I mentioned earlier that some "Christians" deconvert from Christianity because they have no evidence that Jesus ever actually lived. I have no evidence that He lived two thousand years ago, either. I have evidence that He lives NOW, and I believe that He has lived in humans as long as there has been any.
The thing is: He is displayed in His ACTIONS. We don't recognize and acknowledge them, but all life is His working (He is qualities in the Field). Sometime after I was baptized in the Holy Spirit (the "Breath" of God), during a Sunday morning service at the House of Praise, the pastor asked us to share what God or Jesus (I don't remember which term he used) had done for us during the week. I couldn't think of a specific thing that stuck out (though I knew there was something - I just couldn't or wouldn't articulate it), and apparently neither could or would anyone else. Rod, the Pastor, rebuked us, saying we should always be ready to give an account/ share what God was doing in our lives. He told us to be quiet and think about what it was that Jesus had done for us.
I closed my eyes, and in my mind's eye I saw Jesus, which I now know as the Milta, being tethered between posts, or to a post, by Roman soldiers. They were going to scourge Him. And they did scourge Him with a cat-o-nine tails until His back was torn up as hamburger. I watched as they put the cross on His back to carry, and as He hauled it down the paved path. He passed out, going into shock from the pain. He was dying. They gave the cross to another man to haul, for they had to keep Jesus alive long enough to kill him. All the while, I was mentally reaching out, desperate to trade places with Him. "It was MY sin!" I mentally screamed. "It should be ME being crucified. The punishment deserved is MINE!" Almost like a voice heard, I saw that I couldn't pay for my own sin, because if I died I would simply be dead. For the wages of sin is death. I'd just be eternally dead. But Jesus Christ could pay for them, because he had no sin, up to and including doing this act in obedience, for His honor of and love of God. Jesus was doing this for the joy of winning the right to forgive me. He was going through all this for ME, for the joy that would be His, because HE BELIEVED THE PROMISE OF GOD: "You will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful (or holy) one see decay" (Psalm 16:10). Talk about confidence!
They got to Golgotha, laid the head of the cross on a stone, and made Jesus to lie on that rough-sawn timber on His torn-up back. I know you have been to church, and that you are familiar with the story. But here comes a twist: I am in my imagination looking at Jesus from his right side. The soldiers stretched out His right arm and put a stake to it to fasten it to the cross. As the soldier lifted his mallet, Jesus turned His face to me and said, "Come unto Me." But not in my imagination. I heard it physically, in the auditory nerves of my brain. Not through the right or left ear, but transcendently from Him into my brain. It wasn't any voice of my imagination; it was full and strong and pointed directly at me. I thought: A) that is a really good trick; and B) I don't know how to get there. You are in heaven, and I can't fly. I've got no road that goes up there. I don't know how to get to where You are.
Did I mention to you that I am dumb? Christ Jesus is IN us. "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." "Lo, I am with you alway." "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is IN you, except ye be reprobates?" (2 Corinthians 13:5). It was from within me that I heard a real, literal voice. Jesus is ALWAYS monitoring our thoughts, because He is in our BRAINS. And He can talk, too.
Danny
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