The Economy of Being

In the following I would like to introduce or explore the economy of relationships – relational transaction.

In both the old and new creations, there are values to be exchanged in relationships. Many of these values are determined or governed by the nature of the relationship. For instance, the values transacted between parents and children are different than those between siblings. In addition the values change with the seasons of life and relationship. The needs, wants, and provisions of the flesh in old creation relationships make up a much bigger portion of the relational transactions in the old creation than they do in the new creation.

In order to avoid getting into the complications of material wants and needs, for present purposes I would like to concentrate on new creation relationships, and the nature and quality of spiritual transaction.

Whether we know it or want it or not, our greatest need is for all the attributes of Jesus Christ, most assuredly His love. We not only need to receive His love, but we need to contain and express His love as well.

His love is the bedrock of Spiritual relationship. It is the revelation of His love that empowers us to love, first Him, but also others. (How can we say we love others if we don’t love Him?) The attributes of Jesus are at once the stockpile and the supply of everything we need of any lasting value. All that He is is ours in Christ!

Our problem is that we do not yet discernibly or palpably possess all that He is, the fruit, and the gifts of the Spirit, for instance. The Spirit brings to us the things that are His, and all the fullness of His Father is pleased to reside in Him. He not only brings us a child’s heart, but a parent’s heart as well as a sibling’s heart. All the treasures of relational passion, substance, confirmation, correction, and supply are ours in Him and from Him, or so the story goes…

There’s a catch – We need to be one in order to access the supply. The only thing that is powerful enough to make us one enough is His love. His love is the medium of exchange. There is no other legal tender in the kingdom of God because the kingdom of God is not about “legal,” it is about spirit, the first fruit/supply of which is love. All of Who Jesus is has been distributed by the Spirit to His body – those who are His. None of us gets it all, at least, not in this old creation lifetime.

This way, we get to discover what we do not already posses in others who The Lord brings our way – gives to us, and us to them. It is something like perpetual Christmas! As long as we are willing and able to properly dispose of the wrappings we can go on opening the packages all life long. To do so, however, we need to stay in vital touch with the first fruit of this Christmas Spirit. Without the love of God, there is no economy of God.

Having established the medium of exchange for Kingdom of God, (KoG) transactions, just one further word to help us distinguish the real from the counterfeit: The love of God revealed at the cross, and unprecedented in the prior knowledge and experience of men is a love that is good for enemies. The love that is good for friends, known, but rare in its highest expression prior to the cross is counterfeit, and not acceptable in the economy of the KoG – the new creation economy of being. There is no person so desolate as to be irredeemable by the love of God.

The cross of Christ is the “foreign exchange” window the KoG. We may enter a relationship thinking we have in hand all that it is likely to cost us, but very soon discover, that we are as broke as the desolate person we are trying to redeem. It is right here that we need to know nothing but Christ, and Him crucified. It is that revelation that deposits the currency of heaven back in our account. In the economy of the KoG having a high cash flow is highly esteemed! Negative cash flow is not possible, because in the KoG we can’t spend what we don’t already have.

Perhaps enough said about the medium of exchange. I would like to turn now to values that, in the KoG, make life really worth living. In the economy of God people are thought of, and spoken of as His Jewels. We even have pearls to share with others, in some cases, much too precious to share with just anyone.

We do well to keep in mind that jewels are formed under extreme heat and pressure, and pearls are composed from personal defects covered by grace.

For the purpose if discussing the exchange of treasure that each of us brings to the table of relationship, I will limit my discussion to one on one relationship. The fact is, our most precious treasures can be shared or exchanged/transacted in inverse proportion to the number of people involved. The bigger the crowd, the more difficult it is to successfully exchange our most personal selves. Intimate truths require intimate connection/understanding to be conveyed undamaged by the transaction.

In both the old and new creation we all have three core needs. We need to know our source, our identity, and our destiny.  If any of these are missing or flawed we suffer from a root wounding. Even if we have a complete sense of all three in the old creation we are still left to wonder if that’s the end of it.