““In your vision, Your Majesty, you saw standing before you a huge, shining statue of a man. It was a frightening sight. The head of the statue was made of fine gold. Its chest and arms were silver, its belly and thighs were bronze, its legs were iron, and its feet were a combination of iron and baked clay. As you watched, a rock was cut from a mountain, but not by human hands. It struck the feet of iron and clay, smashing them to bits. The whole statue was crushed into small pieces of iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold. Then the wind blew them away without a trace, like chaff on a threshing floor. But the rock that knocked the statue down became a great mountain that covered the whole earth.” ~Daniel 2:31-35 NLT
In prayer yesterday, I remembered this vision of Nebuchadnezzar's, saw the miraculous stone rolling down and smashing it. Holy Spirit showed me that every earthly kingdom must fall because they are built by men, in the ways that seem pleasing to mankind. And no matter how wisely and carefully they are built, no matter how tall or frightening, the result is brittle and vulnerable. The statue, stiff and unyielding in its lifelessness, couldn't dodge the stone headed its way.
By comparison, we are called into the body of Christ--a living, breathing thing fully alive in all of its senses. Breathed into by Holy Spirit, we live and move and have our being in Jesus. We are literally called into unity and community with Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus draws us into Himself, lavishing us with abounding life far surpassing anything we could build up for ourselves. I wish I could put into words the incredible depth of ALIVENESS I perceived in the body of Christ: every nerve alight with His pleasure, every cell sensitive and responsive to His glory, His generously loving heart, and the wisdom and kindness of His mind.
Lord Jesus, let Your Kingdom expand in our hearts, let us grow more and more aware of You in us and us in You, and let us grow ever more alive in You as we attune ourselves to Your love, Your will, Your kindness and Your desires. Let us make our lives a highway for Your work, and transform every one of us into Your image and likeness that Your Kingdom might fill every particle of the earth, in Your beautiful and holy name, amen.
