On Depression and Our Souls

Dearest ____, 

 

A little further clarification of what I wrote earlier. Many times I write all too briefly.  Because I tend to get bogged down in words, I think others do also and then I fail to really express what I am saying.

 

I realized that when I said this is for your husband's healing it could very well sound like I meant he may no longer be depressed/carry depression. What there is to discover, and find great rest in, is that he was perfectly created AS a depressed person by God. It is as much a part and gift of his soul as anger, fear and jealousy. It is RIGHT about us and NEVER meant to change. All that changes is our seeing and embrace of it...our RIGHT USE of it/Him.  

 

Depression is God's LIFE in him in order to draw his attention to a person or situation so that he might "call those things into being that are not, as though they were"...and change lives forever.  It is his  call to bring about God's purposes...His Life...His Love...His kingdom... to heaven and earth...he is  being a "co-creator with Christ"... a living sacrifice, his reasonable service.  

 

Each of us have a part of our personality/soul that we have feared and fought all of our life because we have seen it as some thing WRONG (with a capitol W) about us, when in fact it is the MAJOR thing right about us. It is THE vehicle for the cross of Christ to operate in us...Him laying down His life BY/IN US and taking it up again for those whom WE are given.

 

Jesus tells us of this work of the cross in Matt. 16:24-26. "Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever will save his life shall lose it: and whoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it. For what has a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"

 

This passage comes after Peter has declared Jesus The Christ and Jesus says that flesh and blood did not reveal this. Jesus declares  this response is the rock/FAITH (the Person of Christ Himself)  on which He will build His church.  He then gives us the keys to bind or loose by OUR word...which comes out of the desires, pressures and agonies of OUR SOUL.

 

The next happening in this most interesting exchange is that Jesus tells them he must suffer, die and be raised. Peter rebukes this and Jesus calls him satan...by not wanting God's way of the cross.  Jesus then tells us that our way to FOLLOW (to come or go after; to move behind in the same direction) Him is through the cross.

 

What does "take up OUR cross...lose OUR life...forfeit OUR soul " mean? The real key here is OUR; not cross, nor life, nor soul.

 

It is the very nature of God to lay down His life for His creation. That is Who love is...a Life laid down. That is what HE WILL BE in and AS US...the cross of Christ constantly operative. To lose OUR life is to lose any consciousness we have of a SEPARATE or INDEPENDENT life that we THINK we have. In reality there is NOTHING in us apart from Christ...our spirit joined to His Spirit expressed through OUR body and SOUL. There it is...OUR soul. What possible way do we have of expressing Him if we want our soul flat-lined, inoperative, placid...thereby giving it up!!!! To lose the FULL expression of our soul is to lose the only way His Life and cross can bring about life for others. This is truly finding OUR life...right and hidden in Christ Jesus.

 

THIS is what we have to give to the Body of Christ...THE FULL, TOTAL, RIGHTNESS AND RIGHT USE OF OUR HUMANITY...ALL about US made right in the death, burial and resurrection of our beloved God and Lord, Jesus Christ...who has come again a second time  by His Holy Spirit to live IN and AS His most beloved creation...US!!! Christ FULLY alive and expressed in every aspect and nuance of our souls. "So Christ was was once offered to bear the sins of many: and unto them that look for Him shall He appear a second time WITHOUT SIN unto salvation"...Heb. 9:28  I believe this second appearance is when we KNOW no sin/wrongness/separation in whatever way the Spirit comes through us.

 

Only the FINAL battle...Armageddon...of losing OUR life will bring us to complete rest...me loving my God-created-in-His-own-image-and-called-very-good-ME...my depression, fear, jealousy, anger ... I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me...in my soul and body.  This is what is happening in him ... for his "healing of rightness". Our souls are our glory...revealing our Treasure in earthen vessels...Christ in us.