Dear Philemon

The succinct book of Philemon is an analogy of how Jesus put your freedom on His tab.

You are Onesimus.

Onesimus was a man enslaved to someone named Philemon. The apostle Paul met Onesimus while he was imprisoned for preaching the Gospel. Whenever Paul was imprisoned, he utilized his situation as an opportunity to preach the Gospel. Because of Paul, the Word of God received entry to otherwise unreachable places.

And so Paul spoke with his fellow prisoners, and even succeeded in converting some of them. Onesimus was one such man. Steadily, Paul and Onesimus built a friendship. It became clear to Paul that despite his imperfection, Onesimus had greater purpose than enslavement. But Onesimus could not afford his own freedom.

Paul wrote a letter to Philemon, on Onesimus' behalf; in it, he acknowledged that Onesimus owed Philemon but could not pay his debt. As a solution to that, Paul absorbed Onesimus' debt. He told Philemon to put the debt on his tab. And just like that, Onesimus was absolved. You see, Paul was in a position where he could afford the debt and he had clout with the man to whom the debt was owed. To Paul, the new debt was worth paying because Onesimus was worthy of freedom.


The reason why you are Onesimus is because your imperfection has caused a debt. A debt you owe but cannot pay: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23. But Jesus is in a position where he can afford to absorb your debt; and Jesus has clout with God. Jesus believes that you are worthy of freedom. The succinct book of Philemon is an analogy of how Jesus put your freedom on His tab.


Out of love, Jesus pleads to the Father on your behalf. Without intercession from the heart of Jesus, who else is worthy to vouch for you to the Father? Except for Paul, Onesimus had no one who could orchestrate his freedom or vouch for his worthiness of freedom. Like him, there is no one to do that for us except for The One. The One: Jesus, who came and modeled God's will perfectly on the Earth.


Paul had a deep friendship with Philemon. He put in the work. Philemon knew Paul to be an honorable and hardworking man. Therefore, Paul's opinion had weight and influence with Philemon. Jesus' opinion of you has weight and influence with God. Jesus has elected to be your representative, he has vouched for your soul and character. Why? Because he loves you, and trusts you to do good, to be righteous, with the freedom you are given. The same reason Paul vouched for Onesimus.


God has placed enormous value on what Jesus loves. And what Jesus loves, He trains. Paul had firmly rooted his life in scripture, and allowed it to train his soul. The word of God completely transformed him (from persecutor of Christians to a proponent of them). He passed that re-prioritization on to Onesimus. Similarly, our relationship with Jesus is an enriched teacher-student dynamic, instruction on how to align our lives in accordance with what is righteous.


Jesus loves us enough to rub the dirt off. He polishes us off before the Father, proving that underneath the dirt is a soul worthy of eternal life. Without Jesus' love for our imperfect souls, freedom would have flown indifferently right over us.


Your relationship with God transforms you from slave of the world to sibling of Jesus. Repentance does not provide the coin you need to purchase forgiveness, repentance makes you eligible for God's charitable magnanimity.


Essentially, scripture speaks one thing to us: If you want to be a part of the Kingdom, you'll need to know how it operates in order to function within its realm. After all, life cannot survive in an environment it was not designed for. In Matthew 12:49, Jesus declared that His family members were the students of God's word. He wanted us to understand that to be adopted into the Kingdom, a person had to submit to being designed for it.


The system of the world is entirely different from the system of heaven. And for that reason, we have to retrain our brain if we ever hope to make the transition. In the world, we are slaves. We are slaves to fear; to vanity; to desire; to emotion; to the laws of science. Jesus teaches us how to break those chains:


He teaches us how to dismantle fear and therefore render it powerless. He teaches us the wealth of selflessness over the poverty of selfishness. He teaches us that temptation in the world is the most persuasive slaver, and that to escape it, we have to put a willing spirit into authority over our weak flesh. He teaches us how to choose the advantageous emotions over the harmful ones.


The re-prioritization of a lifestyle is a form of lifelong, thorough, spiritual coursework. We work on the earth to prepare ourselves for the life after this one by making this life better for others. You become eligible for a place in the family of God's kingdom by learning to operate within it and thus fit in it.


Though you might feel useless to the world, you are useful to the Kingdom of God. You will be compressed by the world until you learn to occupy the space the Spirit has given you to expand.


Onesimus, and Paul for that matter, would have been forever pressed down to slaves and corrupt mentalities had they not learned to expand in spirit. Jesus has given each of us a wide breadth and deep basin in which to make an impact while we are on earth. Utilize that space of potential spiritual energy. Grow into it.


The systems and products of the world are useless. If you serve it, so are you. But you don't have to be, you have not been irrevocably sentenced to that slavery. You are not a slave to sin within or around you once the power of Jesus had declared you free. Jesus has extended an invitation into a space of freedom, you need only to step into it. He has provided the directions.


Picture the restrictive posture of a slave. They can only make certain movements. The humble and poor and overlooked and damaged and failed people of the world seem also to have only restrictive movements. But Jesus says: we can do big things with what makes you small in the world. So windmill your arms, do a cartwheel. Figuratively, speaking. Because you are not in chains.


Onesimus was confined by prison walls. But after Paul vouched for him, the whole earth was open to him. Maybe you are confined by something: a relationship, an insecurity, a fear, a doubt, weakness, an addiction, a depression, or loss. Allow Jesus to break those chains in a moment-to-moment relationship with you throughout your life. You are not confined so long as you are free in Him.


In the introduction of the book of Philemon, the author: Paul, introduces himself as a "prisoner of Jesus Christ." The complete irony is that Jesus purchases our contract from our former slaver. But as Jesus' prisoner, we experience freedom. His claim on our lives prevents anyone or anything else from ever owning us.
Onesimus went on to travel and preach with Paul; he became the valued member of the kingdom Paul always knew he would. What Jesus sees in you is real and will be realized as soon as you step into freedom.

Azotus

The Book of Acts: scripture written about the birth of Christianity; a handful of apostles sent forth into the wilderness of the world. Their survival pack: the Holy Spirit; their map: faith.

Jesus resurrected after His death on the cross and returned to the Spirit. His physical body was no longer with His disciples. Upon the spiritual manifestation of Jesus, those disciples graduated into apostles. They graduated from students to emissaries. The apostles were the first, after Jesus, to preach the gospel. It was an immense responsibility and it took place on a road that had not yet been walked. But the road had been paved; Jesus' life blazed a trail through the wilderness that led directly to the fortress of God.

It became the apostles' opportunity to be available to God, to allow God to insert them as instruments whose work would cause the philosophy of God to course through the veins of society and pump directly into the hearts and minds of every individual they encountered. The philosophy of God, found within scripture, is God's ultimate purpose for us: to restructure humanity and the earth in accordance with His righteous will. It began with Jesus' delegation to the apostles. And importantly, continued with the apostles’ faithful willingness to accept.

The first apostles were special and necessary, and so are the apostles of every generation. Each person is a potential apostle of God, and no matter how they choose to preach God's will, through oration or action, they are a harbinger of the Kingdom of God. Today we hone in on a snippet of the apostle Philip's life to understand what it looks like to become an available instrument of God.

This excerpt of Scripture, Acts 8:26-40, exemplifies the manner in which we are called by God; the reason for which we are called by God; and the result of answering God's call.

THE MANNER IN WHICH WE ARE CALLED

Expect God to call you from a dormant state into an unexpected place.

Philip "arise."

Do not expect to be ready; God's call on your life at present will be the catalyst to your future. It might frustrate you, confound you, or scare you, but God chooses you in your rawest state. Because when he looks at you, He sees your potential instead of your presentation. Always.

We see the reverse: A humble person views their presentation as insufficient, and they are wrong. An arrogant person views their presentation as sufficient, and they're wrong too.

God chooses you in a raw and dormant state because He has plans to mine the potential out of you. He's an expert at it. He puts you into a position you are not ready for, but sustains and supplements you with His strength and His wisdom until you build the figurative muscle you need, the wear and skillfully utilize the toolkit that is faith.

If you think this doesn't apply to you, think again. God has apostles (and potential apostles) in all sectors across the globe: businesspersons, preachers, teachers, artists, engineers, parents, siblings, children, friends, co-workers, acquaintances. No matter who you are, you are in a position of potential apostleship. As soon as you render yourself available to Him: ready or not, here He comes. With a plan and a purpose for your life (and a rigorous but compassionate spiritual exercise program to prepare you).

The angel of the Lord visited Philip and charged him to arise and go... to a desert. God purposefully drew Philip into a desolate place. And perhaps most amazing of all, Philip listened. Philip allowed God to call him into a specific, but not a spectacular place. Will you consider it demeaning to be sent into such a place? Because Jesus was honored to walk into those places, to doctor the spiritually sick. We are led into the desert with the expectation that we will become thirsty… we are called to purposes that will present needs. The point is to enter the desert with the faith that when thirst develops, we drink from the living water, the well of God. We enter God’s purpose for us and faithfully consult with Him as our needs develop.

Do you need a platform and light-system to pronounce your work? Because Jesus was good with the sun on His back and rugged mountain under His feet. What if God’s plan for you is not to become a celebrity, or a celebrated anything, but a servant, like Jesus. Not a slave to any person, but a servant of God, assisting Him to help others. Will you allow God to draw you into that place? A place that provides the opportunity for you to shine on others, rather than to be shined upon. To be the light, as, through faith, God’s light shines through you.

You must be able to appreciate that God will frequently send you to a place or person that doesn't sparkle and shine... precisely because it does not sparkle or shine. He will nudge you to go, and then subtly press you to do something once you get there, and not a moment before.

What a faithless luxury it would be for God to present all of the details upfront: all the details of His entire plan printed, laminated and bound. No, if you choose to receive delegation from God, you will quickly find that His is a plan that can only be carried out by faith. In steps of faith. The Lord told Philip to arise and go, so Philip arose and went. Phillip listened to God without question or hesitation. He listened to God with confidence not in himself, not in the prospect of where he was to go, but with full confidence in God.

THE REASON FOR WHICH WE ARE CALLED

Your determination must not be dependent on particulars, God reveals in hints and tidbits His master plan.

Philip entered the desert. He had no specific instructions upon entry. He looked around. You will never be able to determine what God wants you to do until you train yourself to determine what God wants you to see. God calls you to widen your perspective in effort to render you a more effective and efficient apostle.

An instrument fixes something that is broken. A support upholds something that is weak. An educator ministers to something uneducated.

Learn to observe the areas in which your instrumentation, support or education can mend, strengthen or educate. Phillip was trained by Jesus, and so are we. From Jesus, Philip learned to enter an area, observe its need for the particular skill he could provide, and then humbly implement it.

God calls you to recalculate the course of His chosen ones in effort to guide them into the kingdom (and thus, gently hurl them into God's love).

The divine-nudge came from God: for Philip, it was in the form of a chariot. God instructed Philip to catch up to that chariot and hop inside. Philip ran. That chariot was about to be overtaken by the command of the Holy Spirit. And wherever it was headed, it would set out on a new course after He was done. Will you run in spirited response toward God's objective for you?

Inside that chariot was a man reading what might as well have been riddles, because he did not understand the book of scripture in his hands. The man was clearly frustrated, a great representation of the frustration of life without God. He asked Philip: How can I understand this unless someone guides me? A prudent question for sure! How can we expect the world to heal itself, educate itself, support itself unless it has help? Your apostleship, in whatever form is particular to you, is necessary.

That man in a chariot today is a child in class with dyslexia. It's an intern without the resources to develop. It's a person with a disability without the ability to thrive. A direction-less child in need of a parental figure. There are so many personal iterations of this "man in a chariot" that exist today and could benefit from having your expertise implemented into their life.

Perhaps you think you have no expertise. Incorrect. God distributed gifts to every person, 1 Corinthians 12. We are one body that operates via many parts. Whether you recognize your gifts or not, through your servitude to God, through your kind and intentional interactions with people in your day-to-day, they will reveal themselves in ways that assist other people.

That man's weakness was Philip's specialty and he offered his service charitably. Philip interpreted the scripture for the man, specifically the words of the prophet Isaiah who prophesied of Jesus' experience on the cross. Philip began to "preach Jesus," in other words, he spoke of righteousness manifested. He explained how Jesus outlined the path of peace and cobbled together the road of righteousness.

Philip acted as an instrument which offered new life to a man. And the man enthusiastically took it; he baptized himself at the first opportunity because the kingdom that was preached to him was one he definitely wanted to be a citizen of.

God calls you to perpetuate the kingdom. That man in the chariot happened to be a man of "great authority." Which means that what he believed, what he said and what he did influenced and impacted a lot of people. Used properly, his platform could benefit a lot of people. It could serve the kingdom of God. Suddenly God's strategy is as stark as it was obscure at the start. If he became a Christian, his platform would host the Lord and his audience would receive the word of the Lord. The benefit of a relationship with God.

You see, this was not a random man. He was a root system whose tree would benefit from what he chose to take in. Because of Phillip, he chose the word of the Lord. Philip's faith in God and assiduous ministry transformed that man and potentially, the lives of many others. By waking up when God called him to and going where God told him to, Phillip brought the lamp of Christianity into a man, a place that was formerly dark.

Wherever God sends you, to whomever He sends you, it is to perpetuate the kingdom. God is an eternal light. Once He lights your spirit, you carry that torch into the world to light others' spirits. This is a light we keep on sharing until every dark place has seen the light of heaven; the righteousness; truth; justice; and mercy that has been established as law by God across the creation.

THE RESULT OF ANSWERING GOD'S CALL

When we produce good and faithful work, God will expect us to continue to yield.

The more productive we are, the more frequently we will be trusted with new responsibility. Do not worry, God continues to build the spiritual muscle we will need to carry them. Our kingdom-work is purposeful and valued not just by God but by the people who never saw us coming, but will never forget we came. By the people whose faces we lit up in the dark. Do not expect God to waste that potential once it has sparked.

As soon as Philip finished his objective with the man in the chariot, God vanished him from there and placed him elsewhere to do equally important work. Expect God to keep swiftly moving us to places where we are needed (into locations, into situations, into friendships, into partnerships, into new opportunities and fresh ideas).

Quietly but definitely, God moved Philip into Azotus. Azotus was a place but means "a stronghold." Along our journey of apostleship, we will find that God wasn't just using us to lead others, He was leading us all along. Into Azotus. A stronghold. His fortress, His kingdom. We commit ourselves to apostleship and quietly but definitely, God moves us into His stronghold.Passing through Azotus, Philip "preached in all the cities" as he moved. He utilized every opportunity in order to continue to yield in faith. Spiritual-work ethic like that is the reason why a mere handful of apostles was able to spread a small, infant movement into a global phenomenon surviving thousands of years. The potential of our apostleship is no less powerful, as it too, is powered by God.