Life Walk Lesson 40: Wholeness
Thesaurus: "Wholeness (as in "integrity") noun: an undivided or unbroken completeness or totality with nothing wanting..."
Many Parts make a Whole — yet we are one Body in Christ
When I look at a stained glass window, or a piece of mosaic art, I look past the lead strips and the mortar, and find the big picture, as I am certain you do.
I believe we can safely say there aren't too many people who are whole, undivided, complete, and with nothing wanting. Most of us wear the broken pieces of our life's journey rather like Jospeh's coat of many colors.
Custom-made and God-directed, the pieced mantle clothes us in memories at times difficult to be reminded of, yet deftly joined with other memories that are cherished, even held onto for dear life, a little like a tessellated patchwork quilt.
There is a kind of precision that comes with even the simplest of quilting patterns, and when all the pieces have been joined, it gives warmth, rest, peace, and comfort to the weary — perhaps even the sense of safety in its perceived shelter from a storm, or joy at a family gathering where good memories are shared.
Unlike mosaics, and stained glass windows, which are held together by a bonding agent, these carefully placed, fragile, fabric pieces are held together by complimenting or contrasting threads, sewn together by tireless hands, according to the pattern designed for its purpose.
Held together by a Thread
Whether it is a quilt given by one relative to another, a one-of-a-kind designer dress, or a centuries-old tapestry hung in a Museum, each thread woven to make the fabric, compiling the story of the covering it represents to its designer, manufacturer, seller and new owner, holds it together so that it appears that nothing is missing or broken — in its totality, with nothing wanting.
Ancient Memories
There was a man named Enoch, who lived in the time-period before the flood which occurred during the days of Noah, whose life-story you will find written in the Book of Genesis, chapter 5 and verse 24, in the Holy Bible.
It simply says:
"Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more for God took him away."
Hebrews 11:5 puts it this way: “By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.”
And the events of Enoch’s life show up again in the Book of Jude, where the brother of our Lord Jesus Christ writes:
“Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: ‘See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.’”
This portion of Scripture is a direct quote from the book known as The Book of Enoch, or 1Enoch, and right out of the first chapter. In this Book, Enoch records the words of God which he heard in God’s presence by vision, and in prayer.
Enoch describes two houses he saw in his vision:
The first house had a tessellated floor which looked like crystal, which I recognized, after reading the Book, as representing the Mosaic covenant, and the second house was far more splendid, having a greater glory than the first house, which I recognized to be everything that Jesus came to do, for He said to His disciples, I go to prepare a place for you. [John 14]
Comfort for All
God does not leave Himself without a witness, in any generation, of His goodness, His faithfulness, His compassionate love for all mankind, for whom He sent His only Begotten Son, that we all might be saved and have a personal relationship with God Almighty — an unbroken communication with the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who wants to be our Father as well — a relationship which brings integrity, completeness, and wholeness to our lives as we walk with Him.
The Shepherd King, David himself writes, in his 23rd Psalm, “The Lord is my Shepherd. I lack nothing.” And Paul describes the believer’s walk with God in his second letter to the Corinthian Church, in chapter 1:7 (NIV)
“Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.”
So, the promises of God are both for physical and spiritual needs, which are met in God’s loving care through those He sends to help us. For indeed, that is why we are gifted: to help one another, to complete that which God is building up into a Body, made up of many parts all having their unique function, which is the very picture of unity.
An Invitation to Live a new Life in the Kingdom of God
God did something similar with the Apostle John, as recorded in his gospel account, where Jesus lets the apostle Peter know that each individual must follow Jesus, and do what He called them to do, even though they are a part of a community of believers.
John 21:20-23
20 “Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?” 21 Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, “But Lord, what about this man?”
22 Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.”
23 Then this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?”
We, of course, know what happened to John, for in his Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, John records the visions he was given, just as God did for Enoch, of the place God lives — in the Bride of Christ — and God’s way of Life, in His Kingdom.
The Apostle Peter puts it this way:
1 Peter 2:4-6
4. “As you come to Him, the Living Stone — rejected by humans but chosen by God and Precious to Him — 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house [or: a temple of the spirit] to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says: ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a Chosen and Precious Cornerstone, and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.’”
Quoted from: Isaiah 28:16 (NIV)
“So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic.’”
Are you a thread in God’s Tapestry of Time? Have you been incorporated into the strong fabric which God is weaving into a consecrated Body, His Bride?
Just as the Prophet Elijah found Elisha working in the field, and threw his own mantle on him, I invite you to be a follower and an imitator of God, as does a child — one of these gentle and humble pieces of fabric, joined to many others, which imparts healing and deliverance to the nations, as Ezekiel, Peter, Dr, Luke and John describe [in Ezekiel 47:12, 1 Peter 2, and Acts 19:11-12, Revelation 21].
Be as living stones — part of this more glorious, and solid as a rock, impenetrable-to-evil-Temple, as Scripture’s metaphors have painted. Because you love Him, you are already in Him, just as Jesus promises, in John 15, joined together in the unity of the Holy Spirit, seamlessly, just as millions of grains of sand become spotless and transparent glass.
Our Heavenly Wardrobe has Seamless Foundation Garments
Outwardly we, as the Body of Christ, look like we are made up of many members, from every walk of life, and many kinds of brokennesses, however, we have a Seamless Foundation Garment, by God’s design, which God has joined together by His Holy Spirit, and nothing and no one can separate us from Him.
Revelation 21:14
“The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.”
Revelation 21:16-17
“The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He [the angel] measured the city with the rod [of gold, which is malleable] and found it to be 12,000 stadia [1,400 miles/2,200 kilometers] in length, and as wide and high as it is long. 17 The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits [200 feet/65 meters] thick.”
Revelation 21:18-19
18 “The wall was made of jasper and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. 19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper…”
Dictionary Definition: malleable: adjective: 1. (of a metal or other material) able to be hammered or pressed permanently out of shape without breaking or cracking; 2. easily influenced; pliable
God’s measuring rod measures with grace and mercy, as King David penned so long ago, in his 23rd Psalm.
Psalm 23:6
“Surely your Goodness and Love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Dictionary definition: Jasper — 1. an opaque reddish brown variety of chalcedony
From Wikipedia: Jasper, an aggregate of micro granular quartz and/or chalcedony and other mineral phases, is an opaque, impure variety of silica, usually red, yellow, brown or green in color; and rarely blue. The common red color is due to iron inclusions. The mineral aggregate breaks with a smooth surface and is used in ornamentation or as a gemstone. It can be highly polished…A green variety with red spots, known as heliotrope (bloodstone) is one of the traditional brimstones of March…the name means “spotted or speckled stone” and in ancient times was described as green, like an emerald, yet clear like glass. It is also known and used, by scientists, as a “touchstone” on which to show traces of metal visibly.
God takes our spotted and speckled lives, joins us together in him, and polishes us until we are like transparent glass which looks like gold, a sparkling diadem in His hands, as the Prophet Isaiah so eloquently says. [Isaiah 62:3]
Jesus stretches out His hand once again today, to touch you— the one who once again needs to feel that safe place, where you belong. [Psalm 91:1]
He says, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus goes on to say, “…Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am Gentle and Humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
If you have been walking around, pacing even, and stressed out, on the tessellated, mosaic floor of your life’s journey, with the unwritten laws in your mind, which decree: “It ought to have been this way” or, “That shouldn’t have happened to me” or, the all-too-often-spoken: “WHY ME!?” — all the brokennesses in our lives, which as yet make no sense to us, then come up higher, and walk with Jesus, our Advocate before all of heaven’s inhabitants, Who is the Healer of our brokennesses, and the Comforter in all our distresses.
The Healer of our souls makes all things whole again, according to His purpose, and in His timing, by the Indwelling Holy Spirit, our Comforter, Guide, Teacher and Counsellor.
Let’s look at a moment in eternity:
Isaiah 54:7
“For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back.” [Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46]
John 19:23
“When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took His clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.”
When Jesus was raised from the dead, He proved to His disciples, that He indeed was Jesus by showing them the nail-wounds in His two hands and two feet, and the spear-wound in His side, which they had seen inflicted, where the blood and water poured out at His death for our healing and salvation.
[Mini Study: Exodus 15:2; 2 Samuel 22:3; 2 Chronicles 6:41; Isaiah 45:8; Isaiah 59:17, 60:18, and 61:10 for many examples of the garments of salvation, and the temple architecture described as salvation]
In His other appearances to the disciples before His ascension into heaven, they did not recognize Jesus at first, until they saw what He did, which was His manner of living previous to His crucifixion. [As promised in John 14:21]
The only way Mary could bear a child with God, as a virgin, was because she did not “know” a man. In the same way our potential, as a Christian, to succeed in life with God’s help is because God’s Seed is in us. [1John 3:9]
This too is a God-orchestrated life-event, which no man or evil spirit, could prevent, or even intervene in, so as to “make it happen” or to say that they had any part in it, or against it. In Christ, we have been fully equipped with everything we need to live a whole, godly, and productive Kingdom-life.
God lays down His life at the Cross for us, in the same way as He took on our humanity in the womb, slain from the foundation of the world, John says in the Book of Revelation: unhindered by sperm or sword, to fulfill that which was planned long ago to set us free from all brokenness, bringing us into life and that more abundantly. [Revelation 13:8; John 10:10]
Encouragement:
If there are still invisible scars which remind you of past woundings, or bruisings, let your heart no longer be troubled, for you share in common the marks of Jesus, as Paul describes them, in Galatians 6:17, which prove you have been where He has been in His life’s journey. Take heart, that when others suffer in the same way, you have been blessed to be a blessing with the comfort God gives you to pass on to them also.
There is a beauty to brokenness that everyone identifies with who as “been there and done that” and experienced heartache in their lives. There is common ground in the understanding of “I know how you feel” which comes with shared grieving over loss, whether that be of people, possessions, or time itself. And we stand in awe when we see someone overcome great hardships, which we firmly believe we could have never endured.
It is rarely the one who has one success after another that we admire from afar, but the one who seems to never get anywhere in life, though they try and keep trying irregardless of the obstacles which say, “You can’t come in here!” We admire their faith, their bulldog tenacity which never lets go of the goal, though it seems intangible.
We worship a God Who came to earth to see what it was like to be us, “from the cradle to the grave,” as they say. He is the only One Who entered the womb He designed, drank the milk He created to nourish each and every human being, and walked to His Own funeral.
The Mentor was taught just like you and I, and the Healer needed His wounds bound up and cared for just like you and I. The difference is, He got up, having overcome death, hell and the grave, to show us our unique potential, written on the Curtain of Heaven, the timeless record of all He created us to be, known as The Book of Life.
Because the earthly temple curtain was torn in two from top to bottom, when He gave His spirit back to His Father so as to experience death on our behalf, He invites us on a journey whereby we help, heal and deliver others, as we have been helped by Him, which He takes quite personally, according to Matthew 25.
We all start out with our names written in that Book of Life. Trust God with your journey, believe what He says about you and your relationship with Him, and obey His command to love Him and to love one another, and it will never be erased. Come to Him, for He alone can give you true peace of mind, rest for your soul, and wholeness for your whole being.
Whether you have come to Jesus your Creator today for the first time, or to rededicate yourself to walking with Him, I say to you: Welcome Home. Welcome to His way of life — His Kingdom.
