If it’s true that I am in union with the life that Jesus lives and the favor that He lives under, then Ephesians 1:3 makes much more sense. It says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.” I am in union with every spiritual blessing that Jesus carries because I am in Christ, and therefore, we should never settle for a life less lofty than the seated-in-Christ-in-Heaven life walked out on earth. Unfortunately, many of us have settled for possessing everything yet not participating in everything we possess. 1 Peter 1:3–4 says that we HAVE BEEN GRANTED everything pertaining to life and godliness and have been granted precious and magnificent promises that through them, we might become PARTAKERS of the divine nature.
Every Christian is a possessor of the divine nature, but every Christian doesn’t consistently participate in the divine nature on a consistent basis or at a high level. If I am a possessor of the divine nature of Jesus, then I should be able to experience in me and through me everything that is natural for Jesus to be and do. The whole Christian life on the inside and out is supposed to be a supernatural one because I’ve been placed in the union with the One who is supernatural. The obvious question, then, is HOW? I don’t like to talk about how-tos because the Christian life is actually a who-to, but there are whats that plunge us into experiencing more of the WHO. Everything in the Christian life works by faith, and faith is just confidently laying hold of all that the divine nature of Christ contains and is capable of. Having said that, there is something that under girds and nurtures the life of faith and, therefore, nurtures my experience of my union with Christ, and that something is “ familiarity.” I’ve heard people say that familiarity breeds contempt, but the truth is intimacy and familiarity breed faith and nurture experiential union. Galatians 5:6 says faith works through love, and that at least means that the more I pursue my love relationship with Jesus in the place of intimacy, the more I will partake of and, therefore, participate in His adequacy. The Christian life is not a formula or a stagnant set of principles. It is a relationship with a person that I am in union with. All love relationships are cultivated in the place of fellowship and intimacy. Union is always nurtured by communion, and the more I know him and all that He is in me, the more I will lay hold of all he has for me and all that he can do through me.