So if we are joined as one, and I am now the one living through you, what is the nature of this life I am living in you?
There are only two choices: a self-seeker or a self-giver; a self-lover or an other-lover. I am eternally an other-lover. I am a self-giver. Everything I do, I do for the benefit, the welfare, of the other.
“God so loved the world that He gave …”
“I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
That is what I have done for you. And that is what I will do through you. I will always be a self-giver, an other-lover, through you.
This can seem hard. Everything in this world screams that the way to fulfillment and satisfaction is to be a self-lover, a self-seeker. You have to grab what you can out of this world. You have to take care of yourself. It’s a lie. It doesn’t lead to fulfillment. You can see that it’s a lie by simply looking around you. But lies are deceptively appealing.
If you are born of God and joined to me, you have forever died to being a self-getter. You share in my nature, and your true nature is mine: to be an other-lover. You have the privilege of allowing me to lay down my life through you for others. That means your life being laid down as well.
The gratifications that the world offers are obvious and often immediate. They are also short-lived. What may not be immediately apparent, but becomes very clear in experience, is the utter fulfillment in being for others. I am the infinitely happy God; I am completely self-giving.
How can you be free to be a self-giver, to allow me to love others through you, to always seek what is best for the other person?
It is only possible as you take the faith step of affirming that I am your fulfillment. I am your satisfaction. I meet all of your inner needs. I am the living water that has quenched your thirst. As you continually take that faith step, my Spirit makes it a reality in your experience. Faith dissolves into knowing. You know that I am your fulfillment. You are freed from having to constantly seek to get from others—seek to get what they cannot give you. How is a limited, finite world—how are limited, finite beings—ever going to be your fulfillment? You were created for the divine. You were created for the infinite.
I am your fulfillment. Right now. You are full on the inside, and the rivers of living water flow out from you to others.
As with everything else, however, this is a faith process. You hear what I say, you grab it by faith despite appearances to the contrary, and you affirm it, over and over. My Spirit confirms it in you, and you become a knower.
In love, I have joined you to myself forever. And you are now my means of bringing life to others. They are thirsty. They are hungry. They will see my life in you and be drawn to it. They will see the peace in you, the joy in you, the other-love flowing through you in the midst of difficult circumstances. It will look like you, but you know it’s me in you. You know that you’re simply the container, the clay vessel.
Clay jars are meant to be used. You are the means by which my other-giving love is shown to the world. In the process, you are filled. Being poured out for others becomes your joy. You share in the abundant life of the infinitely happy God.
But if you are to be fully available as my vessel, through which I live my other-love life, you need something—something that actually you already have. You need my mind. You need to see as I see.
I’ve said all of this before:
“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:12-13)
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)
We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. (1 John 3:16)
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. (1 John 4:7)
“I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” (John 6:35)
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves. (Philippians 2:3)
But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that the extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are …always carrying around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our body. For we who are alive are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our mortal body. As a result, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. (2 Corinthians 4:7, 10-12)
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