Hi everybody (& especially to all dog lovers)! Rocky here & welcome to my second guest blog post where I continue my extraordinary interviewing skills with Donna!

If you missed the first part of this interview you can go to it by clicking on this link here Previous Post. I suggest you check that out before reading on so that this one makes sense.

In this second interview, I continue to discuss with Donna this whole ‘Christian life beyond salvation’ thing we were talking about. Unfortunately, I’d been up to a bit of mischief earlier that morning and subsequently, needed a good wash! So to save time, we conducted this interview whilst I was having a bath…

Rocky: Well, Donna….(gurgle gurgle) welcome to our continuation of my interview  guest blog post.

Donna: Thanks Rocky, pleasure to be here. (keep still!)

Rocky: So, we finished off last time when I had found that old shmacko under my blanket…

Donna: Well, yes, um, and we were talking about how big Jesus is and how much of Him there is to discover, so much more than just our salvation.

Rocky:  So how did you find out there was more to Jesus than what you’d always known?

Donna: Well, I think we have to return to that word ‘revelation’. Like we’ve said, revelation only comes from the Holy Spirit, it’s not something we can bring about ourselves. Everything in this Christin life is by God, for God and through God. God is always calling us to know Him more. So He introduces circumstances and people in our lives that will lead us to a point where we realise we have a certain lack or a need as far as knowing God is concerned.

I remember reading from Watchman Nee once, how revelation comes when there’s a need. So for example in my life, when I observed my husband’s Christian walk I realised that I didn’t know Jesus in the same way. I realised that my emphasis in my understanding was on God the Father only and that the name ‘Jesus’ was a little awkward for me. It was like when I said His name, I was trying to be comfortable with it, but I wasn’t completely.  So there was my need…..I needed a revelation of Jesus!

Rocky: Ohhh, right. (don’t get soap in my eyes!) So there was the need, and then what happened?

Donna: Well, I suppose the Lord made me more aware of that need over a number of weeks. It became more painful and obvious that I didn’t know Jesus Christ intimately, Himself. So I began to ask God to reveal His Son to me. And then, one morning the Lord gave me a vision of Jesus and with it came this new understanding that EVERYTHING is about Jesus. That was the revelation and it blew all my old paradigms out the window!

Rocky: What sort of paradigms were they?

Donna: A whole bunch of things – the way I looked at prayer, tithing, scripture, worship, ministry, gifts of the Spirit, especially the church, the kingdom of God, God’s purpose, what actually took place through Christ’s death on the cross, and so much more, what it means to live by the Spirit. Some of these aspects of the Christian life were just that – aspects of Christianity, rather than Christ Himself. I had embraced these ‘things’ through faith and through the filters of my religious past but not subjectively by revelation. Not all in my experience had been life to me.

Rocky: Oh, so it sounds like it was ‘stuff’ that you knew, but not actually Jesus?

Donna: Spot on! Jesus is a Person! When God opened my spiritual eyes to see Jesus and to understand there was so much more to Him than I’d ever known, He then put the hunger and desire in me to want to discover this incredible Christ. So yes you’re right Rocky.

Rocky: Tell me more about the hunger and desire to know Jesus more…(can I have a treat when I’m finished with this bath?)

Donna: ( Yes Rocky, only if you don’t shake everywhere!)…Well that’s the thing. I realised I didn’t need or want to know more ‘about‘ Him, I needed to know ‘Him‘ Himself. (I talk more about this in my post Knowing Him).  So, there was the need to know Jesus, and of-course God wants us to know Jesus. God the Father even told Peter and his companions when Elijah and Moses appeared with Jesus, to listen to Him, Jesus! There was Elijah representing all the old testament prophets and there was Moses representing the law. Now God was saying “Here is my Son, listen to Him”! So He put the need in me to know Him. Then came the revelation and then the desire to see that revelation become a reality in my own life, to become a part of me. Learning that Jesus is everything became a need to experience Him as my everything.

I mean, listen to these verses…

For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities– all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything (supremacy). 19 For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, 20and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.…(Colossians 1:17-19)

and…

…but Christ is all, and in all…(Colossians 3:11)

Rocky: I see. You’re saying He’s everything. Sure sounds like it! So can you tell me specifically, apart from salvation, what else is He then?

Donna:  I’ll list a few of His characteristics….that aren’t just things about Him, but who He is…

He is our Teacher, He is Joy, our Peace, He is the Prince of Peace! He is love of-course, He is the air that we breathe, He is creativity, He is light, He is our provision in everything. He is our sustaining strength, He is our Future and our Hope, He is the Resurrection, He is Truth, He is the Gospel, He is our life!

He is our purpose, He is our capacities, He is the song in our heart, He is our fulfilment and satisfaction. He is our portion, He is our completeness, He is Righteousness, Holiness, Perfection.  He is our suffering, He is the narrow path, He is the whole purpose of God, He is the fullness. He fills the universe, He is the exalted and eternal King, He is the food we eat, He is the drink we drink, He is our Rest, He is our best Friend, He is our brother, He is our Lord!

He is the answer to every need, He is bigger than everything else, bigger than any sin, any problem, any threat. His riches are unsearchable, His kingdom is endless, He is mercy, He is grace, He is the River of Life, the Tree of Life, the Good Shepherd, the gate and the Gatekeeper, He is our healer, He is healing itself! He is the joy of the whole earth! He is His Father’s delight!

Shall I keep going?

Rocky: I could be stuck in this bath for hours if you do that! (Can I shake now?) Wow, He sure is more than just salvation and salvation is pretty awesome!

Donna: Oh yes, He is certainly our Saviour! And that’s where it all starts for us. When we come to that point of salvation in our lives, turning from a life lived without Him, to a life lived in surrender to Him as our King and Saviour, we discover just who this Christ is and what He’s done!

When we are saved (become a Christian) this following scripture from Galatians 2:20 becomes our reality ….

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me and this life I live in my body, I live by the faith of Jesus Christ…

So we don’t have to live by our own strength, abilities, intellect, wisdom or will. We have been crucified! So now it is Jesus living inside of us instead! All that Christ is, lives in me, lives inside His Church, every member of His body. All that He is! Can you imagine that? Can we even fathom all that He is? God wants us to know all that Christ is, so we can rest from our labours and let Him live instead.

(Yes, you can shake now….arghh!)

Rocky: (Ahhh, that’s better…) So mum, if Jesus is all those things and even more, no wonder God wants people to know Him. (Treat please?)

Donna: Yep, and this is why I do my blog. (Here’s your biscuit…) I am hoping that by sharing the little bit of Christ that He’s helped me come to know, experience and love, other believers will be encouraged to know and experience Him as much more than just their salvation.

Rocky: I see. I think I’m finally getting it mum. If Jesus is all this, I can see how everything is about Him. He wants us to know Him, shows us our need of Him, He reveals Himself to us, He gives us the desire to know Him more, He changes us, He gets more room in our lives, He is expressed because it’s more Him than us and…wow…..He is amazing.

Donna: That’s beautiful Rocky. (Come here little fella, let me give you a snuggle while I dry you off…)

Rocky:  There’s just one thing I don’t understand yet.

Donna: What’s that Rocky?

Rocky: Well, I noticed when you were telling us all these wonderful things that Jesus is, you said He was our suffering and our narrow path? What did you mean by that? 

Donna: That’s a really important part of who Christ is and really the true Christian life cannot be lived without it. Suffering with Christ is key to knowing Him deeply and that subject really deserves a full blog post of its own. I think we might need to leave that for another day Rocky…

Rocky: Well, maybe we better end the interview here for now. Maybe we’ll do another one another time? (I think I’m getting the hang of this interviewing/guest blogging thing). 

Donna: Sounds good Rocky. This has been fun. And your interview skills are surprisingly good for a shoodle (shitzu x poodle).

Rocky: Thanks mum!

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So thanks everyone for reading my guest blog interview with Donna Batty (tee hee, that’s you mum). I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as we have and if you’d like to hear from us again then just let Donna know in the comments section.

In the meantime, I’m getting snuggles off mum to keep me warm after my bath!

So this is Rocky Batty, interviewer and guest blogger extraordinaire, signing off! Woof Woof!