Again ask God what it means to abide in Him. How would your daily walk change if you were to actually be in relationship with God 24/7? Have you given sin any power in your life? If so, what things can you do to start getting the focus off of sin and on God? It will literally change our whole perspective and outlook on the things around us if we just learn to abide in Him.
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit 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, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing,” John 15:1-5.
“In Your presence all fear is gone
In Your presence
In Your presence is where I belong
In Your presence”
–In Your Presence, Jason Upton
Matt Birkenfeld 
This is good. Love it.