One Sunday, as I was walking home from church, I came across a lot of jigsaw pieces scattered on the pavement. It had been raining and they were wet. The pastor at the church had been speaking about disunity amongst God's people, and while I was walking through the town I was reflecting on this and wondering why it was so. These jigsaw pieces, separated one from another and scattered all over the ground, seemed to be echoing what the pastor had been saying, and I felt the Lord was trying to tell me something. I gathered all the pieces up and placed them in my bag.
When I arrived home I proceeded to piece them together to see what the picture might be, but each piece began to separate into two parts because the rain had neutralized the glue that was sticking the picture to the backing card. I started to have understanding of what the Lord was trying to reveal to me.
If I pieced the backing card together I
would have no picture
If I pieced the backing card together I
would have no picture
If I pieced some of the backing card together
with some of the picture pieces they would
join together because they were the same
shapes but I would only have part of the
picture.
If, on the other hand, I pieced all the upper
pieces together, I would have the whole
picture.
I could see a parallel in these jigsaw pieces with God's people. The blank backing card represented the old creation of the flesh which was dead in sins, while the top layer with the picture on represented the new creation in Christ, all the pieces together forming the body of Christ on Earth. Old and new mixed together could only bring disunity, a partial picture of the whole body.
We can be carnal or we can be spiritual. Those who live according to the carnal mind can never have unity with those who walk according to the Spirit because 'the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.' Romans ch. 8 v.7, and the things of God are foolishness to it, having to be discerned spiritually.
The element that had separated the two parts of the jigsaw pieces was water, and only the spiritual water that comes down from Heaven, the word of God, can separate the old man from the new creation which God is forming in us through Christ Jesus, as confirmed in Ephesians ch. 5 vs. 25b - 27, ' just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. ' As each of us allows the Holy Spirit to work in us we will grow up into the united body of Christ. The first book of Corinthians ch. 15 v.22 says that 'as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.'
God had shown me through the pastor's words that there was disunity in the church, but it was only through the jigsaw pieces and the revelation to me through them could I have understanding of why there was disunity. This incident taught me how vital it is to be alert to the ways in which God is able to reveal something to us, and how it is for our benefit that we act on that revelation so that we might be changed into our Saviour's image to be able to soar with Him in the Spirit.
The enemy has many ways of trying to tempt us to forsake the Lord's ways and return to our old carnal ways, but we must resist Him and carry on down the road to eternal life with our Saviour, even if we suffer rejection and taunting from others.
The following is a poem that I have put in an earlier post, which I wrote at the time of this revelation to me.
New man for old
Lord when I’m being taunted and mocked for loving You
Cause me to remember that You were taunted too
When I’m being laughed at for calling on Your name
Let me see You standing there and taking all that shame
And if I’m being tempted to draw back into sin
Tell me ‘Turn away child, don’t let the devil win’
Lord sometimes it’s difficult to die to sinful man
When the Spirit says ‘You can’t’ and the flesh says ‘Yes you can’
I’m so afraid I’ll fail You, the old man can be strong
Sometimes it’s hard to tell Lord what’s right and what is wrong
The old man says ‘Retaliate!’ To every harsh word said
The new says ‘You’ve been born again, the old man is now dead’
So Lord teach me to listen, when I hear You speak
Create in me a spirit that is lowly and meek
Take away the old man of anger, greed and lust
Form a new creation inside this outer crust
Help me to forgive them , when the world abuses me
Teach me how to show Your love, that I know can set them free
Lord help me go all the way to that rugged cross
Show me that to lose this life is gain and not a loss
And then just like the chrysalis that hangs upon it’s thread
I’ll become a butterfly - and You’ll have raised the dead
