Greetings friends! Let me continue with the theme of renewal as the season of Spring is upon us. Are there fears in your life you are struggling with? Many lives have been crippled by fear – both real and imagined. Let’s discuss this important topic. I hope by the end of this blog post, you will have found the only way to eradicate your fears.

The Bible gives the answers to our fears. The Scripture says plainly and unequivocally , “There is no fear in Love. But perfect Love drives out fear” (1 John 4:18). Many believers have seen this passage, even tried to live by it as best as they know how, but regrettably their fears continue to pursue them like a plaque. Why? Quite simply, they have not known how to apply this passage. You have to ask and answer what is “Perfect Love.” That is the key to overcoming our fear. Once you have the answer, then fear will dissipate as quickly as it comes.   

“Perfect Love” – What Does That Mean? (Wiki Commons)

I have always shown and explained through my blog there are only two ways of life to live: the “solitary life,” and what many of my readers have to come see me write, the “Triune Life.”** The “solitary life” is the condition in which fear is the motivation. The “Triune Life”** is the condition where Love is the driving force. Fear and Love are opposite conditions we freely choose and elect to live by. So, let’s answer what are these two broad ways of life.

“Solitary Life” – the False Self

Living the “solitary life” means a life that’s lived in oneself apart from Jesus Christ. We are all born into the self-centered “solitary life” as a consequence of Adam’s fall. Paul said, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ” (Rom.8:9). Christ is the second Adam. The Bible says the Spirit is the personification of God’s Love in us, and thereby empowers the “Triune Life”**:  Paul asserts, “God’s Love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Rom.5:5b). The “solitary life” is life that’s lived under the influence of the devil, the instigator of human sin, pain, and suffering which breeds fear in humans. The self-centered “solitary life” is synonymous with everything uncreative, corrupt and deathly in fallen man. Some of my readers may not have heard of these two terms. The “good” man does, God calls “filthy rags” because they are self-righteous acts which does not breed Love but promotes fear. (Isa.64:6) It’s the underlying motive of our hearts which counts. (1 Sam.16:7b) The “solitary life” in turn shapes the ‘false self’ who lives by fear, not Love. Many call themselves Christians but still live the “solitary life” which is a paradox, for the essence of following Jesus is to live the “Triune Life.”** It’s no fault of theirs if they had not been shown how to live it. They were told to “receive Christ” but were never shown how to follow Him. They may have been taught different terms which are ambiguous, and downright misleading, as we’ll see. I hope I can make this as simple to understand so you too can live the blessed life God has called us to in His perfect Love – the Love which drives out fear.

“Triune Life” – the True Self

The word Triune means consisting of three in one, as in the Trinity. It conveys the Tri-Personal Being of God in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Therefore “Triune Life”** means a life that’s lived in and under the influence of the divine Love of the Trinitarian God in heaven. However, all people since Adam have not known, let alone lived by the “Triune Life.”** Because of Adam’s fall, mankind has been consigned to living this self-centered “solitary life.” The Bible speaks of Jesus as the second Adam who would come and right the wrong of the first Adam. “As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22; 1 Cor.15:45). Jesus comes and introduces the “Triune Life”** to man by revealing the Father and the Spirit. He said, “I and My Father are One,” and, “I will ask the Father and He will give you another Advocate (Spirit) to help you and be with you forever… He will glorify Me.” (John 10:30; john 14:16; 16:14). That is one of the pillar objectives of His coming to earth, besides others, to reveal God is Triune – to show God is our Father, Jesus our Brother, and Herald* (Spirit) is our ever-present Friend and Miracle-Worker.

Man Has to Change (Born Again) from the “Solitary Life” in Self to the “Triune Life” In Christ (Wiki Commons)

Thus, the “Triune Life”** is born and made a reality in the life of man through man’s Savior, Jesus. The basic tenet of living the “Triune Life”** is revealed by Jesus in His words, “By Myself I can do nothing” (John 5:30). By saying that, He disenfranchises Himself from the “solitary life.” In other words, He never does things solitarily on His own; the way He thinks, feels, and acts, is done in complete collaboration with the Father and the Spirit. How can He, when Jesus, the Father, and the Spirit, are of one substance and reality in the Triune Godhead. Even if He wants to, He cannot, so the act of One is always the act of all Three Persons in the Trinity, and the act of Three is the act of One. Jon P. Murhpree, in his book , “The Trinity and Human Personality,” says this, “Each one (of the three Persons of the Trinity) transposes Himself into the others without confusing His own personality with the others. Through Love, diversity and unity are so inextricably interwoven that the Father, Son, and Spirit do not exist as Persons alongside each other as much as they exist in and through each other. Each One constantly has perfect access to the others complete thought and feelings.” (pg.29) So when we follow Christ, we live the same “Triune Life” in the Spirit’s power.

“Perfect Love” Comes to Man By Entering the Life of the Trinity – the “Triune Life” (Wiki Commons)

As I said, many were told to “receive Jesus” but were never taught the true cost of becoming His follower. Very simply, the “cost” is giving up the “solitary life,” and embracing the “Triune Life.” Jesus makes plain that it is possible to say one is Christian, but be none of His: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt.7:20-21). By saying, “only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven,” Jesus was pointing us to the “Triune Life.”** God is trinitarian and indivisibly ONE in their Triune Love for each other. Each Person in the Trinity find completeness in their Love for each other, not in their individual selves. By receiving Jesus as Savior, the believer is translated into the same life where he lives this collaborative, interdependent, unified, and Loving, “Triune Life” in Christ, where we seek “to do the will of the Father.”

It is not a relationship based upon legalism, but on Love for each other. For in doing this, the believer finds his ‘true self’ in Christ, not in himself. God placed gifts upon us which the Spirit enunciates them (gifts) in life. Thus we read Paul’s words, “We are complete in Christ” (Col.2:10). To think and live trinitarianly is to dwell and live in each other’s Love for each other, not in one’s own solitary self-centered self. In other words, you find your ‘true self’ only by discovering fulfillment in Loving one another. This is how fear is driven away when we cease to be self-conscious and be other-conscious, like God is in His Loving Triune nature.

“Perfect Love” found Only in the “Triune Life”

The purpose of the “Triune life” is essentially to protect the believer from the inconsistencies and ravages of the “solitary life” which brings fear, suffering, heartaches, and ultimately physical and spiritual death. We’re not living in the emotional juggernaut of the moment through the ‘false self’ who generates fear (intuitively), in all its manifestation and its dire consequences. Hence the “Perfect Love” which drives out fear from our lives is found only when we are living the “Triune Life” in heaven with the Father, through Jesus’ continuous mediation, and in the power of Herald the Spirit who lives is us as His temple. To live the “Triune Life” is the miraculous expression of the Spirit in us. The miraculous life is the promise of the New Covenant, “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep My ordinances, and do them” (Ezek.36:27). And His command are not grevious, “In fact, this is Love for God: to keep His commands. And His commands are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). How can something which dispels and removes fear from your life be burdensome?

Gentle Dove, Symbol of The Holy Spirit and Power of God’s Love (Wiki Commons)

From Fear to Love

God’s covenant promise to man is to give him a new heart to end his suffering from living a “solitary life” through a newborn “unified (Triune) life” in His Son (Ezek. 11:19; Heb. 8:10, 10:22). He will remove the heart of fear and give him the heart of Love. In becoming a mortal human, Jesus vicariously assumed man’s sinful life, including his fears, in His perfect Being. In doing so, He destroyed fear and replaced it with God’s love. For, “As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22). Finally man can reciprocate with the same Love with which God Loves man. This is “perfect Love” which drives out fear.

How to Enter the “Triune Life”

Let me now state briefly how man enters the “Triune Life” of God, so you too can live it and defeat all your fears. It begins when God calls you out of your self-centered “solitary life” of fear and embrace the “Triune Life” of Love through the finished work of His Son. Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father, except through Me. I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). In other words, we enter the “Triune Life” of God the Father when we accept His Son Jesus, as personal Savior who cleanses all sins of the ‘false self’ who has lived the ”solitary life” of the devil. The promised Holy Spirit inaugurates the “Triune Life” by bringing the ‘true self’ fashioned in the image of Jesus, the Son of God. (John 14:16; Rom.8:29)

We leave behind the ‘false self’ and everything to do with the “solitary life,” and embrace our ‘true self’ in the Spirit. We call this the gift of repentance and forgiveness, and the process of conversion of the new birth from the ‘false self’ to the ‘true self.’ (John 3:7) The Father’s promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit is the personification of His divine Love in us. (Rom.5:5) We become the temple of the Spirit: “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you” (1 Cor. 3:16). Fear, which is part and parcel of the ‘false self,’ has once for all lost its grip and has no power over us. John said this of the devil, “the evil one cannot touch you” (1 John 5:18b).

Christianity and Religion

Here is the main issue of Christianity when it is practiced as a religion. Christianity as a religion has turn man back upon himself by saying that his salvation is “his responsibility.” They say Christ has done His part, now man must play his part to earn it, as if salvation is a 50/50 proposition. If Christ is a partial Savior, then the Gospel is not true. This is the devil’s deception at its very core because man carries on living the “solitary life,” and Jesus and the “Triune Life” is left out of the picture altogether. Jesus is not a 50/50 Savior. Salvation is all grace and freely given to man. God has not abdicated your salvation by placing it in your own hands, nor the hands of another, least of all religion, for that matter. If salvation is a free gift which comes from the free grace of God, it is impossible for man to earn it, let alone 50%.

Fear is Driven Out By Embracing the “Perfect Love” in the “Triune Life”  (Wiji Commons)

Our most difficult task is to learn to step out of the way, for the ‘false self’ is always tempted to dictate his solitary expressions in life. Instead, we must step back and see the wonder of His hands at work – perhaps, for once in our life. God says, “Stand still, and see My salvation which I will show you. I will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace” (Exo.14:13-14, emphasis mine). Salvation is all God’s doing in Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. For the Gospel tells us He is our complete Savior. (Col.2:10; Acts 4:11-12). Our part is simply to “hide in Christ” like the waters cover  the riverbed (man), and let the Spirit live His life fully (overflowing) in man as “living waters” (John 7:37-39; Psa.32:7). No part of the believer (riverbed) is seen or heard, as he is completely and overwhelmingly covered and hidden in Christ in the “living waters” of the Spirit. All our fears which lead to deprivation and want are overpowered by the overwhelming Love of Jesus just as the “living waters” cover the riverbed engulfs us completely (1 John 4:8). The riverbed (man) and the “living waters” (Spirit) the metaphor for the “Triune Life.”

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to write me in the space provided below, or email me on bulamanriver@gmail.com.

Blessing:

Until we meet again in my next post, may the blessing of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you always. May the Spirit enliven you and make all things concerning you possible in Triune Living as a Bulamanriver.**

Kiang,  

* Herald is the name I have come to personalize the Holy Spirit in my life. He is Friend, Helper, Intercessor, and Miracle-Worker, to each and every believer.     

** Triune Life: means a life lived according to the image and likeness of God. (Gen.1:26-27) It means a believer who lives the 3-dimensional life with the Triune God, as opposed to the ‘solitary’ 1-dimensional life in himself (“Adamic humanity”). It means God, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, lives and walks in you (“Immanuel humanity”). Man’s union with the Triune God, or “Triune Living,” is made possible by Jesus, who Himself, is one in substance and reality with the Triune God, who took our humanity into the very Being of the Triune Godhead. To live the “Triune Life” is the miraculous expression of the Spirit in us. The miraculous life is the promise of the New Covenant, “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep My ordinances, and do them” (Ezek.36:27) You can read more at: http://bulamanriver.net/?p=8036             

*** Bulamanriver” is the metaphor describing the union of man with the Love of the Triune God flowing in humans, making possible the “Triune Life” – the source of the miraculous life in man. To read the many facets of life of the Bulamanriver, go to my website www.bulamanriver.com where you can order a copy of my Book.

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise.

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