You Must be a Mystic!

I once heard church leader say ‘you don’t need deeper teaching, you just need deeper application’

This was in response to disgruntled persons in the congregation who were fed up with the psychological motivational, live your best life messages from the platform.

Is that true? You don’t need deeper teaching you just need deeper application? By deeper application I think this is partly what was meant: be more committed, show up at all the things, do more, perform more, be nicer, get your act together.

What does the bible say?

Bible says yes you do need deeper application:

Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves. For anyone who hears the word but does not carry it out is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror, and after observing himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. James 1:23

There is a place for application -  for practical interpretation of the bible. The first church the Lord put me in was strong on practical teaching and it sorted me out! Taught me how to serve and be consistent and not selfish and how to be in relationship with others.

But it also says this Hebrews 6:1-3

Therefore let us go on and get past the elementary stage in the teachings and doctrine of Christ (the Messiah), advancing steadily toward the completeness and perfection that belong to spiritual maturity. Let us not again be laying the foundation of repentance and abandonment of dead works (dead formalism) and of the faith [by which you turned] to God. With teachings about purifying, the laying on of hands, the resurrection from the dead, and eternal judgment and punishment. [These are all matters of which you should have been fully aware long, long ago.] If indeed God permits, we will [now] proceed [to advanced teaching]

Well firstly I’m not sure I have even heard some of these so called elementary teachings in church. How often have you heard anyone speak about eternal judgement / the laying on of hands or resurrection from the dead? And these are elementary teachings!

So, according to the Word of God we need both. Deeper application and deeper teaching!

The hunger and desire for ‘deeper teaching’ is not going to go away. We are in a kairos season, where what was and what has been will no longer cut it. People want what is real! They want what is true! They no longer want to sing about Jesus and learn stuff about Jesus; what they actually want is Jesus. To know Him, to sit at His feet, to be immersed in His presence, to drink deeply from wells of Living Water. Jesus is the WAY and the TRUTH and the LIFE!

I don’t know about you but I find myself crying out for the deep things of God. Like the sons of Korah in Psalm 42

AS the deer pants for the water, so my soul pants after you My God. DEEP CALLS TO DEEP  in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.

Some months ago now, when I was walking my dog (so many encounters happen when I walk my dog!) I began to pray out Proverbs 2:1-8 where, in my inmost being I began to yearn and cry out for understanding and insight and wisdom.

My son, if you accept my words and hide my commandments within you, if you incline your ear to wisdom and direct your heart to understanding. If you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

The wisdom of God - the truths of God are not going to be found on the surface. They are not easy pickings! You don’t find the wisdom of God in shallow waters! You won’t find it in self help books or a 10 steps to success podcast. You won’t find it in business organisational paradigms, and a God wants you to be rich and live your best life message.

It is found in the crying out and the seeking and searching. It is found in surrender to our own ways and in crucified flesh. When you get to the end of yourself and your own wisdom … at that point you begin to access the deep things of the Spirit.

1 Cor 2:6-13 says this:

Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,nor the heart of man imagined,what God has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 1 Corinthians 2:6-13

The wisdom of God is a secret and hidden treasure!

How many times have we heard this verses quoted (mis-quoted), as in ‘your eyes can’t see, your ears can’t hear nor can you imagine what God has prepared for you! You are too small! You must not bother yourself with the greatness of God. His ways are not yours - they are too high and lofty for you a mere human’.

But that is not what it says! These things God has revealed to us by his Spirit! The same Spirit that searches the depths (the deep things) of God! The word for depth is ‘bathos’: deep, profound mysteries, the immeasurable spiritual realm.

The Spirit of God reveals immeasurably deep and profound spiritual mysteries to those who walk in His Spirit.

Let’s go to Colossians 2:2:

 [For my concern is] that their hearts may be braced (comforted, cheered, and encouraged) as they are knit together in love, that they may come to have all the abounding wealth and blessings of assured conviction of understanding, and that they may become progressively more intimately acquainted with and may know more definitely and accurately and thoroughly that mystic secret of God, [which is] Christ (the Anointed One). In Him all the treasures of [divine] wisdom (comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God) and [all the riches of spiritual] knowledge and enlightenment are stored up and lie hidden. Colossians 2:2

There it is again. Paul is exhorting the Colossians to become more intimately acquainted with the mystic secret of God (which is Christ!) so that they can access all the treasures of divine wisdom.

There is so much to unpack here but I want to focus on 2 elements.

1. The necessity of being IN Christ, for this is where all the treasures of divine wisdom, spiritual knowledge and enlightenment are stored up and lie hidden.

In Him! This is the invitation and the qualifier and this is where so much of the Western church gets stuck. The way to access the hidden wisdom of God is to be in Him! There is an assumption that if you are a Christian then you are automatically in Christ, and spiritually yes this is true! Your spirit was united and fused with His when you made a commitment to Him, once for all time the moment you accepted Christ. Justified. Done and dusted.

However, most of us, in our unregenerate soul life still have agreements and partnerships with demons; bits of us are still enmeshed and entrenched in the worlds systems, (also known as Babylon), particularly in the Western Church that came out of Rome and was shaped by The Enlightenment. We have been taught to process through our intellect but we cannot access Christ through our intellect. We are not sanctified through our intellect (although sanctification should impact our intellect!)

And the process of sanctification is ongoing. What is positionally true must also become operationally true. It is not enough for your spirit to be in Christ. All of you must be in him and belong to Him, spirit , soul and body!

All of our lives is a process of coming out of the worlds systems and agreement with darkness and coming into Christ. This is an ongoing decision and a daily crucifying of our flesh and our own ways of being and understanding.

Notice what it says in the first sentence from 1 Cor 2:6

Yet among the mature do we impart wisdom…

The word for mature is ‘teleios’. I spoke about that in my last post. It means unfolded one stage at a time (like a telescope) until operating at maximum capacity. It means to fulfil the purpose for which you were created!

Maturity is not performance or appearing to have it all together or being a competent leader. Maturity is those who are led by the Spirit of God:

“for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the ‘huios’ (mature sons) of God”. Romans 8:14

Those who are immature and childish can’t receive the wisdom of God.

The word the bible uses for immature and childish is nepios:

So also, when we were children, (nepios) we were enslaved under the basic principles of the world. Galatians 4:3

You cannot walk in the wisdom of God when you are enslaved by the basic principles of this world!

This verse is speaking about the nepios children as those who are under mosaic law. We cannot  operate under the law of Moses and at the same time operate in the deep, secret hidden wisdom of God. It is not possible. There must be a coming out before there can be a going in.

Please note that this is not a indictment on being a child. We all must progress through childhood to become mature. This is a natural and necessary process. This verse is not speaking about that. There are many newly born again who are far more Spirit led than Christians saved for decades who still operate out of their own ways and wisdom.

Deep calls to deep. This comes out of acknowledgement of profound lack within us. A knowing that within myself I am not enough. I cannot and will not ever find the answers within myself. God in His mercy allows us to experience our own depravity so that we cry out for Him - so that the depths of longing are stirred. If we do not call He cannot answer. If there is not a welling up within us (a crying out)  He cannot respond to reveal the hidden treasures of Himself.

2. The mystic secret of God (which is Christ)

I don’t know about you, but my upbringing in church.. especially the cessationist Baptist church I attended in my early 20s would have totally frowned on anything to do with mysticism,  - it would have been thought occultic and new agey.

Is is possible to be a Christian mystic?

St John of the Cross said this:

“A person who seeks by contemplation and self-surrender to obtain unity with or absorption into the Deity or the absolute, or who believes in the spiritual apprehension of truths that are beyond the intellect.”

This is CS Lewis:

“A mystic is one who seeks to experience the person, presence, and activities of Jesus.”

Tozer said:

“A mystic is a believer who practices the presence of God”.

Simply put, mystics access and understand mysteries. The New Testament is full of mystics and mysteries.

When the disciples asked Jesus why He spoke in parables, He answered and said to them

“because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.”  James 3:15

Who are the them? The ones whose hearts are not open to receive the truths of the kingdom. The ones who are full of their own wisdom and there are plenty in church who are full of their own wisdom. How do I know that? Because I know me. I know that I can be full of my own wisdom and my own ways and how much I have had to repent and continue to have to repent so that I can come out of my limited understanding and into His so that I can come out of being me led and into being Spirit led.

The Greek word for mystery is musterion

A secret or mystery, through the idea of silence imposed by initiation into religious rites. A hidden thing, not obvious to the understanding. The term denotes a divine secret once concealed, now disclosed by God to His covenant people. It is never an esoteric riddle for an elite; rather it is revelation granted through the Spirit and centred in Jesus Christ.

Musterion is from the words mus and its root muo.

These words have the predominant meaning of to shut the eyes and mouth and a secondary meaning of to cover or hide just underneath the surface.

Mus is where we get the words muscle and mouse from!! Yes they are related! It was thought the shape of some muscles resembled that of mice! But this also speaks of the fact that muscles are hidden just underneath the skin and mice tend to be hidden in walls and underneath floorboards.

Hidden things!

They are not visible on the surface. There is an invitation to seek them out.

Glory of God to conceal a matter, glory of Kings to seek it out. Proverbs 25:2

What does it mean to shut the eyes and mouth? I didn’t know, so I asked God and the Holy Spirit immediately said this to me ‘it’s to do with sense and reason’. ‘Eyes’ represents what we see and sense in the natural realm and ‘mouth’ represents human reason.

Romans 8:6 says this:

Now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death [death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter]. But the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is life and [soul] peace [both now and forever].

To access the musterion, the mystic secret of the Kingdom of God (which is Christ), there must be a shutting of our natural eyes and mouth - a death to our own ways - the ways that seem reasonable to us - the things we think we know; the things we have learned in our church traditions that are contrary to the ways of God. There must be a surrender.

I want to be found in Him - wrapped in the mystery realm of Jesus, where true wisdom and understanding  are. I don’t want to be mired in my own nonsense or trapped in the ways and systems of man. I don’t want to process out of the wisdom the earth gives which is sense and reason! James 3:15 says earthly wisdom is earthly, sensual and demonic - there is a downwards trajectory!

And so to the title:

You must be a mystic! We, collectively as the church of Jesus Christ must be found in the mystery realm of the Spirit (which is Jesus). It’s not optional anymore for the super spiritual ones and the ones who are a bit prophetic and esoteric and weird.

Great deception is coming on the earth and is already here! Half the stuff on instagram is generated by ai - you literally don’t know what you are seeing anymore! Things look real that are not real! And this will only get worse!

What is real (true wisdom) can only be found in one place and it is not on this earth!!!

Shut your eyes to processing and understanding by what you see in the natural realm, like Saul when he met Jesus on the road to Damascus - he was blinded in his physical eyes so that his spiritual eyes could be opened wide!

Shut your mouth to earthly reason, don’t fall into that trap - don’t be tempted to work it all out based on how you feel, what’s on the news, how much money you have in your bank account etc…

You must be a mystic, for it has been given to you to know and understand the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven.