I have a suspicion that my road to becoming a geophysicist was paved by a childhood fascination with finding things; specifically, with finding treasures. When I was a child, my bedroom was filled with collections of baseball cards, matchbooks, shiny stones, and all kinds of interesting stuff. I liked finding things. And my day job shows that I still do.
So you can imagine my attachment to this quote from Dan Stone in his book, The Rest of the Gospel. “But I have discovered that through union with Christ, I am no longer a seeker. I am a finder. Jesus said the kingdom of God is where? In us. Every kingdom has a king. And the King lives in us. The basic definition of the kingdom of God is the rule and reign of God. That is exactly what has taken place in our heart. So we are no longer seeking the kingdom. We’re finders. Whatever the kingdom of God may look like in the future in the external, it has already begun internally for us.”
We are finders. Jesus said in Luke chapter 11, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened” (Lk 11:9-10). Jesus’ promise is the if we seek, we will find. It is very easy to get stuck in the seeking…the striving, the laboring, the working to somehow achieve what God has already given us. The reward for the seeking is not a carrot that keeps moving ahead of us, always just out of our reach. No, Jesus’ promise is that you will find it.
And what is it that we will find? Christ in you the hope of glory (Col 1:27). God’s kingdom in you (Lk 17:21). God’s Spirit in you (I Cor 6:19); guiding you, energizing you, empowering you. You will find Christ literally living His life through you (Gal 2:20).
Now, you may be thinking that all these discoveries sound swell in theory. You may be convinced that somewhere in the unseen world all these things are true about us. But when you look down into the world where we live each day, faced with sometimes challenging and with sometimes outright terrifying choices, how do we put these eternal principles into every day action? How do we put the promise – our new life hidden in Christ, wrapped up inside and out with His presence – together with the reality of our experience each day?
The short answer is to live by faith. The word faith appears about 240 times in the New Testament alone. And it is vital to experiencing the supernatural in the world we inhabit. The long answer is to live by faith and we will take the next several weeks exploring its implications.
For now, let’s celebrate our new life in Christ; a life filled with resurrection power that is yours for keeps. It truly is “finders keepers.”