What Does God Want from Us?

In Colossians 4:3, we read that there is a door for speaking mysteries of Christ, and I also elaborated on this in John 10:9 DLNT, where Jesus says, "I am the door and if anyone enters through me, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture." We have been discussing how this is much more than just a salvation message of accepting Jesus as your personal savior; it's also a doorway or a gateway to the unveiling of Christ in you, the hope of glory for the world, to bring the kingdom of God into this world.

The door is really your heart, and the hardening of the heart in reference to Jesus. Where is Jesus? Is He in outer space somewhere? Is he in heaven? Where is heaven at? These kinds of questions we need to ponder and ask ourselves: how intimate is our relationship with God? Do we really see God as omnipresent? Do we really understand the all-knowing, the all-powerful, who God is, and the more of that relationship and the intensity of who we are if we are in him?

We have discussed the word ‘saved,’ which is also in this verse, and how it is more than just Jesus saving us from our sins; it also means he has healed us, and this is in the past tense. He has already healed us, delivered us, and made us whole. What does whole really mean in a glorified body state?

The imagery we conjure up and then dwell on—are those really what God is saying? Are we limiting God in what He wants to do through our earthly vessels right now, as the manifestation of His kingdom—oneness in His Spirit and His body, with the Father of oneness of light? 

It also means that you have been delivered out of a physical death. How many of us want to claim it now but don't know if it's a blessing available to us? And if that's even possible, where can we camp on that in the scriptures? If we can find it in the scriptures, then we have something to hold onto. 

What about Enoch, Moses, and Elijah? Why them and nobody else in scripture? can press into the question to ask, "God, do we really have to see death?" Or can we relate to what Paul says in Corinthians 15:55b NIV: "Where O death is your sting?" We should not have it because death belongs to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and Jesus finished the work of removing everything the tree of knowledge had any authority or power over. It doesn't have power anymore unless we give it power.

The next word in John 10:9 KJV that I want to expand on is the word ‘pasture.’ See, Jesus said, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” There is not a period after the word ‘saved’ but a comma. Salvation = SOZO is a place to go in and out to find pasture. There is one blessing when we accept Jesus as the door to our hearts: salvation, healing, and deliverance for our spirits, souls, and bodies. 

Next, we ask ourselves, since Jesus is the door to my heart, and I am in Christ, and He is in me, what does that make me (Galatians 2:20)? What's really going on? See, there's more to me than I even realized. And now it says, "Well, what about the pasture?"

In Psalm 23, often read at funerals, we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, but that's precisely what it is—a shadow. It exists in a place that's a shadow, a mystery of the unseen, where the Lord has already prepared a table for us in green pastures. Here, green symbolizes new beginnings. The word ‘pasture’ refers to food. So, what are you consuming? What are you taking in? Since we're not dealing with natural food, but spiritual food, it’s about nourishment for the soul.

What is your spiritual food? We have three areas that Jesus talks about in Matthew 22:34-40. This food is related to the law in the Old Testament. The spiritual law was the law of Moses. But in the New Testament, when Jesus came, He was being challenged by the lawmakers, the scribes, the Pharisees, and the lawyers. They were not trying to learn anything but were challenging Jesus to see which part of Moses's law was not really from God. 

Matthew 22:34-40 NKJV:

But when the Pharisees heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they gathered themselves together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked Jesus a question testing him, "Teacher, what is the great commandment in the law," meaning the law of Moses, the food we're supposed to be getting. And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And on these two commandments depends the whole law and the prophets."

In Matthew, we have a lawyer and Pharisees, but in Mark 12:28 NIV, we have scribes. One scribe heard the conversation, recognizing that Jesus had answered them fitly and well, so he asked Jesus, "Which commandment is the most important of all?" Jesus replies in the Gospel of Mark the same as in Matthew. However, Mark continues the conversation with a response from the Scribe saying, “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mark 12:32-33 NIV).

The next verse, with Jesus replying to the man, brings the conversation to a halt. “Jesus said to him, 'You are not far from the kingdom of God.' And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions” (Mark 12:34 NIV).

We have scribes, lawyers, and Pharisees challenging him. Jesus made a profound statement that they didn’t know how to respond to. The kingdom of God is not far from them, but what does that mean? The temple is right there in Jerusalem. Is that the kingdom Jesus was referring to, or is it something else?

In Luke 10:25, Jesus has another conversation with a lawyer on what he needs to do to inherit eternal life. The question is not addressing commandments or loving God. We are talking about eternal life. Jesus gives the same answer to the question about the greatest commandment in Matthew and Mark. Is this another time and place with the conversation in Luke 10, or is it the same in Matthew and Mark? The question concerning ‘eternal life’ has been used by theologians as a pathway to get to heaven when you die. Jesus is addressing the kingdom of God as if it were now.

Jesus exemplifies what unconditional love looks like. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and He reciprocates because you have unveiled yourself, just as a bride unveils herself to her beloved, so that the beloved, Jesus Christ, can pour all His seed into you—into your mind, your soul, your heart—everything.

What happens afterward is that you carry the love of God—eternal life—in and through you to love your neighbor as yourself. Not as an ego trip, not as a human act of "Being neighborly." Divine love flows naturally because you see your neighbor as yourself. 

Continuing the conversation in Luke 10, Jesus gives an illustration of how to receive eternal life that the lawyer could relate to—the Good Samaritan. This story was shared in the children’s church for many years. A man was robbed and left for dead while traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. A priest came by and walked on the other side of the road, ignoring the man. Later, a Levite also walks past and does the same as the priest. These two men are supposed to be part of the religion's leadership, along with the Pharisees and Sadducees. Today, they would be pastors, church leaders, evangelists, and teachers of scripture. They knew the commandments, but did not set an example of how to follow them for eternal life now.

It was the Good Samaritan, an everyday person who unconditionally helped the person lying on the side of the road and went the extra mile, not just helping him then but continually assisting him.

That's the illustration that Jesus is giving to us. When we go back to Colossians 4:3 NIV, Paul is requesting, “Pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.” What is this mystery? Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul. And with your all, give that same love to your neighbor so that we may speak for the mystery of Christ, that Christ is in you today (Colossians 1:27).

Since the words ‘eternal life’ are used in Luke 10, we want to try to make all of this about a sinner saved by grace, and to say a sinner's prayer for a ticket to heaven. That is not what any of this is about. Jesus did not respond to the lawyer that he needed to repent and confess that he was a sinner. This is a tabernacle experience of where God is. It's a wedding experience. Jesus started his ministry with a wedding, not a cross, to show us what the wedding of Christ Jesus looks like even now. 

Paul says, "For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of the Gentiles" (Ephesians 3:1 NIV). Gentiles are basically everyone. It's not just the Jewish people, Christians, or any specific religion. It's all of humanity. Paul continues in his letter to the Ephesians about the mystery of Christ. This is an issue that involves grace. Paul became aware of the mystery of Christ by Divine revelation through the Holy Spirit, not by the wisdom of previous generations' religious or philosophical teachings. The Holy Spirit shared the mystery of God that Christ was in the Gentiles, or all humanity. All humanity is fellow heirs as members of the body of Christ, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

This is what the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is about. Not because anyone did anything, and not because they said a sinner's prayer. It is because of the finished work of Jesus Christ, who set captives free in all humanity. He took care of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and He now lives and resides in a body that's reproducing Christ in us. 

A couple of chapters later, Paul shares in his letter to the Ephesians about marriage. In chapter five, these verses are often used in a covenant of marriage between a man and woman, which Paul allows to be understood and acceptable. However, his main purpose of writing is not about a marriage within humanity, but the marriage between Jesus Christ, the husband, and his bride, the church, which is His body united to the head of one man called Christ.

“After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church, for we are members of his body.  “For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:29-32 NIV). 

When we love the Lord Jesus Christ with our all, with everything, we have this ability within us of opening all of the channels of our spine, all of the channels of the cells of our body, all the channels of how our bodies are working, so that we can send out the Christ identity of our Heavenly Father into the world. That is the dunamis power of what love can do, of raising the dead, and setting the captives free, and it is here, and it's now.

We can unravel this mystery. The heavenly door to knowing who Christ is in us is a two-way door. All the blessings of heaven that we think we will receive someday, Jesus Christ wants to release through us today. Just ask for them. Have that intimate conversation, have that pillow talk with Him because He eagerly desires to give you all that heaven has, opening the window so that when others see you, they see Christ in you.

I'll wrap up with a quick story. One day, while I was playing pickleball, a massive heat wave was sweeping across the world. I was soaked in sweat. I mean, it was everywhere. A gentleman I hadn't seen in quite a while showed up at the courts and said, "Hey, Audrey, how are you doing?" 

I replied, "I'm doing great, but I feel very hot and sweaty."

"Oh no. You're glowing, Audrey, I mean, really glowing," he said. "In fact, it's like there's a rainbow essence all around you. I guess it's the sun hitting the water beads off your skin."

I was stunned as he continued to say,

“There's an iridescent radiance of the water particles on your skin that has captured the sun's rays and, like a prism, is now reflecting them out. You're just a walking rainbow of colors."

That blessed me so much, knowing what he was seeing, but how many people don't necessarily see it, even though it's already there. That's you. God is a consuming fire, and His DNA is in you waiting to be unveiled as Christ in you 

Bless the world each day, one person, one flower, one moment that the Lord places in your path. As you bless others with unconditional love, the blessings of Christ will reveal eternal life in you today.