Saviour of all Mankind

SAVIOUR OF ALL MANKIND

We are continuing the discussion of the goal of our faith – the saving of our souls.
The saving of our souls is a collaborative work between us and the Saviour of our souls.

1Timothy 4:7 train yourself for godliness; for if physical training has some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. For to this end we struggle and make an effort because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Saviour of all Mankind, especially of those who believe. 
Saviour - g4990. ????? s??t??r; from 4982 sozo; saviour, rescuer, healer, protector.

I want to note especially that this saving work of the soul was achieved by Jesus for all of Mankind – everybody - That is the heart’s desire of a loving God for his creation, but it only becomes a present reality to those who have faith in that work of God through Jesus Christ.
Paul compares the effort for spiritual fitness to training ourselves for physical fitness, and physical fitness is only effective if the discipline is regular and ongoing. The same goes for our training in spiritual fitness, or godliness.
How do we train ourselves for godliness, the inner work of spiritual fitness?
Paul tells us that we have to make an effort - an inner spiritual work of the soul – a labour of entering into the rest of faith, as our Saviour works supernaturally upon us and for us in all things. 
All of us have a natural human spirit that was created in the image of God before the foundation of the world, but when the Holy Spirit was poured out on humanity on the Day of Pentecost God’s Spirit was made available to be joined to our human spirit through our faith (God with us). 
The soul expresses both the natural human spirit, and our ‘God with us’ Spirit, and these are two different spiritual realities for us

Our human spirit reality is instinctively influenced by what is happening to us in the world around us and that stamps its identity of our idea of ourselves (who we think we are) upon our soul. Our God with us Spirit reality is influenced by what The Holy Spirit is doing to transform us and that stamps the identity of God’s idea of who we are upon our soul. It takes work and effort on the inner life of the soul to move from one reality to the other and that work includes what the Bible calls being renewed in the spirit of our mind (Romans 12:2).

The human spirit always has a sense of falling short – the have not, am not, know not, cannot and do not. These can seem irrational to our minds if we analyse them but the emotions and feelings are what they are and they are not always rational because our imagination can escalate the drama of any situation whether good or bad.  . 
We often deal with this falling short am not, have not in our natural minds by deciding to put on a front or go into denial or blame a whole lot of circumstances or other peoples’ behaviour, but our self defence mechanisms and coping devices end up failing and wearing us out emotionally, and all kinds of harmful or destructive behaviour can result from these efforts. 

God sees each one of us in our human spirit as his child created in his image. But those who believe the lifechanging truth, that God has caused our spirit to be joined in oneness to his Spirit are told in the Bible that they are being transformed into the image of Jesus by the Spirit of the Lord (2Corinthians 3).  This only has meaning and power for those who believe in this truth and choose to live in it.
Holy Spirit seeks to awaken us to a new Reality of who we are. On the one hand we need to have a grasp of how to honestly admit our own sinful nature and its weakness and fallibility. On the other hand we need to have a grasp of the nature of God’s forgiveness and love and mercy. God is bigger than our opinion of ourselves, and our opinion of God is always immeasurably deficient. As his Word and his Spirit informs our spirit more and more of the loving nature of God we grow to love and trust him more and more. 

Our experience of the outer life and the inner life.
The outer life is experienced as a series of events and happenings with the world.
The inner life is experienced as a series of moments of connection with God. 

The outer life
Our outer life experiences dominate the attention of our natural mind which is the mind of our natural human spirit. The natural mindset in relationship to the outer life and the world goes down the pathway of wanting to ‘know the world’ and wanting to be ‘known by the world’ and this is where our mental and emotional energy is spent. That is the place where our sense of ‘I have not, I am not, I cannot, wants to ‘know the world’ and find answers of self-help and self-mastery. That is also the place where our need for belonging and feeling some measure of significance causes us to want to be ‘known by the world’ and find answers to these basic human needs. These are not wrong pursuits for the natural mind and emotions to have, because for most of the world that is the only kind of mindset that exists as a reality, and that is what has brought us all individually and collectively to the place of whatever measure of material attainment and success we have all reached at this time in history - and this is where our natural and emotional energy has mostly been spent and where we call upon the reserves of our acquired skills and learning and God given gifts.
However, this natural mindset has also brought us to whatever measure of evil and disorder that also exists at this time in history – our failure to live in love and be at peace with one another, and this is where our natural and emotional energy has mostly been spent.

The inner life
The inner life is experienced as a series of moments of connection with God. 
Connecting with God is not just the mental knowledge of the fact that God exists remotely in the universe and if you try hard enough you might get his attention. He is there within you wanting to get your attention. As far as you and he are concerned you are his only concern - his concern is your inner life, your inner world, and we need to learn that we can give any given moment of time to that reality, no matter what else is going on. Otherwise Jesus is not your Saviour but a concept of someone you can read about in the Bible who did wonderful things on the earth two thousand years ago.
Your present reality is that he is actively at work in the world of the unseen on your behalf concerning every detail of your life. You are his creation and have been brought into oneness with him, which is a reality for us only if we believe it, even though God’s oneness with us is his objective for humanity – ‘the Saviour of all mankind, especially of those who believe’(1Timothy 4:7)

The spiritual ‘God with us’ mind goes down the pathway of wanting to know God and be known by him (Galatians 4:9). Knowing him is more than just having information about him. It is experiencing the warmth and friendship of Jesus in his humanity and his divinity. The Bible tells us that those who love God are known by him because knowing and being known is a two-way self-disclosure between one person and another. 
We give ourselves to him by sharing everything about ourselves with him and he gives himself to us not only by revealing to us what his Word says about him but also by the whisper of the Holy Spirit who reveals who Jesus is to us in any given situation. We focus upon that and connect with God in that moment. 

We’re talking about going down this pathway of connecting with God, but this pathway has to be formed first, for us to be able to get on it quickly and freely, in any circumstance or situation, and this takes practice – it takes spiritual work, the exercise of godliness. This becomes what we give our time and energy to. 
So where is our mind at any one stretch of time? Is it stuck on ‘‘am not - have not - cannot - will not? 
If we can focus on ‘God with us’ and his goodwill towards us in the events and happenings of life, those things of the world assume their rightful place in the big scheme of our lives, and that captive moment of oneness with him turns into a moment of faith, where I am assured that God is at work for me in that situation and that, in turn brings rest and peace and blessing. That is the ‘when I’m weak I’m strong’ exchange in real time, and at so little cost. New pathways of faith and hope get laid down and get formed more permanently in our minds every time we do this exercise of godliness, and more space is created in our hearts to contain his loving presence and rest. 

So we need to establish these pathways of faith and hope by setting aside quality abiding time with God, as Jesus did when the Bible speaks of him retiring to be away from others and to be with his Father on a mountain top, a metaphor of putting our minds upon things above and not on the things of this earth. I call these structured times of collaborative work with God ‘Presence Prayer’. 
The practice of presence prayer establishes these pathways of faith and hope. Our work is the being still and holding on to him in our minds and hearts - a work of receiving – the labouring to enter into the rest of the soul.
We focus upon God’s spiritual reality that he is supernaturally at work in the world of the unseen on our behalf concerning every detail of our inner life – his Spirit changing us into his likeness and opening our eyes to his miraculous ordering of all things in our life, and becoming our peace and hope and consolation. We practice focussing upon this instead of focussing on our human spirit ‘have not’ reality concerning all of our problems. We can do this often and for extended periods of time just as Jesus did. It is something we can do when we choose to. 
I would like us to do an exercise of Presence Prayer now for a couple of minutes, and to meditate upon some spiritual realities of God’s words to us from Scripture, as David said;
PSALM 19:14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord,
So just sit quietly and meditate upon these words of encouragement from the Lord.

 

Meditations

I am receiving from you Lord the salvation of my soul (1Peter 1:9). 

I am seeking first your Kingdom O Lord and knowing that you add all the other things that I need according to your will (Luke 12:31). 

You give me the spirit of power and of love and of an ordered mind (2Timothy 1:7)

I know that it is you that is working within me to will and to do that which pleases you (Philippians 2:13)

I am coming to you just as you asked me, to find rest for my soul (Matthew 11:28). 

I will be still and know that you are God. 
I will be still and know that you are the Lord that heals me. (Psalm 46:10)

I give you thanks Lord, with a grateful heart. 

How precious are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them (Psalm 139:17)

I know that your presence will go with me and you will give me rest for I have found grace in your sight and you know me by name. (Exodus 33:14)

I trust in you O Lord
I say you are my God
My times are in Your hands 
My times are in Your hands (Psalm 31:14)

I Know that you are doing exceedingly abundantly above all that I ask or think according to your power that is working within me. (Ephesians 3:20)

As you said Jesus; I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I determine; and My judgment is right, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me. (John 5:30)

I know the thoughts that you have towards me, of good and not of evil, to give me a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11)

I am confident that you Lord who has begun a good work in me will complete it until that day (Philippians 1:6)