Everyone whose name is found written in the book.
Dan 12:1b
My life has been recorded. It is written. Ahead of time.
The book
For many people that would be scary. Is everything I do predetermined? By no means. It’s just that the author of the book lives outside of time. Living outside of time, he knows the end from the beginning. Or the beginning from the end. Whatever you like.
Envision a carpenter that just sanded a log of wood. He looks along the log from one end to see if there still is some rough spot, then from the other. God looks at the timeline of history like that. And the timeline of our lives. And at times, he takes out the sanding paper and adjusts.
Sometimes he adjusts the past. We call it healing, forgiving, forgetting.
Sometimes he adjusts the future. Based on our faith, our speaking in and of faith, but also our acting on faith, he smoothes edges and rough spots ahead of time.
Sometimes – most the times not so much to our liking – he adjusts us. Right were we are. That is called sanctification.
My name is written in the book. My identity is in the book. God recorded my story.
Personally, I am more than happy that my story is written.
But what is my role in all this?
Jesus said that he and the Father are one. He goes on to pray that just like they are one, we shall be one with them. Thus the Father and I are one.
We are seated in heavenly places. Heavenly places are outside of time and space as we know it. We are outside of time. At least our spirit man.
In that case it is clear what my role is. I am the co-author of my story. I write my story together with the Father, ahead of time.
I have full right to and authorship of the plot and all the coup de theatre of my personal life and its influence, while God adds the bigger picture. But the great thing is: I can always ask him for help, editing, a hint.
Let me put it this way: the Holy Spirit is the ultimate ghost writer.
What happens if I do not have a living relationship with Christ?
Not having a relationship with Christ at all means that I am not seated in heavenly places. I forfeit my co-authorship. Even worse. I give authority to another to co-author my story, to play the lead author. And my name gets blotted out from the book.
Not having a living and intimate relationship with Christ is like having two authors in remote places that co-author a book without having much of a communication about the plot. Guess who is going to be taken by surprise more often: God or I?
It is more than comforting to have this wonderful co-author and ghost writer on my side. One that can be trusted, that loves me, knows me. And since I am his son, and he is a loving Father, wants my best only.
By the way, there is a great promise in having your name written in the book. You get to see the promised land.
Granted, in Daniel, talk is about the Jews in Babylon that will come back to Jerusalem. But isn’t that our story? We were in Babylon, even born there, and came back to Jerusalem to build God’s kingdom, just like Zerubabbel. And in Revelation (Rev 20:15) we learn that nothing has changed. Who’s name is not in the book will not enter the promised land. Neither now nor in the future, when it fully manifests.
The sons
There is yet another place my story is recorded. As a spiritual father I invest myself into my sons. As they grow, I will have the opportunity, and the trust in them, and the joy, to send them in my place. Just as Paul sent Timothy, when he could not go somewhere. He knew that Timmy would speak as he would speak and act as he would act. Paul’s life recorded in his sons. My life recorded in my sons. Word for word, tittle for tittle? No. They have their own personality. Not the word, but the spirit.
The books
And of course I strongly believe that we ought to write books. To perpetuate revelation. I will write some, just as I write this blog. Others will too. May God give a lot to journal. Revelation for us and our sons.
God wrote about me, or should I say, God wrote me. I co-author. I also co-author the lives of sons willing to have me do so, and have my spiritual father co-author mine. And others will write about me. That is the least important.
What do you think about this? Let me know in a comment.