Apprehended & Apprehending

Apprehended

&

Apprehending

Soaring In The Wilderness With God!

Authored by: M. J. Andre

All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this publication may be replicated, redistributed, or given away in any form without the prior written consent of the author/publisher or the terms relayed to you herein.

Copyright © 2012 By M. J. André

All rights reserved.

ISBN-978-0988128705

PREFACE

When Christ started dealing with me and I began to experience a spiritual growth that defied my imagination, I still endured a gamut of emotions. One of which was isolation from other Christians. I had no idea that growing in Christ was such a dynamic life. I was so ignorant of the fact that Christianity in the Bible is something that the Holy Spirit works within us-for real-so real, in fact, that the process of demolition and reconstruction caused a complete metamorphosis. When this happened, I no longer saw life as business as usual. I changed spiritually into something else that I had no control over nor was able to slow down. There was some confusion, a result of my ignorance of what true Christianity was all about. I didn’t know that the Holy Spirit could be so animated in us.

I sought for some kind of mentorship to help me understand what was taking place within me-all in vain. God is so good, even when I did not know where to turn for answers. Somehow, however, I came across a document from A. W. Tozer entitled The Pursuit of God. As I read this book, I had a ‘eureka’ moment. I realized I already knew about God in the Bible, I knew about Him loving me first, I knew about Him wanting me to be closer to Him, and so forth, but there was a deeper knowing I still needed to understand and live out. I understood, finally, why I was suddenly walking around as if I had another set of eyes on the inside. I understood that I was privileged to take a peek beyond the veil, and somehow to some extent, I knew I had to buckle up. From reading Tozer’s material, I understood that God was simply leading me to a place where I would understand what true and practical Christianity looks like on a daily basis. Later on, I understood as well that the need and obsession I had in wanting to understand what was going on with me was so that I would be able to cooperate better and join the Holy Spirit in the work that was taking place within me. While we are blessed in North America to have countless Christian books and authors, what we lack are books that spell out this radical Christian life we are called to follow. While it is understandable that we cannot limit God and that the Holy Spirit works within us through different approaches, trials, intensities, and duration, we nevertheless go through the same preparation in the soul-the same narrow gate, the same kind of dark night of the soul, the same process to break our stiff necks and prepare us for intimacy with Him.

So, while I found solace in reading the classics and Puritans books, I found my soul longing for fellowship-even if only through books-with people who were living this kind of life right here, right now, and in this century. I have no doubt that there are Christians in this century, very close by, who have experienced what I experienced. We lack twenty-first century Christian manuals from writers who are not afraid of being bold with a pen. Because they have been with Him, they are not afraid of being labeled, or criticized harshly due to the demands they put on their readers, or of being persecuted either. Let’s face it, most professing Christians today are not interested in hearing any message that goes beyond tickling their ears. As the Holy Spirit taught me, this kind of boldness is overdue in the times that we are living in now. We need to dismantle any excuses they might have. I personally have been through it, so I know with all my heart that a lot of Christians have no idea of the deeper Christian walk with God, largely because we are not being taught about it. If God had not gotten hold of me, then I did not know would have certainly been my excuse when I finally saw Him face to face.

I can say with certainty that this book is not for the faint at heart and neither for those uninterested in changing their lives with God. Thus, the wilderness series is exactly that…it fills up a gap.

I have no intention of promoting the mystical side of Christianity. We have way too many people in the pews seeking for experiences in place of knowing God. My hope through writing this book is that the reader would come to understand that the only formula to this wonderful and adventurous Christian life is truly about seeking the Kingdom of Heaven. Only then will everything else that this life entails will be provided for us. It is about going on to claim the fullness of the life that He promised to us in the here and now. It is also about living our full potential as empty vessels in Him through complete surrender and utter trust. We go to Him in complete dependence, like a child trusting his daddy for the known and unknown needs of this life. It is yielding to the responsibilities God has given to us and to the future He is rising us up to meet. It is about living a life utterly abandoned to the Master for His use. It's time that we stop denying true Christianity for what it really is and start living like people who have truly received Christ fully inside. Being a Christian is about becoming the same Christ that walked the earth in His humanity.

So let’s forgo the excuses, the feel-good pat on the back Christianity that most of us have been living, and move forward in Him who died so that we might have life in abundance.

May the love of God finds your heart. May you be blessed with a burning passion that engulfs your heart so much so that the only step left is to go forward with no fear and no looking back straight into daddy’s arms.With all my love to my brothers and sisters in Christ,

M.J. André

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

1 Laying Hold Of Him In Spite Of Where You Are

2 Commitment To A Deeper Christian Life

3 That I May Know Him

4 The Fellowship Of His Sufferings

5 Knowing The Power Of His Resurrection 1

6 Following Hard After Him

7 Our Nobles Desires Are Not Enough

8 Apprehending What We Have Been Apprehended For

9 From My Toolkit

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I acknowledge each and every one whom God has used to bring me through this journey. Good or bad, proper understanding or not, none of it matters because each one of you, in your own way, has been used by God to reach me. That is the only thing that matters. I know it is not easy to be me because I kept going around the Church without wearing a mask. While it has made it easier for me to go forward with God, you had to make room to accommodate me while I was being me. For that, I will always be grateful to each one. I love you so much. You will always have a special place in my heart and in my prayers

DEDICATION

This book is lovingly dedicated to my sweet and gentle first born son Yatsen (Chad) André

PHILIPPIANS 3:10-12

"That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus."

CHAPTER 1

LAYING HOLD OF HIM IN SPITE OF WHERE YOU ARE

QUOTES:

Saint is one who, on the basis of the Redemption of Jesus-Christ, has had the centre of his life radically altered, and has deliberately given up his right to himself. This is the point where the moral issue comes, the frontier whereby we get in contact with God.

- Charles H. Spurgeon -

Jesus-Christ did not come to found religion nor did he come to found civilization, they were both here before he came; He came to make us spiritually real in every domain. In Jesus-Christ there were nothing secular and sacred, it was all real, and He makes His disciples like Himself.

- Oswald Chambers -

LEAVING BEHIND THE ENTITLEMENT TYPE OF CHRISTIANITY

Laying hold of God simply means becoming aware of Him. This translates into learning to get to know Him intimately, practicing His presence, becoming familiar with His activities in our lives. It also means, falling into agreement with His plan for us, while submitting to Him in faith and obedience, and living daily in His righteousness. Therefore, if you have been saved and God feels it is necessary to keep you on this planet, you can be sure there is a good reason for it. Every one of us who calls ourselves Christians should be continually going forward with Him and getting hold of our portion of what He has planned for us. In short, we go on apprehending what God has planned for us through continual spiritual maturity with Him.

Several Christians have asked me what the title of my book means. Strangely, they are way more educated than I will ever be in this lifetime. While I understood the message of my title and can vividly see both worlds with the eyes of my heart, I took for granted that it was clear to everyone else too. Webster dictionary defines the word ‘apprehending’ as follows: To take into custody; arrest by legal warrant or authority. In my case, I was living in darkness, minding my own business and happy in my ignorance-much like the people of Noah’s time just before the flood. I had no idea that I was in darkness let alone needing Him. He came, took me into custody (captivated my heart) and changed my life. Hence, I have been apprehended by Him. The second meaning is: To grasp with the understanding; to recognize the meaning of; to perceive.

With no pretension, I offer this explanation that comes from the life of Job. The best way to describe why I go on apprehending God is by showing you what happened to Job when his spiritual eyes finally opened. In chapter 42:1-6, Job replied to the Lord,

"I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. ‘You said, Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes."

Job’s spiritual eyes were open as such his understanding of God was different now. When this happens to you, more than ever, you are captivated and there is nothing else to do except to follow hard after Him. This is why Paul prayed in Ephesians 1:18. He knew, once our spiritual eyes opened, we would then have insight into the mystery of our Salvation in Christ. I make no excuse for my agenda and I am not ashamed of it. My goal is set and my path clear. As Paul urged us to imitate him, so my job is to go on, following hard after Him, so that I too may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

There are times when I wonder how well some Christians understand the implications of the atonement of Christ in their lives, what it means to be redeemed by Him, to have one’s sin’s debt settled once and for all, and to receive Him through a personal relationship. We go on about how we have obtained victory from His death on the cross and that all has been done for us. While it is a beautiful truth to possess in your soul, but it is imperative we understand it from the Holy Spirit’s point of view, not in our fancy explanations. In my opinion, one of the reasons we have so many pathetic Christians in the pews and behind the pulpits is because they have taken for granted the work of the cross as given in God’s Word. This lack of understanding can fall on each one of us, but it has also fallen on some of the leaders we find in the pulpits, a consequence of not truly being called or commissioned by God. All those He calls, He trains, endowing them with special gifts and privileges so that they can lead the flock. They are able to speak the Word of God with boldness and in truth, as they revive the hearts